Hey Again

[Jessi]

Hi ladies (some look familiar...some do not),

We've been gone from HOD for almost 2 years. In fact I came back here and saw my signature and realized two full years had passed since I'd updated it. WOW.

We left HOD during Little Hearts in K for various reasons. I think the biggest reason was that I was trying to make myself work for the guide exactly as written instead of making the guide work for me and my daughter as we needed it. I kind of felt all or nothing was the way to go. So, since I couldn't make it all work for us, I thought I was failing at it and we stopped using it. And I can admit that since I couldn't do it as written it was easier for me to think there was something wrong with HOD (to make myself feel better, I suppose.) *sigh* But those were my shortcomings. HOD is a great program! It was just easier to pretend it wasn't because I felt like I failed.

Plus my life got REALLY stressful with day care during that time. I had 3 kids under 3 and one was making our home life a literal MESS. I've never in my 9 years of day care and PS seen a child so off the deep end. I was extremely depressed that year by tried to hide it. It was a really dark time for me but I couldn't stop watching him for a couple of reasons.....

I will say that we've done a textbook approach for the past two years and it has worked great for us with regards to the day care. Very "get it done" approach. My daughter thrived on it and she has done well. I was able to focus on all the kids more and not worry about all the extras.

But that season of life is changing for us a bit. I still have day care but will no longer have the stressful child in my care starting next week. My own two children are much older. I will only possibly have 2 daycare kids in the fall (a 4 year old and an infant.) And add to that that because of the difficulty of the past two years we have not incorporated Bible into our school day at all, not like I'd planned to. It was just to easy to let it go. But I don't want that. I miss engaging in discussions and loving what we were doing.

I am seeing a child who is excelling in academics but is not getting spiritually fed like she (and my son) should be from home. I've felt the Lord pulling at my heart that I only have them a short time and I'm wasting opportunities.... and then my daughter has recently started talking about activities we did in Little Hearts with fondness. I honestly didn't think she even remembered them but she does. I haven't heard her talk about anything else we've used like that. Don't get me wrong....she is a workbook kind of girl but she loves to read. In fact, we have used the emerging readers list for her this year in 1st from our library. She loved them!

All that to say, I had already purchased our curriculum for next year back in March. But even with all the stuff we are using, I am wanting to fit in Beyond for some areas. I am thinking the Bible, storytime, DITHOR, copywork, poetry, etc. My son will just be doing the basics like phonics, handwriting and math and tagging along with us for Bible. Does that sound feasible to add in those areas for now as that would be the cheapest route since I have the others covered.

It is funny but recently both of my kids have been asking me to reread Reddy Fox for lunch time. Those read alouds that I did when my son was 2, he still remembers and was begging me to read them again!!! So it has been fun to revisit Reddy and the other Burgess characters.

Please let me know your thoughts about adding in Beyond for the areas I listed for this coming school year. I really love where HOD is going, love how you incrementally teach independence as the students get older, and now that you are doing high school that is VERY exciting long term. Thanks!

[Kathleen]

Hi Jessi!!

It is so good to see you again! I think that using part of Beyond could work well for you. I'm thinking that if you could add on the whole left page plus whatever else you wanted that it would give what you're looking for. I don't know if you were thinking about adding the "Reading about History" box or the "Rotating" one (bottom left), but those are FAVORITES here! Plus that really ties that page together and gives us great little discussions on spiritual things. For 4 days in the history box you read out of one of the history books, and then on the 5th day of the unit you read scripture with a theme that goes along with the week's history and your memory verse. We've really loved this! (We're about 9 units in to Beyond and are paused for the summer.) The history books are telling the stories of the pilgrims by telling about the children and their journeys, and Allison is feeling like it's her friends on the journey. That rotating box has science and experiments 2 days a week, timeline, art, some kind of activity, and geography (which could be tracing a voyage on the globe or making a map of Jamestown and showing how Sally found her little brother Richard). Garret often likes to join in on some of these activities with us...and that left page seems to be where we make a lot of great memories. If you were thinking of just getting the guide, and changed to wanting the whole economy package plus the science book...it would only cost $17.61 more with the package discount.

We've enjoyed Benjamin West and A Lion to Guard Us for storytime so far. They're both great! We were literally on the edge of our seats for A Lion to Guard Us! Have fun makng your choices!

