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!

Little Hearts for His Glory - Week 31:
Doesn't Abe Lincoln's log house look yummy? I happened to splurge and buy spray cheese (a childhood favorite of mine ). My ds used it to build his log cabin. He loved his cabin and wanted to save it for Daddy. However, my dh was traveling and wouldn't be home for days, so I said he should just eat it and enjoy it. Turns out neither one of my ds's like spray cheese - which means I ate the log cabin . Abe - you're making me gain weight!




Here is Riley riding Traveler - Robert E. Lee's horse. He rode it inside, outside, and everywhere in between. When I asked him where he was going to play for his playtime, he said, "Outside, of course. Traveler needs some exercise, Mom!" (Even older brother took Traveler for a spin - and yes, baby brother did too. Traveler is well-loved here!)


Preparing Hearts for His Glory - Week 5:
I have to say, ladies, that Preparing... just keeps getting better! We are in month 2, and we have found our groove. We've settled into our schedule, after tweaking it a bit for our little 18 mo terror! The second month always goes so much better for us. I have to remind myself of that each year - there's always an adjustment period with a new curriculum for us, and it seems like week 5 is the magic number for us. My ds is finishing earlier and earlier each day, as he knows what is expected of him, and he can be more independent. I love all of the literature especially. He really gets Hillyer's storytelling style and sense of humor. Every night he retells the Tigris/Euphrates pouring into the Persian Gulf example with his cup at the supper table - and laughs at how clever it is! He also recited all of his Psalms verses at the supper table for Daddy, and my dh couldn't believe how he could remember all of it. He especially loves the geography and timeline. What a blessing! Below is his favorite project this week - a cartouche of Hatshepsut. The pictures don't do it justice - it turned out so neat. It looks very authentic, and he was so proud of it! The bite-sized directions for the project each day allowed him to do it ALL BY HIMSELF. Yep, I didn't help with this one bit. I'd never get neat hands-on things like this done on my own. Thanks Carrie, for writing manageable hands-on projects!



Wyatt wanted me to take a picture of his growing timeline too. It is one of his favorite things to do!

The JOYS Of Using HOD With Children Who Learn Differently

I have a 12 year old son who learns at his own pace. God made him this way and he is perfect. His giftings lie in music and art. I thought I would share how we use HOD with our Special Learner. This year I am using "Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory" with a 6, 8 & my 12 year old. The 12 year old fits well into Beyond because the history is perfect for him. It's small readings and wonderful discussion questions help his brain to process through what he is learning. He isn't quite ready for the higher level readings of "Bigger" or the longer read a loud times, but will be. Something I have found that gets me excited with HOD is that each manuel begins to build the skills for the next. Though Colton wasn't quite ready for "Bigger", by next year he will be because of his work with "Beyond. I love that, as a home educator I can choose my children's levels and their pace. I can meet them where they are rather than striving to make them fit where the "norm" says he should be. I would much rather work under his grade level and meet his cognitive skills then to constantly push to do more. Colton LOVES learning and he feels confident and successful.

However, because this child is my son who excels artistically he thrives in art and projects and some of them in "Beyond" would be too young. I am finding it very easy to fit Beyond to his specially needs. He still does the science portion with his younger brothers and is exposed to the Key Idea's, but then we add something simple to help meet this level in the art area.

This week my 6 & 8 year old are making star fish by cutting them out of construction paper and using a glue mixture of cereal to give them the texture a real sea star would have. Colton wanted to do something for older boys and so he decided to put it in his notebook and copy some facts:





In addition to the science book in Beyond we got him a book from the library:


KEY IDEA "The Pilgrims were on a beach by the ocean. They may have seen ocean animals like the sea star. God made each animal in His creation very special."

One of my favorite parts of Beyond is the copywork. Colton loves to write, but at the beginning of this program could not copy an entire poem. However, I see him making such gains. Here is his poem, "Maker Of Heaven And Earth"


I hope to take pics of the younger boys star fish and get them posted, but we are off to our co-op this morning!

