Week in Review 3/21/11 - 3/25/11

This forum is for sharing what your week was like with Heart of Dakota. The goal is to post on Thursdays. You can share a picture, a blog link, a written synopsis, your favorite memory, or anything you want that shares your HOD excitement.

Kathleen
Posts: 1980
Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2008 3:23 pm
Location: NE Kansas

Week in Review 3/21/11 - 3/25/11

Post by Kathleen » Thu Mar 24, 2011 9:24 pm

Hello Ladies,

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!
Homeschooling mom to 6:
Grant - 19 Kansas State University
Allison - 15 World Geography
Garret - 13 Res2Ref
Asa - 8 Bigger
Quinn - 7 Bigger

Halle - 4 LHTH

Kathleen
Posts: 1980
Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2008 3:23 pm
Location: NE Kansas

Re: Week in Review 3/21/11 - 3/25/11

Post by Kathleen » Thu Mar 24, 2011 9:37 pm

Well, I'm actually going to start with our review from last week. I was just a little slow getting it typed up, but we had too much fun not to share! :D

http://ourhoppinhomeontherange.blogspot ... ys_24.html

I'll be back with a review of this week, too. :wink:

Here's a sneak peak of last week for us.
Garret loved acting out Jesus walking on water.
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Allison started Beyond, and had fun finding 5 things to tell about her - like a biography teaches us about a character.
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Grant learned how hand washing can get rid of germs by experimenting with apples.
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:D Kathleen
Homeschooling mom to 6:
Grant - 19 Kansas State University
Allison - 15 World Geography
Garret - 13 Res2Ref
Asa - 8 Bigger
Quinn - 7 Bigger

Halle - 4 LHTH

momtofive

Re: Week in Review 3/21/11 - 3/25/11

Post by momtofive » Fri Mar 25, 2011 6:00 pm

Kathleen, your kiddos look like they've had a wonderful week. Congrats to Allison for starting Beyond! I remember all those activities from the beginning of this year, we sure made some fun memories!

This week brought some interesting things. One of them came on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. We received over a foot of heavy wet snow!!! The kids were absolutely thrilled! They thought spring was upon us, and were very pleasantly surprised that they had more snow to play in! This first picture is of our deck behind the house. There was almost no snow the day before I took this picture. The other is of our front yard where we believe there are a lot of "buried treasures"!
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Little Hands to Heaven-Week 23
My little two had another fun week with Little Hands. The letter this week was "S". We focused on some of the miracles that Jesus did during His earthly ministry. They enjoyed the fingerplay, especially the "wiggle, wiggle, squish" line! Their counting page had them drawing band-aids to remind them how Jesus healed people's "owies". We also talked about the way Jesus calmed the storm. They found this to be very interesting, as they are both a little afraid of storms. Again, I didn't manage to get any pictures. I guess time flies so fast working with these littler ones, that I always forget to grab my camera!

Beyond - Unit 23

This week we've been learning about the time just prior to the Revolutionary War. We read a story about the young George Washington and his time spent as a surveyor. They also did an activity where they made a map of their front yard, in a similar way. They enjoyed this greatly! On another day they performed an Indian Dance. This was a great way to burn off a little energy, and be allowed to make a LOT of noise in the process! :shock: On the third day, we read a story about Patience Arnold and how she was brave and obeyed what her mother told her to do. They also made a little garden model of their own, and then the next day made an herb garden. They really enjoyed the smell of some of their "real" herbs used in their little gardens. And others not so much!
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This weeks memory verse was Prov. 15:1, and boy, did it ever fit well this week! "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." I can't tell you how many times we referenced our verse this week! :wink: Our little Morning Bells devotion for the week talked about learning to be content in all things. I used this as a time to talk to my children about some real life (extended family) illness and talked about how just like Job, we need to be saying, "Blessed be the name of the Lord!", at all times, in all seasons. I am so thankful that the Lord used this time to open the door to explain some of the tough things in life! Praise the Lord! :D

Preparing-Unit 23/Day 2 - Unit 24/Day2

Since the wonderful news about HOD doing high school, I've been coming up with a plan for my older two. The younger three will not be affected and can carry on with our original plan for the guides and they will be able to complete all of them by graduation. However, my older two would be missing out on one or more of the guides. So, for a few years, we plan on doing 5 day weeks and just working our way through the guides. This will mean that by high school they will be starting the first high school guide. I'm so glad that it worked out this way. They won't miss any of the great guides and yet won't be rushed. This pace should be a great fit for both of them!

