Heart of Dakota moms - Will you advise me??

[abrightmom]

:001_smile:

1. Do you find that HOD's placement chart is accurate?

2. Do you have any personal recommendations regarding placing a child or children? What has worked for you?

3. If you teach from multiple guides do you find this easier/better than trying to multi-teach one program? Any thoughts or recommendations here? I am leaning toward placing each child in a guide fit to their level. This is part of what draws me to using HOD for this family. I think multi-teaching won't work here.

4. Do you use DITHOR? At what age do you begin this? I was thinking 3rd or 4th would be preferable even though it's recommended to use in 2nd.

5. How much time do you invest in DITHOR weekly? Is it flexible enough that I could use it as desired rather than as scheduled?

6. Any pros and cons that you think would help me would be appreciated.

 

:001_smile: I think HOD looks wonderful and I'm interested in objective, helpful advice. I think the HOD forum is wonderful as well and find the ladies there to be lovely, helpful, etc. I'd love to hear from Donna and from Rebecca (TreeHouse Academy) because you two have really spoken to my heart in your reviews of HOD.

 

Thanks ladies!! :D

[Tidbits of Learning]

:001_smile:

1. Do you find that HOD's placement chart is accurate? yes and no. It depends on if your child has went to public or private school and how old they are when you are trying to place them. For example, my dd9 (at the time) seemed to fit into Preparing or CTC; but she had been in public school and had no clue about narrating and needed to really start in an earlier guide on the left side. What I find is that if your child has not done a CM style education then they will normally fit in one guide on the left, but another guide on the right.

2. Do you have any personal recommendations regarding placing a child or children? What has worked for you? My personal recommendation is to go to a convention or find someone where you can look at the guides and the appendix. I really recommend this in the younger grades as the sample weeks do not show the dictation and spelling and if you have been in a more rigorous LA program, then you will need something more.

3. If you teach from multiple guides do you find this easier/better than trying to multi-teach one program? Any thoughts or recommendations here? I am leaning toward placing each child in a guide fit to their level. This is part of what draws me to using HOD for this family. I think multi-teaching won't work here. I tried teaching from 3 guides last year and placing everyone where the placement chart leaned. This was a disaster for me and I felt like I was rushing and hurrying through one to work with another child. I couldn't really get a flow. Now that all of my bigger kids are reading and writing decent, I have placed them all in BLHFHG. Whereas during my failed attempt we had been doing LHTH, LHFHG, and BHFHG with one middle child 1/2 in LHFHG and 1/2 in BHFHG. With BLHFHG, we are using our own math and language arts levels and doing history and science together. Next year I will just be able to add the extensions and this will work out well through the rest of the guides.

If all of your children are in BHFHG and lower, then it will be really teacher intensive to use more than one guide as you are doing read alouds and there is not any independent work scheduled in those guides. I found it too stressful and felt stretched too thin.

With them all in the same history, science, poetry, Bible, and storytime; we are having great discussions and really getting to take our time and enjoy HOD.

4. Do you use DITHOR? No. We tried last year and it was overwhelming with more than one child at different levels while trying to work 3 different guides as well. At what age do you begin this? We tried it with my then dd8-3rd grade and dd9-4th grade last year. I was thinking 3rd or 4th would be preferable even though it's recommended to use in 2nd. There is no way that I would try it with my now 2nd grader.

5. How much time do you invest in DITHOR weekly? Is it flexible enough that I could use it as desired rather than as scheduled? I did not find it flexible and we really did not have time to do it proper as well as the guides we were already doing. There is a big kickoff thing and then you are listening to the child read aloud daily and then there are worksheets that are open ended so you have to have knowledge of all the books (these add up with more than 1 or 2 kids doing DITHOR). There is no answer key. You really have to evaluate their answers and discuss any reasons why they need to expand on an idea or maybe why their interpretation wasn't what the open ended questions were expecting. This of course can add up time wise with more than one child and more than one book at a time. It was not our cup of tea and we have since moved to using LLATL instead of HOD's LA suggestions.

