Week In Review 3-27-09

This forum is for sharing what your week was like with Heart of Dakota. The goal is to post on Thursdays. You can share a picture, a blog link, a written synopsis, your favorite memory, or anything you want that shares your HOD excitement.

my3sons
Posts: 10698
Joined: Sun Aug 26, 2007 7:08 pm
Location: South Dakota

Week In Review 3-27-09

Post by my3sons » Fri Mar 27, 2009 7:26 am

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!
Enjoyed LHTH to USII
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie

my3sons
Posts: 10698
Joined: Sun Aug 26, 2007 7:08 pm
Location: South Dakota

Re: Week In Review 3-27-09

Post by my3sons » Fri Mar 27, 2009 7:54 am

I had a great time reading about all of your families last week on the Week-In Review. God's hand is moving in homes all over the world with HOD - and that is pretty exciting to read about! :D I had loads of individual comments I wanted to make last week - and now it is already the next's HOD Check-In! Where does the time go?!? Anyway, here's a peek into our week with:

Preparing Hearts for His Glory, Week 27:
Wyatt's favorite project from this week was the stained glass window he made for history. He read about the King John, and how he closed all of England's churches. We had a great talk about how sad that would be - where would we worship with other Christians? Get married? Have funerals? Learn more about God? It is such a blessing we are able to worship in church. When he researched "stained glass windows" on the Internet for research, he saw some beautiful pictures of stained glass windows. He loved one in particular - which is the one he made. He worked hard on it. I am very proud of him because coloring and drawing used to be things he disliked. He has really learned to love them within the framework of notebooking. We finished Door in the Wall - a very exciting read that gave a great look into history. He's loving Pedro's Journal - his independent history study - and he really likes the activity of sharing his favorite part with me.

We had to have a talk about how his oral narrations have gone downhill a bit. He was rushing through them, and talking to me in the middle of them - like, "I wonder why he did that? What do you think, Mom?" :? I told him no more of that - it's not a conversation back and forth. He is the storyteller, and I am the listener. I also asked him to try to sound like Hillyer - or whatever author he was narrating from. The next day he gave an awesome narration. :D Boy, am I thankful we are working on this skill throughout all of homeschooling! It is such an asset to be able to narrate well, and it is something to be learned bit by bit, year after year. Now the next thing I realized when I really listened carefully to his narrations is he often wants me to give him the names of people - he remembers the places, but forgets or mispronounces the people's names. That will be the next thing we work on a bit at a time.

I especially loved his poetry writing this week. He wrote the stanzas on the markerboard, and I copied them on paper this week. He remembered a lot from his history he wanted to use in it, and he also even ran to get his "How God Used Pirates" book to look up something for his poem. Using RLS's poetry as a pattern really helped him be able to write well. I've noticed how he really likes to look up things now. He went and got one of his other reading books from his room when we read about Gladys Alward in Hero Tales, and he got his Bible to share a connection to the history on his own (in addition to the other connections he shared with the plans). WOW! I love that he is learning to find information, connect things, and sees the Bible as an awesome resource to use! What a great week! I'll close by posting some pics of his week (stained glass window, science experiment on salt water vs. fresh water, and his poem). I'll also share the poem he wrote:

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My Pirate Story-Book
When my parents sit by the fire
And when they start to talk
Away I like to slip to hide
In the darkness, in a shady corner.

The pillows turn into rolling seas
The couches arms are merchant ships
The blankets become pirate ships
Firing cushion cannonballs.

Let the table be unexplored land
And the chairs civilized countries
See the pirates land ashore
To try to raid the merchant ships.

The merchant ships load their cannons
The pirates throwing their grappling hooks
See one merchant ship start sinking
But the pirates' black flag goes beneath the foam too!

Now my mother comes in for me
Away the fun seems to fly
Until I get into my bed
And start dreaming about my story-book.

Well, I guess that got long - we just had a really great week, and I wanted to remember it well. :D I'll share about Riley next. :D How was your week?

In Christ,
Julie
Last edited by my3sons on Fri Mar 27, 2009 10:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
Enjoyed LHTH to USII
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie

pollo_la
Posts: 201
Joined: Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:21 am
Contact:

Re: Week In Review 3-27-09

Post by pollo_la » Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:16 am

Julie, how great that your son is enjoying coloring projects now. He did a GREAT job with the stained glass window. It looks like fun to me! :D How wonderful that he is making connections from History and Bible and such. That must make you feel SO GOOD!!

