SoaringEagle
- Reviewed on Thursday, June 17, 2010
- Grades Used: 1st grade
- Dates used: 2009-2010
We used Little Hearts for His Glory (LHFHG) for my daughter's first grade. We tried it in kindergarten but it wasn't working. I decided to wait a year and try again. I'm so glad we did.
We used the first grade materials: Our Father's World for science, Thinking Skills/Italic book B for the fine motor skills box. We also used a mix of CLE math and Singapore Primary math book 1A US edition.
I love that it's Christ-centered and the teacher guide is one of the best. Very easy to use and open & go. I like that it is scripted and helps bring everything together after reading the selected pages and/or activities in history, science, Bible, Thinking Skills, Dramatic Play, etc...
I also chose 101 Favorite Stories from the Bible by Ura Miller as our devotional Bible. I am so glad I did, I love it. Colorful pictures, Bible story and questions at the end.
The Devotions for the Children's Hour had many wonderful stories and I liked that it had a Bible passage to read from your Bible, questions, a prayer and a hymn to sing. There were some stories that I absolutely did not like and ended up either modifying or skipping altogether. I will not use this devotion with my son.
Our Father's World science is colorful and interesting. The only thing is that I didn't like using it in connection to the lesson box. The experiments are geared toward the K book and not so much with the grade 1. I think I will use the K science book instead of the first grade for my next child.
Thinking Skills workbook is fun to do and colorful. The child works on vocabulary, alphabetical order, same/different, classifying, following directions, patterns, similarities/opposites, etc.
For handwriting practice we used the Italic book B by Getty & Dubay. It was ok, I probably will chose a different program for my son.
The story time books were awesome! Those Burgess books were fun to read and my daughter found it funny to see the same characters show up in the other books in the series. I also liked the questions/activities at the end of each reading. They were excellent and would recommend them to anyone looking for great books to read.
LHFHG is a great program for first grade and the message board over on the HOD website is wonderful.
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LynnH
- Reviewed on Wednesday, April 21, 2010
- Grades Used: 5th
- Dates used: 2009-
This was my first year homeschooling my ds who is in 5th grade. I researched and researched curriculum and nothing seemed exactly what I wanted. I then found HOD thanks to this board and felt immediately like it was what I was looking for. We used Preparing Hearts for His Glory this year. My ds has mild CP that affects his hands and I was concerned about all the copywork and other writing in this curriculum. I e-mailed the author and she helped me brainstorm ways to adapt a few things to make them work for him. As the year has gone on I have had to adapt less and less. He has loved this year. He was a reluctant reader and now reads out of several books a day with zero complaints. In fact he has told me I am not allowed to sell any of our books from this year. His listening and oral narration skills have greatly improved. He also has always said that he can't write. Preparing has a writing exercise each week based on Poetry by Robert Louis Stevenson. This is my ds's favorite part of the week. I am amazed at the things he has written. He also has gone from having no clue how to write a written narration to doing one completely on his own. The studied dictation has also greatly helped his punctuation skills and his spelling. I know some think the science is weak, but my ds has learned so much more from science done this way than the way it was done in his public school. Yes, before he could tell you the things he needed to know for a test, but now he truly understands the concepts. It is also very easy to add additional science if you feel the need.
I plan on continuing with HOD at least until he is a Freshmen.
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Tree House Acad
- Reviewed on Saturday, March 20, 2010
- Grades Used: 1st & 4th, 2nd & 5th
- Dates used: 2009-Present
Heart of Dakota has been such a blessing to our family. What I love most about this curriculum is the way the Bible is woven in to every little thing. History has never been more rich and full than when it can be taught along side Biblical History. My son using Little Hearts was led to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior through the time we have spent with HOD.
Something else I love is that you can pick and choose what works for you and for your family with regard to English, math, and Reading. While HOD makes suggestions, none are required in order to make the manual a success.
And finally, I can't really leave a review of HOD without mentioning the HOD Message board. The women there are supportive and amazing, and, unlike many other forums, the curriculum writer is a very active participant on the forum! What an amazing blessing it is to have here there to answer questions, help with placement, and to encourage and support users of the curriculum.
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tjswaine
- Reviewed on Saturday, March 20, 2010
- Grades Used: Preschool & 1st Grade - LHTH & LHFHG
- Dates used: 2009-2010
This is our first year homeschooling. I spent last year researching curricula while convincing hubby to agree with homeschooling! :) My top two choices were Christian Light Education and Heart of Dakota. Obviously, I chose the latter ...
I love the involvement and interaction I have with my kids while using these programs. I wasn't interested in having them sit with hours of "paperwork". I wanted a nice balance with "hands-on' and "paperwork".
All of the resources the author suggests are well worth it and enjoyable. My children love the Children's Bibles, the History books, the Storytime books, the CDs, etc. I chose to use Singapore Math and am not disappointed. The hands-on Math activities in the manual are wonderful at enforcing the concepts learned.
I whole-heartedly recommend Heart of Dakota. I plan to continue my homeschooling journey using all of their programs.
Check out www.heartofdakota.com for more information.
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