heartofdakota.com

Hello HOD Homeschoolers,

What was YOUR week Like?

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Hi everyone,

All four of my sons are doing Heart of Dakota, but I only took pictures of Bigger Hearts. I posted a blog post about it here:

http://wonderfilleddays.com/our-first-f ... his-glory/

We really enjoyed the first four weeks and I hope to post more regularly in the future. The salt water evaporation experiment turned out so neat for us.

We're going on a three week trip next week, though, so we'll be taking a bit of a vacation.

Unit 8 in Bigger and Little Hearts:

http://myfullhandsandheart.blogspot.com ... -2015.html

Bigger Hearts for His Glory:
We had our first week of homeschooling this week, and coming back to BHFHG was awesome! I felt like I lost track of my little one in the hustle and bustle of summer, and settling back into the routine of homeschooling with BHFHG was just what Emmett and I needed to have special time alone together, where he was my little star for awhile. We are picking up in Unit 10, and it is a great place to be! He returned to BHFHG more mature, already knowing the gist of what he'd be doing, and ready to 'wow' me. He did! I am amazed at the growth I've seen in him through the careful building of skills in BHFHG, and almost a third of the way into the plans, I'm so proud of the skills he is honing and building stronger every day.

We didn't do ONE thing with cursive writing the entire summer we took off, so I was a tad frightened how returning to it might go. Well, no worries! All I had to do was write the words on a marker board with a black marker, so he could be reminded of the flow of the handwriting, and he was off and running, doing the page all by himself and telling me (gulp ), "I got this Mom, if you need to help someone else." Words I NEVER heard last year from my little (usually) cuddle bunny.


Reading about Benjamin Franklin in history has Emmett's creative juices flowing. His playtimes are filled with 'inventing stuff' now. I'm not sure what it is, but he's thrilled about to be inventing just like Benjamin Franklin. His art project of a painted kite reminded him of Ben Franklin's experiment with electricity, and his oral narrations showed he really understood what we read. I love that balance of bodily-kinesthetic, linguistic, visual/spatial - all part of one subject in a in BHFHG.


Poor Richard's sayings were witty, and Emmett got a big kick out of them. He enjoyed his notebooking assignment where he copied some and illustrated them. It was really neat that big brother Riley has been learning about Benjamin Franklin at the same time. It always is neat to see all of the natural connections our sons make across their different guides. So much sharing happens, and each one gets to be the 'star' as they share!


Reading "John Audubon" for science has Emmett in tune to every bird outdoors - he's become a real bird enthusiast. After I read the science with Emmett cuddled up on the couch, big brother Wyatt headed up the experiment to give me a chance to correct his work. Wyatt called me in and told me I had to watch. My 3 'storks' were well-balanced each on one leg until they spun around a bunch of times. They had a new respect for the stork and the way God created him! Let's just say all of them hit the floor in a pretty quick fashion after spinning and then trying to stand on one leg again! I love these times together - such a blessing and so much more memorable for my sweet 8 yo than completing worksheet after worksheet about birds would be.


All in all - a great week for Emmett returning to finish BHFHG this year! I do love summer, but I have to say, it is so good to be back to a routine. It's so good to be back with my little Emmett making precious memories.

In Christ,
Julie

Hello Fellow HOD homeschooling moms!

It sure does feel like fall here, with the first crisp days starting to hit. I am loving it!

This week my oldest did Unit 19 of CTC, my 2nd did Unit 28 of Bigger, and my 3rd did Unit 33 of LHFHG. My 4th born did some scissors and listened to his Cubbies CD

CTC is really going well. I remember Julie often saying she loves the middle of the guide, where the kids really know what to do and it goes along swimmingly. The projects seem to be getting more involved and challenging. This week's was making a scytale code like the Greeks and then running a mile to "deliver" it. It cracked me up. She ran 10 lengths (out of 100) and came in saying "whoo, I'm tired!" She thought she could be done. I told her to go finish running the mile. She made it about 15 more lengths and tried to quit again. Finally she decided to just finish running the mile, and she was pretty hot and sweaty when she was done. I am loving reading Archimedes and the Door to Science with her. It is so interesting that he figured out so many things! The last one we read was how he figured out that a goldsmith had cheated the king, by mixing some silver into the gold he used to make the king's crown. Smart guy. Also a bit eccentric.

