HOD LHFHG, MFW K, or SL 4/5 or SL K

[miracleone]

I have a very articulate 5 year old who loves to draw and does it well. She is not enthused about learning to blend sounds and I'm thinking she could still be young. I have Phonics Pathways, Alphaphonics, Hook on Phonics but so far she is not complaining about the last one.

 

I want to have something open and go to teach this K year. I am looking at these 3 but can't decide. Can you tell me the difference? Which one did you used and liked and why? Thank you very much.

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

I'm doing SL 4/5 with my 5yo preschooler this year and we love the stories. I can't read the stories unless all three of my older kids are there because they all like them so much. You would need your own thing for handwriting, reading/phonics, and math. I haven't decided what I'm using for her next year.

[Michelle My Bell]

I didn't used to recommend this, but My Father's World has recently updated their Kindergarten program and it looks really nice. I would also recommend you look into Memoria Press as their younger programs are really great. I am a Heart of Dakota user but I don't recommend their programs until Preparing. Sonlight was a little too easy. Memoria Press has great books scheduled and it feels more like a plan.

[mommyto4QT]

I used MFW K this year with a 4.5 year old and a 5.5 year old. We just finished this week. I enjoyed it a lot. The books/stories are great. However, I found that I did add a lot to it, like extra handwriting, math, and phonics. For phonics, we love Explode the Code books here!

MFW K is a great program that is open and go. I loved the Bible principles.

[Bree]

Each program is good. If your dc can't sit through chapter RA books then I would rule out SL A. I like the Core, but some of the books are a little much at 5, but it is a good program overall. I've used about half of LHFHG this year with my dd and all of P4/5 and I like the books in P4/5 more than LHFHG. Little hearts is good with the history, but my kids like more science than it has and they didn't like the rhyme time and creative play ideas. My dd tends to be more of the type A personality and wants to make stuff up on her own. I like HOD, just not really LHFHG, we did like BLHFHG Also there weren't many pictures in the Burgess Books so her interest was a little lower with those. My older dc like the Burgess books though. We haven't used MFW before so I don't know how that one is :)

[hands-on-mama]

I think MFW K would be a great fit! We just finished this up with my 5 year old and it was a wonderful year. We are about to start a K/1st year with Little Hearts in July now. :) I want to get a feel for both programs before we solidify our future choices. MFW K is super gentle and really solidified my daughter's ability to blend sounds into words. I am very thankful for it.

[Mom2TheTeam]

If your 5 year old is slightly on the reluctant side of reading/phonics, MFW K would be perfect. It is a very gentle approach to phonics. My oldest was very a very reluctant reader. It was perfect for him. Anymore and it would have been torture for both of us. At the end, the children are reading CVC words very well. Then, in first, it picks up very quickly and all the rest of the phonics needed are taught. The two programs worked amazingly well for my son who wasn't interested one bit in reading when we began in K. it is very open and go and easy. It is a great program. :)

[Ecclecticmum]

I would recommend MFW or Sonlight.

 

We are secular users, but if we weren't, MFW looks fun. I like Sonlight P4/5, we also had the Handle on the Arts supplement for it, which was lots of fun :) Unfortunately we only got about halfway through it :( My son cannot stand books being read all the time as school, so about halfway through the 2011 year, he was old enough to create havoc when I was trying to do it. Perhaps if I found Audiobooks of all the books in question, I would do it again (ignoring most of the lesson plans with the way they split up the book, it was annoying to open a book, read a verse, close it, grab the next book, and so on)

 

The Handle on the Arts supplements for SLP4/5 made it really fun! I'm not sure whether they are selling them anymore though :( When I went on there a couple of weeks ago (HOtA) nothing came up when I clicked the category in their shop. Its a pity.

 

I don't like HOD. I couldn't use it because of us being secular (I found you would basically have nothing left) but when I looked into it I saw some weird bits, and heard someone talking about the fact the child sings about Dead People and Weird things rofl. (Sorry don't exactly remember what it was, or where I read that).

 

Not exactly what I saw, but here is a thread talking about violence in HOD: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/57647-another-heart-of-dakotalhth-question/

 

Sorry I couldn't help more

xxx

[twoxcell]

I don't like HOD. I couldn't use it because of us being secular (I found you would basically have nothing left) but when I looked into it I saw some weird bits, and heard someone talking about the fact the child sings about Dead People and Weird things rofl. (Sorry don't exactly remember what it was, or where I read that).

Singing about dead people? I have used the first 5 HOD guides and I own the next one and I have never heard of such a thing. :lol: ;) I can see how HOD would not be a good fit for a secular homeschooler but this description is just strange.

