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Oops! I almost typed 2011. Happy New Year!

What was YOUR week Like?

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We were back in school on Wednesday this week. It was a nice to ease back into school 3 days this week after our long Christmas & New Year's break. I am so thankful to be back with HOD! It makes my job "easier"!

My ds always loves to incorporate Legos into his work whenever possible, so he had fun doing this...
http://ourlittlethinkers.blogspot.com/2 ... hings.html
on Wednesday. (Bigger Unit 2)

He was able to use his new Nerf disc gun to review his verse today. He LOVED it! My dd LOVES art and was delighted to make the etched heart today in LHFHG (Unit 2). You can view pictures on our blog...
http://ourlittlethinkers.blogspot.com/2 ... games.html

This was my first week using two guides. It was also a three day week. You can read about it here, http://training6hearts4him.blogspot.com ... ay-75.html

Blessings,
Linda<><

Here's a little bit of our week:
http://teachermom.typepad.com/homeschoo ... y-2-6.html

Revival to Revolution:
2012 started with Wyatt saying this in regard to his school work...
"I've learned two things over the years ... to do my work right the first time, so I don't have to do it again... and to always keep moving with my work, so I don't fall behind."
HOORAY - I'm glad he's learned these two things through the years too! They have certainly helped him enjoy his school, as well as work more efficiently.

"The Story of Napoleon" has provided incredibly interesting reading material for Wyatt. He is fascinated by the rise and fall of his power, as well as by the fact that such a war hero could desert his men several times over and claim victory falsely. "Seaman" has been another BIG HIT for Wyatt. He is having such fun reading about Lewis and Clark's expedition with their dog Seaman by their side. Reading about how difficult it was for missionaries to convert people to Christianity really made an impact on Wyatt. He marveled that sometimes missionaries would work for 8 years to get just 1 convert. Reading about Elizabeth Fry's work in prison ministry made Wyatt realize the dire circumstances some people find themselves in, and how Jesus can be such an incredible source of hope. Here is his written narration...


Wyatt worked hard on his timeline this week. He often times does pretty quick sketches for his timeline, which I am alright with, as they are neat and well labeled, and fine artwork is not necessarily the goal of the timeline entries IMO. However, it was really nice to see an especially neat timeline this week...


One of the many things I love about HOD is the fact that every year my dc are reminded of the Good News of Jesus in a fresh way, which in turn helps them be able to feel more confident sharing the Good News of Jesus with others. This week, the history project had Wyatt looking up key Bible verses to "Proclaim Christ"! Wyatt made a little booklet of it, and glued it in his HOD Student Notebook...


Wyatt is enjoying learning about inventors alongside his physical science lab work. Howe, McCormick, and Bessemer were the focus this week, and Wyatt gave a great narration about Bessemer. I'm enjoying the variety of written narrations Wyatt is doing in RevtoRev. His HOD History Student Notebook narrations are lengthier with more detail, and his HOD Inventor Student Notebook narrations are shorter and more of a snapshot of a portion of an inventor's life. The snapshots work together to create a timeline flow for inventors' lives. It's neat to see his Inventor Student Notebook being completed...


I liked his snapshot narration of McCormick this week...


Here is what it says, in case you can't read his words in my picture...
McCormick was one of those people who changed the world. He invented a machine that could cut wheat faster than 10 men. It also did it better than the men. McCormick was so smart that he sent his machine all over the world. He added improvements and bought the right to use others improvements. He helped the world to produce billions of tons of flour. He has helped the world be a better place.

He had not mistakes in this narration, other than missing an apostrophe, which I didn't notice until now. He has improved his beginning and ending sentences of his narrations, taking time to think of something that catches a reader's attention and interest. I am so happy with the progress HOD is helping him make! RevtoRev continues to be a joy for the two of us! I hope you all had a good first week in your new year!

In Christ,
Julie

Preparing Hearts for His Glory:
Riley loved his history project of making a scroll, like the one Jeremiah made. Here is what Riley's scroll says...
Therefore, this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria, "He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came, he will return. He will not enter this city," declares the Lord. "I will defend this city and save it, for my sake of David, my servant."