And as you dive in, you can decide if it works best for you & your kids to add Logan in to the discussions with Emma or not. The history/Bible in Beyond has been a perfect fit for Allison as we've started it. But it would NOT be for Garret. He would be distracting at that time. So maybe you will want to pull out the Bible from LHFHG and have a few minutes with him seperately. (He might just like that, too, if you think that's best.)

Hope you fnd what will work for you for this next year! And I'm so glad that your year looks like it will be a little less stressful - although those stressful times can really help us grow and in your case minister to others, they're not always too enjoyable. Prayng for a peaceful year for you and your little ones!
Kathleen

[my3luvs]

welcome back

[Jessi]

Hi Kathleen! Your family has grown since last I was here. Congrats on Asa and the new little one biding it's time till November!

Thanks for helping me think things through. Here is what I bought back in March for Emma for this next year. I don't want to sell it because I won't make nearly enough back from it... and I'm in a tighter budget than I thought for school so I'm trying to work with what I have this year but still bring in HOD as much as I can without overloading her.

Math- R&S (we did Singapore for K and 1st but she needed a program to cement math facts and Singapore wasn't doing it)
LA- Language Smarts (but want to use Beyond's copywork and spelling)
Science- BJU
History- BJU
Health- Abeka
P.E. - P.E. forHomeschooling Moms
Art- Evan Moor (though I could use HOD's ideas if they weren't tied too tightly to the Reading through History portion)

Logan is doing Singapore math, R& S workbooks (loved those from Little Hearts!), and Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. I do still have the Bible from Little Hearts. It's the best kids story Bible I've come across so I couldn't part with it. That's a great idea to read his own Bible with him.

So that's why I was thinking about the copywork, poetry, storytime, DITHOR, spelling and most especially the Bible portion in Beyond . I know HOD is history driven on the left side of the page and I wonder if I'd be doing the program justice by just incorporating those elements and not the history portion for this next school year. I know it's not ideal. I want to make it work though. Or would it be better to wait till Bigger for 3rd and just use what we have for next year without part of Beyond?


And hello my3luvs!

[Kathleen]

I'm sure you can make part of it work. I just wanted to make sure I mentioned those activities on the left page, as we really are loving them (and when I checked how much more $ it would be I thought $17 was worth mentioning ).

I'm not sure how the BJU science and history books are set up. Are they like Abeka in the younger grades where they're like readers for the kids to read with some activities at the end of chapters? If they are, and you thought you could spring the extra $17, what about doing the left page of HOD plus storytime and spelling from the right? And then alternating DITHOR with her reading from the BJU history and science. So you'd still use those and do 4-5 genres of DITHOR for this year with her?? And, if you totally don't want to do the history boxes, that's fine. Skip this idea. As the kids get into the older guides, DITHOR is scheduled 3 times per week which lets you get through all the genres every 2 years, so it would work to do this now, too. And then you could let her read some science and history the other days for reading practice and still use the books you purchased. (And you'd get more of the feel of the HOD guide by doing the other activities if you want to. )

If you don't get the history, I'd still do the Bible reading from Day 5 of each unit. There are extra questions that go with that "history" box in the Bible study box, too. We've loved these discussions. And, even just adding in DITHOR will add a lot of character quality discussions and help with reading with discernment. You'll love DITHOR!

Our family is growing! This new little one is such a WONDERFUL surprise for us!
Kathleen

[Jessi]

Kathleen, BJU isn't like readers. It is textbook format. My daughter can read it on her own though. So that gives me something to think about. Depending on if I feel that she can handle that much history without drowning her in it. haha

Thanks for giving me much to think about.

[3sweeties]

Hi Jessi!

Just wanted to welcome you back!!! I think your plan sounds great and seems like a good way to utilize what you already have, yet still get back into HOD. I think if you at all seethat your DD is overloaded, though, you may need to slow it down -- maybe just do the Beyond part of it on Fridays? You could call it "Fun Friday"! HTH a little bit and I know God will show you what will work best for your family!!!

[spidermansmum]

Hi Jessi -welcome back

[Jessi]

HI 3sweeties and Spidermansmum!!! Sorry, forgot to reply.

[my3sons]

The ladies have given you good advice here already! It's good to see you again, Jessi - I bet the kiddos have grown!
In Christ,
Julie