heartofdakota.com

Ok Girls,

What was YOUR week Like?

You can post:

a- A picture
b- A blog Link
c- A written synopsis
d- Your favorite memory
e- Anything you want that shares your HOD excitement!

Important Note: If you are linking us to your blog, please make sure it's not just a general link, but to your specific post of HOD. That way if someone reads through these a year from now they can find your share without needing to hunt!

Missions to Modern Marvels:
Over the years, Storytime has always been a favorite part of the HOD guides for us. We like that it uses awesome living books every year, and we also like that the follow-ups are always different every year. This year, Wyatt gets to make a bookmark that has high level questions and creative follow-ups on it. He really enjoys this, and I like to respond back to him on it with short comments...


"Drawn into the Heart of Reading" 6/7/8 is quite independent, and Wyatt really enjoys the book selections. He is often together with little brother for kickoffs and final projects for each genre, but the rest he does separately. His Student Notebook is full of neat graphic organizers. They have really taught him to organize his thoughts well for all subject areas...


The MTMM History Student Notebook is just lovely. It is neat to see its pages being filled with Wyatt's work. One of my favorite boxes of his this week was his written narration box. He really is coming into his own in this skill, and having come so far, it is neat to have physical proof of the progress through the years in HOD's notebooks...


I asked Wyatt to show me his favorite 2 page spread of his MTMM notebook so far, just for fun, and here it is...


I have always loved the idea of doing a Nature Journal, and I have tried my hand at it on my own in years past. I have not been able to find a good way to do it. Well, I just had to wait for MTMM! The Nature Journal in MTMM is just right! It is Christ-centered, teaches drawing skills in a way that is not confining, gives practical ideas for things for dc to draw, and results in a personal nature journal that is very special to the individual who made it. The Nature Journal in MTMM has combined our son's love of God's outdoor creation with journaling. Here is his partially finished page this week for his Nature Journal...


Wyatt continues to enjoy MTMM's science. I especially like the lab sheets - they are higher level but manageable to complete. The flow of the sheet teaches the flow of the scientific process and shows the decisions along the way that make a difference in the outcome of the experiment...


We had another winner of a week with MTMM. Hope you had a good week as well!
In Christ,
Julie

Creation to Christ:
It is neat to see the progress Riley is making in following directions for his history projects in CTC. I came into the kitchen after working with my other ds to see that Riley had followed the directions (and there were quite a few ) to measure, cut, staple, and assemble these pockets for the first day of his history project. It seems like only a month ago he needed me to talk through the steps with him before he began. Progress...ahhhhh... a lovely thing!


Research is another area I see growth in for Riley in CTC. Today, I had him jot his answers in phrases on his markerboard, as I wasn't ready just then to ask him the questions orally, and he wanted to be sure to remember the details just so. I came and asked him the questions, and he referred to his notes on the marker board for help, and it went so well! Usually, I like to just ask them orally, but if there is going to be a bigger gap in the time he researched and I ask the questions, the quick notes on the markerboard work well!


I enjoy following the recommendation by HOD of doing 2/3 or so of R & S English orally or on markerboard. When it comes to diagramming sentences, I like to have the dc do this as their 1/3 or one section to do. However, sometimes, there are many sections of diagramming, and I don't want to miss any of them, but I also don't want to have Riley write them all. This is one way I have found to be effective to use the markerboard in these instances. I draw the diagram lines/brackets, and then let him point to which diagram he needs, and to the parts in the diagram he would specifically write each part. It works great! Then, I still have him write 1/3 or a section of diagramming...


In math, Riley is at the part of finding the factors for large numbers. Singapore math has taught him such good number sense! When he doesn't know if a number is a factor, instead of writing it out in a division problem, he usually finds a way to quickly (sort of) skip count. He uses his fingers, which I am fine with, as he is quick at it. When I say "sort of" skip count, I mean on a problem like find the factors of 108, to see if 4 is a factor, he'll count by 4's, but start with 80, knowing if 4 tens is 40, them 4 twenties are 80, so he's already at 20 fours, and 80. Then, he uses his fingers to count the 4's to get to 28 from there, counting up from 80, and using his fingers to count the additional number of 4's needed - though even that is "sort of" skip counting, as he'll realize halfway through that if he knows five 4's is 20, then he just knows 2 more 4's gets to 108. He quickly puts it all together sort of saying 20 and 5 and 2, uhhhh, so it's 4 and 27! Sounds confusing, and I probably didn't explain it well, but it all happens extremely fast, and I love the 'aha' moment that puts that happy grin on his face when he gets it! It took me awhile to get used to this with Singapore, as my tendency is to require the paper pencil write it out and divide to find the answer, but I realize now (much wiser with second ds ) that this is undoing the beauty of all Singapore is teaching.


Here is a snapshot of this week's CTC History Notebook. Riley told me he did his 'pretty cursive' in the bottom box. I guess he can tell the difference too! Well, I don't use my 'pretty' writing 100% of the time either, but it sure is nice to know it's at his disposal if he needs it.


Super week with CTC - hope your week was super too!
In Christ,
Julie

Little Hearts for His Glory:
Emmett is making connections galore in LHFHG! I like how everything seems to tie into Godly character naturally. In "Chatterer the Red Squirrel" (which is a Thorton Burgess book that he adores ), he saw how Peter Rabbit had been unkind spying on Chatterer. The way Peter Rabbit's struggle was written about in the book really showed how we can be somewhat warring with ourselves in our thinking between which of two things we should do, one being the wrong thing (and we know it is wrong ), and one being the right thing (and we know it is right ). The "What would Jesus do?" discussion about how we can tell which of 2 things is right was great! And, this all linked to his writing for the day too, as well as his Bible, and his Bible verse, and his music... well, you get the idea!


