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Week-in-Review: March 25-29

Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2013 8:56 am
by my3sons
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!

Re: Week-in-Review: March 25-29

Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2013 9:19 am
by my3sons
Missions to Modern Marvels:
Wyatt has been so impressed with "Evolution: The Grand Experiment" these days! He is constantly sharing this or that fact he learned from it, and it feels like meals have become impromptu oral narrations for him in regard to what he is learning. He even chose to write his WWTB paper on evolution vs. creation, and he is using his "Evolution: The Grand Experiment" resources for taking notes and making references. He took notes on an entire chart from it, and it took forever - but he was inspired! I wanted him to be able to explain his worldview well, and this is a pretty important part of it, so I'm glad he can put into words his thoughts and back them up with valid facts. LOVE this resource! :D
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Wyatt has been learning about Billy Graham, Luis Palau, John Perkins - People who did amazing things in the name of the Lord! They are inspiring to him. I like how the people he is reading about light a fire in him to be a Christian TODAY. The manner in which they tell their life stories shares as much about what led up to their great deeds, as the great deeds themselves. It seems many times that other resources lead dc to believe their Christian outreach life must be on hold, until they can visit a foreign country, or become an adult missionary living in a foreign country. I love how MTMM celebrates what these amazing people have done for the Lord, but also focuses on how dc can develop a strong, personal, Bible-based, Scripture-focused belief in the Lord right now! Building a personal relationship with God and loving Him fully with all of your heart is surely the first step to being able to share Him with others! And that should never be put on hold. :D

The MTMM notebook is coming together so nicely. The "Draw and Write Through History" assignments through the years have done much to develop Wyatt's drawing and coloring skills. Here is his notebook this week, with the picture of the module to the moon...
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Wyatt separated the DNA from a tomato this week in science, and he did it on his own! I love this science. The experiments are all the same as the ones he'd be doing in other nameless seemingly very advanced science programs, but they are written in such a way that he can actually do them himself without me taking over. He truly loves science - this is such a blessing. I know many students don't at the middle school/high school level.
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I look for Wyatt to go into some type of business degree in college someday. He just has an interest in it, and has always had a bent toward anything to do with budgets, saving money, spending money, percentages of profit, etc. He loves to talk with my dh about his sales position, and he loves to talk with his uncles about their business endeavors. He has been so interested in the Economics study in MTMM. The principles log is helping him focus on the big ideas, rather than get lost in the infinite details (which is what I felt like I did in my Economics courses). :wink:
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Hope you all had a good week! :D
In Christ,
Julie

Re: Week-in-Review: March 25-29

Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2013 9:38 am
by my3sons
Creation to Christ:
One of my favorite teaching opportunities this week was in "Write with the Best 1." Riley had to write a dialogue among characters, after having read the excellent example excerpt from "Wind in the Willows," one of his favorite books. :D I have found that the most important teaching lesson to teach is often that picking a good topic is key. If you start with a solid topic, one that you know a lot about and/or are inspired about, the story usually practically writes itself. The second most important teaching lesson has been to remind him to "use his big vocabulary and wow me with his amazing words." :D This reminder prevents his stories from being dull with too common words. The third most important teaching lesson was a straight-forward review of some R & S English topics - namely, how to punctuate dialogue. I love how R & S English always seems to play into these creative writing skills beautifully. We just finished this in R & S English, and it partnered with writing a dialogue for "Write with the Best" so well. :D Riley has a great sense of humor, so he chose to write about our 3 kittens taking swimming lessons. It was hilarious, and a pretty good attempt at a first dialogue-based story, I thought! :D
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Riley enjoys drawing and coloring so much, and this week's "Draw and Write Through History" assignment had him adding this soldier to his CTC Notebook...
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Speaking of his notebook, I just think it is so neat how it is all coming together. It is a beautiful keepsake of our time together in CTC, and he loves to share it with my dh at the supper table. I don't think my dh can quite believe what Riley is learning and doing at 10 yo! He is impressed. Riley is also very animated when sharing his schoolwork with my dh. I had to have a little chuckle behind my hand as Riley read his WWTB dialogue out loud. He read with such expression and kept having these rolling kind of like 'ta-dahhhh' movements with a flourish with his hands as he read. He was too cute to listen to and watch! :D
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Reading the Bible and finding the Prophecies about Christ has been incredible this year! Riley is in awe about how the Bible predicted with such clarity all that would happen so many years later. He is seeing the Bible more and more as an amazing history book, and as a timeless reference for what is right and what is wrong. I cannot imagine studying the ancients in any other way. I want my ds to have an accurate picture of the ancients, and leaving the Bible out of it would NOT equal an accurate picture. "Genesis Finding Our Roots" has been a wonderful source for us to discuss too, as well as the "Geography of the Holy Lands." Simply studying a bunch of mythology, gods, goddesses, etc . wouldn't even come close to this. We are simply having the best year together in CTC!!! :D
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"Geography of the Holy Lands" Travel Log, for the Great Pyramid...
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Science has been a neat balance of special notebooking, living books, oral narrations, comprehension questions, and experiments. He loves the variety! I can't imagine doing the same thing every day. It is neat to mix it up! The portfolio he is making for science really shows this variety and is a great visual reminder of all he has learned.
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In Christ,
Julie

Re: Week-in-Review: March 25-29

Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2013 10:01 am
by my3sons
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! :lol: Making his cat mask and prowling around like the tomcat was right up his alley! :D He kept the mask in his special place in his room for further play. :wink:
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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! :D 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. :wink: 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. :D 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. :D
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"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! :D (I am not sure why this is sideways, but when you click on it, it is the right way.)
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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! :D
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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

Re: Week-in-Review: March 25-29

Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 7:27 pm
by lissiejo
After some MAJOR facebook picture posting issues (still not working!) I finally got our review written :)

http://gracefilledhomeschooling.blogspo ... 25-29.html

LHTH: Off Week

LHFHG: Unit 24
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BHFHG: Unit 26
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Re: Week-in-Review: March 25-29

Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 12:54 pm
by joyfulhomeschooler