Heart of Dakota World Geography

[Guest Java mama]

Has anyone used HOD World Geograohy? What were the pros and cons of this curriculum for you?

[mumkins 18]

You might want to checkout their FB group. I've bought it, but won't start til Sept.

[Pat in MI 69]

We are planning on using this in the fall.  I would also love to hear pros/cons of the program.

[Sue G in PA 518]

HOD WG is a great HOD year. It is, by far, my favorite. My son really enjoyed it for the most part, with the exception of the Book of Discovery (which he said was "boring", lol). Keep in mind that he is a 15yo boy who thinks everything but basketball is boring. ;) After getting in to the map drawing in Mapping the World with Art he really enjoyed those, too. The World Religions and Cultures study was perhaps his favorite part. Mine too. My husband even picked up a few of the books and was impressed! We did not use the IPC science that is scheduled b/c my son had already done Physical Science. I honestly cannot think of any cons to the actual book choices. They were all really good. However, there are a couple cons, generally speaking.  

 

1. Time to complete. It is a LONG day. We ditched the Living Library, not b/c the books weren't awesome but b/c of time. My 9th grader had a much longer day than my 11th grader using MFW WHL. It left very little time during the day for him to pursue his interests. If you have an avid reader, it might not be so bad. But, my son is a slow reader and doesn't enjoy it at all. This would have been wonderful for my oldest daughter when she was in 9th.

 

2. Price. Even used, it IS expensive. :/

 

If you don't mind a longer day and the expense, WG is a terrific year. If you will use it for multiple students it does help stomach the price ;) Unfortunately for us, my rising 9th grader isn't capable of the rigor of HOD WG so we can't re-use until my 5th grader gets to 9th. And by then who knows what I will want to do! LOL. 

 

 

[SnMomof7 797]

So, too hard for 8th?

[jetzmama 80]

Jennifer, There is a placement chart on the HOD site.  Starts with the younger books, but there is a link to the high school level guides.  Several moms on the HOD message boards have indicated that they are putting their 9th graders into Missions to Modern Marvels after having tried WG because the kids just weren't quite ready for the quantity of work yet.   We're just starting the program with my 9th grader in WG, but he is accustomed to long school days after a couple of years in a pretty intense co-op.  The plus side is that it is a 4 day program, so even though the days might be long, there is time to *breathe* once a week and get out to do some fun things.  I've told them the only school we'll do on Friday is math and Latin, plus any science experiments or art projects (for my younger) that we didn't get completed earlier in the week.  Expect to be done before noon at the latest on Fridays which will be nice. 

[SnMomof7 797]

Jennifer, There is a placement chart on the HOD site. Starts with the younger books, but there is a link to the high school level guides. Several moms on the HOD message boards have indicated that they are putting their 9th graders into Missions to Modern Marvels after having tried WG because the kids just weren't quite ready for the quantity of work yet. We're just starting the program with my 9th grader in WG, but he is accustomed to long school days after a couple of years in a pretty intense co-op. The plus side is that it is a 4 day program, so even though the days might be long, there is time to *breathe* once a week and get out to do some fun things. I've told them the only school we'll do on Friday is math and Latin, plus any science experiments or art projects (for my younger) that we didn't get completed earlier in the week. Expect to be done before noon at the latest on Fridays which will be nice.

It does look very full :). Even though I was just looking at using the Geography and World Cultures sections (we are covered in the other departments). I am pretty sure that we will be going with ATB next year instead before we dive into MFW AHL for 9th.

[5sons 43]

We used it 2 years ago when it first came out. (My son was in 8th). Some of the books we felt were a little below grade level, but my son did enjoy them. We also felt many of the assignments "busy work" that made the day too long so we ended up cutting some of that.

 

The English was good. We enjoyed all of it. However we had read most of the lit books already and did rod and staff 7th in one year. My son especially liked the writing.

 

Spanish was fun and will use again.

 

My current eighth grader is using the science this year and it is a great fit. (He is not using the geography program just the science)

 

We personally were disappointed in the world religions and cultures study. My son said he really wanted more information and facts that applied to the places he was studying, and felt it was kind of random.

 

The DVD component was neat.

 

Hope to help!

 

Kristen

 

Jennifer, I feel my current 8th grader could have done this program. He chose to start MFW AHL instead though and is really enjoying it (he is a strong writer and has done several HOD years). But do check the placement guide on the HOD website.

[jetzmama 80]

5Sons, would you mind sharing what parts of WG you decided to cut?  Some of it seems like busy work to me, too (w/ WH for older ds also), but since this is all new, just cannot quite figure out what the 'essential' parts of the WG/WR are.  Thanks!