Heart of Dakota's Preparing Hearts for His Glory Year-End Review

It's such a good feeling to wrap up a schoolyear! We used Heart of Dakota's Preparing Hearts for His Glory with Silas, my 6th grader, and Titus, my 4th grader, this year. Heart of Dakota is a really great homeschool provider, and we've used several of their programs throughout our homeschool years. While we had a mostly fantastic year with Preparing, we aren't going to use Heart of Dakota next year.

WHAT WE LOVED

There are many things we loved about Preparing Hearts for His Glory. First I really loved the Teacher's Guide. You don't have a weekly grid schedule like most programs; instead there is a two-page layout for each day. That's right, for each day of the 4-day a week, 35-week program, you have a two-page spread detailing each and every assignment. This helped me a lot and kept me from flipping back and forth too much. 

We also loved most of the history hands-on projects. I tried to do the majority of them with the boys, and even when the activity sounded silly, they always had fun with it. The history projects were relevant to each week's lessons, easy to follow, and almost always used easy-to-find supplies. Toward the end of the year, we skipped most of the activities because we were so ready to finish with the schoolyear! I wish we would have done them, though, looking back.

stained glass project

The literature choices were excellent, and there were only a few books that we didn't enjoy - The Wonderful Winter, which we never finished because it was so incredibly long and repetitive, and Door in the Wall, which was interesting but really hard to read aloud because of all the old-fashioned language. Silas had some great literature in his history extension package! 

I loved being able to open the Guide, see exactly which books we would be using for the day, which supplies I needed to gather, and some of the "Key Ideas" which helped me see at a glance what we would be learning about.

WHAT WE DIDN'T LOVE

There were a few things we didn't love about Preparing Hearts for His Glory. The science portion is very disjointed in my opinion. Some days and weeks were full and fun, while others were dull, boring, and short. We didn't enjoy the constellation theme and substituted with a space unit from Gather 'Round Homeschool. Toward the end, we just read the book sections and asked the questions, skipping the experiments and demonstrations.

We also skipped the Bible memory as we were doing Bible Drill with our church, and we didn't enjoy the memory CD that was included and scheduled in. 

I don't love their math, grammar, and reading program choices, so we used our own. Toward the end of the year, I felt like I was only using the Guide for our history lessons (which I was!), and it felt wasted.

Heart of Dakota is also very expensive, as there are so many books to read. You could use your library if you wanted to, but our library doesn't have a good selection and the Interlibrary Loan isn't very user-friendly. 

We weren't crazy about Drawn into the Heart of Reading, which is the reading program by Heart of Dakota. The worksheets were hard to fill in and it was so time-consuming. We dropped it after just a few months of trying to make it work for us.

OUR TAKEAWAY

Heart of Dakota is a great program, but this coming year we are choosing to use something different. We wanted something more independent for the boys instead of teacher intensive.  With a baby due right after the start of the schoolyear, I need something that is going to be streamlined. Heart of Dakota is also very expensive, and I feel like I could use that money on some better resources. 

I can't wait to share what we will be using for this coming schoolyear!

Heart of Dakota - Preparing Hearts for His Glory: Getting Started

 This year we chose to go with Heart of Dakota for my children's main curriculum. I needed something open and go, already planned out for me, with all of the Charlotte Mason-y elements I love like living literature, narration, dictation, and enrichment.

Silas is going into 6th grade and Titus is going into 4th grade. We decided to use Preparing Hearts for His Glory with both of the boys. I love the way it does a broad sweep of world history, something the boys haven't studied yet. Last year we used Expedition Earth, which gave them a really fun overview of world geography. I think that will be beneficial to their world history study this year.

I also love how each week there is a history project - sometimes an art project, sometimes a hands-on project, sometimes a research project. The variety will keep the boys from getting bored. Plus they love anything crafty and hands-on!

Silas will also be using the Independent History portion of Preparing, where he will read a different book in addition to our studies and compete a separate notebook page. This will really prepare him to start working more independently next year. I placed the boys notebook pages (which are really beautiful) into three-ring binder. I divided them into three sections (four for Silas) - Written Narrations, Vocabulary, and Timeline (and Independent History for Silas). Easy!

