Hands-On in Southern California?

[kamariden]

Hello,
I was just wondering, is there any way for someone living in southern California to view the guides in person before purchasing one? I looked at the conference schedule and nothing is anywhere close to me. Any suggestions???
Thanks!
Kathleen

[my3sons]

HOD is not coming to Southern California - though it does sound like a very tempting trip! HOD puts the first week of plans for all of their guides online, so looking at that will give you a good read on HOD. Also, here is a link to the HOD Photobooks, so you can get a visual feel for what is covered in the guides:
http://heartofdakotasphotobooks.shutterfly.com/

In Christ,
Julie

[Daisy]

You might try seeing if anyone in your area is using it. I've had four or five homeschooling families come to my house to look at Bigger and Ancients. I'm in Bakersfield.

[my3sons]

Good idea, Daisy!

I was just thinking you could order it and pour over it, and then you would still have 30 days to return it if you wanted. (Though I know you won't want to return it once you get your hands on it! )

In Christ,
Julie

[Dorla]

Oh my! I wish you would have posted this one week ago!
I am in Pasadena for a month and would have loved to have a reason to bring my guides with me!!!
Are you close to Pasadena? The only guide I have with me right now is Little Hearts that I am using to get my nephew started.
If you want to talk, let me know !
Dorla

[kamariden]

I'm in San Diego. Of the few homeschooling support groups & used curriculum sales I've been too, most parents haven't even heard of H.O.D. and those who have, it's like "Oh yeah, I think I heard that name somewhere....What is it, again?" But I keep asking, hoping to find someone local who has used it or is at least familiar with it. I'm currently most interested in the LHFHG (using next year for my eldest) & BLHFHG (planning to use the year after), but I'm also toying with the idea of using LHTH next year (or the year after) for my youngest.

Julie - Thank you for the links. I did save the photobooks to my shutterfly account but I haven't had a chance to look them over yet. I plan to check them out today. What I was really curious about, though, was seeing the last week or two of lessons as a comparison to the first week to see what's different. Also since I've just decided to use the 1st grade packages with my eldest, I was curious to get a look at the alternate schedule and see how easy it is to incorporate with the lessons since I know it's at the back and not on the same page as the rest of the lessons....if that makes sense.

Thanks!
-K

[my3sons]

...Also since I've just decided to use the 1st grade packages with my eldest, I was curious to get a look at the alternate schedule and see how easy it is to incorporate with the lessons since I know it's at the back and not on the same page as the rest of the lessons....if that makes sense.

Thanks!
-K

I can help answer this portion of your question. The first grade science textbook pages are already matched to the key science concepts of the daily plans as well. So, for example, when reading about birds in the K science book, the pages about birds from the 1st. grade science book are chosen for that day as well. It would say something like this in the Appendix: Unit 1, Day 1: Read p. 2-3. I hope that makes sense!

As far as the 1st. grade math options, the textbook pages are scheduled for the teaching portion of the math, and the workbook pages are also scheduled to be the independent part of the math. So, the plans might read: Textbook, p. 8 and Workbook p. 8-10. If you'd rather use the HOD hands-on math plans for 1A/1B than use the Textbook, you can get the Beyond guide and use the daily hands-on 1A/1B math plans otherwise.

The Thinking Skills workbook (which is the first grade fine motor skills option) is listed in the daily plans and does not need to be flipped to in the Appendix. So, you're talking about 2 extra sticky notes in the Appendix to flip to. We've done this for years in multiple HOD guides, and it's super easy to manage . HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[Riversidemom3]

Hello,

I'm just north of you in the Temecula area. I will be in San Diego a week starting July 18th camping but I only have Bigger Hearts. This was my first year with HOD and by far our best. There are plenty of gals here that will be able to answer your questions for the younger books. Welcome.

Jeri

[LeAnna]

Hi Kathleen,

I have used LHTH and LHFHG, and I am in Oceanside, so if you want to take a look let me know, I would be happy to show my copies to you!:)

LeAnna

[kamariden]

Julie,
Yes, that is VERY helpful and makes complete sense! Thank you so much. I'm especially thankful that you pointed out:

"If you'd rather use the HOD hands-on math plans for 1A/1B than use the Textbook, you can get the Beyond guide and use the daily hands-on 1A/1B math plans otherwise."

My eldest really enjoys hands-on activities and actually really learns math more easily & solidly when it's hands-on for him. This is something we wouldn't want to do without. After your comment, I compared the hands-on math activities in LHFHG & BLHFHG and decided the BLHFHG math activities really are more skills appropriate for him. I looked at the Home Instructor's Guides for the Primary Singapore books and they do include hands on (manipulative) activity suggestions, but buying both HIG's (one for 1A & one for 1B) would cost almost as much as just buying the BLHFHG guide which we'll need later anyway. So we're probably just going to buy BLHFHG as well. Now, my only concern is what we'll do for math activities the year after that when we move up to BLHFHG full time....but there's plenty of time to figure that out and maybe he won't need as much hands-on by then, who knows?

Anyway, just wanted to thank you as this is exactly the sort of thing I was wondering about.
Kathleen

[kamariden]

Leanna & Riversidemom - Thanks so much for your offers! I'm so pleased to see there are others using HOD in our area! I actually live in Santee but we drive through Oceanside on our way to Disneyland about once a month (though not July because our passes are blacked out) and drive through Temecula on our way to visit my parents almost as often, so I'd love to take you up on your offers sometime- even just to say "Hi" to local HOD users. I'll have to check our schedule to see when we're headed those ways next.

Thanks!
Kathleen

[WigglesMom]

Julie,
Now, my only concern is what we'll do for math activities the year after that when we move up to BLHFHG full time....

When you get to Primary 2a/2b there are hands on activities for it in the BHFHG guide.
Val

[my3sons]

As Val said, BHFHG has hands-on math activities for 2A/2B in the plans. After that, hands-on manipulatives are not done any more, and the Textbook is used for the instruction. We've found this to be a good time to give up the manipulatives and move on to more mental math. So, once you get to 3A/3B, you'd just follow the schedule for the Textbook/Workbook combo. That schedule is in the Appendix of Bigger Hearts, the Appendix of PHFHG, and the Appendix of CTC. Each guide gives schedules for 2-3 levels of math. (i.e. Bigger Hearts has 2A/2B with hands-on plans and 3A/3B as a Textbook/Workbook schedule; PHFHG has Textbook/Workbook Schedules for 2A/2B, 3A/3B, 4A/4B, etc.).

That's so nice the ladies in your area have offered to let you look at their books - don't we just have the most amazing ladies on this board?!?

In Christ,
Julie