6. Any pros and cons that you think would help me would be appreciated.

I think the pros of HOD is that you can make it work for you even if everything in it does not work for you. The cons is trying to find where to begin and trying to find a good fit for your dc and you as a teacher. I could not make HOD work for me last year b/c of my children coming out of ps and they were so different in skills and capabilities. This year though the children all can read and write and we can combine and make it work for us. So I think that HOD is great but sometimes doesn't fit seasons of our lives.

 

:001_smile: I think HOD looks wonderful and I'm interested in objective, helpful advice. I think the HOD forum is wonderful as well and find the ladies there to be lovely, helpful, etc. I'd love to hear from Donna and from Rebecca (TreeHouse Academy) because you two have really spoken to my heart in your reviews of HOD.

 

Thanks ladies!! :D

:001_smile:

Edited October 30, 2010 by OpenMinded

[Donna T.]

:001_smile:

1. Do you find that HOD's placement chart is accurate? Yes, I do. It was very helpful for me in placing my boys last year, which was our first year with HOD. I did go with a guide one level below where my youngest placed and we still had a great year, but it was light and he could have handled more.

2. Do you have any personal recommendations regarding placing a child or children? What has worked for you?The chart is great but you can also contact Carrie directly. I did that and she was very helpful.

3. If you teach from multiple guides do you find this easier/better than trying to multi-teach one program? I used two guides last year plus DITHOR. I really had no difficulties in doing so and was happy with the combo. For us, at that time, that was the best choice for us. My oldest son needed to grow in his independence and my younger son needed to have some focused time just between the two of us. In the end, it was really like teaching one program, the two blended together nicely. However, for this year, my children would have been going into two very different programs, one focused on early American History and the other on Ancient History. That's not what I wanted to do mostly because my oldest son has already had a ton of Ancient History. Long story short... teaching from two guides was near perfect for us for last year but I wasn't excited about doing it again this year. Any thoughts or recommendations here? I am leaning toward placing each child in a guide fit to their level. This is part of what draws me to using HOD for this family. I think multi-teaching won't work here. I think you will be happier with HOD if you place each child into a guide that fits them best. But, I do think multi-level teaching is possible with HOD as long as you are willing to adapt it some. HOD is very easy to teach, very open and go and highly structured. If you adapt it too much, you lose out on the ease of it all.

4. Do you use DITHOR? I used it last year but not as often as HOD recommended. A few times a week was enough for us to cover what I wanted to cover. At what age do you begin this? I was thinking 3rd or 4th would be preferable even though it's recommended to use in 2nd. I think 4th or 5th grade is a good time to start it. My younger son was a 2nd grader and he did some of it orally and enjoyed it but I just considered it an "extra" for him.

5. How much time do you invest in DITHOR weekly? I found it to be more time-consuming than I thought it would be. We spent maybe an hour and a half on it each week but I didn't do it everyday. Is it flexible enough that I could use it as desired rather than as scheduled? Yes. I personally couldn't do it as often as scheduled. I am using it this year but I am just doing one genre at a time and don't schedule it everyday or even every week. I do like it, very much, but for us using it everyday is just too much. 6. Any pros and cons that you think would help me would be appreciated.

 

:001_smile: I think HOD looks wonderful and I'm interested in objective, helpful advice. I think the HOD forum is wonderful as well and find the ladies there to be lovely, helpful, etc. I'd love to hear from Donna and from Rebecca (TreeHouse Academy) because you two have really spoken to my heart in your reviews of HOD.

 

Thanks ladies!! :D

 

I'll be glad to help with any further questions! I really love HOD but I couldn't use it with both of my sons this year. It was primarily my oldest son that needed something different. I think if I had started HOD with him earlier (he was a 5th grader when I found HOD) it would have been much better in the long run. Keeping him in HOD this year would have had him repeating too much content (history, science, Bible), though he certainly would have grown in his skills (writing, narrating). I do wish that weren't the case because he grew so much last year with HOD. I am trying to stick close to what HOD would have him doing this year skill wise, especially in writing so he may possibly go back to HOD in the future.

