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This week we wrapped up school for the year here. We have had a WONDERFUL year! I can't believe how much the kids are learning & growing...and I was here. What a privilege it has been to be able to be their teacher and mommy and enjoy our days together! HOD has really made it easy for me to be a happy homeschooling mom because I don't like being burned-out or stressed-out...and with HOD I'm not!

Here is a picture from our 1st day of school this year...and our last.


As we wrapped up Preparing, we had fun looking at the timeline of all we've studied this year with Grandpa's Box and Child's History of the World. I especially have loved the way that Preparing has guided Grant in learning to write a good written narration. Here he is busy at work on his last written narration...and by the bathroom door with his timeline. (He wants to leave the timeline up...but we're not sure how long it will last. We only have 1 bathroom in our house, so it gets quite a bit of traffic. )


He has really enjoyed his subjects that have been independent this year, and I can see that he's ready to move into much more independence with CTC next year. Science is one of his favorite subjects still. He says that the constellations were his favorite thing to learn about this year, and that he really likes reading the One Small Square books. We just finished reading about Albert Einstein...and here he is watching to see if he can notice the light bending as it passes through the milky water.


The Sign of the Beaver was his last book to read for DITHOR this year. He was very interested in seeing how Matt's adventure would turn out...would his parents return or not? Would he forever be alone in the wilderness of Maine without his gun?? For his project he made this character mask of Ateen (which was looking pretty good before he colored solid brown all the way around him ).


I don't have any pictures of it, but the definite highlight of our year is the way I've seen Grant grow spiritually in his love for God's Word and the way he is growing in his understanding of spiritual things and our response to situations in our lives. He is getting that God has the answer for everything in our lives and that He is to be trusted no matter how "fun" the situation in our lives looks. He is growing in discrenment in seeing how things he hears (from friends, from books, from videos) line up with what God says. Praise the Lord! And thank you HOD for your part in helping me trainhis mind and heart!

Kathleen

LHFHG

Allison is through Unit 13 in LHFHG. We have had a super-fun year with it! Garret joined us for a slow-paced trip through it for most of this year, and just in the last month I picked up the pace for Allison. (Allison & Garret still love to "invite" the other one to join in on the fun parts of their school. It is working better for our family to seperate them though.) This week we were reading about Jesus' miracles. He healed a lame man...calmed a storm and walked on water...

but by far, her FAVORITE activity came with his feeding of the 5000. She got to make bread for our family for lunch! She had Garret help with the kneading, but did the rest totally herself and was so proud of her accomplishment! (And thanks to my skilled little fishermen, we had fish to go with our bread just like the crowd listening to Jesus! )



Allison is just thriving with Singapore math. Dad regularly notices how she understands math in real life - and is a big fan of how she's learning it with HOD, too. (We all love math in our family! And he is very used to applying it to real life on the farm every day. ) Here she is hard at work with the hands-on activities in LHFHG...

The subtraction bowling was our favorite this week.


She has also taken off with reading, and is almost finished with The Reading Lesson. I'm planning to keep reading with her through the summer and start the Emerging Readers soon. She will be super-excited for these. (Right now they're safely hidden in the cabinet...to avoid temptation. ) The rest of LHFHG will be on pause until August when we start back up - right before our new little guy joins the crew.

What a happy and profitable Kindergarten year we've had!
Kathleen

LHTH
My little Garret had a birthday on Monday, and is now 4 years old! How time flies! Whew! It seems like just yesterday he was the 1 year old that I couldn't keep off of the kitchen table while I was doing school with Grant. Now he's Mr. Helpful and can ride a bike on 2 wheels and do monkey bars!!


Garret has finished Unit 4 in LHTH this week. He is really enjoying his time alone with me in our school day and is right on target for the skills we're working on in LHTH. Before we read our Bible story every day, he loves to do his flashcards and tell me all the letter sounds.


This week we read about Isaac & Rebekah, Jacob & Rachel, and Esau. They had fun having me measure their jumps on the trip to find Rebekah...

