We are starting Beyond Little Hearts on Monday with my 2nd grader and k/1st grader. We haven't used it yet, but I love that I can combine my two for a lot of subjects with HOD, I love the living books (I can't wait to get started on the books we get to read this year.). Their science is way too light, in my opinion, so we will be sublementing with other science. I like how biblical concepts are woven into their history. I am really impressed with Drawn Into the Heart of Reading, their reading program for grades 2 and up. Kids read books across 10 genres and activities are planned for each day, with a cumulative project at the end. I'll let you know what we think after this week.
I am currently using Little Hearts with my 6 year old and going to start CTC with my 10 year old. It seems to be such a controversial curriculum out there, for lack of a better way to put it. Those that use it are very devoted and want to defend from people who don't like it. And the people who dislike it are really negative about it. I have wondered why. Anyway CTC will fit my 10 year old well, but I'm not afraid to make adjustments as needed. I just like having something already planned in case I'm too tired to plan.
I have used it with my kids since we began homeschooling 3 years ago. It has good and bad like all curricula. I have struggled with juggling 3 guides at one time. We have done LHTH, LHFHG, BLHFHG, BHFHG, PHFHG (some), and CTC. We will not be using it next year. It is a decidedly Protestant curriculum with a reformed slant and that becomes more evident the higher up in the guides that you go. Using HOD over the past few years, I realized that the reformed Protestant POV was in every subject since Bible is interwoven in every subject. The religion is more reformed Protestant and the book selections show that as you get into the higher ages and grades. I think it can be a really good curricula if you are of the same beliefs. We are not. Some of the things we have really enjoyed with HOD- The Thornton Burgess books for storytime in LHFHG The Emerging Readers books and schedules The Reading Lesson for phonics Write with the Best Storytime books Some of the things that didn't work for us with HOD- R&S English Singapore Math Reformed POV for Biblical History Projects that were younger seeming than the age level of the guides Lack of spelling instruction and switching to only dictation The extensions did not seem to up the level of the guide-they were just reading lists with some narrating. We will be doing a secular curriculum next year and adding in religion as it's own separate subject. We will continue with DITHOR as well. I do plan to have my kindergarten child go through the Emerging Readers Set after he finishes phonics. I definitely liked the 2 day spread and the setup of the guide. It just has Bible interwoven too much from a POV that doesn't align to our beliefs for us to continue at this point.
We tried PHFHG last year and it only lasted about 8 weeks before I tossed it. I agree with a previous opinion about the science being very light. This guide is supposed to be for 9-11 yr olds and I thought it seemed more appropriate for about 5-7. Some of the projects were ok, but my kids were a little bored and un-challenged. We spent way too much time skimming the "history" just to find something we didn't already know from Sunday school stories. I want my kids to have a Christian education, but all it was was Bible stories, no history. I nearly fell asleep with the read-alouds. I wanted to love this so much, but it just wasnt a good fit for us.
Yes, I totally see what you guys are saying. I have a love/hate relationship with it. Openminded, I agree with several things you said, especially about the projects being too "young" for the books/guide level. Also, I know the author wrote in what she thought best, but it seems like books in some of the guides are for older children, and some for younger. It does feel a little imbalanced. But....writing curriculum is VERY hard to do. There are things about it that are great for me, and there are things about it that I would change. The reason we use it at this point are for 2 main reasons: a)I want something already written out for me so I'm not panicking every other week (getting really tired of doing that ) and, b) I feel confident enough now to add or take away from it as needed. To me, it's just a foundation from which to build on. Ds10 will be starting CTC soon. Narration is his strength. Am I going to follow the guide to the letter and only have him do written narrations every 4 days just b/c the guide says to? No, not if he needs it done differently. I have noticed that the message board seems to be a very big influence on some of the moms. Everyone is as nice as can be, but some of them seem a little "trapped" like they have to follow the guide exactly as written and then end up discouraged if that doesn't work for them. Anyway, it works for us now. I've come to the point that it really doesn't matter what curriculum I use (as long as it doesn't contradict our beliefs), what matters is what I do with it while it is in MY hands. Have a great night, everyone!!
I tried the youngest level but *I* have issues with box curriculum and it felt repetitive (I'm sure that's intentional and children learn through repetition) so for a variety of reasons we left it. I strongly considered the next one up for kindergarten this year because so many people I know LOVE and rave about it but I went with something else.
For kindy this year? I'm going to be using this K-4 from Erica at confessionsofahomeschooler. I've been working on printing everything out and putting it together. We've been using her Letter of the Week program for three years or so now and this just flows it into kindergarten learning - phonics, beginning math, handwriting practice. Still lots of hands on which my kids love but learning the stuff they should be learning. I'm really pleased with it. We did the first couple of weeks in June to see how we liked it and my kindy boy enjoyed it a lot. I'm putting the consumables in page protectors in 3 prong folders and will re-use with the other two in the future as well. She also includes some basic Spanish flashcards and such as well. And she put out add-ons free on the blog. Today in fact she put out "sight word searches" which I promptly downloaded. lol So my kindy will be doing her weekly lesson plans for math/phoncs/writing and we'll be doing science/art/history/geography with my 2nd grader using Usborne Science activity books and doing a study of different countries and cultures around the world throughout the year. For kindy with my oldest we tried MFW kindy and while I thought the program was amazingly solid in science it was little light on math but also I just have a really hard time following a box curriculum. :lol: We gave that one up after about 8 lessons as well and unschooled the remainder of kindy.