During the time that Silas is working on his independent history, Titus will be working on his handwriting using A Reason for Handwriting T (Transition), teaching him how to write in cursive. We worked on this some last year, but his penmanship really needs some fine-tuning. 

They will be studying science this year using living books such as the One Small Square books, narrating, notebooking, and experimenting. I really like how there is one experiment scheduled each week, and they are totally doable! The supplies needed are easy to find and they aren't elaborate or time-consuming, yet they are engaging and fun! They'll be using unlined paper, three-hole punched and placed into a three ring binder - probably behind their history pages!

The other subjects that I always want to cover but usually don't get around to doing are already scheduled in the teacher's guide! Poetry, art, and scripture memory are already planned out for me, making things so simple. They'll be using a CD to memorize scripture chunks. I also like how they have their independent Bible study scheduled in.

We decided to go with Rod and Staff grammar this year, the boy's first year using it! I used this with my older kids and it was an excellent grammar program. I chose R&S 3 for Titus and R&S 4 for Silas since it's a rigorous program. We'll be using a plain notebook for their written work. They will also be using the dictation included in the teacher's guide, also in the same notebook.

We are continuing with Masterbooks Math Lessons for a Living Education 6 and 4. I like this math program for elementary, although I know many who think it's too light or too easy. It does start out slow in the early books, but it quickly builds up speed and becomes more difficult. It's a solid math program! We've used everything except Kindergarten. 

For reading, we're going to use Drawn into the Heart of Reading by Heart of Dakota. I bought the 2-3 level book for Titus and 4-5 level for Silas. In my experience, leveling down in this program is wise! They'll be reading books from 9 (I believe) genres. I didn't buy the book packs, but I will be using the suggested book list to choose these books. 

I have all of our books on a built-in bookshelf in our den/homeschool room. I have a cube shelf for the kid's daily books. Each child has a column of cubes. In the top, there is a bin for their math and grammar books, as well as any independent reading books. In the middle shelf, they keep their individual supplies - colored pencils, pencils, sharpeners, markers, calculators, and other items like that. The bottom shelves are empty right now.

I have all of our history, science, and read-aloud books on this tall shelf, right next to the cube shelves. I have them separated loosely by subject. I will grab the books we need each week and put them in a basket so they'll be easy to access. 

Setting up Preparing Hearts for His Glory was really easy. I am so excited to begin this curriculum! What are you using this year?

Zeke's Tot School Curriculum for 2021-2022

 Zeke will be 3 in November, but he already loves tot school. He asks for it almost every day! I've been compiling a really fun, hands-on bundle of curriculum for him. He absolutely loves worksheets, and even though I think worksheets are unnecessary at his age, I try to find him plenty to keep him busy. I know as I'm trying to work with my older kids this fall, he is going to need engaging activities and worksheets to keep him focused. 

His main curriculum is going to be Heart of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven. This is written for ages 2-5, and is mostly a Bible/letter of the week curriculum. There are very few worksheets, but lots of hands-on activities planned. We are going to use this as our starting off point each week. He will learn Bible stories and songs, letters, numbers, colors, and shapes. There are beginning math activities each week - super simple things like color sorting, counting, and patterns. I did make some worksheets for this curriculum, and they are listed under my Toddler Resources tab. Feel free to print them and use them. If you're interested in this curriculum, you can look at the first week for free! Each day has it's own page of plans. The plans are detailed which I really like.

I know this is not enough to keep Zeke busy. In fact, it will probably take us 15-30 minutes each day to complete the activities. I also purchased a huge bundle of Tubs and Trays activities from Teachers Pay Teachers. I printed quite a few worksheets that will go along with Zeke's letter, number, and color themes as well hands-on centers that I will use as tot trays or busy bags. I also printed some from different places that he will be able to use independently. 

I'm also creating lots of busy bags and busy boxes for him to use when I need some time with the older kids. I purchased another bundle of Center Mats which is a collection of pattern block cards, craft stick cards, pom pom cards, playdough cards, linking cube cards, and geoboard cards. These will be used as independent busy bags/boxes/trays.

