Week in review 11/9/09 - 11/13/09

[jenntracy]

i have never done this before and not much to post but i thought it was so cute when all my children wanted to make the collar like the Egyptians wore.
the littlest one had a little help from brother with the coloring. They tried to color it like the ones in the pictures in The Beginners Bible[
Hope I attached the picture right.

Oh! from LHFHG Unit 4 Day 1

Jenn D.

ok i tried to psot the picture but it is too big in size and i don't know how to make it smaller to be able to attach here. anyway that was the highlight of the day. they all had such big smiles on their faces. wish i could share. i am not that computer literate apparently.

[butterfly113]

We had a fabulous week in our homeschooling journey. We are loving the richness of Preparing Hearts!

You can see our week in review here!

http://joshuatreeacademy.blogspot.com/2 ... it-12.html

[my3sons]

We had a wonderful week with CTC, Beyond, and LHTH as well! We all are healthy too, which I am praising God for. My dh took my oldest on a deer hunting trip this weekend. It was so nice to just take a few days off and not have to ask "permission" of the ps to see if he could go. Being in control of our school schedule is such a blessing and one we all deserve as parents. Anyway, my ds and dh took my camera hunting, and it has all of my pics from this past few weeks of homeschooling on it. I'll have to share them next week when they get back. But, here are some hi-lights for each of my dc this week...

CTC - Wyatt: Making the Philistine helmet was a blast! Even our little guy had to run around the house wearing it when it was done. Jashub's Journal - my ds has a strong sense of justice and is loving using the Bible to look up what Jashub should advise each of the people to do in their scenarios. Write with the Best - my ds is describing our backyard and doing such an awesome job of it! Whoever thought our backyard could be that exciting? I'll have to share it when he revises it. His written narrations - are getting better and longer. In science, he likes to share amazing tidbits he's learned about animals and is learning to remember to try to touch on each of the headings as he orally narrates.

Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory - Riley: he loves hearing the stories about America! He is in awe of George Washington, and especially liked singing The Star Spangled Banner for poetry. We had a good talk about fruits of the Spirit. Boy, did I need to hear it that day. Riley didn't open his mouth wide enough to take his cold medicine, and it squirted all over my new shirt I'd just put on. I was mad, until we did our fruits of the Spirit discussion. As I sang along with Steve Green, I started laughing and said, "Mom needs some fruits of the Spirit right now - mainly "patience" and "joy"." Riley laughed too, and said, "Yeah, I think I need self-control". Anyway, I love that the Bible studies and discussions keep me on track as much as my boys. The favorite activity was Riley making the armor for his stuffed animal, which he had named "Afflack" and now changed to "Christian". (His name has changed at least 5 times.)

Little Hands to Heaven - Emmett: he was "so sad" again this week for Sarah and Abraham. This has really helped him identify moods and emotions better. He was "so happy" when they had their baby then. He just keeps saying those phrases over and over again. He likes me to hold him when we listen to the music, and he loves to run and get "his Bible" for history. Another favorite is still the fingerplay, though he only gets a few words right - he loves the sound he gets to learn, and yet another hit was him driving his tractor and trailer over the letter "C' in masking tape on the floor.

What a great week of school!
In Christ,
Julie

[LynnH]

We finished week 12 of Preparing and had another fun week. Noah loves Grandpa's Box and was so excited this week when Grandpa did a summary of what they had learned so far and Noah could answer the questions he asked Amy and Marc in the story. I was pretty excited also. I love how he is starting to connect all the history together. Once again I think his favorite part of the week was the Poetry. He memorized "A Good Play". His dad was off on Friday so he dressed up and "performed" it for him. He didn't have a sailing hat so he improvised with a cowboy hat. He put blankets on the cat post to look like billowing sails. He had great fun acting out the "Tom fell out and bumped his knee part".

