Week In Review 10-15-08

[MamaMary]

Ok Girls,

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!

[MamaMary]

I know, I know, this is really early Tomorrow is my sons 17th birthday and we are going to a theme park. We went ahead and planned our week out so that we could be done by today. It's one of the things I LOVE about HOD...., The Flexibility!


Unit 10- Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory


"What Are Heavy" (POEM) Colton's weekly copywork assignment.

HISTORY ACTIVITY

Colton helping Jacob with his history activity


Seth working on his history activity






This is my favorite picture. Colton (who I do not make do all activities because he is 12) decided that he should participate so that he could be a good example to his brothers! It wasn't simply because he wanted to do the activity was it? (secretive smile)


Picture of Francis Billington with the loud explosion and surprised expression.

KEY IDEA: Francis Billington was a little boy who often got into mischief. One afternoon he got into the ship's powder room. He fired off a loaded musket that could have blown the ship to pieces. God was watching over the Pilgrims to keep them safe.

My boys will never forget this story because this fun activity and Key Idea helped to re-enforce the concept

Plymouth Rock[

Here is another reason HOD works so well for our family. On day two activity we had a different history suggestion than what we ended up doing. However, the Lord really prompted my heart that He wanted me to make sure the boys understood the concept of Plymouth Rock and how cool it is that we can still visit that site today. I decided to make a change and do an activity that the Lord placed on my heart. We cut out "Rocks" and had the boys write "Plymouth Rock". Tonight for dinner when they pull this out they will now have to explain to dad why they did this. The activities are used for review. HOD really does give me the flexibility I have to have in place.







Science Activity (That I messed up )

Ok, this is where I get in trouble with my struggle to follow directions carefully at times. We were supposed to put food coloring in water and zip the bag. We then were to tape the bag to the window and watch a cloud appear at the top. As we kept watching the cloud would begin to rain. (Isn't that cool?) Well, (sigh) I didn't purchase duct tape and couldn't tape the bag to the window. So I thought I would clothes pin it to a chair instead. In addition, I decided to do this activity in the late afternoon and so it didn't have time to get as hot as it needed. But since we invested our time and effort I am still going to share the results...,


Before


Before


After


After

I hope you all have had a wonderful week! I hope you LOVE your homeschool and all the memories you are making with your children. As my Brandon turns 17 tomorrow my heart cannot believe how fast the time is going. I wrote an article this month for my support group newsletter that brought back so many wonderful memories for me. It's a tribute to Brandon and I hope to post it on the regular forum tomorrow along with pictures of our day at Busch Gardens. I'll be checking all weekend long to see YOUR updates!

[gracelikerain]

Hi!
We had another wonderful week. I finally joined photobucket & now will be sharing pictures! YAY! My dh has a server for his buisness at our home & was going to put my photos on it for me but he has been so busy that he finally agreed to let me put the pics on photobucket. He doesn't like me to put our faces out all over the internet....yet I am on facebook! Go figure.

Anywhoo, we had a blast making the pyramids for Preparing Unit 7. I had a doozy of a time getting the measurements right! Once I figured it out, it was easy.






I really love the way the written narration is guided. It really helps me as a writerphobic (I know that is not a word!)to teach my kids. Since I get it....I can help them get it. With other programs it was always so vague & I had no experience in proper writing. Now, I feel so confident. My kids are really thriving in this program. Thank you, Carrie!

Their drawings come out so nice. It is really nice to watch them work hard on something & feel pleased with their results....even when it doesn't look like the book! They are understanding now that no ones work looks the same & that our own work is an original that need not be compared.....most of the time! I will post more pics of the drawings tomorrow. I have to download them still.
The poems are really fun for all of us to learn. They enjoy drawing pictures on day 4. Getting them to be creative & write on their own is helping them to think differently. This has always been hard for me so it is very nice & smooth to do it the way Carrie lays it out.
The bible memory verses are really coming along wonderfully! I am impressed to see how well they are doing & I can tell they are pleased to see just how much they can memorize!

Mary, I love your pics. You looked like you had fun & learned a lot. Happy Birthday to Brandon!
How sweet it is..........

[MamaMary]

Georgette, I LOVED your WIR! You guys are such a neat family and your pictures were awesome! I can't wait to do "Preparing" with my boys in two years. Hey, I'm on facebook. I don't know your last name so will you find me? (Mary Arnold)

[funkmomma71]

We had a TERRIFIC week!! It just seemed as if everything just fit perfectly together and went smoothly. We are on Unit 11 for LHFHG, the beginning of the New Testament. Dina absolutely loved the Rhyme and Motion this week and kept doing it over and over! She wasn't able to do somersaults, she instead did donkey kicks, one of her favorite things to do from her gymnastics class and by Thursday she had the months of the year down pat.