I also purchased the Learning the Alphabet bundle from This Reading Mama.  She offers each letter for free, but I bought the expanded and update bundle and I'm so glad I did! There are quite a few worksheets and activities we will be using each week from that.

I organize Zeke's lessons weekly. I bought a banker's box and some hanging files. I labeled each file with the week and letter so I can easily see which folder to grab. All of the worksheets I've printed out, I have placed in the correct weekly file. I'm also going to be putting extra craft templates, fingerplays and songs, and other flat activities, including our Morning Board posters, that go along with each week's theme. This keeps things all in one place, easy to find, and difficult to forget. I'm planning ahead about five weeks at a time since the curriculum does 4 letters a week with a 5th week review week.

I also have a smaller file box that I'm keeping some of his hands-on activities organized in - letter and number wheels, playdough mats, and pattern block cards. This way I won't be always looking for the resource I need.

I also have a cube shelf with four large cubes that contain Zeke's other resources like pattern blocks, linking cubes, counters, puzzles, and other things like that. I actually need to go through it and purge a few things as well as organize a few things a bit better. My laminator stays on top because I use it all the time.

If you need some busy bag ideas, I have lots of busy bags in my Etsy shop! I'm also creating busy box digital files that you can use to make your own busy boxes. Zeke loves short and independent activities and I know I'll be depending on these quite a bit this school year - which is coming up so soon!

How do you organize your tot school resources?

2021-2022 Homeschool Curriclum Choices

 I know, I know...the 2020-2021 school year JUST ended. We have actually been finished since early May, and I already knew what curriculum I was going to be using. I wanted to go ahead and order it, get it in and organized, and get really familiar with it all. So, without further delay, here is our 2021-2022 curriculum choices!

Mercie - 8th grade

Mercie will be in 8th grade this year, which is a little mind-boggling. Time really does fly by! We chose her curriculum this year based on a few things:

1.) She is totally independent in her schoolwork, so she needed something with detailed instructions for each day and each subject.

2.) She loves to read so we wanted something with tons of great literature already planned in.

3.) She likes hands-on activities so that also needed to be written in to the plans.

We are going with Heart of Dakota's Missions to Modern Marvels this year. We went with the Deluxe program, including the President's study. There are so many great books she will be reading this year! The teacher's book has a daily 2-page spread with very detailed instructions for each subject. We printed out the first week sample and she really liked how it was written and the activities she would be doing. 

For math, she is going to continue with Principles of Mathematics Book 2 which was the recommended math in the curriculum. This worked out perfectly!

For grammar, she will be using Rod and Staff 7. She will also be using Write With The Best for composition.

If you'd like a complete look at the books she will be using, click Here!

Silas and Titus - 6th and 4th

Silas and Titus will be combined again this year into Heart of Dakota's Preparing Hearts for His Glory. This curriculum has a few independent activities but most of them are teacher-directed or semi-independent. I love the book choices here, and the detailed plans for me to follow! The poetry, art, music, Bible memory work, and nature study are already planned out for me so they won't be skipped.

We will have lots of great read alouds this year, and I am very excited about this! This is one area that gets overlooked or pushed to the back burner with the boys. I read aloud so much more to my older kids. I really am looking forward to this time with them.

Silas will also be using the Independent History section, and I may even let Titus take a crack at it. Here are the books for that.

For math, they will continue in Math Lessons for a Living Education 6 and 4. The suggested math was Singapore but we really like the math we're using. 

For grammar, they will be in Rod and Staff grammar 3 and 4. I'm considering putting them both in 3, but I'll have to get the books in to really look and decide about that.

To look more closely at the books we will be using, click Here!

All three of them will be using Heart of Dakota's Drawn into the Heart of Reading program. I did not order the book packages but will choose books from the included book list. I ordered the Superset Package because it contains the Teacher's Guide as well a one of each level of Student Books, which is exactly what I needed!