This week was another fun one for my son. His history project this week was to make a viking brooch. He learned a lot about what they looked like by doing the research within the guide. He really had a lot of fun making this, but wouldn't let me take a picture of it!! :roll: He didn't like how it turned out! The glue he was using wasn't setting up and drying the right way. It was spreading out too much and, as a result, didn't make his design very rigid. When he put the foil over the top, it was hard to tell what the design looked like underneath. It would have been better if I had thought to have him try craft glue or something thicker. The design was really neat. He had drawn a viking helmet with horns. As you guessed by now, we're learning about the barbarians and the vikings.

He's also been enjoying Leif the Lucky. He finished this book today, and liked it a lot. Surprisingly, he's really taken in a lot in the way of geography from this book. Here's one of the maps he made this week:
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In science he's been reading the One Small Square:Coral Reef book. He just loves these books so much. He did an experiment where he had to make a model of a coral polyp. They are inverebrates that are protected by a hard coating and stinging tentacles. He tells me it turned out well! By looking at it, I wasn't so sure! :shock: It was made of all edible things so he enjoyed eating his work when he was done! :wink: Here's another picture of a notebook page he made about the coral reefs.
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Next week we'll be having a short week. We'll be going on a little family vacation. If I have time I'll post before we go, or most likely I'll just post the next week along with the following weeks post! Have a great weekend everyone! :wink:

my3sons
Posts: 10702
Joined: Sun Aug 26, 2007 7:08 pm
Location: South Dakota

Re: Week in Review 3/21/11 - 3/25/11

Post by my3sons » Sat Mar 26, 2011 10:00 am

Resurrection to Reformation:
It is hard to believe we are nearing the end of this fantastic guide! I am not sure where the time went, but it has surely flown by this year. This year we have enjoyed doing "Boyhood and Beyond" together, and the timing of working our way through that book has been spot-on. Navigating this business of raising our boys to be Godly men is not easy, yet with HOD's steady, heartfelt lessons each week, I do believe my ds is truly taking steps each day to become a young man "after God's own heart". :D We've talked and prayed our way through many "manly" topics I was unsure how to approach, and some I wouldn't even have thought of on my own that really are quite important to discuss! Growing up in a family of girls, this book has been an answer to prayer, as have the lessons that follow our readings in the HOD plans. Discussing "Boyhood and Beyond" from the stance of a mother sharing her heart with her son, then reading a related Bible portion the following day and discussing it, and then copying meaningful quotes/Scripture in the Common Place Book, all of this works together to make an incredible impact upon my ds! This CM style of "sitting with a topic" in "bite-sized increments" while keeping "Christ front and center" is really working together to help me raise my ds to be a Godly man - thank you HOD! :D

I was thinking the other day of what I love to capture in pictures from our homeschooling. Do you know what is most likely to make it on "film"? Projects. Hands-on. Fun. There are so many upper level curriculums that take all of that right out of a child's day. I am so glad HOD keeps these things intact through the years - even the upper years. Yet I am also glad the "fun" is not "twaddle", as our dear CM would say with disdain. :wink: Instead, the hands-on work and fun has meaning, as it is all integrally connected to learning with HOD. :D For example, the genre we are studying in HOD's reading program is "humor", and we had a blast doing the kickoff for it! We chose to play "Twister", which was short, fun, and everyone could participate. It took 5 minutes, but set the tone for the genre "humor" and our discussion of what this genre is all about perfectly. :D The boys could not wait to get their new books to read, and I can tell we'll be having a lot of laughs along with our learning with this genre study! :D
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Likewise, Wyatt was so proud of his history project, and I was proud of his successfully following the step-by-step directions so well. He made a flipbook that is rich with deep meaning about "Who is King in your life?" What a good question, and the Scripture references lead dc to the desired answer - the LORD! :D I loved this history project, and it paralleled the struggle to be able to choose the Lord as King of our lives that has been part of the battlefronts of history and continues to be so today. May the Lord indeed be King of our dc's hearts - and of ours as well! :D
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Science - well these experiments are turning my ds into quite the scientist! He is actively in charge of doing his experiments, of reading his excellent living books for science, of making hypothesis / completing procedures / drawing conclusions - he is learning so much and retaining it because of HOD's CM methods. I love the fact that my ds reads excellent books for science and completes an experiment EVERY SINGLE week with HOD. I confess I would not get this done nor would he without HOD - too many boxes of science I've bought over the years have collected dust and been discarded due to the experiments being too hard, too long, too cumbersome, or just confusing. I am so glad we are enjoying our science and able to get it done every single day, and so is my ds! :D
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What a good week - I hope you've had one as well!
In Christ,
Julie
Enjoyed LHTH to USII
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie

KristinBeth

Re: Week in Review 3/21/11 - 3/25/11

Post by KristinBeth » Sat Mar 26, 2011 10:05 am

I love looking at all of these great activities!

Kathleen, your kids are adorable and look like they are having a great time. What a blessing to enjoy school so much! Very encouraging for a newbie like me. :lol:

Momtofive, I have snow envy. :mrgreen: I'm from coastal SoCal and now live in the AZ desert. I have yet to experience a snowfall like yours! Beyond looks really fun. I like the herb garden idea. I don't know if I'd want to eat the coral polyp your son made. :shock: Glad he liked it though! :D I, too, forgot to take pictures of our LHTH fun this week. Oops! We learned about Samson and about Ruth and Naomi, and of course had lots of fun with glue. :lol:

Julie, it's great to know that character training is woven right into the curriculum. And I agree about the importance of hands on fun to aid learning (and for making good pictures!). I have been encouraged by your photobooks to make my own "yearbook" for our preschool year, so I've been snapping away (as well as blogging) all the fun we're having, and my children will have their own record of their preschool year in pictures when we're all done (I guess I'll do it again when dd2 is older and goes through LHTH again).

my3sons
Posts: 10702
Joined: Sun Aug 26, 2007 7:08 pm
Location: South Dakota

Re: Week in Review 3/21/11 - 3/25/11

Post by my3sons » Sat Mar 26, 2011 10:19 am

Bigger Hearts for His Glory:
My little Riley is trying his most to do his absolute best with Bigger Hearts! :D He likes to challenge himself, and he is my child that truly would do HOD all day from sunup to sundown if I let him. If the plans say read one poem, he wants to read 3... and he gets the microphone out and does these dramatic gestures and changes the tone of his voice with emotion as he reads! :lol: If the large gross motor skills practice suggests doing 10-20 jumping jacks, he begs to do 100! I snapped a picture of that one, as I do remember him huffing and puffing his way through 10 at the start of Bigger Hearts...
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If there was "extra credit" in homeschool, my dear Riley would have banked a ton of it. He just LOVES HOD so much! :D If there is a science experiment, he wants to do it again... and again... and again... and he also wants to try "this or that" to see what would happen next, and so he is on his way to being quite the little scientist in the way he thinks!
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His notebooking... ahhhhhh... what a relief to finally be at a place where he understands what a good notebooking assignment should look like... 25 units of me saying "use the WHOLE page, make it bold and colorful, write your best, copy carefully, read the directions one more time" and he now is doing it. HOORAY! HOD has taught him in just a few years what it took 5 years to teach me in 4-H. I sure could have used this kind of instruction in my younger years! :lol:
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Narrating - WOW! What an improvement I've seen there this last few weeks. We are reading "By the Great Horn Spoon" for HOD Storytime, and those follow-ups sure pack in some awesome skills - narrating growth being one of them. He really became "Praiseworthy (Bullwhip)" and "Jamoka Jack" this last narration! He even had their drawl, as well as their gold mining sayings. A lady actually entered the mining town this chapter, and my little Riley pretended to be one of the miners trying to be more "gentlemanly" for the lone lady in town beautifully... He donned his tie, slicked his hair, cocked his cowboy hat, and slid down low to settle into the couch during his narration saying "Well now boys, let's put on our Sunday best for the lady" and then "I almost forgot what a lady looks like - aint she the purdiest thang I've laid m' eyes on for a lonnnnnnnnnng time mates". Too cute! What a charmer my little Riley can be with his tender heart yet quick wit! :D

We're almost done with Bigger Hearts - and from start to finish - this guide has given my dear Riley an "extreme makeover". What a blessing - incredible fruit from time well spent!