Bigger is also a lot of fun. I have to confess Bigger is the one I struggle to finish each day but that is probably because she is the one I work with after lunch. Everyone else is done before lunch but I usually have about an hour to finish with her after lunch. I just can't fit it all into mornings, we often take a little recess and that has become my workout time, which I do want to maintain. I had all these grand ideas about working out first thing in the morning, and with a baby who still gets up in the night, it just ain't happening. I am just happy to get up and read my Bible and have some moments of prayer before our day begins. My DD just finished reading some books by Gloria Whelan and then I started her this week in DITHOR. The start was good, though she didn't like how long the reading was. She is reading Amelia Earhart and the chapters are longer than she had been reading to me from the other books. But she did it just fine, and I hope she will get used to the reading lengths. I know she will like the book projects!

LHFHG - almost done, and I can't believe it! Again, my DD is ready to move to Beyond as far as I can see. She is zipping through TRL, has finished her handwriting book, and often likes to listen to storytime in Bigger. She is an excellent narrater. I think she will be excited to have a little more challenge. I just need to figure out how to transition it, should I just finish LHFHG one day and start Beyond the next? I think last year when I had a fall transition (which was Beyond to Bigger for my 2nd born) I gave her a week off so I could kind of gather my thoughts on it and work out a new schedule. But I don't think the transition from LHFHG to Beyond is as difficult, just a couple of things to add, and not too much time. I've kind of already thought it through. We are loving these rhymes near the end, the ones that are set to song are always fun to do!

Thanks for reading my non-pictoral update. Blessings on all you others who are doing HOD.

World History High School:
Wyatt is officially a 10th grader according to our school district, so we decided to take time to 'smell the roses' and spread out the rest of his high school guides. He has about 7 weeks left in his World History guide, and then he'll start his American History guide. Wyatt is used to finishing a guide a year, and he wasn't sure what he wanted to do. After much prayer and discussion, we both are excited about this plan! He loves his life. And he doesn't want to rush to graduate early. I'm glad about it too! He is turning into a wonderful Christian young man, and I depend on him so much. We'll be doing school 5 days a week with Riley and Emmett, and Wyatt will be schooling 4 days a week, and helping more on the 5th day with the other boys. He has a real knack for teaching. This summer, when I paid him to take care of his younger brothers, he taught Emmett his math and his grammar 3 x a week, and Riley his math 2 times a week. They all loved it! And it put us ahead in these subject areas, so at the end of the year, when things get crazy busy, these subjects can drop out for awhile. I am so incredibly thankful we are homeschooling our son through high school. It is the harvest of all of the years before, and our entire family is benefitting from it!

Starting back for Wyatt was a piece of cake, because he is in the final stretch of his WH guide, and he knows exactly what he is doing. He had already finished his Geometry from last year, so our only new subject was Foerster's Algebra II. There is a schedule of problems to assign that David Chandler made on the flash drive. It is a time saver! Carrie spoke to him personally, and he explained he carefully chose the problems so that they are more than enough for an Algebra II full credit. I'm so thankful! It is making Algebra II a seamless transition.

Wyatt has started reading Les Miserables. At first, he told me that he like it, but that he still loved "The Count of Monte Cristo" more. By the end of the week, he told me he thought he was going to love "Les Miserables" just as much. I read "Les Miserables" last summer, for pure enjoyment. I knew he'd love it, once he got past the beginning of figuring who was who, and what was what. The descriptions provided in the back are an incredible help. I was very thankful for this particular version of "Les Miserables" for that alone. Here is his lit journal response to his reading...


Wyatt loved the Mock Trial assignment regarding Robert Peel. The critical thinking questions and mock trial assignments in WH have done so much to help Wyatt learn to express his opinion, support it with evidence, and clearly close with his final thoughts. I enjoy hearing him read it and going through it together. I do believe Wyatt could be a lawyer if he wanted to! Teenagers are so passionate. This is an outlet for that emotion and a wonderful way to learn to appropriately express opinions!


The "You Are There" audio cd continues to be an exciting part of the WH guide. Listening to it, it really does seem that 'you are there.' It also makes clear the different thoughts and opinions of those present, and how their opposing opinions often come from their past experiences and loyalties to country or home. It doesn't make all actions 'right,' but it does give meaning to why the actions made probably came to pass. Here are Wyatt's notes for "Mutiny on the Bounty"...


