HOD PHFHG & CTC....insight

[MrsMe]

Just some background, we did Beyond. I loved it, although I'd say that the pilgrims journey from England to Jamestown, was way too long. 13 weeks. UGH. I couldn't handle anymore Pilgrims so we dropped it. I finished out the rest of the year with MFW Adventures and some of the tail end of Beyond.

 

I ordered Bigger and it looked like a repetion of Beyond and sold it. I am so sick of American History, but I'm sort of sick of it.

 

So I don't know why, but I keep eyeing HOD, but fear the redundancy that Beyond and Bigger had. When I ordered Bigger I saw some of the same old activity-ish stuff from Beyond. I just couldn't do it. On to PHFHG & CTC.

 

Do these two programs have the same redundancy? Activities? They look like such good Biblical history programs, but I fear dry spines. I didn't care for CLP's books in Beyond. And I know that if you post a question on HOD's site, they want you to try to get through it. I don't think we should try to muddle through, so my questions are;

 

1) being the one mentioned above; do those two programs have the same redundancy as far as projects like Beyond & Bigger? I'm over the masking tape already and the globe activity, KWIM?

 

2) Are any of the main books dry? A big thing was that we hated "Stories of the Pilgrims" and just could really substitute anything else, because it was in story form. Nor could I find anything to substitute on my own. We liked Pioneer and Patriots and pretty much completed that book.

 

So how are these programs in comparison? They look like great biblical content, but I fear the same issues as the previous two. Help? I think the content is there, but the redundancy scares me and so does the dry choices. Books may be great literature but really, some just don't keep the kids interested, KWIM?

[Guest aquiverfull]

:lurk5:

 

Sorry,I won't be of any help to you. I've been considering doing CTC, because I like some of the activities I've seen in the samples. But the books are making me rethink. I looked at the two online samples of the Ellwood books and thought they were dry. I figured I'd just read it to my dd, but then I read a post on the HOD forums that those were meant to be read by the child and were not good as read alouds. It was a post by the author herself, stating that the effect of the program would not be the same if the child didn't read them themselves. So that has me rethinking.

 

My other alternative would be to pick a spine like MOH, add in some others like Miller's Story of the Greeks, etc. But I keep thinking maybe there would be better activities in HOD CTC. You know stuff that I wouldn't come up with on my own. After reading what you wrote though, maybe not.

 

The problem with me is that I always end up going with a full program for history and in the end tweak it so much that it has made the purchase of the Teacher's guide almost useless. When I drop this or that, it leaves very little left to do. Maybe that's where you were at too.

 

I hope you get some good feedback. Good luck. :)

[i.love.lucy]

I don't know how much help I'll be, but I'll try. I started with Bigger, so I don't have any insight into redundancy with Beyond. Frankly I hadn't heard that before. I know they both cover American History, but Bigger is a little different fromBeyone (in my understanding) because it covers the history from a biographical approach. So the whole year we were reading stories about great Americans and it was pretty engaging. We liked it a lot and I felt like a lot of the other projects were right on target skill-wise.

 

New we are using Preparing and looking forward to using CTC next year. I don't see how there could be redundancy at all. Preparing is a sweep through history, so we are only touching on the highlights. CTC will go really deep into ancients. I am loving this year. I too got a little bored with American History, but part of that is just me. I prefer other periods in history better. I absolutely can't wait for next year to get to ancients! Really, RTR will wind up being my favorite!

 

Also, remember that the key to HoD is not so much the history cycle, although that is important as Carrie does like to save more mature content for the more mature. No, the key is the way the guides build on the skills of the previous guide. Not to say you can't pick one up and do it, but the beauty is in doing them each year in sequence and seeing how the writing, research, project, science, timeline, geography etc, skills all build up to more and more independence. I am loving that. And I have yet to find a "prepared" curriculum that weaves in the bible the way HoD does. And I have always really liked the book choices.

 

Not sure what else I can say that would help. Maybe you're just not a complete curriculum kinda person. If so, I could totally see how you would think much of it was wasteful. I hope you find what you are looking for!!:)

[kdeno]

I liked Bigger quite well but I was tired of American History by the end of the year after completing Bigger and Beyond. Preparing has been very refreshing this year. I am not positive that I will use CTG next year as I want to combine all my children for some subs but it is the front runner for now.

