Heart of Dakota

Heart of Dakota is a family-founded, highly-prescriptive Christian curriculum designed around Carrie Austin's belief that parents need detailed daily guidance, not just materials. It is loved by families who want every day planned and skipped by families who prefer flexibility.

Last updated: 2026-04-20 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Charlotte Mason-influenced / literature-rich / highly-scheduled
Worldview	Christian-evangelical, broadly Protestant
Grades	PreK-12
Formats	Print teacher's guides + physical books
Cost tier	Premium
Parent intensity	4
ESA-common	Yes
Accredited	No
Established	2002
Website	heartofdakota.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	4	Solid literature diet; strong writing integration
Ease of teaching	4	Daily boxed schedule removes planning burden
Content quality	4	Well-curated books; activities are thoughtful
Flexibility	2	Scheduled to the day; deviation breaks the system
Value for money	3	Expensive; reusable books offset cost across siblings
Worldview scope	2	Christian-evangelical; family-owned and culturally traditional
Visual/design	3	Clean, readable; not visually distinctive
Support resources	3	Community forums, customer service; smaller than Sonlight

Who the publisher is

Heart of Dakota was founded in 2002 by Carrie Austin, a homeschool parent in South Dakota who had been unable to find a curriculum that matched her desired level of daily structure. The Austin family has remained the publisher's center throughout. Carrie Austin is the author of nearly every teacher's guide, and the company operates at a deliberately small family scale. This is a feature and a cost: HOD's tight editorial voice is consistent across the full curriculum, but the company's capacity to evolve quickly is limited.

Scale is moderate. HOD is not a top-five homeschool publisher, but it has a deeply-loyal user base concentrated among families who value daily scheduling and literature-rich curriculum. HOD users tend to be lifers, families who start in the early elementary levels and use the program all the way through high school.

The curriculum scope includes guide sets from preschool through twelfth grade, organized by roughly age/ability level rather than strict grade. Guide names include "Little Hearts for His Glory" (PreK-K), "Beyond Little Hearts" (first grade), "Bigger Hearts" (2-3), "Preparing Hearts" (4-5), "Creation to Christ" (5-7), "Rev to Rev" (Revolution to Reconstruction, 6-8), "Missions to Modern Marvels" (7-9), and the "Resurrection to Reformation," "World History," and high school American history programs.

The core pedagogy

Heart of Dakota's pedagogy is Charlotte Mason-influenced with a strong emphasis on scheduled daily practice. The publisher's core bet is that parents want a curriculum that tells them exactly what to do each day, subject by subject, and that this prescriptive structure produces better outcomes than open-ended philosophies. The teacher's guides are written as a daily "box" format, each day has a box for history, literature, science, Bible, language arts, and math, with specific assignments inside each box.

Scope and sequence is broadly chronological through history and literature. The elementary levels emphasize read-alouds, Bible stories, and simple narration. Middle school levels deepen literature and add structured writing and geography. High school levels tighten into discrete subject-area courses.

Signature mechanics: (1) Boxed daily schedule, the most distinctive feature. A parent opens the teacher's guide to "Day 14" and sees exactly what to read, what to discuss, what activity to do, and what to assign. This removes planning burden at the cost of flexibility. (2) Scheduled literature, books are not just assigned; they're scheduled chapter-by-chapter across the year, with specific discussion questions and narration prompts for each session. (3) Writing integration. HOD integrates writing (narration, copywork, dictation, formal composition) into daily subjects rather than treating writing as a separate subject. (4) Charlotte Mason methods at accessible depth, the guides explain narration and picture study in enough depth for a parent new to CM to actually use them.

A day in the life

A third-grader using HOD's "Bigger Hearts for His Glory" starts the morning with the parent opening the teacher's guide to the current day. The parent reads aloud the day's Bible story (10-15 minutes), does the day's history reading (20 minutes), does the day's literature read-aloud (25-30 minutes), does the day's science reading (15 minutes), does the day's language arts (from a separately-scheduled workbook, 25 minutes), and does math (parent-chosen publisher, 30-45 minutes). Total parent-involved time: 2-2.5 hours; student day: 3.5-4.5 hours.