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The other advantage of having his dad home on Friday was they did the science experiment together. They both drew dinosaurs and cut them out and mixed up the pieces and then tried to put each others dinosaur back together. It was a great visual to show how hard it would be for real archeologists to do this same thing.

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As I look through everything he did this week I am just amazed and what I love most is that when we need to add things to the day like homework from his co-op classes it is easy to do without making the day too long.

[Kathleen]

Oh, I just love reading about all of your weeks!!

Lynn and Butterfly - We happen to be in exactly the same spot in Preparing right now! And, I totally agree that we are enjoying the richness of it...and that it doesn't take all day!! Noah looks like he's having a blast, and I bet it was great fun to see that reenactment of A Good Play. Butterfly - I am always amazed at the quality of Caterpillar's artwork and his writing. God has really gifted him in those areas.

Jenn - I wish I could see your picture! I know that there is a spot on photobucket where you select the size you upload. On my screen there's a big blue box that says "Upload Images and Video" Right under it in parentheses are the blue words "more options". This is where you can choose the size you upload. Mine is set at medium. You'll have to get rid of the too big one and re-upload the pic. BTW, I am totally not tech savvy and everything I'm telling you I've learned by trial and error over the past year.

Julie - Grant enjoyed deer hunting with Mike on Friday, too. (Not the whole weekend as Mike was the "Lone Ranger" on the farm this weekend. He would have totally loved to hunt all weekend if he could! ) I so appreciate the flexibility of homeschooling, too!!! It was opening weekend of bird season here, too. That always seems to be a good opportunity as it gets everything moving. I loved the glimpse at your boys' weeks! I am with you on being convicted by God's Word frequently and am so thankful that I get to make it a part of my day not only during my quiet time, but all throughout school time, too! Last year in LHTH, Garret was convinced that every man we read about in his Bible after Abraham WAS Abraham. They all had beards. I think maybe he's past that now? We'll see...we're just now moving past Abraham for this year.

[Kathleen]

LHFHG middle of unit 3: Garret and Allison moved on from Abraham to Isaac and Jacob. Their favorite activity by far was the scent experiment in science time that went along with Esau smelling the soup and trading his birthright for it. I "scented" some cotton balls and they got to sniff and compare them to the different choices. This was great fun!! Here are my little scent detectives...


The bounce pass game to work on the Bible verse is a real hit at our house. Garret has drastically improved on this since the 1st attempt we made last month. We need a firmer ball to bounce with. Balls don't always have long lives at our house. But, I also try not to supply too much in-the-house ammunition for breakables. (My husband loves to play soccer with the kids in the living room! ) Anyway, I'll have to think that one over. Maybe a special ball that bounces better that I hide in the basement?

In math this week we were measuring things. Here are some pantry choices that we measured with unifix cubes.


We had another great LHFHG week! I loved teaching it, and my kids love doing it!
Kathleen

[Kathleen]

Preparing Unit 12: Grant is moving right along through the guide and history. Here is his growing timeline!


He loved making his scroll this week. (Well all except the fact that he had to write on it. He endured that. ) His favorite part was going to find sticks to roll it up on. He was quite sure that would be more "authentic", AND it got him on an extra quick trip outside! Here's the scribe at work...

He did decide that he would NEVER really want to be a scribe. They have to throw away their whole scroll if they make one little mistake when they're copying the Bible. He decided that he would NEVER finish even one thing!

He chose to memorize Autumn Fires for poetry. It came really easy to him and he had it memorized last week. So, I had him say it each day and them let him draw a picture of what it made him think about. Half his page is summer here, and half autumn.


I ended up with 3 extra kids on Thursday close to lunch time, one of whom happens to be a super-good friend of Grant's. He was thrilled that God gave him a great partner for his science experiment that day! Here they are trying to put together each other's dinosaurs.


We are learning a lot and having a blast with Preparing! (I say "we" because I am truly learning quite a bit right along with Grant. I wish I'd learned all of this in 4th grade!)

Kathleen