Week In Review Sept.05,2011 to Sept.09,2011

[tuzor]

It was a short week here but we made the most of it.

We finished Unit 2 of LHFHG and unit 1 of LHTH.

Here is my blog link www.randomuttering.com Weekly Update #2

[moedertje]

I enjoyed all the pictures and reading through all your fun activities with your kiddo's. What a blessing

I have entered the world of blogging and it is a big stretch for me. I hope that I gave you the right link to my review.

http://goodpraisinghim.blogspot.com/

I hope that this is my direct link. For you seasoned bloggers, please let me know to do it, in case it's not.

[Tree House Academy]

Sorry - ds12 had a soccer game and I had to run before posting our Bigger update.

Bigger Hearts for His Glory

We had a wonderful week! We took Monday off for Labor day, so we starte the school week on Tuesday. I think we all needed the long weekend and it was great to spend extra time with the Daddy guy!

The biggest improvement I have seen in my younger son this year has been in his writing. He once dreaded copywork and now he does it with ease! He does a great job on dictation too and is really getting the hang of it.



In science this week, we began learning about colonial medicine. He did a neat lab sheet about ideas that did and didn't work. He didn't even complain about writing them all out!



We also got to do a really neat Science experiment about how the body fights off viruses. It was very interesting and he enjoyed putting the antibodies in there to attack those viruses! haha. He learned a lot with this and started talking to me about how vaccines work and how the rash he got from the Chicken pox vaccine was just his body getting a tiny bit of the virus and then it fought it off and now he has the antibodies so he hopefully won't get them ever again.



He completed his first real review in English and did a perfect job! He loves English (and since that is what my degree is in, it thrills my little momma heart to know he does!).



In Math, he is learning to add with carrying. First just in one column and then in all/more than one.



He is really enjoying his DITHR this year! He is currently reading "Sarah Plain and Tall" to me and today he did a cute little drawing as part of his worksheet. It is the family sitting around the fireplace reading Sarah's letters.



I am seeing him really rise to the challenge with Bigger Hearts! I am so happy and proud of him...and I am so blessed to have found HOD to keep us moving in this journey.

[totallyblessed]

Had a really good week in Bigger unit 3, dd really liked science this week and we are all enjoying the storytime. Taking next week off to take a little trip, the flexability of homeschool is awesome!

[my3sons]

My, my, my - this place is hoppin'! This was all so much fun to read. I loved seeing the pictures, reading the comments, and seeing how HOD is blessing your homes just as it is mine. What a wonderful way to begin my day!

We have finished our first 6 days of school with RevtoRev, BHFHG, and LHTH. I was glad to get back to the routine of homeschooling again after a terrific summer that was more unpredictable. I like this ebb and flow in our lives. RevtoRev is my only new guide to teach, as we are finishing out Bigger Hearts and LHTH. The priorities at the start of this school year have been helping my oldest ds learn how to do each box in his new guide, helping my middle ds gain more independence as he finishes out his last 4 weeks in Bigger Hearts so he is totally ready for PHFHG, and helping my youngest ds begin some phonics and build some fine motor skills.

I put a lot of time into figuring out a schedule that I thought would work. It helped to pattern it somewhat after last year's schedule, as that worked well, but I added some changes as far as round table type learning. My youngest is now 4 1/2 yo, and more able to sit at the table to do Lakeshore learning games and playdough by us as I do dictation, R & S English, and part of DITHOR. He also plays his educational computer games (Jump Start Preschool, Reader Rabbit Preschool, and the like) very independently for 30 min., as well as play with each of his brothers for around 45 minutes. We finished exactly on time the first day of school, and ever since then, we've been finishing 30 minutes early. I think it's because my oldest works efficiently, my middle ds knows what he's doing as he's finishing out Bigger Hearts, and my youngest has grown up more. I also used the most time a box would take according to the suggested times allotted here on the board, and used the times for PHFHG instead of Bigger Hearts (as my ds will be doing that for most of the year anyway). I made sure my LHTH child had 45 minutes in the plans, as he'll be finishing out LHTH and going into half-speed LHFHG mid-year. Soooooo, school could take longer partway into the year, but I'm happy with how it's going either way.

