Week in Review: March 17-21

[sltress]

Res to Ref
Now that we are back with HOD it seems every day I let out a big sigh of relief. I feel so free and organized. It feels good to stop trying to put everything together myself. Of course now I have no reason to endlessly scour through vendor sites and curriculum blogs. Oh well, maybe now the laundry will get done.
My DS even said he is happy to be back. We did about ½-3/4 of CTC last year when I started to wander. Since we didn’t finish CTC and I am starting in week 14 of RtR (b/c we already covered the history from weeks 1-13 elsewhere) I am bummed that we won’t have the complete Timeline from the student pages but I just have to let that go. Although my dear, DS said if I re-bought the CTC guide and new student pages he would fill in all the missing TL entries. Oh how he plays into my neurosis.
We are doing Shakespeare and I thought he would want to skip the coloring pages but he enjoys the stories AND coloring the pages. He wants to finish the story the first day but I like to keep him in suspense. I wasn’t sure how he would feel about making a pennant but he couldn’t wait to finish it. I even got out the paints!
Is it weird that I want to hug my guide everyday?
I have a pic with my DS holding his pennant but I keep getting "file too big" message and I can't figure how to make it smaller.

[MelInKansas]

Stacey that sounds like you had a wonderful week! I can understand about wanting to hug your guide completely! I feel the same way! As far as sizing your picture, they have to be pretty "small" if you can in an image editing program "scale" the photo or save it and take the resolution waaaay down.

This week we did Unit 26 in LHTH, Unit 18 in Beyond, and Unit 9 in Preparing. We even did school today to finish our units because next week we are going on vacation so it is Spring Break for us. I am looking forward to getting away, even though DH will unexpectedly have to work a little bit even while we are gone.

DD4 was working on the letter T. Again we loved the Rhyme in Motion and the stories about Jesus healing people, raising Lazarus and the girl from the dead, and walking on the water. I think we may actually hit the Resurrection close to Easter time, we will see! I am starting to look ahead to handwriting and things like that for her, we will probably start those this summer as we finish up LHTH. DH helped with school today and he commented that LHTH is really too easy for my DD, well she breezes right through it. She will be 5 in a couple of months. But I still think it is really good for her, and she is learning the Bible, finishing up letter sounds, I feel like she is really getting enough (and probably all I can give right now).

DD7 did Unit 18 of Beyond. There were several stories of conflict between the Native Americans and settlers from Europe, stories of brave things the children did and ways they scared the Indians off. Shows how God provided and protected many people, even though of course there were many others who died. I do love the positive focus of the history in the guides, at least in these early years. My DD is working on handwriting and she is now up to copying the whole poem each week. I am planning to start trying to have her writing smaller, by the end of Beyond hopefully she can write the whole thing on one page. She enjoys copying the poems and the poems we have studied are always excellent! She is doing well in Math and we are really enjoying the ERs. I forget when my oldest started reading more on her own for pleasure, but the 2nd is not there yet. Occasionally she will but I think it is still too much "work" for her.

DD9 did Unit 9 of Beyond. We went full-speed this week. It was kind of hard . She can do the work it just takes her a long time. I was able to streamline a little bit by reading her history and storytime to her during breakfast the past 2 days. She also has trouble with finishing, she seems to lose steam before she is done. I may drop back to 4/5 speed after the break, that would also keep her on track with her sister, starting and finishing units at the same time. We are not in a big hurry and 4/5 speed feels like just enough to me. We started reading about the Greek gods and as I started reading the History she got this sour look on her face. I said "what's wrong?" "I don't like when they worship false gods, they shouldn't do that." I said "yes, you're right, they shouldn't, God says we should have no other gods or make any images of Him or any other god. But these are also just stories and we can learn about our culture from these stories." Then I was so glad when we read in Acts about Paul and Barnabus in Lystra - how the people of Lystra had wanted to worship them and called them Zeus and Hermes. This gave a good context for why knowing about the Greek gods was a good thing. Then I liked how in Child's History of the World it went back after talking about Greek gods and talked about Solomon. She did an excellent written narration today on that reading and I looked in the back at the tips again and realized we have really been working on some of those things and she has improved so much even since January. This was a new skill for her and she is doing great! It is always such a blessing to see them progressing. I really see her thinking critically about things, remembering things we have learned, and making connections. Her narration skills, oral and written, have grown leaps and bounds in the past few months. Praise the Lord!!! Often my biggest issue with schooling this one is that it is hard to have the time to sit and focus with her on what she needs to do. I know the reason her independent work sometimes takes so long is that she can't focus on it very well with all the noise around here. Though, as she is like me, she probably would have trouble focussing even in an ideal situation.