Edited October 30, 2010 by Donna T.

[Tabrett]

I think the grade placement is correct for math and LA. The rest of the guide can be used for the range of ages listed for that guide. If your dc is gifted, you may think the guide is too easy. My dc are average.;)

 

I use LHFHG with my 5 and 7 year old. My 5 year old does the entire guide. My 7 year old (just turned seven so she is a 1st grader) does the emerging readers, LA, spelling and math from Beyond.

 

My 7 yo gets more out of the LHFHG guide than my 5 yr old. My 7 yr old could have easily done Beyond, but I think she is learning just as much using LHFHG.

 

I like having my dc combined. I was going to do separated guides, but after buying both and looking through them, I decided to combine.:D

 

If all goes well with my dd's reading this year, I will start DITHOR next year for 2nd grade using the level 2 DITHOR package.

 

DITHOR can be used in 2nd, but I think it was designed to start in 3rd grade. The emerging readers are 2nd grade level books. I think the author of HOD intended for your phonics program to last 2 years, start emerging readers in 2nd then start DITHOR in 3rd. But, she gives you options knowing that dc's reading abilities between k-3rd grade are never "average";).

 

I keep looking at other curriculums because I am a curriculum junkie, but I can't seem to find anything that fits my dc as well as HOD.

 

HOD is the most balanced, well rounded program I have tried. You don't read too much or too little, you use living books. You will not spend hours on one subject. You can choose your own math and LA if you don't like HOD choices. It has music, art, crafts, hand-on activities and note-booking. It using copy-work and one of the strongest grammar programs available (R&S). You get to chose your style of handwriting. It also uses one of the strongest math programs available; Singapore.

[Guest mrsjamiesouth]

:001_smile:

1. Do you find that HOD's placement chart is accurate?

I think it is pretty accurate, but you have to honestly score your child where he is and not where you think he should be. I ended up putting my 5th grader in Preparing due to lack of writing skills.

2. Do you have any personal recommendations regarding placing a child or children? What has worked for you? I think you should look at the books and ask if your child can read or comprehend it if you are reading. I thought the books in CTC were a little too advanced for my ds. I went to the lower side with my ds6, using LHFHG. I think it is good to go slow and not rush him into the bigger guide.

3. If you teach from multiple guides do you find this easier/better than trying to multi-teach one program? Any thoughts or recommendations here? I am leaning toward placing each child in a guide fit to their level. This is part of what draws me to using HOD for this family. I think multi-teaching won't work here. I like having my boys totally seperate this year. Last year I tried to combine and there was competition and other issues with bugging each other while I tried to read. I think they are each getting my time and it works better this way, plus the older guides include quite a bit independent work. It is very easy to rotate their subjects so they are each working and I am helping one at a time.

4. Do you use DITHOR? At what age do you begin this? I was thinking 3rd or 4th would be preferable even though it's recommended to use in 2nd.

I agree that I will wait to start DITHOR in 3rd grade, I don't think my ds6 would be able to understand it all next year.

5. How much time do you invest in DITHOR weekly? Is it flexible enough that I could use it as desired rather than as scheduled? You could totally use it as desired. We are only using it 3 sometimes 4 days a week with ds10. The Preparing Guide just says do a lesson, it does not tell you what lesson to do so you won't feel behind. Also, we started with Realistic Fiction instead of Biography. I got a book from each category and asked which one he wanted to read first.

6. Any pros and cons that you think would help me would be appreciated.

I like all the hands-on projects and things. I also love that the Bible is incorporated into every subject. My only real con would be that the science is too light up to the CTC guide, and I wish there was more on artists and musicians.

!! :D

.