We've really had such a great start to school, and each day keeps getting better! The hardest thing for us was to get used to getting up an hour earlier than we did in summer. I think now, we are finally back in that routine. Making sure the dc were actually going to sleep on time each night made the biggest difference. I think I'll do 3 separate posts on each of the dc, so here goes Emmett's, who is in LHTH...

Emmett loves his Bible "The New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes". He runs to get it from his tub and waits for me on the couch. One of his favorite stories and activities this week was reading about Jesus as the good Shepherd. He loves to dress up, so here he is as the sheep herder, herding in his sheep with great care and speed ...


He can answer almost all of the questions after the Bible reading now, so his comprehension has grown so much. I am so thankful for the questions, as they have helped to teach each of our dc to learn to listen better to what is being read, and also to be able to think more about the story to be able to answer questions about it. Emmett adores "The Singing Bible" songs! He marches around the kitchen with a huge smile on his face. He is the leader (of course ), and I must follow. I like to sing along with the song with the lyrics in hand, as he understands the words well then and picks up more of the tune. His favorite song right now is "Love, Love". The older boys often sing along as they are doing their seatwork for their different guides at their tables, and it's just a happy time.

Fine motor skills sure have taken a turn for the better. Emmett can cut, color, paint, and glue better than he could last year, and he loves his letter activities and art projects. I like the "dot" paints, as they are fun for him to paint with, without being really messy. Here he is with his rock strewn path, with his "U", and with his "v"...


When Emmett's older brother Wyatt has finished his work for his block of time and is ready to play with Emmett, he has started re-enacting the Bible story Emmett had for the day. They have been having so much fun with that! So, if Wyatt has finished all he is supposed to within the schedule before his time to play with Emmett, I sometimes save either the Fingerplay or the Bible Activity for Emmett and he to do during their playtime. That has gone so well! They both love it. Here they are doing a Bible Activity together...


What a wonderful start Emmett had to his school - he brings us such joy! We are glad to have a little one still.
In Christ,
Julie

[my3sons]

Bigger Hearts for His Glory
Riley is finishing out the last month of his Bigger Hearts guide, and he is loving the Wright Brothers so much! He enjoyed making his own box kite and giving it a go to fly it in our yard. He realized that mastering the technique of aeronautics is harder than it looks. He showed tenacity, like the Wright Brothers though, and finally got his box kite to catch some air and fly...


Experimenting with air flow was another favorite this week. Riley got a ping pong ball, and experimented with air flow. He even took the experiment a little further and used all my hair dryer's attachments to find which one worked the best. He learned that if he moved in a circle and kept the air balanced, he could keep the ball in air for a very long time. He also experimented with just how far horizontally he could turn the dryer on the ball and keep it in the air. Such fun!


Another experiment Riley conducted helped him see how the Wright Brother's glider took flight. Blowing air on a suspended balloon lifted the balloon up, as it would a glider. He enlisted brother Wyatt's help, as well as mine, and we all had fun with it...


I can tell that Riley is in his final month of Bigger Hearts. He came back to it after our summer break with great ease. He has such an enthusiasm for what he is learning. He now has the skills intact and can just really enjoy his days so much. I remember when vocabulary cards were difficult, now, he has the skills down pat to do them well...