This got long. I am gone for the next week. I pray you all had a wonderful week with HOD!

[my3sons]

Res to Ref...
Is it weird that I want to hug my guide everyday?..I have a pic with my DS holding his pennant but I keep getting "file too big" message and I can't figure how to make it smaller.

I feel the urge to hug all 3 of my HOD guides! Not weird at all! Maybe this will help with the photos...
How to post pictures on the board:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3229&p=23993

Thanks for sharing about your week, Stacey!
In Christ,
Julie

[my3sons]

MelInKansas - I enjoyed reading about each of your dc's week, but especially your oldest dd's in PHFHG. She is making some good connections and some super progress! I really like the way HOD teaches about Greek gods. It is all done within the context of teaching there truly is only one sovereign God, and the Bible is used to prove it. It was neat to hear the way your dd had a sour expression about worshiping other gods - a very good reaction that is a telltale sign dd is doing some important thinking about her faith and devotion to the Lord. I hope you have a terrific Spring Break!

In Christ,
Julie

[my3sons]

World Geography:
This week in "Essentials in Writing Grade 10" Wyatt chose to do a compare and contrast paper about Judaism and Christianity. It was one of the possible writing prompt choices, and he surprised me by immediately choosing it. All I could think was that I would have completely struggled with that prompt when I was in high school! My public school education didn't have prompts like that, and even if it had, I wouldn't have chosen it because I wouldn't have learned about it anyway. It just made me really stop and think to be thankful for HOD's Christ-centered approach to learning. It has given Wyatt such a natural ease about talking about or writing about topics such as these. What a blessing! Here he is typing his paper...


Something I truly enjoy correcting it Wyatt's one-sentence summaries. I knew I'd like the assignment, but I didn't know I'd enjoy correcting it this much! I think I do because it is sort of like reading great one-liners in sequential format, and it just equals a pretty exciting overall summary written narration when put altogether. Wyatt has also really enjoyed choosing his words carefully for this, and he especially enjoys the advertisement approach assignment day. Having a sister who has her journalism degree and worked within space constraints and deadlines for a newspaper, I like that Wyatt is learning to work within some of these similar, somewhat difficult, parameters within his schooling now. Here are a few favorites of his one-sentence summaries I had this segment...
The Board of Longitude received thousands of ideas for configuring longitude at sea due to the immense prize money; however, all were faulty.
Come see the new movie "Endurance," where John Harrison completes three revolutionary clocks, when he pulls through to complete the final design, number four.
As a bitter animosity grows between them, John Harrison continues to press Parliament for his rightful prize money, and Moskelyne moves closer to his solution by using the heavens to find longitude.

"Japan Diary" stretched Wyatt's oral narration skills this week. Narrating from a diary with separate daily entries was a challenge. It has been neat to see his abilities to do this successfully grow throughout the reading of this book! At first, his oral narrations were heavy on a certain day or event and then an entire section of the reading would be missing, and then there would usually be something from the end. I challenged him to pretend it was his diary, and to try to give a more well-rounded representation of his 'life' when he narrated. He must have taken that to heart, because his next narrations were more lively and a better account of more of the man's life. One of my favorite things about the writing he is doing in his "World Religion and Culture's Notebook" is the fact that he is making excellent connections between his Bible and the books he is reading. He can see how amazing it is when a person or family is living out God's purpose for their lives, even amidst different customs, debilitating diseases, and natural disasters!


Wyatt's journal has become a special Common Place Book for him. He likes to read his quotes to me and often does so with flair! Thanks to years previous in HOD, he has learned to love clever and profound words - especially due to poetry studies and copywork of famous quotes. I like Scriptures are included as well - what better Book to quote or copy from?


Wyatt's cursive writing has gotten a bit messy, but I have found a solution! Having him read his cursive out loud (which we do with all written assignments as I correct them) has made it clear when writing is messy enough it needs to be fixed. If HE can't read it, who else could? He gets that and fixes it quite without dissent.

In science, Wyatt has been learning about sound waves, observing compression waves, and noticing how vibrating objects produce sound. He enjoyed doing his lab work with pitch and sound and the Doppler effect, especially as he read about Edison inventing the phonograph, electric lighting, and a camera that could record continuos images. This has been a super year in science!

In Foerster's Algebra 1, we are finishing Chapter 12. This chapter has been on radicands and formulas. It has been neat to see how Wyatt quite easily uses the quadratic formula from memory now, as well as his graphing calculator. We have gotten into the routine of going through the examples together, doing the oral review together with him saying the answers out loud, and doing the first third or so of the written work on markerboards. I have the answer key in hand and basically let him know if he's off track before the whole problem derails. He is not offtrack often, as Foerster's teaching is incredibly clear. Then, I get Riley to do my teaching block for RTR with him, and I pop back in off and on as Riley is doing something more independent to check on Wyatt's progress through his last 2/3 of math. It's been working well! I can foresee Wyatt possibly pursuing a math-based career, and I could not be more pleased with Foerster's Algebra 1's instruction.

