Took The Plunge- Please Pray

[KellyB]

Hi All

Please pray for me....after much prayer, deliberation, discussion with wise counsel from my wonderful husband, I took the plunge and ordered Preparing. I'm very excited, and hesitant at the same time. I've been in this place too many times, thinking I have found what will work best for us and then finding out I haven't.

I think we will start 1/2 time and I may not even begin until fall (yeah, right, like I'm going to want to wait). I wanted this summer to be relaxed and fun and lighter.

My plan is to take about 1.5 years to get through it and then use the last 1/2 or so of 4th to cover the stages of American History we've either not yet been to or glazed. Maybe using Bigger as topical guide and going through a bit faster - who knows at this point, I'm not even going to predict. I'll be happy to just stick with one curriculum for a year!!

So that is my prayer request, that 1. I made a good God honoring choice and 2. That HOD fits my family. I am SO INCREDIBLY TIRED of searching for curriculum. I'm feeling that I need to let this whole search process go as its consuming me. I just want a home. So if its my pride (and it seriously may be), may it be dismantled and if its fear, let me remember that God's love casts out fear and I can rest in Him.

Its odd, because I found HOD for my son (LHTH) and love it. Its been great! But for my daughter I struggle....I am praying HOD is a restful home that is a blessing for us.

Blessings
Kelly

[fruitofthewomb]

I have been searching and searching and praying and praying too! I found HOD recently and am 99.99% sure we will be using LHFHG next year for our first year homeschooling (K). I also have been afraid that HOD is "too good to be true" as it fits so nicely with my goals and style and with my DD personality. I am still praying about it and will pray for you too! I sometimes want an audible voice from heaven! Good luck with your journey!

[my3sons]

Kelly - I have just prayed for you! Having peace is a big deal - I so understand that. I want to encourage you that I believe the Lord comes alongside us when we are in His will and helps us. Many, many years ago I prayed that the Lord would change my dh's heart and let me homeschool, and if He did, then I would vow to glorify Him by using HOD. My dh's heart has been completely changed, and I have kept my vow. After around 8 years of using HOD, I continue to see the fruit as the harvest comes in with each of our dc. Keeping Christ at the center of our dc's homeschooling honors Him. It brings Him glory, and I think you are going to find that peace as well. The work He is doing in my dc's hearts and minds via HOD and me being the vessel of teaching is amazing. Just give yourself permission to enjoy doing the HOD guides as they are written, without feeling the need to add or delete or tweak or research. When you finish your day, enjoy the rest doing something else. School need not dominate our lives, balance really does bring joy and delight in both school and afterschool living. I really think after a year of doing that, you are going to have found your new homeschool home within HOD, and I think it will be a happy, content one. I will pray for you each day this week.

Love in Christ,
Julie

[Heidi in AK]

Kelly, I prayed for you too! I believe the grace of God is going to cover your homeschool and bless you greatly as you embark with Preparing!

[ForHisGlory]

Kelly, I can relate to what you have written. I have spent many, many nights researching homeschool curriculum, and have bought so much stuff on eBay. In the two years that I have been homeschooling, I have quite the library of curriculum. But for some reason, I have total and complete peace with HOD. I really feel HOD is where the good Lord lead me to, knowing that I cannot do it all on my own. He knows this is a rough season of life for our family, and that I needed something that is open and go, and most importantly Christ-centered.

I have prayed for you, and all of the other ladies here on the HOD forum that struggle with finding peace with a curriculum. May we all be blessed by HOD, and my Carrie be blessed by the Lord for her obedience to the Him!

[KTLM6]

Kelly,
I understand your fear. I prayed for you too. You aren't alone in the desire to find a "home". I feel like I finally found one with HOD. It took awhile. It took, for me, some research to understand why HOD works so well. It is very God-honoring. Like Julie, I encourage you to have an open mind and try the program as written. Be patient. I am finishing up Preparing... and it is wonderful! Preparing is the first program from HOD I used. At first, I tweaked and added and changed and didn't follow the plan. I ended up dropping the program for quite awhile, thinking that it wasn't going to fit my family. The truth was that I wasn't following the program. Over the next few months I think I went through so much other curriculum and researched even more. Nothing seemed to fit. I went to my husband with my frustrations and fears when nothing seemed to be working. By then God had led me back to some of the Charlotte Mason methods. When I shared with my husband what I had learned, he encouraged me to go back to HOD and use it as it is written. So, slowly, I switched back to HOD and Preparing. It's been months now, and we have been very blessed by the program. I pray that God uses the program to bless you and your daughter.

[sw1ssm1ss]

I wanted to add a "second" to the encouragement to use the program as written--not to tweak or change any more than you have to. I don't think stretching it out schedule-wise is a big problem. But I know last year I tweaked--and SKIPPED --parts of LHFHG, because I didn't really understand the point of them. Now I see how the program builds on itself and how my daughter is adding to her skill-set over time. Also, I took the opportunity to read more about Charlotte Mason to get a better feel for why we were doing what we were doing--that's just something that helped me, it's not at all necessary for everybody.

Hopefully, a year from now you'll be posting about how great everything is going!

[KellyB]

Hi All

Thank you SO MUCH for all the prayers, encouragement and wisdom. I feel quite a bit of peace already. I can't describe it, but its wonderful. I was actually at my sister-in-law's house today (whom I'd passed my catalog onto and suggested HOD to) and she got a huge box from HOD. I was able to look through her things....oh what fun, even if it was for different years. I was able to see some thing similar to what I ordered and check out the DITHOR book.

Its kinda funny, I mentioned HOD to my SIL and a dear friend down the street and they both jumped on before me.

I'm looking forward to perusing my package soon. Thanks again for the prayers and yes, swissmiss, I too, by God's grace, hope in a year from now, I can encourage others by sharing how wonderful our year with HOD went.

Thanks again, I am so so grateful!