heartofdakota.com

This week was extremely fun and busy. I'm sorry to say that only two days were spent with HOD. The other two were spent at the NC State Fair. We had so much fun! We met friends on both days. The kids learned a lot about NC agriculture, farming, and being more environmentally conscious. Our house is fairly green though as it is now. I had my older son fill out a sheet I typed up for him each day. He had to write 3 things that he did at the fair, 1 thing that he learned, and his favorite thing that he did. I thought I'd share a picture.

Great PIc! It sounds like you had lots of fun. I wish the county fair here was worth going to, but sadly it is NOT!

I had to spend all week in jury duty! So we had our first week off since starting eleven weeks ago. Dina was not at all pleased that we were not going to do school this week, which gave me an opportunity to teach her about the criminal justice system in our country. I also was able to show her what it meant to love God above all things, even being home with her and Caleb. Like a few of the prospective jurors, I could have lied and lied to get out of performing my duty but I did not, even though I knew that by telling the truth I would most likely be chosen to serve. I say this not to promote my "goodness" but only as an example of how the Lord can use anything to His glory, even jury service. Because, loving God above all things, can be such a hard concept for children (or even some adults), I try to show her what it means at every turn.

God is so in control! I have been sick all week but He has given me the strength to get through each day of this trial. I am hoping that tomorrow will be my last day of service and that we can get back to "normal".

Preparing Hearts for His Glory:
Wyatt loved the Egyptian pyramids he made. He enjoyed shading the shadow made by the sun (our flashlight) and painting tip gold, since it is believed the tip of the pyramids were covered in gold.



Wyatt has really gotten down how to do his vocabulary cards independently this year. He's finally in the mastery stage of this skill - WOO HOO! He puts sticky notes under the words in his history books and then also under the definition he finds in the dictionary too. He also likes making up his own sentences and pictures for each word and alphabetizing them in his card file.



LHFHG:
Riley liked watching the steam rise up as it turned to water vapor. He also loved using his straw to create a geyser in our sink!



Painting tent camouflage colors was right up Riley's alley! This represented to tents used in war. There is a tiny cannon up in the left hand corner of the paper, and a rifle in the bottom right corner. I'm sure more will continue to be added.


Hope you all had a great week too!
In Christ,
Julie

Marie 1225 - I love the fair. I'm glad you had fun!

funkmomma71 - Sorry about jury duty, but loved the way you used it as a teaching opportunity for your kids!

Julie - I loved the pictures of your boys. It looks like they enjoyed themselves this week.

We finished up Unit 6 of LHTH this week. Here's the link to my blog http://cherish-each-moment.blogspot.com ... nit-6.html

We had another great week here!! (For any of you still wondering...HOD really is great all the way through! I'm not all the way through yet, but we've had 10 weeks of school so far this year, and we look forward to school more now than at the beginning because we know there are going to be great things every week! )

I didn't get around to sharing our week last week. (I may still do that...but my pictures are on my mother-in-law's camera and we haven't connected to get them off of it yet.) It was a fun week, too!

I was going to try to put this on my new blog, but I had a hard time getting pictures on there earlier this week (in my one and only post ). I'm getting pretty fast at posting here, so I decided to do this for now because I'm short on time...and then I lost my first post. Poof! (At least I wasn't too far!) So, here's try #2...

In Little Hands to Heaven, we're in Unit 7 which is about Moses. The highlight of our week was "taking care of babies". Garret and Allison loved the activity that had them take care of a baby like Moses' mom (and any mommy) takes care of a baby. (Of course the funniest part was making the baby burp... )



Allison also loves the art projects, too! She loves that she can do them all by herself without any help from Mommy! Here is her rendition of Baby Moses in his basket hiding in the grass...and her 7 shoes (because Moses took his off when God spoke to him from the burning bush).

And our Tape Day ... (Is anyone tired of seeing these yet? When I ask my kids what their favorite thing of the week is, the little 2 always say "tape"! So they haven't tired of it yet...and they love to send pics of it to our far-away cousins...and they want to see themselves on the computer with their tape letter... Tell me if I should stop posting these - we've got 20 more to go, ya know! )


In Bigger Hearts for His Glory, we were finishing Unit 7 and starting Unit 8 this week. In history we're following the early settlers in America and seeing them work hard to make discoveries...and survive! I love the approach to geography that HOD takes. The fact that it's hands-on makes the terms stick so much better for my ds. (We did geography last year and my ds liked it, but it was a workbook map-reading style. That can start to get repetetive after a while. And I know it doesn't "stick" as well as what we're doing weekly with HOD! ) This week we talked about peninsulas, bays, islands, and isthmuses. We looked at some around Jamestown on the map Grant had drawn, and then he got to "make" some land forms with sand and rocks...and then we added water and looked for the above list.

He loved making a wampum belt like Massasoit's!

And he also loved making a strong house like the settlers had during King Philip's War. We don't have a picture though because it wasn't "strong" enough to withstand Garret tripping!

