Week in Review 02-01-10 to 02-05-10

[Tmisek]

Ok Girls,

What was YOUR week Like?

You can post:

a- A picture
b- A blog Link
c- A written synopsis
d- Your favorite memory
e- Anything you want that shares your HOD excitement!

Important Note: If you are linking us to your blog, please make sure it's not just a general link, but to your specific post of HOD. That way if someone reads through these a year from now they can find your share without needing to hunt!

[Tmisek]

I thought I would try my hand at posting a week in review! Hopefully I will do this right.

My dd7 is almost done with week 22 in Beyond. We have had a wonderful year so far, and I actually look forward to school every day! This week we have been learning about colonial times. My daughter now wants to go visit the copper grasshopper on the top of Faneuil Hall in Boston. (We live in Nebraska, so I don't think that is going to happen any time soon!) We did look at an actual picture of the weathervane on the internet...that is one cool grasshopper! We also made a peanut butter grasshopper:


We were not able to eat it all...it was too big. I did have a "grasshopper sandwich" for lunch. My daughter told me she really likes this weeks poem, "Little Things".

My ds5 is working the right side of LHFHG (except storytime). He is almost done with week 14 and just finished lesson 5 of The Reading Lesson. Just this week he has FINALLY gotten over the hump of blending...YEAH! He seems to enjoy "school", but we are taking a very laid back approach this year.

Dd3 is doing LHTH, but we don't do it every day. She is on week 11. She loves school, but would much rather talk than listen! We really need to work on that.

[my3sons]

Tammy - that grasshopper looks yummy! We enjoyed our grasshopper for several days last year when my ds made it - and in a cracker sandwich it was so good. It's so exciting your ds is blending now - that's a big hump to get over - congrats on that! I bet your little one enjoys whatever you are getting to with LHTH. Thanks for the pics and for sharing your week with us!

Creation to Christ:
The biggest hit this week was re-enacting some of the Greek Olympic events. All of the dc wanted to participate, and they had so much fun. Here are a fews pics of the discus throwing, the javelin, the long jump, and the high jump:



My ds is also getting better at following directions for his watercolor painting. I'm proud of his progress in this area, and he is going to have a neat poetry keepsake from this year when we finish:


I was just thinking how well my ds has begun to be able to do his science experiments and lab sheets. He has much better guesses than he used to, and he also often remembers to label his drawings. Here he cut into an apple and identified its parts:


Finally, his Travel Logs (and writing on assignments in general) have improved so much. It really is like I'm getting a tour of the Holy Land when I read his logs now:

Sorry the last 2 are horizontal - I tried rotating, but something went awry.

In Christ,
Julie

[threegreatkids]

Tammy,
Wish I had known about the copper grasshopper earlier...we just ate lunch at Faneuil Hall this week! Oh yes, that's because we haven't done Beyond yet How do grown-ups learn anything if they don't homeschool their dc? I sometimes question my motives Your dd's grasshopper is so, so cute!
Julie,
Your olympics look like a blast! Perfect timing, with the modern olympics coming up. Did Wyatt just get really tall?That reminds me, I need to figure out if we can temporarily get TV channels so we can watch the olympics next week. I never regret our decision to do away with cable other than olympics season. I dearly love to watch figure skating.

I'm not going to post anything because we only did 2 days of school this week with a 2 day Boston trip in the middle. But, we feel refreshed and ready for a full week of school next week

[my3sons]

Wyatt DID get that tall! Isn't that crazy?!? He had a massive growth spurt - we'll see what happens, but I think he's going to be a very tall guy. The olympics are fun to watch - especially the figure skating. I think that's wonderful that you've done away with the cable though, that really cuts down on problems with t.v. in general. We do still have basic cable, mainly for my dh's fishing/hunting shows, but even that poses some problems. Anyway, I hope your trip to Boston was fun!

Bigger Little Hearts for His Glory:
Riley had his first week of half-speed with BHFHG. It went very well overall. He loved reading about Columbus, and science is still such a favorite of his. He wanted to do science every day (which it is daily in the plans), but since we're going half-speed, he'll be doing it every other day. That's alright - I like the idea of him loving science that much, and he needs the time to grow into the labs and notebooking. The seashore science study ties in perfectly with Columbus' explorations. Here is his first science notebooking, which was on low tide and high tide:


I have some tweaking to do with the order of things within the blocks of learning, but it was really easy to sub in his new BHFHG things for his old Beyond things. The routine is the same, so even though we're starting a new guide for him, it feels like the same kind of day. He has a few things that were tougher for him the first time, like dictation and grammar. I knew it would be that way, but already by the second day of dictation he was feeling more confident. I put the dictation on separate cards for him, since he's on the young side of BHFHG. As far as the grammar, we do a good portion orally, but I do have him write part of each section, even if it's just a little as this will build his writing skills. Here's a picture of him with his second day of dictation that he happily passed:


DITHOR is one of Riley's favorite parts of the day, and he is really enjoying reading The Secret School. He cuddles right in the couch and loves to read:


For Storytime, Phillis Wheatley has been a BIG hit so far. He can hardly wait for me to read more. I love that book as well, and while I usually enjoy reading new books the second time around with a guide, I had to read this one again (I'd read it years back with Wyatt). It's a wonderful story.