[Knittinfarmgirl]

1. Do you find that HOD's placement chart is accurate? I think it's pretty accurate.

2. Do you have any personal recommendations regarding placing a child or children? What has worked for you? I too found that the left side of the page can work well for a broader range of ages. The right side is more tailored to the ages listed.

3. If you teach from multiple guides do you find this easier/better than trying to multi-teach one program? Any thoughts or recommendations here? I am leaning toward placing each child in a guide fit to their level. This is part of what draws me to using HOD for this family. I think multi-teaching won't work here. I started out teaching from 2 guides, but have since decided to combine them into 1 guide for the left page activities and then teach them separately for the remainder.

4. Do you use DITHOR? At what age do you begin this? I was thinking 3rd or 4th would be preferable even though it's recommended to use in 2nd.

5. How much time do you invest in DITHOR weekly? Is it flexible enough that I could use it as desired rather than as scheduled? I felt like DITHOR would be too much for 2nd grade. IMO, I think 4th or even 5th would be a better time to begin with it. You could use it as desired rather than as scheduled. It'd just be up to you to decide on your own schedule.

6. Any pros and cons that you think would help me would be appreciated. I love being able to open and go with the lessons planned. I think the science is a bit light at times.

 

:) Hope this helps.

[abrightmom]

Ladies,

 

Thank-you for giving such detailed answers. :001_smile: I don't think there is any easy answer with 4 kids (or more for that matter!!). No matter what I look at it's just plain hard and busy and crazy!!

[birchbark]

This is our second year of using HoD, and I really like it.

 

1. Do you find that HOD's placement chart is accurate?

Yes.

 

2. Do you have any personal recommendations regarding placing a child or children? What has worked for you?

I think an important thing to understand is that HoD is skill-based, not content-based. In other words, you need to choose your program based on your child's skill level, not on what type of history you want him to be learning. (American, Ancients, etc.) Thus the need for a placement chart, and the limitations on how much you can combine ages. But you seem to understand this already.

 

3. If you teach from multiple guides do you find this easier/better than trying to multi-teach one program? Any thoughts or recommendations here? I am leaning toward placing each child in a guide fit to their level. This is part of what draws me to using HOD for this family. I think multi-teaching won't work here.

I think it really depends on your style. I'd suggest printing out samples from the programs you're interested in and trying it for a week. Personally, I don't think I could teach from more than two guides unless one of the students was able to be pretty independent in their guide. (Generally CTC and up.)

 

4. Do you use DITHOR?

I do not use it. It looks like a good program, and I considered it, but decided to go with a more classical approach to lit analysis, a la SWB. (No lit analysis in elementary grades.) I would rather use the time for something like Spanish. (We do casually discuss moral implications of books.)

 

At what age do you begin this?

Check out Carrie's comments here.

 

5. How much time do you invest in DITHOR weekly? Is it flexible enough that I could use it as desired rather than as scheduled?

N/A

 

6. Any pros and cons that you think would help me would be appreciated.

Pros: complete (includes music, poetry, easy hands-on stuff, art, narration, dictation, copywork), balanced, very biblical, strong in LA, great books, supportive forum, works toward independence. I love the box-style guide.

Cons: more teacher-intensive in earlier guides, science tends to be lighter in the earlier guides too.

Edited October 31, 2010 by birchbark

[abrightmom]

Ladies, thanks for answering my questions! Will you answer a few more?

 

1. Are you using HOD's scheduled language arts? If not, do you find that using your own choices works out? If you ARE using HOD's suggestions and plans then are you pleased? We are using Phonics Road but sometimes I wonder if the rigor (and the intensity for me) will be worth it all . . .

 

2. How does she teach writing? I think I understand that the process begins with narration, writing narrations . . . then I'm not sure. Is it like SWB's process laid out in WWE? I do see mention of creative writing in there which would deviate from what SWB proposes.

