Valentine’s Day Fun – Why do you “heart” Heart of Dakota?
Happy Valentine’s Day to our fellow Heart of Dakota moms! We thought this would be fun to do, a kind of “count our blessings” for Valentine’s Day if you will. And who better to do this with than all of you?!? So here goes…
Why I “heart” Heart of Dakota…
1. I love Heart of Dakota because it helps me keep my priorities straight. A quality education is highly valued by our family, and to us that includes educating the heart as well as the mind. Heart of Dakota does both!
2. Our children use excellent living books every single day, but they use their Bibles every single day too. Providing a rich diet of literature that makes learning come alive is important in our homeschool. Heart of Dakota has chosen outstanding living books for virtually every area of learning. From history to science, from reading to devotions, our day is filled with books we love.
3. We have three sons, so another goal of ours is for our sons to be able to provide well for their own families someday, which means they need to be competitive when it comes to earning a salary. Heart of Dakota is giving our children an incredibly strong education that is preparing them well for their future.
4. Finally, we want to have a happy homeschooling environment, which means I need to be able to school in a timely fashion, in an enjoyable way, and in a manner that doesn’t require me to leave the home. Heart of Dakota’s guides are a treasure to me. They are truly open and go, and they help me organize my day in a balanced way that allows us to get the maximum benefit out of our homeschooling time together.
I still love what I do!
I’ve been teaching Heart of Dakota for 16 years, and I still love what I do. Charlotte Mason said education should be three things…
“Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.”
With Heart of Dakota, I have all three! What can be better that that?!? I can’t wait to read why you “heart” Heart of Dakota!
Love in Christ to all our favorite Heart of Dakota ladies this Valentine’s Day!!!
Julie
PS: If you wanted to stroll down memory lane, you may also want to check out this link to our Heart of Dakota message board where I posted this same question back in 2011.
This Post Has 13 Comments
I am PASSIONATE about HOD. Maybe a zealot? lol When people ask me why I love it so much, I give 2 major reasons
1) It is Chirst Centered. This means that the name Jesus is not just throw in for good measure, but Christ is adored, worshiped, and further known in every subject area.
2) Help is available at any time from the program’s creators. I have received phone calls, emails, and “conference calls” when I have requested help from HOD. This is invaluable!
Thanks so much, Shannon! We appreciate your sharing here!!! Mike and Carrie are reading these as well and are so thankful you took the time to post!!!
In Christ,
Julie
I love Heart of Dakota because of how real Christ is presented. In teaching biblical history as actual history (which it is, but public school lacks), it is presented in a way that makes the truth real and brings it to life ❤ With everything centred around a God-filled history, it creates in our hearts a God-centered lifestyle.
Thank you, Heather! Keeping Heart of Dakota Christ-centered has always been a priority of ours. We are so glad it is a priority of yours too – God bless!!!
In Christ,
Julie
Christ centered, easy to follow program with a perfect blend of written and hands-on academic activities. Also, we LOVE all the wonderful books!
Oh, I forgot to mention hands-on activities, Tracy! That’s so true! My 3 sons would agree. Thanks for sharing!
I love HOD! I have a busy house of littles and elementary age kids and HOD allows me to feel at peace that I am giving each and every one of my children a well rounded and Christ-Centered education without spending hours preparing! I truly love how open and go it is! I just started Little Hands with my 2 & 4 year olds and am looking forward to doing it for my 3rd time! It holds so many many precious memories for me that I don’t get tired of doing the same guides over again with new children. I love that HOD teaches to the younger age range and trains the older ones toward independence! I also love the focus on American history when the children are young. We live in a great country and I want to inspire my children to love and value what our nation has stood for in the past so that they will be willing to stand for and fight for their country themselves someday if called upon. Finally, I love that it is so Christ centered. I love that my children are reading and memorizing God’s word every day! Thank you HOD for all that you do! I never plan on switching curriculums EVER!
The open and go format helps me so much too! I agree – reteaching guides is something I do look forward to doing. In fact, I’m quite sad I’m done teaching LHTH through PHFHG, as my youngest son is now doing CTC. I hope to teach the younger guides again someday to help out daughter-in-laws, if they’d like that! We DO live in a great country, and the history does remind us to be thankful for the freedoms fought so hard for us to enjoy today. Thanks for sharing, Bethany!
I love Heart of Dakota because I feel immense peace. The lessons are manageable for a busy mom of four boys! I also love watching how the skills build on each other. My oldest is in Bigger and I have watched him grow in handwriting skills so much that he enjoys doing notebooking now. I love that my sons get to read books that inspire, make us laugh, and often have mom crying. I love watching my sons learn more about God and the Bible so much so that my oldest decided to get baptized this year! The customer service of HOD is so personal, the support of ladies from the FB pages so helpful, and I just feel God’s hand in this program. Whenever I am tempted to “add” to our day the stress and anxiety kick in and the workload increases. When I trust the Lord and just go with the curriculum flow, there is peace in my home! Thank k you HOD for making this momma so blessed.
Peace… ahh. Yes, that is a part of the big picture of ‘success’ in homeschooling, isn’t it?!? At least it is for me. Manageable, inspirational, go with the curriculum flow – love those descriptions for HOD. I’m so glad you like our customer service – we try to do the best we can, though we know we’re not perfect! I will share your comments with our sons/nephews who are a big part of customer service behind the scenes. Thanks so much for your thoughts here, Michelle!
Ladies,
Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to share about your homeschool days with HOD. I am humbled by the things you shared! We are so glad that you have chosen to use Heart of Dakota with your children. I pray the Lord will richly bless you on your homeschool journey!
Blessings,
Carrie
I agree about loving how open – and – go the curriculum is, but more than that, I love how flexible it is! I am a newbie homeschooler, my oldest (of 4) is going to be 7 in April and is working in lhfhg. I have anxiety and occasionally I find myself depressed. This curriculum is so full of grace! Even if I “fall behind” for a week, I can just jump right back in when we feel up for it. No preparing (with items, lessons, info, or just mental demand), everything is succinctly explained and all the dots are connected for us. I don’t actually FEEL behind. We’re getting our own rhythm in this real life that we actually have and HOD works with that – it works with REAL LIFE.
It’s Christ centered, trustworthy, flexible, and fun!
But mostly, I wouldn’t really be able to homeschool without it. I’m a paramedic and work a 40 shift each week. Which means I can homeschool 4 days a week. The fact that I don’t have a lot of prep work to do is a HUGE blessing. It’s pretty much open the book and go. SO thankful for HOD! ❤️