Today, before we began school she picked up "Hop on Pop", a Dr. Seuss book, and started reading it on her own!! After she got through a couple of pages I went over and sat down with her and she read about 80% of the book before she started to get weary. We are only on lesson 27 of her phonics program so I would say that it working pretty well.

Tomorrow we are going to fly kites with some friends.

I am so happy to be able to homeschool my daughter, I don't think I could bear putting her in school all day, it would break my heart.

[MamaMary]

Dear funkmama71, (LOL, that just sounds funny)

I hope you and your daughter have a GREAT time flying kites! I loved your enthusiasm and your share!

[my3sons]

LHFHG:
Here is my little Riley with his 10 copied papers of his hands traced and fingers numbered 1-10. The plans had me start counting 1, 2, 3,... and at about 45, then stop and say, "WHEW! This is going to take forever! I wonder if there's a faster way to count these fingers!" Riley shouted, "Count by 10's, Mom - see... 10, 20, 30, 40... 100!" I love the math activities written in the HOD guides to go with Singapore. After this, his math paper on counting to 10's was a cinch!


LHFHG:
We read about Edison, and his invention of electricity. He painted this light bulb in varying shades of yellow. He was so proud of it, and he loved to shout "Electricity" and jump every time we did the Fingerplay!


Preparing Hearts for His Glory:
This science experiment was a blast! To show how pollen is transfered, we dipped the rim of a glass in water and then colored sugar and sprinkles. A coffee filter was slid up the glass, and some apple juice was poured in the bottom of the glass for "nectar". A short straw was then used to lap up the juice, like a bat would. You can see the "pollen" got all over Wyatt's face - thus showing how pollen is transferred, in a yummy, fun, and memorable way! He made one for little brother to do too - he just did HAD to transfer some pollen (in his words)!




Here are the Egyptian pastries we made. Yummy and easy enough that my ds wanted to add it to our weekly rotation of simple lunch recipes! Even our baby loved them.


Wyatt and I are really enjoying the writing lesson each week. The marker board is a great way for him to remember phrases he thought of, and Robert Louis Stevenson is a wonderful poet to pattern poems after. I'm soooo proud of his creativity in this creative paragraph about the moon. This is my logical son, so creative writing is a stretch for him sometimes, but with the way it's set up in Preparing... he's really able to do it well.

Here's what it says:
Winter Moon
Great is the moon, and small he goes.
The moon's white face sends down his white light.
He reaches out with his light fingers to push back the dark
with a sleepy winking look.
He loves to smile at children and be the
night light of the world.


Can't wait to read the rest of yours!
In Christ,
Julie

[MamaMary]

Oh Julie,

I SO love your week in review! Do you know what I took away from it? I have tried several times to use singapore without success. It is not a fit for my boys or for their mama, BUT that doesn't mean we can't do Carrie's suggestions in addition to the math program we are using. It doesn't have to line up perfectly. When I saw the activity you were doing with your boys. (counting by 10's) I realized that would be GREAT to teach ANYtime.

You also get me all excited about the programs to come that we're not doing yet. Though I am not in a hurry to complete Beyond. We are having a ball and I am enjoying being in the moment. I find myself looking forward to these week in review threads! You are such a blessing Julie

[Carrie]

Ladies,

I am really enjoying reading about your projects and weekly shares. This week in Little Hearts for His Glory, Greyson really enjoyed testing which objects showed his reflection. This went along with the story about Jesus' face shining like the sun on the Mt. of Transfiguration. Greyson also liked making his fingerprints and writing his full name and birthdate to remind him that the Lord knew him before he was born and knit him together in my womb.

Greyson's favorite LHFHG activity this week was hiding like a lost sheep and "baa-ing" until the good shepherd (me) found him. Then, we reversed roles, and I took a turn hiding (although it isn't as easy to "hide" when you're my age)!
Greyson also loved memorizing the Bible verse this week, which was Matthew 7:12, "So in everything you do, do to others as you would have them do to you...". This is a very timely verse, as Greyson is trying hard to get along with his very precocious 2 year old brother Beau (who's favorite saying is, "No-no, Greyson!"

Greyson is loving Danny Meadow Mouse and really empathizing with Peter Rabbit right now, since Peter has gotten his foot caught in a snare. Peter was naughtily eating the peach bark off the young trees and got caught by Farmer Brown's snare. Greyson can't wait to see what will happen next.

This week in Preparing Hearts, Shaw has continued to love the Draw and Write Through History. He sketched a woolly mammoth and the Tower of Babel. His Commonplace Book is beginning to have some entries now, as he adds the new verses of the Psalms that he's memorizing each week. I am working to memorize the first Psalm along with him, although it doesn't come as easily to me! We were both so proud to have Psalm 1 memorized this week through singing the words with the Lead Me to the Rock CD. Even Shaw's big brother, Cole, was amazed to see what we'd learned!

