HOD's LHFHG

[bethanyjoy]

Why do so many people not like it? I've been reading a lot of posts about it and many people don't like it. Can anyone explain to me the issues they have had or are having with it?

 

Thanks,

Bethany

[sbgrace]

We used LHTH and then LHFHG. I don't know why others don't like it but I can tell you why I didn't like LHFHG. I do want to say, though, I really loved the lesson structure/style and ease of use in HOD. I think Carrie's heart comes through and it's beautiful in that respect. We loved the Burgess books used in LHFHG. There is much to like. The things I didn't like ultimately lead me to stop using HOD so they outweighed benefit for me.

 

Dislikes:

I disliked, selectively edited/skipped parts, to simply couldn't use many but not all of the spines. This was why I ultimately left HOD.

 

I had issues with some of the history spine and her teaching too once we left bible history in LHFHG--so the 2nd half of the program. I couldn't use the major spines selected for the 1st grade program (I purchased and still have them here so I've read them through) so we left it at that point. I was sad FWIW because there is so much to like about Carrie's work.

 

Some of the out of copyright/old spines had issues that might be explained by the context/time period in which they were written. But even some of the current books used in the K and 1st grade programs--CLP Boys and Girls of Colonial Days, History of Little Pilgrims, etc.--I had issues with and it bugged me more as they are current books. There isn't the excuse of using a book coming at history from the perspective, belief systems, and understanding of a book written so long ago it's public domain.

 

Specifically, I did not like the way Native Americans were portrayed in most of her spines. I didn't think it was a balanced or accurate portrayal and the language used in some bothered me too. Some of this was due to using old books undoubtedly but as I mentioned some of the CLP turned me off too and they aren't old.

 

I do not like/will not present to my children the "God is on the American side" flavor I gathered from some of the CLP books either.

 

History for Little Pilgrims and therefore LHFHG church history stuff comes from a strongly reformed protestant view point in my opinion and because of that the lessons do as well.

 

That said, I really loved (and used) CLP American Pioneers and Patriots (next program up from LHFHG) and I used portions of others. So every book wasn't bad for me.

 

A little/minor thing that bugged me but sort of sums up my issue I guess. The lesson about Columbus in LHFHG teaches that Columbus believed the world was round while most people thought it was flat. Further, he was traveling partly to prove it was round. Well, that's simply not true or accurate and any remotely current history book, in my understanding, won't repeat that myth. But it's "the" lesson about Columbus in that guide.

 

Basically, I thought a lot of the presentation was skewed in perspective and, because of that, inaccurate. So I had to leave HOD. Maybe it gets better in that after the early grades. I don't know. Maybe I'll find out because there was much I loved about it. I would worry, though, I'm teaching inaccuracies unless I did a lot of background research. Part of the appeal of HOD is the lack of work for me.

 

 

Some of the God is watching you so be good feel I got bugged me from a spiritual perspective. I felt it was off my theological perspective.

 

Again, I think Carrie has a genuine heart for what she does and that comes through to me. I think she's talented, too, in her lesson planning.

Edited January 13, 2012 by sbgrace

[bethanyjoy]

Sbgrace, thank you for thoughts on this!

 

Does anyone else have any opinions?

 

Bethany

[Sue G in PA]

There were many parts/lessons in the Devotional that I did not agree with and which led me to ultimately stop using it. I shared the same opinion as the PP re: the History. I did, however, really enjoy the Burgess books as did my dc. I found that when I cut out the Devo and certain parts of the History, it just didn't make much sense to continue. We also didn't do many of the activities as my dc found them a bit "babyish". Plus, I needed the money so I sold it. :) But, to be fair, there is much to like about LHFHG and many love it. It just didn't work for us.

[5Bmom]

For me, it incorpororates Chrisitianity in a but too much.... and I would have to elmininate SO much of it, the $ is not worth it.

[Dustybug]

I'm using LHFHG right now and we've really been enjoying it. As far as history goes, I think there are slight inaccuracies in nearly every curriculum....at least there are in most of the ones that I've looked at, so it just depends on how far you want to research into something before using the TM, I suppose.

 

:bigear:

 

I'm curious to hear what others have to say.

