Editor’s note: This is an example of a weekly check in originally posted on our message board a few years ago. While Julie’s kids are older now (with Wyatt and Riley in college) this post still presents a great look into what homeschooling with HOD looks like in the day-to-day. We hope this post is an encouraging and informative one!
A Peek at My First Week of RTR, Bigger Hearts, and LHTH
Our first week of Resurrection to Reformation (RTR), Bigger Hearts for His Glory (Bigger Hearts), and Little Hands to Heaven (LHTH) was busy but fun! We had to dust the cobwebs out of our minds after summer break. But, by the end of the week, school was clicking along and felt like our “normal” again. Here is a peek at our first week!
A Peek at My First Week of RTR
RTR has been amazing for Wyatt! His newfound independence he learned in Creation to Christ (CTC) last year served him well. His first day just clicked right along, almost as if we’d never stopped for a 3-month break. CTC was the first time he’d taken over his history readings as well as the science, which he first started doing independently in Preparing Hearts for His Glory (PHFHG). CTC was a training year, and now with RTR, he’s soaring. His Bible Quiet Time is first thing in the morning, and it does me good as I’m doing mine to hear him singing his Philippians song and doing his Bible too.
A Peek at RTR’s History
For history, he’s been listening to Diana Waring – a spirited history buff who keeps Christ at the center of history. He’s also been reading “Peril and Peace”, and it has done much for him to understand the price paid for faith. He needs to know this, and it’s been good for me to remember it too. We are so blessed to live in a country where we can praise our Lord freely! I really appreciate the detail in the key notes of the RTR guide, especially for the things Wyatt is doing independently. They are my “cliff notes” as they offer a succinct summary of the day’s readings.
The Student Notebook looks like artwork itself. It’s lovely! I enjoy looking through it to see my son’s work displayed in such a beautiful way. The boxes also make it easy to catch if he missed something in the plans. The history project is another favorite of ours – of mine, because my son still is doing history-linked hands-on activities, and of his because it’s just so fun! Here are some pictures of the Student Notebook and his first history project:
A Peek at RTR’s Science
For science, I continue to be amazed at what he remembers from years of HOD’s living books, notebooking, and experiments. He loves science! I am so glad he is doing an experiment every week and completing a lab form that parallels the scientific method. I am thankful he can do the experiments independently. Here are some pics of his science this week – he did the planets’ sizes:
A Peek at RTR’s Shakespeare Study
Wyatt started his Shakespeare plans today. He liked it so much! I was pretty sure he’d love the book, but I was surprised he loved the coloring. He never used to like to color, but he really enjoyed it today so much, and did a nice job (it’s the picture on our left):
A Peek at My Teaching Time in RTR
My teaching time with Wyatt is so varied – I really like the change of pace each year. This year, my teaching time is spent on poetry study, history-based writing lessons, art appreciation, a Christ-centered boyhood study, listening to oral narrations, doing history Storytime follow-ups, teaching reading via DITHOR, grammar via R & S English, math via Singapore, reading and discussion history written narrations, and giving dictation. I’m enjoying the variety greatly, as well as the balance of his independent work with my teaching time.
I need teaching time with my youngers this year. I am so glad I have it, while still being able to have a fifth grader doing so much quality work in RTR. I’ve become a real believer in Charlotte Mason’s thought that children 9 years-old and on up should be doing the bulk of their reading for school. They DO retain things so much better than if I am reading aloud, their narrations ARE better, and the time it saves me so I can focus on the follow-ups to the readings rather than just on reading out loud is terrific! Here is Wyatt reading his written narration to me (while little brother listens in on his blanket of toys):
A Peek at My First Week of Bigger Hearts
Beware! I snapped a LOT of pictures of Riley doing Bigger Hearts this week! I think I have been in awe all week of how well he is doing and felt the need to snap a picture of everything. We finished Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory last year and started Bigger Hearts half-speed for 6 units at the end of last year. He needed to ease into it being on the young side of it. Boy, was that time worth it!
Now that he’s doing it full-speed, the kid is cranking out work left and right with no problems, loving it all, and getting pretty creative to boot! What a difference a little half-speed and a 3-month summer break can do! Don’t get me wrong – he did fine with half-speed. It’s just it was all he could do to go half-speed. Now, full-speed is the right fit – I’m one happy mama.