Here Garret is writing his name and then trying to hide it (like Jacob hid who he was to steal the blessing).

Garret's FAVORITE activity was acting out Jacob's wrestling with the angel by "balloon wrestling". Here they're wrestling WITH legs...

...and WITHOUT.


This week we also covered the letter "D" with Fruit Loops...

...tip-toed on it and jumped off..

...and traced it in pudding! YUM!


I've seen a big improvement in his ability to cut. Here is his #4 page with 4 women he cut out and pasted on.


We're also putting his school on "pause" and picking it back up in August. He will be thrilled to start up LHTH again, I'm sure. But for now, he really just wants to ride his bike up and down the driveway ALL DAY LONG! (So we'll work on gross motor skills for now! ) He's actually asked me about 10 times since I've been typing this if I can come watch him ride his bike...you know, since I haven't seen him do it for about 20 minutes! So, outside I go! (I'll watch from the lawn mower. )

Kathleen

Kathleen - Congratulations on finishing your school year! What fun you guys have had! I enjoyed looking at all the pictures you posted and can identify with having only 1 bathroom in the house!

We are halfway through Unit 32 in both LHFHG & LHTH. We are hoping to finish our school year the last week of May! It's getting harder to stay motivated with all the gorgeous spring weather we've had - but HOD keeps us going! It's nice having those boxes to check off (mentally) each day!

My ds reading another chapter of The Bears on Hemlock Mountain. We've worked our way through most of the Emerging Readers this year.

His desire to read on his own took off when we mounted a reading lamp on his wall (idea from The Read-Aloud Handbook) and allowed him to pick one book to read each evening after we tuck him into bed. My dd is asking for her own reading lamp already and she's not even "reading" yet!

Mixing sugar, cornmeal, salt in various glasses today for Science (LHFHG unit 32/day 3) with dd helping to stir...


My ds's Thinking Skills page from earlier in the week. He had to finish the story and made the boy asleep on the bench he just painted complete with paint roller & rolling tray below the bench.


My dd coloring "flames" (I didn't have a paper plate in the house for the activity ) so we did it on paper. She didn't mind - coloring with markers has been her favorite thing to do this week.


Enjoy your weekend!!!

Loved reading about your week with your sweet dc!!!

Kathleen,

I'm celebrating the end of your school year! I can't believe an entire school year has passed, as it seems like you just started LHFGH and Preparing Hearts yesterday! We're heading on through the end of May and will be done then! I loved hearing about the end of your year! Thanks for sharing your journey with us!

creativemommy,

I can't believe that you are on Unit 32 of both LHFHG and LHTH! You are very near to the end! It goes so quickly. I enjoyed seeing your little sweetie reading The Bears on Hemlock Mountian and seeing a peek at all the fun you're having with LHTH! Thanks for sharing!

Blessings,
Carrie

I just blogged about our last day of school and Karissa's Kindergarten graduation Thanks Carrie for HOD, it has been a blessing to use LHFHG this year! We are looking forward to Beyond next year!

http://mistypeterson.blogspot.com/2010/ ... rissa.html

Misty,

What a precious daughter you have! She looked so grown-up in her graduation cap and gown. You can feel so good that you completed LHFHG. I'm celebrating with you this evening.

We pray that you will enjoy Beyond just as much and that it may a blessing to your family. Thanks for sharing your special year-end with us!

Blessings,
Carrie

Carrie wrote:Misty,

What a precious daughter you have! She looked so grown-up in her graduation cap and gown. You can feel so good that you completed LHFHG. I'm celebrating with you this evening.

We pray that you will enjoy Beyond just as much and that it may a blessing to your family. Thanks for sharing your special year-end with us!

Blessings,
Carrie

Thank you Carrie! I am proud of her and US! It has been a bit of a challenging year but HOD has made it easy for us to homeschool and our girls have learned and are excited about books and reading Since moving to Missouri a month ago they are seeing all kinds of new nature and it is fun Hopefully we are able to make learning part of everyday life!