[twoxcell]

I used LHFHG with my dd last year and we enjoyed it very much. As with any read aloud if I see something I don't agree with I just reword or skip it and move on. I really did not have to do that much at all with LHFHG. I'm pretty easy going when it comes to the manual if I don't like a project or activity I just modify it on the fly or skip it. No big deal. As far as the CLP texts most if not all of them are reprints of old texts. If you don't like CLP nothing from them is used past Beyond that I can think of.

[jer2911mom]

We used LHFHG last year for K. We tried Sonlight Core K this year for 1st grade and have just started back with Beyond this week. Having used SL this year, I have a new perspective on HOD and our year with LHFHG. Here are my thoughts:

 

Strengths

- It is awesome for holding your hand as a first-time homeschooler. It leads you every step of the way as a teacher.

- It is very open-and-go. No prep time needed.

- The activities are very doable. They use things you have around your house and usually have several options for things to use, so you usually have at least one of those things. This means no last-minute shopping, which I loved. We got all the hands-on done, which says a whole lot for me. I am not a creative person and do not like messes. : ) My dd on the other hand loves hands-on, and this was a great fit for her. The hands-on tied in very nicely with the history and bible. My dd looked at her tub of crafts from last year recently, and it triggered a lot of memories about what she learned. I see it helping her retention.

- There is more to it than meets the eye. It includes physical activity such as gross motor exercises while learning bible verses. I noticed the absence of this during our time with SL this year and missed it. My dd got a lot of good ball work in last year with LHFHG that actually helped prepare her for basketball camp. With Beyond we are getting that activity again and it is wonderful.

- It has the child looking up bible verses. For some reason we weren't doing this in SL (it just has the verse listed out for you and you listen to the CD). I noticed it right away when we came back to Beyond that we hadn't been doing this all year. It is really an important skill to learn at this age, finding verses in the bible. We also discussed the verse last year, which we weren't doing in SL either.

- It is great if you have younger children because they can participate in a lot of the day, too. My younger dd was much more involved in our school day with HOD than with SL. She could do the hands-on math activities, the physical activities, the rhymes in motion, the art, and other parts of the program. I feel like there is more family learning going on with HOD.

- Speaking of math activities, they are awesome. My dd loves chocolate chip and marshmallow math. : )

- My dd loved the rhymes in motion.

- We liked the Family Time Bible used for history for the first half of the year. I like that my dd learned that the bible is history.

- LHFHG has a cohesive feel to it that really makes the day feel tied together. At times it can feel a bit of a stretch, but overall there is a very nice feel and flow to it.

- The Thorton Burgess books became well-loved over time and we still see Chatterer the squirrel on our fence regularly. : )

 

Weaknesses:

- The science felt light. My dd loves science and experiments. I wanted more at the time. I see in hindsight now that it was probably fine, though. We got every experiment done, and that is saying a whole lot compared to our SL experiments this year. I now understand that science a couple of days a week is just fine for K. You need so much time for the basics at that age. Trying to do science 5 days a week with SL has been too much and lengthened our days. I can appreciate the HOD science better now.

- I wanted more of the classic K literature. I added in from the Memoria Press read-alouds. Another option would be SL P4/5. I would have liked more read-alouds for the year. I looked at the list in the back of the guide, but for the first half of the year, most of those books weren't in my library.

- The devotional. I won't use it again. It needs some pre-reading, especially p. 99, I believe. I didn't like that the author never makes it clear whether or not the stories are true or fictional. I think that is important at this age. I didn't agree with several things he said or how he worded them. I looked this book up and it was written for 6-14 year olds, I believe, so HOD uses it on the very low end of the range. It went over my dd's head a lot of the time. I just felt like there were a lot better options for K devotionals than this one. It shook my faith in the whole HOD program and made me start looking around at other options. I think that is very unfortunate because I had planned to use HOD all the way through. I have now realized that the rest of the program is still worth doing and I will substitute that devotional in the future, and any other ones if necessary (hopefully not).

- The history. The CLP books are just so-so. I don't think they are very engaging for 5-6 year olds. I think it was a nice overview and the hands-on are what rounded it out. I remember a couple of times feeling like there were some spots that contained wording that others might be sensitive to.

