heartofdakota.com

Ladies,

Here's a Fourth of July sneak peek at some of the wonderful projects within RTR. I hope you enjoy thinking about them and looking forward to them as much as I enjoyed writing them! We'll be doing them this upcoming year with my second little guy as he journeys through RTR. I know that it adds so many connections to our study of history as we complement the study with projects spread out over three days each week, done in bite-sized pieces with supplies you truly will have on hand. We simply don't write projects that utilize strange supplies, or they wouldn't get done at our house! So, rest assured that the list that follows will be manageable and enjoyable and work with our open-and-go format.

I think you'll be amazed by year-end at how much your kiddos have accomplished and what fun they have had. Here's a partial peek at what's ahead: making a Roman arch out of air-dry clay, creating a mosaic-like glue and chalk stained-glass window, writing in Greek on parchment, playing a game called 'Race to Rome', baking bread with Scripture verses inside, designing a Roman shield, playing a card game called 'Lord of the Castle', baking marzipan cookies and sharing portions of "The Cid", going on a Crusade with clue cards, making an origami turban and model of Saladin, cooking homemade egg noodles, rolling the die to show the spread of the Black Plague, making a medieval pennant, coloring your own Fra Angelico painting, making hardtack, painting an African mud cloth, sketching and painting an image from the Sistine Chapel, forming a 3-D map of Magellan's voyage, designing a Spanish "Pieces of Eight" coin, creating illuminated letters/borders/entries for a Book of Hours, making a window cling of a Huguenot cross, mapping the path of the Spanish Armada, baking your choice of baked pears/seedcakes/or Yorkshire Pudding from the time of Shakespeare, using oil pastels to create the Great Barrier Reef, forming an Iroquois gourd rattle, practicing sketching like Rembrandt, creating a flapbook of important Scriptures to help in leading someone to Christ through the Word, making a Lenape Native American bandolier bag, and baking your choice of Amish sugar cookies or Russian tea cakes.

I can't wait for each of you will be using RTR to get underway! Although, I wouldn't mind a bit of summer myself first. We're still hard at work finishing and editing the guide. We are so thankful and grateful for any of you who choose to lift us up in prayer as we write! Happy Fourth of July!

Blessings,
Carrie

Happy Fourth of July to you! I hope you had a restful day and will get some rest and peace this summer. Thank you for taking the time to let us know of the great projects that are ahead with RTR. We are a few years behind, but we are savoring the guides one at a time. I am sure that the Mom's and kiddo's who are anxiously awaiting will love this post.

Looks FUN! Thank you for all your hard work, Carrie, in making these projects memorable, meaningful, and DOABLE for us in the day-to-day. My children and I THANK YOU! They love doing the projects, and I love that they're not overwhelming or stressful!

Praying for you right now as you wrap up the writing on this guide (and I'm sure are thinking about the next in line)! God is truly using you to bless many families, including mine! I love that using HOD for homeschooling is also such a great tool for discipling my kids.

Love,
Kathleen

Those sound great! I'm not going to tell dd about them, though, or she'll insist on skipping Beyond, Bigger, Preparing and CtC.

Carrie,

The projects in RTR sound so amazing, you've outdone yourself again! I love the variety of projects and they all look so fun and interesting. I think the best part is knowing that they will be doable and, of course, purposeful...a standard for HOD
Thank you for pouring your heart and energy into your work, you have a great following that so appreciates what you and your family do.
Praying for rest and rejuvenation for you.

Candice

Oh gracious!!! I can't wait to get started. I am so looking forward to this fall and getting my boys started with wonderful curriculum. Thank you so much for this sneak peek, as you probably know it made me even more anxious for the Teachers Manual to be in my hot little hands. Praying for you and yours as you finish the complicated task of editing and perfecting!

Those sound great! I'm not going to tell dd about them, though, or she'll insist on skipping Beyond, Bigger, Preparing and CtC.

That is exactly what I was thinking about my son

Oh! I'm so glad that you're excited about the projects! We've had a wonderful time writing them and are thrilled with the variety of project styles that are included in RTR. It will definitely be an exciting trip through the time period from the Resurrection to the Reformation.

Thanks so much for taking time to share your thoughts!

Blessings,
Carrie

Wow! Everyone of them sounds like so much fun! Our journey through the projects last year with CTC was amazing, and we are excited about RTR. I am one of those moms that never got around to projects or artwork before discovering HOD last year. HOD has definitely made that an easy accomplishment for us now.

Carrie, I will continue to lift you and Julie up in prayer as well as your families. You have indeed blessed our life with your gift! Thanks for the sneak peek. We anxiously await this awesome curriculum.

Patti

Oooh, RTR sounds amazing Carrie! We have a little bit to go until we get there, but it's still all so exciting! I love that you have incorporated cooking and baking into the manuals! That is something that the kids and I love to do together, but it's hard to get it tucked into our school day! The other activities sound like so much fun too!! Keep up the great work! You have been such a blessing to our family!

LeAnna

Oooh sounds so fun, Carrie!! I can hardly wait and we are just getting started with CTC! The projects are exciting and the hint of the subject matter that is behind the projects in RTR is what I'm so looking forward to. Hope things work out for me to be able to homeschool still next year!

Wow, I can't wait! It looks like so much fun. It's great for the parents to get just as excited about school as the kids. I have awhile to wait for mine to get there, but at least I'll get to do it 4 times. Thanks so much Carrie for all you do!

We are so very excited to do RTR next year! I cannot say how thankful I am that projects are written in the HOD guides. I fear I would fail miserably to do any otherwise. I know this is an area of need in our dc, and the skills my ds has learned in his HOD history projects have helped him have skills to do home projects. He has built so many things for me this past year - all just because he knows he can follow directions and complete a project well. He has built countless shelves (we are in desperate need of storage in our closet-deprived 100 year old house ), and many toys for my other 2 dc (everything seems to need to be put together these days). He is very pleased with his work on projects in school. Although he is not by nature an artistic child, he is a logical child, and following the steps is so appealing to him. I can see how this skill will benefit him his entire life! He is also very pleased with his final work each week, and looks forward to sharing it with his brothers and my dh if he is home. They add variety to the week, and make school seem so special. It is one of the things I do very little with in HOD, as it truly is independent, but it is also one of the things I love the most! I know it takes much work to include these in the plans. Thank you so much - it is such a wonderful unique thing about HOD, and I'm glad it's a part of the plans!

In Christ,
Julie

- Thanks, patekake! I so appreciate your prayers as well! This is such a busy time, and knowing you are praying is greatly encouraging to me.

I love getting to see what is coming up in the future! We have a LONG ways to go until our oldest will be at that level (we're just starting Bigger in the fall) but I think it helps me to know the way HOD has been planned out. Or maybe I'm just a planner... Anyway, thanks so much for sharing what we have to look forward to!

How did I miss this!!!! It all sounds wonderful! While I can tell you it will be baked pears over Yorkshire pudding. I can also tell you it will be Amish sugar cookies AND Russian tea cakes. And I love baking the bread with scripture in it and the flapbook with scriptures to lead someone to Christ. You always have something that is just perfect with my "theme" for the year which this coming year will be sharing the Word and leading those who do not know Christ to Him.

Once again I am thrilled!!!! I LOVE it all! Can't wait to start. What a blessing HOD is!