Meadowlark Posted March 1, 2013 Share Posted March 1, 2013 I LOVE and devour the HOD catalogue, and on paper it looks perfect for us. We are a family of 6, soon to be 7 with kids ages 6,4,2,1 and baby due in 6 days. I NEED something open and go or Hsing just will not work. With that said, HOD really appeals to me. However, I just started my son on all of LHFHG last week and am finding that much of It I am just not jiving with. For example, the rhymes. if they don't go to a tune, I just don't like it and if they do go to a tune, I find it's written very awkwardly. Today we also skipped the science because it seemed silly to me. For K, I don't mind skipping things but am wondering if Beyond is "meatier?" I have the option of buying used and don't want to make the wrong decision. I am constantly feeling like we do not do enough, sometimes the entire left side takes less than 30 min. Then it's just math (5-10 min) and phonics and we're done! Is this just not th curriculum for me? I want the history/bible/science to connect so I love that aspect. it just does not feel like a full program to me...does anyone supplement? Again, more concerned about 1st grade not fitting the bill. Thanks for any thoughts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenaj Posted March 1, 2013 Share Posted March 1, 2013 I've used all of LHFHG and am about halfway through Beyond with my now 7yods. We used LHFHG for his first grade year and are using Beyond for second grade though he is young for each grade because he has a late July birthday. I had a hard time with the rhymes also for a while but my kidlet LOVED them. Especially if I really got into them. Yes, some of them are a bit awkward and some I actually had to practice the day before to get it anywhere close but the kid loved them and what really cracked me up was my olders (even my seniors in high school last year) would join in with us on some. My younger group always did them with us so if I were you, I would just let them be silly and let all the kids do it with you. I've also been known to skip some of the activities - maybe I should confess that we've been skipping a LOT of the activities in Beyond because they just seem too babyish to me. That said, I think that because it really is a kind of "light" on time program that my 7 yods is a really great reader and is really good at math. I think that by concentrating my time more on the math and the phonics rather than the other 'stuff' he's really solid on that and I'm wondering if that's the beauty of the method. I'm just now realizing this. I've also been accelerating my 7 yods faster in LA than HOD recommends. He is doing the first year of dictation this year (which isn't really available until the Bigger book). He's also doing R&S 2 this year. He's ready and so I've also added in R&S Spelling 2 and WWE 2 for him and we also just started back up doing CLE Reading. So really, I've added a LOT and he's still done very quickly :) For my 5yods who has been dabbling in phonics and math this year but I'm not really calling it K - I just ordered MP Kindergarten. I'm trying to decide whether to do it as written and then move into LHFHG next year or what we'll do. We may just combine them all together. I've really decided the past few months that I'm not really fond of HOD until the Bigger guide so we may just do MP until third with my youngers and then move into Bigger. I just don't think it's bad to push them a little harder than HOD seems to do. Maybe I'm more classical than CM at heart. From Bigger on up I really love HOD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto5blessings Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 The beauty of HOD is its simplicity. We are using LHFHG with a K, afterschooling. One of the things CM advocates in the younger grades is short lessons and then that leaves time to explore a child's outside interests or for being outside just playing. One thing HOD is good at is building a strong foundation in reading and math. It just depends on your philosophy of education. It is easy to add things, if you wish. We have also used Bigger, CTC, and Res to Ref. I agree that with Bigger the time spent on school is more, and that increases with each guide. We really love HOD here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelli Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 From Bigger on up I really love HOD. :iagree: I won't start any of my other kids with HOD until Bigger, except for LHTH because I really love it for a very gentle Pre-K intro to school. It's coming up with something to do with them until Bigger that is killing me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meadowlark Posted March 2, 2013 Author Share Posted March 2, 2013 Chelli- What do you LOVE to use in the early grades then? I've heard many say that they love HOD but not until the older guides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelli Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Chelli- What do you LOVE to use in the early grades then? I've heard many say that they love HOD but not until the older guides. For my oldest, I did Biblioplan for first and tried to do my own thing for K. I put her in Bigger in 2nd grade and she did great, but she is old for her grade. For my middle (who is in K this year), we are focusing on reading, math, and handwriting with some fun literature and science thrown in. I will probably keep the same pattern for first as well, but add in some picture books (for history) to go along with what my oldest will be studying in Preparing next year. I am in the process of ordering MP's Kindergarten guide just for the recitation and their literature and enrichment. I will probably use their first grade guide next year for the same two subjects. I don't want to use their entire program because we have other things we like for those. Clear as mud, right? :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollyh Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 I think for the amount of little kids you have, HOD is a very good option as it is fully planned and very easy to open & go. If you want to supplement, you can, but you know that you can easily get through the actual program and will be covering your bases. I love how the bible/science/history do all link together. The science is light in LHFHG, but I have a science loving kid - so it allows us time to get lots of science books of her interest from the library. :) Yes, there are some rhymes that I can not get into at all either, but I agree with pp who said that if you get into them- they do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer2911mom Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 LHFHG did not feel like enough for us for K, either. We supplemented heavily, but it was a great base to work from. We added Rightstart A for math (with Singapore), Evan Moore's Beginning Geography workbook, ETC, the Memoria Press K recitation, read-alouds, music and art appreciation, the copywork book (I wouldn't do that again) and some of the science and social studies and bible (skipping those next time). We did the R&S workbooks in MP as well. I felt like LHFHG needed a lot more of the good K literature, and MP fit the bill there. I also have Sonlight P4/5 to use with my upcoming Ker next year. We add SL science to HOD as well at these lower levels. We added SL Core K in with the very end of LHFHG and Beyond. We are finishing Beyond now in 2nd grade. Basically, HOD is an awesome base to work from and you can default to it on the days where that's all you can get done. But it's also really easy to supplement it and make it what you want it to be. HTH, Kathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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