Week In Review Dec. 19 - 23

[KristinBeth]

Is anyone out there crazy enough to have done school the week before Christmas? We were (4 days of it, anyway).

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!

[KristinBeth]

I wasn't really planning on doing school the week before Christmas, but since we were on Unit 11 in Little Hearts, which is all about the birth of Christ, we just had to move forward. We're taking Friday off (and will be out of town on vacation until Jan 3rd) so my week in review is a little early.

In my Christmas craziness I wrote my blog post in rhyme.

http://www.broomandcrown.com/2011/12/we ... -week.html

If anyone happens to read this amid all the Christmas preparations, have a joyful and blessed Christmas!

[anne cochrane]

We have been trying to keep Christ in Christmas this week. We ended up holding a Happy Birthday Jesus party. Come by and take a look if u want

www.anne-homeschooladventures.blogspot.com

[my3sons]

Revival to Revolution:
With Christmas around the corner, I've been especially glad to be able to continue homeschooling each day with ease with RevtoRev. We are trying to get as many days in before Christmas as we can, as after Christmas we are spending time with my big sis and her family from TX. Wyatt has been cruising along with RevtoRev and enjoying it so much.

Making Napoleon cookies was a definite highlight this week! This history activity was spaced out nicely over 3 days. I really like that, as it allows him to have evenly paced hands-on work each day along with his seatwork. The first day he made the dough. The second day the cookies. The third day the frosting. He learned to use a ziplock bag to do the detail work of the frosting. He snipped off the corner and wrote his "N" for Napoleon along with the design around the edge of the cookie. They tasted yummy - everyone enjoyed them! Another carryover I saw of skills was when we baked Christmas cookies - Wyatt snipped off the edge of a ziplock bag to decorate the Christmas cookies - FUN!


I loved reading Wyatt's written narration about Napoleon this week. You can tell he is enjoying reading about him very much! Here is what he wrote...

Napoleon ordered Portugal to stop buying English goods. Portugal had no army, and the nobles and king fled to Brazil. When Napoleon reached Portugal, he found a deserted town. He still brought in more troops, for many had died crossing the Pyrenees.

Napoleon attacked Spain. He pretended that he was having a peace treaty, and instead, took the king, queen, and prince prisoners. Then, he set his brother on the throne. Spain revolted. Napoleon was so sure that Spain would be subdued that he went off to fight Russia. His army general, that he had left behind, surrendered to Spain.

Before the surrender, a French army was attacking Saragossa. A maid ran a cannon all by herself when her love died. The villagers would have fought to the death, but the French, hearing about the surrender, withdrew. Napoleon's downfall had begun.

I really enjoyed reading this, as Wyatt's style is beginning to emerge. He is learning to write narrations with an ebb and flow of short and long sentences. He is also learning how to try to write about different events happening in history at the same time - not an easy task. I think the primary source document Wyatt read, which was of Thomas Jefferson's letter describing various rulers of various countries, was an excellent example of writing about different events happening near the same time in history, as well as an excellent example of writing with wit. Very clever writing indeed! The paintings of Napoleon in the Student Notebook seem like a window into Napoleon's life, and the poem "Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte" was a great tie-in as well. This has been a great week of exciting history.

In physical science, Wyatt is making an electrical circuit. "Exploration Education" has been a home run with Wyatt all year. He LOVES it. I like the logbook. It is thorough and lets me see quite easily if he's getting what he's supposed to be getting.

We are covering new territory in LA and math right now, and so far, it's been smooth sailing. Dictation is getting h-a-r-d-e-r, but he's hanging with it, missing only about 1 passage every 5 days or so. I am amazed at how much dictation has impacted his spelling within his own writing! In the above narration, he only had 1 spelling error. In math, Wyatt is learning rules for parallelograms, rhombuses, and trapezoids. He's using his protractor and finding the lengths of segments and the measurements of interior and exterior angles. It's going well! In grammar, he's on R & S English 5, and though he sometimes misses his oral review questions, his daily work is good. I was not diagramming sentences this difficult until high school! He actually likes diagramming, and is doing well with it. In DITHOR, he is finishing his mystery genre. "The Invisible Friend" is a fantastic follow-up to "Mystery of the Silver Coins" - wow can that Lois Johnson write!

What a good way to close down a year - we are looking forward to finishing out RevtoRev in 2012! Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!
In Christ,
Julie

[my3sons]

Preparing Hearts for His Glory:
This has been such a good week for Riley. He is coming into his own with PHFHG now. Every day, he becomes more confident in his work, and every day, he learns more and more wonderful skills. Drawing has become a favorite activity of Riley's, and "Draw and Write Through History" has really filled this need for creativity so well. This week, Riley enjoyed drawing a Phoenecian ship. He liked reading about the talent it took to build these, as working with his hands is a favorite pastime of Riley's especially.


Riley's timeline has begun to grow. This is a completely independent activity for him now. He has learned to read the manual, get out his timeline card, write the event and date neatly at the bottom of the card, draw and color the picture, and hang it in the appropriate place in the closet staircase timeline. When you really think about it, that's a lot to learn, and yet HOD has taught him how to do this very well independently now. He's so happy with his growing timeline!


Riley's written narration on "Grandpa's Box" this week shows he is improving in this skill. It was on the story of little King Joash. I loved how we read about this historical event in both the Bible and in "Grandpa's Box". Each reinforced the other, and each had their own style and details too. This pairing of the Bible with other resources to portray history is one of my very favorite things about HOD.

Here is his written narration...