- No art appreciation or music appreciation. I added this in from Memoria Press, along with the Memoria Press recitation.

- The Thorton Burgess books are books you have to grow into. At the beginning of the year when we started reading them, I was wondering why in the world HOD selected them. But by the end of the first one, my dd was a lot more used to the language and was starting to enjoy them. By the end of the series, she loved them. This is what I really like about HOD, that it stretches the child. But I think you have to know going into it that there are going to be quite a few books/spines that do that and may take a lot of "growing into". Some may just be impossible for your child to grow into. But overall, I like that HOD builds their vocabulary and challenges the kids with the higher level books.

 

Hope this helps!

Kathy

Edited January 14, 2012 by jer2911mom

[jewel7123]

I too disliked the devotional used, as it didn't line up with our beliefs. We ended up switching from the math that was used to RightStart. I disliked the science text used...it was just ok. My children found the Burgess books uninteresting.

 

What I did like: The music cd....we listen to that even now.

 

Do it Carefully along with the other workbooks got used, although a bit redundant since we also use ETC.

 

We did use the A Reason for Handwriting K, but at our own pace.

 

We did read A History for Little Pilgrims. I can't remember offhand if there was anything I really disliked or disagreed with in it. If my memory serves it definitely encouraged the idea that God is sovereign and had a plan for all of history (which I completely agree with). All of history is HIStory, and centers around Jesus Christ. I don't remember any "America is the new Israel" type of stuff, but I could be wrong.

 

History Stories for Children- we still own this but haven't read it yet.

 

What it came down to was I decided to drop LHFHG and just do our own thing. I don't need a box telling me to do such and such page of Math, etc. I also don't need a box to tell me to do the next thing in my math or handwriting program......I really dislike this about HOD and think its a terrible waste of good space, lol. When I try HOD again (I have Bigger and will be using it in the next 2 years) I will completely ignore the math and LA boxes as I will keep doing the programs I like.

[twoxcell]

We used LHFHG last year for K. We tried Sonlight Core K this year for 1st grade and have just started back with Beyond this week. Having used SL this year, I have a new perspective on HOD and our year with LHFHG. Here are my thoughts:

 

Strengths

- It is awesome for holding your hand as a first-time homeschooler. It leads you every step of the way as a teacher.

- It is very open-and-go. No prep time needed.

- The activities are very doable. They use things you have around your house and usually have several options for things to use, so you usually have at least one of those things. This means no last-minute shopping, which I loved. We got all the hands-on done, which says a whole lot for me. I am not a creative person and do not like messes. : ) My dd on the other hand loves hands-on, and this was a great fit for her. The hands-on tied in very nicely with the history and bible. My dd looked at her tub of crafts from last year recently, and it triggered a lot of memories about what she learned. I see it helping her retention.

- There is more to it than meets the eye. It includes physical activity such as gross motor exercises while learning bible verses. I noticed the absence of this during our time with SL this year and missed it. My dd got a lot of good ball work in last year with LHFHG that actually helped prepare her for basketball camp. With Beyond we are getting that activity again and it is wonderful.

- It has the child looking up bible verses. For some reason we weren't doing this in SL (it just has the verse listed out for you and you listen to the CD). I noticed it right away when we came back to Beyond that we hadn't been doing this all year. It is really an important skill to learn at this age, finding verses in the bible. We also discussed the verse last year, which we weren't doing in SL either.

- It is great if you have younger children because they can participate in a lot of the day, too. My younger dd is much more involved in our school day with HOD than when we were doing SL. She can do the hands-on math activities, the physical activities, the art, and other parts of the program. I feel like there is more family learning going on.

- Speaking of math activities, they are awesome. My dd loves chocolate chip and marshmallow math. : )

- LHFHG has a cohesive feel to it that really makes the day feel tied together. At times it can feel a bit of a stretch, but overall there is a very nice feel and flow to it.

- The Thorton Burgess books became well-loved over time and we still see Chatterer the squirrel on our fence regularly. : )

 

Weaknesses:

- The science felt light. My dd loves science and experiments. I wanted more at the time. I see in hindsight now that it was probably fine, though. We got every experiment done, and that is saying a whole lot compared to our SL experiments this year. I now understand that science a couple of days a week is just fine for K. You need so much time for the basics at that age. Trying to do science 5 days a week with SL has been too much and lengthened our days. I can appreciate the HOD science better now.

