Bigger Hearts for His Glory:
We are cruising right along with Bigger Hearts and are now in the "harvest" stage of the guide. All the work we did previously is coming full circle, and Riley can now do all of the skills in the guide well. It really amazes me. I start the year thinking I'm not so sure they're going to come along, and then slowly and steadily they do, and before I know it, they're ready to move on. What a growing year this has been!
Riley's timeline is marching right along, and he now knows what a good timeline entry should look like. Put it in the proper column. Fill the whole box with a good sketch. Make it Colorful. Use neat writing. Use correct spelling in the caption. Check the plans to make sure you did all the entries for the day. All of those steps he had to learn to be able to independently do a good timeline entry are valuable skills he now has down pat. This has become an independent skill for him. Next year, in PHFHG, he will be able to do this on his own, and I will be teaching something new, while still enjoying seeing his PHFHG timeline grow.
Ahhh. The value of incremental teaching.
The "Wright Brothers and Their Sister" has been an inspiration to Riley. He is amazed by their resourcefulness, by their sibling love for each other, and by their ability to think beyond what they see. Riley has a mind like those boys and their sister. He is always thinking about how things are put together, how they can be taken apart, how to make them more efficient, how to fix them, how to build them in a new way. He would have fit right in with the Wright brothers! I like to see HOD's plans encouraging this kind of entrepreneur spirit about learning. It spills over into life.
Riley's been experimenting with lift, glide, air pressure, etc. with his planes, and I imagine Orvie and WIll would be right their with him, loving learning this way.
"The Pioneer Sampler" has encouraged this kind of learning as well. Practical solutions to pressing problems = some pretty scientific ways of solving things. Riley especially loved making his own ink by using black shaving from burning a candle on the back of a glass plate. He worked at it for awhile and learned which candle worked best, as well as what glass surface, which angle of holding it to the flame, and how to move the plate smoothly to gather as much as possible. This kind of science experiment teaches so much more than a canned experiment with a standard answer. It recreates a lab situation, and sets my little scientist to work at experimenting. What a neat way to learn - and I bet he'll remember it too!
Riley loved his art project of coloring over different surfaces this week. He went on a search for which surfaces he would enjoy using the most, and chose his colors carefully too:
Making an encouraging card for his cousin Greyson's b-day was fun too. He included a Bible verse and was happy with the results. I'm glad he is learning to use God's word to encourage others!
What a good week with Bigger Hearts!
In Christ,
Julie
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