In Israel Athalia tried to kill her own nephews, but then her daughter saved a boy whose name was Joash. Then she took hi to the temple where she had married a priest named Jehoida, and after seven years had passed, they brought him outside to the pillar where kings were anointed. In the palace Athalia heard people shouting, "Long live the king!" She tore her clothes and cried, "Treason!" Jehoida told the guards, "Go sieze her and kill her and anybody that follows her... kill them." So, they brought her to the courtyard and killed her, and God's promise had been fulfilled.

I realize there are still some errors in his narration (i.e. spelling of "seize" and verb tenses, etc.). But, I had him add some commas and quotation marks, as well as fix a few spelling errors, and I thought that was enough for him to fix that day. I followed HOD's advice and jotted the marks in pencil in the margin, and he fixed them within the appropriate lines then. This is a great way to edit, as it teaches dc to locate their errors and fix them while providing a bit of help.

In science, Riley made his own fossil imprints. He learned that fossils need to be buried quickly and deeply. We ran out of bread and had to sub in hot dog buns, but it still worked out great! He is making progress in his lab sheets each week. He is learning how to draw his procedure better and better, sequentially with labels.


In poetry, Riley memorized his favorite poem from what we've studied so far. He chose 2 poems, because he just loved them both too much! He's my child that LOVES the microphone. He did "Rain" and "The Swing". We all gave him a hearty round of applause for a job well done, and he gave a grand bow!


What a fulfilling week of learning in PHFHG! I hope you all had a great week too!
In Christ,
Julie

[my3sons]

Little Hearts for His Glory:
Emmett and I are both growing in his trip through LHFHG - he in his skills and me in my patience. I am finding that it is quite interesting to homeschool 3 dc in 3 very different levels of school! Having 1 son doing RevtoRev and another doing PHFHG, it is sometimes difficult to remember how to bring my expectations down to the level of my little almost kindergartner doing LHFHG half-speed. I am so thankful each of my dc are working in their own levels as it is reminder to me to expect different things from my different aged dc who have very different skills and abilities. It is also many times great fun to work with my little one, as he just makes me smile and always is quick with a big hug and kiss! (Which believe it or not, doesn't happen as often with my 2 older sons. )

We read about Esau and Jacob this week. The "Family Time Bible" really is making it clear when Emmett truly understands the story, and when he's a bit confused. This week, when I asked him the questions after the reading, it became obvious he didn't get how Jacob tricked Isaac into giving him Esau's blessing. The hairy arms and neck threw Emmett for a loop. Once we talked through it some more, he understood, and then he was upset that "Poor, blind Isaac got tricked". We also read about how Jacob wore Esau's clothes to smell like him. We then read about our sense of smell in science, and that brings me to one of the big hits of LHFHG this week for Emmett!

Emmett got to smell different cotton balls I'd put different scents on, and try to match them with their same scent by smelling the bottles they came from. This kid has a great sense of smell - he got them all right the first time - and I even mixed them up a bunch to try to trick him!


He also liked walking around the house to find different scents, letting his nose do the walking. The first one he found was my coffee - yeah - it had a strong scent that day - think extra bold.


This week when Riley was saying his poetry for us from memory, Emmett surprised us and hopped up and grabbed the microphone and said his Bible verse this week! The verse is: Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right. Thanks HOD for teaching this child some good actions!


We are continuing to enjoy reading "Reddy Fox" for Storytime. This week Granny Fox was confused about who took her chicken. So was Emmett. He was ready to jump on Jimmy Skunk for taking it too, and was equally dismayed with him as Granny fox was. When it became clear Jimmy Skunk was not to blame (which took some convincing for Emmett to believe), Emmett was mad at Mr. Goshawk right along with Granny Fox when he was found to be the real culprit that took the chicken. Here Emmett traced his name and described himself as "smiley" - he was!


What fun LHFHG is - we are just enjoying this together - me especially as it's my third and final journey through it with my last and third ds. What a blessing to think back on all these memories LHFHG has given our family with each of our dc!

In Christ,
Julie

[countrymom]

I wasn't going to report in this week figuring most were on vacation, but when I saw this in Julie's post it made me laugh because I have the same tune, second verse in my house.

Emmett and I are both growing in his trip through LHFHG - he in his skills and me in my patience.

We just started LHFHG 1/2 speed and are on day 4 of unit 1. Oh my, what a difference teaching a choleric/sanguine with short attention span versus a strong melancholic. Is this really the same guide? I guess we will hang in there uh Julie?

[KristinNitz]

Easy week just doing the basic of HOD Here is our update. hoep everyone had a great Christmas!

http://nutbugs.com/heart-of-dakota-bigg ... 13-update/

[Heidi in AK]

I'll just tack on our review here. We are crazy to have done school the week AFTER Christmas! However, John is with Daddy at work during his half-days so we're capitalizing on one-on-one time. That is worth it, much as I love school with John too!

Big highlight is our subbing Beyond in LHFHG's place for the RH side. It's going well! We are also completing reading and math assessments so I know where we are, where in first grade she places, so we can gear our work toward her level.

http://heidihovan.blogspot.com/2011/12/ ... lhfhg.html

[momnwife]

We chose to take a family cruise for Christmas this year. We of course were not planning to do school while on the cruise. I was amazed though at how much we all learned while on the excursions. We explored Mayan ruins and learned about the Mayan calendar. We were also blessed with a Christian guide. He shared ao much information. We even had lunch that day in a Mayan home. Another day my boys were able to see the poverty that so many children live in around the world. They gave the food in their bags to a precious family of children. On another day, we saw how Cameos are created when we visited a Cameo factory. Later that day we had a wonderful marine biologist share lots of information on the local underwater life. It was an amazing trip.