In "Total Health" Wyatt and I had a wonderful discussion about marriage. This entire 1/2 credit elective has been so timely! These discussions are sure to impact Wyatt lifelong, and they are incredibly important for us to have. I do not rush this time together. We shut the doors, so little ears aren't able to hear, and we go through each of these topics in-depth. The topic of 'marriage' really was such an important one, and the discussion was awesome! It reiterated our thought that Wyatt should never enter into a relationship with any young lady he would not consider marrying. This puts things in prospective, and puts a halt to today's yo-yo dating (which was not great for my dh or for me in our youth).


Wyatt continues to clip along with his Biology and lab. I'm so thankful we are able to do Biology with lab like this! It is doable, and it gets done every day.


In Christ,
Julie

Revival to Revolution
Riley had his first week of RevtoRev. He is my only child starting a new guide, and we just jumped in without a lot of forethought. I mapped out the days we're doing school, the days we're taking off for holidays, the days for deer hunts, vacations, etc. and then put in a cushion of extra days off for sick days, etc. I made a schedule. I bought supplies. But as far as specifically getting much done beforehand for RevtoRev - that I did not do. Poor Riley. I just felt we needed to start, and I kind of threw him in the deep end. The first 3 days were b-u-s-y, and I'd like to say I was incredibly patient and loving, but I wasn't. I prayed about it. I asked forgiveness for it. I just kind of expected him to do it all right, in the right amount of time, and I really didn't have it set up like that for him. However, the good news is, by Day 4 and Day 5, he was doing it! He was back in the saddle, and in spite of my impatient moodiness, he was cheerful and doing great! He actually said to me, after I'D apologized for being cranky with him, "It's ok mom, you know it just takes time to learn a new guide at first, but then it's always GRRRREAT!" He is my perpetually positive son, in spite of me. So, the first 3 days were not our best, but on the 4th and 5h day, we were back to a good routine. We woke up to this sunrise on Day 4, which was a reminder to me that each day brings new mercies (praise the Lord ). We snapped a picture of it to make it our theme for the day, and it was a wonderful day - not a perfect day, but still, a wonderful day full of hope and promise of a joyful year together in RevtoRev...


If there is one thing Riley loves, it is the hands-on component HOD makes sure to include. He absolutely adored making his headdress, so much so that he wore it... all day... for 2 days. He followed the directions all by himself, and I just got to snap the picture. How great is that?!?


For the composer study, Riley insisted on doing some extra coloring. I think it turned out great!


Wyatt helped Riley with his DITHOR on his day off, and he had a terrific Student Book page about his character in his biography! "Dust of the Earth" is just hands-down an awesome book. I'm so thankful for Carrie's great book choices!


Riley loves the timeline. He likes the creativity he gets to have in drawing his own pictures and coloring them. For his written narration, I was pleased to see his own 'writing style' emerging. We are working on dividing his narrations into paragraphs, which he forgets to do. That's ok, one thing at a time...


Researching the signers of the Declaration of Independence is going to be such a neat activity! I really like "The Signers" book - just enough info without being overwhelming. It is teaching him to take bulleted notes well. And the full color cards? Beautiful.


So, we are looking forward to our second week in RevtoRev, and feeling much better prepared for it! I hope you had a good week overall too!

In Christ,
Julie

We finished Preparing Hearts Unit 5!
http://www.findingjoyinthejourney.net/a ... questions/

Our week…..we did complete our goal of our first complete week (5 days!). The first 2 days were great and then we had 2 hard days (took until 2pm instead of being done by 12:30pm due to the boys goofing around). This coming week will be another messed up week (like usual!) due to having an ENT appointment on Tues, starting speech class with my 9 year old on Wed, going on a field trip on Friday and to top it all off, my husband injured his wrist while rollar skating on Friday and will be home all week now. Sigh….. thus is our life!

RtR – We are still doing half days and worked on finishing up Unit 2. Melody did fairly well this week other than one melt down due to the written narration in science. She likes to get things done early but it is not always possible with 3 kids.



