Can you review HOD for me?

[IceFairy]

I just cannot make up my mind. ugh!

 

I am thinking of running two HOD guides LHFHG for DD and BLHFHG for DS. I just worry they are not "enough". Am I wrong?

[Tenaj]

The main question to ask is whether each kid fits into the guidelines for each guide. Placement in HOD is very important because each guide teaches a certain set of skills.

 

Usually the recommendation from HOD is that you not run consecutive guides back-to-back. That you should combine and just beef up the younger guide for the older. Now, I'll tell you that I am running guides back-to-back because that is the best thing for our family and certain dynamics between kids that makes combining very ineffective. The disadvantage to doing the guides back-to-back is that you'll be reading the same books for two years in a row :) I haven't minded and I was worried that the kids who were the second/third time through would have already heard all the books but it's interesting that the olders will eavesdrop on the reading again and the youngers are excited to be reading the books that the olders got to do last year.

 

Regarding whether they will be enough, that depends on the child and you. I had my 7yods in Beyond this year and added and changed some things to fit his abilities in the language arts department. He was way ahead on the ability to write from dictation and spell so I had him doing daily dictation from the Bigger guide (which I owned) in order to step up the challenge of the Beyond level. You can get those dictation assignments online free by googling Day by Day Dictation or I think they are in the files section of the HOD yahoo group. I also started the R&S English Grade 2 for him. I saw no reason to wait as he was perfectly capable to begin so he finished that book this year also. I've also added in writing programs to Beyond, Bigger and Preparing because I felt they were all ready to move ahead of the HOD sequence in those areas. We've also added in R&S Spelling just for a more systematic approach spelling than in provided by the dictation assignment.

 

I am just beginning Little Hearts with my 5.5 yods and am looking for a programmed science to add into it. He loves science and wants "to do" science and I know he would rather have something regular and more deliberate than what is in the Little Hearts guide. I will probably continue adding something in for science in the Beyond guide as the science activities, though good, were somewhat random for a kidlet who really likes science.

 

HTH,

[twoxcell]

I have used Little Hands-Preparing and I own CTC. What exactly do you want to know? Yes in my opinion HOD is very complete. ;)

[acsnmama]

We really enjoy HOD!

[hollyh]

Pretty complete, and I would say super complete in later years. Early years lighter on science but it is easy to beef up if your child loves science.

[raceNzanesmom]

Yes, it's complete. We've used Little Hearts, Beyond and Bigger. We'll start Preparing in August. Ask if you want to know any specifics.

[Tidbits of Learning]

I have used HOD LHTH, LHFHG, BLHFHG, BHFHG, and CTC. How old are your kids? What grade are your kids? What is your educational philosophy? These would be my main questions with regards to HOD in the early years. The language arts is very light in respect to writing until you get to CTC. This can be good or this can be bad. It depends on your educational philosophy towards writing and language arts in the early years. I found the vocabulary and spelling/dictation to be on par with other programs of similar age/grade range. The creative writing portion or writing from your own thoughts does not begin until Preparing and CTC. Before that, it is mostly oral narration and copywork. Singapore math is a good fit for some kids and not a good fit for others. We never seemed to get going well with it. They recommend R&S English which was not a hit in our house either. The science is very light and it is young earth perspective on timelines. It does tell you to omit on your timeline dates if you aren't young earth belief. The history is the bulk of the curriculum. It is very heavy on history and Bible. The projects in the younger guides seem really young some times and in the older guides a project that would take an hour to complete start to finish is broken up over 4 days of 20 min. sessions. We loved the Thornton Burgess books, the A Reason for Handwriting K, the Emerging Reader schedule, the read alouds, and the paint study in CTC. As with anything that is an all-in-one, there will be things that you love and things that you plod through begrudgingly.

We were never able to completely combine any 2 children into one guide successfully and one guide almost always had something that wasn't challenging to the children and then something that was too challenging. It is a gamble. Since it is skill based, it was hard to jump into for us in the higher guides and it be challenging since my children had already received a lot of writing instruction. However, my child who started with HOD and went through Bigger was not making steady progress with HOD guides. I would advise you to get a hold of a guide and look it through from Unit 1 to the last Unit and see if it would work for you. The thing with HOD is that certain skills are trained in each guide, but then you just repeat those skills all year long. Every unit is set up exactly alike and a few weeks in your child will have mastered the new oral narrating, written narrating, or such skill and then they just repeat it over and over through the year.

[twoxcell]

The thing with HOD is that certain skills are trained in each guide, but then you just repeat those skills all year long. Every unit is set up exactly alike and a few weeks in your child will have mastered the new oral narrating, written narrating, or such skill and then they just repeat it over and over through the year.

That is true in some ways but the written narration in Preparing increases in difficulty throughout the guide.

[abrightmom]

The thing with HOD is that certain skills are trained in each guide, but then you just repeat those skills all year long. Every unit is set up exactly alike and a few weeks in your child will have mastered the new oral narrating, written narrating, or such skill and then they just repeat it over and over through the year.

 

 

I have seen a gradual increase in skills in Preparing though I haven't used any higher guides.

 

To the OP, I think HOD is complete. Some find the lower guides light in science but this is philosophical on the part of HOD's author. There is a lot packed into the guides from Preparing on up.