Needless to say, the scroll has been added to Riley's ever increasing stash of "special HOD projects" he just cannot part with. I am enjoying how he is learning to complete all sorts of projects step by step that are great fun too.

Vocabulary cards - Riley is doing so well with them this year! There are so many excellent skills in creating these vocabulary cards - it really is such a good set of skills to learn. Using his history book to find difficult vocabulary words within context... Predicting what they words may mean using the contextual clues of the living history books we are reading... Looking up the words in the dictionary... Finding the appropriate meaning for the words according to the usage in the history books... Copying the definition... Illustrating it... Using the vocabulary word in a sentence of his own... Filing the cards alphabetically... WOW - now THAT's a higher level thinking activity to tackle!!! After doing it all year in Bigger Hearts, he now is 1/3 of the way through doing it in PHFHG, and he is doing it with great success, independently! I still always have him predict using the contextual clues for me prior to doing the rest of the steps, but otherwise, he's doing it solo. The teacher in me LOVES this activity! Here is a picture of the fronts of his vocabulary cards...


This week Riley got to choose from 3 HOD written narration topics. He chose to write about the city of Babylon. The budding architectural engineer in Riley marveled at the architecture of the city walls, with 100 brass gates, that chariots could drive on top of the roof of the gates... and of course the hanging gardens. Here is his written narration...


"Draw and Write Through History" partnered with HOD's clear directions helped Riley create another neat notebooking page. I like that his notebooking pages allow him to use his own creativity, while still giving him enough parameters to result in a meaningful notebooking page. His notebooking pages look different from his brother's back when he did PHFHG, but they both show they understood what they learned...


Off to a good start in 2012 - hope you are too!
In Christ,
Julie

Little Hearts for His Glory:
Emmett is convinced homeschooling is filled with the most wonderful art projects one can imagine. This week Emmett got to use a hammer and a nail to tap through his penciled on name on black paper. He then glued a white paper behind it to let the light shine through...


We've been reading about Joseph's life in Biblical history, and Emmett made his own collar for his "coat of many colors". We cut the center out of a paper plate, and he painted his collar different bright colors. The minute it was dry enough, he insisted on wearing it...


Even the clean-up is fun. He could have played with the water forever...


LHFHG is stretching Emmett's listening capabilities by giving him short readings from excellent living books with very few pictures. He is learning to listen more carefully to "Reddy Fox", and he is beginning to answer more and more of the questions correctly. Today Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter felt sorry for Reddy Fox's being lame and unable to eat, and they gave him 2 fish and a duck to eat. Emmett went from disliking Reddy Fox (right along with most of the characters in the book), to feeling sorry for him that he was unable to hunt for a meal to eat and was very hungry (right along with some of the characters in the book too). I love how Thorton Burgess' books begin to pull dc in like that. The whole forest family of animals really works together through the entire LHFHG year to build comprehension bit by bit. I remember them gradually having this effect on my 2 older dc when we did LHFHG years back too.

Fine motor skills is not Emmett's thing. We are taking it half-speed, and he will need this time to grow in this area. He does well with a marker, but not with a pencil. He is learning to use his pencil gripper on his Ticonderoga pencil correctly, and that is really beginning to help him use a pencil with more success. He loved using the marker board today for our math activity, and he did quite well writing his numbers on the marker board as we did the HOD activity together. He really had fun with that one - he had to count how many times I made a sound (i.e. clapping, tapping, snapping my fingers, etc.) and write the number on the marker board. When it came time to write his numbers for his math page, he had had enough practice with it that he did well with it in his Singapore math workbook.

Reading is Emmett's thing. He is cruising along in his phonics and begs to read a book each day. He is definitely in the beginning stages of phonics, but it seems to be coming quite well to him thus far. He says his words clearly, and he likes to read. We keep our time short, about 20 minutes or so, and he is ready to be done then, but he is doing very well with it within that time frame. I often read in my chair near the fireplace, and both Wyatt and Riley join me in the living room, reading their own books. Emmett has begun to enjoy joining in on this time now too. He gets his books and can begin to enjoy them more fully, now that he knows more and more words. I had to laugh - the boys put on short-sleeved t-shirts yesterday as they read their books (it was 60 degrees here ), and Emmett had to put on his short-sleeved t-shirt and get his books to read too. Those older dc really do pass on so many ways of doing things to their little siblings that they aren't even aware of!

