Adapting HOD to fit YOUR crew - do you do this?

[abrightmom]

Do you use HOD but use it YOUR way? Do you defy the placement chart? Tweak a subject? Drop a box altogether? If you do any of these naughty things :D will you share why?

[MelissaMinNC]

Obviously, I can't answer this. ;)

 

But I just wanted to say "Hi!" I was JUST thinking about you. I hope you are finding PEACE in your search/journey/thoughts/plans. :D

[Michelle My Bell]

My adaptation was to drop it for my younger ones and just have my 2nd oldest work in it independently. She loves it. It is worth it to us. I can't wait to use the Rev to Rev guide with my younger girls when we get there.

[MamaHappy]

I'm not a huge tweaker, but I'm working on it. :) I recently dropped DITHOR and we just do our own thing for reading. I've tweaked the Storytime box in Bigger quite a bit...I read most of the book recommendations, but I don't do any of the lit analysis stuff. I do do the narrations though. Hmmm...what else....I think that's pretty much it. I'm hoping to become more of a tweaker as I go because I tend to feel "boxed in" with HOD sometimes. :)

[Tabrett]

I tried. Tweeked it until it s no more.:lol: Maybe I just liked LHFHG better than BLHFHG. I couldn't take Hide'em in Your Heart 2 years in a row. I need a 4 day schedule. Didn't like the devotional or science. SM didn't work for my dc. Ect... and so on. By the time I was done, the only thing left was the history readings.:confused:

 

My dc will be old enough to start using a level in MFW, that allows you to combine your dc, next year.:D

[Alison in KY]

I tweaked Beyond. I combined a 10, 8 and 6 year old in it. I didn't like the singing cd at all, and I just combined mine for history and some science and ignored everything else.

 

I tried CTC for awhile, attempting all of it as written. I wound up dropping the art, doing spelling my way, and not liking the beechik book. I eventually just had my son read the more interesting books and ignored the TM.

 

Alison

[Joyofsixreboot]

Sort of. I didn't think of it as tweaking but I guess it is. We use CLE LA and math. I don't use DITHOR. I add some science stuff. I use WWE (in a tweaked form, LOL). I don't like hymns so we skip that. But for me this is pretty close to following a curriculum.

Edited November 18, 2011 by joyofsix

[raceNzanesmom]

I use a different math because we'd already started MUS when we switched to HOD. MUS works great for ds, so I didn't feel the need to change it. We loosely use the CD- he usually listens during playtime. Otherwise, it works for us so I leave it alone.

[lotsofpumpkins]

We don't use DITHOR. Instead, they read silently (10 min. Bible reading, a lesson from their R&S Reader (without the workbooks), and at least 30 minutes from approved literature). We also do not use HOD's phonics recommendations, but my 1st grader will use the Emerging Reader's schedule once he is ready for it.

 

We also use CLE for math instead of Singapore. We supplement with Singapore's CWP though.

 

Other than that, we are following HOD pretty much as written (Preparing and Beyond; I do end up skipping some of LHTH sometimes). I must say, we are much more content with HOD this time around; in the past I was only using parts of the program and ended up dropping it because I figured I could do just fine on my own. Well, I'm much happier following HOD as written than I was just trying to do things on my own, and my dc are happy too.

[mom2jjka]

Do you use HOD but use it YOUR way? Do you defy the placement chart? Tweak a subject? Drop a box altogether? If you do any of these naughty things :D will you share why?

 

um....all of the above :blushing:

 

 

I have combined my 6 & 8 year old in Beyond this year.

The 6 yr old placed firmly in LHFHG, but I really do not care for the Burgess books, and I wanted to combine the girls and have them work together.

The younger is more of a 'tag-a-long', but she seems to be enjoying it.

 

We have added things, (CLE Bible, R&S English, ACE science);

dropped things, (Morning Bells:tongue_smilie:);

and done things our own way, (I have the kids illustrate the poems, but not copy them.)

 

It works for us. :D

[Evergreen Academy]

We're using CTC with two ds11 and CTC with extensions for ds14. Lots of tweaking but it works for us. Here's what we do:

 

History: we do the history as written for all, but I read aloud a chapter of CHOW or Oxford First Ancient History from time to time, as I feel is appropriate.