We've had some great discussions about the fear of man and the fear of the Lord...and what that looks like in our lives! (Having the fear of the Lord as our character quality in DITHOR and storytime has him repeating that we can have courage because we know that God can turn harm to good for those who trust in Him. And just like Julie's example several weeks ago, I don't even think he realize he was quoting the definition from the guide!) He has seen in real life what a snare does (from checking trap lines with his Uncle Matt)...and know how harmful that is! Our memory verse is...Proverbs 29:25 Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.

We have loved science this week as we've talked about planets and an orrery. Here is our model of the planets and how far they are from the sun. The first picture is of the sun and close planets...then a look down to Uranus...and all the way to Neptune!

Grant really enjoyed drawing and coloring the planets today, too. Here are all but Uranus and Neptune...they're on the back. The website that Carrie listed in the guide was great for helping him color them. (He likes to copy things.)


I just wanted to add that we've been using the Skip Count Kid's Bible Heros CD to help with memorizing multiplication facts this year. (I had seen Carrie mention it last spring. ) Anyway, Grant is doing great with his Singapore math and is really understanding multilication and division. But, my little 2 are picking up the songs, too. They will walk around all day singing, "Woo-ooo count by 2's, woo-ooo count by 2's" It's a fun CD.

Kathleen

I have enjoyed everyone's WIR! Great pictures & fun.

We had a good week here.

This is dd8 drawing of David. Sometimes they trace them with tracing paper & then transfer it onto their paper!That is what she did this week. My 11dd will be drawing hers tomorrow. She had an orthodontist appointment to go to & missed drawing time!

8dd Arc of the covenant....i forgot to take 11dd's picture!
We skipped the map of the 12 tribes of Israel project. I was gonna have them trace a map of one instead....we'll see. I have a great Bible atlas to use.
I did LHTH all week with my 4ds. We had lots of fun together.

this is from last week. Abraham coming out of his tent to count the stars & see how numerous his children will be.

unit 4 making the letter D d

Joseph's coat of colors, unit 4

flour writing for letter practice...he loved this!

drawing with his little sis!

17 monthdd, loves books already.....even upside down ones!

I love reading about everyone's week!

We had a GREAT first week. I have pictures, but I'm not sure how to post them ....so if some of you could fill me in I'd appreciate it.

My kids loved the hands on projects. The boys(Preparing) made their shield w/coat of arms. My dd (LHFHG) made her collage with the cross in the center. The boys love Drawing Through History. The WHOLE family loves Grandpa's Box! It's so funny b/c even my DH wants to hear it! So were going to do that one at night(reading a day ahead, just in case its referred to in the next days discussion). Also, even the older kids want to hear about Reddy Fox's Adventures(LHFHG). Really there wasn't one thing that they didn't like. Much to my surprise, they didn't even complain about writing!

I'm definitely not complaining about everyone wanting to sit in on all of the read alouds.
HOD is really bringing my family together! We are gaining much more than a biblical, academically sound curriculum. We are gaining family UNITY.

Thanks to all of you for the encouraging words as we began our HOD journey.
God Bless,
Jennifer

Oh Girls,

I am loving your week in review updates. I look forward to posting ours because it helps to put picture to the memories in my heart, but even more so I love reading yours because of the great community we have here.

Georgette, your children are amazing artists! I love how you put their pictures in page protectors. You are a PRO at HOD!

Julie, You know what really stood out to me this week? How you commented that Wyatt is really getting the vocabulary card thing down. It's that reminder that when we're in the process of learning a new skill that the purpose is mastery that the children will eventually grow to learn and do independently.

Kathleen, your kids are so cute and your solar system was SPOT ON! Just perfect! You did a GREAT job with that!

Note to Kathleen: If you post here first you should be able to copy pictures and everything and paste them right into your blog. I kept trying to post on my blog and then copy and paste here and it wouldn't let me. Then a few weeks ago I posted here first and tried it the other way and Wa-La, it worked

Marie, what a GREAT picture of you guys at the fair! It is the perfect fall setting!

Funkmama, I'm so sorry you were sick I pray you are feeling better.

Samuel's Mommy- I LOVED your blog pictures. Your Samuel is such a cutie. You can see him thinking so hard as he works. It's very cute

Arnold Week In Review~ Heart Of Dakota



This week we learned what it was like for the pilgrims when they arrived at Plymouth. They had to build one big house because it was cold and they needed to get off the boat and into a warm enviorment. The boys learned about framing houses and how important having a support beam is to stability. When they just had the square you could easily move the beams, but once they added the cross beam everything became very sturdy.



We also talked a lot about how hard it would have been to not have a store to run to. How difficult it must have been to make do with the few things they brought over on their boat. The boys are holding up oiled paper. This is what the pilgrims would have used to keep the cold out and to let a little light in. They didn't have any glass. It was a very cool activity. Because it makes the paper more resilient and does make it more light permeable.

Note from Mary: I did almost keel over when Colton pressed his oiled window up against his clean shirt It's ok he didn't need that shirt anyway. We need to downsize

I think I have the pictures figured out. Thanks Kathleen for pm'ing me.
Here goes our first week! What an exciting adventure!