Julie, I LOVED your WIR. I thought using the cheese spread with BRILLIANT

Ladies, I wish I knew how to post pictures...I am so technically challenged! The girls have painted and drawn the most beautiful pictures of fish and beach critters. We are wrapping up week 2 from Bigger and have had a wonderful, blessed time together! I am using it with my younger daughters, ages 9 and almost 11. To hear them singing Holy, Holy, Holy is such a joy. The sweetest memory we have made (are preparing to make) is that my youngest dd has planned (all by herself) a play about Columbus for this coming Monday evening. She wrote announcements (oh, the spelling is SO dear) and posted them everywhere. She has planned to be the director and one of the ship mates. Her sisters will play an Indian/Columbus helper and the Queen. Their Daddy will have the honor of playing Columbus. I get to be the audience/camera gal. Last night after supper they practiced behind closed doors...I could hear their giggling as my dh proceeded to ham it up with the worst Italian...or was it Spanish... accent you can imagine! What a hoot. I'm planning to make Columbus boats (stuffed baked potatoes), and homemade wheat rolls and butter (gold),for supper that evening. I can hardly wait for Monday! Happy memory making to everybody~
Ginger

We are ending the week on such a high note and hitting our stride now with our schedule (after a very hectic Monday where it seemed everything went wrong )! I made a couple of minor adjustments to just one of my kiddo's schedule, and it made all the difference in the world in the flow of our day.

My 4th grader is really getting used to the set-up of the Preparing Hearts guide and is getting much better about being able to work more on his own, so just remember ladies that there is a learning curve to getting into the routine with any new guide (even if you wrote it yourself)!

In Preparing Hearts, Shaw is absolutely loving reading about the Arctic Tundra in the One Small Square book. He had a great time trying to think of ways to melt his ice cube as quickly as possible. HIs first trial took 2 minutes and his second trial only took 30 seconds. He learned about the Sun's heat melting the ice through radiation. Shaw is also having no trouble answering the science questions and has some great answers for the Biblical application part. I can see his little mind working!

He is pouring over the pictures in the True Story of Noah's Ark. I must admit they are breathtaking and gave me a whole new view of Noah and the time of the flood. Shaw has also loved adding cards to the timeline. He takes such care in drawing them, and feels proud he is learning to sketch with his Draw and Write Through History. My favorite part of the day right now is the Psalm study and seeing Shaw memorizing his verses while praising the Lord in song.

In Little Hearts for His Glory, Greyson loves pouring over the pictures of Jesus while we have been reading about His miracles. One of his favorite activity's is the Rhymes in Motion, and he jumps up to do them with such gusto. Greyson is one of those super-charged little guys that does everything with gusto. This week's rhyme is "Miracles from Above".

In Little Hearts, Greyson also was amazed at how drops of water on waxed paper had a sort of "skin" as he blew them around with a straw. Then, he had a great time floating a boat and noticing the "skin" of the water holding the boat up. This went along with the wild rainstorm the disciples were caught on on the Sea of Galilee.

We also loved mixing dough in a bag to make bread to go along with the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. All of my boys enjoyed the bread for lunch, and I enjoyed the great smell of baking bread! In our storytime, Danny Meadow Mouse is keeping Greyson on the edge of his seat. Danny has just escaped from Hooty the Owl!

My oldest son, Cole, says that Guerber's "Story of the Ancient World" is very interesting and that he's learning things he hasn't read before! He's been reading about Nimrod and the first cities after the flood. He is thrilled with the Extension Pack readings so far, and says they really give you a feel for the time period. He's not even minding writing written narrations this year, and that has often been something he'd rather NOT do! So, there's growth and gain on the horizon.

We pray each of your week's has been blessed as well.

Blessings,
Carrie

This week was a success in my book...my new 'relaxed' outlook for our school day is helping so much! We are spending a good amount of time schooling, and if we do not finish the day's (scheduled) work, I'm fine with it. I love the removal of that stress. I've been reading a LOT on organization and different ways to homeschool...implementing my plan, KWIM? I'm learning so much from some ladies at our co-op and I've been able to adjust our curriculum to be able to use it in a better way for us.

We have continued reading about the Pilgrims' journey to The New World and about Seabiscuit's adventures in horse racing. We've also enjoyed our Science readings and experiments...we had a blast while learning about the North Star...the kids enjoyed pretending to be the earth rotating. The kids have also been striving to do their best when adding to their maps and timelines...they love to draw and color so that is a great learning tool! They have also added some of their own learning and have been trying to make homemade books and trading cards. I'm so thrilled with how being home instead of in a school allows them to pursue more of their own interests...they did not have this freedom when they were attending school each day; there was NO time then.

I don't have a lot else to share, I just wanted to tell you all how happy I am with how things are going now. If we need to adjust other areas, we will, but we are finding success with our schedule as it is at this moment.

I love reading everyone's stories. It makes me so excited to get to those programs with my little guy.

I just posted our week in review on my blog. Here's the link http://cherish-each-moment.blogspot.com ... nit-5.html

We finally finished unit 6 of Preparing this week. This one took a while to get through - not because of the work, just normal family things going on (colds, field trip, cub scout projects, trips to Grandpa's house, etc.).

