10 Reasons I Love Heart of Dakota

10 Reasons I Love Heart of Dakota

My homeschool journey began 22 years ago with Heart of Dakota’s Little Hands to Heaven preschool program. I had no idea I would homeschool all the way through high school! Rather, my hubby and I took homeschooling one year at a time. Every year, we made the choice to keep going, and here we are with two sons graduated and one son finishing his eleventh grade year. I still love homeschooling. I still love Heart of Dakota. What an amazing journey it has been! Looking back, there are so many reasons I love Heart of Dakota. In this blog, I’ll limit myself to my top 10 reasons I love Heart of Dakota – here goes!

#1: Christian Values

The books I have read with my sons are steeped in Christian values. They are precious to me – from cuddling up on the couch reading The New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes, to reading and discussing Grandpa’s Box (always happy tears at the end of that one). From Bob Schultz’s devotionals which helped me know just what to say and when to say it, to reading through the Bible with The Most Important Thing You’ll Ever Study, Christian values are at the core of HOD.

I love that each of my son’s Bibles are well-used and well-loved. They’ve needed them every day homeschooling with HOD. Christian values don’t just happen in homeschooling. They’re instilled one day at a time, day after day. HOD makes that a priority. When I look at the top 10 reasons I love Heart of Dakota, this one finds its mark as #1. The rest, however, are listed in no particular order!

#2: Teaching Instead of Planning… and Beautiful Student Notebooks

It’s not that I don’t enjoy planning, I do. I just enjoy teaching more. I also enjoy having some free time. With HOD, my nights and weekends are NOT tied up prepping and planning for homeschooling. HOD’s guides do the planning for me, and they do it well. Plans are clear, varied, balanced, time conscious, complete, Christian, and easy-t0-follow. I start my homeschool days by opening my guides and simply following the two-page plans. My kids don’t question me – they too can follow the plans when they are of age to do so. They like the plans too. We are all thankful for the care Carrie has taken in writing each HOD guide.

Okay… I know “Beautiful Student Notebooks” could be its own reason, but “11 reasons” just doesn’t seem right. SO, HOD’s absolutely beautiful, full-color, history memorabilia-embellished, memory-making, keepsake Student Notebooks are definitely a reason I love HOD! They also make my teaching easier, as they visually show how to do things, and the completed boxes make it easy for me to see the work is done. The Student Notebooks DO help me immensely with my teaching, and they don’t require any planning. So, this two-fold reason finds itself as one on my 10 Reasons I Love Heart of Dakota list!

#3: Amazing Books

Best. Books. Ever. Have you ever been in a book store trying to find ONE good book for your child? I bet you have. It’s harder and harder to do. Well, Carrie has a knack for it. Always has – always will. That feeling you get, like you just cannot put a book down? You get that feeling all the time with HOD. It works for the most reluctant readers (they can’t help but be drawn in) to the most avid readers. The books are just that good. Every year – always. You can definitely tell HOD is Charlotte Mason-inspired!

Too many favorites to list here, but HOD has made my home library of books the best library around. I won’t be selling them when I am done homeschooling. I’ll be hanging on to them for grandchildren. This reason finds itself on my top 10 Reasons I Love Heart of Dakota list because  – well, finding amazing books is becoming harder and harder to do. So thankful for HOD and Carrie’s wise choices!

#4: Living Books to Hold 

We live in a day and age where many children cannot read. Furthermore, those that can read don’t seem to enjoy it. I don’t think it is their fault. They lack access to excellent living books they can physically hold in their hands. There is something about actually turning the pages, connecting to the special unique “feel” of a book, reclining on a comfy couch by a fireplace reading a book – it is different from sitting upright holding one hard cold iPad or textbook that you use the entire school year.

In HOD, children ‘meet’ and ‘connect’ with new books throughout the whole year in every subject. Each book is unique and special, and books have their own ‘personalities’. They become like cherished ‘old friends’, and my sons remember them fondly long after the homeschooling is done. My kids can use computers just like anybody else. They did online college at Liberty University and flourished. Kids today pick up those skills all too easily. But fostering a love for reading? A passion for books? Not as easy. And that’s why #4 finds itself on my top 10 Reasons I Love Heart of Dakota list.

#5:  Strong Writers

Many children cannot write these days either. Again, I don’t think it is their fault. They are not expected to write, or they are asked to type instead of write. I just spoke with a parent whose first grade daughter had to TYPE a story for a public school standardized writing assessment. First grade! Typing in itself is not a bad thing. Children must become proficient at typing, but not until they are much older.