Zeke - Tot School

Zeke will be using Heart of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven alongside extra resources and activities that I'm creating to supplement it. He will still have his daily tot trays and activities that will correspond with the daily lessons. I've used this program with my older kids, and it's such a fun and gentle program. We may do it two years in a row or take two weeks per week and stretch it out. 

I cannot wait to get the curriculum in! Have you decided what you'll be using for 2021-2022?

Bigger Hearts for His Glory - Unit 18

Mercie picked up in Bigger Hearts for His Glory (Heart of Dakota) right where she left off last year, on Unit 18. She had such a fun week and looked forward to school each day.

In history, we read about Robert Fulton and his inventions. He made the first steamboat that actually worked. As a child, his nickname was Quicksilver Bob because he once bought some quicksilver (mercury) for an experiment. She gets to choose one word to define for vocabulary, and she chose "quicksilver". She wanted to know what mercury looked like, so we did a Google images search, and she drew a picture on her vocabulary page.

She used a plastic fork to paint 'fireworks' on a piece of paper, because Robert Fulton once made his own Roman candles for the Fourth of July. This was a lot of fun! She wrote a sentence about Robert Fulton on this once it dried.

She was excited to add "Robert Fulton 1765-1815" to her timeline.

She also made a Notebooking page that told facts about the invention of the steamboat.

In science, we finished up the One Small Square: Woods book. We compared the wingspan of six different owls by measuring and cutting yarn. Then we measured her arm span and compared it to the owls!

We also used straws to see how an insect sees things with its compound eyes.

She made a Notebooking page with funguses and plants and learned that fungus can't make its own food while plants can.

Her poem this week was "The Harbor". She illustrated it with a cute steamboat and we talked about onomatopoeias. She had fun reading the poem with feeling. She had it memorized by today!

She memorized Proverbs 19:21 this week - "A man can make many plans, but the Lord's purpose will prevail." (NLT) We learned about the character trait optimism.

She picked right up in Rod and Staff grammar 2, learning about adjectives. I forget how wonderful this grammar book really is! We do most of the pages orally, but I have her write down one exercise in her composition book. It's usually around 5-10 sentences or phrases.

In math, she learned how to multiply and divide by 4, reviewed clocks, addition with carrying and subtraction with borrowing, and finding the perimeter of a square.

She continued reading "The Mouse and the Motorcycle". I may start Drawn into the Heart of Reading with her - I spotted it in my storage building this week and can't quit wanting to go back and get it!

I found this picture she had taken on my phone of her bed and her stuffed animals and doll. She got the unicorn last year for Christmas, and she still loves it! The thing is bigger than she is, but she sleeps with it every night.



How was your week?

HOD: Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 17

We completed Unit 17 in Bigger Hearts for His Glory this week. Mercie is in 2nd grade, and Eli is in 5th grade. Here is our week in review.

In history this week, we read about Daniel Boone. The kids really like listening to the crazy stories about his life in the wilderness. We wrote a little about his life and drew a picture of him swinging from a grapevine {which is how he escaped from Indians once}. As you can see, we used our journals for some of this!

They defined vocabulary words, added to their timeline and made a notebook page.

In science, we read about the parts of a root and made a notebooking page. We also used our journals to draw pictures of bacteria and parasites that eat dead wood, draw a squirrel and do some copy-work.

Our poem was called "Under the Trees", and the kids illustrated it.

Mercie worked on addition and subtraction in math, and Eli worked on Khan Academy on several different math concepts. He likes skipping around, and he is doing great in math, so I let him work on whatever he feels like.

Mercie worked on nouns and verbs in grammar and her Fun-Schooling Spelling book. Eli worked on IXL, and had some spelling pages in his journal.

They both work on Cheerful Cursive several times a week and are really doing well.

Eli got his Bible Journal in, and he and Mercie worked in those. I really like these journals, because they have room to write verse, prayer requests, things you are thankful for, and pictures to color and read the scriptures. It gives them room to think and ask questions.