So, other than moving a few things around with the order of boxes, and reminding myself that the new skills will take some time to grow into - what a fantastic week! Riley is very proud of his first week with BHFHG.

In Christ,
Julie

[MamaBear23Cubs]

The week before was awsome and this week was a little stressful. I took out some extra work that I used along with the guides and our days have gone much better. My girls enjoy the guides while my son isn't a huge fan of Little Hearts. He does enjoy listening about Reddy Fox and reading his Family Time Bible. He's currenlty learning about dinos with his big sister right now.
We are getting ready to move and we will not have our school books for over a month. My oldest is working ahead so she can be finished with Mystery of the Dinosaurs and A Young Christian Guides to the Bible before the movers arrive in two weeks to pack up our stuff. I am sure those are the names, typing quickly before I hear the MOM from the kids. Here's a link to show show some of the pictures of some of the HOD work the kiddos.
http://denofmamabear.blogspot.com/searc ... f%20Dakota

[my3sons]

Little Hands to Heaven:
Emmett is learning the story of Baby Moses this week, and he can often be heard singing snippets of the Fingerplay "Baby in the Basket, Float, Float, Float". Here he is doing his fingerplay and showing Baby Moses float-float-floating!


His project of cutting strips of grass for reeds and making baby Moses in the basket (with my help ) was a big hit with Emmett. He loved getting Baby Moses in and out of the basket and doing his fingerplay along with it:


We've moved on to the letter "F", and here he is hard at work pushing his playdough in the shape of an "F":


He loves lining up his vehicles in the masking tape letter "F", and I love that he's learning his sounds, but also that he's continuing to play with this long after we're done with the box, so I can teach the other boys:


The Count on Me sheets are helping him with his fine motor skills and he thinks it great fun to do them. I make dots for him for the shapes, so it's kind of like a dot to dot and shout "STOP!" when he gets to a dot so he knows where to stop. He jumped (literally) the first time I did it, but now he giggles about it (and hopefully, usually, stops ).


I love doing LHTH with him. This is a fun stage!
In Christ,
Julie

[LynnH]

We continued this week learning about the early church in Preparing. I don't think Noah had ever thought about how tough it was for the disciples after Jesus died. We had some good discussions about the challenges he faced. Today during our reading of Grandpa's box he suddenly stopped me and said "Wait, Peter and Paul died?" I don't think he had ever really thought about what happened to them and we had never really talked about it. We also had happened to have a netflix movie on William Tyndale which we watched last night so even though it was the wrong time period it did bring about good discussion about martyrs for the faith.

His art project this week was a cross mosaic. He really enjoyed working on this. I was proud of him for taking his time with it.

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He read some from Revelation this week and drew his picture of heaven. He then did his written narrration about John's vision on the island of Patmos and Jesus's second coming. As we were talking about Heaven. He says "Mom my hands won't shake in heaven-I will be strong". The spiritual growth I have seen in him this year has been wonderful. Even our Children's Pastor has commented on it. I love how Preparing has helped give me the guidance for discussions that I might not have known exactly how to approach.

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One other little story I have to share. We ran into his 3rd grade teacher this week. She asked him how he liked homeschooling and he said he loved it. She then asked him if there was anything he missed about public school. He looked at me and I told him he could be honest. He got a huge grin on his face and said "No, not a thing. I love school at home". She laughed and said she was so glad for him.

[my3sons]

This weekly check-in I couldn't resist sharing for Carrie. This was made awhile ago, but her ds Shaw did such an amazing job on it I just had to snap some pics and share it here. This is the 20 Squares game made in CTC. As usual though, creative Shaw put his own neat twist on it here! He made a box for it, and a secret compartment opens up to reveal the game pieces. He made it travel ready!

I had her kiddos over today to play. Our little ones sure had fun building with magnatiles together, while the olders played other things.