Here are some links to my blog from our week...

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/adventure/671926/
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/adventure/672491/
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/adventure/673103/
Laurie:
Wife to Daniel since June 2002
Mom to: Odessa (5) using LHFHG and Emerging Readers from BLHFHG,
Sophie (3), Nadia (2), and Elliana (newborn)

my3sons
Posts: 10698
Joined: Sun Aug 26, 2007 7:08 pm
Location: South Dakota

Re: Week In Review 3-27-09

Post by my3sons » Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:23 am

Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory, end of Week 13 and beginning of Week 14:
Riley has been loving our history readings from Stories of the Pilgrims. His favorite project this week was making the glitter striped clam with a pearl (popcorn seed) inside of it. We read about the Pilgrims Thanksgiving feast, including the clams the children dug up for it, and he loved painting his clam. He also loved playing games like the Indians did (the picture below is of him throwing socks into a bowl - he had pretty good aim!). :D We enjoy singing his Bible verse together - he always wants me to hold him and sway to the music as we sing - he's my cuddler. :D He has gotten so that he can memorize his Bible verse by the second day. This is a skill he's improved on so much. When we were doing LHFHG, he needed all 5 days to have it memorized. He enjoys the "exercise" he gets to do while memorizing, and big brother (and baby brother) often like to join in on those parts too. :wink: I really am surprised how much he has grown to enjoy reading poetry. He often reads the poem several times - with gusto! :D He also likes to have us read it every other line, or every other stanza. He's finally able to copy all of the poem as well, which was a skill he had to slowly grow into, but now is so proud of.

I am really pleased with Riley's spelling progress now. He has gotten good at using the CM Style taught in HOD. I even see him using it other times during the day - when we aren't doing school. He will write things on a piece of paper or a marker board, and see if they "look right". If they don't, he tries writing them several different ways - usually with black marker on a markerboard, until he can see it looks right. I love that this is a method he can use anywhere for the rest of his life with spelling (as opposed to other workbook-type things we used to do with spelling, like filling in a word find, coloring things, or just doing other "fun" things that he'd never do when trying to figure out how to spell something). This method really works!

Riley is reading the Nature Reader in the Emerging Reader's Set right now. I had to laugh that he read about "clams" on the day he made his clam for history. There are so many connections - many planned by HOD - and others not planned but just occurring, that ALL of learning seems to be linked somehow!!! This is a relief to me after my years of teaching so many things so very separate in ps. Riley continues to do well and clip along with his Singapore math. He especially liked the linked HOD activity of tracing different sizes of circular lids and arranging them in size from smallest to biggest. I also wanted to share that Riley's oral narrations are getting better - they are longer, and he is not using the words "stuff" and "things like that" anymore. :D We'll continue working on improving one thing at a time in this area. He is especially loving our read-aloud "The Trumpet of the Swan" - that's why his narrations are getting so much better I think! Excellent books make narrating easier. :wink: The pics below are of the clam he made and the map he made for history. The next one is of the Indian game he played, and the last ones are of his spelling activities.
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I can't wait to hear about your week too!
In Christ,
Julie :D
Last edited by my3sons on Fri Mar 27, 2009 10:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
Enjoyed LHTH to USII
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie

spidermansmum
Posts: 611
Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2008 6:10 am
Location: UK

Re: Week In Review 3-27-09

Post by spidermansmum » Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:39 am

We are using Little Hearts For His Glory we are now upo to week 24 day 4. Here are some o our blog entries
http://stanleysmagicgarden.blogspot.com ... y-296.html
http://stanleysmagicgarden.blogspot.com ... y-298.html

We had a thanksgiving day this week-which was good fun.We learnt about the pilgrims and we also learnt the first 13 colonies.That was as much an education for me -as it was him.[We are British and I was thinking it would be cool to practice something like this with the counties in England] Here is the map my 6 yo made
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I think the most enjoyable homeschooling days are when we are learning together.
- Delighted to have used LHTH,LHFHG and Beyond, Bigger , Preparing and DITHOR
currently Using
LHTH slowly with my 2 year old
Starting Bigger with my 8 y/o About to add on DITHOR
Finishing Preparing with my 12year with ASD/LD

wdworkman
Posts: 75
Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2008 6:46 pm
Location: Illinois
Contact:

Re: Week In Review 3-27-09

Post by wdworkman » Fri Mar 27, 2009 12:09 pm

Our schoolwork was a little sparse this week due to a birthday, dental appointments, etc. We've doubled up on a few days in anticipation of a couple busy weeks. Luke really surprised me when he loved the book about William Shakespeare & asked if he could go ahead and finish it in one setting. We started "Wonderful Winter" and are also working our way through the sequel to "Raiders of the Sea". We just had to see what was going to happen to Bree & Devin.

