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Doing multiple HOD guides is not the same as doing multiple guides of other curriculums. I would not be able to do 3 guides of another curriculum as easily and happily as I am able to do 3 guides with HOD. I'll try to explain as best I can. As dc grow and mature, they move through the HOD guides sequentially, and this incrementally moves them along in both skills and in independence, which is necessary as dc age. The amount of time dc spend doing school, and the amount of time a parent is teaching, begin small and steadily increase from 30 minutes in Little Hands to Heaven, to about 3 hours in Bigger Hearts for His Glory. These are crucial teaching years, and worth every bit of time we as parents put into them. We reap the rewards of solid, steady, step-by-step teaching within these initial years for every year to come after them.

Once dc complete Bigger Hearts for His Glory, they are ready for Preparing Hearts for His Glory, which takes around 3 1/2 to 4 hours. However, this is the point a parent's teaching time begins decreasing. Charlotte Mason clearly said that it is crucial for dc to take over their own reading in school by the age of 9, or shortly after if a student is not able to at 9 yo. PHFHG begins to have dc do this with the independent science box. The years to follow steadily have dc taking over more of their reading and learning. This is an important part of education! It is what encourages them to grow and mature, and it is what frees up time for us to have time to teach a rotation of specific more mature skills to our dc - rather than just read endlessly to them. This also frees up time for us to teach our younger dc, and they need us. This makes teaching with multiple HOD programs an incredible blessing. It makes the days flow very smoothly, and it recognizes that different aged dc have different needs.

Here is our school schedule this year, and what you see on paper is what happens every day. It's not one of those hypothetical schedules we're "shooting for". It's one of those schedules that works consistently each and every day, and it has to, because I am a very busy mom who loves to homeschool but who has other responsibilities to my Lord, my dh, myself, my dc, my parents, etc. that are important too. I don't think I'm alone in these responsibilities - I bet you have them too! HOD makes me balanced not only in our schooling, but in my life. I can homeschool this way and find great joy in it! I am not stressed, I am not unhappy, I am not stretched too far, and my dc are thriving academically and spiritually! I want this for you too!


Please keep asking questions here until you have a plan figured out, but don't worry about doing multiple guides. HOD makes that very manageable, extremely open and go. I never open any of the 3 guides I am teaching for the day until I am going to begin teaching. You can't get more open and go than that. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

Thank you for sharing! I have yet another question. Why are there are so many years of American History and only two of World History? I tried to find the answer in the forum, but didn't see it. Thank you for all the helpful comments and advice! After my Second Grade Complete Curriclum debacle, I'm anxious about buying another. I wish I could get my hands on a Teacher's Guide and some books to see how this program progresses throughout the year. I guess I'll have to be patient and wait for the homeschool conference in May.

Julie, I just want to say THANK YOU for inspiring me and, I'm sure, countless others as we embark on the HS/HOD journey. I'm excited and a little nervous about our journey, and you make it seem doable and easy!!!

Daph,

The ladies have done a tremendous job of helping you talk through and sort through possibilities, so I'll just pop-in to answer your question about American history. Here is a link to our scope and sequence, which will be updated within the month. This will help give a better perspective of the HOD history sequence. Link: http://www.heartofdakota.com/scope.php

LHFHG covers world history with a healthy dose of Biblical history and American history.
Beyond covers early American history through various cultures and people groups who settled in America.
Bigger Hearts is a one year sweep of American history done biographically.
Preparing Hearts is a one-year overview of world history.
CTC is a deeper study of the ancient time period.
RTR is a deeper study of the historical period from the resurrection of Christ through the Reformation.
Rev.to Rev. is a deeper study of the time period form the Revivals to the Industrial Revolutions. (American history is studied within the context of world history.)
Modern Times will be a deeper study of the time period from the revolutions to modern times. (American history will be studied within the context of world history.)
Our Geography guide will be a chronological look at world geography through history and includes the history of map-making.

As you look at the listings above, you'll see only two guides (Beyond and Bigger Hearts) purely devoted to "American" history, and even those two guides bring in a bit of European history along with the study. Our answer as to why we cover American history in Beyond and Bigger Hearts can be found here: http://www.heartofdakota.com/subject-areas.php#History

The world history overviews are in LHFHG, Preparing Hearts, and the Geography guides. The more in-depth time period studies are CTC, RTR, Rev. to Rev., and Modern Times. Within the 4 year history cycle done from CTC through Modern Times, American history plays a part mainly in the last two guides and is still done within the context of world history.

Hope that helps!

Blessings,
Carrie

Wow. The more I read about this program, the more excited I get. I'm anxious to get my hands on some Teacher's Manuals at my homeschool conference!

Looking through reviews, I just found this: "I think this is my favorite thing about it, it's an all in one curriculum, but you aren't boxed in. You can still make what you want or need it to be." I think this is exactly what I had difficulty with in our last complete curriculum. I've been stalking this site for days, looking at all the pics of projects, and reading reviews, and I think I'm finally convinced.

I'll be substituting a few things for my dd8, since we've found some things that we both dearly love. I'll only be substituting English for dd5. I'm really excited now! We use Classical Conversations as memory work, and this curriculum will go right along with that. Thank you for all the advice and tips!