 

Reading: we're using a mixture of their storytime and independent reading suggestions, along with Sonlight and Ambleside Online recs, so it is rather eclectic and working nicely that way. No DITHOR for me, wouldn't work with my philosophy of ed.

 

LA: we're using R&S for the ds11s, along with Intermediate Language Lessons subbing in for their writing program. I don't love the Apologia book, and we studied the same topic indepth a few years ago, so we've subbed in AO's Storybook of Science with oral narrations for the first few months of the school year, and we'll pick up with HOD's suggestions when they're done scheduling the Apologia book. DS14 has his own science program (Apologia Biology).

 

Math: each boy has their own math program, with the youngers using CLE and the older doing Saxon Algebra II.

 

Poetry: they all do the poetry memorization, copywork and study, but we skip the watercolor lessons.

 

Projects: we do the ones that seem non-twaddly and have some value as a handicraft, and skip others.

 

Geography and Independent Bible: as written.

 

Beechick book: not loving it, sometimes skip it.

 

We add in: weekly picture study, weekly poet-teas, weekly co-op classes.

 

Doing it this way has really freed me to teach them the way I feel is best, yet is giving us all the structure of a schedule. I am finally able to remember that the guide is a tool, and I am in charge - it works so much better that way! The kids are really enjoying it and I pray they continue to, as the year progresses.

[hopeallgoeswell]

Hello! I know you saw how I HOD on the other thread, but I thought I would post here as well for those who did not see it.

 

In short, we love HOD and all of Carrie's wonderful choices, but we do tweak it until it fits our needs.

 

We used HOD BHFHG history last year in a co-op setting with K-5th grade. We are using HOD PHFHG history this year in co-op for 3rd-8th (there is one 1st grader in with her big brother). We use the history readings, projects, research, geography, and timelines in class. I put some steroids into the Independent History Study for my 3-5 class by adding books with assignments to go along with them (mostly from http://www.homeschoolshare.com). The older kids have a few weeks where their projects are different from ours, their lit. books are at their level, and they do more mapping than the 3-5 crowd. It has worked well for the 20 or so kids in our co-op.

 

I used the Bigger guide last year and dd was on a different Singapore level than the guide, Apologia instead of Bigger science, subbed FLL for R&S, used WWE 2 textbook with Bigger history reading assignments, and pulled from Sonlight, TWTM, and Ambleside Online for literature. DD did SSL and a composer/artist study put together by me as add-ons. We did everything else as written.

 

This year with Preparing, we are subbing R&S Bible 4 for HOD Bible, FLL3 for R&S, WWE3 textbook with HOD history readings, Sonlight, TWTM, and Ambleside Online instead of HOD literature, and Apologia for HOD science. I am using only some of the story time choices. DD is on a different schedule with Singapore. I added MtM and LfCA to the guide. Everything else is being done as written.

 

 

So, do I use it my way? Most definitely. Is it working for us? Absolutely. Will tweaking work for all? Probably not. I love the framework HOD and TWTM give me and I can easily marry the two!

[hmschooling]

I tweak some with having oldest do more independent and such. Nt doing DITHOR as scheduled in the guide and now using standards edition of Singapore instead of US. I have used a different phonics and I my son has kept going happily in his reading for emerging readers, I let him do a couple days of reading. I did defy placement a bit and regretted it...we lost time for the oldest and frustrated the younger. I've moved her up and dropped him back and all is well again...and doing two guides is taking way less time and way less stress than the combining!

HOD as intended simply works so incredibly well for us...so that's just pretty much how we do it. When I tweak as I'm prone to do it just doesn't work as well. I do prefer the levels from bigger up over the prior two levels...LHTH is great though. I'm especially find of guides from Preparing up way more than younger ones.

[JessReplanted]

I seem to do a lot of tweaking.

 

My girls (4 & 5) use Little Hearts & my son (8) uses Preparing.

 

We all have devotions together in the morning using the Bible/Devotional from LH.

And then we read from a 'fun' read aloud which I add in (right now it is The City of Ember).

 

For LH:

We do all of the verses and also do the rhymes. We don't always do all of the activities (dramatic play, math...) I think we would probably do those things more often if I didn't feel so bogged down with my 8 year old.