 

Kari

[HollyinNNV]

I'm probably not going to be a ton of help, but here's my perspective. I did Bigger, and I'm now doing Preparing. I haven't come across one dry book yet. I've liked all of them. So, maybe we don't have the same taste in books. :001_smile:

 

I, like you, am wondering about doing ancients in CTC. We've just completed a good bit of ancients in Preparing. I am not sure *I* want to do the ancient thing again. But, if you ask my son, he is totally fine with the idea. And, I do believe that he will catch a lot more the second time around. So, my plan is to try CTC because my ds has absolutely thrived with HOD.

 

Holly

[LynnG in Arizona]

 

 

 

The problem with me is that I always end up going with a full program for history and in the end tweak it so much that it has made the purchase of the Teacher's guide almost useless. When I drop this or that, it leaves very little left to do. Maybe that's where you were at too.

 

 

Boy . . . I could have written this paragraph. I really, really would love to spend more time teaching and implementing and less time planning and researching. But I just can't seem to find a complete program that I'm happy with.

 

I finally broke down and got HOD's LHTH, their preschool program. There are parts of it that I love, and parts of it that I just can't stand (mostly the rhymes, finger plays, and play acting). I know these are the best part of the program for some moms, but they're really not my cup of tea.

 

Now I'm trying to decide whether to continue with HOD or not. 13 weeks spent on the Pilgrims sounds rather grim, frankly. ;) But in fairness, I really do appreciate many aspects of HOD; the guides prompt me to do certain art/supplemental projects with my little ones that I would never otherwise think to do. Sigh. If only I could find the "perfect" program.

[MrsMe]

Boy . . . I could have written this paragraph. I really, really would love to spend more time teaching and implementing and less time planning and researching. But I just can't seem to find a complete program that I'm happy with.

 

I finally broke down and got HOD's LHTH, their preschool program. There are parts of it that I love, and parts of it that I just can't stand (mostly the rhymes, finger plays, and play acting). I know these are the best part of the program for some moms, but they're really not my cup of tea.

 

Sigh. If only I could find the "perfect" program.

 

And I could have written this!

[Donna T.]

We're using Preparing this year. We have covered much of the material in the past with another curriculum. We had already read A Child's History of the World and quite a few of the other books. For that reason, I was kind of hesitant about doing Preparing instead of CtC but I knew my son needed a year to work toward further independence before going into CtC and I wanted him to use some of the books in the CtC extension package (so wanted him to be alittle older). It just made sense for us to start with Preparing, so we did. I have absolutely loved it. He likes it very much also.

 

We have enjoyed all of the books in Preparing. We got a slow start so we are only just now studying the Romans. I guess CtC will repeat some of this early content but we are about to move on with Preparing so I think by the time we get to CtC it won't seem so fresh. I don't know how redundant the activities will be. This isn't a big deal for us because we aren't big into activities anyways. I'm looking forward to the notebooking in CtC and the prophecy study. For us, the activities are optional and that alone would not influence me in making a choice about using the program. We are definately going to use it. I've seen most of the books and I like all of them. I do not consider them to be dry and even if they were, we are still doing it :). There are a ton of books when you do all of them. With Preparing, my son is doing all of the books from all of the various packages, including the extension books. I expect to find a few that are "dry" but really, so far, we haven't.

 

My youngest son is in Little Hearts. I feel some concern about Beyond Little Hearts because frankly, I am not a fan of the pilgrims (if by pilgrims we mean the Puritans, I know they were only a part of that picture). I used Adventures in MFW with my oldest and we ended up stretching it out for about 18 months. I thought a one year overview of American History was just too skimpy, even for a 2nd grader. We wanted more books and so it just took us awhile to get through. I also have "issues" (theological issues) with Christian Liberty Press, so I'm not excited about those spines BUT we're probably going to do it anyways and I'll just include alot of living (historical) books. I personally love the other books that are in Beyond and I'm looking forward to re-reading some of those storytime titles with my youngest son. I've already read most of them to my oldest and I really like them.

 

I can't wait to get to Bigger Hearts. I have everything with all the books for that program. I love them. We won't think they are dry. I'm pretty sure about that. I think I'm going to condense Beyond as much as possible which shouldn't be a problem for us because my son is on the older side for the guides.

 

Sorry. No suggestions. I just know I wouldn't not use HOD just because the activities may be redundant. Activities just aren't that important to us. We do them (mostly) but I wouldn't make a curriculum choice based on that. HOD isn't an activity based curriculum. It's a literature based curriculum that includes activities. As for the interest factor of the spines, I like them and really by the time you are in Preparing you are reading so many different books, I just can't see a few "dry" ones being a problem.