 

Next week, Mercie and I will be using Five in a Row. Eli will continue in Bigger Hearts. He is doing great, but she is bored with it. She is on the young side of the placement for the guide, and I feel like she is competition with Eli {who is 3 grades above her} every day. He doesn't have as much difficulty as she does because he is older, and I feel like he could expand on some subjects. I don't want her to feel like she's always trying to compete with him, and I really want her to enjoy schoolwork. I explained to her what FIAR would be like, and she was so enthusiastic that I ordered it.

Eli, Mercie, and Silas had karate Monday and Wednesday. Eli and Mercie got two green stripes on their white belts! Eli and Mikaela had Bible Drill this week, and Mercie, Silas and Titus had Team Kid. We had a fun and busy week that flew by way to quickly.

How was your week?

 

Heart of Dakota: Week in Review {September 21-25, 2015}

This week, we completed Unit 9 in Bigger Hearts for His Glory and Little Hearts for His Glory. I know I post a lot of pictures, but we have so much fun and fit in so much learning in each day. I really don't even post pictures of everything we do! So, here goes...

Bigger Hearts {unit 9}:

We learned all about Benjamin Franklin this week in science and history. One thing I love about Heart of Dakota, is that the science and history are intertwined. History is also presented from a biographical perspective, which makes it much more interesting. Anyway, we read about Ben's childhood, his inventions, and his contributions to Colonial American science.

Eli and Mercie completed a notebook page about Ben:

I had them read Now and Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin. This book was really interesting, and taught them all about Ben's crazy, yet practical inventions.

they also made a science notebook page about Ben. They copied Job 37:11-12, and then drew a picture of one of Benjamin's experiments. Mercie drew the kite experiment, and Eli drew the lightning rod experiment.

We attempted to do an experiment with balloons on static electricity. Our balloons were NOT working right! We were supposed to rub the balloons on our shirts, and then rub them together to see sparks. We tried rubbing them everywhere, but we could never see sparks. So, I did what any good homeschool mom would do. We YouTubed it! And then the kids completed their science experiment sheet.

Our poem this week was Consider. The kids illustrated their poem as always.

 

Our Character trait this week was thriftiness, and our scripture memory was Proverbs 15:16 and 17, "Better to have little with fear of the Lord, than to have great treasure with inner turmoil. A bowl of vegetables with those you love is better than a steak with someone you hate." I actually wrote that from memory, so another plus about HOD is that I am memorizing scripture right along with the kids.

We also made potato stamps and used paint to stamp a picture.

 

Our vocabulary words this week were lathe, molasses, and scour.

 



Here is what Eli did and learned in his extra science this week:

what makes up blood cells

vitamins and minerals and where to find them in food

food groups

the anatomy of the heart

 

Little Hearts for His Glory {unit9}:

 

Silas had a fun week. In math, we learned about geometric solids. I ordered this kit to help him visualize the shapes:

 

He does really well at matching and recognizing them, but can't remember the names.

 

He is still working on handwriting. Forming letters is really hard for him, but his other fine motor skills are developed well.

 

His memory verse was Philippians 2:14. He traced it and colored a picture.

 

 

In Bible, we learned about Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, and King Joash. He loved our Rhyme in Motion, Five Special Prophets. There were several fun activities this week. He pretended to be a raven and brought me bread {cotton balls}. He used a clothespin for a beak, and insisted on putting it in his mouth!

 

 

We made a Jonah craft and then performed a float or sink experiment.

 

 

He made a picture of heaven by dipping chalk into sugar water and drawing with it.

 

He also made a crown like the young, 7 year old king would have worn. Then, he hid while I searched for him.

 

 

I order him the All About Reading pre-reading level. It came in Thursday, and boy, do we love it. He already knew the letter A, but we went ahead and spent two days on it. He made his craft, we read a poem, and he used pipe cleaners to make an A.

He loves Ziggy the puppet, who helped us play a rhyming game with body parts! Ziggy would point to his arm, and call it a "farm". Silas would laugh and say, "No, my arm!" He still doesn't understand the concept of rhyming, although we are still working on it.

 

I have a feeling we are going to enjoy AAR. It did make phonics seem more fun to him.

 

And Titus, my 3 year old, was not left out. He tags along and does many crafts and experiments with us. I ordered an extra student packet for AAR, and he is learning along with Silas.