I haven't posted for a few weeks and the pictures are piling up right along with all of the good memories!
Always in the middle of the school year there is such progress in what the dc can do. I believe the routine of both the HOD guide and our day enables them to take on more responsibility and more independence. This causes our school day to fly! I am so very thankful as we are in the dead of winter here, and in "hibernation" mode.
HOD makes our winter months more joyful than they would otherwise be without it!
Resurrection to Reformation:
My ds is making connections galore, and I credit it to HOD's way of doing history. He has a flow of history full of important people, events, quotes, heroic deeds, Christian influences, period photos - well, you get the idea - that is always running in the background of his mind. I WISH I had it - I'm a little jealous I admit, though incredibly thrilled he has it. When something in history comes up in church, he loves to tell a story about that person or event on the way home. When something comes up on the history channel, he is quick to say with delight, "Oh! This is the Battle of..., and General .... makes a bold move to ... which ultimately won the war! So, first, the enemy lines were drawn by an event that changed the..." Or something to that effect. He's not saying it to impress, as he often is not saying it to me, but rather to someone like his 3 yo brother, who is wide-eyed listening to big brother's excitement - not sure what he's talking about, but positive it's quite amazing nonetheless.
My almost 8 yo is beginning to join in, and thank the Lord, I can see with HOD I am going to have 3 very inspired quite informed dc when it comes to knowing their history! How I wish I'd learned history this way, and while I am right now through using HOD, I just am not able to retain it like they can.
Probably because I am not narrating on it myself, which BTW reminds me - Charlotte Mason's methods - oh my! I believe they are also an piece of the puzzle of why my dc are becoming so filled with the knowledge of history. I can tell when they burst into these vignettes of history that they are narrating what they remember, many times from years passed, but still with quite a measure of accuracy. I cannot say enough good about a living books approach to learning, accompanied with CM's style of learning.
Science is the same way. Documentaries pop up on the t.v., and Wyatt is sharing some inspiring (and also usually a measure more exciting than what the documentary is saying BTW) story about the scientist, the experiment, etc. Even when the weather comes on, and a tsunami, tornado, etc. is mentioned, he has some narrative story to tell like how "Did you know Pasteur first began experimenting with ___ when ___ happened, and that actually caused him to ____? I mean, it was a huge discovery because it changed the way ____, and now ___".
This carryover is everywhere with HOD. Just this week, Wyatt was doing his Medieval History-based Writing Lessons, and was asked to add similes to his writing piece. We also studied similes in R & S English that same day, and he flipped to an old Emily Dickinson poem he'd done a few weeks back and said, "This poem of Emily Dickinson's has a bunch of similes, I remember because she was talking about a moon and..."
He flipped to it excitedly and rattled off a bunch of similes with a smile. Of course all this works together for him to be able to easily add similes to his own writing. This meshing of learning is not a rare occurrence. It happens often!
Here he is reading his story he wrote...
In DITHOR this week, the boys were doing historical fiction, and as a kickoff, I told them to think of something from history and act it out. OThey picked a battle, and well, they both just walked in the room so I'll have them tell me about it again, as I don't remember it exactly... here's what my 8 yo says right now about it... " We picked the Battle of Yorktown, where the French and the Americans marched to Yorktown, VA, which they were really trying to pretend they were going to New York. Then they went to Yorktown and surrounded the British by sea and by land. General Washington and Lafayette were the main guys. I was Washington, Wyatt was British Cornwallis, and Emmett was French Lafayette."
Here is what my 11 yo says about it, "The British had 2 big armies in America. One in New York, and one in Yorktown, Virginia. Washington made plans with all of his troops and made it seem like he was going to New York. Then, he turned around and quickly headed to Yorktown. The British could not get any reinforcements to Yorktown. He met up with Lafayette and Rochambo's militia, while General De Grasses' fleet blocked the water way into Yorktown, so no reinforcements could come that way. Each day each one's army pressed closer with their cannons and trenches. Finally, they were close enough to fire over the city walls and into the city. Washington fired the first cannon shot, and paid a special visit to Cornwallis. Within minutes, cannon balls were flying from land and from see into Yorktown. The next day Cornwallis surrendered." (I don't know proper spelling of a few of the names!)
Anyway, they just seem to remember so much, and enjoy it so thoroughly! What a blessing HOD has given our family - a love of learning and a love of the Lord - I am every so grateful.
In Christ,
Julie
Wow - that protecting women thing starts young. Anyway, we had a blast with this! 
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