Does anyone teach HOD like MFW set up

[mom2agang]

I REALLY love HOD but I just don't have time for 7guides. I was thinking CTC for my 3rd,4th and 7th graders. But doing it more orally and as a group like MFW set up. We do a different LA and math so that's not an issue. I'll just be doing the middle school cycle and as the other kids get older just add them in whatever cycle we are on. Will this work?

[Mom2TheTeam]

I'll give you a bump. 

 

I've wondered the same.  We are switching to HOD next year from MFW.  My one hesitation is family learning.  That is the aspect of MFW that I really, really wanted.  I have 6 kiddos, but because I have 2 sets of twins will "only" have to use 4 guides at a time.  4 seems like it would be tough, but I don't see how I could combine them and I wouldn't really want to.  The purpose is to use the guide at the perfect level for them.  Combining would mean I'd have to beef up or pare down a guide for someone.  We are going to take the leap and see how it goes with only one guide for my oldest right now. (my others will use MFW 1st which we already have and the youngers are still not K age.) But, I can see that we may end up back at MFW at some point simply because of family learning. 

[Tidbits of Learning]

We did HOD for years.  I have kids all a year apart for my olders and I could only combine the 2 older kids.  It gets more and more independent and the skills are more and more for older kids...it isn't set up for group learning between a huge gap in ages.  I tried one year to have my 3 together.  You can try orally but I think you will find that you are either dragging your youngers along or dropping back for your olders.  It just isn't set up for family learning.

 

[KeriJ]

Have you considered Simply Charlotte Mason?  They have a family plan to combine all of your children.  I adore HOD's booklists, so I just substitute HOD book choices into SCM family combining method.  It has almost been a breeze this year!  

 

ETA: what I basically did is combine all of the aspects of HOD, MFW and SCM that I liked. I can explain further if you want more detail.

[Mom2TheTeam]

Have you considered Simply Charlotte Mason?  They have a family plan to combine all of your children.  I adore HOD's booklists, so I just substitute HOD book choices into SCM family combining method.  It has almost been a breeze this year!  

 

ETA: what I basically did is combine all of the aspects of HOD, MFW and SCM that I liked. I can explain further if you want more detail.

 

Yes please!  :D

[Meadowlark]

Yes please! :D

I'm interested in hearing too. As much as I've looked at SCM, I still don't understand how to teach it.

[KeriJ]

We are primarily using it just for history, geography and Bible. I started by reading through this series of posts.

 

We are using Module 4 this year.  I actually purchased the family guide that they sell.  But now that I see how it is laid out, I truly use it as just a guide for my own schedule.  

 

I have a K, 3rd and 5th grader.  The family spines for history were a little over their heads, so I substituted for those.  But basically, I read a book with the whole family, my youngers narrate orally, and my 5th grade does a written narration.  Later in the day, I read aloud a chapter from a book from the 1st-3rd list, and my 5th grader reads from her list.  (I've substituted HOD books for her also)

 

Once a week is geography. We read from the geography read-aloud, and then do a map drill.  SCM has a very simple system for map drills.  This paragraph is taken from a page on their old curriculum guide.  It's hard to find, so I copied it here:

     "A once-a-week map drill can also supplement your geography readings. Give each child a blank map of the region you are studying and provide a detailed and labeled map of the same region. Instruct the child to label a few areas of the region, being careful to copy the names correctly from the detailed map. The next week, give the child another blank map of the same region and instruct her to label as many areas as she can remember. Once she has labeled all that she knows, display the detailed map and check for accuracy, then have her label a few more areas carefully. Continue this routine each week, and over the course of the year she will become quite familiar with the regions studied using this gentle method."

And we are listening to Geography Songs in the car.  I can't believe how many of these they have learned just from riding in the car.

 

I purchased a membership to notebookingpages.com when it was on sale this summer.  We use it for written narrations.  They have different versions of each page for each age, as well as some coloring pages.  I print out a page for each child.  My 3 year old and K'er color while listening.  My 3rd grader draws and writes a few sentences.  My 5th grader does a full page narration.

 

We are also using Draw and Write through History whenever there is something that matches what we are reading. (drawing and copywork)   And we are using the Middle Ages portion of the CC timeline song as well as any of the CC history sentence songs that match what we are reading. (I have my own version of the timeline cards which we are hanging in the hallway as we get to each one)

 

Daddy does the Bible reading with them in the evenings.

Honestly, it has been our most enjoyable family history/geography/Bible year!  No stress.  Lots of reading, narrating, drawing and singing.

 

 

[Gracegiven4]

KeriJ, this sounds like a nice way to do history together as a family . Would you mind sharing what spines that you used.

Thanks.

[KeriJ]

Right now I'm just reading through the Middle Ages portion of Hillyer's CHOW.  But we're also using CLP's Story of the Middle Ages, though I'm mostly having my 5th grader read it independently.

[Mom2TheTeam]

Thank you KeriJ.  I'm going to come back when I have more time to read through those links.  Thanks for taking the time to explain this.  :D