heartofdakota.com

What was YOUR week Like?

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This week flew by in a flutter of homeschooling, Christmas preparations, and family matters. I can hardly believe next week is Christmas already! In the midst of all of the busyness, I am thankful for the consistency of homeschooling with HOD and for the time HOD has planned for me to have meaningful interaction with each of my dc. It keeps a familiarity to the day - it keeps each of us in touch. Homeschooling gives us time together as a family that we could not have without it. Just looking across my living room and seeing my oldest ds cuddle with my youngest ds - just to tell him he loves him and 'good job with your reading today, buddy' - well, that's an incredible blessing. Emmett adores both of his brothers, and they love him to pieces back. Having their own HOD guides to do has been a perfect placement fit for our dc, as they are each 3+ years apart in age, and miles apart in abilities. They are each other's encouragers - they like the fact that they each have their own 'thing' to do, and they freely encourage each other throughout the day...


Emmett continues to grow into his new guide, Beyond Little Hearts... more and more each day. He is getting about 3-4 days' worth of plans done each week. I never want to skip anything, as I know that means I'd be skipping skills and I know the payback for that later. So, instead, when we're in a busy season or when we have health concerns in our family, we slow it down some and keep moving forward with all the skills steadily. It works well, and I'm glad for the flexibility.

A highlight this week was Emmett's math. It is really clicking for him now. He enjoys the hands-on activities we get to do together so much, and they lay the groundwork for success in his workbook. One of our favorite activities this week was the mental math trick of making 10 when adding to quickly solve addition problems. For example, 9 + 6 becomes 10 + 5, and this was so easy to show with bears in columns. I love that the HOD math activities don't require me to buy a bunch of math counters or gather a lot of supplies. They don't require prep and are open and go. Plus, they are fun!


In Christ,
Julie

World Geography
Those of you that happen to be teaching multiple HOD guides probably find the same thing I often find - there are many incidences where our dc make meaningful connections between what they are doing. This week, Riley who is in the final week of CTC, and Wyatt who is in about week 13 of WG, happened to read about the same exact event (in Riley's history and in Wyatt's Bible study) on the same exact day. The disciple Peter had a dream of a blanket with unclean animals on it coming down from heaven. When told to eat these animals, Peter said he couldn't, as they were considered 'unclean.' The Lord asked if He could make clean what was unclean, and Peter agreed He could - signifying that the Gospel was for Gentiles as well as Jews. Peter then went to Cornelius' house, a Gentile, and preached the Good News, and many were saved. I think God plans these little moments for the boys - and for me - to share. Here Riley is with his CTC notebook, where he wrote about this event, and here Wyatt is with his WG Rooted and Grounded Bible Study workbook, where he wrote about this event...


Here is a close-up of Wyatt's written work...


Wyatt continues to enjoy his WG guide each day. There has been an increase in workload, which we both anticipated with his beginning high school level work. He is handling it well though, and I can rest assured of two things I was formerly stressing about... 1) I can handle teaching high school, and 2) Wyatt is learning more than enough for a strong high school transcript. WHEW! For those of you out there thinking ahead and thinking you won't be able to homeschool through high school - take heart! With HOD, and with the Lord by your side, you CAN!

In Christ,
Julie

Creation to Christ:
How in the world is Riley in the final week of CTC?!? It FLEW by... well, looking back, I guess it FLEW by once we got rolling with a good rhythm. Riley has grown sooooooo much from start to finish of this guide. It really is almost unbelievable. Just over a year and a half ago, Riley was having a tough time writing 5-7 sentences for a written narration. Now, he writes a full page with no trouble whatsoever. In fact, he just wrote a 750+ word story for a hunting magazine contest that my dh wanted the boys to enter with no problem. One and half years ago, Riley's oral narrations were full of 'and then's' and sort of like a conversation that got lost in the mix... lots of interjections like 'now, what was that guy's name again?' or 'ohhhhhh, what was that place?.' Now, he animatedly gives his oral narrations with very few 'and then's' and with a good order that has the big ideas... for the most part. There is always still room for improvement, right? Anyway - it's good to be where we're at with Riley. The start of each guide is always the training period, and the end is the victory of all the hard work throughout the year. I smell victory - right after Christmas, that is.

A highlight of this week has been Riley's notebooking for science. He is really enjoying "An Illustrated Adventure in Human Anatomy," and the notebooking he is getting to do alongside his reading is turning out so well. He likes his special moleskin sketchbook we got for him to do his notebooking for science in. It is 5 x 7 and just the right size for him.


In Christ,
Julie