heartofdakota.com

Ok Fellow HOD Homeschoolers,

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!

Rough and tough ... that describes our week again, but I have a plan for next week...

http://gracefilledhomeschooling.blogspo ... 13-17.html

World History High School Guide:
This week Wyatt finished reading about the Mycenaeans Greek city-states. Wyatt did his first recorded narration assignment, which I really liked because it involved many multi-faceted skills. He read his assignment, narrated orally into his iPod, listened to his narration himself as he typed it, printed it, glued it in his notebook, and then read it to me. What an awesome assignment! He chose to focus on Pericles the Greek. He learned much from each part of this assignment. Orally narrating into a recording device makes you more aware of what you are actually saying, especially as you listen to yourself later and then type your actual words. Working on his typing is always a good skill too!


The connections between the history readings in World History in "People, Places, and Events...," the History Activities with critical thinking questions from "Short Lessons in World History," and the readings in the Living Library all go together so well. Reading about "Cyrus the Persian" and doing the Literary Synthesis Sheet alongside reading about Cyrus uniting Persia and building the Persian Empire in History Activities, while also reading about him in World History, all provide different glimpses into what was really going on in history at that time, as well as what it really would have been like to live during that time. "Cyrus the Persian" is proving to be as good of a read as "The Cat of Bubastes," which Wyatt was quite sure could never be matched.

I continue to enjoy Wyatt sharing his "Talking Points" with me as another follow-up assessment to his World History readings. He is getting quite adept at talking the right kind of notes that help jog his memory, as well as use new vocabulary he has learned. This is an informal sharing time that we both enjoy. I make sure not to interrupt him, and it helps him keep the flow of the narration going. This is almost a precursor skill to speech classes. I like how he is getting comfortable referring to phrases of notes, glancing at them and then talking on that 'talking point' looking me in the eye, until he glances at his next 'talking point.' He's becoming fluid with his talking points, so there is not a gap in narrating. His written narration about the seven ancient wonders was interesting to hear him read as well. He always reads it out loud to me with pencil in hand, making editing corrections he notices as he reads aloud. Often times, there are only one or two things (or none) for me to help him fix by the time he is done. I like how HOD has taught him to edit his own work carefully, before my coming in to help with any final editing.


Wyatt's Book of Centuries continues to grow. As each page is filled, it is a visual memory of what we studied last year and now this year together. It is going to be a neat keepsake of Wyatt's history studies in high school...


The Bible Study has the most beautiful, stirring hymns by Selah as part of Wyatt's Bible Quiet Time twice each week. The CD liner inserts are short but provide depth to the songs and the song writers that we'll never forget. A hymn we've sung 100 times changes in meaning when we understand its writer wrote it after receiving word his 4 daughters had drowned at sea, en route on ship himself to meet his grieving wife...
"When sorrows like sea billows roll, it is well with my soul." Wyatt and I will never sing this words again without remembering in what dire circumstances they were written - and STILL - they were written praising the Lord. There is much to be learned from hymns.

In Christ,
Julie

Resurrection to Reformation:
This week in history Riley read about the Hundred Years' War between France and England. He couldn't believe that Henry II was King of England, Duke of Normandy, and Lord of Brittany in France - all at the same time! During this time, the Black Death spread through Europe, and the devastation this caused was made clear to Riley by his History Project especially. To show how quickly the Black Death spread, Riley labeled 10 bags labeled with various cities in Europe with counters in them, some marked to show how much the Black Death had spread there, and others unmarked to show the proportion it had not. He rolled the dice while referencing his map of cities, drawing out the number of counters rolled at each city. If he drew a counter with a mark on it, he was exposed to the plague at that city. Going on to the next city, he didn't roll the dice then, as he'd already been exposed previously, but he marked one of the unmarked counters in that city's bag to show he had moved on to that city and exposed other people to the plague there. He traveled like this 3 cities past where he first was exposed himself to the plague, and then at that city he died. He did a land route and a sea route this way, and it showed him clearly how traveling people exposed to the Black Death often kept traveling for a bit before realizing they had contracted the disease, inadvertently exposing more people to it, causing it to spread quickly in cities along land and sea routes. He made it much further on land than at sea. He thoroughly enjoyed this history project, and I doubt he'll ever forget how the Black Death spread so quickly and took so many lives...


