Does anyone use HOD?

I have experience with HOD.  What guide are you thinking of using?

First of all, I am sorry to hear about your daughter.  I hope she is doing better now.

I was thinking that Beyond seems to be where you are at.  Bigger is more demanding, and Beyond prepares them well for it.  We enjoyed the history spines very much in Beyond, not so much in Bigger.  In Beyond, they were very engaging and the stories were easily remembered, but in Beyond they lost the energy and became somewhat stale.  As far as open and go with little or no prep, it definitely delivers!  It is definitely open and go and very full, but with short gentle lessons.  There are gentle grammar lessons built in each week, from the guide, not a text.  So, if your daughter has already had grammar instruction (if not, the guide will be perfect by itself), you may want to go ahead and get the next level Rod and Staff book, or go with something else.  Had I known what I know now, I would have used Serl’s from the beginning of our grammar instruction.  If she is doing well with Saxon, I would definitely not switch her over to Singapore though you may be tempted.

Depending on your 3 year old, you might choose Little Hands to Heaven, but personally I wouldn’t bother with it.  You can do well enough saving the money and just reading to her!  It is basically Bible stories, some acting out activities and letter learning, which you might like since it is in one place and you wouldn’t need any prep…again, it is open and go with exception for a quick glance to see if you need to purchase any materials for the next week.

Have you checked out the HOD placement chart on their site?  It may help you definitely narrow it down more, plus Carrie responds to emails if you want to talk directly with her.

I hope this helps some, if you have any more questions let me know!

I am happy to hear that she is doing well!

I used Beyond and half of Bigger with my oldest.  I used some of Little Hands to heaven with my two youngest, but it was really “hokey” and neither of them liked it.  The next year I began to use Little Hearts for His Glory with my middle and it was just not a good fit, over his head in areas and bored him in other areas.  My best experience by far was Beyond.  I cannot recommend it more highly if you are wanting something open and go, CM based and Christ centered.  We got lost in the middle of Bigger with my oldest.  The reads were boring to her and she lost interest in most subjects.  I was frustrated that I had spent so much on a curriculum and it was causing my daughter to dread school.  That’s when I found this website and used the free curriculum guide to plan our own thing having all of my children together then ages 4,6 and 8.  Combining would never have been possible if I had continued with HOD due to the differing levels of ability with my children.  HOD did give me confidence that I could do it though, so I am thankful for that!

So, no I have no reservations about recommending Beyond to you at all, having experience in 4 of the levels it was our favorite.  I don’t want to deter you from HOD by saying it was the only level we liked because we are just one family.  Many families start HOD at the beginning and love using it all the way through, it just didn’t work that way for us. 

I can encourage you of this though, you are only choosing curriculum for your needs for this year.  When next year comes your needs may change, you may be ready to plan some more, or you may decide Bigger would be perfect at that time, so please don’t let my critique of Bigger deter you from going with HOD!

Serl’s Language Lessons (Primary Language lessons and Intermediate Language lessons) is a gentle CM way of teaching grammar and very inexpensive (I bought both of mine on http://www.homeschoolclassifieds for $15 total – brand new)!  Each book lasts two years and there is dictation, copywork, memorization, picture study all woven in.

You can view both PLL and ILL at Amazon here :

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=serl+language+lessons&x=14&y=20

As far as adding in world history, I wouldn’t do it.  Beyond is fine as it is.

I hope this helps some!  Let me know if you have any more questions.  Choosing curriculum is a tough job and I am glad to help!

btw: There is another HODish curriculum out there that I have never used but have heard good things about called My Father’s World.  Have you heard of it?

Remember, there is no perfect curriculum.    I have to repeat that to myself 17.5 times a day when I am doing my yearly planning! 

Yes, HOD uses very Christian resources, so if that is not agreeable to you, than I definitely wouldn’t shell out the money for the curriculum because you’ll be doing alot of editing and such and you’ll end up with a tweaked curriculum that is not very open and go at all!  Which, would defeat the whole purpose.  Here’s my suggestion:

Since your dd wants to sontinue SOTW, why not do it?  In my opinion, one of the biggest battles is their interest level.  If she likes it, I would stay with it.  You would need to add math, which you are currently using, Language, geography unless SOTW includes it, and science (living books/nature study).  Then if you like, composer, artist, poetry.  I also add Scripture Memory, Bible and Worldview study. I may be leaving something out, but you get the idea…

Now, I love to plan…but if you don’t, an easy suggestion is to simply figure out which subject you want to do each day.  That would be the only “schedule” you need.  From there, keep bookmarks in your lesson books and work on it when the subject comes up on that day.  If you want to keep a record, write a quick daily journal of what you did that day.

I love Serl’s!  We’d done Rod and Staff for a couple of years and my daughter felt like it was too much repetition, so we did much of it orally, which with her meant no retention.  IMO it was repetitious and I was glad for a change.  Some families love R & S.  It is good curriculum, but it wasn’t for us.

In Serl’s you are doing something different everyday.  One day it’s the picture study, the next day it’s homophones, the next day it’s dictation, the next it’s memorization, etc.  Now, we skip the memorization, dictation and copywork because I do those from another source, and I have a goal of getting through this book quicker than scheduled so my dd can enter more analytical grammar in 7th grade, but it is really thorough and you don’t realize how thorough because it is so gentle!

Keep the questions coming!  I think we’re beginning to get this sorted out!

Yes, PLL would cover your dictation, copywork and memorization if you want to keep it simple.  I do like to keep it simple, but I just decided to follow the advice of some wise ladies on here and have her skip those lessons in the PLL book because we do scripture for memory (not using Sonya method yet), Spelling Wisdom for dictation and I make up our own copywork from something my dd needs to know since she learns best by writing.  You won’t need dictation yet since it is not recommended until 4 th grade, so you could skip the dictation lessons anyway.

As for phonics, does your daughter know all the sounds?  My two youngers are using The Reading Lesson right now, but as soon as they learn all of the sounds and get blending down pat I am going to pull out the first readers.  I am just one mom, but my oldest got bored with the phonics stuff after she knew the sounds and had a little experience with blending.  I pulled out the first readers and had her read out loud to me until she was easily able and then turned her loose to read on her own.  She loved the Rod and Staff Pathway readers.  Someone said before that phonics was a rung on the ladder, not the goal so when they know sounds, blending, there’s no reason to keep doing phonics programs.  They learn best by reading.

I am so glad things are getting clearer for you!  Let me know if you have any more questions!