Peek at Our Week: February 13-17

Sometimes our weeks are awesome. Sometimes our weeks are really hard. This week had some elements of both! I missed getting very many pictures this week it seems. I actually only have one of each of girls! There wasn’t more than normal going on, but I just forgot to get my camera out!

 Rose didn’t feel all that well at the beginning of the week, but when I asked if she felt up to school she said she did, so we pressed on! We continued this week with math with Daddy in the afternoon. We missed a day or two because it is a new habit, but it is definitely continuing to work better. 

History is so fun with Heart of Dakota, even in the older guides. Rose enjoys the history projects. This week was labeling some information from one of the books she is reading into her history notebook. This wasn’t as interesting to her as other projects, like when she created an medieval coin out of clay a few weeks ago! 

She’s almost done with the third book in the Epic Order of the Seven series. She loves these books so much she wants to tell me all about what she has read as soon as she is done with a chapter. I love to see her so very engaged with literature. She has always loved to read, but she now often has a book in tow to read in the car at the very least wherever we go. 

Beth had quite an eventful week! On Monday she took her 1st clogging class. A good homeschooling friend told us about the class and how much her daughters have enjoyed it. we are looking forward to see where this goes and she had an absolute blast.

In other news, she loves her new guide! Beth very much enjoys all of the writing and drawing. I require her to write everything in cursive this year and even this doesn’t seem to be a problem. Math continues to come easily, but we are learning new things and she becomes impatient with the explanations at times. She did have a very good lesson in allowing me to teach a new concept before charging ahead as she did not fully understand and had to redo 2 worksheets.

Grace (1st grade): Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 31

 
Grace asked me just this weekend if I would let her start in her new guide early. I actually wouldn’t mind doing so because I believe she is more than ready and she’ll be continuing her study of American History so she won’t be missing anything. The only problem is I’m not prepared yet! I there aren’t a lot of things which need to be done, but there are some. One is that we’ll be using a different history text than what HOD recommends. I really love most of the history selections, but I do find myself editing as we read at times because of how some people groups are described. It does provide good conversations about whether names used historically were accurate or appropriate, but I am trying something different this time around for the text. I’ll post more about that later because as I said I’m not fully ready to move her into Bigger Hearts for His Glory yet.

She is moving quickly through both 2nd grade math texts and I anticipate we will be into 3rd grade by the summer. If we need to slow down, we will but I am not opposed to letting her pace herself as she has. She’s also reading through the Chronicles of Narnia faster than her sisters did. I did a quick reading assessment and she seems to be on a 4th or 5th grade level. I’m so grateful for the reading suggestions made by Heart of Dakota. Just because she is reading at a high level does not mean she is ready to handle some of the themes that are presented.

We tried something different this week and went to the library on Thursday to do our work. To be honest, Thursdays isn’t really the best day for this. Friday would be awesome because we have less work. Unfortunately our library is not open until 2:00pm on Fridays and by then I’m gearing up to teach piano lessons. So we tried Thursdays. The girls loved this! It was different, but the girls did focus really well. We came home so I could get lunch started (We eat our main meal at lunch) and then finished up.

And then things went haywire.

I’m not going to go into details because I don’t necessarily think it is appropriate in this particular venue. To be honest, the specifics don’t matter a whole lot. It was a classic battle of wills over something completely ridiculous. Mom gave an instruction. Child refused to acquiesces to Mom’s request. It wasn’t fun, it was exhausting, but, for the record, mom won the battle.

But guess what?  
It is normal. 

Kids are going to test boundaries. Parents continue to set limits The battles continue.

When the battles come, don’t lose heart. Seek Scripture. Seek godly council. Pray through the battle and lean into Jesus. Then get up and start the next day anew.

 Choose to see your little ones with the gifts God has given. That stubborn streak? Recognize the potential to see projects through to the end. That continuous stream of questions? Imagine what that curiosity might discover. That tendency to argue? Imagine the tenacity with which they will defend their faith. You see, it’s’ all a matter of perspective. So in the midst of the battle, choose to see beyond the battle to whom the ones fighting against you will become.