 

I do NOT like the Burgess books, but we are still using them. My kids have such a hard time following the stories, and I personally think they are boring.

 

I also add in more crafts. My kids love crafts.

 

For Preparing:

I have had to slow it way down for my son (3rd grade). It takes us at least 2 days to get through a 'day' - but we still do math and language daily.

I also switched from Singapore math to CLE.

I also had to add in a cursive handwriting book, which he has finished now.

We also don't use DITHOR - I just have him do a lot of independent reading & complete mini book reviews.

We use the poems.

We memorize the verses.

We don't use the cheesy music. ;)

[abrightmom]

Ladies,

 

Thanks for sharing so much! It is inspiring as I'm pondering where we might fit as a family. I'm not good at tweaking but I want to be :D.

 

MELISSA,

 

:001_smile:I will email you! Thanks for thinking of me and for saying hi! :001_smile:

[Joyoflearning]

Using little hearts for his glory I tweak quite a bit.

I use Phonics Road for LA, Rightstart and Singapore (ahead of the guide) for Math. DD memorizes the verses but we don't usually listen to the cds anymore. We do a different devotional most of the time. We do the history as written along with the Science/ art / drama to reinforce and read the suggested books in the back of the guide. However, we supplement Science and Art quite a bit outside of what we do in HOD. My daughter likes the burgess books so we continue to read those, but we've been doing other continuous read-alouds at the same time.

 

DD currently places firmly in Beyond (other than age) but we are going to wait until this next year to start. I plan to tweak it a bit too following the idea of HUFI by doing both American history and the 4 year history cycle stating with Ancients. We will be doing CC cycle 1 and I will read SOTW at home along with doing Beyond. Beyond-I plan to use a different devotional and continue with my current Math and LA choices. I may test her on HOD spelling words as more of a review, but I'm not sure if that's necessary. I plan to do HOD poetry and story time and add in extra reading choices from HUFI and AO. We will continue to learn the Bible verses unless it becomes too much with AWANAS and CC (then we would cut out HOD verses). We'll continue to do Science/ Art with HOD to reinforce the History and we would probably supplement with Art and Science with CC and 4H. These are my plans for now, but I have a lot of time to stress over this and change my mind. :tongue_smilie:

[KeriJ]

We tweak! I try to remember that it is a guide, not a Bible. It is there to guide me, but not necessarily make all of my decisions for me.

 

I have combined my 6 yr old and 8 yr old into Beyond. I have my 6 yr old do it mostly as written. But I am having her do a penmanship book instead of the copywork. My 8 year old does 3rd grade math, grammar, spelling and a cursive book.

 

Together we do the Scripture song for the unit, but not necessarily the devotional. We do the history reading and whatever the activity is. My 4 year old even does the activities with us. We do poetry together, and storytime together.

 

We don't do every craft or activity listed if I don't feel like it will be a great benefit to us. We also don't do all of the storytime suggestions as written. We just talk through it on our own.

 

I purchased the Bigger guide, to get an idea of how my older dd's day would go at that level to give me something in mind when planning how to beef up Beyond for her. I also plan to have her work through an Apologia book semi-independently after Christmas.

 

So far, so good! HOD helps me make sure I'm covering most areas, but I don't feel like I have to do everything that's there. It's working for us!

[Tidbits of Learning]

We have both tweaked and used it as written. Last year I tried to combine multiple grade levels by an age range. It did not work well. I had added in Apologia science and used LLATL per grade level. It really made things more complex since LLATL basically eliminated the need for HOD's Language Arts and it took a lot of my time.

This year we are using R&S Math for my youngers and Calvert Math 6 (pre-algebra) for my oldest. It does add to my day, but it isn't the end of the world as I feel math needs a strong foundation and plenty of practice. Singapore Math did not work well for us. My kindergartener is using Singapore Essential Math K (not the earlybird series). He will transition into R&S Math 1 next year. We are using R&S Math for 1st-5th, then Calvert for 6th-8th including Algebra. I have no idea what we will use for high school. I am holding out hope that in 2 years Calvert will have their high school program up and running and we can continue with their math.

