Any Heart of Dakota moms here?

[NoodleMom]

I just order Preparing and the reading program Drawn Into. I am so excited!! I cant wait til it comes. Anyone doing Preparing? WE will be starting as soon as I get a feel for it. I can hardly believe that I am homeschooling again. Oh feels so goood, like I just found a long lost friend.
Does anyone know are there any other supplies that Im going to need that arent in the TG?

K

[Happygrl]

Mom2boys is. If she doesn't see this, PM her. She has lots of knowledge on the levels.

[Soaring Eagle]

I can't help you with your question since we're doing Little Hearts for His Glory... just wanted to say hi to a fellow HOD mom

[hopefromgrace]

We use Little Hearts too!
You'll have to let us know how you like Preparing Noodlemom.

[zak]

I think this is what I'm going to order for R as we start Kindergarten this year. to see other reviews.

[mom2boys]

memememe!! yes, I'm a HOD mom.
we are almost ready to start preparing; maybe by next august I think. We've used some part of HOD's curriculum for 8 years!
I LOVE drawn into the heart of reading. It's a wonderful reading program-you get to pick the books.
Right now I have one in little hands, one in little hearts, two in bigger hearts and two in drawn into the heart of reading.

[ncsweetpea]

We love Little Hands to Heaven! It has a doable and realistic pace for a three year old. I have my Little Hearts stuff all ready for us when we are ready! (Thanks to RealLifeMama!)

I have also liked the support the author has provided.

[TuneMyHeart]

I'm very interested in HOD.

[mom2boys]

I absolutely love it, so I am very biased.
I hear a lot of people say that they are afraid it's not enough: not enough work, not enough in depth coverage of the subject, or the projects are too kiddish.
well, I know I'm not the only one whose kids like the rhymes, and the poems, and the craft projects! I mean, my 14 year old rented Toy Story today at the library because "It's my favorite movie!!" so I guess I'm ok with keeping them kids for a while.
Plus the small portions make it really easy to get school done every day. When I was using a different curriculum, only half of it would get done because the boys would just quit. It was way too much-and it was only what the curriculum we used called for, kwim? With HOD it's in such small bites that it's easy to chew on, leaves us plenty of time to discuss (and rabbit trail in our discussions ) and still have a good attitude after school work is done. We used to just despise each other by the time the school day fight between boy and mom was over.
I told my gf that was considering it that even if we didn't do everything every day, it was *something* which was more then the *nothing* we were doing already.
And we do take our time, and days off, etc and we've taken almost 2 years to get through Bigger, but they retain what they've learned in it.
I am a huge fan of heart of dakota! if you couldn't tell.

[MomtoJGJ]

We love HOD too! But we are only up to Beyond

Totally a tangent: At the beginning of the year we were doing Beyond, Little Hands, and Little Hearts, but I lost steam and gradually went to nothing instead of Little Hands, just the right side of Little Hearts, and doing all of Beyond. Then Carrie (from HOD) suggested that I do Little Hands with my 5 and 3, and keep doing the right side of Little Hearts with the 5yo, that way she's getting SOMETHING and the 3yo is getting SOMETHING and then I can keep them combined. I had always thought about combining up to the 5yo level and thinking that wouldn't work for the 3yo... I had never thought about combining DOWN. Even though the 5yo is way past the stuff in LHTH, adding in the right side of LHFHG makes it better for her.

For anyone who is not on the HOD message board and is using HOD, you need to go there... LOTS of knowledge and help on even the most minor of issues.

[Soaring Eagle]

Originally Posted by mom2boys

I absolutely love it, so I am very biased.
I hear a lot of people say that they are afraid it's not enough: not enough work, not enough in depth coverage of the subject, or the projects are too kiddish.
well, I know I'm not the only one whose kids like the rhymes, and the poems, and the craft projects! I mean, my 14 year old rented Toy Story today at the library because "It's my favorite movie!!" so I guess I'm ok with keeping them kids for a while.
Plus the small portions make it really easy to get school done every day. When I was using a different curriculum, only half of it would get done because the boys would just quit. It was way too much-and it was only what the curriculum we used called for, kwim? With HOD it's in such small bites that it's easy to chew on, leaves us plenty of time to discuss (and rabbit trail in our discussions ) and still have a good attitude after school work is done. We used to just despise each other by the time the school day fight between boy and mom was over.
I told my gf that was considering it that even if we didn't do everything every day, it was *something* which was more then the *nothing* we were doing already.
And we do take our time, and days off, etc and we've taken almost 2 years to get through Bigger, but they retain what they've learned in it.
I am a huge fan of heart of dakota! if you couldn't tell.

I am doing LHFHG right now and love how easy it is to implement. I was wondering if you do HOD as written or do you add a different math/English, etc...for example???

[MomtoJGJ]

I know you were asking Mom2boys, but we use it as written, even though we might mix books. The only thing we are doing differently is with my DD who is in Beyond... she's doing A Reason for Handwriting "A" just to get the practice doing a handwriting book before moving to cursive next year. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that it's simply open and go when I use it as written.

I know the writer tests all of the books, and uses them with her own children, and I guess it's her sister??? also uses them.... I know they put a LOT of time and effort making them work together well.

ETA: we do unit studies in between Teacher Manuals of HOD for about 6-8 weeks. So I do use different materials then... and it's SO MUCH EASIER and seems to go so much faster/better during HOD time than during our break. Nothing flows as well even though all of it is coming from one area.

[ncsweetpea]

I used Little Hands in conjunction with Before Five in a Row. It worked fine... I stopped because it was our second trip through B4FIAR and I moved to reading the books for B4FIAR on a pleasure basis.

[Gentle Journey]

I started beyond last year, but switched to Winter Promise and I REALLY regret it. We'll be going back this fall.

I also use different LA and math than she recommends. It took me at least a dozen different ones to try and I'm really happy with what I have now.

[ncsweetpea]

So, what did you end up with for LA and math, Gentle Journey?