Little Hearts for His Glory:
Emmett loved hearing about Dwight L. Moody this week, and the story about his heartfelt speech and then his funny sense of humor of letting a tomcat out of a box at its close had Emmett in stitches!
Making his cat mask and prowling around like the tomcat was right up his alley!
He kept the mask in his special place in his room for further play.
We continue to love "Jerry Muskrat." It is our special cuddle on the couch time together, and he can't wait to see what is going to happen next with the drying up of the Smiling Pool and the Laughing Brook. The other boys are listening in too as they are doing their work, and I know they are itching to tell Emmett the reason the water has dried up - as I read it to them back when they did LHFHG too. But they know enough not to spoil it for Emmett!
I hear Riley laugh outright as I'm reading to Emmett, and always at the appropriate times, while he is coloring his Travel Log for CTC or something, so I know he is enjoying hearing it a second time around too.
I like the way writing is incorporated in Storytime's follow-up skills. Emmett enjoys writing about what we just read, and loves writing about himself.
The modeling of my writing and the sharing of the writing together is genius. His writing is improving each day! We are finally getting away from the random GIANT letters. Writing it on paper with no exact lines has helped us gradually shrink his writing.
"A Reason for Handwriting K" has helped improve his writing too. The size of it, the attention to uniformity, and the review has been so good. He sometimes uses a marker, and sometimes a pencil, but both are getting better - HOORAY!
(I am not sure why this is sideways, but when you click on it, it is the right way.)
I really like the R & S Fine Motor Skills books, as they teach good thinking skills in general. They are not your average workbook, and I am thinking of getting the other ones HOD carries now for the summer. They just look so good, are short, are fun, and teach solid critical thinking skills!
Emmett is 3/4 of the way through reading "The Beginner's Bible" for his Emerging Reader's Set. He read through the "Early Reader's Bible" first, and now is enjoying "The Beginner's Bible." I am so glad that with HOD I can customize his reading on its own by using the Emerging Reader's Set earlier than during "Beyond Little Hearts...". If I had to try to do the writing along with the reading, he couldn't do it. He is simply farther ahead in reading than he is in writing. With HOD, I don't have to choose. I don't have to make him try to do a harder writing because he is needing to do more advanced reading. LOVE THAT! I am thinking for the summer I will have him read supplemental books from Beyond's ERS set, as I want to save the actual ERS set books for when we do Beyond next year.
In Christ,
Julie