One of my favorite things is to hear Emmett recite his LHFHG Bible verse. This week he chose to say it to his special stuffed bengal tiger, Sara. He looked deeply into her eyes and said with an air of great importance, "Sara, this is my Bible verse, and I have chosen to say it for YOU."


What a good week - it's nice to be back to school and a more normal life! Though we enjoyed our Christmas break very much, we love the normalcy of our ordinary life too. I hope you are enjoying getting back to good learning too!

In Christ,
Julie

We are on week 2 of using LHFHG for the LH side and Beyond for the RH side. It is going well, except that Shana (5.5) is balking at spelling. She does great at it, though! No update yet in detail. I'm actually having chest pains, and since my dad died young of a heart condition, I'm a little concerned. I'm trusting it's nothing.

Heidi, I'm glad you are having a good week! I wanted to mention that Shana can always do half-speed spelling - doing half the words of one spelling list one week, and the other half the next week. This would move her forward without overwhelming her. On the other hand, dc really should be able to write once they begin the spelling words, as this is part of the CM style of learning, so if it's the writing of the words and the sentences that are making the spelling too difficult, you can always just wait a year too. Call me the overprotective HOD pal, but please (for precautionary's sake) take a day to get your heart checked out! I am so sorry that you lost your dad at a young age. I have prayed for you. If you find out it's nothing, you'll be relieved. If you find out it's something, you'll be glad you can do something about it. Praying!

In Christ,
Julie

Ladies, I have enjoyed reading all your post. Julie, with the vocabulary cards, way to go with your boys. As of right now (only our first week of preparing) I can't imagine my boys doing all that. I'm sure one day we'll get there. I had two melt downs this week. One with Brent and Caleb. Brent admitted that it was his 'new' workload. I've never had my kids cry over school. It started because they both wanted to do science together (which is great!) but one wanted to snuggle on the couch and the other wanted to sit at the table. Brent who wanted to sit at the table because he likes the flat surface. He had the One Small Square book first and was getting his paper ready, when Caleb snatched it up and said, Brent wasn't using it, so he was going to take it to the couch and start. I ended up intervening and told Caleb to give it back to Brent. Caleb, wanted to cry (I could see him holding tears back) because he likes doing the independent assignment that takes longer, on Friday it was science that looked like it would take longer with the questions and reading. That was the first meltdown.

Later Brent, just started crying. Not full out whaling or anything but quiet tears. When I talked to him later he mentioned it was just a lot of school.

I don't take those meltdowns in a negative way because I know they need Preparing. It's not that it's more work but it takes more time and they would rather play with legos or sleep. I see it as a good time for them to discipline themselves. Doing something, even when they don't feel like it.

Just because we had a few meltdowns doesn't mean we all didn't enjoy our first week with preparing. They LOVE Grandfather's Box, we enjoy sitting together going over the Bible verses and I like that my boys are reading more. Preparing is 'stretching' them~it's getting them out of their comfort zone.

The first half of the year they were using Shurley English, MCP Plaid Phonics, Writing with Ease, Simply Spelling (studied dictation), All About Spelling, WP Hideaway in History, and A Nature Walk with Aunt Bessie, and Copywork for Boys, and although I do think these programs are all great, I feel like it wasn't stretching their mind the way Preparing did this week. Science wasn't getting done at all. (although we are continuing with AAS and Shurley English)

I just wanted to share and mention that I see my boys meltdowns as a good thing, if that makes sense

We had a wonderful first week back with HOD Bigger Hearts this week! My older son was still at his dad's for Christmas, so it was just the younger and I. We learned a lot about Daniel Boone this week. We live in TN, so this was really interesting to all of us! Ds had heard the name many times (we live near a town named for him...and we eat at a restaurant called the "Daniel Boone Inn" in that town sometimes), but he was really interesting in finding out why Daniel Boone was so famous around here. The biggest shock: Daniel Boone did NOT wear a coon skin cap! It was made of Beaver skin/fur. My son kept repeating in astonishment, "I can't believe they lied to us all these years!" LOL

In Science, we did a really fun and disgusting experiment on Mold. We got to watch a banana go from pretty and yellow to nasty and brown in just 3 days! We put the experiment in the cabinet in our kitchen (had to be kept warm and dark) and marked it "Science Experiment." The look on my husband's face when he found it was just priceless!

