Week in Review August 18-22,2014

[LynnH]

Ok Ladies,

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!

[LynnH]

Here is a blog post about our first week in the World Geography guide http://graceandfur.blogspot.com/2014/08 ... -year.html

[mommymoles]

This was our first week back to school, and our first time ever using HOD we are in Bigger Hearts plus I have a 4 year old tagging along here and there but mostly doing some simple preschool stuff. I have to say it took up a lot of our day I have been making note of the time we start and finish each thing and will keep doing so to find why it is taking us so long to get through a day. Other than how long it took to get through each day things seem to be going ok. My girls like history and science and I think right now they are a little bummed with the small amount of science we have been doing I am hoping it starts to get a little deeper as we get further along into it, but they are loving history we are going through A First Book in American History, plus I am reading them the expansion reading book Pedro's Journal (only because I knew it would be something they would enjoy) they really loved the notebooking activity where they drew the map of Columbus sailing across the ocean. This curriculum is nothing like anything I have ever used before I know it will take time for us to get it and get used to how different it is. We have enjoyed the extra box that switches from art, geography, vocabulary, ect. Unfortunately when I had my girls try to look up the vocabulary words that were given from the History book we could only find one in their children's dictionary. I guess we may need to look into getting a different one.
Overall I am loving the guide and having it all right there and holding my hand through what to do I am enjoying the reading that we do and love the hands on things that we have done so far. A little bummed at how light the science is and worried about how much time we seem to be taking each day and how I will find time for my 4 year old once we add in more structured schooling for him.

[MelInKansas]

Thanks both of you for sharing! LynnH sorry it was such a rocky start, but thanks for honestly sharing how it went. We all have days and weeks with frustrations like that, and it sounds like there is a LOT of challenge in WG for your son. Plus getting back into the swing of that much work after a summer break is always... well... a challenge. I will pray that he sees that he CAN do it and that his heart will be open for how God is going to work. A stretching time for all of you it sounds like.

mommymoles - Bigger Hearts is an intensive guide! Then I am sure since two of your kids are doing it, you have to talk with each one individually, and work with each one on math and reading at their own level, right? That adds even more time. If I were you, I would definitely not read the extension books yet. The guides always take longer when you are first getting started, as you and the kids adjust to what is required for it. Just stick to the plans, that way you know you are getting everything in and the time will be a little shorter. I promise, it will start to go more quickly and smoothly in a few weeks!

How was our week? Well, it was interesting. We had a trip 1 hour away for a specialist appointment for my 2YO. My mom came to help out and we ended up spending time with her and my mother-in-law. Tuesday was shot. Then there was a big homeschool park day which I didn't want to miss (on a different day). Then on Friday as we were doing school a big thunderstorm blew through and our power went out. The power ended up being out for about 2 hours.... I had left the house about 30 minutes into it. So, flexibility was key. 3 days out of 5 we were finishing school up mostly in the afternoon, when most of us are tired and grumpy and much less willing to work on it. Due to my 2YO's health needs right now I have to focus more time on him during the day (which honestly I probably needed to do anyway). That is throwing things off. I am very glad to say that in spite of all that, it wasn't pretty, but we did finish 1 week of plans in all 3 guides. Praise and glory be to God!

Just to not alarm you, my son is fine. He has eye issues, which thankfully do not require surgery but we are doing eye patch therapy and while he is patched I need to play with him and help him with things. He is not used to getting my focussed attention, and then on top of that they also recommended TV time which we usually NEVER have during the day. He is liking that, for sure. After we go back and I start weaning that off will be a challenging time for sure....

To encourage my son with his eye patch, his sisters decided to participate too. Arrrr - pirates!

3 girls eye patch.JPG (36.6 KiB) Viewed 4737 times

But back to my school kids doing HOD - my 5YO completed week 3 of LHFHG, my 7YO did week 31 of Beyond, and my 9YO did week 24 of Preparing.

LHFHG was fun, I definitely probably lost the most attention to this guide this week because of all the other stuff going on. She did well, as always, enjoying the Rhyme, the Bible stories, and especially the hands-on activities. Whenever I get to one of the play-acting ones I kind of inwardly groan and say "Oh maybe we won't do it." Sorry, I just never was much into that. But then I ask my DD and she wants to do it so badly, so we do it! And of course, it helps her remember the story and she tells her Dad all about it. We talked about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob this week.

Matching markers to paper in math.

Gloria Markers Small.JPG (37.41 KiB) Viewed 4737 times

Beyond we are learning about the Westward expansion, wagon trains, Indians and things like that. I was reading another book that I was going to consider as a Storytime book about the Pony Express... until I got about halfway through and the violence in it just disgusted me. I knew my very sensitive DD would not like the book at all. That made me appreciate even more how HOD has selected things that yes, they talk about the fighting, fears, and problems that went on, but they don't graphically discuss the violence and warfare. My 7YO just isn't ready for that yet. I appreciate the things they do focus on in their materials, and the scripture being brought into each part of it.

In Preparing my DD did a lot more on her own this week than usual (again because of the crazy week we had). She read some of her storytime to herself, which then I had to go back and read because when I finally got back into reading it with her I was lost! I had her tell me some of what I had missed but it wasn't nearly all of it. Oh well. It is such a good read - we are currently reading Raiders of the Sea - about a young Irish girl who is kidnapped by Vikings. The history has been about the monastic times, and then about the beginning of Islam, and then about Charlemagne ruling over most of Europe. I was so VERY thankful for the Bible verses written in when we discussed the beginning of Islam. I myself was preparing to challenge some of what the Hillyer book said about Islam and those scriptures were excellent in aiding me in doing that. In Hillyer it seems he almost approaches Islam as "equal" to Christianity in truth and in their focus being right. Sigh.

Here is a picture of her doing the day 5 science experiment, which was to show how fish's mouths are perfectly created to get the kind of food they need. She had the blocks out as part of the coral reef and there was sugar on the rock (which the pliers could scrape off), small pieces of cereal for tweezer shaped mouths, and nuts as snails for the clothespin mouth to grab. A very fun experiment, and really brought the point home to her I think. She is finally able to do the experiments mostly on her own which both of us really like. I did stop in to look at it and had to help her find her dad's pliers too, but otherwise she did it on her own! Her write-ups could be better but we will keep working on them.

Coral Reef science experiment

Abigail Fish Science Small.JPG (38.11 KiB) Viewed 4737 times

Blessings to all of you doing HOD too!

[lissiejo]

Back to week-in-reviewing is fun! I can't wait to read all of your reviews!

http://gracefilledhomeschooling.blogspo ... 18-22.html

Preschool: Awaiting LHFHG
2nd Grade: Currently half-speed, Unit 1
4th Grade: Unit 18

(I wish I could post pictures here, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to make them nice and small like everyone else's!)