 

3. If you are combining your children in one program (content rather than skill - this would be the left side of the plans, right?) do you have any suggestions here? Do you find yourself modifying for the youngers? I guess I'm not seeing how this would work any different than using a multi-teaching type of curriculum like MFW then.

 

4. Donna, :001_smile: will you be going back to HOD with your oldest after you study American history? Do you think you'd combine your boys in one HOD guide if they were closer in age/grade?

 

That's all I can think of right now. Again, thank-you. I did purchase 3 guides used! :tongue_smilie: Soon I will be able to look through then from cover to cover and that may shed some light on this. If only I could get my hands on a Preparing Guide!! Those are hard to come by used! :D

[Tidbits of Learning]

Ladies, thanks for answering my questions! Will you answer a few more?

 

1. Are you using HOD's scheduled language arts? No. If not, do you find that using your own choices works out? Definitely. If you ARE using HOD's suggestions and plans then are you pleased? We are using Phonics Road but sometimes I wonder if the rigor (and the intensity for me) will be worth it all . . .

No, we are not. Our language arts skills were more advanced than the guides we needed for the narration and CM skills. We use LLATL and it works out great. It includes everything at the kids level making it easier for me to combine with HOD and not need more than one guide per child. Otherwise, I would be left side one guide/right side another guide for each child.

 

 

2. How does she teach writing? I think I understand that the process begins with narration, writing narrations . . . then I'm not sure. Is it like SWB's process laid out in WWE? I do see mention of creative writing in there which would deviate from what SWB proposes.

I have tried WWE and I believe the dictations in BHFHG are far simpler than the dictations in WWE. I believe if you start out from the beginning with HOD that this is less of a problem as you will have had a steady, relaxed progression. However, if you are used to a more rigorous LA then it will seem extremely light. My ds who started with LHFHG is doing well with the HOD spelling and language arts. My dd's who had been to public school were at a totally different place than the HOD guides concerning Language Arts.

 

3. If you are combining your children in one program (content rather than skill - this would be the left side of the plans, right?) do you have any suggestions here? Do you find yourself modifying for the youngers? I guess I'm not seeing how this would work any different than using a multi-teaching type of curriculum like MFW then.

I am combining in BLHFHG history, science, Bible, poetry, the left bottom activity box, and storytime. Essentially the left side plus story time. I do not find myself changing it much at all for my youngest. My children are all a year apart in age though. I think it may be different if your youngest is a bigger age gap from your oldest. My oldest and youngest school age kids are only 27 months apart. I have added Zoology I for science as my kids are 7, 9, and 10. I shouldn't have to next year with BHFHG b/c it has extensions for my 10 and 11 year old.

 

4. Donna, :001_smile: will you be going back to HOD with your oldest after you study American history? Do you think you'd combine your boys in one HOD guide if they were closer in age/grade?

 

That's all I can think of right now. Again, thank-you. I did purchase 3 guides used! :tongue_smilie: Soon I will be able to look through then from cover to cover and that may shed some light on this. If only I could get my hands on a Preparing Guide!! Those are hard to come by used! :D

:001_smile:

[Tabrett]

Ladies, thanks for answering my questions! Will you answer a few more?

 

1. Are you using HOD's scheduled language arts? If not, do you find that using your own choices works out? If you ARE using HOD's suggestions and plans then are you pleased? We are using Phonics Road but sometimes I wonder if the rigor (and the intensity for me) will be worth it all . . .

I use HOD's choices. One reason I like HOD is because it is balanced. I know this is repetitive, but sometimes when you pick a program for each individual subject, you overload the work level. If you choose a separate spelling and LA program, both may teach alphabetizing. If you are writing a paper in history, do you really need to write another paper in LA that week?

