I have done her ancients program. Her stuff is good. It is set up a little different with the learning styles. I kind of ignored all that and used it how I wanted. It's fairly flexible. We used it actually in conjunction with reading a the OT. So my thought was more she was the support to the Bible we were studying which is a little different than it is meant to be used but it was great that way. The archeology is interesting. There is a lot of world view and I liked that. It is not an everything curriculum, meaning complete unit study but it is a very good history program. Her commentary is very engaging and very eye opening. The focus is more biblical than secular on the history or maybe more bringing the secular in light of the biblical. Anyway I hope that helps a bit. I love her stuff. I did not use it exactly as it is intended. :) She does have a yahoo group that is good. I am not on it anymore but do a search it will come up for you.

We can definitely do precalc. We have the time and I am fine with teaching it. I love the idea of statistics as a dual enrollment. That is a great idea! I would say statistics is the one class I would not want to teach. I loathed statistics. I'll make sure we get precalc in our plan. We are on track for it so we should be OK.

Really I guess that makes sense now that you say it. They need to be able to analyze data. Ok that works. Thanks!:)

Looking at for a kid that might want an MBA but not a science degree. I am thinking the answer is Algebra1, Algebra 2 and Geometry will do. Any opinions? Thanks!:)

We are going to use Notgrass but not yet. Anyway I have always loved the black line maps and and Maps of World and American History from knowledge quest. We use these over and over. http://www.knowledgequestmaps.com/Products.html We will use them with Notgrass as well. Might be something that interests you.

Here is the site that explains about DIVE. It is science course work and Lab by DVD. http://www.diveintomath.com/pageDisplay.cfm?pageno=238ans&zpid=447&sesstime=now On the left you can look at the individual courses offered. You can get these other places, CBD, Amazon, RR etc. They are all over the place. They get good reviews. They I guess were made for BJU and correlate perfectly with them but they have a syllabus for Apologia as well. http://www.diveintomath.com/pageDisplay.cfm?pageno=238ans&zpid=450&sesstime=now (science is below). HTH :)

I do not have wisdom on this but I will share with you what we have decided. My daughter is looking at something in medicine but probably not MD. And that is not to say that we want to do less just to say that she may want to take time off to raise kids and would like to not be $250K in debt when she gets out. :) We are thinking optometry is a good possibility at this point. 7th Apologia Bio with Dive (doing this now. She has done fine with the Apologia part of it adding DIVE to it) 8th Apologia Physical Sci with DIVE 9th Apologia Advanced Bio with the DIVE that applies to that 10th Apologia Chem 1 with DIVE 11th Apologia Physics with DIVE 12th Probably dual enrollment with Chem

This is all I have found so far but it is informative. http://www.tfths.com/docs/articles/TeachingASpeechAndDebateClassForHomeschoolers.pdf

Posted this on the K-8 as well. Hoping somebody here has seen or used this and can tell me if they liked it. Thanks!:) http://www.tfths.com/speech.php

My dd using CTC is in 7th this year so doing RTR at 7th. The only drag about having them that older is probably they are going to miss a guide. My next group coming through CTC will be in 6th and I see them going all the way through the Geography program which is exciting! I will probably just add Notgrass Government to the geography and use it over the entire year. But I definitely like having them on the older side of the guide rather than the younger side. We get so much more out of them that way.:)

This is made by Training for Triumph, the same people that do CQLA. http://www.tfths.com/speech.php Has anyone seen or used this. I am very interested in it and would love to know if others liked it. Thanks so much!:)

:iagree:SOLD! Can't wait to see the samples of the actual guide. The books look awesome! I love that she connected the biblical study for boys and girls that related to them. We are excited to use this next year!

Thank you for your reply! That makes a lot of sense. I can help her with the lab reports I was in the field so I am not too worried about short comings in that area. I can teach her that. It's good to know that we could skip them and be OK. I do think I will look at the DIVE labs though. I don't think I can pass up doing the labs, just for fun.:) Thanks for heading me in the right direction! I appreciate it.

I am trying to make the most real world applicable science I can for my dd. :) I like the in depth coverage of BJU but I do not like the abundance of Zoology in it since it does not apply so much to what ultimately her goal will be. I like the extra anatomy in Apologia for her. I was thinking of having her do both Bios from Apologia add Dive but perhaps have her do the BJU labs. Is this a viable plan and would this be enough for a child going into the medical field in some capacity. I am also wondering if the BJU labs would work combined with Apologia and DIVE. Another option I guess would be to get the DIVE lab kit and do those instead of BJU. I am looking for the most "real life" (meaning applying to medical field or biotech) science and would appreciate thoughts on that too. Thanks so much for any help!:001_smile:

I had no idea. Thanks for letting me know that!:)

I am contemplating just doing that sticking with CLE. It's good to hear you feel it is enough prep for algebra. That would by far be the easiest way to go for me. Just wanting to get my algebra choice in line now so I know where I am headed and feel sure it will work for us. Not sure what direction to go with that. I have considered Saxon and just keeping LOF going on the side to supplement. It's a possibility. I wanted a more separate treatment of geometry on the upper level yet I can't argue that CLE mixes geometry in there and it works so it's a possibility.

