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Questions About Heart of Dakota


faiths13
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I am seriously considering using HOD this fall for my soon to be 6 & 4 year old. I have been doing tons of research on it and I have some questions for those that have used it. I keep reading the science is light or not well put together. Is this true? Im sure in the early years they dont need much for science and the samples I have seen look really cute. But the comments have me concerned.

 

I have also read that the teachers guide has questions to help guide you in conversations, but that they are open ended with no answers. Im wondering about that. That also has me worried. I like a guided discussion and be able to talk to the kids about things, but some answers seem like they would be helpful too.

 

I also keep reading that HOD has a YE point of view. I am actually fairly new to Christianity and have not decided where I stand on that. So Im not sure if I want to teach YE or what I should do. How much YE creation shows in the the curric? I have read there are parts that say if you arent YE to skip it, but then it makes me wonder how many parts you will end up skipping.

 

Thanks for any input : )

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I will try to answer some of your questions. ;)

The science is fairly light in Little Hearts and Beyond, but my kids enjoyed it. Those guides are meant for pretty young ages though so it really isn't a big deal. Starting in Bigger science is done daily and I don't really find it light. From Preparing on up science is done independently. My dh is reading through the Apologia series with the kids because he wants to, but they still do all of the HOD science. Yes the questions in the guides I have done are fairly open ended but they do have some possible answer at times. I have not had any problems with discussions so far. As far as YE, yes many of the resources used for science refer to YE. In LHFHG and BLHFHG the science texts used cover the 6 days of creation. I'm not sure if the age of the earth is mentioned or not, but you could easily still do the experiments/activities and just read the parts of the text that you want to. The science books used in Bigger are not YE, but they don't really mention evolution either. In Preparing Life in the Great Ice Age and The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible are YE, but everything else I would say is pretty much neutral in that regard. There is also mention of it in regard to the timeline(a few of the dates). I haven't used any guides after Preparing. I own CTC and there are a few YE books for that. It seems that the farther into the guides that you go the more YE you are going to run into. HTH

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Science is light in the LHFHG and Beyond guides. At least that's my opinion. It is tied to a book that is not read in order (which drives me crazy) and usually consists of a simple activity. My now 7yods loved the science in LHFHG last year but this year in Beyond I'm wishing I had beefed it up a bit. Some of the activities seem a bit young for him.

 

The open-ended questions have not bothered me. In the guides up through Preparing, you are generally reading aloud with the student so you already know the answers :) Last year I did have my son that was doing Preparing do some of the history readings by himself but I was familiar enough with the subject that I would be able to tell if he had understood correctly. Sometimes I would quickly scan if I thought he was a bit off-base. We never had any trouble with it. Science is done more independently but when there are questions, there are page numbers which are very helpful :) Also, I can usually tell if my kidlets know the answers by the confidence with which they answer :)

 

There is probably the most YE content in the Creation to Christ Guide so you would probably want to take a close look at the resources before using that particular guide. I know there is at least one YE book on dinosaurs in the Preparing guide.

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Honestly I dont even know that much about YE vs OE. I have done a little research on it, but I am not at a point where I am ready to get deeply into that. I have no problem teaching about Creation, Im just not sure what to do about the whole how old the Earth is thing, lol. What is the Great Dinosaur Mystery like? I saw that book and I was very curious. My kids love dinosaurs.

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I have done Little Hearts and Bigger Hearts. I do believe the science is light. We started off doing the science in the guide for a couple weeks but switched to Apologia instead because it just wasn't enough for my science loving gal. I also thought some of the experiments and activities were odd.

 

And yes, the discussion questions in the guide are usually open ended without any answers. There have been a few times where I wasn't sure what answer they were expecting to get.

 

As far as YE, I think there was only one reference I remember in the Bigger guide to skip if you aren't YE. I don't know about the other guides, but you wouldn't be skipping a bunch in the two guides I have done.

 

Hope that helps!

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Honestly I dont even know that much about YE vs OE. I have done a little research on it, but I am not at a point where I am ready to get deeply into that. I have no problem teaching about Creation, Im just not sure what to do about the whole how old the Earth is thing, lol. What is the Great Dinosaur Mystery like? I saw that book and I was very curious. My kids love dinosaurs.

 

The Great Dinosaur Mystery talks about dinosaurs from a YE, creationist view point. I've got the table of contents here and it talks about where dinosaurs come from, why they became extinct, fossils, the flood and dinosaurs, and what the dinosaurs were like as far as what they ate and what they may have looked like. The book is completely written from the viewpoint of someone who believes in a literal reading of Genesis, 7 days of creation and dinosaurs were on the ark just like the other animals. We've no problem as that is what we believe but if you've not made up your mind you'll probably want to pre-read it and maybe add a book that tells the other side of the issue.

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I don't think the discussion questions are anything you will need to be concerned about as they are fairly easy and in the younger years you are reading aloud to them anyway. Science is light and easy in the first two guides. However, those two guides don't take a lot of time in the day, so it would be easy to add in some simple library books of interest to your child to make it a bit more meatier if that is what you would like. Personally, I am willing to overlook the "light-ness" of the science in K/1st b/c it allows me time to follow my child's interests/nature study/etc. at an age where I find that extremely important.

 

As far as YE and OE... I've been a Christian all my life and I still can't say that I have decided what I believe. ;) How I see it, there is minimal teaching about it until CtC, where I believe it is an age that both scenarios can be presented to the child for them to ponder as well. They can go through the curriculum and when it comes up, I can simply explain that there are different points of view and possibly provide them an OE book to read through as well.

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Honestly I dont even know that much about YE vs OE. I have done a little research on it, but I am not at a point where I am ready to get deeply into that. I have no problem teaching about Creation, Im just not sure what to do about the whole how old the Earth is thing, lol. What is the Great Dinosaur Mystery like? I saw that book and I was very curious. My kids love dinosaurs.

 

This book is decent, but my kids enjoyed Ken Ham's Dinosaurs for Kids much more.

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Science is light and easy in the first two guides. However, those two guides don't take a lot of time in the day, so it would be easy to add in some simple library books of interest to your child to make it a bit more meatier if that is what you would like. Personally, I am willing to overlook the "light-ness" of the science in K/1st b/c it allows me time to follow my child's interests/nature study/etc. at an age where I find that extremely important.

 

 

I agree - it's enough to spark some interest, but allow for flexibility. We have added in library books at times, science encyclopedias for kids, magazines, nature walks, and I have really appreciated the lightness of the curriculum in allowing science at this age to be more child-centered and interest-led. There is so much time to get meaty, in K, 1st, and 2nd it doesn't have to be yet. And I'm an engineer :)

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