- I wanted more of the classic K literature. I added in from the Memoria Press read-alouds. Another option would be SL P4/5. I would have liked more read-alouds for the year. I looked at the list in the back of the guide, but for the first half of the year, most of those books weren't in my library.

- The devotional. I won't use it again. It needs some pre-reading, especially p. 99, I believe. I didn't like that the author never makes it clear whether or not the stories are true or fictional. I think that is important at this age. I didn't agree with several things he said or how he worded them. I looked this book up and it was written for 6-14 year olds, I believe, so HOD uses it on the very low end of the range. It went over my dd's head a lot of the time. I just felt like there were a lot better options for K devotionals than this one. It shook my faith in the whole HOD program and made me start looking around at other options. I think that is very unfortunate because I had planned to use HOD all the way through. I have now realized that the rest of the program is still worth doing and I will substitute that devotional in the future, and any other ones if necessary (hopefully not).

- The history. The CLP books are just so-so. I don't think they are very engaging for 5-6 year olds. I think it was a nice overview and the hands-on are what rounded it out. I remember a couple of times feeling like there were some spots that contained wording that others might be sensitive to.

- No art appreciation or music appreciation. I added this in from Memoria Press, along with the Memoria Press recitation.

- The Thorton Burgess books are books you have to grow into. At the beginning of the year when we started reading them, I was wondering why in the world HOD selected them. But by the end of the first one, my dd was a lot more used to the language and was starting to enjoy them. By the end of the series, she loved them. This is what I really like about HOD, that it stretches the child. But I think you have to know going into it that there are going to be quite a few books/spines that do that and may take a lot of "growing into". Some may just be impossible for your child to grow into. But overall, I like that HOD builds their vocabulary and challenges the kids with the higher level books.

 

Hope this helps!

Kathy

 

:iagree:

I agree with most of what you said. I didn't really have a huge problem with the devotional. I just skipped what I didn't care for. We always add in our own nature, composer, and artist study anyways so that wasn't a problem for us.

[twoxcell]

We did read A History for Little Pilgrims. I can't remember offhand if there was anything I really disliked or disagreed with in it. If my memory serves it definitely encouraged the idea that God is sovereign and had a plan for all of history (which I completely agree with). All of history is HIStory, and centers around Jesus Christ. I don't remember any "America is the new Israel" type of stuff, but I could be wrong.

 

There is no mention of USA as new Israel. If there was I would have thrown it in the garbage.;)

[SorrelZG]

DS straightaway fell in love with the Burgess books and we still use the CD for memory verses. We only got about one third of the way through it before laying it aside. DS quickly surpassed the skill level it's aimed at so I was quickly having to look at either supplementing or using the guide up for skills. The history readings felt disjointed and .. I don't know how to describe it .. simple? He didn't make for an average K-er, though. The history and science didn't light any fires for him (we have since found what he needs). It was possibly all an issue of misplacement but he was 5 and using the 1st grade options and it's what the prevailing wisdom strongly recommended.

 

eta: I wanted to clarify that a lesson learned for me from this - that I would mention to friends when considering buying - is just that it can be really difficult to fit a child to such an encompassing curriculum at this age range. Some of them are just all over the place with irregular leaps in ability and comprehension which can easily cause such a child to lose step with such a carefully pieced together and paced out program.

Edited January 14, 2012 by SCGS

[bethanyjoy]

We also didn't do many of the activities as my dc found them a bit "babyish".

 

Would you mind giving me some examples of the "babyish" activities? I can't really get a good feel for the program with just the one week sample that is on the website!

 

Thanks,

Bethany

[Dassah]

We loved the devotional! ;) For me, I just wanted a lot more read-alouds and so we added in a lot more reading. I loved it! It was a great spine for us.

 

We used it for Kindergarten so that might give you my frame of reference for age-appropriateness of the activities for math, phonics, etc.. The science was not super exciting and so we also added a lot of books to supplement in that area.