Week in Review 10-11/10-22 (Weeks 6 & 7)

Week 6:

We continued to read the Stories of the Pilgrims. Every day we read this John and Gracie ask for me to read more. Wonderful thing about Charlotte Mason, it leaves them wanting more and not leave the children with that glazed over look. This week we talked about Life in Holland. The Hollanders had a weekly scrubbing day. We decided to attack my white kitchen cabinets. The fun thing is that John and Gracie wanted to continue into the rest of the house, but school had to be finished. Ha!!!

We discussed storks as they were really prized in Holland. We did a simple, experiment to understand webbed feet. We wrapped a spatula in saran wrap and paddled it through the bathtub. It just really helps us see the wisdom of our Creator as cranes don’t even need webbed feet. We also discussed what a food chain is talked about what a stork eats. This led to us discussing other animals as well.

We talked about the storks migrating as well and did an experiment to help us understand what kind of clothes we should wear in cold weather. We put an ice cube in a mitten as well as a dish cloth. It seemed a little confusing for them as they thought the one in the mitten would melt faster since. They were wrong of course wrong because they thought the mitten would be warmer since it would keep you warmer.

In the geography plans we talked about canals. We did a little experiment to show how water runs through canals.

We also added King James Bible, 1611 to our timelines. I love, love, love these timelines. So easy and I really think the children drawing their own pictures really helps things to stick in their minds even more.

This week in Bible Study we reviewed the previous 5 weeks of memory verses and songs. I really enjoyed this and it was a blessing to me that they both still had everything memorized.

For the poetry plans we memorized, The Months, by Sara Coleridge. So far we’ve memorized two of her poems and we all really like both of them.

In the art part of the plans, they made hearts with strips of paper going through them. We talked about how the Pilgrims wanted their children to worship and glorify God with all their hearts. John and Gracie added more to the artwork in the sense that they added an extra heart on the white strip of paper. The heart was white with a small black spot on it. John said this is how we are after we get saved and then sin. We then need to confess that sin and get clean again. I love that they made the project their own.

Week 7:

In history this week the Pilgrims move from Amsterdam to Leiden. I was very interested to hear that the Pilgrims actually stayed in Holland for 11 years. As a result the Pilgrim children started to act, talk, and dress more like Hollanders. This plus other things helped prompt the Pilgrims to plan to move to America. We had fun trying to speak in Dutch. I was thinking it would be tedious, but John and Gracie really enjoyed it. I just had to let go of my perfectionism.

In Geography, we found England, Holland, Europe, North America, the Atlantic Ocean, the English Channel, and Virginia on our maps. What a fun way to learn geography right along with history.

In the Science plans we talked about ramps being used as levers. The Pilgrims had all kind of barrels to load onto the Speedwell. We had fun rolling soup cans up the steps then using a cookie sheet as a ramp over the steps to see how much easier it was.

In the Bible Study plans we memorized Psalm 119:9-11, ⁹Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

¹⁰With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.

¹¹Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

It’s suggested in the HOD manual for the child to share their memory verse with someone each week. This week John decided to call his daddy at work and quote his memory verses to him.

The poem we memorized and used as copywork this week Mother’s Jewels by Eugene Field. You can see John’s below.

Our artwork this week were pictures of themselves. You can see their pictures have pockets on them. Inside their pockets is a written copy of Psalm 139:14, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” We talked about the Lord making us each special, and we should praise Him for that and want our lives to glorify Him.

Gracie finished reading Frog and Toads are Friends this week. I’m going to have to find some way to video tape her reading and download it on this blog. She is just so sweet and animated. It must be the way God created her because her brother wasn’t this way and still isn’t.

John finished reading The Courage of Sarah Noble this week as well. Next week he is starting Drawn Into the Heart of Reading. I am both excited and nervous. It looks like a wonderful program, but I feel a little overwhelmed (just because it’s new). I’m just trying to cast those worries on the Lord.

We’ve had a wonderful two weeks. The Lord has been so good to lead me to Heart of Dakota. It really does make my school weeks so much easier. There’s nothing I don’t like about it. You should really check it out if you’re not familiar with it.

This post is linked to:

HOD’s Weekly Check-In

The Weekly Wrap-Up

HOD Blogroll

Week in Review 9/27-10/1 (Week 5)

Okay, the photo above has nothing to do with our week necessarily, but I thought the kids were really sweet. My post is mainly what we did with Heart of Dakota with a few extras at the end. We are continuing to chug along with our regular studies even though I’m not posting specifics on them.

This week we introduced a new genre of book: the Adventure. To kick it off, we did a treasure hunt of sorts. I took a 24 piece puzzle and wrote a message on the back of it giving a clue where the treasure could be found.

I then hid the puzzle pieces throughout the living room and dining room. John and Gracie had such a fun time finding the pieces. They then had to put the puzzle together.

The back of the puzzle read: The treasure can be found ________. Hint: I keep things cold and I am pretty small.

Their first guess was the refrigerator, but knew it wasn’t small. They then thought maybe our window air conditioner, but didn’t know how treasure could fit in there. Then John remembered the small refrigerator in the basement. Can you see his smile in the photo below?

