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:

Back to School

Last week was our first week back to school. We of course had to take our annual school photos in front of our house. You can just tell that John and Gracie are best friends. It does my heart good to have them love each other so much. They even remembered how we take their photos lying on their bellies. I was done taking their photos when they asked if they could take one lying down. Children just love traditions, don’t they?

This year we added Heart of Dakota (HOD) to our lineup. We have just thoroughly enjoyed our first week with it. We started out reading Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin. We talked about it being a biography and the children each gathered five things that told things about themselves. Gracie of course is our horse lover and so it didn’t surprise me when she brought a horse out.

John’s things were a toy (he loves to play), a Dr. Seuss book (he loves to read), a piece of paper (he loves to write stories and draw pictures), a craft we did in geography last year (he loves to do crafts), and a tape recorder (he loves to record his stories).

In the geography plans, John and Gracie enjoyed hopping, spinning, crawling, and jumping to each of the continents.

For science we were talking about whales including the job of a whale’s blubber. This of course led to a science experiment.

I just love Gracie’s reaction in the photo below. They got to see how our Creator truly gives the us and even the animals everything that they need to live.

The asked me to leave the Crisco out as they wanted Daddy to do the experiment when he got home and being the good daddy that he is, he jumped right in.

One thing I’m really feeling good about is that HOD includes poetry in their daily plans. I really feel like I was not exposed to good poetry like I should have been in school and therefore had a hard time writing poetry when asked to. This won’t be the case for John and Gracie. They loved learning The Storm by Sara Coleridge. HOD suggests allowing the child to add hand motions. To be honest, I was going to leave that part out, but they naturally did it on their own. Can you tell they had fun doing so?

They learned Psalm 4:8, "I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety." It was such a blessing because John admitted that at night he will worry in his bed about things. He said he would worry that our house would catch on fire, etc. He even came to me one night last week and said that he was worrying that his bed was in quicksand. (Can you tell they are listening to John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress?) I then quoted him his memory verse and asked if he needed to pray together. He told me no that he was better now. The Lord is so good to give us what we need when we need it. He knew John would need Psalm 4:8 this week. In the photo below Gracie is sharing her memory verse with her stuffed animal.

In history we learned about the pioneers who came to America and how they had to trust in the Lord to keep them safe. Our art project tied in with that. Psalm 28:7 says, “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.”

We just had a really great first week with HOD. I love the living books, how the Word of God is tied in, and that it has many hands on activities that are already planned for me and easy to implement.

Gracie is even telling everybody that she loves school!!!! This is coming for a little girl who all last year and even before school started this year said that she just wanted to play all day. Each day she’s gotten up and said, “Let’s get our school work done today.”

My Hubby

My husband, our friend Matt, and my mother-in-law are at the Columbus Homeschool Convention right now. They aren't just attending, they are sellers this year. This is the first time they've ever gone. You can see a picture of them here. Amos is the one on the right. They are there to sell things for Dr. Sam Gipp who owns Daystar Publishing.

Daystar Publishing has lots of good books and posters. They even have a Bible curriculum for juniors and seniors.

Gracie's favorite poster is "Wait!". She always says she wants to be a momma when she grows up and have ten kids.

When we were visiting with the Gipps at a restaurant, I told Gracie to tell Mrs. Gipp what she wanted to be when she grows up. Gracie then said, "A widow." We all started laughing and of course Gracie did too. She had no idea what she had said. Hey, she's only 3, right?

John's favorite post is "The Force". He's definitely a plane and train man.

I think everyone definitely has a new appreciation for the vendors at homeschool conventions. They do have a hard job!

Homeschool Share Blast

In my post below I talk about a unit study that we're doing on The Gardener. John and Gracie are both loving it. It comes from Homeschool Share. The site has hundreds of literature based unit studies for, drumroll please, FREE! They also have free lapbooks available. We've yet to try on of those, but are planning on doing it soon.

There are LOTS of contests going on for you to win wonderful prizes for submitting new unit studies and lapbooks.There are actually several ways you can contribute, so take a peek at the blast page.