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Anyone using Heart of Dakota
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Hi everyone! I’ve been consuming as much as I can on this forum for the last few weeks, and I’m so excited to be here! My name is Megan and I have two dc – dd 6 and ds 4. My dd goes to a 4 day a week part day K right now, but I’ll be hsing her in the fall just after she turns 7. I know that I want to follow the CM philosophy, but I’ve been feeling extremely overwhelmed about it since this is my first year to hs. The more I read from CM the more I understand, and I do plan to purchase the seminar dvds to help me understand further. However, it still seems a bit daunting. I should also say that I *wish* I had learned about the CM way before I sent dd to K, but on the upside her school is amazing and actually very similar to CM as it turns out. 🙂
I recently discovered the Heart of Dakota program and there are a lot of things about it that appeal to me – in particular, the way that it is very Christ centered, and the open and go format. I feel like this would take some of the pressure off for my first year, and possibly ease us into the CM way. So, this finally leads to my question…(sorry for being lengthy!)
Has anyone used HOD, and do you feel it follows CM’s philosophy? I know that it was written and designed to follow most all of her philosophies. I know there is a wealth of information on the HOD website that is very helpful, but I guess I just wanted to get some advice from those of you who are very familiar with CM and may also have some experience with HOD. If you have in the past, or currently use it, is there anything extra that I may need to consider adding, in your opinion? Feel free to refer me to another post if there is another one out there…
Thank you all so much – I’m excited about our upcoming journey and grateful for everyone’s help.
God Bless,
Megan
Heart of Dakota is great & definitely what I would call CM-friendly. If you’re in the market, I have a very gently 1/4 used copy of Little Hearts For His Glory I’m selling. I found that it gave me the structure and guidance that I needed in the very beginning of our homeschooling journey. I bought it especially with the ages of my children in mind, which were the same ages as yours when we started. Triplets that were 4 yrs old and their older brother by 2 years, at age 6. It is definitely geared toward that age range. In my opinion, it’s a great way to get started and give you an idea of what subjects to be covering and some fun ways to implement everything into your day. I like to call it my “stepping stone” book/curriculum… from there I’ve just learned that CM is much more of a free style of learning, and I like to be able to use from a wide variety of living books for all subjects, math, sciene, literature, art, geography, etc. I’m pretty certain that every book suggested in HOD is CM-friendly.
Just to give you an example of one day using the HOD/LHFHG book:
Focus: Jesus Teaches Others
Reading about history – Read the Bible story from one of the following resources (you can chose Family Time Bible or Your own Bible)
Science Discovery (they give you a hands-on activity suggestion each day)
Ryhmes in Motion (you learn/practice a ryhme that goes along with the lesson & they give a gross motor skills to practice)
Bible Study Time
Corresponding Music (Hide ‘Em in your heart” CD)
Fine Motor Skills (this is where you practice handwriting with one of the listed options, we use “Italic Handwriting books A & B)
Story Time (CM friendly book -such as “The Advetures of Danny Meadow Mouse”)
Phonics Choices (We use The Reading Lesson, however, the more I’ve learned and gotten comfortable with the CM style of homeschooling, the less I’m convinced that an actual Phonics program should be taught/pushed… just my .02 cents, though)
and finally:
Math Explorations (they list several resources, including Earlybird Kindergarten Mathematics & Singapore Math).
I hope this helps!!
Let me know if I can answer any other HOD related questions you may have, and please feel free to email me directly: midnightbrew79@gmail.com
Melanie
We use HOD. This is our second year with it (14th year of homeschooling). HOD does have a lot of good CM qualities. There are things that are definitely not CM. I would say that it has more of a “regular school” feel than SCM. I have pretty much tossed most of it out except for the history this year. It does have dictation and poetry built into it. I do like that. We’ve found the science boring and too schoolish. So, we tossed it out. I don’t mind reading the books and narrating them.
The first year I really liked the Bible portion but in Preparing Bible is lacking greatly, in my opinion. This alone has caused us to look elsewhere. MFW (which is not true to CM either) has much more Bible in it. SCM seems to be a good balance.
