4 Guides Going & Loving it!

[countrylivin]

I am a homeschool mom with eight beautiful children from 1-16. I have been homeschooling for 11 years and have absolutely loved (almost) every minute of it. Last year I discovered Charlotte Mason's philosophies after searching the Lord about what He had for our family in the realm of school. We have had our best school year to date with all of my children really enjoying the learning process, not just crossing things off their lists. This past March I felt the Lord stirring me again to revisit what I was doing with our children, not because it wasn't working great, but because I was spending LOTS of time trying to pull things together for each of them. Lots of time like 6-7 weeks of the year . At this point the Lord drew my attention to Heart of Dakota. I had heard of it over the years, but it wasn't until this spring that I discovered that it was based on Charlotte Mason's philosophies. After much prayer and many discussions with my husband we have switched our kiddos over to Heart of Dakota and we are enthusiastically using four guides with great joy. I can't express the deep satisfaction that I feel at really knowing that all the details are covered and in such a way that my children are growing in their love for the Lord, their writing skills are being stretched, and they are learning to work independently and appreciate a job well done. I know that Heart of Dakota is an answer to prayer for our family. I have happily taught school over the past 11 years, but each day now holds a depth of delight for me that I cannot describe. Thank you Carri for obediently doing what the Lord has called you to, so that I can walk out well what is mine to carry!

[Motherjoy]

Hi! I'm also a mom of 8 using HOD. I'm only running 3 guides right now, and one of those is LIttle Hands, so its pretty easy right now. I'd love to know what guides you are using and with what ages. Thanks for sharing, its very encouraging!

[countrylivin]

Happy Mother's Day!

My 14 & 16 year olds are both enrolled in College Plus and loving it! They are cruising away earning dual credit and learning tons about themselves and their Savior along the way!

Here is my Heart of Dakota levels:
12 year old son is doing Rev2Rev
10 year old daughter is doing CTC
7 & 8 year old kiddos doing Bigger
5 year old doing Little Hearts 1/2 time History side with full time Basics
1 year old 'helping'

My schedule is pretty simple. I will try to list it here...

8-8:30 I meet with 12 year old son to read through all his assignments with him and answer any questions he might have.
8:30-9:00 I meet with 10 year old daughter and do the same:)
9:00-9:45 I do all the Basics with 8 year old and include 7 year old in on grammar lesson
9:45-10:30 I do all the Basics with 7 year old
10:30-11:00 I do Little Hearts with my 5 year old usually with 7 & 8 year olds joining in for fun
11:00-12:00 I do the History side of the Bigger guide with 7 & 8 year olds
LUNCH
12:45-1:30 I meet with 10 year old to do our together classes and finish anything up she needed me for
1:30-2:15 I meet with 12 year old to do the same
2:15-3:00 I usually am helping my 2 bigs with anything they need me for.

It is a full day, but a great joy! If for some reason things get off track or my little love baby is having a hard morning, I finish up with my 5 year old at 11 even if we only did one thing together. That gives me a little flex room if I need it. Meeting with my 10 & 12 year old first really minimizes interruptions while I am teaching the three younger kids.

I should mention that I have always tried to teach everyone together. I taught history, science, literature etc to my whole crew thinking that it was simplifying things for me, while actually it was making all of our days longer. Now that I'm teaching each child at their level, not only are my little ones out of school much sooner, but I am getting one on one time with each of them in very meaningful ways.

Blessings over your beautiful family! May your days continue to be filled with His joy!

Amy

[8arrows]

I am a mom of 8 also. Mine range from almost 20 down to 4. It is nice to "meet" you. I am glad your year went so well!

[laughablemoments]

As a mom of 7 who is looking into running 4 guides at once next year, I appreciate your timely post! It is such an encouragement to me. It's helpful to see which level guides you are running, as well as your schedule. I am so glad to hear that HOD is working working well for your family.

Could you clarify whether you've been using HOD for the past 2 months or so, or the past 14 months or so?

Do you feel like your 10 dd has had any disadvantages by missing out on Preparing and jumping into CTC?

[countrylivin]

I have been using HOD for the last couple of months. We made switched when it was time for me to plan their 4th term of school and I kept thinking about not having to plan everything myself Boy was it a good decision!