Wyatt wrote about Captain Cook's exploration of the South Seas and Australia's coast for King George III this week. He loved seeing the beautiful photos of the Neuschwanstein Castle, as well as the dining room with the scene from Lohengrin. I am just truly enjoying reading his narrations at this point. He has learned the power of careful consideration of how to craft the first line of his written narrations, as it sets the tone for all to follow. His first line this time read...
Captain Cook's fleet was prepared to sail for the unknown lands and waters of modern-day Australia.
He has also learned to use long and short sentences intermittently to inject some personality into his writing. For example, he wrote these two lines sequentially ...
They brought a fine library and the best machines of the day for preserving new insects or plants that they may discover. Yes, they were ready for anything.

His written narration for "The Children of the New Forest" showed this attention to the first line as well (though I see we missed a spelling error)...


We are thoroughly enjoying World Geography together, and though it is quite rigorous for a high school curriculum, it is a complete blessing to us! Wyatt is learning so much, and though he works hard to complete his day in 7 hours, every minute has been worth the effort. What a good week - I hope you had one as well!

In Christ,
Julie

[my3sons]

Resurrection to Reformation:
Riley's Storytime book "Mystery of the Silver Coins" is a must read! This entire series is incredible! Riley can hardly wait for the next time he gets to read more, and the follow-up skills he is doing have been so good for him to learn. The rotation of Storytime follow-ups range from orally narrating, to finding vivid descriptions, to copying quotable lines, to locating new vocabulary words, to watching for life lessons, to identifying plot twists, to recognizing strong moods. These follow-ups have already taught Riley so much! This is one of the many things I love about Heart of Dakota - so many integral skills are taught, but in such a rotating way that is not too time consuming, that they remain enjoyable. This week, Riley found some great lines from his book. I really loved most of the 'great lines' he chose included references to our Great God!!! Very fitting - and very pleasing to this Mama.


This week Riley read about the missionary Boniface. He was shocked to read that the people of Geismar were worshiping other pagan gods right along with worshiping Christ. This was a thought that had never occurred to Riley - that people could learn of Christ and choose to worship both Him and other pagan gods. He loved reading how brave Boniface chopped down the tree dedicated to Thor to show Thor was not God. Researching "Fritzlar" (which is right by where Thor's oak tree used to be) was a fitting assignment. He also enjoyed reading about Justinian, who expanded the Roman Empire, did much to expand and clarity laws, and beautified the capital building. Upon completing the Hagia Sophia, Justinian said, "Solomon, I have surpassed you." Riley thought this quite arrogant. Riley also loved drawing and coloring his timeline entries, and put some real time into it this week.


For Riley's "Medieval History-Based Writing Lessons," he wrote about Augustine the Archbishop. He especially likes the key word outlining prior to writing, as this gives him a chance to use some creative symbols. His hope is always to have written the exactly perfect composition so that his mother (a.k.a. ME ) will not suggest any improvements or changes whatsoever. This part is always the hardest, isn't it? I try to be very encouraging first by beginning with compliments and strengths, but then the editing suggestions must follow. It truly helps to have the Rough Checklist provided in the lessons, as it functions as a rubric of sorts. However, still, this part of the writing process is not Riley's favorite. I know from having gone through all of the writing programs that HOD schedules in the subsequent guides with my oldest ds, this WILL improve.


Riley orally narrated quite succinctly about lunar eclipses after reading "Exploring Creation with Astronomy." He used appropriate science terminology, as well as many hand motions and body movements. He really gets into his oral narrations, and can rarely sit as he gives them. He's a pacer. He probably gets that from me. I cannot talk on the phone without a constant pacing or walking through the rooms of the house. The cordless phone was a fabulous invention for me! Anyway, science is a real interest of his, and I am thankful that HOD has always had him doing multiple experiments each week to fill this need. For his science notebooking, Riley enjoyed doing a diagram of the moon's phases...


In Art Appreciation, Riley and I enjoyed doing a picture study of the "Equestrian Portrait of Charles I" by Anthony van Dyck. Riley thought it quite amusing that Charles I was actually a smaller, less handsome man than that portrayed in the painting. The background information revealed that this discrepancy and been at Charles' request, so he would appear to be more domineering and successful. Riley also thought it funny that the horse's head was painted to be so small in relation to the rest of its rather massive body. The background reading on this particular of the painting explained that horses such as these were common then, and the horse truly was painted accurately. We are having such fun doing Art Appreciation together this year, and the Charlotte Mason quotes included in the plans have been intriguing to read as well!