Riley's Map Trek maps continue to be a great tie-in to what he is reading in "Story of the Middle Ages" and "Famous Men of the Middle Ages." The directions are so clear, and the maps turn out so nicely. They often act as further references for geography, atlas, and history activities, so they are put to good use!


In 'Medieval History Based Writing Lessons," Riley used a fused key word outline, meshing his notes from 2 different resources, to write his "Battle of Hastings" piece. The rough draft rubric has helped him utilize all of the mini-lesson skills he has been taught this far, like using -ly words, vivid vocabulary, beginning sentences with the who/what clause, varying sentence lengths, etc. He marks the use of these writing helps in the margin, and I have him high-light those so they stand out to me when I am correcting them. He then typed his piece. Often in typing there are still errors to fix, and after printing it, I edit it directly on that paper, and have him fix those errors one last time and reprint. This is teaching the writing process so well, and it is amazing the amount of work that goes into a relatively short piece by its final edit and print!


For DITHOR, Riley and Emmett made their Godly character trait cards together. Each had different areas they wanted to focus on improving. I love the connections between Godly character traits within Bible characters, book characters, and then ourselves. This pattern of studying Godly character traits is so effective, and it has the side benefit of helping them to analyze their book characters' decisions in light of the Bible - a great literary and Biblical connection.


In Christ,
Julie

Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory:
Emmett has been learning about George Washington this week. He could hardly believe George Washington's Mount Vernon home housed 5 farms. As Emmett prefers colorful projects but does not prefer making mistakes in marker, it works well for him to first write in pencil and then go over it in marker...


Emmett is an active boy, and acting out the farm work on George Washington's farm was great fun! What made it even more fun, was the placing of the areas he was to do the farm 'work.' Riley was in the 'cows' area, and Wyatt was in the 'horses' area. Those areas certainly got the hardest 'work' out of Emmett that day!


Just like Betsy in "Boys and Girls of Colonial Days," Emmett entertained 'guests' with a hearty cornbread he made. Betsy entertained George Washington unknowingly, and did so with great gentility and proper manners. You would have thought Emmett was entertaining George Washington instead of just his brothers for as much joy as he took out of doing so! His brothers certainly never seem to mind when Emmett has a baking project either.


For science, Emmett read about fish. He made his own herring fish by following a set of step-by-step directions. He drew it, cut it out, colored portions of it, and painted a watercolor wash over top of it. He was so proud of his final fish!


For math, Emmett learned that it is much quicker to count to 100 by 10's than by 1's. This counting and grouping activity made his workbook pages super easy to do. HOD has awesome hands-on activities that really help math 'stick!'


For Storytime, Emmett is laughing his way through our humorous genre as we read "Paddington at Large." The close passage activity assigned is always a good way to see if he is understanding the book well. He got them all right, so I think he is doing terrific!


For DITHOR, he loved joining big brother Riley to work on some Godly character traits. He is working on diligence, and he came up with some great ideas that this mom loves! He hung his completed character trait card and goals on his mirror as a reminder to do them.


In Christ,
Julie

Here is week 9 of the World Geography guide http://graceandfur.blogspot.com/2014/10 ... 72014.html. So far this year is really going well.

I love reading all the weeks in review. Thank you ladies for taking the time to share. I must start doing it again.

Lynn, I always love to see what is happening at your house and love how you rejoice in the improvements that Noah makes.

Julie, you do a great job at sharing your boys week. It is lovely to see them grow into the guides and take more and more responsibility for their learning.

Lissiejo, your girls are just gorgeous and they always seem very diligent workers. Enjoy them, treasure the moments as they grow so fast.

Bigger has been so much this year, especially the experiments! My son is especially loving these. This week my kids slithered on the floor like snakes. That was hilarious to see Last week, my son did an experiment with and egg and had so much fun that he said to me, "Next year when Josie does this experiment, I'm in!"