Thanks. This gives me a good starting place! Thanks for all the help!!

Thank you Michelle. I see that your middle one uses HOD. Do you make your own list as you suggested? What other things do you add to HOD? I appreciate your sound advice, I will do that. And, I see that your oldest uses TOG, is there a time that you transition from HOD to TOG or just use different curricula for different kids? Thanks for the help!!

Hello everyone! My oldest son is finishing up 5th grade this year with HOD CTC, with his 4th grade sister studying it as well. It has been a wonderful year. They have learned much, enjoyed their studies, and have made some truly beautiful notebooks. It has been a mostly painless year for us, as much of their study has been independent, yet we still read together and learn together. As my son heads into 6th grade, I am seeing, however, a few gaps.....mainly in logic and memorization. Neither of these are too strong in HOD. He learned a lot and can tell you all about Julius Caesar or Marc Antony, but can't remember dates. And, well, logic, it just needs some major work. My question is this: -should I look at something perhaps more rigorous to give my son an all-encompassing education? If so, what? Veritas Press? Or??? -should I beef up HOD RTR to include some logic study and some memorization? If so, what? Veritas Press memory cards or???? Thanks for the help! Joy

I have a 4th grade DD and a 5th grade ds who are both using CTC right now, and we all LOOOOVVVEEE it. The history portion is quite heavy on Biblical history in the beginning, so if that is not the path you want to take maybe it is not for you. But IMO the program it is excellent. The history projects are simple and fun, my kiddos LOVE drawing things like a Spartan warrior and The Hanging Gardens of Babylon in their notebooks and don't balk at writing a written narration about what they are learning. They really enjoy the Diana Waring CD's that go along with the history. The history RA's are wonderful (except for Jashub's Journal which no one us liked at all. ugh.) This is the first year that I have really, truly enjoyed hs'ing. We are on week 20 and I can say I love it now as much or more than I did when I started. We use the entire thing as written with the exception of using Teaching Textbooks for math instead of Singapore. We are all very peaceful and happy. :) HTH!

:iagree: This has changed things around for us as far as timed drills. The kids love it and it is painless!! Blessings, Joy

Thanks everyone. This is all good advice. I am going to work on having him edit his own writing first, and then work on the specific words that he has been missing in addition to AAS. Thanks for all the help! Blessings, Joy

Hiking, riding bikes, playing soccer in the yard, and jumping on the trampoline. :)

Hi everyone, My son, who is in 5th grade is a poor speller. As I've been assessing the situation I think it is that when he went to 1st grade (school not homeschool) he was not adequately taught phonics and then I thought all this time that dictation would solve the problem. I'm realizing it won't. He is an avid reader, but alas, it still doesn't translate into his spelling. His younger sister, dd 4th, pretty much has never misspelled a word in her life, so I guess kids just come in all shapes and sizes. SO, my plan of attack is to work through AAS with him starting at the beginning (we are almost done with level 1 and I've seen HUGE progress), but still when he writes papers or written narration there are a lot of spelling mistakes. I'm wondering what you would do in this situation? Here are the words he misspelled on his recent writing: creatures, eye, different, except, actually So, what do YOU do when your child misspells a word? Tell it to them and they fix it? Have them practice it? Look it up? I want him to take responsibility for figuring out the words he misspelled, but I am unsure of how to do this. And, do you think there is something bigger going on here? Dyslexia or another learning issue? Since I live overseas I don't have access to assessments and the like, it's all guesswork! :) Thanks for the help and advice! Joy (inIndo)

Amazing advice! I am so printing this out. If you ever write a book, I'll buy it! Thanks for this, seriously. Blessings, Joy (in Indo)

I can't say that I have any really good answers for you right now, but I am reading two great books on the subject. The Creative Family by Amanda Soule (more geared for younger years, but can be adapted for olders) and Educating the Whole Hearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson. Lots of great ideas about creating different learning spaces in your home to create an environment of inspiration HTH! Blessings, Joy (in Indo)

Thanks for the help! I feel more confident on making a decision now that I've heard from all of you. Since I live overseas and it takes a while to get new material, I will probably skip to 4 for now (since I have it) and then order 5, keeping 3 on hand in case there is something we need to cover. About Advanced Language Lessons, I haven't looked at it, but I sure will! Thanks for the help! Blessings, Joy

Hi. I need a little help thinking through this. So, I sort of did my kids a disservice for the past several years by totally embracing Charlotte Mason (love her though). My kids have had very little formal grammar to this point and now my son is just starting 5th grade. We are using R&S this year and I really like it....the only thing is he's using R&S 3. Does that make him WAY behind? And, could I skip R&S 3 and start right in 4? Is there a lot that he would miss and then not understand if we skipped to 4? I know the SWB recommends starting late comers in 3, but I didn't know how "late" that was exactly. I think the reason I'm stressin' is that he will be joining a school for a few hours a week and I don't want him to not know something he should! Thanks for the help! Blessings, Joy (in Indo)

