I have missed you all!

[Tree House Academy]

It has been awhile since I posted here. We are still using HOD Little Hearts with my younger, though we did make some modifications to fit our schedule and lifestyle a bit. However, as I am deciding curriculum for next year, I really find myself drawn back to HOD. The Bible lessons are, hands down, the most wonderful thing for our family. I think we are going to do History, Bible, and Read alouds with Beyond next year. We did the Emerging Readers this year with ds and he is also ready to do R&S English 2, so we will probably do parts of Bigger too. I really wish my little fella fit easily into one manual, but he really doesn't. Luckily, I am not afraid to mix them up to get the combo that is best for him.

[DHT1999]

Hi, Rebecca! It's good to see you here! My youngest is in Little Hearts but we've been doing the LA in Beyond for awhile now. I love the way the storytime in Beyond is done. And, he loves the poetry. Unfortunately, it's looking like he won't do Beyond completely, as written. I think I am going to bump him up to Bigger Hearts for 3rd grade. And, we'll be doing Creation to Christ, atleast some portion of it. It's so easy to use different guides to pull out whatever you need.

Just wanted to say hello!
Blessings!

[my3sons]

Rebecca - It's good to hear from you! It sounds like you are putting a plan together that you will enjoy. I too love the way the Bible gets into our dc's hearts, and the way the plans can work together, but also be mixed and matched with other guides to find the right fit for LA/math, etc. skills.

In Christ,
Julie

[Tree House Academy]

Thanks girls! HOD has been tugging at my heart to give it another try with my oldest. I think I made several mistakes at the beginning of this year with him...the biggie being that I placed him incorrectly into Bigger. I wanted American History, but I knew Bigger was not where he needed to be. He fit well into Preparing and probably would have even done well in CTC. I just couldn't get my mind around it all and it bombed. I also tried to use it 100% as written even with something really wasn't working for him. Stepping away and just using parts of Bigger to finish the year has been wonderful. I have started to really LOVE the read alouds (which we continued!). He has also come a long way with the Poetry study that we continued from Bigger. His copywork and dictation have improved beautifully.

Today, he and I sat down and went over the CTC manual (the first week, which I printed out). He was getting so excited as I pulled out books and discussed History with him. He is a text-booky kid, but I think he is coming around a little bit. He was excited to see that parts of the manual were written to HIM...and that the schedule is only 4 days long! He likes the hands on activities and enjoys the experiments (which we don't really do with the text-book he is using now).

So...I think we are going to give it another go. I am excited and scared at the same time!

My little man loves his HOD - and even though we don't use it 100% as written, I realized that we do MOST of the manual. We use different math, omit the Science and dramatic play, but that is all. We love History and Bible, we do the rhymes daily (his favorite part of our day), do Thinking Skills as scheduled, handwriting, and read alouds (LOVE the Burgess books). I have no reservations at all about doing Beyond with him next year. We look forward to it.

[my3sons]

Rebecca - you know I have actually been praying specifically for you, as I was sad that I hadn't seen you around here for awhile, and I knew you were doing some pondering. I am glad the Lord led you to the conclusions you've shared here, and I appreciate your thoughts you've shared. Placement is kind of hard sometimes. It's also tough to realize that something isn't going the way you thought it would, and a different level would have been better. I had it with Math with Wyatt. I so wanted him to do a full math level a year, and not only that, for him to be doing fourth grade math his fourth grade year, fifth grade math his fifth grade year, etc. I was trying to fast forward him, and it was not working. I took a child who loved math and almost made him a child that hated it. Even though I realized this, I actually continued on for awhile before dropping him back a semester. Now, he is doing so well, and though he won't finish 4B by the end of the year, he will have had a great year in math, and he still will love it. Of course this is just one example of many I could share with you of my needing to reflect on what I was doing and make a change. I think you did some good reflecting and came up with a wonderful plan for next year. I'm excited for your oldest to do CTC, and for your little guy to do Beyond. I think you'll enjoy that combination. Thanks for posting, and I'm glad you're back!

In Christ,
Julie

[Tree House Academy]

Wow, Julie, thank you so much for the prayers. I was sitting in church this morning and God spoke directly to me about our homeschool journey. My pastor was talking about following God's "navigation system" for our life. He used the analogy of a GPS in the car...how the little thing says, "turn right here" and often, we know a "better" way and just keep driving. Well, it is like that with God and our chosen paths too. We can choose to not listen and keep going "our way" or we can read the Word and find God's way for us. As I sat listening to this message, God told me how homeschooling was HIS path for me and for my children. I knew this, but I feel a huge pull and sense of peace when my mind went directly to HOD. I strayed from what God wanted with my oldest due to my own mistakes, but I can always go back and look at the amount of Bible my son his learned with Little Hearts - he was SAVED this year from his studies and devotionals in LHFHG! Each day, I read to him from the wonderful references Carrie picked out and each day I see him grow in faith through HOD. How can I not give that to my other son too!? When we left HOD with him (we kept Bigger Poetry and Read Alouds), I did use a lot of R&S and CLE - we never left the Christian curriculum, but it is not tied and connected like HOD.

I felt your prayers, Julie, and I appreciate them so much. Please pray that CTC will be the perfect fit for my older son this year!!!! In my heart, though, I know it will be!

[my3sons]

Thanks, Rebecca! I just prayed for you again this morning. Carrie and I both try very hard to pray by name for the ladies on the board as often as we can, especially if a need has been made known. I'm so glad to hear the Lord is answering your prayers and leading you with clarity. He is so good at that if we only take time to listen - a good reminder for me always, especially when life gets busy.

In Christ,
Julie

[Tree House Academy]

That is so sweet of both of you to pray for us by name. This board is so wonderful! And so are you ladies!!!

[water2wine]

Rebecca glad to see you back! We have done two guides combined for one child. It actually works really well. Just wanted to encourage you if that is the way you need to go. Great to see you back!