I never considered putting my 10 year old in Preparing. Age wise and ability wise she was ready for CTC, and since we are starting HOD mid-stream, they are going to miss something

What are your plans for next year? Have you been using HOD for awhile?

Blessings!

Amy

[Carrie]

countrylivin,

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to share your joy with us! I was so blessed by your post, and I know it will bless many other readers.

We have 4 kiddos and run 4 guides here too (as mine are too far apart age-wise to combine well). We too have discovered that it is actually easier to have our kiddos each place where they fit best (even if that means running multiple guides). With my schedule of writing, planning, and keeping up with the day-to-day business of Heart of Dakota; it's important that my time teaching my own kiddos be well-planned and fruitful. We find the peace of knowing everything is covered in using the HOD guides with our own 4 boys too.

Each family is different in what works well, and it is wonderful that the option to combine or separate your kiddos as needed is available through HOD.

Blessings,
Carrie

[StillJulie]

We're finishing up those same guides this year!

We're also a family that truly LOVES HOD!

Enjoy!!!

[laughablemoments]

Hi Countrilivin,

Thank you for answering the questions I had.

We haven't done HOD yet. I'm still working through how to best incorporate it with our family, so I'm not 100% sure which guides we'll use yet. Right now I'm looking at RtR for my 7th grade DD, Preparing w/ extensions for my dd nearly 11, Preparing for my 9 yo DD, Beyond for my 7.5 yo DS, LHFHG for my almost 6 yo DD, and if we can fit it in, LHTH with our 3.5 yo. Oops, that'd be 5 guides! But, we're thinking of having the older girls use LHTH with our little one(s) if I don't have time to do it. It would be a full school year, for sure.

Thanks again for sharing such an encouraging report.

-(another) Amy

[Mom2Monkeys]

Welcome to HOD!!

I've been running four guides with my four as well! It was going great! On break now

[countrylivin]

Laughing Moments~

May you enjoy HOD as much as our family is! Blessings!

[my12kiddos]

As a mom of 12 I also tried to "Save time" by combining all my kids for History and sscience. It didn't work. I tried piercing it all together myself. That ended up a lot of work with extra stress because I had to make sure each kid was covered. I love the CM style. But my favorite x10 of HOD is the grammar idea. I love how Carrie added more grammar. It made the curriculum complete for me. We just use TT instead for math. In the fall I will be using 4 guides. I also love how the manual is kid friendly. They can just see what to do next. Or when my older kids help the younger just read the math box etc..

[my3sons]

We are not a large family, but I have been using 3 HOD guides now for a few years as our dc are 3-4 years apart. We too have loved our HOD journey! It has been the last few years especially, that I have felt incredibly blessed for HOD being in my life. Life can get pretty unpredictable, but the Lord has been with us all the way, and I feel He has provided HOD to bring us joy, stability, and accountability. Thank you so much for your post here! This message cannot be shared enough. So many families are sure they cannot teach multiple guides at once. HOD makes this possible. It plans for this. It really is an incredible way to live our lives homeschooling together.

In Christ,
Julie

[my12kiddos]

I agree! As a large family I have read several blog's of large families Homeschooling. I have noticed a lot of them either Homeschool in front of a computer or at a desk with Christian textbooks. I tried that. It was awful. To me, it was more work. Grading all their work and then making sure they studied for their test. The joy in school was gone. Also my role as a mom/teacher changed. I can't really explain that except it was like during school time I took my mom hat off and was only a teacher. But with HOD that all changed. My kids love it. We enjoy sitting on the couch and reading books together or listening to dad do a read a loud as a bedtime story. They enjoy the activities in the guides. As the teacher I love it. Open and go. It makes the day so much smoother then trying to piece everything together. With 12 kids, Who as time to lesson plan?!?! I love the extensions! I can combine kids but they are at their level. Kids don't get bored with it being to over their head or too easy. I could go on and on and on!!!!! I tell everyone.

[Motherjoy]

I also did not want to go with textbooks over CM just because I have a large family. To me, HOD is the best of both worlds, it is planned and prepared for me to teach all the skills from k to 12 (prayerfully), but it uses living books, short lessons, and a more relaxed approach with the little ones. To be able to use CM methodologies and resources without having to plan on my own is so freeing. For our family, HOD is not only the easiest but the most complete way to give our kids the kind of education we want. Thanks Carrie and family.