Riley loves every part of school. Here he is making his wigwam for history (which little brother ate the cereal off of – it was a very authentic wigwam before becoming a toddler buffet):
I had to snap a “before” and “after” of this one. The first “before” picture is of Riley’s copywork of his Bible verse last year, and the second “after” picture is his copywork of his poetry this week:
Science remains a favorite subject of Riley’s. Here he is creating a fossil mold imprint:
A Peek at Bigger Heart’s Science and History Notebooking
Riley’s notebooking assignments turned out so nice. He is a child that really enjoys creating and coloring, etc. It’s fun to see that side of him flourishing through HOD’s plans. One of the many things I love about HOD is that though 2 of our sons have completed the same assignments, each of theirs looks very different from the other’s. They each can put their own unique stamp of creativity on notebooking assignments, and they turn out differently. Here are Riley’s science notebooking (diagram of a flower) and history notebooking (goods and services chart):
For history today, Riley got to make a landscape out of playdough and rocks, complete with bays, rivers, peninsulas, islands, etc. He loved it! Then he got to pour water on it to see how water fills in areas to create peninsulas, islands, etc.:
A Peek at Half-Speed Moving into Full-Speed
Riley still needed half-speed on just one thing – math. He is on the young side of it, and I wondered if we’d need to slow it down. He needed longer to understand borrowing. So, we decided to slow it down, using HOD’s hands-on activities over several days, and splitting the workbook over 2 days. It worked so well! Today, he did triple digit subtraction with borrowing and did well. He told me he “loves math”! I’m so glad because he was struggling with it the first day.
I’m so happy with Riley’s first full-speed week of Bigger Hearts! I know from having done Bigger with Wyatt years ago – this is a big year, a key teaching year for many important skills Riley will need in years to come. I’m very glad to take the time to focus on teaching these skills well, as I know the dividends it pays years from now. I’m proud of my little “Smiley Riley’s” progress so far!
A Peek at My First Week of LHTH
Emmett came to school with both barrels firing! He is a “no holds barred” kind of little guy, and boy does he love LHTH! He would probably do it all day if I could. As it is, 20-30 minutes is what I’ve got, and LHTH is going a long way to make this mama feel good about being with her all-boy toddler.
Emmett’s fingerplays use the entire living room and dining room. Samson the strong man never covered so much space as Emmett does when he flexes his muscles and shouts “Samson” and “a strong man” in his fingerplay – he’s a-movin’. Here he is building the pillars Samson pushed down, and knocking them down with gusto:
Here is his “Count on Me” page, where he drew dumbbells and counted them. (He is much better with the fine motor skills than last year, I must say):
Ironically, we read the same story at night in our Bible as Emmett and I had read in school, about Gideon’s army being chosen by the manner men drank water (from cupping it in the their hands or lapping it from the river with their mouths). He really understood this activity and was so happy with his work:
Tiger has been banned from school at times, because he is one silly sometimes naughty tiger. But, here Emmett talked me into taking tiger for a run to show “running with Tiger” is a talent of Emmett’s:
Yeah, sometimes I’m a softie. Anyway, what a fun week I had with Emmett! I feel so good about spending time with him. He deserves that as much as my olders do. I definitely depended on the schedule this week. From 8:15 AM to 12:30 PM I was “on” for teaching time, but after that, we were done. I thought it would take us longer to ease into school. But, I think 4 things helped us not really need time for adjustment this year. 1) CTC trained Wyatt for RTR beautifully. 2) Riley started Bigger Hearts half-speed for awhile at the end of last year, so full-speed was easier this year. 3) Emmett started LHTH half-speed for awhile last year, so full-speed was easer for him too. 4) Emmett kept his same schedule of day throughout the summer.
Other than the 30 minute LHTH time and the 30 minute blanket of toys time, his day during the school year is the same as his day was during the summer. HUGE help!
Praise God – what an awesome week of school with HOD! Now, if I can just get my exercising down so it’s not so painful to get up so early… and if I could get my crazy thyroid to behave… but HOD… that’s good.
What an awesome week – thanks HOD for making my homeschooling so thorough while yet so manageable!
In Christ,
Julie