They each got a small piece of candy and our book was in there as well. Our new adventure book we’re reading is A Lion to Guard Us. We’ve been talking about fearing the Lord and conflict with this book.

In our science plans, we talked about how sound travels through the air like waves.

We also talked about how amazing our hearts are. John and Gracie pumped their hands for 30 seconds and soon found that they were tired. Our God is amazing and our hearts beat without us even thinking about it and the heart never grows tired.

Our poem we memorized this week was Song for a Little House by Christopher Morley. Heart of Dakota suggests cutting the poem apart, mixing it up, and allowing the the child to past it back in order. I’ve actually never done this with John and Gracie (blush), because I thought they wouldn’t enjoy it. When I asked if they wanted to do it, they both enthusiastically answered yes.

In the history plans this week we read Boys and Girls of Colonial Days and Stories of the Pilgrims. We really like these books. It really brings the history to life. This weeks focus was the pilgrims settling in Holland. We learned much about the Dutch homes (how they are different than our own) and that they loved tulips.

We memorized Psalm 139:13-14, “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”

John finished reading Bears on Hemlock Mountain. Each day he was asking to read more. We have one more book to read before we start Drawn Into the Heart of Reading. He’s ready now and has been, but I just want to ease our way into it.

Gracie wrote her name in cursive this week. This is the first time she’s written it with a capital “G”. We’re officially learning the capital letters in cursive now. She’s doing so well. She’s making it easy on me :)

In John’s separate science program, he was learning about seeds and plants. You can see our bean seeds were a success. It’s amazing because you can see the tiny roots on these plants. Again our God is great!!!

This post is linked to:

HOD’s Weekly Check-in

Weekly Wrap-Up

HOD Blogroll

Week in Review 9/20-9/24 (Week 4)

We thankfully had another great week of school here. We had a little busier week as we went on a field trip to a castle with some friends, family, and fellow homeschoolers (maybe I’ll post about that later when I have more time).

This week I’m just going to wrap-up only what we’ve done in Heart of Dakota.

In the science plans we had two fun experiments that John and Gracie both wanted to do repeatedly. One we predicted whether things would block light or allow the light to travel through it.

The next experiment had to do with surface tension. Here we also predicted how many drops of water would fit on the surface of a coin. I’ll tell you they were much closer in their predictions than I was. John was actually only one away.

In geography we talked about the directions, on a compass including some of the trickier ones like northwest and southeast.

We have so much fun memorizing our week's Bible verses the Heart of Dakota way. It includes so many actions it’s just bound to be fun. I was a little doubtful that they’d have all their verses memorized from this week, but they did. They memorized Matthew 6:19-21. Gracie is definitely more auditory and so picks up on these so quickly.

In the history plans this week we continued reading in the Stories of the Pilgrims. The pilgrims left England for Holland. I must have some gaps in my education :) as I don’t remember learning about the pilgrims going to Holland before coming to the new world. I’ve definitely been enlightened.

Even though it wasn’t necessary, we got online to view pictures of present day Holland. It’s very beautiful. We also saw videos online of the huge windmills.

When learning about Holland, we learned it is actually below sea level. We all enjoyed building a dike in the bathroom sink. Granny was over and even got in on the hands on learning.

We added to our timelines that the Pilgrims arrived in Holland in 1608. I’m so loving the way Heart of Dakota does this as well. In the past I’ve always wanted to do a timeline with John and Gracie, but have always felt overwhelmed and implementing it. HOD’s way makes it easy-peasy.

Our poem this week that we memorized and John used for copywork was entitled Daybreak by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This poem was so easy to add hand motions and dramatize our voices on. Daddy even got in on the action in the evening. I think he should start teaching the poems. I’m not nearly as dramatic as he is.

Gracie finished up her first Emerging Readers book from the Heart of Dakota schedule. She’s such a great little reader. Even I felt some of the well known Bible stories were maybe revealed in a different light to this momma. The Lord used some of the stories to convict me. Owl at Home here we come.

Today we finished up our Biography, Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin. We all loved this book. To be honest, none of us liked the very last chapter, I guess because it just ended. Gracie says it’s because Grimalkin wasn’t in it. We read one chapter each day and every single day both children would ask me to read more (and I wanted to read more as well, but I was a good girl and didn’t). So despite the above criticism, we loved the book. I’m super excited about starting our new adventure book next week.

Gracie’s (Age 6) Narration of a chapter in Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin: There was going to be a lot of people coming to Door Latch Inn. Benjamin and the others were getting ready for the people, and when they came, there were thousands and when each one came in they shook Benjamin’s hand or nodded their head, and then when all the people got in, Papa pulled in the latch string so no one else could get in. And, we stopped.

This post is linked to:

HOD’s Weekly Check In

Weekly Wrap-Up

The Heart of Dakota Blogroll

Week in Review 9/13- 9/17 (Week 3)

We had another wonderful week of school. I truly find myself thinking through out the day how happy I am. In the past with school I would feel so overwhelmed. I have not felt that at all this year. I think we’re all enjoying ourselves so much.