Typing interrupts the flow of writing. HOD’s writing instruction includes a variety of formal writing programs, as well as Charlotte Mason-inspired written narrations and studied dictation lessons for spelling. HOD also includes cursive writing instruction, as well as rigorous English/grammar lessons. All of my sons can write well; they can sit down and knock out a college essay, a research paper, a class ‘chatroom’ response, or a creative writing story in no time. HOD has taught them well!

#6: Fun

HOD is fun! From the hands-on math lessons for little ones, to the history projects for older ones – downright fun! From science experiments to Drawn into the Heart of Reading projects – pure, plain and simple fun! Our sons have made hard tack (they would have made good sailors because they actually LOVED the hard tack) and Napoleon cookies (also well-loved, but more understandably). They’ve hosted Roman feasts, made volcanoes explode, hunted for ‘gold’, wrote in ‘invisible’ writing, gone on scavenger hunts, and built ‘catapults’ to launch marshmallows.

They’ve hosted and competed in the ‘Olympics,’ used David’s sling and ‘stones’ to defeat Goliath, constructed their own medieval shields, and painted/colored/drawn/etched/constructed their way through history with virtually every art medium you can think of. HOD is FUN! The ‘fun’ always has an instructional purpose, and it never overtakes the day. General art supplies and typical household supplies make these plans easy-to-do on the fly. I’ve made it a point never to skip the ‘fun’, and the memories we have made are priceless. EVERYTHING can’t be fun, but SOME THINGS should be! And that’s why #6 made it on my top 10 Reasons I Love Heart of Dakota list.

#7: Complete 

I don’t add anything to HOD. It is complete, and that takes the weight off my shoulders. Knowing that my children learn what they need to learn at the right times in their homeschool journey takes that burden off of me.

When should I teach cursive? At what point should I expect my kids to read their own history or science? When should I introduce written narrations, and how long should they be? Which subjects should my children begin to do more independently? What are oral narrations, and how can I help my kiddos do them properly? When should we talk about their changing bodies – and the Biblical consummation of marriage? What credits do my children need to meet college entrance requirements?

These are all weighty, important things that HOD has made easy for me. Each thing is taught at just the right time in such a supported way that we find success with it. Thank God HOD is complete, and I can just enjoy my homeschooling.

#8: Incremental Skills and Successful Independence

HOD teaches skills in an incremental way. I love this! One skill begins as teacher-directed. Then, in the next guide that skill becomes semi-independent. By the time the next guide rolls around, that skill is now independent. At that point, my kids know how to do that skill. They have mastered it and are now successful with that skill more independently.

Carrie took care to masterfully lay out plans to build each skill incrementally from guide to guide. Skills intentionally build upon themselves from year to year, preschool through twelfth grade. As a result, by the time children are asked to do a skill independently, they know what to do and they do it well.

How do you orally narrate? Write a written narration? Give a speech? Expand your vocabulary? Research a historical place? Take notes from a speaker? Complete a literary analysis of a novel? Perform a lab using the Scientific Method? No problem. HOD has you covered.

#9: Customizable

Not every child is the same. Not every family is the same. Age is just one factor in placement. Each HOD guide can be used with multiple ages, and extensions can be added starting with Bigger Hearts for His Glory. One son may be a wiz at math, and another may struggle. Still another might take off with reading, while another needs some extra help. HOD is customizable. Each guide contains multiple levels and options for math, reading, writing, grammar, and dictation/spelling.

You can customize read-alouds as well! Choose from Classics, Boy Interest, or Girl Interest book packs. Choose to do the Shakespeare study, the State Study, the Signers Study, the Presidents Study… or not. All three of my sons are different from one another. Being able to customize HOD for each of them has made each year a success and a joy!

#10: I Can Do This at Home by Myself

We love our home. I don’t want to have to leave it to be able to homeschool. I also don’t want to pay someone else to teach my kids or tell me what to do. HOD believes the Lord has equipped parents with the ability to homeschool their own children in their own homes. Carrie writes the plans that way. I don’t have to leave my home, go to the library, buy odd supplies at the store, or hire someone else to teach science – even though I am not that great at science.

I also don’t want to have to join a group to be told what I need to do to homeschool my kids. HOD has all I need preschool through twelfth grade, and I can do it with their help and their help only. HOD is literally my family, but it is also ‘family’ to all the other homeschool families who use it! Everyone you talk to at HOD – on the phone, via email, or by posting a question – has taught HOD, is teaching HOD, has been homeschooled with HOD, or is being homeschooled with HOD. With HOD, you can homeschool in your home by yourself, but you can also reach out to HOD for help at anytime! What a blessing! And this is a great way to end my top 10 Reasons I Love Heart of Dakota list!

In Christ,

Julie