Preparing Hearts for His Glory:
This week in CHOW we learned about Gutenberg's invention of the printing press, and how he spent 5 years printing the first Bible with movable type. For Research, Wyatt got to see the actual printing press online and learn all about it. For his history project, he made a bookmark with 3 braids and enjoyed practicing placing these braids in different places of the Bible. Wyatt loved using his braids to quickly flip here and there in his Bible. We also continue to learn in history how explorers discovered parts of the world. Wyatt loves reading Pedro's Journal for his Independent History Study, and when he orally narrates on it, he becomes Pedro himself, which makes for a very lively narration.
In Science, it connects so well to history, and "Columbus" continues to be a great read for Wyatt. He cuddles up on the couch and seems to be off in another time period, exploring with Columbus. He especially liked his science experiment about a waterspout (such as the one Columbus saw). He filled an empty plastic bottle partway with blue water (food coloring), put a spoonful of dishsoap in it, and put buttons in it as well. Then he put the cap on and swirled it around and around - it looked just like a waterspout would have looked to Columbus. The buttons were all drawn into the waterspout, similar to the way water was drawn up into the clouds like a whirlwind. Great fun! He also liked tracing the explorers' routes on the globe for geography.
Wyatt's timeline continues to grow, and for vocabulary he learned "navigators", "ingratitude", and "ambition" this week. I am so thankful the vocabulary is directly tied to the history - it has helped him become very skilled at using contextual clues to figure out words he doesn't know, and I also like that he checks them in the dictionary. When we got to dictionary skills in R & S English this week, that was a total breeze - the way he's been doing vocabulary made that super easy.
I could say more, but I'll wrap it up with Bible study comments - I cannot believe how much Wyatt is able to memorize. It has become easy for him, and this was a kid who did not have that as a strong point. I can already see that the HOD methods of teaching Scripture and just memorization in general are helping him make huge gains in this area. He has already surpassed me. I just am not able to remember Scriptures word for word as quickly as he can - it truly blesses my heart to see. I think the beautiful music CD he sings with really helps too.
Below are some pictures of the lab report of the waterspout experiment and also the notebooking about how Columbus came to be assured the world was not flat - but instead round:

I hope you had a great week too!
In Christ,
Julie