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/wdworkman/672829/

Jessi
Posts: 550
Joined: Sun May 04, 2008 2:55 pm
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Re: Week In Review 3-27-09

Post by Jessi » Fri Mar 27, 2009 1:12 pm

Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 5 (wrapped up)

We had a great week with Little Hearts. Please pop over to my blog and read all about it!!!

http://ourmodernmemories.blogspot.com/2 ... -such.html

For those that want a quick fix without having to read through my blog....


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Emma the Israelite collecting manna from the quail.

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Emma munching on the manna. She kind of hogged it all. :-) Naughty little Israelite.
Jessi
~~~~~~~~~
Wife to Brad for 10 years
Emma- 7 Beyond, DITHOR,
Logan- 4.5 LHTH, R & S workbooks
www.ourmodernmemories.blogspot.com - personal blog
www.modernmemoryfilms.com - our wedding videography site

Amey
Posts: 131
Joined: Tue May 06, 2008 10:54 pm
Location: Jalisco, Mexico

Re: Week In Review 3-27-09

Post by Amey » Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:17 pm

This is my first time to post over here in Week In Review although we have been using HOD for a little while :)
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This is my test pic!

okay, that didn't work...oops
Amey
Missionary Mama in Mexico to Benjamin 02, Averic 04 and Deacon 07 and our first GIRL, Phoebe, born August 16, 2009
using Bigger Hearts for my 2nd grade son, finished Beyond last year for 1st
Come visit our family website! http://www.familyafair.com

Jessi
Posts: 550
Joined: Sun May 04, 2008 2:55 pm
Contact:

Re: Week In Review 3-27-09

Post by Jessi » Sat Mar 28, 2009 1:28 pm

Julie- I really liked Wyatt's stained Glass window. I can tell he was quite proud of it. And even though i am not a big poetry person I thought his poem about pirates was superb! I could see him pretending to be a pirate. Tell him he did a great job! And Riley- I love that he snuggles with you to do his Bible memory. What precious memories you are creating. And I am glad that his narrating is getting much better. Hi sglitter clam is very fancy :-) Love it!

pollo_la- Your girls are just too cute! Odessa is a neat printer. And she did a great job on drawing the Garden of Eden! Very detail oriented. What reading program are you using? I liked the idea of the blend cups. I do something similar but I like the cup idea with the highlighted blend on the cards. And Sophie and Nadia are just the cutest!

spidermansmum- How did the "Thanksgiving" meal go? It sounded like a lot of fun. Is it weird to study American history in another country? Frankly, that fascinates me! :-) I want a set of those tangram pieces too. Looks like the boys had a blast and I think spiderman did a great job on the 13 colonies!

wdworkman- Your son is a handsome young man! Birthdays are soooo much fun. I tend to get a little carried away when it comes to birthdays. Glad it was a good week.

amey- if you still can't get a pic to work, let me know and I'd be happy to try to help you. Hope your week went well!
Jessi
~~~~~~~~~
Wife to Brad for 10 years
Emma- 7 Beyond, DITHOR,
Logan- 4.5 LHTH, R & S workbooks
www.ourmodernmemories.blogspot.com - personal blog
www.modernmemoryfilms.com - our wedding videography site

my3sons
Posts: 10698
Joined: Sun Aug 26, 2007 7:08 pm
Location: South Dakota

Re: Week In Review 3-27-09

Post by my3sons » Sat Mar 28, 2009 1:34 pm

Laurie - Your 3 little girls are cute as can be! Dessa is doing a great job with her writing in Do It Carefully, and also with her numbers on her marker board. What a neat little writer she is already! I loved seeing your other 2 little gals joining in the fun. :)

Sam - It looks like Spiderman did a great job with building his wall, and his map looks so neat too. I agree with you - learning in school together is the best way to do it - I sure have felt that way too. :D

Janet - I liked watching your ds grow up in pictures on your blog - Happy 11th. B-day to him! :D We are just about to start A Wonderful Winter, and we finished Raiders of the Sea and LOVED it. We may need to order the sequel as well - does it start where the first one left off?

