What comes after "Bigger Hearts for His Glory"?

Post by **Carrie** » Wed Oct 03, 2007 3:06 pm

In case you missed it, this question comes up so often that I wanted to re-post the reply that I gave to this question below on the Main Board.

We are working on a long-term plan for guides that go through the 8th grade. Currently we are writing a guide to follow "Bigger Hearts...". You can, of course, use any of our guides without using the previous guides.

The new guide will be geared for ages 8-10 with probable extensions in history and possibly science for 5th and 6th graders. It will focus on moving children toward gaining independence in their learning. It will feature a parent-led portion, a semi-independent portion, and an independent portion for each day of plans. Depending on the package(s) you choose you will be able to utilize some, most, or all of the plans in order to best meet your family's needs.

The history will emphasize a one-year overview of world history to give students "pegs" on which to hang their future history studies. This will be followed by a 4 year cycle of history starting with the ancients, then the renaissance and reformation period, next the exploration period, and last the mid-1800's to modern time period. So, in all, a 5 year history cycle is planned to follow "Bigger Hearts...".

The guide we are working on will be a transitional guide to teach kiddos how to be more independent: It will feature lessons on how to write a written narration, low-key creative writing lessons, practice with map and timeline skills, notebooking in history, more independent history projects, an independent history reading schedule for the students, some map drawing, vocabulary study, an independent science study with experiments and notebooking, oral narration and dictation, a more formal Bible study with continued memory verse memorization, and Biblical applications in all areas.

We'll be working toward training the kiddos to be even more independent with the guides that follow, utilizing teacher-time for only those books and discussions most worthy of teacher time.

We will have a new catalog that outlines our long-range plans coming out in February and will be updating the website too.

I need to have the next guide done in some form to use with my second son next school year, so although we haven't set a formal release date, we would love to have it available to the public by August, 2008.

Thanks so much for asking the question about what comes next. We pray our products may glorify our Father in heaven and maybe bless a few others along the way.

Blessings,
Carrie

Melanie · Post by **Melanie** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 1:54 pm

Carrie, Thank you for this post. It sounds like it will be wonderful. I can't wait to see the finished product. I'm so grateful my children are being blessed by the hard work you are doing for your own children!!

Melanie

joyful jean · Post by **joyful jean** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:05 pm

Yes, I too am grateful my first child is about 2 or 3 grades behind yours so your publishing dates work so great for me! Thanks for all your hard work to make my life easier!!!

Post by **Carrie** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:44 pm

Thanks ladies! That is just the encouragement I was needing today. You are such a blessing to me too!

Blessings,
Carrie

jamieswife · Post by **jamieswife** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:25 pm

I can't wait!

Do you think it would be do-able to adapt this to a more advanced 11 year old (actually by Aug. 08 she'll be a 12 year old)?

Post by **Carrie** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 9:26 am

jamieswife,

I think the history, Bible, timeline, mapping, and most of the read-alouds would be plenty as long as you use the Extension Pack. Some or most of the history projects may also work, depending on whether we add Extensions to that.

For literature if you use "Drawn into the Heart...", you'd be covered up through 8th grade. You'd need to add grammar and spelling or dictation and creative writing for your 12 year old. We are going to include a grammar schedule for Rod and Staff, include dictation passages, and also include weekly creative writing assignments in "Preparing Hearts for His Glory"; but these will be geared to the younger kiddos.

You'd also need to add grade level math and probably science. We are including a living books science approach, but it may be a little on the young side for a 12 year old. We are still deciding whether to add an Extension Pack for science as well.

Hope this helps!

Blessings,
Carrie

6timeboymom · Post by **6timeboymom** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 10:54 pm

~~~me~~~
that's me, doing a happy dance!
lol!!
that sounds really wonderful! I can't wait! Since my oldest one is starting high school next year, I really wish you would have written the guides from the top down...

High school is looking so daunting...

My Greyson has been doing the little hands and he loves it! I'm so glad I can just go up into the next curriculms as he gets older.

Post by **Carrie** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 9:56 am

Darci,

We have a Greyson too! Ours is 5 and doing LHFHG. I don't see many with that name or spelled with an 'e'. You must have excellent taste in names

I wish we'd have our guides written so I could use them for my oldest too, but the research and writing takes so long that we don't get to use them with him. I am grateful that I do get to use them with my next 3.

Blessings,
Carrie

water2wine · Post by **water2wine** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 5:06 pm

Wow! I came looking for this answer. I just want to make sure I have this correct. If you were presently at the LHFG level you could plan that releases will be ahead of you so that you would have 7 consecutive years of Heart of Dakota programs if you wanted no problem. Is this right?

If so I am excited that solves everything for us! It puts us all studying the same age appropriate era in a couple of years just as I had hoped. I needed a program for my youngest two that did exactly this because my age gaps and learning levels are just too vast to make learning everything with the same program possible and still have my sanity. This is our perfect second program for my youngest two and potentially later my older with special needs to be able to work a few grade levels below her age.

Please let me know if I have this right so I can celebrate!!!!

Post by **Carrie** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 10:01 pm

water2wine,

You are right! Our plans are to have programs go from "Little Hands..." at the Pre-K level through grades 7-8 with the last program. Counting the Preschool program that will be 9 Heart of Dakota programs in a row and "Drawn into the Heart..." will make 10. Our newest program "Preparing Hearts..." will be releasing in 2008, and then we plan to release a product approximately each year or so after that (God-willing).

Thanks so much for asking! We're excited too.

Blessings,
Carrie

water2wine · Post by **water2wine** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 11:47 pm

Thanks Carrie, that is awesome. That will be perfect for my youngest two. I wish I could pack them all through it but my older guys are doing Ancients and OT now and my oldest will be in 6th next year so it is kind of not in line age wise. But in practice it seems to work better to work two programs anyway so this will in the end be perfect for us. I love that you are giving options for age extensions because that is now in my hip pocket in case I need to throw my daughter with special needs in with the younger group she can maybe still be the big fish with my younger two by having older material.

Anyway Thanks for answering

6timeboymom · Post by **6timeboymom** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 11:35 pm

Carrie-my Greyson was supposed to be Grace...

One question about the history-will you be planning a separate American History unit? I loved the way it is incorporated in the curriculum I use now with my olders, but my oldest is doing a separate American History year and I'm rethinking my preference for the incorporated approach.
did any of that make sense??? lol!!

Post by **Carrie** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 9:43 am

6timeboymom,

How cute about the naming of your Greyson. My husband's family had 6 boys and 1 girl, so you never know, you may get your little girl yet. If not, there's always the chance of little girl grand-babies. Growing up in my family, there were all girls. Now, my parents have 10 grandchildren that are boys and 4 that are girls.

As to your question about American history, for now it looks like we will stick to a more integrated approach to American history for the middle school years. This is due to the fact that the last half of "Little Hearts..." and all of "Beyond..." and "Bigger...." are completely focused on American history. So, the kiddos will need to balance that out with a perspective of what was going on in the rest of the world during those time periods. But, you never know, we may feel differently as we add guides through the years.

Blessings,
Carrie