2. How does she teach writing? In Beyond, students do LA on Fridays. You work on things like- what makes an exclamatory sentence. You do oral work then your child dictates to you an exclamatory sentence, then copies what you dictated for them. This also happens in spelling. For the words they are having problems with, they dictate to you a sentence using the word, then copy the sentence they dictated to you. The way HOD starts to teach writting is "hidden" in the LA and spelling-no repetative work overload:D. You are also doing daily copywork and spelling. I think I understand that the process begins with narration, writing narrations . . . then I'm not sure. Actually it starts with narrating sentences then copying your sentence.Is it like SWB's process laid out in WWE? It is there, just more organically intertwined in the curriculum instead of being a stand alone program. Dc narrate from the books you are reading to your dc. In WWE, you are narrating from a passage that you read to your dc out of the WWE text book, not from a book you are reading to them and the passages in WWE don't have anything to do with what they are learning in school. HOD will have you narrate from actual subject matter your dc are learning. You narrate from your science, and history lessons. If you read WTM it is more like what SWB actually says to do. I do see mention of creative writing in there which would deviate from what SWB proposes. Yes that is true, you could leave out the creative writing part if you wish. All educators are going to have slightly different opinions. It doesn't make it bad, just different in what one deems important.

 

3. If you are combining your children in one program (content rather than skill - this would be the left side of the plans, right?) Yes and no. do you have any suggestions here? I don't think you could put all 4 of your dc in one guide. If that is what you are wanting to do, you might want to stick with MFW. Even with MFW you can't properly do that until you youngest is in 2nd grade. Do you find yourself modifying for the youngers? I guess I'm not seeing how this would work any different than using a multi-teaching type of curriculum like MFW then. MFW has modified activities already written in the guide, HOD does not. I think dc who do not fall in the age range for the left side of the HOD guide would miss out a lot. HOD picks book that the dc in the correct age range can comprehend. It does not have optional book for younger dc like MFW. Most of the time when you have a curriculum that is used for a large age span there are optional book and activities for each level. HOD does not have this. Honestly, you would be almost writing your own curriculum if you tried to used the left side guide with all you dc.

 

4. Donna, :001_smile: will you be going back to HOD with your oldest after you study American history? Do you think you'd combine your boys in one HOD guide if they were closer in age/grade?

 

That's all I can think of right now. Again, thank-you. I did purchase 3 guides used! :tongue_smilie: Soon I will be able to look through then from cover to cover and that may shed some light on this. If only I could get my hands on a Preparing Guide!! Those are hard to come by used! :D

 

TOG and Biblioplan teach the same history for all grades, but if you will look at their sample lessons, you will find that each level in TOG and BP have separate books and activities for each level. As much as I would love to keep all 3 of my little ones together, I could not do it with HOD. I will keep my 7 and 5 year old together (they are 18 months apart) and my 3 yo (when he starts school) will do his own guide. That way I will only do 2 guides at a time.

 

If you want to keep all you dc learning the same things in Bible, Science and History, you might want to look at individual subjects that teach multi level. Biblioplan teaches History, Bible and has writing assignments on a multi level. If you use the SOTW AG, it has multi level activities. :D

Edited October 31, 2010 by Tabrett

[Michelle My Bell]

:001_smile:

1. Do you find that HOD's placement chart is accurate? Yes for the most part. Maybe it is easier to some degree. It depends on the child.

2. Do you have any personal recommendations regarding placing a child or children? What has worked for you? I didn't like the younger programs but we LOVE the older ones. My daughter in 7th grade has worked independently in the guides for two years.

3. If you teach from multiple guides do you find this easier/better than trying to multi-teach one program? Any thoughts or recommendations here? I am leaning toward placing each child in a guide fit to their level. This is part of what draws me to using HOD for this family. I think multi-teaching won't work here. I tried that last year and got burned out. My daughter finished the program on her own and is doing much better. I prefer focusing on Math/Reading in the younger grades and having History and Science as nice extras. My younger ones now use Tapestry of Grace, but again it is not my main focus.

4. Do you use DITHOR? At what age do you begin this? I was thinking 3rd or 4th would be preferable even though it's recommended to use in 2nd. I used it but didn't stick with it. I don't think it was profitable enough for the amount of time it took.

