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!

Unit 17 in Bigger

http://myfullhandsandheart.blogspot.com ... it-17.html

I enjoyed reading about your week, Megan!

Here's our Unit 17 with Bigger.
http://wonderfilleddays.com/bigger-hear ... y-unit-17/

Here is our week in the WH guide http://graceandfur.blogspot.com/2016/01 ... 52016.html

Bigger Hearts for His Glory:
Emmett has been learning about American printers, poets, and authors this week in history. One of the people we read about was Horace Greeley, who everyone thought was a strange young boy because his hair was completely white and he wore ill-fitting clothes as his family was poor. However, he was a hard worker who surpassed everyone's expectations of him by becoming a famous newspaper man as an adult. He began by learning to set type at Mr. Bliss's newspaper business. Setting type took much time, as Emmett learned by 'setting type' himself in his history activity. He had fun solving the 'code' of letters and numbers to type set Benjamin Franklin's quote: "Well done is better than well said." Big brother Wyatt helped him with this activity...


Another famous person that far surpassed the outlook of her future was Louisa May Alcott. As a little girl, she was quite wild and often prone to wandering away from home with no notice to her parents. She too came from a poverty-stricken family and to help pass time during her trying chore of washing clothes by hand, she wrote poems to say as she washed to help her work more cheerfully. She decided to 'make something of herself' and work hard to help her family no longer be poor and she did, as she eventually wrote the classic book "Little Women." Emmett loved his clothesline art activity that has Alcott's poem as part of it along with a clothesline of cut-out clothes to show her doing the wash. He also loved hearing that "Little Women" is carried by Heart of Dakota as a classic title for high school students to read.


We also read about pioneers carding and spinning wool in "A Pioneer Sampler" for science. Plants were used to dye the wool, and then after the wool was made into yarn, socks, mittens, clothes, and blankets were made from it. Emmet had fun with his experiments and note booking activities he did with these readings...


In R & S English, Emmett continues to work on writing paragraphs that describe a happening with his senses. He chose to write about his older brother making whirly pop popcorn one day, and he wrote about walking in the rain the next day. We did not get his popcorn story edited, which is something I usually never forgo, as I know it creates bad habits. We did edit his next paragraph about the rain, and it is much better!


In Christ,
Julie

Revival to Revolution:
Riley has been learning about Fidelia Fiske serving God in Persia, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and the burning of the U.S.S. Philadelphia. What an exciting week of history to enjoy! Riley was surprised to see how much of the U.S. is a part of the Louisiana Purchase. He also enjoyed viewing sketches from Lewis and Clark's journal. He made his own sketch on tea-stained/baked paper of a fish, similar to the ones he viewed in their journal. He wanted to write some text with his sketch too, as this was the way the journal looked as well. Then, he glued it in his own journal - his RevtoRev Student Notebook. So neat! He added these events to his timeline in his notebook too. We discussed the painting titled "Burning of the Frigate Philadelphia in the Harbor of Tripoli" by Edward Moran. These paintings lend such a Charlotte Mason feel to the RevtoRev Notebook. Other connections we enjoyed were reading and discussing the lyrics of the "Marine Hymn," orally narrating and discussing the Storytime book "Seaman," and completing the Map Trek Map of the "Lewis and Clark Expedition." All of these connections of varied living books, activities, discussions, narrations, and assessments work together to weave a beautiful 'quilt' of history that Riley loves! And I do too.


Riley also took time to neatly draw his picture of Sacagawea. I asked him if he could add some background to neatly fill the entire box in his RevtoRev Notebook, and he was happy with the way it turned out! He also enjoyed reading the primary source document, which was an excerpt from a letter written by Mary Susan Rice. She served as a missionary alongside Fidelia Fiske in Persia, which is today Iran. She served as a missionary there for 22 long years, and her letter is an inspiration to read...


Riley's Inventor Study had him reading about Howe, McCormick, and Bessemer. He especially enjoyed reading about Bessemer, who began his career by stamping dies and molds for casting metal. He then built various machines that made bronze powder, and because the machines could make it much quickly than it could be made by hand, this provided the means for him to have enough of an income that he could invest time and money in working on still other inventions - such as the process to successfully make steel. This study appeals to Riley very much, as he loves machines and he loves to invent things. I love that it has awakened his mind to the possibility that he truly could invent something in his lifetime, and who knows? Maybe he will!