In Christ,
Jluie
Enjoyed LHTH to USII
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie

my3sons
Posts: 10702
Joined: Sun Aug 26, 2007 7:08 pm
Location: South Dakota

Re: Week in Review 3/21/11 - 3/25/11

Post by my3sons » Sat Mar 26, 2011 10:28 am

Little Hands to Heaven:
We are moving along half-speed with LHTH and enjoying our leisurely pace together so much. :D Emmett dearly loves playing in water, so this week of reading about Jesus walking on the water was right up his alley! :D Of course brother Riley had to take a passing by peek and enjoy the view of it too...
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Emmett painted white paint on blue paper with a sweeping motion to make waves, and we then put a slit in the paper so he could slide his finger through. We drew Jesus on his index finger with permanent marker, and he had great fun "walking" Jesus on the water through the slit.
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The next day he looked at his index finger, and only a bit of the marker remained. He said forlornly to me, "Oh no! Mom, Jesus is gone!" I hugged him and said, "Oh no He's not Love, the marker is gone, but Jesus is right here with us every single day! He never leaves us, isn't that amazing?" But still, Emmett was quite upset He'd washed off his finger. :wink:

We are moving through the ABC's and on "T" now. Emmett puts on his own glue and cereal pieces now, and is quite proud of it!
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What a happy week with HOD with my little one!
In Christ,
Julie
Enjoyed LHTH to USII
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie

Mom4Him

Re: Week in Review 3/21/11 - 3/25/11

Post by Mom4Him » Sat Mar 26, 2011 2:54 pm

Kathleen, Lisa & Jule- I SO enjoyed reading about your weeks, & seeing all the great pictures! What a blessing!

Kathleen- I love your blog & seeing how our children who are similar ages/stages are all having so much fun learning through HOD. Such precious smiles! :D
Lisa- We had snow too!! :D But, I have to admit my attitude wasn't as positive as yours, as we are getting more & more excited for Spring! :wink:
Julie- I always enjoy reading of how your children are "shining" and growing! I especially loved reading of how Wyatt is being raised to be a godly man... thanks to HOD, & to a faithful mom that uses HOD (as well as other resources & day-to-day living) to encourage him in his walk towards God! :D

Here is a link to our 4-year-old's last couple months with "Little Hands to Heaven"... she is doing so well, & I am so pleased (as you may read on our blog) that she has started "The Reading Lesson" and doing great! :D
http://ourfamilyforhisglory.blogspot.co ... g-fun.html

LynnH
Posts: 1846
Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2009 12:41 pm
Location: OH
Contact:

Re: Week in Review 3/21/11 - 3/25/11

Post by LynnH » Sat Mar 26, 2011 7:11 pm

Love how everyone is still enjoying school even this late in the year. Here is my blog entry for this week http://graceandfur.blogspot.com/2011/03 ... 32111.html
Mom to:
dd 22 college graduate and employed as an Intervention Specialist
ds 18 US2, Loved Preparing, CTC , RTR , Rev to Rev, MTMM ,WG, WH and US1
http://www.graceandfur.blogspot.com/

Tree House Academy
Posts: 1078
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 7:40 pm
Location: Tennessee

Re: Week in Review 3/21/11 - 3/25/11

Post by Tree House Academy » Sat Mar 26, 2011 7:32 pm

We had a wonderful, joyous week with HOD, as always!

BEYOND

We changed paper for my youngest son to a "3rd grade" lined notebook. He was so excited to use it that he did his copywork willingly and without even one complaint! I think it looks great! :)

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Math is going so well with Singapore. I couldn't be more pleased with it all. ds7 has come so far using Singapore. He totally "gets" math now and he never cries over his work. We just praise God everyday for the opportunity to use it!

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This week in History, we studied about George Washington and we learned about his farm at Mt. Vernon. As part of our history project, ds had to draw a map of Mt. Vernon while I read the instructions to him. He did a very good job. :) We have really enjoyed learning about George Washington and we are planning to make a trip to VA to see Mt. Vernon in person at some point this summer! :)

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Also as part of history, we made a flower out of tissue paper after reading about a sweet little girl who wanted so much to throw flowers for the President, but ended up staying home and taking care of her grandmother instead. :)

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Last edited by Tree House Academy on Sat Mar 26, 2011 7:55 pm, edited 3 times in total.
~Rebecca~

ds13(8th) - Rev to Rev w/ TT Pre-Algebra, R&S English 6, CLE Reading 8, Rosetta Stone French
ds9 (4th) - Preparing Hearts, TT Math 4, R&S English 3, CLE Reading 4, & Writeshop Jr.

