Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory:
Riley has settled into a great rhythm with Beyond now. He has grown into the copywork - he can copy the whole poem now!
And, he is writing on wide-lined notebook paper. He also has grown into the discussion questions. He had to learn the skill of listening to me read with the intent of being able to answer questions about what was read. He finally does that now, and he's answering about 3/4 of the questions right. He also had to learn the skill of thinking about what he was reading out loud in the Emerging Reader's Set, with the intent of being able to answer questions about what he read. He usually does well with that now - though I have him practice it independently first, and then read it to me, so he's read it twice. It seems like this has improved his comprehension so much. In math, he learned to group 10 items and count up as a mental trick for making adding easier. We finished "A Lion to Guard Us" for our read-aloud, and it happened to match our history readings exactly! We continue to travel with the Pilgrims, and that brings me to his favorite activity this week. In history, we read about the Pilgrims building a strong wall around Jamestown to protect it. In Bible, we read about Nehemiah rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem (GREAT connections). In both of these situations they had to build often while under attack. Here is a pic of Riley rebuilding the Jerusalem wall while under attack, by ME!
I had to pound the floor with my fist 10 times, and then attack a bit of his wall, removing some pieces. He sounded the alarm by blowing his trumpet, and then I stopped attacking and ran away, while he rebuilt the wall - until the next time I attacked. he eventually finished, but will remember how difficult it would be to build a wall while under attack. He begged to do it again and again!
Preparing Hearts for His Glory:
We are enjoying seeing Wyatt's timeline grow. It really helps Wyatt see the span of history and in what order important events happened. I like that HE is making the cards because they show his own personal flair. We are reading about Rome Emperors and Christianity right now. Nero persecuting the Christians was handled well, and I was glad for the reminder in the HOD plans to omit one of the paragraphs in CHOW that was violent. I am thankful for these notes, since I am reading aloud and not reading ahead. The history project this week was making a golden laurel. Since we'd just read about the triumphs Roman emperors had, it was a great link to that. I also liked how HOD brought it back to God, reminding us Jesus is our only one true King, Lord, and Savior. Our Storytime read-aloud, The Fountain of Life, ended with this theme as well. What a great book that was to read aloud! Even with the difficult vocabulary, my ds loved it, and has now swept it up to his room to read again in his free time. Our Bible memory verse and the music we sing of it reminded us Jesus is King as well - How Excellent Is Thy Name"! I've noticed that Wyatt's singing this with me at home has made him comfortable - and even very joyful - about singing out loud in church, which gives me a little tug at my heart each Sunday morning. We also read about Jesus' prophecy of the fall of Jerusalem, and we traced the path from Rome to Jerusalem on the globe, as well as finding Mt. Vesuvius, since we read about Pompeii being buried in CHOW. We learned various lines of latitude and longitude too. We learned these new vocabulary words: stoic, murmur, dissipated, philosopher, and superstition. I enjoy the way vocabulary is learned contextually in PHFHG - it seems to stick well with Wyatt. O.k. - I could go on and on, because so far I've only hit on some of the things we did for the left side of the plans, but this is getting too long, so it's time for the picture! Here is Wyatt's laurel wreath - which, btw, he now often wears around the house off and on. Our toddler constantly wants to wear the "hat" too.
How was your week?
In Christ,
Julie
Isn't it funny how life always hits you with multiple things at one time. What a busy week you've had. I hope all has calmed down for you.
Isn't that song just beautiful? I am in charge of our creative arts group at my church and I found that on a sermonspice video as background music....I just had to find who did it!!!! The first time I heard it, I got misty on the third verse. 
