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Kim, I'll jump in to answer a few of your questions, as I've got a moment here. Overall, it sounds like you're wishing you could do "Little Hearts...", and of course, you can do whatever you think suits your family best. The reason I recommended "Beyond..." is mainly due to your 10 year old. I was t...

Candice, I am a confirmed curriculum explorer, and so I know where you are coming from. I love to research and research and research! Some of us are like that. As I search though, I can always find peace when God leads me back to something over and over. I'm so glad that you are able to post what's ...

Candice, I hope you get some replies from the other moms on this board as they will have good insight in this area. Below, I copied how I explain the area of Language Arts on our website under "A Look at Each Subject Area". This may help clarify how we see that area at Heart of Dakota. "The Language...

Welcome! I'll pop in and answer your testing question from our perspective, since we're also required to test in South Dakota. We use the Iowa Basics and test yearly. Our kiddos have all used our programs and have tested very well and far exceeded our expectations. That being said, after 11 years of...

water2wine, You are right! Our plans are to have programs go from "Little Hands..." at the Pre-K level through grades 7-8 with the last program. Counting the Preschool program that will be 9 Heart of Dakota programs in a row and "Drawn into the Heart..." will make 10. Our newest program "Preparing H...

Lourdes, Isn't it funny how different children can be! Mine are so different too. It sounds like your older daughter had a similar experience in grammar as my oldest son. Rod and Staff isn't flashy, but it does explain concepts very clearly. I was so relieved to see the lightbulbs finally go on in t...

Melanie, I understand what you mean about ETC! My first son didn't like it all and my second loved it. (Although, we only used it as a supplement to practice the written portion of phonics). Another option you may want to consider would be using the last half of "The Reading Lesson", in order to com...

Melanie, I'll give you my two cents, since you haven't gotten a response yet. I'm sure everyone's still recovering from Thanksgiving and getting back into the routine of things. As far as "Beyond..." goes, the language arts is meant to be a gentle introduction to grammar, mechanics, and usage to giv...

You're very welcome. I hope it helped in some small way. My sisters often give me a hard time for my research mentality resulting in lengthy responses. Now, you'll know why!

Blessings,
Carrie

blessedmomof4, We do plan to use Rod and Staff 3 in "Preparing Hearts...", and it has taken us awhile to arrive at the decision to use Rod and Staff in the early years for grammar and writing. We have been through many of the big names in grammar and used several of them for more than a year each. Y...

Candice, You may be sorry you asked! Here's a long reply to a tough question. As you mentioned, you are more than welcome to choose your own math curriculum to use with any of our programs (and we do realize that there are many excellent math programs to use out there). However, we have tried many o...

weigh into your decision about which books to choose? For example, I am finishing up book selections for our packages for "Preparing Hearts for His Glory". In most cases there is a clear choice for read-alouds and readers. But, in a few cases, there is a short expensive book (such as "Leif the Lucky...

LeeAnn, You are so sweet to check and see where we will be exhibiting, however those are still our 2007 convention dates. We haven't updated yet for 2008. It looks like we actually won't be in Indianapolis in 2008, due to it being the same weekend as MACHE, which is much closer to home for us. Since...

I'm so glad that you have received such encouragement and good counsel from the ladies on the board already. I wanted to offer my words of encouragement too! With 4 boys at our house, I know where you're coming from. As a child, I only had sisters, so having boys of my own has been an eye-opener for...

These are great tips ladies. Keep them comin'! Since how to schedule your day is a question I get asked so often, I'm going to bump this one up the board to give those that haven't had the time to respond one more chance.

Blessings,
Carrie