Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory:
We just finished Unit 18 - which is the halfway point - of Beyond and are taking our summer break now. When I told my ds we were stopping for the summer he burst into tears and said, "I just want you to read my
Stories of the Pilgrims book yet!"
I was shocked - I knew he really liked doing Beyond, but he also really likes his free time in the summers - I guess I should have eased him into stopping school!
Anyway, I agreed to read "just one more story in the
Stories of the Pilgrims book", and then he said he'd be o.k. Of course, after I read that, he said, "But I'll still get to do my emerging reader books, right?!?" Panicked look in his eyes again.
I told him, "Sure, honey, we can keep going with those". I hadn't planned on that, but oh well, it is fun to do together, and I wanted him to read a bit each day anyway.
I'm drawing the line there though - I do not want to get to Bigger Hearts before he's 7, so I'm putting the brakes on.
I'm sharing my plan for that on the HOD Main Board. I'm so excited about this plan for him.
So, reflecting on Riley's year with finishing Little Hearts and doing the first half of Beyond - he has grown so much it is truly hard to think back to where he started the year
. Here are some leaps he's made...
*he listens to books with very few pictures so happily now - and he even laughs at the appropriate times
, read poetry with great gusto
always in front of the fireplace, he easily memorizes a Bible verse or 2 within a day or so by adding actions and actually sings along word for word with the music, loves to share his Bible verse on the phone with others - he used to mumble and be shy for this, has decided history is great fun to read about, loves to do his science experiments, can write his 10 spelling words on notebook paper and also in sentences - hooray!, also copies the whole poem each week now - a big improvement over not copying them at all in the beginning, enjoys new genres to read and be read to from - like mysteries, reading-reading-reading everything he can get his little hands on
, knows some parts of speech, is starting to have a beginning-middle-end to his oral narrations (a vast improvement
), is doing awesome with math and loves to do it, is starting to ask deeper questions about God and see Him as powerful, all-knowing, and full of love for him.
I can't wait to see how he grows even more into Beyond next year. I'm especially excited to see how his oral narrations develop - I know that when my older ds did Bigger, his oral narrating really took off. We'll see if Riley does too. It will be fun to possibly start DITHOR with him, if he's ready when he's done with the Emerging Reader's Set, and I think he will be. Here are 2 pictures of Riley - one with his beloved Stories of the Pilgrims book, and one where he made an art project for the history reading about a sparkler candle that prevented an Indian attack.
What a wonderful end to the year!
Summer, here we come, and we'll be all excited to begin HOD again in August.
In Christ,
Julie
