We started today . . .and introducing myself

[Larissa]

Hi everyone! I am Larissa. I have been homeschooling for 3 years now. I started my oldest son when he was 4 and already reading. We did K, 1st, and last year we did 2nd. But last year, he really struggled. He didn't struggle with the material...he lost his joy for learning. It was so frustrating, because it made him dread his work, and it took us forever to complete it. So, I started cutting out the fun things in order to get the necessary things done.

It was at that point that I decided that we needed a complete overhaul. I came across heart of dakota very randomly and what seemed to be at chance. I fell in love with the curriculum. It's exactly what I needed, and most definitely what my son needed. So, my goal for him this year is to seriously restore his joy for learning! I am using BLHFHG with him and I started my almost 5 year old on LHFHG. This will be an interesting year for me with homeschooling both of them, but I am so thankful that I found HOD and am super excited about it. Both of my boys loved their first day!

My sister has decided to homeschool this year. She will be using CTC with her 5th grader.
I have been enjoying this board and reading all the wonderful posts!

[my3sons]

Welcome to the HOD Board, Larissa! Beyond is going to be such a joy for your ds, and I really do think you are right about it being able to restore his love of learning - I loved doing Beyond (even a second time now with a second son, I'm still enjoying it so much). I bet your 5 yo will enjoy LHFHG as much as my dc did too, and I think you'll enjoy teaching this way. It is a happy way to spend days homeschooling together. Both of my sisters homeschool too, and that has been a neat connection between all of us. Thanks for introducing yourself, and here's to your boys loving many more days of HOD in the future!

In Christ,
Julie

[spidermansmum]

Welcome Larissa .Im doing Beyond this year too

[ShellyM]

Hi and welcome Larissa!

I am new to HOD as well. We will be starting CTC, Beyond, and LHTH on Aug. 31. I also have a 7 yo ds who has lost the joy of learning and am praying that doing Beyond with him will bring back some joy. My heart just broke every day when he would say "I hate school!" It also was so hard to get school done with him as he would be dragging his heels with every subject. I hear what you are saying about taking out all the fun stuff just to get the necessary subjects done, I had to do that with him as well because he would fight me so much to get anything done.

I am so happy to hear that your first day went well, I will be praying that it continues to be enjoyable for you and your kiddos!

Smiles
Shelly

[Kathleen]

Welcome Larissa and Shelly!

I am sure that both of you and your kids will have a wonderful time with HOD!! I found HOD 2 years ago when I ordered LHTH for my little girl. We didn't start it right away, but when we did, it was wonderful! Then, I came across all the other wonderful HOD programs that I didn't know existed! The text-book style homeschooling that we were doing was having the same joyless effect that you describe on my oldest. We switched to HOD last year and did Bigger...and it was absolutely wonderful!!! You're in for a treat with HOD! I just love the way that our days are balanced with writing, activity, reading, projects. There's never too much of any one thing...and I actually get the "fun" things done!

You'll have to share your fun on the week-in-review posts!
Kathleen

[Jen in Va]

Another Beyond mom here! Welcome aboard!

[jensmom]

Welcome Larissa! We used Beyond last year with my dd (7). The history texts and the storytime selections were her favorite parts. Heart of Dakota is outstanding! We will be starting Bigger next week....or maybe we will start sooner and get a jump start this week. I am eager to get it underway!

What part of the country do you call home?

Judy

[Larissa]

I live near Raleigh in NC.

Both of my sons really enjoyed their school work today . . . and I enjoyed it too. I am thankful that I found HOD. I know that it wasn't really by chance. I found it through a random person and a random comment online. . . and I thought to myself . . "heart of dakota? I thought I'd read about every curriculum out there!" So, I googled it and fell in love with it. It's exactly what I was looking for, but didn't know existed!

I look forward to this journey very much.

God is GOOD!

[3sweeties]

Just wanted to say that I'm so glad you had a wonderful first day!!! We are looking forward to starting in a week!

[Carrie]

Larissa,

I just wanted to welcome you and to let you know that we'll also be doing Beyond this upcoming year with our almost 7 year old. We'll look forward to sharing the journey with you and pray you'll enjoy Beyond as much as we have in the past.

Blessings,
Carrie

[Benelli]

Hi Larissa, and welcome! We will be using BLHFHG with 7 and 8 year olds as well! I enjoyed LHFHG so much and so did these two kiddos, and I'm so looking forward to doing Beyond! Glad to hear your first day went well!

[funkmomma71]

Welcome Larissa! We did LHFHG last year and my dd loved every minute of it!! We are now on Unit 4 of Beyond and it is just as much fun! I'm so happy to hear that Lord lead you to HOD, I'm sure you will see a huge difference with this curriculum. I also found myself at HOD through a circuitious route, but buy am I glad I found it, I think without it I would be helplessly lost and would have killed my dd's love of learning before it had a chance to blossom.

[creekmama]

Hi, Larissa. We are also near Raleigh! Where are you? We live in a tiny place called Buies Creek. We are also new to HOD. We will start next week. (I was planning to wait a couple of weeks, but I'm too excited!)

[3musketeers]

Hi Larissa!
Welcome to the board. I too had a "burn out" year last year. I look forward to swapping stories about all the fun our dc's will be having with HOD this year!!!