5. How much time do you invest in DITHOR weekly? Is it flexible enough that I could use it as desired rather than as scheduled? See above.

6. Any pros and cons that you think would help me would be appreciated. My philosophy slants it but, if your kids are younger HOD is not going to give them enough in Math and Language Arts. If they are older, they can work independently through the guides.

 

:001_smile: I think HOD looks wonderful and I'm interested in objective, helpful advice. I think the HOD forum is wonderful as well and find the ladies there to be lovely, helpful, etc. I'd love to hear from Donna and from Rebecca (TreeHouse Academy) because you two have really spoken to my heart in your reviews of HOD.

 

Thanks ladies!! :D

 

Entered in bold above.

[Donna T.]

Ladies, thanks for answering my questions! Will you answer a few more?

 

1. Are you using HOD's scheduled language arts? Yes, mostly. My son who is using Sonlight still uses HOD recommendations for LA. If not, do you find that using your own choices works out? You can use anything you want to use but you may find that some things are duplicated in the HOD manual. For example, HOD schedules copywork and dictation so you may not want to add another product that just adds more of that. If you ARE using HOD's suggestions and plans then are you pleased? Yes. We are using Phonics Road but sometimes I wonder if the rigor (and the intensity for me) will be worth it all . . .

 

2. How does she teach writing? I think I understand that the process begins with narration, writing narrations . . . then I'm not sure. Is it like SWB's process laid out in WWE? I do see mention of creative writing in there which would deviate from what SWB proposes. Oral and written narrations will always be the bulk of your LA requirements with HOD. Carrie has written about that on their board. You may want to search for some of her previous posts. Each guide builds on the next. After written narrations, you move into outlining and then longer narrations. Creative writing is included in the guides but it's not heavy.

 

3. If you are combining your children in one program (content rather than skill - this would be the left side of the plans, right?) do you have any suggestions here? Do you find yourself modifying for the youngers? I guess I'm not seeing how this would work any different than using a multi-teaching type of curriculum like MFW then.

 

4. Donna, :001_smile: will you be going back to HOD with your oldest after you study American history? Honestly, I don't know yet. It depends alot on what the next guide that they put out looks like and whether or not it could be adapted for a 9th grader. I believe the new guide will be available for review next spring, so it may be the summer before I make a final decision. Right now, our plan is to do My Father's World for High School, so as we move closer to that time for him, I'll be taking that into consideration. I'm hoping HOD will have their own high school line up eventually. I believe they will but it may not be in time to help me out with my oldest son. I have been planning to do HOD with him next year but I can't be absolutely sure yet. Do you think you'd combine your boys in one HOD guide if they were closer in age/grade? Yes, if it really met both of their needs to do that but I wouldn't do it just to make my life easier. If it were really, really important to me to use one guide with both of them (not taking a high schooler in the mix into consideration), I would just use My Father's World unless HOD had a guide that would truly fit both of them well.

 

That's all I can think of right now. Again, thank-you. I did purchase 3 guides used! :tongue_smilie: Soon I will be able to look through then from cover to cover and that may shed some light on this. If only I could get my hands on a Preparing Guide!! Preparing is awesome. I loved it. Those are hard to come by used! :D

 

:001_smile:

Edited November 1, 2010 by Donna T.

[Tidbits of Learning]

I wanted to add that since we chose to use LLATL and it does have grammar, reading, vocabulary, spelling, writing mechanics, poetry, research, and creative writing that we do not duplicate them with HOD's dictation, copywork, DITHOR...We simply use LLATL instead at each child's level in order to be able to combine them on the left side of the guides. It is very easy to simply ignore the language arts box and still feel happy with our choice to use HOD and substitute LLATL for Language Arts.

[janie_ranae]

We are using the BHFHG (8ds & 6dd). I also have a 3ds who I think will eventually be in a separate level. It has not been a problem to combine the oldest two. I create the science notebooking pages on the computer and print those to decrease the amount of writing. We are currently in week 7 and they can already handle a lot more writing than at the start of the school year.