Bigger (unit 3, day 3 - unit 4, day 2) – Steven is getting better at doing things himself and is enjoying most of his work. He now knows how to find words in the dictionary (new skill for him) and does the vocabulary mostly by himself. He likes making pictures to go along with the words, but still needs help with making sentences with them. He enjoyed making a ‘river’ (and his brother had to do it too) on Unit 3, day 4. For his timeline, he wanted to look up how a whale looked so that he could draw one correctly. He also loved taking bites out of the graham crackers to make the continents for geography. On the day we learned about bartering the boys had so much fun with it.



LHFHG (unit 5, day 4 – unit 6, day 3) – This week we have not been doing phonics as Clarence needs a break (as nothing was sinking in and I decided to having him take a 2 week break before trying again). Clarence has enjoyed the rhymes this week and also the Bible stories. He was sad that we finished Reddy Fox, but so far the new book is OK. He really likes the” Going on Eagerly” workbook. He did not care for the art project in unit 6 as it was hard to paint with that toothpaste/glue combination. So far he has done well with the Bible review and has remember all the verses and songs.

Julie,
I loved reading about your son Wyatt. I know how hard it is making decisions for high school. I chuckled about your comment about him being a lawyer. After going over the new AH guide I made a comment that this looks wonderful for someone who wants to be a lawyer. Well, Wyatt is going to love the new AH guide.

I sure wish I could figure out how to post pictures because I have so many to share.

This has been the best year yet. We are using MTMM and Preparing. As my son is learning about Japan we are thinking about his sister in Japan. He has truly hit his stride with oral and written narrations. He is poised and confident. They are even completed quickly. He has come so far when I think of his time in Preparing. One sentence would take 30 minutes. Now he writes 14-17 in 15 minutes. He especially enjoys the Presidents and Economy resources and notebook pages. This year seems easy and for that I am glad. He actually did the Nature Journal and Chemistry over the summer. We have added resources from the new AH guide-Chemistry and Government, since he is taking both of those classes at our co op. The new AH guide complements his learning.

Thank you Carrie for making such wonderful curriculum. My kids are happy and so am I.

Tammy - to post photos you have to have them somewhere on the web. I post mine in photobucket first and then will copy the url link here. As far as I know, that is the easiest way to do it.

Rumkimon,
I tried to upload to photo bucket. Rather than download a few pictures it wanted to download my 1,000's of pictures. I don't want to give access to all my pictures.

Tammy - I also use photobucket. I am not sure how you set it up but I pick and choose which photos I download into it. Mine doesn't do it automatically. Also - when I post photos from my phone, I have to save them as small resolution in photobucket or they end up huge when I post the image link from photobucket.

my3sons wrote: Riley had his first week of RevtoRev. He is my only child starting a new guide, and we just jumped in without a lot of forethought. I mapped out the days we're doing school, the days we're taking off for holidays, the days for deer hunts, vacations, etc. and then put in a cushion of extra days off for sick days, etc. I made a schedule. I bought supplies. But as far as specifically getting much done beforehand for RevtoRev - that I did not do. Poor Riley. I just felt we needed to start, and I kind of threw him in the deep end. The first 3 days were b-u-s-y, and I'd like to say I was incredibly patient and loving, but I wasn't. I prayed about it. I asked forgiveness for it. I just kind of expected him to do it all right, in the right amount of time, and I really didn't have it set up like that for him. However, the good news is, by Day 4 and Day 5, he was doing it! He was back in the saddle, and in spite of my impatient moodiness, he was cheerful and doing great! He actually said to me, after I'D apologized for being cranky with him, "It's ok mom, you know it just takes time to learn a new guide at first, but then it's always GRRRREAT!" He is my perpetually positive son, in spite of me. So, the first 3 days were not our best, but on the 4th and 5h day, we were back to a good routine. We woke up to this sunrise on Day 4, which was a reminder to me that each day brings new mercies (praise the Lord ).

Thanks for sharing Julie. You are not alone and neither am I apparently. My oldest started her new guide as well in RtR. I pretty much treated her the same way! We sure didn't move fast the first couple of days and I almost died. But by day 3 of the plans I chillaxed a bit and now we are much happier. She actually finished Unit 1 Day 4 in one school day (yesterday)! We are starting unit 2 in about 5 minutes and she LOVES it!!!!