We have completed LHFHG, BLHFHG, Bigger, CTC, & RTR.

Tree House Academy
Posts: 1078
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 7:40 pm
Location: Tennessee

Re: Week in Review 3/21/11 - 3/25/11

Post by Tree House Academy » Sat Mar 26, 2011 7:43 pm

CTC

I have been so impressed with the progress my older son has made this year in CTC. It is amazing to me when I look back at where he started at the beginning of the year with his written narrations and question responses and compare them to what he is doing now. I couldn't be more pleased. Here is some of his work from this week.

His Roman soldier all dressed up in armor. He worked so hard on this project this week and I think it turned out great!

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His notebook page:

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And his Science experiment page. He enjoyed doing the experiment himself and then showing his brother and I all about how germs spread. :)

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~Rebecca~

ds13(8th) - Rev to Rev w/ TT Pre-Algebra, R&S English 6, CLE Reading 8, Rosetta Stone French
ds9 (4th) - Preparing Hearts, TT Math 4, R&S English 3, CLE Reading 4, & Writeshop Jr.

We have completed LHFHG, BLHFHG, Bigger, CTC, & RTR.

Kathleen
Posts: 1980
Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2008 3:23 pm
Location: NE Kansas

Re: Week in Review 3/21/11 - 3/25/11

Post by Kathleen » Sat Mar 26, 2011 9:16 pm

OK, I'm back with our most current weekly update. :D Can't wait to read about all of your weeks! Sounds like a relaxing thing to do tomorrow afternoon. :wink: Here's our link. http://ourhoppinhomeontherange.blogspot ... ys_26.html
And, a sneak peak..
Grant solved the mystery and has found the contaminant!
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Some more of Allison's beautiful poetry copywork.
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Garret acting out the parable of the wise man and the foolish man.
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And, Asa's newest talent. Brilliant isn't he?? :D
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:D Kathleen
Homeschooling mom to 6:
Grant - 19 Kansas State University
Allison - 15 World Geography
Garret - 13 Res2Ref
Asa - 8 Bigger
Quinn - 7 Bigger

Halle - 4 LHTH

Carrie
Site Admin
Posts: 8125
Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2007 8:39 pm

Re: Week in Review 3/21/11 - 3/25/11

Post by Carrie » Mon Mar 28, 2011 4:10 pm

Ladies,

What fun to read your about your weeks! :D I cannot believe that my oldest is getting close to being done with his freshman year! We've had a great year piloting much of what will eventually become our geography year at HOD. My third son is on Unit 30 of Revival to Revolution, and I can't believe how much he has grown and changed this year. My third little guy is currently in half-speed Bigger Hearts at Unit 9, and he has improved so much in his writing, narrating, math, and comprehension! His growth his really surprised even me! My youngest little one is getting every closer to the end of LHTH!

As I'm looking back, the year has flown and the children have matured so much. :D I love that we get to share our HOD journey with each of you, as it helps so much for us to encourage one another to stay the course the Lord has set before us! Thanks so much for taking to share! You have no idea how many readers are blessed by what you share each week, and how many families are excited to see what lies ahead for them in future guides. :D

Blessings,
Carrie

mercymom
Posts: 60
Joined: Thu Jan 27, 2011 7:38 am

Re: Week in Review 3/21/11 - 3/25/11

Post by mercymom » Mon Mar 28, 2011 7:40 pm

I am not posting weekly, but we are through week 6 in LHFHG and loving it. Here is our update:

http://onelittlewordsheknew.blogspot.co ... eek-6.html

:)
Christy

Carrie
Site Admin
Posts: 8125
Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2007 8:39 pm

Re: Week in Review 3/21/11 - 3/25/11

Post by Carrie » Thu Mar 31, 2011 8:02 am

mercymom,

I just wanted to pop-in and say that I loved reading your blog with your cute pictures of your girls. Their Egyptian collars were adorable! :D Thanks for sharing. I'm so glad that you are enjoying LHFHG! :D

Blessings,
Carrie

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