Shaw's favorite activity right now is the written narration lessons in the Preparing Hearts guide. He can hardly wait until it comes up, and then is always wishing he could write more than what is recommended! (I, for one, am glad for the suggestion for a bit shorter narration in the beginning as I get a more cohesive, better worded narration at this first stage of written narrations ).

In Preparing Hearts, Shaw made a beautiful notebook page to show the Animal Classification chart. He drew a vertebrate, invertebrate, protist/monera, fungus, and a plant from the One Small Square Arctic Tundra book. He also really enjoyed testing water to see whether salt water, sugar water, or plain water would freeze faster. This went along with the way caterpillars and insects in the arctic tundra make chemicals in their bodies that act like antifreeze to keep them from freezing to death during the winter months. God really did think of everything, down to the last detail, didn't He!

We're also really enjoying our discussions from Life in the Great Ice Age. It has really helped explain how cave men, the ice age, and extinct animals like the woolly mammoth fit into the Biblical account of the earth.

In DITHR, Shaw finished his mystery book and was surprised by the outcome. He thought he had much of it figured out! We'll start a new short mystery book on Monday to finish out the mystery genre.

In testing our new ancients guide, Cole has already done much of what we're looking at scheduling (during his last year or two of schooling), so we can tell that we already love those things for sure. He is also currently testing all of the new history readings and the Extension Pack as well. He finds that the retellings in the Story of the Ancient World really do a good job of mixing Biblical history with secular history. He says it is fascinating reading and makes you go to the Scripture to refresh your memory as to what parts come directly from the Bible and which parts come from other historical sources.

Cole's also doing Rod and Staff English 5 this year, along with Igniting Your Writing Vol. I. We waited to begin Igniting Your Writing 1 until this year, so Cole would be able to work independently on it (as this is how it was designed to be used). The lessons are short and do a good job of presenting needed writing mini-lessons to improve descriptive writing.

Cole also continues to write a written narration 4 days a week on his history readings. He is required to add an opinion paragraph to his written narration this year as well. Consistently writing written narrations has done so much for improving his writing! He is paragraphing, spelling correctly, including all correct punctuation, and using interesting word choices (coming from an oral narration background this thankfully flows pretty easily into kiddo's writing). I especially love the Charlotte-Mason approach to language arts (with the exception of her delayed approach to grammar instruction).

Blessings,
Carrie

[beandip71]

We had another great week in Beyond. Here is a link to my blog if you want to check it out.

http://beandipblog.blogspot.com/2008/10 ... ew_17.html

Gina

[inHistiming]

I'm going to make this quick. Due to a Mommy Dr. appt. and my dd's eye appt. we were again out of the house 2 days this week. Plus, today was co-op, so we only got in two full days of school this week. However, I am learning to go with the flow, and we will complete what we're able to complete. I still think we'll get through at least Unit 28, if not through all 34 units....and we'll finish what we don't get to by the end of the school year over the summer. My hubby agrees that we should do school during the summer...we all seem to do better with the structure. We will still get in plenty of outdoors activities so we can enjoy the short season.

We are still reading about Seabiscuit for story time and learning more in history about the Pilgrims' voyage to America through Almost Home (extension pack). We are truly enjoying the hymns we are learning; I'm so glad they are included this year. My dd especially loves them, and has even done a solo in her Sunday school class with Holy, Holy, Holy! We are learning so much about the world with our Geography lessons, and we always love the art projects. It's been fun keeping track of events with our timeline...we LOVE the science experiments and readings, and our history notebooking has been a hit, too. I'm so thankful for a curriculum that I can just pick up and go with...minimal preparation! It's easy to keep track of where we are, and all we need is included.

I also wanted to share that we finally began DITHOR, and so far we are enjoying it. I like what I see as far as the vocabulary and sheets in the student book go...I'm looking forward to doing our end-of-book project to see how successful it will be.

I am hoping that next week will be more settled and we can get 4 full days in. We will be moving in just a couple of weeks, taking time off then, so I want to get as far as we can before the move. That's about it for our week. I'll share more next Thursday; hopefully with a FULL 4-day report!

[Samuel'sMommy]

I loved reading about everyone's weeks. It sounds like you all had a lot of fun!

[MamaBear23Cubs]

Here is my update-
http://ourlittlehomeschool.blogspot.com/

I posted a few pictures.

We been enjoying time with Daddy before he leaves to return to the East for another 6 months. I tried not doing school but it's been hard on me to stay away from the books.