We continued this week with copy work and dictation. Ds is writing beautifully now in cursive with his Cheerful Cursive. I am now trying to get him to transition that over to his regular work. He is doing at least 1-2 lines per day of copywork in cursive now! My goal is to have him writing 100% cursive by the end of this school year. He also copies his Bible verse once each week and is doing well with that. We really love the Bible verses that we have been studying and we have had lots of great conversations around them. This week, we talked about how man may lay out his plan, but God will decide which direction your steps will take you. That is so true and I was glad to get to talk to my son about choosing your path but realizing that God is in control and may sometimes change your path for His glory! We are singing "My Father's World" and I had never heard that song before. We really like it though!

In math, we did a review of all he has learned in Singapore 2A thus far. He is doing great with carrying and borrowing as well as multiplying and dividing. Our Christmas break did seem to knock him back a notch, but I think this week we were able to jog his memory and catch up. Monday will be is last day in 2A and he will begin 2B on Wednesday! We adore Singapore.

We made a super cool art picture this week. He used paint on a paper towel to make a tree with branches and leaves. Then, while he made a tiny Daniel Boone out of paper, I cut some yarn and attached it to the tree (with a hole through the paper and the tape on the back side). We added the little Daniel Boone and voila...we had him swinging on the grapevine to safety!

In DITHR, we finished our Non-fiction book and will begin our project on Monday. We are going to do the project on Character buliding where he will carry around objects during the week to remind him to be obedient and assertive. I am excited and I think he will enjoy the break from "traditional" end of book projects where he has to write or create something. This is about building HIM rather than something else.

In storytime, we finished the BFG just before Christmas break. My kids (yes, BOTH of them!) love love loved that book! This week, we started "The Case of the Dognapped Cat." We have 7 cats and a dog, so my kids love stories about animals. This is going to be a good one too.

Oldest ds got home today (Saturday), so Monday we will start on Unit 21 of RTR with him and move on to Unit 18 with younger ds in Bigger. This year is just flying by!

God Bless

Rebecca

What a great time everyone is having!!! Love reading everyone's check-in. Keep up the good work, ladies!

Rebecca, we too are startingThe Case of the Dognapped Cat this week!!! LOL!

I love reading about everyone's week. Here is ours http://graceandfur.blogspot.com/2012/01 ... -1212.html

That is awesome about the Ipad for N, Lynn! My oldest ds got the Ipad2 for Christmas this year from his dad (we are divorced). The dragon dictation is awesome! But I really love some of the educational Apps they offer. Have you seen the ones on Space/Astronomy? My ds absolutely LOVED reading and looking through the pictures and having those available to him at all times. His dad sprung for the 3G capabilities on the Ipad and that is just awesome. He can do research while we are at the dentist - or even just in the car on the way there and then speak it into the dragon. It totally changes the way the world works. Technology just blows me away these days! I hope N thoroughly enjoys his and that it brings much ease to those things that were previously more difficult for him!

Lynn, how wonderful about the ipad for N. Looks like another great week in your house, I do really enjoy reading to see what has been happening.

I must say I love reading everyone's updates and am really excited as we are going to have another two weeks of our summer holiday and then get back into schooling. My girls aged 8 and 10 are going to be starting Preparing. Everything arrived here on Friday, and since then I have been busy reading and making lists of things I must get over the next two weeks so that everything will flow smoothly. I now need to get onto lists with regards to schedules and chores etc so that side it will too flow smoothly. I am really excited and can't wait.