Riley is loving the book "A Little Princess", and so am I. (Yes, I know it's a girl interest title, but he's read the other 2 choices, and the truth is, I've always wanted to read this anyway. ) The tenacity of Sara Crewe is incredible. So is her ability to use creative imagination to overcome adversity. My creative, imaginative, emotional little Riley can relate. Today we sung one of the hymns we learned in "Hymns for a Kid's Heart" in church. He smiled from ear to ear and sang it with joy - I did too. Our "Little Pillows" discussions have become a special time for us - he is now able to grasp the concepts so much better, and I love that he likes to sing the verse at the end to his own tune. Riley has grown into the writing of Bigger Hearts and can now do all of it well. His oral narrations have improved so much. His cursive is lovely. I am having him read his science on his own, and just doing the follow-ups with him now, to get him ready for PHFHG. We have had a little over 1 1/2 years together in Bigger Hearts, and still we are kind of sad it is coming to a close, yet we are ready for our new adventure in PHFHG to begin. But for now, Bigger Hearts has given Riley and I another terrific week together. I've watched my ds grow up and truly blossom in this guide. What a blessing!

In Christ,
Julie

[my3sons]

Revival to Revolution:
Wyatt is off and running with his new guide, RevtoRev this year. He decided to get up early and do his science again this year, as he enjoyed it so much last year. He sets his alarm himself, and gets up at 6:30 AM to do his science. I think he really loves this time, as the house is quiet, and it is just him and my dh up puttering around the kitchen together. Sometimes my dh is already gone, but often times, they have some time together just to chit chat and be with one another as each of them gets ready for their day. Wyatt LOVES "Exploration Education" - REALLY loves it. He tells me often. Building the racer first was genius - thanks HOD for picking a science that is so amazing!


The Inventor Study is full of some page turners. Wyatt's favorite so far is Faraday, but he has said he really loves them all. I am so glad these are paired with the physical science study this year. I think they are a window into the minds of scientists, and that just helps my ds think more like a scientist, as well as be truly amazed and inspired by them. The inventor study pages are beautiful, and Wyatt wanted to showcase them in a small binder of their own. I thought that was a great idea, so we did.

Wyatt does his own Bible Quiet time after his science, and enjoys that private time in his room doing his Bible. He liked Evelyn Wheeler's Phil. study so much last year, and he is enjoying her "Heroes of the Faith" study this year too. She has a way of writing inductive Bible studies that create a special Bible Quiet Time with just enough guidance for dc, and without too much regiment. I love that he is starting his days with the Lord in his own personal quiet time, and I pray it's a habit he keeps forever.

The history is fascinating. Wyatt's got his head happily buried in "George Washington's World" and thoroughly enjoys lending a listening ear to Diana Waring's "What in the World? Vol. 3". His notebooking is turning out to be so lovely. What beautiful notebooking pages RevtoRev has!


The history projects continue to be a favorite activity of Wyatt's. I am sooooo thankful that these continue to be a part of HOD as Wyatt grows. I believe dc need hands-on activities, and learn so much from them. Yet, often in older guides these are dropped. HOD specializes in hands-on activities that are doable, fun, meaningful, use things I have on hand, and take a nice amount of time (20 min., 3 x a week). I would not get hands-on activities accomplished in our homeschooling without HOD. Wyatt LOVES these activities. He is often humming as he works on them, and he wants zero help from me (which is fine, as he can do them well without me anyway). Here he is making his chief's hat, and of course - everyone wanted to try it on when he was done (I guess Riley is pretending to shoot a bow and arrow as he wears the hat to give it real life )...


The Storytime "Amos Fortune" is captivating. He is giving some pretty moving oral narrations from that book. The higher level questions written for Storytime this year are exactly that... higher level. He can think deeply about his answers and expound upon them, making our question and answer time very enjoyable for ME. I feel like I'm discussing a wonderful book with a good friend, delving deeply into it, and enjoying the conversation immensely. I love this part. Map Trek fits perfectly with what we are learning, is neat, and is independent. What more need I say about that, other than... "Applause, please!!!"