The Egyptian pastries were definitely a hit. We had to postpone Friday's experiment because we were out of straws .

You can see photos here: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/wdworkman/602914/

Mama Mary: You've got me tearing up with your post! I am soooooo proud of your precious Colton! Even his writing is artistic. You are such a great mom, you know that, right?!? I agree that Beyond... prepares kids so well for "Bigger", and likewise, "Bigger" prepares kids for "Preparing". Thanks for sharing this!

Ginger: I'm dying to see pics too! Your dd's enthusiasm for what they are learning in Bigger... is carrying over into their free time - now that's what we want. I wish I could come see their Columbus play (and eat your meal too ). I will try to post a "how-to" for posting pictures. I struggled with that at first too!

Carrie: I can just imagine Shaw pouring over those pics and drawing beautiful pictures of his own too - he is such a creative child! And Greyson... well, "Gusto" is the only way he goes about things. It would supercharge my day to get to watch him do the rhymes!!! Lastly, Cole, I bet he is loving the Guerber's Ancients - I'm getting excited about that for next year! I've gotten a chance to read Cole's written narrations of late, ladies, and look out America - Cole could be the next professional "debator"! He already has an amazing grasp of summarizing and expressing/supporting his opinions.

InHisTiming: I am so happy for you! It sounds like you have got a great plan going for your dc. It just takes awhile to come into our own with our layout of our days, doesn't it? And you are so right to be diligent in searching for what's best for YOUR family. I agree wholeheartedly with your thoughts on free time. That is one of my favorite perks of homeschooling!

Samuel's Mommy: Thanks for the link to your blog! It looks like you had an awesome week!!!

Wdworkman: We'll be doing that unit next week, and you've got me craving Egyptian pastries! MMMMMMMMM! Sounds like you had a good week too - though like us - it sounds like you've been dealing with the "cold" bug. Our kids are just getting over their colds after about 2 weeks of waking up at night with coughs!! I hope we're done with that for awhile. I think God sends the sunrise each day just to refuel me for the day - without it, I may not be able to wake up cheerfully after not much sleep!

THANKS LADIES FOR SHARING YOUR WEEK HERE - THIS IS A BLESSING FOR ME TO READ! Keep the posts coming - I posted mine like the day before the next weekly check-in last week!!! How's that for last minute!

Love in Christ,
Julie

Ooh! We've had a great week here! We only made it through 2 "days" in our guides this week...but we had some fun, necessary, HOD-inspired extras that we added in. Ok, I won't keep you in suspense any longer.

LHTH - We finished Unit 5 and started Unit 6. The kids are really learning from and about Joseph. (This is the first Bible character since Abraham that Garret doesn't insist is Abraham. I'm sure that's because he doesn't have a beard.) The lessons about lying, trusting God to take care of you when things don't go your way, not being selfish or greedy have been great! Here's a picture of them illustrating the key idea that God helped Joseph explain the king's dream, even though Joseph didn't see the dream. We're playing "guess the animal" on each other's back and finding that it's hard to explain something we can't see.


Bigger - Unit 6 Honestly every part of our school day is enjoyable right now. Grant and I love it all! We did vocabulary on Monday which he has grown into so well. I know I saw several moms that also had the problem of this part of the guide being VERY time-consuming as they started the guide, so I'll share how we're doing it now. I have Grant find the 1st word in the book, guess what it means, look it up, I write the definition, he dictates a sentence to me. We repeat this for the 2nd word. Then for the 3rd word, I listen to him find it in the book and guess what it means, and then leave him to finish it on his own. He draws pictures for all 3. This has given him the practice of finding the words in the dictionary more quickly - without the writing being too much for him. At first I had tried going through it together and having it on a white board for him to copy, but this didn't work well for us. We like our method now!

We loved the animated experiment of how the body fights off infection. (We had to make sure not to do that one during naptime with all the warning yells! )

Now, I've saved the absolute highlight of our week for last. I had glanced ahead in the guide on Sunday (which I've not done before), and saw that we were going to need quite a bit of juice on Tuesday. So we ran to Wal-Mart after AWANA and stocked up. We studied Benjamin West in history that day. He was a great little artist that used poke-berry juice to paint (and hairs from his cat's tail for a brush). My kids thought this was hilarious! So, our activity of the day was to paint with juice like Benny West. Oh, this was so much fun...and we got to drink our paint when we finished! Now the tie-in here is that I know Garret (now 29 months) was ready to potty train. And this proved to be the perfect opportunity! LOTS of juice made for a great "potty party". I'd been playing this up for a while and he was excited. Everybody got to drink whatever they wanted to all morning...all of our colorful juice, and even a little pop! This gave us a lot of chances to practice going potty on the toilet. AND, when Garret went potty he got to pick a snack, and everybody got one! (This really got brother and sister into helping, and lobbying for their favorite snack. ) I'm glad to report that he is doing so well on this!! And, whenever I think of Benjamin West who painted in the garret of his house, I'll remember my little Garret and our "potty party". (BTW...we all learned that the garret of a house is the attic. I didn't know that!)