This goes hand in hand so nicely with his physical science course Exploration Education, as he gets to build and experiment with his own things. I also like the workbook that accompanies all of the hands-on work. He did so well on his quiz! I think this is an area God has gifted Riley in, and it most certainly does not come from me. I believe he will take after my dh in this area, which is such a blessing!


In Music Appreciation, we read about Johannes Brahms this week. Riley thought the music sounded like the playful and sometimes not so playful chase of a fox and a hound. It reminded him of the movie "The Fox and the Hound," so that is what he drew for his music appreciation sheet.


In Christ,
Julie

United States 1 High School History:
Wyatt has been reading about the early American Indians, the Navigation Acts, the Salem Trials, and the Great Awakening this week in history. One of his narrations he gave was an "opinion narration," and this has been such a good skill for Wyatt to practice. He has done this type of narration a few times now, and each time he is getting better at it. The first time, he forgot to give his opinion all together. The second time he gave it all at the end, and it was kind of disconnected. This last time he transitioned into it better at the end, wrapping it up nicely and mentioning something from each of the previous topics. He told me next time he might try experimenting with sprinkling his opinions throughout the narration. How I wish the college students I taught speech class to had had some experiences like this in high school! It surely would have helped better prepare them.

He also gave a "talking points" narration on Puritan life, and how their influence changed over time. After listing his headings to narrate upon on an index card, he then listed words/details/phrases under each heading to help keep him focused on what he wanted to talk about when giving his oral narration. Finally, during his oral narration he read several quotes from his history book "Faith of Our Fathers." Such a great skill for him to practice! You can see his card taped in his US1 Journal. Below it you can see his written narration about Whitefield's preaching to the colonies...


Wyatt's Common Place Book's pages continue to be graced with beautiful Scriptures and quotes. He memorized Matthew 6:1-6, and he has written these verses in his Common Place Book as well. I love to see him pulling out his own personal Bible each day for school. It is so sad to me that this is not allowed in public schools today. As we study the beginnings of the United States and its ideals, so much was based on faith in God. I'm so glad we are homeschooling and able to spend time in the Bible together daily. Wyatt has been high-lighting the prayer starters he uses for his prayer time as well, and they are an excellent way to pray in the manner that Jesus did within The Lord's Prayer, which is often referred to as the ACTS (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication) model. This is a great model for ME to remember in my prayers during my own Bible Quiet times too!!!


Chemistry has Wyatt donning his goggles and burning things like denatured alcohol. He is truly enjoying chemistry! I did not when I was in high school, so this is a relief to me that he is not only enjoying it, but understanding it well and able to complete it 99% independently. I apparently am the 'safety' person - never a strong point of mine in high school science (I vaguely remember setting a table on fire with my bunsen burner somehow). Anyway, Wyatt has wonderful things to say about his Chemistry book. He likes the way the author explains things, and he enjoys the experiments. Hooray!


The absolute highlight for me this week was to read Wyatt's story he wrote for "In Their Sandals." I did not help with this in any way. Zip. Zero. Nada. I did have him 'flash' it for me to make sure he was progressing with it each day, but that was it until the final edit. So, it was not until I was reading it to edit it that I realized how much extra work and effort he had put into this assignment! I was all teary-eyed reading it - it was one of those moments as a homeschool mom that come around rarely, but that you want to 'hold onto in your heart.' The story was written from the point of view of the pig farmer whose pigs ran over the cliff when Jesus commanded the demons that were "Legion" to enter the pigs. What was so amazing was that Wyatt incorporated "Marcellus" from his Living Library reading "The Robe"! What was also so amazing was his way of describing things - definitely his own unique writing style, with his own unique 'turns of the phrase,' and his own heart for Jesus shining. Anyway, not every assignment can be a home run like this, but WOW - I just had to share my joy at the writing expertise and heart put into this one!!!


In Christ,
Julie

I love seeing the "older" guides in action! I am considering HOD for my going-to-be-8th grader next year. I would really like to get started on it now, but...well...$$$! It always makes me want to order, though, when I see how fun it looks! I know my daughter would love it!

Thanks, rodandmegs! I love reading your weekly check-in's as well!!!

In Christ,
Julie