Heart of Dakota

pecangrove, I can’t really comment on HOD because I don’t know enough about it…but regarding your rising K’er and the question on math and reading/phonics, I’m wondering if you know about the reading/spelling program called Reading Lessons Through Literature by barefootmeandering press.  Like you, I have a rising K’er who is eager to read.  I also have a 1st grader who finished level 1 of All About Reading and is reading basic early readers…but he needs to go to the next level and I have no desire to continue with AAR for level 2…just not the greatest fit for me.  I am really drawn to Reading Lessons Through Literature for the fact that it provides strong phonics reading instruction (via Orton phonogram method) AND spelling (via copywork), all in one program!  I am strongly considering using Reading Lessons through Literature, and simply adding a handwriting course to reinforce proper mechanics of penmanship (Delightful Handwriting or HWT are my favourites in that area).

As for math…when my 6.5 year old was a K’er we had fun just doing math on Starfall, including written reinforcement via the printouts, and hands-on reinforcement/counting using legos, toothpicks, etc.   Now that we’re in grade one, we’re doing CLE Math as a formal program, but it is remarkable to me how much he already knows just from having “played” math on Starfall.com (I had the $30/year subscription to get the full math)

Just thinking for a second on your comment about not wanting to do diagramming….from what I know, the strongest program on the homeschool market for grammar that DOESN’T teach using diagramming is Easy Grammar.  I could be wrong here (there are so many programs out there) but from what I remember during my research of many programs, they all seem to lean on diagramming, with the exception of Easy Grammar (which is not known to be CM, but I did it for a year and it was relatively user friendly and the lessons were easy to adapt to keep short).  In grade 3 and 4, you could definitely just do the shortened version which is called Daily Grams, and move to the full program around grade six using Easy Grammar 5/6.

HTH, Blessings, Angie

I would say it’s a mishmash of CM and classical.  The workload as you get up in levels is classical, although it’s CM based, doing small bits daily.  The small bits can be very time-consuming and borderline twaddle.  Not to say it’s not a good program, it is.  I would look at it as a smorgasbord.   I would say that LLATL and HOD are similiar.  It’s all encompassing.  But as you change out certain elements of HOD you start having time issues unless you’re a box checker at heart.   There’s a lot to do in HOD. 

As far as diagramming, HOD uses R&S Grammar and that has diagramming, but I don’t know about which programs do or do not use diagramming.  Diagramming has no bearing on HOD at all in the scheme of things.   It’s easy to sub math and science and a reading program.  LA can be done, but you have to be careful of overlap or concepts not touched on.  So for instance if you want spelling, you may not want HOD’s dictation, which is how HOD does “spelling”, but it’ll increase your daily time with the program.  You can easily use LLATL for reading and bypass the reading program, DITHOR.  There’s plenty of reading in HOD that I don’t find more is necessary, since we’re already working with our reading in the context of history or science.  Some of the writing elements chosen in HOD overlap what R&S covers, which I never understood that portion.  But since HOD doesn’t use spelling, but dictation, R&S covers some of dictionary/homonyms, etc that you don’t get in a spelling program.  You just need to make sure your bases are covered.