Heart of Dakota

07/10/2025

From Carrie: Do you have a child doing Little Hands to Heaven or Little Hearts for His Glory?
If you have kiddos doing either Little Hands to Heaven or Little Hearts for His Glory, today’s teaching tip is for you! It’s a simple tip, but one that makes the “Rhymes in Motion” go more smoothly with your little ones! | https://tinyurl.com/y274frz6

07/09/2025

For this week's Graduate Spotlight, we are proud to feature HOD alumna Ellie! Here's what her parents have to say:

"Ellie is the oldest of our 6 children that started Heart of Dakota in Kindergarten with Little Hearts for His Glory while growing up on the missions field in the Middle East. She used it all the way up through High School with U.S. History II.

Growing up on the missions field required a curriculum that was rigorous yet flexible. Heart of Dakota’s open-and-go style allowed us peace in less prep time and more time to learn and serve as a pioneering family. We absolutely loved the stories of missionaries intertwined in the curriculum as well as the geography and history lessons of places that were literally right in our backyard. Multiple times we would see pictures in our books and say, “Hey! We’ve been there!” Halfway through middle school, our family had to move back to the states where we own a home in upstate New York, but continue to travel back and forth to the Middle East spending from 2 weeks to 3 months at a time.

A few of Ellie’s favorite Heart of Dakota memories are making the edible model of the earth, snuggling next to mom while reading Charlotte's Web, shooting off rockets in the backyard, any and all of the baking history projects, and having mom read the last few pages of The Secret Adversary to her in the British literature study. And how could we ever forget the model of the solar system stretching from one side of our home to the other! We loved learning about God together in every area of study!

Along with being an excellent student, Ellie also loves piano playing, running, baking, and dog breeding. She actually took over our family dog breeding business 2 years ago and has been doing exceptionally well at it. You can follow it on Facebook at Right Hand Spaniels.

In the fall, Ellie will be attending a university where she plans to study business and get her MBA. Ellie is a driven, passionate, articulate, and highly motivated woman of God that will serve the Lord wherever she goes. We praise God that Heart of Dakota played such an intricate role in her homeschool years!"

Congrats on graduating, Ellie! We pray that the Lord does great things in your life as you take your next steps. 🙏

If you have an HOD student graduating this year that you would like us to feature, just email us their grad photo and a summary of their education + post-graduation plans. We'd love to feature them! 😊

07/08/2025

07/07/2025

From Julie: This "Inside the Guide" series provides a quick snapshot of Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory! It's a handy "how-to" reference, just one box of plans at a time. Have you ordered Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory from Heart of Dakota? Or, are you considering using Beyond Little Hearts with your family? Well, either way, here's your quick-start "Inside the Guide" for... Beyond Little Heart's Picture the Past box of plans! | https://rb.gy/qapggj

07/04/2025

We at Heart of Dakota would like to take a moment to wish you all a happy and safe Fourth of July! We are extremely grateful to live in a country where we are free to worship the Lord and free to serve wonderful homeschooling families like yours. 😊

Have a wonderful day! 😃

07/03/2025

From Carrie: While it is important to take time off during the school year, summer is a great time to encourage reading. The long, lazy days of summer just beg for you to curl up with an ice cold glass of lemonade or iced tea and a book! | https://rb.gy/yhrbqp

07/02/2025

For this week's Graduate Spotlight, we are proud to feature HOD alumni Audrey and Ally VanEvera! Here's what her parents have to say:

"These are my girls Audrey (left) and Ally (right). They graduated this May! We used HOD from first grade (Beyond) to US History 1. They were able to take concurrent credit AP courses at the local high school their lasts few years of high school and scored well enough on their exams to earn college credits! This is all due to the amazing foundation set in HOD. It was a blessing to come across it 12 years ago!

Audrey's hobbies are theatre, playing piano and guitar and leading our church's youth praise band. She also loves animals and has a cat named Bambi. She enjoys reading, going to musical theater performances, and hanging out with her friends.

Ally enjoys dance in the genres of ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, and contemporary. She is a competitive dancer who has won regional and national competitions. She teaches dance as well as choreographs. In addition to dancing, Ally likes teaching preschool at church, teaching dance of all ages, reading, doing puzzles, volunteering for story time at the local library and hanging out with her friends.

Both girls will be attending the University of Central Arkansas this fall on full scholarships! Audrey has an undeclared major but has been accepted into the choir! Ally plans to pursue a degree in elementary education to become a teacher!"

Congrats on graduating, Audrey and Ally! We pray that the Lord does great things in your life as you take your next steps. 🙏

If you have an HOD student graduating this year that you would like us to feature, just email us their grad photo and a summary of their education + post-graduation plans. We'd love to feature them! 😊

06/30/2025

From Julie: Our young children today receive countless messages from peers, t.v. shows, song lyrics, commercials, movies, billboards, and advertisements. Powerful marketing messages make it their mission to influence the way our young children think and behave.

As Christian homeschool parents, we work to replace these negative messages with positive messages. We know what our young children hear, they say… and what they say – they do! And there aren’t any better words for our children “to hear, to say, and to do” than God’s Words! That’s one reason this Bigger Heart’s Scripture Copywork: Verses from Proverbs is so important!

Neat legible handwriting… proper letter formation… writing small enough to fit on lined notebook paper… proper spelling and punctuation… do these sound like writing skills you want your children to have?

Well, why not hone your child’s writing skills while also having that child commit meaningful God-honoring verses to memory? That’s a second reason this Bigger Heart’s Scripture Copywork: Verses from Proverbs is so important! | https://tinyurl.com/yzatxjjn

06/26/2025

From Carrie: During summer break, I am often thinking of ways to make the coming school year better. If you have little ones, it is important to plan for them just as you plan for your school-age children. This is because little ones can quickly waylay the best-laid plans you may have for school! With this in mind, I’ll share a few tips you could consider as you train your little ones for the coming year. | https://rb.gy/vtrdrj