Just trying to figure out where we are headed. I had my dd doing CLE and that went very well. Now we are starting out Prealgebra and I got chalkdust prealgebra. I got the Dana Mosely cds cheap and have them more on hand for reference as we need them through algebra and may link them by topic or use them as problems arise for extra help. I am finding with the PreAlgebra book there feels like a lot of sifting through to decide what problems to do and what to skip for her. I would like a program that is really straightforward, has enough practice but not overwhelming amounts of problems, and one that self teaches in the actual text. I have no problem teaching myself and have had higher level math but just for time sake prefer to have teaching be more to jump in to reinforce or help them grasp concepts rather than having to teach every concept if possible. So I am not looking to have someone else teach it as much as I am for convenience. I loved the way CLE taught to the student. I correct problems as we go and have them show me the first few problems in new concept sections as they work them. This worked great and made my job easy. What is out there that might be the same for Algebra? Thanks so much for any help or advice!:)

I have lurked for a long time but only posted recently.:) I am 45, Conservative Christian, lean toward reformed. Been married once and only for 11 years so I got married later in life but made up for it quickly. I have six kids, four of which we adopted within a five month span. We decided when engaged we would adopt so it was planned the birth kids were more of an after thought, hahaha! But we are very blessed to have been able to receive children through adoption and by birth. One of the children we adopted has moderate Cerebral Palsy and learning delays and difficulties that go along with that so that plays into our hsing. We have five daughters and one son. I started out hsing my first four and then believed the criticism that I was ruining them and that my special needs child needed ps and so I put them in ps only to find it was ruining them.:glare: So I pulled them out and am on my 4th year of hsing. My two youngest have only been hsed. Now we are hsers for life! We hs because it is best for our dd with special needs but mostly becasue we can teach them about God in everything and we feel we can give them a better education while honoring God. We use Heart of Dakota as our curriculum and have tried many things in between. HOD has hands down been the best for us and so now we are set with them for the long haul. I am now mainly researching high school and upper level science and history so that is why I lurk here from time to time. Lot's of great information here and people seem very friendly so I have enjoyed it.

We just finished Bigger and LHFHG and absolutely loved it. :001_smile: I Had a very tough year just life wise this year and we were still able to have very solid academics. I chose HOD for the godly content and the way God was weaved into everything with relevance. By that I mean things are really connected not just associated by random topic like I have seen some other programs do. I also liked the organization. It was organized enough to keep me on track and get things done but not so confining that I could not add if I wanted or run my day how best suited our family. I also had some things that needed some help in adjusting. I had a child who was a little outside of the age of the program but desperately needed American History and the author helped me beef things up for her only so I could get her the history she needed in American. I also have one with special needs and the author helped me see how I could easily incorporate her as well. I was also given some tips on how to combine my then 4 and 6 year old into LHFHG. The customer service and help at HOD is wonderful. :001_smile: A real plus for the program. This year we are going to three programs. Preparing and the new Creation to Christ Program are more independent so I think we are going to have another great year using those plus Beyond for my two littlest. Once again the author gave me help on how to best work this for my family because I was essentially skipping a program for my oldest but still wanted her to get the information because I really believe that over view of world history is important before they cycle through. She is a book worm so we have some reading she will be doing and a little listening in on Preparing while she does CTC. I can confidently say we are set with HOD for as long as they write which as scheduled is for three more guides and of course my two little ones have all the guides after Beyond to do as well. There are a few things that really have us sold on HOD for the long haul. The first is I have peace like I have never had before in my hsing. I used to search until 2 am routinely for that perfect thing. Now my day runs smoothly I know I am catching it all and though I am not by nature a CMer I can see the magic in it and the fact that it is really enough. I am no longer hunting from year to year for that thing to fix this problem or that issue. We just know each guide will be as good if not better than the last and it will consistently work for us. It's one of those things you can open it up, see the organization and know it will work. But that part is really for me. In my kids I have watched them grow in the Lord like never before and actually apply the biblical principles we are learning to their lives like they never have before. We are heavy on Bible by nature but there is something about the way that HOD applies the word to the character in the History and so relevantly to what is being learned that they naturally apply it to their life as well. I see it from my 5 year old to my 12 year old. To me that is the point of hsing. And along with that we see them really learning the academics deeply and retaining what they have learned like never before. Besides agreeing with all the things that Heather:iagree:said I feel like when I stand face to face with God and give an account for what I used to teach the children He entrusted me with the things that HOD focuses on are going to be what really matters. I love the knowing we have the spiritual aspect covered solidly while not ignoring the academics along the way. It brings me peace and my children absolutely love it. When we finished this year my biggest and only issues were the older kids would not let me pack away the books for the younger two to use later because they wanted to read them again and the younger two wanted to let them know that it was now their program and they got to pack it up for the year after this. Then there is the ultimate debate of who actually gets the programs when we are all done because I am forbidden from selling them off and that all centers around using them one day with their own children one day. Some of them are trying to work out a schedule for how the books will rotate from family to family or how some kind of co-op could be done. I am not kidding.:lol: These are good problems to have. There is no greener grass than that. We are sold!