Our lineup of juice... (We added a drop of food coloring to the lime juice.)


The busy painters...


Garret enjoying his "paint" and getting ready for more practice.


I've loved reading about all of your weeks! This is my favorite thread to read all week!
Kathleen

Kathleen - I am laughing out loud here! I LOVED hearing about your "potty-party", and about the time I am doing Bigger... again my littlest son will be ready to potty-train. I just may have to have a "potty-party" too! I also wanted to say that your ds is a great artist. I saw his picture on the last Week-in-Review and was amazed! That landscape scene with the sun setting and the birds flying was beautiful - I need to be imagining THAT when I'm reading poetry! I meant to tell you that last week, but alas, it is already the end of the next week - better late than never, right?

Anyway, I also was glad you shared your steps for the vocabulary cards. We did something similar when we were learning to do those in Bigger... last year, and I think other moms will find that helpful. That's a new skill in Bigger..., so it does take awhile for them to get it, but every moment we spent doing vocab. last year was so worth it because now this year in Preparing... it totally paid off because he can do it independently. Thanks so much for sharing your happy week with us here! I love to hear about your dc!

In Christ,
Julie

Hi Ladies,
InHisTiming - I'm so glad you are finding a good schedule for your family. I've been praying things would go well for you during your pregnacy.
Kathleen - You are just too funny. I love your posts!

Here is a link for our week in review: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pazzaacademy/603697

I have to go. I just heard Andy say, "Callie, let's find a fan so we can fly!" Not sounding like a great idea to me.

Have a great week everyone!
Laurie

momof4 wrote:Hi Ladies,


I have to go. I just heard Andy say, "Callie, let's find a fan so we can fly!" Not sounding like a great idea to me.

Hi everyone!
I'm finally getting to post! We just finished up week 6 in Preparing & it was great! We ALL LOVED the Egyptian pastry! So fun & yummy! They were begging to make more! We will when I buy more honey! Our science experiment was funny cause I used parsley instead of sprinkles for the pollen & iced tea instead of juice & I pretended to be the bat sipping the nectar & we were all laughing at all the parsley on my face! It was fun! Grandpa's Box is great to be reading again although we really enjoy A Child's History of the World too. The One Small Square Desert is a hit here as well. I think the Small Square books really draw my kids into the square so to speak. We are learning so much. I had a free book exchange at my homeschool meeting on Monday night & was blessed with a huge amount of living books! I also received great reference books/magazine & we are looking up more Arctic tundra & desert animals. Lots of fun.
Tirzah keeps getting better & better & my 8dd is doing much better now that I followed Carrie's advice from another post about stopping & explaining all the time & what to do. I was starting to get worried. She is very bright & wants to get it ALL in so that was her hang up. Along with a litle daydreaming! Now that she knows that this is no dress rehearsel & I will not be repeating it all for her she really perked up! I also am amazed at how well my 4ds can answer questions too! He wants to do so much of the girls work so i let him do all the activities, drawings, & readings. I take pictures of all his work too. We are moving along more slowly with his LHTH because I haven't made his a priority. I want to though. he deserves his own time with mommy. Can't wait to share next week! I loved seeing & hearing about everyone's week!

Pictures coming soon!

WE finished Unit 10 in LHFHG and wrapped up the Old Testament. I figured out that my daughter does NOT like to doing the handwriting lessons in the book or writing a single letter over and over so I am now using the StartWrite program to print out sheet of the memory verse for her to copy. She seems to do a much better job of writing when there seems to be a purpose rather than what seems to be pointless repetition. I also print out the worksheets from the Starfall site for phonics review which is good for both her handwriting and her phonics. My daughter thrives on having tangible work not just read alouds. I am grateful that this curriculum is so flexible and not time consuming, because I am able to add in what I think my child needs and wants.

My daughter really loved this week's rhyme, she loves to move and stretch so it was a perfect fit. And she devours the memory verses! We introduced measuring, using non-conventional measurements, this week in math and she picked it up immediately! I wasn't even able to finish asking the questions before she had the answers.

In art this week she drew a goose step-by-step and the finished product was the best drawing she has ever done. She was very proud of it and the experience has given her new confidence in her creative skills.