What I like about HOD is her literature selections (for the most part). Next year, I will not be using HOD. I will be putting together my own thing next year. However, I will use a lot of the literature that HOD uses. If you are looking for true CM you’d do better sticking with the suggestions here at SCM or other truly CM curriculums. However, CM is very easy to do without a boxed curriculum.
Of course, this is my opinion. Everyone is different in what they need and don’t. Especially your first year, you might want to used something already put together. I prefer MFW for the younger years over HOD.
I hope this helps.
Polly
Thank you both for your reply. I appreciate it so much!
I wish I was not so uncertain about just trying SCM out on my own the very first year! I feel like I’m lacking the confidence that I need. Also – I am afraid that without a schedule, I will have nothing to keep me accountable and on track. I know that many of you make your own schedule, but I just feel so new to everything that I’m afraid what I come up with won’t be enough or will be lacking.
Any advice on what to use and how to make it all fit together is much appreciated…(I know that’s a kind of broad question, but I really just appreciate anything you may feel led to say)
Here are the basics of where we are right now, in case that might help with any recommendations…
My daughter will be 7 in June. She will have completed Kindergarten in May at a private Christian school. She’s a little ahead in reading – maybe a 2nd grade level, and she loves to write creatively, but her handwriting is pretty sloppy. (I think mostly due to her fine motor skills not being as developed as they should be.) She memorizes scripture at school and with us as a family. She knows how to add and subtract, but hasn’t memorized any “math facts” yet. (other than skip counting) She is very creative. She will take anything you can imagine and turn it into something else…3-D art, you might say. She doesn’t always love to read, but she loves to sit with me and listen while I read. Oh, and we are, of course, working on our habit training. 🙂
Thank you ladies – this forum has been so helpful!
Megan
I have used Heart of Dakota for several years, I have experience with the first 4 levels. My children are ages 1,3,5,8,9. It is a very good program. I really like SCM as well, and have watched all Sonyas seminar. Where I have a problem with Heart of Dakota is when you have more than one level going at the same time. SCM is easier to combine everyone in my opinion. I still like doing the preschool curriculum of Heart of Dakota, to get individual time with my littles, they love all the finger plays and activities she has. I don’t do everything in the preschool curriculum, just pick some highlights I like for the unit. Overall, SCM is easier to combine multiple children. I actually like Heart of Dakotas history layout. Good foundation in Bible stories, and then in kindergarten (the red Book) a quick overview of creation to more modern times. Then a good foundation in our own nation’s history, which is actually really good history with good morals and Christian ideals, which is great for the growing minds of young children. I am contemplating switching to SCM, just due to the fact I have so many children and do not see how I can keep up such a rotation of manuals. I enjoy doing history together, and as my children age it will be really difficult with Heart of Dakota to do that. If you don’t mind having the child work independently and not join history and science, then Heart of Dakota is great. Or if you just have a couple children and are only going through one manual at a time.
Just my opinion, I to would love to hear others!
I used HOD for 4 years before switching to SCM. Yes, HOD is CM inspired but there are a lot of things in it that are not at all CM. Especially in the younger guides, there are a lot of busy-work type crafts and activities that just felt silly to me and my children. I also HATED trying to juggle 3 separate guides and was so burnt out but the time my oldest got to Preparing. We switched to SCM in January of last year and our homeschool finally feels peaceful and beautiful!
I do still pull leveled literature suggestions from the Drawn Into The Heart of Reading book packs for my kids to use as free reads. All of those choices are fantastic! If you are wanting a schedule to follow I would suggest using SCM guides for history, enrichment, and individual grade levels. They are laid out for 180 days of school and you simply do one lesson in each guide a day.
We used HOD for a few years. It’s not 100% CM, but has many CM elements. After a few years of HOD, I felt confident making my own plans, and was ready for something different (that’s when we switched to SCM). My kids got bogged down with the note booking pages when we got to Bigger Hearts. The math, poetry, history, and Bible lessons were great. My kids also loved the science lessons. I still have their preschool program and will likely use it with my youngest when he’s ready.
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