A ninth-grader using HOD's World Geography runs more independently but still on a scheduled daily plan. The student reads the day's geography, literature, and Bible, completes writing assignments, and does math and science from outside publishers. The teacher's guide provides the same daily-boxed schedule at higher independence. Total student day: 5-6 hours.

What they do exceptionally well

Daily scheduled structure. For parents who want a curriculum that removes the burden of daily planning, HOD is arguably the most-prescriptive major Christian homeschool curriculum available. This is genuinely valuable for first-time homeschool parents, parents returning to the curriculum after a year off, and families during disruptive life periods where the parent cannot invest in lesson planning.

Literature curation. HOD's book selections are thoughtful and genuinely good. The publisher chooses books carefully, reads them, and integrates them deliberately into the schedule. The literature diet across a full HOD education is substantial and well-sequenced chronologically.

Accessible Charlotte Mason methods. HOD explains CM methods, narration, copywork, dictation, picture study, in a way that a parent with no prior CM exposure can actually implement. This is better than most CM-adjacent curricula, which tend to assume the parent has done the method's philosophical reading.

What they do poorly

Rigidity. The boxed-daily-schedule format is HOD's strongest feature and its biggest constraint. Families who deviate from the schedule, a sick child, a family trip, a bad day, struggle to catch up because the schedule is tightly-knit across subjects. Families who prefer to ebb and flow with their days will chafe.

Cost. A full HOD year for one student runs $500-$900 for the guide and books, plus additional math and non-HOD-published components. Multi-year commitment is substantial. Reusable books help across siblings but initial outlay is high.

Culturally traditional voice. HOD's editorial voice is culturally traditional in ways that some families appreciate and others find limiting. The curriculum reflects the Austin family's values, complementarian, conservative Protestant, modest-dress and traditional-family-structure, in ways that are not as overt as Abeka's but are nonetheless present. Families outside this cultural framework may find HOD's tone doesn't fit.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick Heart of Dakota if: you want a daily-scheduled curriculum that removes planning burden; you value literature-rich learning and Charlotte Mason methods; you are a conservative Protestant family comfortable with traditional-evangelical framing; you have children close in age who can benefit from HOD's progression; you want writing integrated into subjects.

• Skip Heart of Dakota if: you value flexibility and want to adjust the weekly schedule; you are secular, Catholic, or culturally progressive; you need the cheapest option; your child is bright and will finish the day's work in half the scheduled time, making the schedule feel slow; you want a complete single-publisher program without supplements.

Cost honest assessment

A full HOD year for one student, teacher's guide, books, and subject-area workbooks, runs approximately $500-$900 for the core components. Math from an outside publisher adds $80-$200. For three children at different HOD levels, assuming minimal book sharing, annual costs run $1,500-$2,500.

Compared to Sonlight ($1,000-$1,500 per child), HOD is roughly similar in price. Compared to MFW ($600-$1,000 per child), HOD is more expensive but more tightly-scheduled.

The HOD value proposition is the daily schedule. Families who value that structure find the price acceptable; families who could do their own scheduling don't.

ESA eligibility notes

Heart of Dakota is approved on most state ESA marketplaces including Arizona ClassWallet, Florida Step Up For Students, Iowa Student First, Utah Fits All, and Arkansas LEARNS. HOD's website has a dedicated ESA ordering page. Because HOD packages include many individual books sourced from various publishers alongside HOD's own teacher's guides, ESA families should confirm marketplace acceptance of bundled orders. HOD's customer service is responsive to ESA documentation requests.

Alternatives

• Sonlight, a family would choose Sonlight over HOD because Sonlight has broader-evangelical tone, deeper literature catalog, and more flexibility in weekly scheduling.
• My Father's World, a family would choose MFW over HOD because MFW has stronger family-combined-learning support and a more missions-oriented emphasis.
• Masterbooks, a family would choose Masterbooks over HOD because Masterbooks is less expensive and offers more modular selection.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed Heart of Dakota's catalog at heartofdakota.com, sample teacher's guides from Bigger Hearts for His Glory and Preparing Hearts for His Glory, and HOD's scope-and-sequence documents. We cross-referenced against Cathy Duffy's review, HSLDA's publisher profile, and community feedback from current HOD families.