Do you supplement? If so, with what?

[ktwensel]

Ladies,

Do any of you supplement HOD or use it strictly as is?

If you do supplement, what do you add?

Thank you so much.

[HappyMama]

I pretty much use it as is except this year I added a Come Look With Me book for art appreciation and a Building Thinking Skills book for my oldest ds. But those together barely take any time at all, so it feels like we really haven't added anything. I find HOD to be so balanced and thorough, I don't really feel the need to supplement. I'm curious to see what other HOD moms are doing.

[striving2Bprov31]

Dear Ladies,

I can comment on this!!! In the past, I have tried to supplement HOD in different ways, use different Lang arts than suggested, etc. etc. Basically, wanting the open n go of HOD but doing way too much changing in the name of "making it my own". I've really learned HOD doesn't need that. But mostly, all of that "supplementing" did ABSOLUTELY nothing for my kids--all it did was get me halfway to the looney hospital.

So for the very first time (starting in January-taking a break right now) we will begin doing HOD EXACTLY as written. The peace about it is overwhelming. I have really come to trust Carrie and Julie. HOD is beyond awesome.....Exactly as written!!! This is coming from a "do-it-yourself" homeschooler!!!

This has been my experience and I hope this helps. I found we will drive ourselves crazy and off course in our homeschooling trying to supplement here and there!! IMHO!

Enjoy your HOD adventure!:)

Liz

[Candice]

I deleted my post because I was questioning whether or not it fit in with the Forum Guidelines,
and wanted to be on the safe side.

[LynnH]

I pretty much use HOD as is. The only thing I supplement is with some extra vocabulary. The reason for this is unique to my child. He came out of ps as a 5th grader with reading comprehension challenges and as I started working with him I realized that his vocabulary knowledge was poor. I was really surprised to find out some of the words he didn't know the meaning to. So we did an extra vocabulary book in an attempt to get him up to speed. I really think that if we had been doing HOD from the beginning with all the rich living books that he wouldn't have had the vocabulary issue and I wouldn't have had to supplement. We are doing a roots program now, again to just help him catch up. He does go to a co-op one day a week, but he only takes 2-3 classes that require very little homework. He doesn't take any history or writing classes there because I like the way HOD teaches those and don't really want him messed up by being taught a different way. We do use a different math, but I don't consider that supplementing since that is an option in the guide.

[blessedmomof4]

I only added Spanish and Music, and I only do that on alternate Fridays. It's because I am Latina and I want my daughter to learn a little Spanish, and I'm a singer so music is extra important to me. Otherwise, I find there is no need to add a thing to HOD, it is so well-balanced. I have homeschooled for many years, and this is the first curriculum I've ever used that did not require supplementing or tweaking, but is just fine the way it is.

[ktwensel]

Thank you all for your wisdom!

I am going to resist the urge to tweak!

[amethyst rain]

We use it pretty much as is. I use Hooked On Phonics for language arts instead of what is recomended. It works out well though, because it still fits within the time frame. We also add in more art, via homeschool co-op. Oh, and we are doing Draw, Write, Now instead of the handwriting because ds was getting bored with that.

I think it works well for us because I try very hard to pick something that still fits within the time frame that HOD recomends. We are not adding more work, just substituting what works best for us.

[Tree House Academy]

We use HOD as written including the math and English recommendations! In the past, I have tried using other things (English and math) and I find that HOD really nailed it with their choices and it really flows best in the guide that way.

For my older and younger sons, I add French (older does it daily - 4 days a week and younger does it weekly, 1 day). I learned it in school and I love teaching it to my boys.

For my younger son, I also added a simple music book once a week (we are a singing family and this is more for learning to read music than anything else) and he loves to draw, so we do drawing once a week.

Both of my boys take art in co-op as well.

[Kathleen]

As is...and oh so happy with it!!!

[4littleones]

We use HOD Beyond the way it is and I tell you, there is a certain sense of freedom in doing that!

The children learn modern Greek and Violin and Piano, but I don't consider this supplementation. Rather, extention of the curriculum in that we add new subjects, not supplementing the ones that HOD has already.

Happy days!

[Mommamo]

Well, I like to think that we do it as written, but we do add a little bit. I'm not sure if I would call it "supplement," since it's really just adding things that aren't there. So I'm a piano teacher, so we do add a composer study, some music and movement, and piano lessons (for all three children, believe it or not). We also add Spanish. We attended an immersion Spanish class for a while, but now I just teach it and we use a curriculum (that I'm not actually thrilled with, so I'm trying to figure out where to go from here with that). We also do a little state study thing-learning state flower, food, etc... So none of it is supplementing what HOD has already included-that is too perfect! HOD is so well thought out and time conscious that I can get everything done, and it enables me to be able to add "extras" that are important to me. So it's not lacking AT ALL. I just wanted these extras for the kiddos, and HOD lets us do that.

[ktwensel]

I am really enjoying reading your answers on this.

We started our first week of Bigger and LOVE it so far (only going into the 2nd day ) but I'm finding it hard to release my grasp on some of the things we were doing. (ie, R & S Spelling, Bible, and Science). My ds loves his Bible and I will let him continue (can never have too much!) and I think I will let them just read their Science without notebooking. Spelling is quick and I may have them continue, I don't know. I just don't want my day to be 6 hours long!!!

I would love to do composers and authors too along the way.

[blessedmomof4]

Just to let you know, there is a light treatment of some composers in the history study of Preparing Hearts, and one book about Mozart and one about Shakespeare in the independent study set

[jjcmehl]

We use it as written. The children are a year ahead in grammar, since we initially used the classical approach to grammar when we first started home educating. I do add in nature study occassionally. We also add in composer study as this is a requirement from our Suzuki piano teacher. We do picture study, but that is intertwined with their cursive.

We will be taking a break from read alouds to focus more on Christmas stories and further Bible Study.