We had a great week with RTR - hope your week went well too!

In Christ,
Julie

[my3sons]

Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory:
Emmett absolutely loves to listen to the Bible verses he is memorizing sung in praise on the Hide 'Em in Your Heart CD! He has asked to listen to it as he writes his poetry copywork, and he is often hopping up to race to the CD player to 'play that one again because it's his MOST favorite one.' The funny thing is, they are ALL his 'most favorite ones!' He is one of those blessed children that can actually listen to music, even SING along, while also writing his poetry copywork. I'd have to shut it off to focus on the writing of the copywork myself. Not Emmett though - lucky kid!

In history we read about Remember cleaning the house and staying there overnight alone while her parents traveled to help an ailing neighbor. She comforted herself by singing hymns and making liquid from a rather lengthy process involving LYE. Oh my - those little Pilgrim children were brave - weren't they?!? Emmett liked making his art project of pretty sand patterns, like Remember had made on the outer edges of their floor. He also liked hearing that Remember had saved the Thanksgiving Day meal by having turkeys in exchange for her soap.

In math, Emmett has been learning about place value and how understanding the 10's and the 1's place value can help you add larger numbers in your head. Heart of Dakota's hands-on math activities are such fun and give the best introductions to a new skill. This week, Emmett drew two playing cards, placing the first in the 10's column and the second in the 1's column. Then he had to read the number, and answer oral questions such as "What is 10 more? What is 1 less? What is 20 more? What is 1 more? What is 10 less?" He became quite good at answering these questions, so that by the time he did his workbook page, it was easy.


In Storytime, Emmett needed to write the answers for a close passage using contextual clues. This is such a solid skill to practice at this age! I told him before I read that he would have to figure out what words were missing in a passage about the reading after we finished, and he listened more carefully than ever. He LOVES "Key to the Treasure," and he had no trouble figuring out the answers (though he did need help with spelling them at times, so I just pulled out my handy markerboard and jotted them there if he asked for help).


Emmett is reading "Animal Adventures" for his Emerging Reader Set, and he likes to hear all of the adventures the Ingalls had with wildlife. His favorite so far was the one where Ma thought Sukey the cow was needing to be put in her pen late at night, and upon slapping her realized that Sukey was not Sukey, but was instead a BEAR! These adventures seem a blast to 7 year old boys, and a fright to 42 year old mothers! But we both agree they are fun to read!

Even with a cold this week, Emmett managed to come to school with a smile on his face, ready and eager to learn. What a blessing! Though I do hope he gets better soon - we have been through our fair share of Kleenex boxes already. Hope your families are all healthy and well!

In Christ,
Julie

[TrueGRIT]

We were only able to do full days of school Tuesday through Thursday. We finished up our units and we are taking a "Spring Break" even though it snowed last night! Thankfully it melted today - hope it warms up as well.

PHFHG
We finished Unit 21, and Grandpa's Box, a fact that made my DS sad. It has been his favorite book thus far. He also has enjoyed Fountain of Life. What made a great connection for him this unit is that our Pastor talked on church history today, and mentioned some of the same things. Almost exact on the church spreading after the stoning of Stephen! I love it when this happens and this makes about the 3rd or 4 th time lately. He has worked extra hard to get ahead with science and the constellations, and doing extra spelling/dictation. He is naturally a poor speller and hates that. One thing that seems to help some is to use the chalkboard. Then he and his brother discuss it some. It is helping them both.

BEYOND
DS finished up Unit 12. Even though he loves hearing about the Pilgrims, he had a hard time focusing this week. He is moving right along in math with weights and measurements. He is almost done with 1A. He is very excited about that. He is a very visual learner and the measurements seem to be more visual for him. We are doing grammar daily - and he does a great job with it, sometimes surprising me with what he already knows. To be honest we have to keep adding more and more to make him happy, and to keep him busy longer than an hour.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week, and we'll "see" you in two!

[my3sons]

TrueGRIT - We were sad to see "Grandpa's Box" end too, and "Fountain of Life" was a favorite read-aloud! We have had connections as you mentioned in church during our Pastor's messages as well, and I too love that connection our dc are making between school and church. How I wish I had been able to do that growing up! Church and school were totally separate. I am glad our dc will have a natural meshing of the two, and then hopefully that will live itself out for Lord beautifully in their daily walk with Jesus as well. I am glad you are going to have a Spring Break - even with the snow! Everyone needs a break sometimes, and then getting back to school becomes a joy again. Have a wonderful break, and thanks for sharing here on the check-in!

In Christ,
Julie