Jessi - Emma does so well with her dramatic play. I love the picture of her flying the quail and scooping up the manna - too cute! Her Finding the Answers and phonics looked like they were going great as well. Wouldn't that be so fun if she is a future homeschool mama? I bet you'd enjoy that too! What a great week! :D

Amey - I think I hold the record for number of days for trying to figure out how to post photos. :shock: Some wonderful moms patiently helped me figure it out - maybe this will help you too:
If you are wondering how to upload pics, just do the following:
1. Go to http://www.photobucket.com
2. Sign up for a free account.
3. Upload pics from your computer.
4. Check the boxes next to the pics you want to use.
5. At the bottom of the screen, click on "generate HTML and IMG codes"
6. Then copy the 4th. box labeled "IMG Images for Message Board"
7. Finally, paste them into your HOD post.
Just keep trying until it works! We don't mind - and we want to see your pics!

In Christ,
Julie :D
Enjoyed LHTH to USII
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie

pollo_la
Posts: 201
Joined: Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:21 am
Contact:

Re: Week In Review 3-27-09

Post by pollo_la » Sat Mar 28, 2009 6:27 pm

Julie, that is great to hear how well spelling is working out for your son. I really does make sense to teach spelling that way. I love the clam pic, and how cool that he read about clams this week!

spidermansmum, I LOVE the map of the 13 colonies!! :D
Jessi wrote:pollo_la- Your girls are just too cute! Odessa is a neat printer. And she did a great job on drawing the Garden of Eden! Very detail oriented. What reading program are you using? I liked the idea of the blend cups. I do something similar but I like the cup idea with the highlighted blend on the cards. And Sophie and Nadia are just the cutest!
Jessi, you can read more about the reading program we are using in the following blog entry...
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/adventure/668227/
I absolutely LOVE this reading curriculum. It is truely AMAZING!!! :D I would love to give more details about this curriculum, as we do so many fun activities and games, but unfortunately due to copyright issues (the author is in the process of getting it published) I can't say much. You can check out the following website for a freebie download though... http://www.readwithcmrs.com/
Jessi, what a great pic Emma drew with her reading lesson! :D Drawing pics definitely helps Odessa push through tough sentences too. We do "you create it books" every week where Dessa has to read the sentences in order to illustrate the book, and this is one of Dessa's favorite things to do. She doesn't realize she is reading as much as she is!!! I love all the manna pics. It really looks like she has such a great time. :D I just love reading your blog!

Amey, I hope you are able to figure out posting pics soon. It looks like Julie gave you some good directions!
Laurie:
Wife to Daniel since June 2002
Mom to: Odessa (5) using LHFHG and Emerging Readers from BLHFHG,
Sophie (3), Nadia (2), and Elliana (newborn)

Jessi
Posts: 550
Joined: Sun May 04, 2008 2:55 pm
Contact:

