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