Wyatt has turned a corner in his R & S English. He is doing R & S English 5 daily, and doing just fine. He knows the answers to all of his oral review questions now - HOORAY! In years past, I would have to help him with these more. He'd know some of the answers, but need help with some of the others. Now, he has apparently committed them completely to memory and is answering them all quite well right away. He also is applying all of the various writing techniques HOD has taught him through the years quite naturally to his creative writing. I love that the Creative Writing program is Christian-based, and that it gives him enough guidance without suppressing his individual creativity. Here he wrote his paragraph about an animal he saw. He asked if instead of doing a zoo animal, he could write about a snake he'd seen in our backyard, and I was fine with that as it still fit the writing assignment's purpose well. Here is his paragraph...

This is how it reads...
I was peacefully cutting grass with my little lawnmower when I saw it. All I saw was the grass moving and the slimy black tail of a reptile! The garden snake stopped long enough for me to get a glance at him. The yellow stripe, the long body, the slipperiness of a snake, and the bloodshot eyes in the little beady head. I watched it slither away and let it live another day.

I thought he did pretty well. He only misspelled "slipperiness", and I gave him some creative leeway on the sentence fragment "The yellow stripe...", as it seemed to fit well the way it was.

I am finding Singapore Math just keeps impressing me. Wyatt is doing 5B/6A this year, and he came back to it like coming back to an old friend - after a substantial summer break. He just gets it. I am sometimes still figuring out an answer as he is writing it down, and I loved math so much. It really is a solid math program. Dictation continues to move him along nicely in spelling too, and as the passages continue to get harder and harder, I am really pleased with his progress. I'm especially pleased with his spelling in his own writing. That has improved hundred-fold since we started dictation 5 years ago.

Our time together in "Who Is God? And Can We Really Know Him?" has already proven itself to be a favorite for the two of us. The way HOD has us choose our favorite points to share with each other from each section has sparked much discussion, and I have made sure NOT to rush it. During this time, I have Riley play with Emmett, and Wyatt and I take as long as we want with this. On the other days we are together, we do the Music Appreciation box, and that has been just such fun. I can see he is going to learn much from this while still just really having a fun time doing it.

The State Study is pretty effortless, and Wyatt really likes it. It's going to give a super overview of the 50 states in a way that my ds can do independently. Love that! The "Signers" is a very interesting book, and the card portraits of the signers are so neat. My ds is enjoying his research on these great men so much already.

I cannot believe how much Wyatt is doing in RevtoRev, and how much RTR made the transition into it smooth. He is ready for this - even the primary source documents - and they are m-e-a-t-y. One thing I made sure to do that has helped with any bumps in the road is schedule specific checkpoints for discussion questions, follow-ups, and correcting of work throughout the school day. This has helped me make sure we are talking about all we need to together, as well as make sure he is doing the work properly. I have to say editing is almost non-existent now - PTL! Wyatt has transferred many years of CM skills, writing instruction, dictation, and R & S English instruction to his own writing, and it sure has made my job checking his work easier. Consistently checking his work and using HOD's method of writing editing changes in the margin throughout the years has also helped him learn to be careful and do his best when writing. Also, having him read his written narrations and written assignments out loud to himself before handing them in (also an HOD tip), helps him catch most of the errors he may have. Correcting has turned into a fun and interesting reading time for me now, for the most part! Can he improve? Of course. There is always room for improvement. But, for now, I am one content mama with what I am reading. Can you tell we are loving RevtoRev?!? We couldn't be happier. Hope you all had a good week, and I look forward to sharing here with one another and drawing inspiration from each other the rest of our school year!

In Christ,
Julie

[MelInKansas]

I took some good pictures this week, and a short video clip of my 6YO and 4YO reading aloud, but I haven't had time to download them so I won't be including any pictures this week. But we did have a great week! We did do school on Labor Day, DH got to help and they loved reading to Daddy and Daddy played with DD2 during the time where she would usually be in her room while I read to the other two. They did really well even with him being off, I was wondering if it would be a distraction! We will be taking a week off in a couple of weeks to do some projects and because I will be out of town Thursday-Sunday that week so I thought we should go ahead and get that school day in.

