Getting Started

[DraysonMommy]

Hello,

We have made the decision to homeschool our children (now 1 and 3) but we have some challenges being that we both work full time. I have talked to quite a few people now in the same situation who make this work by doing a bit in the mornings and evenings and then more intensive time on the weekends. Because I don't have any experience with homeschooling I was looking for some advise from others. We really love the HOD curriculum and are hoping to use it but our issue is also that we live in Canada. Would it be hard to use it with substituting Canadian History or is American History to interwoven? The third thing I am curious about is the schedule. It was suggested to us that with our schedule it may be easier to cover one subject each day. I am not sure this would work with the HOD curriculum. Do you think it would be possible to fit HOD into our schedule? We have about a half hour in the morning for a lesson and an hour at night then most of our time would be on the weekends. Thank you so much for any advise you can give me. I really believe this is the path that is right for my family. God Bless!

[StephanieU]

As for covering one subject a day, it could easily be done. The first few guides are fairly short though, so you might not have to just do 1 subject a day. The preschool guide (LHTH) only takes 30 minutes a day. So, you could just do half in the morning and half at night. The next guide (K, 1st, or 2nd grade) only takes 1.5 hours a day. Some families do this half paced to being with - one page in the guide a day. From there I think they add about 30 minutes each day until you get to the 9th grade guide, which should take 6.5 hours a day, 4 days a week. The nice thing about these guides is that everything is set up in boxes. So, you can just check off the boxes as you go. If you don't finish a day one day, just start back up on the box you left off on.

Hopefully someone else can answer about the US History part, as we are only in LHFHG. You may also want to look at the scope and sequence http://www.heartofdakota.com/scope.php. You will see teh guide that emphasize US history and which ones don't.

[MelInKansas]

Yes, you could easily do small parts of it in the morning and evening before and after work if you like. HOD has "boxes" on each page of the plans that separate it into short tasks that can be done in any order, at any time. As StephanieU mentioned, the first two or three guides you could easily do around a work schedule. By the time you get to Bigger Hearts it would be a lot harder to do it just in the evening. What is the childcare situation? Once your children are school-aged and not attending school (or would they be attending school?) I would think you would need to find a home care situation for them. In that case, they could easily have some work to do during the day while you are at work, and you could save the more interactive parts, where you are reading to them or they are reading to you, for evening time. I think it can be done though, God gives wisdom when it is His will. And you would be reaping great benefit. My time doing school work with my children is by far one of my favorite parts of my day. We interact on some great subjects, I see them learning and growing and am so proud of the progress they are making. Plus if both you and your spouse are at home at that time, it will be easy to work with both at once on their own level.

American History is a big part of Beyond Little Hearts and Bigger Hearts. However Beyond Little Hearts is very early American History and I think you would enjoy doing it with your children, and I see with that one it would be very easy to add in a book or two about early Canadian history, and a lot of the activities that have to do with the Indians and interaction between settlers and Indians would translate very easily to a Canadian background also. Bigger Hearts would be trickier. It is more in depth and more of the pioneer movement, Westward expansion, explorers, Louisiana Purchase, stuff like that. I think it would be difficult to adapt that to a Canadian perspective. It's great learning though, and you could use some of the State study time in later guides to add in a Canada study (or your state in Canada). I guess you would have to decide if one year of very American focussed history would bother you a lot, because the rest of the history is World History, though I haven't done the other guides I assume they are not quite as U.S.A. focussed.

[gardenmama28]

I have the same question about how to make this curriculum work for Canadians!!! We are starting this year with LHFHG so the American history is not too heavy yet, and it will be a while before we have to cross that bridge. My husband is American and we may move to the US before we get to the "Bigger" year, but if not.....

I've been checking into some options for that year. Donna Ward's material has been recommended to me as a good "living book" option for history. I looked at her stuff briefly today and it looked good from my brief perusal. Donalda Dickie is another author that has come to my attention - Her book is called "My First History of Canada".

Part of post removed per board rules by board moderator.

[my3sons]

Hi DraysonMommy! Welcome to the HOD Board! I think this thread may help...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13830&p=98510

Looking ahead, the time for doing school increases each year. I work part-time, and my dh works full-time. He is often away from the home. We have been able to enjoy HOD and do it all as written through the years. It truly is an incredible way to homeschool. It is open and go, so your time won't be spent there. However, there is important interaction between parent and dc each day. I have found this is crucial to make time to do, especially as dc enter teenage years. It is the way to their hearts, and it further stimulates their minds. It is for this reason that I wanted to mention, you may want to, in preparation for the future years of Preparing Hearts for His Glory on up, try to see if you can work less hours to be able to homeschool more. I know this seems tough, but advance prep and prayer for this truly can probably make it happen! I just wanted to mention that, as with any curriculum, the time to school increases as dc age and need more schooling. We planned for this, and I am oh-so-thankful!!! Hope something here helps, and I think you will love HOD!

In Christ,
Julie