Then they all rode 3-wheelers or sleds after that with my dh for fun:


I know the last part of this is OT, and I try not to do that, but I thought you'd enjoy seeing some pics of Carrie's dc, as she doesn't have time to do that herself. I'm so glad HOD is time conscious, so we can love both school and our free time. Hope you all had a great week!

In Christ,
Julie

[creativemommy]

Hi Ladies! I enjoy reading about what your kids are doing knowing we'll be in those guides soon!

Julie - I like your idea for making "dot-to-dot' shapes for the Count on Me pages in LHTH. It's so simple, yet I never thought of that before. I'm going to do it for my daughter when she struggles with drawing some of her shapes. I love the magnatiles- what a fun toy!

We had a good week finishing Unit 18 on Monday and working through Unit 19 (days1-4) in LHTH and LHFHG for the remainder of the week.

My ds really enjoyed pouring the colored water into new glasses to make the secondary colors. At the end of the activity we even made some tertiary colors! He begged to do it all again, I promised him we'll do it another day. Since we're getting snowed in right now it might be a great activity for tomorrow with daddy!



My ds made the road in Rome out of of graham crackers - which was a fun morning snack that day! He used his GeoTrax people & train cars to be the Roman people and chariots with a little imagination.


Today he really liked guessing & tasting sweet/sour/salty things in the various bowls...of course, sugar & apple juice were his favorites!


My dd learned about Jonah this week. She had fun being a "storm" and blowing a pom pom across the school table.


She chose to color her whale PINK since that's one of her favorite colors right now...


Have a good weekend, everyone!

[3musketeers]

Well Ladies, I am up early again on this Saturday morning. I love reading about everyone's week. Wonderful things are happening in each of your homes with HOD.

This week at our house:

Bigger- We are on Unit 17 and half way through our year. We were tremendously blessed by the words of "How Firm a Foundation." We often miss the blessings of the deep, profound theology in great hymns like these. We have really enjoyed diving into Hymn's for a Kid's Heart. We have been learning about insect/animal camouflage and seeds in science. The boys love the One Small Square books. They enjoyed making their bugs and camouflaging them. They invented the "caterfly" and the "scaled inch worm". One was hiding in the blanket and the other was on the entertainment center. They also enjoyed making maple seeds and flying them from a top their chairs. Their water color paintings with the ship drawing turned out really well. My youngest had to do one too. They appreciated the poem "Under the Tree." They are woodsy guys, who love to camp. My middle guy said, "That poem is so peaceful, Mom." We finished Rabbit Hill (which they loved) and had time to read Miss Hickory which is totally going along with One Small Sq: Woods. We begin Mystery next week and, boy, are dss excited about that.

LHTH- We began learning about Moses. At the beginning of the year my ds was not so sure about the finger plays or the pretend play. Now he eats that stuff up. I caught him singing, "Moses saw God's fire...FFF." on the potty the other day . He also loved putting Baby Monkey (his favorite little animal) in the basket, diapering with the paper towel, and singing "Jesus Loves Me" to him. Thursday was play dough day and of course that was a hit. His picture of Moses in the grass turned out so well. He loved how he could pull down the grass to reveal Moses in the basket.

My husband promised to teach me how to post pics. I will have to get with him so you guys can see the fun we're having. I always love looking at all of your pics.

Blessings,
Cindy

[Samuel'sMommy]

Tammy...that peanut butter grasshopper looks yummy. I can't wait till we get to dd that in another year or two!

Julie...the olympic events look like a lot of fun and how awesome that the lesson fell so close to the actual olympics this year! Also, your son's painting looks great and Riley looks so proud of his notebooking page and dictation. Emmett looks like he is having so much fun with Little Hearts too! I can't believe how big your boys are getting!

Lynn...your son did a great job on his mosaic! I loved that your ds told his former teacher that he loved school at home. You must be doing something right!

Creativemommy...I love the picture of your son mixing the colors. He looks like he is concentrating so hard. Your daughter looks like she's enjoying LHTH too.

We started Unit 3 of LHFHG this week and had a blast. Here's the link to the post on my blog
http://cherish-each-moment.blogspot.com ... ek-21.html

[blessedmomof4]

A little late, we had a very busy weekend with a business meeting, home Bible study at a friend's place, church, superbowl party at in-laws...
Anyway, we just finished week 4 of Preparing. To my surprise, Tamara really enjoyed making the map of Mesopotamia and surrounding areas in clay Also, the local Natural History Museum just opened an Egypt exhibit, just in time for week 5! Dan and I took Tamara there Friday and we had a great time seeing some great replicas of ancient artifacts and "decoding" hieroglyphics. We also saw the Prehistoric exhibits which opened a lot of opportunity to talk about the differences between evolution and creation.