Revival to Revolution:
There have been so many posts on the board about the bittersweet feeling of finishing an HOD guide. Those posts have captured my feelings exactly - we are excited about all of the amazing things we have done together in RevtoRev, thrilled with the fulfilling year we have had, tickled pink about the feeling of contentment completing an HOD guide brings - and yet we are sad too, as RevtoRev is coming to an end. The "sniff, sniff" posts on the HOD board hit home - I am "sniff, sniffing" too. We have 9 days left of RevtoRev. My, my, my - where did the year go?!? The only consolation is we are getting very excited about our next year with HOD, as we will be doing "Missions to Modern Marvels". This thought chases away those "sniff-sniff" feelings quite effectively, I must say!
It's moments like this I love - Wyatt curled up reading a good book. He didn't even notice me snapping his picture he was so into it!
I feel so blessed that my ds gets to just settle in for a great read he loves with HOD - and he's learning history while he does it! I used to love to read, and ps just about killed my love for it. How I would have loved learning this way! With amazing living books, and in HOD EVERY subject area brings this delight because of all of the wonderful living books...
You know what else I love? The discussions. We are enjoying those so much. The discussions we have with "Who Is God?..." about Biblical Worldview are priceless, and we take our sweet time and really talk it all out. I love that. I also enjoy our DITHOR discussions - especially the Godly Character Trait ones. They are so very timely - sometimes for my dc, and sometimes for me!
Great reminders of how to live life for the Lord. Our discussions about the Storytime history books have been surprisingly deep too. There are just a few questions, but they beg to be talked about. Likewise, our period painting discussion questions, and our primary source document questions - those are enlightening. I needed some help in the understanding the painting area of CM studies, and HOD's leading questions have made it easy on me.
We like to settle in with our favorite beverages (hot, black, strong coffee for me; hot tea with milk and sugar or with honey and lemon for Wyatt), and enjoy our meeting times.
I'm so thankful for these heart-to-heart times planned in the guide. They keep us close. They keep school personal. They keep learning alive. I am so thankful they are planned for us in the guide!
One more thing I really love? The FUN. Yes, there is still FUN planned in HOD's upper guides. I remember thinking once I hit sixth/seventh grade back when I was in ps, 'Wow - where did all the FUN go?' It was gone, and not to be seen ever again until about my junior year of college.
Well, RevtoRev didn't leave the FUN out. It's purposeful, it's connected to standards, it's a method of assessment - but it's still a part of each day. I still get to see my middle school aged son SMILE, LAUGH, and even have a SKIP in his step as he hurries to do something he has been looking forward to doing in school each day!
This is no small thing. For example, Wyatt was humming a happy tune as he b-bopped around the kitchen gathering straws, yarn, tape, etc. and all of a sudden I saw a suspension bridge emerge between 2 chairs in our dining room. A small car was soon whizzing down the straw suspension bridge, and Wyatt was enthusiastically explaining suspension bridges to me as he told me all about the Brooklyn Bridge (another impromptu oral narration that was not a planned part of the guide, but just the natural result of years of HOD's solid CM teachings
)...
Another FUN part of our week was the solar fan Wyatt built for science in Exploration Education. He loved taking it outside, trying it near our light bulbs, etc. and seeing it run on solar power...
He has truly loved his science in RevtoRev - well, really every year with HOD he has loved his science. I think this year is like a culmination of all he's learned type year though - skillwise, that is. He just gets it - he has become a person who thinks like a scientist. He likes to experiment with ways of doing things, he enjoys researching science topics, he likes using what he's learned to build things or to solve modern day problems, he loves reading about scientists' lives - it is a scientist's mind at work and in action that I get to see now. I really enjoy watching him work. His attitude toward science is polar opposite from mine back when I was his age. I used to think science was drudgery, a bunch of facts just to be memorized, and I thought scientists were stuffy, a bunch of people who disliked their jobs and rehashed what someone else had told them to be true, redoing experiments where they knew the outcomes, and talking about the same old, same old things. Wyatt sees science as exciting, as a way to solve modern day problems, and he sees scientists as incredibly interesting people, who love to help solve problems, and make the world a better place. What a better science education he is receiving than I did!
Carryover. There is a lot of carryover of learning into daily living with HOD. Wyatt, at first, did not have a love of poetry, nor of writing. Thank God HOD has cultivated a love for poetry over the years! I was surprised to see a poem waiting on the counter for me one morning. Wyatt had decided to write poetry the night before in his quiet time before bed.
If you had told me my sixth grade, all boy boy, would be writing poetry for fun late at night someday, back when we were first doing poetry in Beyond, I would not have believe it. Here it is - just for fun I will share it...
Can you guess what he is describing? It is water. I thought this was quite clever!
I also see a ton of carryover in cooking skills. Wyatt makes a dessert or two every single week for our family - and he is good at it!
This is totally a carryover of the cooking and baking he has done in HOD. He's started his own recipe book, and many of them in there are from HOD (Egyptian pastries are still his favorite back from CTC
).
We are finishing our last genre study in DITHOR now. Wyatt and Riley are having such fun completing their timelines of important events. They read through their final project options and both chose to do this together, though each of them are doing it for their respective books. We turn on praise music, and they work on their timelines together for 20-30 minutes each day. They love it! I can't wait to show you when they are done...
This has been another great week for school. It has been a tougher week for our family. My Dad has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and his surgery will be coming soon. The cancerous tumor is contained and small at this point, so it can be removed in surgery. Please join me in praying for him - for his surgery to go smoothly, for there to be no more cancer, for his recovery to go well and quickly, and for him to be with us even another 20 years in excellent health, body, mind, and spirit. Yes, it is a big prayer - but our God is a God of possibilities. We are all depending on the Lord right now to be our strength. Last week I posted a picture of my Dad reading with my little one, Emmett. How special those thoughts are to me now! I love my Dad dearly. As my Mom says, 'Dad is as solid as a rock', and that has been his approach to his cancer. He is calm and completely dependent on the Lord. As always, he is a nurses' and doctors' favorite - full of jokes, smiles, praise, gratitude, and good humor. He is an incredible Christian man - so easy to love. The Lord knows what is best though, and I have turned this over to Him. Praise God we have heaven to look forward to!
In Christ,
Julie
He dislikes missing any passages, and in the past, he rarely has had to redo a passage, as this comes naturally to him. Little honey is realizing that studying is important now, and I am kind of glad for this, as he does need to learn to slow down sometimes. 
. Wyatt's poem is excellent! I have to agree on the sniff, sniff as I am a bit depressed that we'll be moving on to 6th and the younger levels are over. I had one chance to do it right with one kid and I messed it up, but I learned a lot. Your post on Rev to Rev was very heartwarming.