Our 2017-2018 Homeschool Curriculum | Review and Next Year’s Plans

We are close to finishing up our first year of homeschooling, and we have learned a lot! This was our “trial year” to see how well we liked it, and if we wanted to continue. My oldest daughter misses the school deadline by just a few days, so even if it didn’t work out and we threw in the towel, I knew she’d still go to public school kindergarten right on time next year. While it has its challenges, we’ve both really enjoyed it. I love that she’s not coming home after 6 hours of school to do another hour of homework, and still has time to play and learn lots of life skills each day. Her little sister likes to “do school” (AKA coloring), too 😉

After quite a bit of research, and lots of indecision on my part, we went with Heart of Dakota’s “Little Hearts for His Glory” curriculum for this 2017-2018 school year. We’ve enjoyed most of the curriculum, but there were some things that were a little challenging, I guess you could say. I thought I’d do a quick list of Pro’s and Con’s from a first-time homeschooler perspective.

Pros

• The lesson planning is done for you. There is a 2-page spread for each day, which outlines exactly what you’re supposed to cover in each subject for that day. It’s clear and concise, but still thorough enough for a newbie homeschooler.
• The activities for the day all tie in together very well. The history lesson for the day, the Bible verse, and the Science/Art activity all reinforce the main subject of the history lesson.
• The multi-sensory approach really encourages true learning of the topic, rather than strictly memorization. My daughter was able to remember the topics we covered much better when we didn’t just read from the history book and skip the “extras” for the day. Whether it be a song, acting activity, art project, or other activity, she learned so much better when we did those, as well.
• It allows for you to easily incorporate your own Reading/Phonics, Math, and Handwriting curriculums. This was very important to me. Because of previous work in pediatric OT, I knew without a doubt I wanted to use Math-U-See and Handwriting Without Tears curricula. With Heart of Dakota, I wasn’t required to purchase a full curriculum that included math, and then purchase the additional Math-U-See curriculum. I was able to purchase just the basics and choose my own.
• It incorporates classic literature into the material. (I love the old classics, so this is important to me!)
• It requires a good deal of reading comprehension skill. My daughter is very Type-A, check-the-box, memorize-it-and-then-forget-it personality. Both the history and “Storytime” section require her to listen and answer reading comprehension questions. It’s been both challenging for her, but also an area of growth that is important.
• Price. Let’s face it – homeschooling can get quite expensive, and the price of Heart of Dakota for the quality of the material is a definite bonus.

Cons

• The science curriculum left a little to be desired. To be fair, you do have the option to choose your own science curriculum, but for ease, I decided to try the book they recommend. While the activities that corresponded with the science lessons were a great learning opportunity, I felt like the actual material was a bit lacking. We’ll be using something different next year.
• It only includes 34 weeks of material. If you’re in a state like mine that requires a full 180 days of school, this leaves you with 2 extra weeks. Of course you can supplement your own material in that time, but that’s an additional expense. Since most states require 180 days, I do wish they’d add on an extra 10 days to the curriculum, but it’s not a deal-breaker for me.
• It requires a lot of hands-on time. There’s not much down time during the material where the parent doesn’t have to be sitting right beside the student working, or working themselves. The history material is in short story format to make it more engaging and appealing to the kids, but that also means that parents have to read a lot. In addition to those stories, there is a “Storytime” section to work on reading comprehension and listening skills.

Having completed “Little Hearts for His Glory”, next year she would move to “Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory.” The history section of this curriculum focuses on US History, and was a major factor in my decision to stick with Heart of Dakota for our curriculum next year. While I want her to learn World History in great detail, I think it’s important to start with US History first (and I admittedly loved US History in school and just get giddy thinking about studying it for a whole year.)

We also plan to supplement HOD with the “Playful Pioneers” curriculum from The Peaceful Preschool. Since we’ll be moving to a farm (that’s the plan, anyway), we’re hoping to tie that into our everyday activities.

For Language Arts, we’ll be using Sonlight’s curriculum. It includes both spelling, language arts, and phonics in one curriculum.

We’ll continue with Math-U-See next year, using the Alpha book. Their video lessons and manipulatives have been very helpful with challenging math concepts this year.

The Grade 1 Handwriting Without Tears is another must-have for next year. I plan to also buy the keyboarding program and iPad app for a well-rounded approach. (I didn’t start keyboarding until middle school, I still sometimes can’t believe that it’s taught in 1st grade now!)

Possibly the curriculum that I’m most excited about it Apologia’s Science curriculum! I’ve heard great things about it, and am looking forward to digging a little deeper than HOD did for Science last year. We’re going to start with the Astronomy Textbook and Junior Workbook, and may move on to Botany if we have time before the end of the year.

Whew, that’s a long one! All in all, we had a great {learning} experience this year, and given my picky tendencies, I’m sure we’ll tweak some more curricula next year to find the best fit for us. That’s one of my favorite things about homeschooling, by far. I am able to choose curricula that work well for her learning style, but also challenge her to think in different ways. Have you used any of these programs? What were your experiences? I love hearing other people’s perspectives’!