It is encouraging to see Emmett's progress in understanding history well. "HIstory Stories for Children" challenges him to listen closely, as there are fewer pictures. The story about Pizzaro and the young king from Peru grabbed Emmett's attention. He listened carefully, could answer all the questions well, and loved making his art project showing the gold that had to fill the room to supposedly set the king free - he didn't mind eating the 'gold' either (cheerios)...


Another eating fun hands-on activity for math was a favorite this week too! Emmet absolutely loves these stories we are using to show addition problems. Here he is with his picture (yes, I am not a great artist) of a log, an anthill, and a picnic blanket. The chocolate chips are the ants. Today's number was 10, so we counted out 10 ants. Then I said problems like, "If 1 ant was on the anthill, 4 ants were on the log, and 5 ants were on the picnic blanket, how many were there altogether?" He would then put the right number of ants the right places and say the addition sentence that matches the picture created. Of course at the end, he got to eat the 'ants.' Great fun!


Emmett's coloring is coming a long way! That is exciting, as he had a way to go!


Learning about the digestive system was memorable for Emmett! He loved seeing what happens to crackers in his tummy. I don't think he'll look at a cracker the same again...


Once and awhile, I like to have my oldest ds Wyatt do an activity from LHFHG with Emmett for their playtime together. They really enjoy it, it is a good use of a small portion of their playtime, and it's good for Wyatt to learn to work with little ones (he will hopefully be a dad someday!). Here they are practicing his Bible verse along with the ball toss activity...


Love this time with my little one!
In Christ,
Julie

We had a great week!

We also implemented an idea we saw on HOD's Facebook page the other week...having our kids do their own laundry. This was our second week doing it and it has made a HUGE difference! Their rooms are neater...having a basket in their room catches the laundry better than the laundry chute in the bathroom. They are making sure their clothes are not balled up or inside out when they toss them in the basket as they know on laundry day they have to get them all turned out correctly before tossing them in the washer. They are excited to have a "grown up" responsibility AND I never realized how much time I spent folding and sorting laundry! I do maybe two loads for my husband and I, plus towels and that's it at the end of the week. Ok, enough about laundry...

LHFHG Unit 19

All of my kids love listening to Grandfather Frog...even my ds who listened to it a few years ago when he did LHFHG.

My dd LOVED designing her own valentine and it just so happened we did it exactly a month before Valentine's Day!

Her reading has really taken off and she has just begun the ERs. She is LOVING The Beginner's Bible!

Bigger Unit 17/18

My ds surprised me with his enthusiasm over writing his vocabulary cards. On his way to locate "sod" in our physical dictionary he came across "soda jerk" and thought it was interesting.

He enjoyed using the Merriam-Webster app and speaking words into it from his DITHOR book (The Little Lame Prince).

He especially liked learning about Daniel Boone for history. His favorite part was when Daniel went swinging on a grapevine!

Wow Julie, Wyatt's narrations are impressive. If Noah ever managed one like that I think we would have to throw a party Thanks for all the visuals of the things in MTMM it helps me to start thinking about how we can adapt those things for Noah next year.

Here is the link to our 2 weeks back since Christmas http://graceandfur.blogspot.com/2013/01 ... 11413.html

In another week we should be back to our regular HOD schedule We're all REALLY missing it!

http://gracefilledhomeschooling.blogspo ... 14-18.html

Our week for Rev to Rev & LHFHG:

http://bloomingoodlife.blogspot.com/201 ... -home.html

We LOVE Heart of Dakota!! So thankful for the well-thought plans that have Christ as the foundation - and that make school possible even when the flu finds us.

I haven't updated my blog in a very long time. I'm hoping to start later this week once we have finished this week, but I just wanted to come and share something from last week that just brought home to me how much HOD is revealing Christ to my children.

DD11 was sitting opposite me while we were doing DITHOR. DD9 was beside me and the two of us were discussing the character traits and reading out the accompanying verses. DD11 suddenly pipes up and said, "Do you know what I love about school. It's that every week, something comes up that relates to something that was said at church on Sunday." I thought, wow, that is simply awesome that she is making the connections, but how could she not with the wonderful way everything is woven together. I thank God for this wonderful curriculum, and take joy in thanking Him for Carrie and her entire family, and asking for His blessings upon you all.

LynnH wrote:Wow Julie, Wyatt's narrations are impressive. If Noah ever managed one like that I think we would have to throw a party Thanks for all the visuals of the things in MTMM it helps me to start thinking about how we can adapt those things for Noah next year...

Thanks, Lynn! I have often read about Noah here on the board and wished Wyatt could take on some of his strengths - so what an encouragement to read this today! It is nice to know you are enjoying the posts here. They are a neat way for me to take note of the little happy moments along the way that I may otherwise miss. Thank you also for sharing your updates! I enjoy them as well.

In Christ,
Julie

A peek into our last 2 weeks in Beyond!
http://mimishouse2005.blogspot.com/2013 ... h-and.html

I did end up writing a blog post for this week, so I thought I would put it up.

http://thejoyoflearningtogether.blogspo ... -2013.html