Heart of Dakota Question/Multiple kids

[LAmom]

If you have 3 plus kids do you find it works ok to use HOD? I've always avoided Sonlight because I didn't want to buy multiple cores. I've gone back and forth with MFW, TOG and Biblioplan due to wanting all my kids eventually studying same history (and science until 7th).

 

HOD looks great and probably would work right now as my youngest student would be 1st grade and focusing on basics. Then I'd try to put my 3rd and 5th grader together, though really the 3rd grader would just listen along for most of it and do hands on. I'm looking to use RtR because we are doing SOTW 1 this year.

 

I tried searching HOD for larger families but didn't come up with anything.

[twoxcell]

It works for us. Right now I'm doing 3 guides and will be doing 4 this fall. I would check out the placement chart at the HOD website before deciding on guides. HOD placement is based on skills not history cycle. I would not place children that young into RTR. 5th grade is the absolute minimum for that guide. If I was trying to combine a 5th and 3rd grader I would use Preparing, but only if the 3rd grader was up to it. Otherwise I would think Bigger and CTC might be more appropriate for those ages. Personally I prefer having all of my kids placed in the guide that best matches their abilities. :)

[twoxcell]

I just noticed our kids are the same ages. For next school year mine will be placed like this.

ds 9(will be 10 in July) CTC

dd 7(will be 8 in Oct.) Bigger

dd 5(will be 6 in January) Little Hearts

ds 3(will be 4 in Nov.) Little Hands

I like to have one guide between each kid. :)

[LAmom]

I was avoiding CTC because we are studying that topic this year. :( I prefer a 4-year history cycle and don't get what the years before CTC offer yet. I will have to look into it further. The 4-year cycle just makes sense to me.

[LAmom]

So it isn't overwhelming to juggle all the different books? And not financially overwhelming either? Seems like a lot..,

[twoxcell]

It isn't overwhelming to me but I may be a rare breed. ;) Financially it is no different. I'm only buying a new guide for my oldest and a couple of workbooks for the younger kids. Almost everything is reusable. I bought the first 5 guides used. As far as history cycle like I said you need to place according to ability or the guides will not work as intended. I know that is hard for people to understand sometimes but the guides are based on skills. Preparing is a one year over view of world history. It is an awesome guide and my ds has really enjoyed it. Bigger is a biographical overview of US history focusing on famous people and events, Beyond is US history focusing on the lives of pilgrims, colonial, and pioneer children. Little Hearts is an overview of history with the first half focused on Bible history followed by a tiny bit of world history and an intro to US history. The history cycle begins with CTC and goes through JR high.

[LAmom]

How does the English work? Using Rod and Staff... I have RTR day 1-4 in front of me and it has you doing random lessons. Does it not start at the beginning?

[blessedmom3]

I use HOD with 4 dc.

9 ( will be 10 in Oct.) just finishing Preparing - doing it almost as written with a few extras for foreign language& science

8 and 6 in Beyond - I tweak it a lot,mainly because my dc are above in LA& math skills,we combine with FIAR books

3.5 yo in LHTH - add other things to it,mostly R&S preschool

 

It works great for us. We also use rod & staff for grammar,love it ( but my dc don't!)

[blessedmom3]

Also,I use rod & staff every day and at grade level,not as scheduled in the guide.

[twoxcell]

Bigger has R&S 2 scheduled daily, Preparing has R&S 3 and/or 4 scheduled daily. CTC and RTR have you doing half of a level of R&S because of the scheduled writing in those guides. So whatever level you choose for CTC 4 or 5 you do half of it for CTC and the second half for RTR. HOD has a goal of finishing R&S 6 by 8th grade I believe and R&S 7 and 8 for high school. Here is the placement chart I was referring to. http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

The first section is the most important.

[Tenaj]

I'm running three guides this year and am in the process of adding another guide for my 5yods as we finish this school year and into next year. It works because the kids can work independently and are trained to do so by working at their level each year. This year we are doing CTC (11yods), Preparing (9yods), Beyond (7yods) and LHFHG (5yods).

 

I do tweak a few things - we use a different math and probably we are switching out of R&S Grammar at least for a few kids next year. I don't use DITHOR as written - though we do read the DITHOR books most years. I add on Latin. Some of the tweaks I make are to allow HOD to work for my family. I tend to make the guides a bit more independent than they are written to be if I have a kid who can handle the responsibility.

[Meadowlark]

There is currently a thread on the HOD message boards about moms with large families running 4 guides. It was very encouraging to me as I have 5 kids and am just starting with HOD.

[Bree]

I have 4 kids, they are still young, but we did 2 guides last year and I think Core C from SL alone is taking more time to complete than the 2 HOD guides.

[Another Lynn]

It's been a couple years since I tried HOD, but I tried it a couple times. I never made it the entire year. So, maybe HOD just wasn't the best fit for me. With that caveat, I'll say that three guides felt like too many to me. When I re-placed dc into 2 guides it was better, but not the best fit for the oldest one whom I had dropped down into a lower guide (w/ extensions). Additionally, we had some major "life events" that caused interruptions. When we returned to school after a couple weeks off, it just needed to be simpler and everyone studying the same content, so we dropped HOD. I know there are moms who run 3 and 4 guides and I think that's fantastic. But there are some of us who tried it and didn't continue. I agree with pp that RTR wouldn't be a good fit for a 3rd grader, and maybe not even for a 5th grader. If you want to choose by content (where you are in the 4 year cycle), HOD might not be the best fit for next school year. (I also admit that there's a lot about HOD I like!)

 

Another thought (since you mentioned keeping everyone together, doing the 4-year cycle).... have you considered sticking with SOTW for history, adding CHOLL (free literature program co-ordinated with SOTW) for literature, picking a science (Elemental Science? Apologia? something else?) to do together, etc. For me it has been very freeing to approach subjects separately this way because it's easier to make adjustments if we need to without throwing out the entire plan.