Revival to Revolution:
We are about 3 weeks into RevtRev now, and I can always feel a change when we hit about that time in the guide. Wyatt knows how to do each box now! HOORAY!
All of that carefully going through each box of plans with him at first has paid off, and he now is into a great routine. Time is literally falling off our day now - he is clipping along beautifully, and managing his time so well. This is the result of doing 7 previous years of HOD guides. He just knows what to do!
I remind myself of this benefit of doing all of the guides carefully and completely each year as I teach my 2 younger sons. Boy, does that make homeschooling easier from year to year!
One of the many things I love about HOD guides is the VARIETY. The fact that Carrie looks at each year's body of knowledge and skills to be learned with a fresh eye, choosing whichever resources fit the particular needs for that year best, helps keep a refreshing variety to both my dc's work and my teaching.
There is a familiarity to the new guide, because skills are incrementally built upon from year to year, but there is also a freshness to the new guide, as the resources and activities are varied.
The familiarity makes it possible for my ds to get back into the routine of doing school efficiently and successfully fairly quickly, and the variety makes it possible for each year to have new and exciting things to do. I am so thankful that HOD doesn't just schedule "the next one" of everything. I am especially thinking of history, science, Bible study, poetry, music, devotions, storytime, reading, and writing here. Having different living books by different authors and/or different follow-ups from year to year in these subject areas keeps things new and exciting. Likewise, I am glad for the routine of doing "the next one" of subjects that really do need that continuity for skills to progress from year to year - like R & S English, dictation, and math.
The history projects have been essential for teaching my ds how to complete projects step by step, with greater difficulty and maturity, from year to year. I cannot express how thankful I am for these!
They have helped my ds become adept at many life skills - like cooking, creating artistic projects, building things according to a set of directions, constructing ways to test the speed/strength/etc. of something, planning for a social gathering at our house, leading a get together by reading/presenting something orally, breaking a project down into steps and seeing it to fruition, etc. HOD's history projects are helping him be successful in so many life skill areas.
Plus, they are fun!
Here is Wyatt's pottery he followed the directions to make the dough for, bake in the oven, and paint with a specific design...
I see it rests in the beloved place saved only for his favorite projects - on his dresser.
I know I said this last week, but I am struck by how many things just clicked right away this year. For example, R & S English 5. I have to say I was wondering how doing this daily would go, as we had done R & S English 4 half-speed for the last 2 years. I wondered if he'd have a hard time with daily English, especially level 5, as its plenty difficult. No worries. He is clipping along, and doing just fine each day. He remembers the answers to the oral English review questions well, and he picks up the new concepts quite easily. Another thing that clicked right away was Singapore math. He just is kiting along in 5B, and we have not had one lesson he's struggled with at all yet (knock on wood).
Dictation - well, that's getting harder and harder as he goes. He misses one about every other day or 2, but he is not so upset about missing them anymore. He gets they are getting harder. He also gets that when he finishes Level 8 - whenever that is - he is done with dictation. So, he's motivated to pass as many as possible. If you haven't shared this with your older students doing dictation yet, you may want to - it's very motivating to keep passing those dictation passages with flying colors.
Creative writing - he is using many of the mini-lesson type skills he has learned through the varied writing he's done with HOD in the past to put forth his best effort in his creative writing this year. It is like it is all finally coming together for my ds who was not naturally into creative writing to begin with, but who has now decided it is pretty fun to do.
"Who Is God? And Can I Really Know Him?" - WOW! This is a great Bible study. Wyatt and I are having the best discussions. We have both LOVED HOD's activity of having us share a point that struck each of us from each section. We have really had some deep discussions about this already. We both look forward to these times together. We both are also enjoying his Composer Study, lapbooking. Bit by bit, it is coming together, and we can both see it's going to be really neat when he puts it all together. We have tea and coffee together during this time. He likes tea with milk and sugar, and I like my coffee - strong and black.
My Grandma used to drink tea with me when I was Wyatt's age, and it makes me feel like a little piece of her is still with me when he and I have tea/coffee together. We actually started this after a history project when we had tea together. He loved it and asked if we could put it in our time together some time - I thought that was a FABULOUS idea! I am not sure I could ever have too much coffee or tea in a day, though my doctor tells me otherwise.
I could go on, but I know this is getting long, and for those of you who have managed to keep reading - you can tell - we are really enjoying our time together in RevtoRev. I pray you had a good week with your dc as well!
In Christ,
Julie
Keri is making lovely timeline entries-they are little works of art 
Tamara is making great paintings for poetry. Their oral narrations have gotten really great. Keri especially likes the state study, inventors study, and science projects. We couldn't believe how big the glider is! Tamara is also a fan of science projects as well as history. She found the stories of the pharaohs to be very interesting. I LOVE the notebooking pages for both!
Here is a picture of his history project this week:
