We have only 2 more days of school left, and we are coming to the close of an awesome year!
After that, we'll have Iowa Basic Skills Standardized testing, and then the whole summer to r-e-l-a-x (and whip this house back into shape
). As I look back on the year as a whole, it has been such a growing year for each of our dc. God has been so good to us - to Him be the glory!
As we look ahead to doing 3 HOD programs next year - RTR, BHFHG, and LHTH - we are confident and excited for what is ahead. Thank you HOD for preparing our dc so well - in mind, in heart, and in spirit.
Creation to Christ:
Wyatt has grown about a foot taller and is wearing men's shoes just a 1/2 inch shy of the size as his dad's shoes!
Not only did he grow in height, he also grew so much academically and spiritually. What a good year he has had!
Here are some pictures from the last few weeks of CTC. The first one is his history project, which he made and painted different rocks to represent the church - 'on this rock I will build my church'. Next are some pictures of his science notebooking. They show labeled diagrams of different parts of the body, and he took a great interest in the body from those assignments and the readings of his science book. The last picture is of his final DITHOR project, where he made a timeline of the important events of "Gentle Ben".
Just to share a few of his areas of growth this year...
Wyatt now has a booming, confident voice when he sings along with his Phil. 2 CD, and he is pretty much on key most of the time.
He has memorized all of Phil. 2, and the HOD plans along with the CD made this possible. He transitioned into reading his own history so well, and I know it is because of his reading the science in PHFHG the previous year. I love how HOD transitions him into skills such as these. We still loved reading the history-based Storytime books together, and yet another area of growth for him were all of the excellent Storytime comprehension responses he did... giving the response (narration) skit, finding connections in Proverbs, giving an "ad speech" for the book, giving a 5 sentence summary oral narration, giving a detailed oral narration - oh my! There is no fluff in HOD. Everything has its purpose, and I'm so glad we are not just reading, reading, reading books - but are instead enjoying the reading while also learning essential reading/LA skills.
Wyatt's drawing grew leaps and bounds. He was especially proud of his "Draw and Write..." drawings, as well as his DITHOR projects that he drew. Wyatt can easily follow the directions for his history projects independently now, and I get the joy of just having him show me the wonderful finished project now. So worth the previous years of training him to do so!
His written narrations for history are just sooooo much better and sooooo much more interesting to read than they were at the start. By the end, I made a copy of the "Written Narration" guidelines and just had him check for them himself before handing them in. There was usually only 1 small thing to fix - like a word spelled incorrectly, or a comma to be added. Again, I know this is all due to HOD teaching him how to write a good narration over a span of several years. Next year, I'll be able to just say, "Write a written narration", and he'll know how to do it and do it well. Hooray!
Wyatt's Bible quiet time has been a special time for him to draw close to the Lord each day. I love to see him snuggled up near the fireplace, engrossed in his Bible, memorizing Scripture, and learning how to pray. His faith has grown so much this year, and he is just comfortable with his relationship with God. What a blessing this has been! I'm so thankful HOD works to get to the heart of a child, rather than just throwing in a Bible lesson here or there for good measure. Instead, HOD has God in virtually every part of the school day. There's just no getting away from Him - praise God!
His faith has spilled over into his every day life, not just school, which is exactly the result I've been praying for.
For LA and math, it's been smooth sailing. He does mental math quicker than I can snap my fingers, and he always knows the answers to his oral R & S English questions - last year he did not.
Science continues to be a love of his, but he became especially interested in the body and good health this year. He is really taking care to eat healthy foods and exercise, which comes at a great time as that is a need we are recognizing for our whole family now.
He also grew so much in his science drawings for his notebooking. They used to be microscopic! Now, they are neat and I can read them easily.
He completely gets the lab sheets and is good about guessing how an experiment may turn out. He thinks more scientifically, thanks to the way HOD teaches the scientific method from a young age on. For DITHOR - I had him do the projects this year. He is not by nature a child interested in artsy stuff, so this was new for him. We worked hard on them together, and his artistic skills just grew and grew. I'm so proud of him!
We both learned a TON from doing the geography and "Genesis Finding Our Roots". Oh my - it was very convicting and gave us such a confidence in the history of the Bible.
Finally, I have to share how Wyatt grew in his watercolor painting. Again, not a big interest of his by nature, but it taught him sooooooo much. So, you're thinking his paintings were super beautiful by the end, right? Nope.
But they were better, and I could tell what he was painting.
So, you're wondering how this could possibly be an area of growth, right?
Let me explain why. Each day he watercolor painted, it was difficult for him. He would try his best, but it still didn't look that great. However, it did get better as the year progressed, and he learned many painting techniques along the way. We had such a great talk about this on his last watercolor painting day. I said, "Oh Wyatt, it's your final watercolor painting day! How very sad I am, and you must be too." He got a little side grin, and mumbled, "Uh, yeah." I laughed and hugged him and told him I knew it hadn't been his favorite thing to do all year, and he grinned and said, "Yeah, but I did like it pretty much, Mom." Anyway, I went on to tell him a story...
"Three boys who had done 'Creation to Christ' when they were young grew up to be young men. As it turned out, these 3 young men went to visit an art museum together. It just happened to be a 'watercolor painting' only art museum.
Years back when doing CTC, one of the boys had been an excellent painter. He loved every minute of it and couldn't wait to paint. Another of the boys had faithfully painted each day, but found it to be somewhat of a struggle, and did not have a natural inclination to paint. The third boy complained to his mother about his painting, saying he didn't want to do it, and after a few weeks she gave in and let him stop the painting altogether. Now, which of the boys will be able to appreciate the art museum as young adults?"
Wyatt said, "Well, the boy who painted beautifully would most certainly enjoy it. And, the boy who faithfully painted his paintings may not enjoy it quite as much, but he would have a great respect of what the artist had done, because he would know how very hard it was to do that. And, the boy who didn't do the paintings would probably just think it looked like a bunch of pictures on the wall, and why not go get out of there and do something else instead?"
Anyway, we laughed about this together, and I told him, "You know which boy you are in that story, right?" He nodded, and I told him, "I'm very, very proud of that boy."
We went on to talk about how much of life is that way. We learn to read outstanding poetry, and sometimes that means we become good poets, but sometimes it just means we like poetry and aren't so great at it ourselves. Same thing with music - actually any of the fine arts subjects. An appreciation is attainable by all, even if the talent is not inherent. I'm so glad my ds is getting a rich education, in all walks of life.
Sorry this got long - it was just a fantastic year I wanted to share with all of you!
If you're still reading, thanks for sharing in this long reflection of a very good year.
In Christ,
Julie
However, he has learned not to run and thunder about from thing to thing, and I have to say that though he looks like a rocket ready to launch working at the kitchen table, his work still looks like a million bucks - so, I've had to get over this, as its an annoyance that has not much harm to his work. 
