Changing curriculum

[Bijou]

I am looking at changing the curriculum we've been using and starting with something new next year. The Bigger Heart for God curriculum on this website is pretty close to where we are this year in our study as far as history goes. We have already learned much of what is in it. However, in other areas, i.e. English, math, language arts we would be about right on to start with this curriculum next year. I guess what I need to know is, will it hurt to repeat a lot of the history? About half would be review and half would be new.

Thank you!

[lapeseven]

I don't think repeating some history is a bad thing, especially with Heart of Dakota. I was trying to do my own thing last semester with two of my daughters. I even was using a couple of HOD choices! After one semester, I went back to HOD. With both girls we simply took the history back to the beginning. My older dd will start Res to Ref next week, even though she covered that time period with a different resource. With my little one in LHFHG, she's redoing a couple of the exact same books! But you know what? It seems SO different. The activities that go along with those books just bring it all to life. Plus, the HOD guide sometimes puts things in different order, adds in Bible references and emphasis, etc. Going through this with my dd feels like an entirely different study than what we were doing before! I haven't used Bigger yet, but I'm willing to bet the same is true for that program as it has been for the others!

[2girls2boysnme]

I am hoping Bigger will cover the material in a different way than the curriculum we are using for 2nd grade. It is the same time period, and uses some of the same books as Beyond. Maybe it will really just cement us history into my child's mind, and she will be able to focus on the 3 Rs a bit more as well!

[jkhamell]

I would like to affirm your idea that your dc will be able to focus on the 3 R's with HOD. We just switched to it this year ourselves and that is one of the greatest things about the younger guides we are using. I feel very on track with 3 R's and am teaching some great reading comprehension skills (real lit. analyzing stuff right at their level). We also have repeated history time periods this year - but it seems very fresh! I encourage you to place your dc right where they fit on the chart regardless of past history experience. This is most important for overall curriculum success. I had been combining my 6th and 8th grader for the last 4 years in history and placed them together in HOD. I did neither a favor. I have since moved my 6th grader and it is going much smoother for her. Good luck with your choices - this board is extremely helpful!

[jhperry]

I think you'll love the history in Bigger! It takes a biographical approach, so the format is a little different than an overview. By repeating the time period, your student will become more familiar with the heroes that are a part of our heritage. We are now in Preparing and although I was eager to get to world history, I can see the wisdom in waiting and am thankful for the foundation of American history that was laid prior to this year. Plus, Carrie does such a great job of showing God's providence in "His story" through the lives of these individuals that's just too good to miss!

[my3sons]

Welcome to the HOD Board! I don't think it would be a big deal in any way to repeat some of what you have covered in history by doing Bigger Hearts for His Glory (BHFHG). Honestly, I've taught Bigger Hearts... twice to two of our different aged dc, and I personally completely enjoyed reading the books twice myself - better yet, I get to read them a third time down the road to one more little blessing! The Eggleston books are so narrative, and the maps in Journeys Through Time provide great visual and written narratives as well. My sons all think the Wright brothers are incredibly fascinating, and it is due to the book we read in BHFHG. Keep in mind, even if you have covered some of this time period, there is no way you could have done all of the neat activities and follow-ups BHFHG has planned. The notebooking activities are all original, and they created a neat keepsake portfolio of our year in BHFHG. Likewise the art activities and the history activities are all original, and they added more memories to our portfolio. The timeline entries and vocabulary activities add still more great follow-ups to the history readings, and they all work together to help dc learn important skills while still have fresh, varied ways to respond to their readings. And this is all just the history!

BHFHG has awesome science living books too (and experiments, notebooking, etc. ), as well as great read alouds for Storytime that cover all the genres beautifully, neat poetry readings and follow-ups, solid Bible study lessons that focus on helping us help our dc develop Godly character, neat devotional lessons we get to discuss heart to heart with our dc, beautiful hymn study that shares the history behind the hymns as well, and awesome reading choices between either the ERS (Emerging Reader's Set) or DITHOR (Drawn into the Heart of Reading). I didn't even touch on the solid 3 R's yet - strong grammar, step-by-step dictation passages, several great math choices with hands-on activities that are a must (IMO) for 2A/2B, cursive, copywork, and super guidance in strengthening oral narration skills. This cannot be a repeat of what you have done with all this originality! I think you are going to love BHFHG, and I think your dc will too! Please keep asking questions until you are set though - we love to help here! It is nice to meet you, and I look forward to getting to know you here!

In Christ,
Julie

[Bijou]

Wow! thank you all for the great advice. I am still in prayer mode about what to do for next year, but I love getting advice from those of you that have used this program. It looks wonderful to me and very similar to what we have been using, MFW, but maybe a little more detailed. We love MFW but I feel like my ds, dd have been a bit bored this year, especially in the history area. I really like the spelling program that MFW uses. What do you all think of the spelling that is offered by HOD? I am a stickler on good spelling and grammar and I don't want my kids to get short-changed. We are doing our own math program which the kids love so I will stick with that. Thanks again for your help and for making me feel welcome here.

[my3sons]

HIstory - well, it is incredibly exciting with HOD! We all love history thanks to HOD, and I will admit I did NOT love history prior to HOD. I'll blame it on my own ps experience with history that used books that were dry, textbooks/workbooks, and lots of useless memorizing of this or that fact, that I quickly forgot after passing the test. I have learned to love history thanks to HOD. The books are truly amazing. I feel like I actually know these people by the time we finish reading them, or like I actually can picture what it would have been like to live in that time period. Every summer I pull out all of the tubs of HOD books we own (which is everything HOD has written so far). I let the dc choose any books from the guide they just finished on down to reread for pure enjoyment. You would think it was Christmas! They think this is the best thing ever, and often make many trips with armfuls of books up to their rooms to put on their shelves to read for the summer. It is just the neatest feeling ever to know they love their HOD books that much!

I am so glad you asked about spelling! I cannot sing the praises of the way spelling is covered in HOD more! These methods have taken my below average speller and turned him into a far above average speller that rarely makes spelling (or grammatical) errors! They also have taken my above average speller and catapulted him into an off the charts speller that has very little difficulty spelling anything. I talked about it in this past post here...
viewtopic.php?t=1246

Spelling/Dictation:
viewtopic.php?t=925

A few other threads about spelling/dictation:
viewtopic.php?p=85870#p85870
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5645&p=41357#p41357
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10388
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5661

R & S English has been such a solid grammar program for our dc. It has taught grammar for the purpose of using it to write well, and I believe that is the reason that my dc naturally transfer what is learned in R & S English to their writing assignments for the rest of their school subjects. It helps them write not only grammatically correct, but also with clarity, organization, unity, description, and detail. Here are a few posts on this...
R & S English (why I love it )
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4077&p=30147&hilit= ... ion#p30147
R & S English (describes doing portions of each section orally/on markerboard then writing the rest:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4659&p=34269#p34269
R & S English (in general)...
viewtopic.php?p=16647#p16647

HTH! But I think you will be very pleased with R & S English and with the manner in which spelling/dictation is taught within HOD. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[Bijou]

Thank you very much Julie! That definitely did help. My decision to switch to HOD is getting more clear all the time. I felt kind of like a traitor at first thinking of changing, but it's the kiddos that count! Thanks again!