I usually just lurk on this board and look for things in the future for high school science, math etc but wanted to respond to the OP. :001_smile: First I could not agree more with what Rebecca said nor could I say it better so I will not try but I do completely agree with her. :iagree: But for the original question I just wanted to add somethings that I hope will help. I have six kids in HOD, four have previously been in ps and two have only been hsed. HOD is a completely different method than was intuitive for me in teaching my kids. I have done textbooks and I have done more classically oriented hsing in fact WTM was the first book I ever read on hsing. So my mind really went more that way just to give you an idea of how my mind works. I used HOD initially as a supplement to another program that was not working for us. It initially seemed light to me and would be good to add and hopefully fix what was not working. This was for my youngest two and the program was LHFHG. Over time what I found was that my younger kids were learning a lot more from this "supplement" called LHFHG than they were from this in depth program. They loved it and it was bringing me peace as well. But far more important than that is I found them using and applying the Word of God to their lives and real life situations and really getting it. They were growing stronger in the Lord than all the information I was trying to get in their head with my methods, they were also getting the history, the science and one thing my other kids were not which was great retention. So from that I called the author and tried to work a plan to get all my kids into HOD. I wanted that peace in my day HOD brought for all my kids. I have one with special needs and my oldest who is very strong in reading and math but was actually outside of the history that we really needed to cover due to her lack of it in ps which was American. Anyway the author worked out a perfect plan just for me. Helped me work it for my special needs child and my child that was advanced for the guide. So we used Bigger for my oldest four and loved that as well. They have learned way more than I thought they would. Comprehension and retention has been amazing. So that is my experience but I wanted to say also that it is a different learning and teaching style. You can tweak the guide. You can add stuff but I do not recommend trying to take the HOD guide and use it not as it is designed to teach. You have to do the narration, you have to use the CM techniques that are meant to be used with the guide as it is written. You have to do the activities that sometimes at face value may initially seem simple. And when you do it as it is written in terms of actually how it is meant to be taught you are going to find your kids are learning and retaining more than you ever dreamed they would.:) It is important to get into the right guide for your child's abilities and to pick the LA and Math at their level as well. If you are outside of that for the sake of content as I have done with my oldest it is important to ask the author how to best work that so that all your kids can be met at their level and have their needs met. When we initially started Bigger I did wonder about the science. I spent ten years in biotech so that is my area. I did the HOD science though because my kids begged me to and what I found is they were learning something I saw kids coming out of Stanford and into the lab were not. And that was how to observe and see what is really there. What is the science telling you? It is the most important question to know how to answer and most people do not learn that until they get into a real life lab experience where the experiments do not always work and you have to figure out why. Usually kids come out of college in science with the head knowledge. They can so the assays they memorized the facts but they do not understand the why of it all and they do not see how to look at what is this really telling you. HOD science teaches that first and I began to see how truly brilliant that is over filling their head with a bunch of stuff that they have no idea what to do with in the end. Now I know this is backwards in how most people think but I have to say I am seeing that it applies to some pretty complex thinking in my kids. We do lots of science in my house and I tell them what is the real deal of how is this used in the real world becasue that is fun for me but we never skip HOD science. I have found the simple teaching has taught very deep thinking and if my kids can get the how and the why and what are the assumptions of science before high school, even college they are way ahead of the game to me. And there is a lot of HOD that is like that. It teaches them to think differently and to apply what they learned to different systems. I find that to be a very important skill in life for them. Thankfully I have found this to be true with the Bible in HOD and the way God is weaved into everything. My kids take that and apply it to other things as well. For us that is our main goal of hsing. We are college minded definitely but first we are God minded for our kids. HOD works with my goals for teaching my children to love and live for Him too and it is effortless. I love that! So to the OP I want to encourage you to really first make sure you have the correct level for your child. The placement chart really helps with that. Then try it using the teaching tips and giving the time to learn to narrate properly so that they do retain the information as it is meant to be taught not skipping anything and just see if they do not over time learn to retain more than you would have expected. I pray for you that you find what we have in our family, that our kids have grown in leaps and bounds with the Lord and have learned to see Him in everything while they are learning all they need to and more academically. Either way praying you find peace in your hsing.:001_smile: BTW sorry for the long post just something I am passionate about and hoping something here will help you or someone.