Hi! First off, I want to say how much I enjoy HOD. We just started with HOD 3 weeks ago using Creation to Christ for my older kids and Beyond for my 2nd grader. I love it for ease of use and for depth of study (and for ideas I never have time to come up with like poetry, art, and history projects). So, I ordered HOD Beyond for my 2nd grade ds who just turned 7. It is really great in most aspects, but I feel like it's lacking in grammar or language (it's geared for 1st grade). The thing is that I live overseas, and I can't just order some supplement at this point. So, if you wanted to beef up the language portion of Beyond, what would you add that you could get off the internet or come up with yourself? The other thing is I do have FLL that I could use, but is that enough to just go through that without WWE or something? Thanks for the help! Blessings, Joy (inIndo)

This is our first year using HOD and we just finished our first week, and I have to say this has been the BEST week of homeschooling for us yet! My older two 5th and 4th are doing CTC and 2nd grader is doing Beyond. The 4yo twins are tagging along nicely for some of Beyond and then I'm doing some other pre-k stuff with them. I'm loving it. They're loving it. I am totally thrilled with our choice, and I can already see how this is going to benefit all of us. AHHHH. I'm so happy. :) Blessings! JoyinIndo 5th grade ds, 4th grade dd, 2nd grade ds, and 4-yo ds twins

My 3rd grader has really enjoyed Writing Tales 1 this year. It is simple, fun, and her writing has really improved. HTH!

:001_smile: Just think about your future....all this tweaking now could mean a big payoff for you some day...you could make a lot of money with your own curriculum. :) I personally have not yet used either MFW or HOD, but do have MFW ECC and MFW CTG curriculum from a friend to look over. I have been putting together my own curriculum for the past few years, and while there are some things I really love that we are using (WWE, FLL, WT, etc), I am going to being using HOD for my kids in the fall, and I'm really excited about it. I have tried combining my kids for history 1st, 3rd, and 4th (similar in style to MFW) and I just always feel like no matter what I do, someone isn't getting what they need. So *for me*, HOD sounds like a breath of fresh air. No more lurking thoughts of whether or not I covered everything, or kicking myself at the end of the week, thinking that we missed this or that. But, that's me. I do not like to plan, I constantly second guess myself, and am really not all that creative. With 2 preschoolers in the mix, I need my olders to be doing some independent work, and I need to spend some focused time on the to-be 2nd grader. A major drawback for me with MFW is the amount of supplies needed and reliance on the book basket. Living overseas, neither of these things are an option as we have no Wal-mart, craft store, or library. As I looked at MFW, I just knew that a lot of the hands-on activities would never get done. As I look at the activities in HOD, they seem more do-able, less mom intensive, and just more simple overall. That's a plus for me. So, all that to say, I'm going with HOD for peace of mind. We'll see how it goes. :)

Faithe, You rock! 'Nuff said. :)

Loved this! So glad you talked yourself into it while sharing with all of us! :) I'll be anxious to hear how it goes for you.....

Thank you for sharing this! Now breathing a big sigh of relief.... :) I think keeping your kids together is a wonderful thing! I agree that Bigger books look amazing! I know any and all of my kids would LOVE those books.

Thanks! I had read that in the TWTM and had heard it on one of her audio lectures, so that does give me heart.

:iagree: After this thread I am excited to begin too!! Thanks for starting it, Keri!

Katrina, Regarding the hands-on, I think I will go ahead and have my kids do all of them unless there is something they *really* dislike. Having done Sonlight, LBC, and a year of my own concoction I welcome some simple hands-on that will reinforce the lesson and build important skills. I think it will be a great addition *for us*. :) Now, placement..... In the big, long HOD thread I am seeing several people saying they are putting their older kids in Bigger and Preparing and that made me start to question myself! I am planning to use CTC with my 4th grader and 5th grader this fall, and as I go back to the placement chart they fit very solidly in CTC, so I will stick with that. It makes me a little nervous thinking, "what do others know that I don't?" And, will they be totally overwhelmed? I don't know, but, again, as I look at the placement chart they do have all the skills listed and seem really ready to take on CTC. Having said that, the *one* area that gives me the tiniest little pause is R&S. I *think* their grammar skills are well in place. We have not done R&S up till now, so I am going to get R&S3 over the summer and make sure we are up to speed, and then they will both begin R&S4 which is scheduled in CTC in the fall. How to assess narration? Hmmm, good question. One that I don't have a good answer for, but I do think that *you* as the mom can see the progression with a particular child as they go along. That doesn't really help with placement though, sorry. :)

Could you please share with me why you are choosing Preparing over CTC for your 5th grader? I have a upcoming 5th grader and was planning to use CTC, but now I'm curious and want to think everything through.....:) :bigear: Thanks much!

:iagree:

It's funny that you would say that because just a few months ago on this board it felt like everyone was singing the praises of MFW and I personally felt really drawn to HOD. So, I took a deep breath and ordered HOD for next fall even though I felt all alone. All that to say, the winds always change, what "looks" popular today will not be popular tomorrow. If you are drawn to MFW then go for it! It is an amazing program, and so many people give it rave reviews. You know what will fit best for your family and know what draws you in. Keep that excitement over your original decision!! Like many of the other posters said, there are LOTS of people who use MFW and are thrilled with it! Just my $.02. :) Have a great day!