It was an academically good week. DD6 is doing addition and subtraction mixed, using actual math "sentences" instead of the pictures that the book used to use and she has done pretty well with that. Plus and Minus are still confusing for her, she understands the concepts very well but she mixes the words up. Also it has been interesting to see her reading the stories and then she's supposed to decide if it's a + or - and what the answer is. It took her some time but she seems to have figured it out. She's continuing to breeze through the Early Reader's Bible for Emerging Readers. Right now, in order to cut down the time that DD2 has to be in her room (it was getting up to 45 minutes and she just wasn't doing well) I have DD6 read the Bible Story to DD2 and that has been fun. DD2 listens with rapt attention to her sister's reading, and since this is really easy reading for her it has worked out.

DD4 is doing very well with learning to read, she is making steady progress and her attitude this week has been good. I'm thankful that we can keep going ahead with this, 2-3 weeks ago I was worried we would have to stop!

One of the awesome moments of our week (so strange that I would say this) was when my DD6 and DD4 were actually in trouble for going outside and doing some things they were not supposed to do. They were having a time out and I noticed DD6 was crying. I said "what's wrong, why are you crying?" She said "Mommy, I'm so sad about the sin and the bad things that I've done." Whoa. Hopefully by God's grace I handled that moment well, we talked about the fact that her sadness was the Holy Spirit working in her heart to show her the wrong things she had done. And what does the Holy Spirit want us to do about sin in our lives? He wants us to change and follow God. And what did Jesus do about our sin? I feel like we had a really good talk and then we had a good prayer, I was just so amazed to see the Lord working in her heart that way.

The Arts and Crafts on day 5 is almost always my childrens' favorite part of school. This week I traced around them on large pieces of paper and they colored them to look like themselves, with what they were wearing that day and everything. We made a pocket and put Psalm 139:14 inside the pocket. It turned out great and of course they had a great time!

[Heidi in AK]

No blog posts this week, but we usually will try to post. We finished the first half of LHFHG Unit 1, and LOVE the flashlight exercise. DD doesn't get into the fingerplays and rhymes, but she did this time! We are doing some extra geography with a co-op, so I love how Creation ties in well with the entire world, and history and science both start with Creation too!!!

DD5 is very comfortable with LHFHG half-speed. Good call, ladies; thanks!

[tollhousemom]

Better late than never! We enjoyed another wonderful week with RTR. My son is doing well with dictation--I bumped him up from where he was in CTC. That was our first try with dictation and it was good, but I knew he was ready for more of a challenge. After getting in the groove for the first couple of passages, he hit his stride and is really excelling now. For his Boyhood and Beyond "project" to do something to take one small step toward manhood, he chose to take more responsibility for carrying things particularly for his sister and me. Being the youngest, he has often been able to depend on others to do those jobs. It is awesome to hear him singing his verses for his Philippians study early in the morning. And I'm amazed at how many times in conversation he is able to share tidbits of what he is learning. Just tonight he was reading aloud something he had written (not for school) and said he had to make changes because he had "banned words" in what he had written.

A few photos...

Part of a Venus science notebooking page from Unit 4 (he was so proud of his title):


A written science narration about Earth from Unit 5:


And the Edible Earth!! Since someone else said how yummy these were, we actually made a quadruple batch so the whole family could have some.


The history project for Unit 5...drawing a diagram of a monastery:


Part of the history notebook page for Unit 5:


He is learning so much and having fun in the process!

[Carrie]

Ladies,

I truly enjoyed reading through all of your weekly check-ins. God is doing an amazing work in each of your lives in equipping you to carry out His call to homeschool. I love the way you share your weeks with one another, as it such an encouragement to all those who read! It is also a terrific way to look back and marvel at all that has been accomplished. I pray the Lord may continue to richly bless your year!

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to share!

Blessings,
Carrie