For my girls in CTC, I add in Calvert's Ancient History for 6th grade (Houghton Mifflins-A Message of Ancient Days). We chose to add this instead of the extensions. They do the rest as written besides Math. I did feel that CTC is heavy in ancients from a Biblical history POV and we are not young earth so this book really helps. It has a timeline that we can reference when HOD says to omit a date if you aren't young earth. LHFHG has a strong element of Biblical history as well. I do not see this as much in BLHFHG and BHFHG. I think it is the ancient time periods that really feels like it focuses primarily on history from a Biblical pov and does not delve into the non-christian cultures in great depth. I really enjoyed studying those time periods in college and feel that my 5th and 6th grader are not too young to hear about those cultures in a more in-depth study.

My 4.5 yr old is doing LHFHG for kindergarten. We use Reading Eggs for his reading instead of the suggestions. He will do The Reading Lesson next year for 1st grade. He will either move to BLHFHG for 1st grade and add in the 1st grade Thinking Skills from LHFHG or we will do LHFHG again with the 1st grade options and a Houghton Mifflin 1st grade social studies book instead of going back through the history. He was ready for more than LHTH this year, but I don't want to rush him into BLHFHG too young. I am not a fan of going half speed either.

R&S English is very thorough, but I am leaning towards changing to GUM grammar by Zaner Bloser next year. I used it previously and feel that it is very thorough. I also plan to add in Sequential Spelling after the 2 lists from HOD. I find dictation is alright, but it is not really correcting our spelling issues. Especially with my older dc who started later with dictation.

I love the foundation of HOD, but I am not sure whether all of it works for my dc to improve their weaknesses. So we will probably tweak more next year after doing this year mostly as written except for math. Our main tweaks will be adding Sequential Spelling, switching from R&S English to GUM Grammar, doing a few book studies instead of DITHOR, and we will probably again add in Calvert's 7th grade Houghton Mifflin History book as an extension for my girl's doing RTR.

[kandty]

I really shouldn't reply since I have no experience! :tongue_smilie: But, we are going to start using HOD next August. "Ty" will be using Bigger and we will be using different math, grammar, writing, and science. "K" I am not too sure about. We may just use the history and science of RTR and Ty will do the science with him. At first I wanted to use it all or nothing, but it seems like a good fit for "Ty" even with the changes. I have had such a hard time with history for "K" that I think it will be worth the cost of buying the guide. I may use more of it once I see the guide. That is the plan, but we know how that goes. :lol:

[Sue G in PA]

I about made myself crazy this year running 3 guides. Bigger, Beyond and RtR. :001_huh: I know other ladies do it without any problems whatsoever, but I was going nuts. Tonight I sat down and had to really think about whether we would continue with HOD. I decided to continue but to "tweak". I already combined the Storytime box from Beyond and Bigger. My RtR boys were mostly independent anyway. I'm also going to combine Bible. I am not fond of HOD science in the younger guides so I might use our CKE Earth and Space 3 days a week. I have to change something b/c I can't do it all. Some can...I can't. My RtR boys do NOT like crafts and so we skip most of them unless one appeals to them. We also ditched DITHOR...mostly b/c I needed to sell curriculum to pay some bills and that was one we hardly used. We just read and discuss. I have to remind myself it is a guide...not a Bible as a pp said. :)

[AngelBee]

I about made myself crazy this year running 3 guides. Bigger, Beyond and RtR. :001_huh: I know other ladies do it without any problems whatsoever, but I was going nuts. Tonight I sat down and had to really think about whether we would continue with HOD. I decided to continue but to "tweak". I already combined the Storytime box from Beyond and Bigger. My RtR boys were mostly independent anyway. I'm also going to combine Bible. I am not fond of HOD science in the younger guides so I might use our CKE Earth and Space 3 days a week. I have to change something b/c I can't do it all. Some can...I can't. My RtR boys do NOT like crafts and so we skip most of them unless one appeals to them. We also ditched DITHOR...mostly b/c I needed to sell curriculum to pay some bills and that was one we hardly used. We just read and discuss. I have to remind myself it is a guide...not a Bible as a pp said. :)

 

What did you decide to do? :)

[Dustybug]

What is HUFI?