Re: Week In Review 3-27-09

Post by Jessi » Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:00 pm

Laurie- Thanks for the link about your reading program. Sounds like a lot of fun! OPG seems to work for us as long as I keep the lessons short. We typically do only half a page a day. I try not to overwhelm her with too much reading and she responds well to that. She is reading quite well now and realizing that she CAN read. It is great to watch that lightbulb turn on when we are in a store and she starts reading the names of the items on the shelf and then stops and almost as if she is amazed with herself just smiles! Love it!! But when it comes time to teach my son I may keep CMRS in mind as he learns different from his sister. :D Oh and what are the "you create it books"?
Last edited by Jessi on Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Jessi
~~~~~~~~~
Wife to Brad for 10 years
Emma- 7 Beyond, DITHOR,
Logan- 4.5 LHTH, R & S workbooks
www.ourmodernmemories.blogspot.com - personal blog
www.modernmemoryfilms.com - our wedding videography site

Kathleen
Posts: 1980
Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2008 3:23 pm
Location: NE Kansas

Re: Week In Review 3-27-09

Post by Kathleen » Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:02 pm

You know what? I just love to read about all these happy kids enjoying their school days!! :D All the smiles are my favorite part! :D :D

Jessi - I love Emma's giggles as she's pigging out on manna. :wink:

Julie - I think I need "narrating school". I'm kind of going with the there's no "right" way to do it approach. (Which I know is somewhat true, but I need some more advice starting at this stage of the game, I think.) My poor experimental Grant. :lol: I love Wyatt's poem. It reminds me of The Land of Counterpane that we read a few weeks ago in Bigger. I love hearing about the research and unique decisions that the kids get to make with the projects in Preparing. That's going to be so fun!

Sam - I could just picture spring in your description of your nature walk. How fun! I love having time for things like this in our days.

Laurie - You girls are just darling! I love seeing your enthusiasm at the beginning of homeschooling! Your girls will love it because their mom does...and does a great job teaching! :D

We had another fun HOD week.
Allison and Garret are learning about Baby Jesus. Here is our tape Q. They "qu-qu-qu"ed around it with the sheep and camel from our nativity set. :wink:
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We used ice on construction paper to "write" Q's this week. They thought that was great fun...and were Q-Q-Quivering before too long.
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They were very proud of their stables, too.
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Their favorite story to act out this week was Simeon getting to hold Jesus in his arms. We did that one several times. Allison's favorite role was Mary, and Garret loved being Simeon. I got to be Anna. :wink:
Daddy even did school with them on Friday. :shock: He skipped the art activity and played instead, but it really helped me out. Allison had to go to the Dr. mid-morning so we were crunched for time. (She had strep throat...but is recovering nicely.)

Grant was very excited for Unit 25 in Bigger. Our history focus was Life Out in the Wild West. He had seen the title for Kit Carson and the Bears in the Eggleston book, and asked every week if we were going to read that one yet. This was the week! :D Last night I had some errands to run, so Grant came with me for a "date". It was so nice to get to talk and listen to him with just the 2 of us. (We ate at Panera Bread too, yum! :wink: ) Anyway, he was telling me about this dream he had this week that he and a friend lived in Kansas during the pioneer days and got seperated from their families and learned to survive. And, even made up their own language. :lol: He loves what we're reading about the pioneer days and wishes that he could be an explorer in the rugged wild west.
On Monday, we got to gold mine. Here are the claims, and the eager gold-diggers. Allison and Garret enjoyed being able to join in on the fun. The had to pound the floor 50 times to collect one piece of gold.
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This week has been a challenging one for me personally as I'm having another miscarriage. I know that it wasn't an accident that the character trait we were focusing on this week in Bigger was hopefulness. The Lord knew I would need that encouragement to focus on the hope I have in Him. And, to be able to focus on living my life fully serving Him no matter the circumstances I'm in. I am still hopeful that He may bring more children into our home, but if not, I am content to serve HIm whole-heartedly in the family He's given me!

:D Kathleen
Homeschooling mom to 6:
Grant - 19 Kansas State University
Allison - 15 World Geography
Garret - 13 Res2Ref
Asa - 8 Bigger
Quinn - 7 Bigger

Halle - 4 LHTH

Jessi
Posts: 550
Joined: Sun May 04, 2008 2:55 pm
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Re: Week In Review 3-27-09

Post by Jessi » Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:11 pm

Oh Kathleen (((HUGS))) I am so sorry you are having a miscarriage. That is heartrending. I'll be praying for you through this.

Your kids are just precious. Everytime I look at your photos I get excited to do those lessons. What a joy it must be to teach them.
Jessi
~~~~~~~~~
Wife to Brad for 10 years
Emma- 7 Beyond, DITHOR,
Logan- 4.5 LHTH, R & S workbooks
www.ourmodernmemories.blogspot.com - personal blog
www.modernmemoryfilms.com - our wedding videography site

Carrie
Site Admin
Posts: 8125
Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2007 8:39 pm

Re: Week In Review 3-27-09

Post by Carrie » Sun Mar 29, 2009 8:13 pm

Kathleen,

I am praying for you during this difficult time, and I know how precious the blessing of the children you have already is to you right now. I took great comfort during my miscarriages that the Lord had seen fit to bless me with the kiddos we had. You are so right that only the Lord can bring contentment. I pray that you feel His warm embrace and the love of the ladies on the board uplifting you tonight.

Blessings,
Carrie

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