 

Sometimes the book asks the student to draw a few items, and I just ask my dd6 to draw 3 instead of 5 like her older brother. There have been a few other times where I have adapted a task for her.

 

I have my dd6 doing R&S 2 (instead of 3). We are using Horizons math, so dd6 does grade 2 and ds8 is working through grade 3. My ds8 is doing DITHOR and my dd6 is doing the CLE Reading grade 2. Sometimes I'll do the writing for my son, depending on the amount that has already happened. I really appreciate the way Carrie has set up the manual to cover the different genres. I have adapted both DITHOR and BHFHG at times to make the curriculum work for us.

 

Teaching them together has been great for some things, but it is also nice that they have some subjects they can work on independently. We are working with a situation where ds tries to make dd laugh, and there goes the concentration. :tongue_smilie: It makes the independent work a nice change.

 

I love the Biblical focus and love, love, love the easy open-and-go style with short lessons.

 

It takes us about 3 hours to complete one day. We are also working on a bees lapbook, and will continue to work on science based lapbooks throughout the year on whichever topic the children are interested in at that time.

 

All the best as you decide which curriculum to use! Fun to look, tough to decide :)

[abrightmom]

:grouphug: Thank-you for answering my questions in detail! This is the kind of information I have been needing and I've much to chew on. Boy oh boy!! Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you!! :001_smile:

[doubleportionofarrows]

We recently switched from MFW to HOD. We were using CTG from MFW. We have used MFW ADV, ECC and 19 weeks of CTG. We are using HOD PHFHG. I switched from MFW because I was feeling like I had to modify too much in CTG to fit my child's needs and keep it age appropriate. We loved ECC and ADV. I didn't have to change much for those years and used everything MFW recommended. We still use Singapore Math. I dropped SP when we switched to HOD since Spelling is included in the guide. I bought DITHOR used but have not started it yet. The TM are laid out differently, so it took me about a week to get used to the change. I wrote out a check list of subjects correlating to the box title in the HOD Guide and check that off each day instead of writing in my guide. I did like somethings about MFW more than HOD. But for now HOD is a better fit for us where we are. We may go back to MFW in the future. But that remains to be seen at this point. Feel free to email me if you would like about it.

 

Ladies, thanks for answering my questions! Will you answer a few more?

 

1. Are you using HOD's scheduled language arts? If not, do you find that using your own choices works out? If you ARE using HOD's suggestions and plans then are you pleased? We are using Phonics Road but sometimes I wonder if the rigor (and the intensity for me) will be worth it all . . . We switched to HOD recommendations and have been pleased with them. We were using ILL which I did like. We are now using R&S. The dictation, spelling, and vocabulary are included in the guide and along with the R&S(which is what HOD recommends) I feel it is enough for LA.

 

2. How does she teach writing? I think I understand that the process begins with narration, writing narrations . . . then I'm not sure. Is it like SWB's process laid out in WWE? I do see mention of creative writing in there which would deviate from what SWB proposes. Writing is taught through narration, written narration, dictation, R&S and in Preparing through the Poetry study.

 

3. If you are combining your children in one program (content rather than skill - this would be the left side of the plans, right?) do you have any suggestions here? Do you find yourself modifying for the youngers? I guess I'm not seeing how this would work any different than using a multi-teaching type of curriculum like MFW then. I am teaching two right now but they are far apart in age. We are using LHTH and PHFHG

 

4. Donna, :001_smile: will you be going back to HOD with your oldest after you study American history? Do you think you'd combine your boys in one HOD guide if they were closer in age/grade?

 

That's all I can think of right now. Again, thank-you. I did purchase 3 guides used! :tongue_smilie: Soon I will be able to look through then from cover to cover and that may shed some light on this. If only I could get my hands on a Preparing Guide!! I'd be happy to answer any questions you have about Preparing. Those are hard to come by used! :D