I’ve come to realize that I really like things planned out for me. I’m one of those gals who like to have a list and check it off. I guess that’s why Heart of Dakota is working so well for us. I love the living books, and short lessons that leave all three of us wanting to do more.

Math:

John has continued with multiplication. This week he’s learned the 2 facts and has covered that a quart is equal to 2 pints. He of course wanted to prove this hands on and we did.

Gracie’s Math lesson had her memorizing the color of the manipulatives. She continued to write from 0 to 20 and review place value.

English:

John continued learning about phrases and sentences with an emphasis still on capitalizing the first word of a sentence and using the proper punctuation.

Science:

John took his first science final this week and received a 100%. YEAH!!! He started his next unit and it’s going to be all about plants which he loves by the way. Daddy is going to start his experiment with him tomorrow.

Spelling:

John flew through book one of AAS and has completed the first 2 lessons in level 2.

Gracie did several steps in book one of AAS and will start step 10 on Monday.

Composer Study:

We finished our study of Haydn using Coloring the Classics. I just love this resource. John and Gracie would do it everyday if I would let them. They are really starting to connect the dots with the composers.

Artist Study:

We started our artist study for the very first time this week. We are using Barb’s Plans. I printed 6 of his paintings on photo paper and put one in a frame this week. Both John and Gracie seemed to enjoy this as much as I did. We started reading a book from the library entitled Edgar Degas:Paintings that Dance.

Heart of Dakota: Both Children

Science: We learned about how bees pollinate flowers and did a simple and fun experiment that you can see in the photo above. We also did another experiment learning how different colors absorb light.

Read Aloud: We continued reading Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin. We continued talking about responsibility and the character of the story. They both drew pictures of Benjamin West and his favorite things. I didn’t get a picture of it :( Everyday they ask me to read more.

Poetry: We all memorized Uphill by Christina Georgina Rossetti. We even talked how if the Lord blessed us with a baby girl that we all liked the name so well that we could easily have a Christina Georgina. Must have something to do with that Italian blood they have in them. They love to incorporate hand motions when memorizing their poem.

Bible: Memorized I John 4:15-16 and had many talks on loving God and others.

Song: Learned the song, Can You Imagine?

History: We continue to read in The Stories of the Pilgrims, and learned of their trouble with King James in England. This has really opened my eyes to some things. In our home, we love the King James version of the Bible. It’s amazing how the Lord can use someone to do something so good even though that person doesn’t have everything right and straight. In a way I was sad to learn how King James didn’t allow others to have freedom to worship God in the way they believed the Bible taught them to. On the other hand it reminded me that God just doesn’t use the perfect. I know I will never be perfect, yet He can still use me. We had some great discussions about King James.

In the photos above you can see John and Gracie enjoying a fun game found in the HOD manual. It went along with our history lessons. To say the least they both ended up in prison because they would not obey King James’ law and worship in his church.

Below you can see a picture of John’s copywork of the poem Uphill that we memorized. I love his road that winds all the way uphill.

The Lord has been so good to us so far in our school year. I’m just so awed by his grace.

This post is linked to:

The Weekly Wrap-Up

The Heart of Dakota Blogroll

Week in Review at the HOD forum

Week in Review 9/5 - 9/10 (Week 2)

Our week started out with some fun. We headed to Coney Island with friends and family.

This is our second week back to school and things are just motoring along wonderfully. So much so that I’m thinking of adding a few things in or should I say doing some other things a little more consistently, like Artist and Nature Study.

JOHN…

Math: Finished Level 2 in Math U See, multiplying by 1 and 0

AAS: Completed several levels finishing up through level 23 spelling plural words.

Science: Finished up his unit on weather

English: R &S , reviewing starting and ending sentences correctly

Copywork: the poem entitled Father, We Thank Thee by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Reading aloud: Animal Adventures by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Delight-Directed: has been furiously working on AB’s Roller Coaster unit and drawing bears in his Draw Write Now book

GRACIE…

Math: Finished Level 2 of Math U See Alpha, Counting to 20

AAS: Finished Level 6, short a words

Handwriting: Officially knows all the lower case letters in cursive

Audio Book: Listened to lots of Misty of Chincoteague

Read Aloud: The Beginner’s Bible pgs. 334-390

Thinking Skills Book: Completed 1-2 pgs./day

TOGETHER:

Heart of Dakota

Poetry: Memorized Father, We Thank Thee by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Bible: Memorized Galatians 6:9

Music: Learned No Mountain High Enough

Storytime: Continue reading Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin talking a lot about responsibility

History: Continued reading American Pioneers and Patriots, about the Pioneers from England settling Jamestown also continued to work on our timelines

Science: Learned about Flying Squirrels and other animals

Geography: Making a map tracing someone’s steps

Composer Study: Continued learning about Franz Haydn and listened to the Surprise Symphony

We had another wonderful week. Things are just running so much more smoothly than I ever expected. I know partly it’s due to adding in Heart of Dakota and the other part is just God’s grace.

You can see how others have wrapped up their weeks at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

You can see how others are using HOD here: