heartofdakota.com

Week in Review: Feb 6 - Feb 10

Postby waterandclay » Fri Feb 10, 2017 3:03 pm
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!

We had a week off of school, but enjoyed getting back to work. We are learning so much in CtC and MtMM this year <3

CtC Unit 24
http://www.monarchroom.com/2017/02/hear ... it-24.html

MtMM Unit 24
http://www.monarchroom.com/2017/02/hear ... it-24.html

USI History for High School:
This week we completed Unit 34 of our guide, which focused on Johnson's impeachment, corruption and Grant's presidency, and Jim Crow laws. These were uncertain times in America! President Johnson's impeachment, reconstruction, the fall of the South, General Grant's election as president, and so many more turbulent events mark this time in history as a difficult one. Wyatt took notes on various topics he chose from a list of potential topics. He viewed the American Testimony DVD set to take his notes and base his answers upon. He also used the maps in his U.S. History Atlas to locate the battles as they were described in the DVD. I really appreciate this assignment. Taking notes from a media resource is something all college students will need to be able to do, as more and more research is based on media formats. The skill of listening to a resource and taking notes as you listen, as opposed to reading and taking notes looking at typed words that you can use for support, is a very different skill. Listening carefully and writing fairly quickly, or knowing when to pause to give yourself more time to write, are all important skills to acquire...


Wyatt also gave an opinion narration in response to one of his readings in America: The Last Best Hope. His narration was 4-5 paragraphs long, he edited it using the written narration Appendix helps, and he highlighted his personal opinions in yellow. As you can see he has gotten adept at giving his opinion in a fairly balanced way throughout the narration - a marked improvement from adding it at the end. ...


In Grammar, Wyatt continues to diagram sentences with more and more complexities. R & S English has slowly taught him this through the years, and I think it has transferred to his own writing, as he has learned to pay attention to writing with sentence variety...


For American Lit, Wyatt has been reading Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" and "Letter from Birmingham Jail". What a wonderful correlation to the history he is currently studying! So much of what King says is quotable - I loved Wyatt writing quotes of his in his Common Place Book! We had such good discussions using the Tale Blazers guide, and the allusions to the Bible were some of my favorite. The Lit journal continues to be a wonderful assessment of what he has read and studied...


For Living Library, Wyatt has begun reading "Quiet Thunder." He is already enjoying this book so much!


In Christ,
Julie

Missions to Modern Marvels:
We are clipping along, doing the MTMM guide 5 days a week through these blizzard-like winter months! It has been such a blessing to get ahead a little more each week by doing an extra day, so when our beautiful spring weather comes (and our crazy busy season at HOD arrives) we are all able to take days off as needed because we are ahead. This is one of the many blessings of homeschooling with HOD! Pacing can be tailor-made to a family's life - the weather, jobs, activities, interests, vacations, health concerns, etc. In spring my dh often gets the 'fishing bug' and the boys are off fishing unexpectedly for the day. This is a blessing because we are already ahead enough, the boys can go and not feel pressured to 'catch up.'

In history, Riley has been completing many maps related to his history readings. He is learning important map skills, while also connecting maps to his narrative history readings each day - one more way to help that history 'stick' in his mind! He connects to learning through work with his hands especially, so this is a wonderful part of the geography plans for him each week!


Riley's history notebook continues to grow, and I am happy with the growth I see. I know he needs to keep improving to be ready for high school, but I am seeing enough improvement in attention to detail (and neater writing) that I think he will be ready - whew!


Riley has been reading about Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity in science this week. He is so interested in it! I like the questions we are doing alongside his readings as well. He wrote a written narration I'll share here too (how I love that CM style skills are a part of science too)!...


In grammar, Riley is studying poetry, and he wrote a nice little poem about words I thought was quite clever for a 5 minute activity. He also gets to express his creative side in his Nature Journal this year...


In grammar, I sometimes have Riley take a few quick notes for him to be able to refer to as we orally do his grammar. It seems to help him organize his thoughts better and give more succinct answers orally as we clip along through the lesson...


Riley's State Study continues to give a wealth of information about our state that is fascinating and memorable...


I really like the science experiment lab form Riley completes for his science experiments! He has gotten better and better at completing these and understanding the flow of the process...


In Christ,
Julie

Preparing Hearts for His Glory:
Last week on the weekly check-in, I shared how my little Emmett needed to take on more responsibility. Well, this week was even better! He actually answered all of his science questions independently, with very few editing marks needing to be made. Hooray!


For math, Emmett has been learning about capacity. He had fun filling many different containers with beakers of 100 to 1000 milliliters, and he got very wet!


For history, we are continuing to love our couch time together reading! The CHOW readings are fascinating, and the "Raiders of the Sea" book - well, we can hardly put it down! It is THAT good! He is already wanting to read the rest of the series when we are done. I have to check when they are used though in HOD, as I know some of them are used later. We love this cuddle up reading time together, and as he is my youngest son I'm homeschooling, each trip through his guide is my last. Bittersweet! Happy, but sad, I must say. The readings of "Raiders of the Sea" are longer, and I do read them faster, but then I remind myself to slow down knowing someday soon, I'll wish these days back. We often get Sun Chips or some other little snack, and chow down a little as we read. This time is special for me with Emmett, and I am trying to remember to smell the roses along the way rather than race past the flowers to the rest of my day...


For Emmett's history project, he made a lovely manuscript, more semi-independently as this assignment is intended...


In Christ,
Julie