[Guest]

Not exactly what I saw, but here is a thread talking about violence in HOD: http://forums.welltr...alhth-question/

 

 

Ugh - I hate when my OLD posts come up! :) I was the OP to that thread, so I just wanted to comment. That was when I first tried HOD and yes, to this day, I stand by my original thoughts that I don't care for the activities in LHTH. I have also skipped a few in LHFHG. I have, however, almost completed both Beyond and Bigger, and I do think that HOD is a wonderful curriculum. So, if you read that thread of mine, please don't think that is a representation of the curriculum, as a whole. :)

[Ecclecticmum]

 

Ugh - I hate when my OLD posts come up! :) I was the OP to that thread, so I just wanted to comment. That was when I first tried HOD and yes, to this day, I stand by my original thoughts that I don't care for the activities in LHTH. I have also skipped a few in LHFHG. I have, however, almost completed both Beyond and Bigger, and I do think that HOD is a wonderful curriculum. So, if you read that thread of mine, please don't think that is a representation of the curriculum, as a whole. :)

 

 

It's always nice to hear about the other side of the story. :D

 

Ellie - I don't know where I read that. I assume on here, but I tend to gallivant all over the internet when researching a curricula. It was really weird.....I remember something about kids singing about dead people rofl....but not any more information. For some reason that bit has stuck in my head.

 

Its a pity it cannot be used secularly though, otherwise I may have looked into it further. But someone said if you take all the faith & biblically weaved parts out, you would be left with about one page, rofl. Our family contains too many different faiths like the following:

 

Me: UU/Open-Minded/Constantly Reading from different viewpoints/Ex-Wiccan

DH: Non-practicising Christian/Faith-Crisis

DH's Mum: Strict Christian

DH's Dad: Christian tad different from DH's mum

My Mum: Atheist

My Bio Dad: Church of England

My Stepfather: Catholic

 

Its just wayyy too many faiths to try to find a middle ground, so I have to have completely secular (or able to be secularized) programs I found out, or it doesn't work within our family. Faith is best kept to a family discussion, and family times together than through a curricula.

 

I hope I didn't come across as slating bad things for HOD. I was just giving my personal viewpoint/opinion. (Where I read that post is going to bother me till I find it, rofl)

xxx

[lea_lpz]

I don't have any experience with the other choices but we are ending our k year and have only 6 weeks left. We will miss it :), but them we get to do it all over in about a year with my ds!

 

I loved the hands on activities. If you want to do more hands on learning and less worksheets this a great program. I loved doing the baking, art, and science experiments, and I know we've created some life long memories, like watching a sun rise, making stone soup, raising butterflies, and picking apples at an orchard, just to mention a few. The book list is excellent, and the book day activities gave my daughter a much better concept of time, sequence, and ability to narrate and tell stories herself. I also have to add my daughter has really just developed such a love and understanding of God and the Bible. This program to me is such a perfect blend of Charlotte Mason, Clasdical Education and unit studies.

 

Also, it is definitely challenging as far as math and language. All the regular math a d Lang for k is covered.

 

I got my mfw 1st box a week ago and have been just falling in love with 1st. The hands on, every day math routine is so practical and thorough that I know I will be pleasently surprised in how she tests into Singapore for 2nd and the language program looks very thorough and effective. My dd is so excited about reading her own Bible for 1st grade.

 

I did get a math workbook for k and added in HWT, but they weren't essential. I liked more worksheets to back up our hands in math, and my dd personally needed more practice with printing, but I could have just as easily used the suggestions for very cheap multisensory activities by Marie in the teacher's manuel as well as the suggested hands on math activities :).

[miracleone]

Thank you for everyrone who commented. I forgot to mention that my dd will be 6 in December. She can sit through long readings but also likes hands-on art projects. Will MFW K be too easy? We have read most of the books in their RA selection. Does LHFHG teach about calendar, days of the week, seasons? What did you have to supplement?

If we are to choose HOD, I am planning to use New American Cursive for writing. I am not sure about math. They use Essential Math now. I was also thinking that since the only thing I like about SL is their book list, I could try to get some books from the library and just do read-alouds.

[Mom2TheTeam]

My son was about a month from turning 6 when we started MFW K. He love it and as I said it was great for him. He has retained SO much science from it. We've done very little science this year and yet you would think he's been doing a ton. LOL!

 

Some people do think it's too easy because it only teaches to CVC words and the worksheets are fairly simple and repetitive. But, personally, I like that it is gentle. The foundation it gives in blending letters is really great. My oldest really did well with it and he was an older K'er.

 

My youngers who will be 6 in Dec started MFW K in Feb-ish. They were ready to start and I had the stuff from my oldest. They had turned 5 in Dec. ;) So, they will be almost done with it when they turn 6, but the boy of the two (girl/boy twins) could have waited for sure. He may even end up lagging behind her in the phonics portion. There are two major differences I'm noticing from them doing the program and my oldest. 1st- They don't have the fine motor skills he did for the handwriting. They are needing a lot more handwriting practice. 2nd - They are not understanding or retaining the same amount of information about the science topics that my older did. I attribute both of these to him being almost a year old when he started the program. It makes a huge difference.

 

I'm not sure my youngers are going to be ready for 1st when they are just turning 6. So, I'm trying to go slow through K and spread it out. I don't want them to start 1st until they are at least 6.5. But, we'll see how it goes.

 

Bottom line....I do think it is gentle for a 6 year old, but I don't think it's too easy. It is what you make of it. We got a LOT of books on the science topics and really dived into them.

[Ecclecticmum]

Have you looked into Memoria Press? It sort of reminds me of a cross between Oak Meadow & WTM. It has calendar time each morning (from the look of things) has read alouds, uses new american cursive, and has craft books. Just a thought :)