Yay! Our books are here!


Kirk working on his shield and finished product....I'm impressed

Reagan with is shield of Faith??? he used war weapons/symbols...at least he got the shied part LOL

Chloe' is blindfolded describing objects for Science

Jesus is in the center of History collage

Masterly Activity@work

Sammy doing his "school work"

Lucas,God's little surprise that made me walk away from my job ,stay home, and home school. I'm so thankful everyday that God's plans were different from my own

Ladies,

I LOVED reading your shares this week! I love to see your kiddos' smiling faces as they soak up their learning.

I'm late to the thread, so I'll just share a few highlights from our week:

In Little Hearts for His Glory, Greyson enjoyed painting the tree that Zaccheus climbed to see Jesus. When the painting dried, we could feel the bark (since we added dry laundry detergent to the paint). It smelled good too! Greyson also loved being the Samaritan helper "doctoring" the hurt man who was robbed along the roadside. First he drew the hurt man, and then dabbed the hurts with oil and put a band-aid on the biggest hurt. Greyson is very empathetic!

For science in Little Hearts, Greyson had a BIG awakening about what it would be like to be blind, as Bartamaus was in our Bible story. Finding the way across the room blind-folded and drawing a face on paper when you cannot see are tough things to do! We also rejoiced as Jesus brought Lazarus back to life, while Greyson wiggled the various body parts I named as he was wrapped up like Lazarus!

In Preparing Hearts for His Glory, Shaw finished making his map of the area by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. He added water and added ice cubes to show which parts of that area were frozen during the Ice Age. Shaw loved making his cartouche of Queen Hatshepsut's name in hieroglyphics with air-dry clay (that he mixed according to the recipe). Shaw is pretty much able to do most of the history projects on his own, which he really enjoys.

Shaw is getting much more comfortable with his daily cursive copywork portion in Preparing Hearts for His Glory. He is even choosing to write in cursive for many other parts of his school-day.

I personally love watching the special way that Shaw goes off to do his one day of personal Bible quiet time this year. I can tell that he knows it is important. The other days we have Bible study scheduled together in Preparing Hearts. Tonight I could hear him singing his Psalms songs as he was folding the laundry. What a blessing that was to my heart!

Cole is continuing to share wonderful things from his history readings for the new ancients guide. His written narrations are just pouring out of him and so many connections are being made between the Bible and the rest of history. I am learning much from the readings too. Cole has just finished up his second book for the extension pack reading and says he is really enjoying those as well.

Cole's Teaching Textbooks 7 is going great also. It looks like we will be planning to recommend that series as a follow-up for Singapore, as Cole is in his second year of Teaching Textbooks, and it has made both his life and mine SO much easier than the many math programs I put poor Cole through prior to this! Luckily, Shaw has just gotten to use Singapore and has had a much easier math road so far!

Blessings,
Carrie

While we did do some HOD work this week, we manly focused on English, Math, handwriting/copywork, and spelling. As it was 1 week before we move, we had begun preparing the house my doing odd jobs around the house...washing the curtains and putting them in boxes, packing up supplies we will need to keep with us during the move, doing some deeper cleaning on toilets & bathtubs, etc.

We had an afternoon out of the house on Thursday...a 'campaign' party. My oldest ds 10 is taking an elections class at our co-op this session. They've been learning all about the electoral college, the different parties, the requirements for running for president, etc. They have different projects they can work on during the week to earn 'campaign cash' to turn in at the end of the session for prizes. This includes making posters for their 'party' (they've chosen teams and names and are now two parties trying to win their election...we will vote and the winner will be announced on the last day of the session), books marks, offering breakfast foods with catchy phrases to entice others to vote for them, they've had to come up with a 'platform' and make sure we are aware of what that is...all fun things. So Thursday we spent a couple of hours at the VP's home creating t-shirts with the names of the running mates ironed on front, as well as making pins to wear (with Shrinky-Dinks..so cool , you should try them), and posters to put up throughout the building. The kids are all having fun with it and are enjoying the competition while learning all about the election process. Anyway, our afternoon out was not HOD-related but it was a time of learning.

Of course Friday was co-op and then more cleaning of the inside and outdoors (raking leaves). We most likely will not try to do any school this week or next week...(I do plan to have them do English, Math, Spelling, Handwriting/Copywork, and a fun read aloud with me that we're in the middle of) and we'll see where we stand by Nov. 10...we may take that week off too if I have a lot left to do.

I'll be checking in when I can, but we won't have internet at the new house for a period of time, so keep me in your thoughts. I'll be thinking longingly of 'chatting' with my HOD gals! And I'll definitely spend some time playing 'catch-up' when we are back online.

InHisTiming,

Where are you guys moving? Should I know this and all the aspartame in my diet dr.pepper made me forget? I will MISS (((YOU)))

We're just moving to the next town over...we close on Wednesday. We have to clean up the rental, but plan to spend our first night in the new house Thursday night. We're so exctied!!

A new house is so exciting!!!!