Any Orthodox, Catholics or non-Protestants using HOD?

[lovetobehome]

I have a few questions about using RTR...since we are Orthodox Christians, our view of the Reformation is a bit different than the Protestant perspective...I want to teach my children about the Reformation, but we just don't see it as something to be glorified. (The reformation was a reaction against the Catholic church, but the Orthodox church and Catholic Church had split several hundred years before.)

I just wondered how others who might be in the same boat would modify the RTR plans. I have found that in many curricula, there is a lot of misinformation presented to persuade a child that liturgical tradition and things like Apostolic succession are unBiblical. I would really love to use RTR, so I am hoping I can make it work.

This is not meant to start any debate or discussion over our beliefs,I just wondered if anyone here would approach it similarly, and how HOD works for you if you are of similar beliefs. Please, only comments that would be edifying to Christ, each other and to HOD. No debate.

[Betameculia]

Hi, While we're many years off using RTR (my guys are still little), as a Catholic (and a convert), I'm already giving this matter considerable thought when it comes to choosing home-schooling curriculum. I absolutely love the layout and Charlotte Mason feel of HoD and plan to use it to organise my boys' studies. As a Catholic, however, I know I will be substituting quite a lot of material when it comes to the Reformation. You might like to look at some suppliers which stock books which present an other-than-protestant viewpoint. St George Catholic Books (link removed per board rules) stocks materials used for Connecting with History, a Classical Catholic history course which is organised according to level (elementary, primary, secondary). You might find these to be a useful supplement. Sonlight Catholics is also a useful Yahoo group which discusses this topic and members have quite a lot of suggestions regarding resources and approaches which you might find helpful. I have not personally checked out in detail the resources HoD have selected for this course, although I have looked at previews of some of the material on Amazon so I cannot and will not comment on the position contained in them. As with all the Heart of Dakota books, I know they will have been very thoughtfully selected and may be very useful for discussion, depending on where your kids are at (I converted to catholicsim from protestantism after studying the history of the Reformation - Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, St Ignatius etc at a very protestant school ).

Hope this helps and that it does not lead to any explosive debate!

Annette

[water2wine]

I think it is really important to protect what you believe for your family. I know Carrie would respect that as well. I am hoping she sees this or else really I would suggest if you do not get a lot of feed back here that contacting HOD would be a good thing. This is such an important issue, having things you use in your hsing reflect your beliefs, and I know she would know what might be an issue for you in each program. I am not Catholic so I am not sure what other than what was mentioned would be of issue. I hope some others chime in for you. You are safe on the debate thing. People are not like that around here on the HOD board. Praying you find the information you need and the best way to use HOD for your family.

[lovetobehome]

Thank you so much for answering! I appreciate it. This is really important to me, so I wanted as much feedback as I could get. I do have a couple of the spine books that are used in RTR, so I will be reading through them to catch the flavor. I have read parts of both MOH 3 and Story of the Middle Ages, and I think they are both excellent books. However, SOMA confuses a lot of our (Orthodox) church history, lumping us in with the Catholic church, and oversimplifying the Great Schism. This would not make any sense to my children, so it is difficult. MOH does address the Orthodox Church, and there is a very definite Protestant slant which is understandable since she is Protestant. I love MOH, and I think Linda Hobar is tactful and tries to be sensitive. I need to read more of it to plan how I would work with this. I am thinking I may substitute parts of a general book called Story of Christianity by Hart for the parts that we find don't represent our faith well or do so inaccurately.
Either that, or I will write my own curriculum, LOL!

I also emailed Carrie, and I am sure she will respond personally when she has time. I know she is extremely busy, so I wanted to ask here while I was waiting. I do so much appreciate your responses, thank you!

[Mommamo]

Could you just skip any parts that you find contradict your beliefs? Or could you talk about them within the context of your beliefs? Like that some people feel this way about it, and this is what happened, but this also happened and then talk about that? I know we've had just a couple very little things in the guides that are different than what we believe and I just skipped those parts, and it wasn't really a huge issue. But.... on the other hand, if it's a good chunk of the guide then I guess you couldn't just do that. I do agree with contacting HOD and asking them that question directly. That is such an important thing that you need to be able to be informed before jumping into it.

[smithdonnajo]

This is a great discussion. I am protestant, but would like to present the reformation in a fair way, so I am really interested in learning more here.

[water2wine]

Thank you so much for answering! I appreciate it. This is really important to me, so I wanted as much feedback as I could get. I do have a couple of the spine books that are used in RTR, so I will be reading through them to catch the flavor. I have read parts of both MOH 3 and Story of the Middle Ages, and I think they are both excellent books. However, SOMA confuses a lot of our (Orthodox) church history, lumping us in with the Catholic church, and oversimplifying the Great Schism. This would not make any sense to my children, so it is difficult. MOH does address the Orthodox Church, and there is a very definite Protestant slant which is understandable since she is Protestant. I love MOH, and I think Linda Hobar is tactful and tries to be sensitive. I need to read more of it to plan how I would work with this. I am thinking I may substitute parts of a general book called Story of Christianity by Hart for the parts that we find don't represent our faith well or do so inaccurately.
Either that, or I will write my own curriculum, LOL!

I also emailed Carrie, and I am sure she will respond personally when she has time. I know she is extremely busy, so I wanted to ask here while I was waiting. I do so much appreciate your responses, thank you!

I know Carrie will have an answer for you but just thinking about this and reading your latest post. RTR would be such a great time period to add a little church history on the side. Perhaps you could add Catholic church history to RTR to give it the slant you would like. We are taking the opportunity to add some church history to RTR. It just seemed like a great opportunity to add a few things I have been meaning to do. Just thinking that might be great for you as well. Perhaps that with some of the knowing what might or might not be objectionable may do the trick. Just thinking about this.