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!
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.
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:
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.
I'll share about Riley next.
How was your week?
In Christ,
Julie
I really am surprised how much he has grown to enjoy reading poetry. He often reads the poem several times - with gusto! 
Naughty little Israelite.
Some wonderful moms patiently helped me figure it out - maybe this will help you too:
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!
