Page 12

Peek at Our Week: September 17-21

September 23, 2018 Grace-Filled Writer

We started off the week a little differently… Hurricane Florence did not affect us over the weekend as much as we expected. It did however cause some flooding in our area that kept me home from teaching my English class. It was very strange to be home on a Monday!

The main road leading from our neighborhood into town is now closed until a repair can be made, but that is the only lasting inconvenience. Every time we see the detour sign and have to drive about 8 minutes out of our way I take a minute and pray for those so much more affected. We are grateful that we are not currently in recovery mode, but are praying for those who are. As I said last week, we’ve been there. We know how hard and frustrating it can be.

Photo Credit: NPR

So last week my kids were all about making the jokes because we didn’t take off from school like our neighbor’s kids did! They had all of these, “Mommy makes us do school even when….” statements. We all laughed, but they aren’t wrong most of the time! We have school unless we have a reason to miss.

Here is the rundown from our year so far with Heart of Dakota…

Grace: Preparing Hearts for His Glory Unit 2

We are currently running half-speed and will finish unit 2 next week. I’m thinking this will be the last week of half-pace for her. She’s doing great and is ready to handle the guide full speed.

She has chosen Anatomy for her personal study time and loves it! She has wanted to be a nurse since she was 5 and wanted to pursue this a little more. She’s reading one of the Chronicles of Narnia for literature and is learning about larger place values.

Beth: Hearts for Him Through Time – Creation to Christ Unit 33

Beth is soooooo close to finishing! We are working hard and will be done really soon. She’s ready to move on and I think the next guide will be really good for her. She’s worked through ancient history more than once now through the various guides and she is just ready to get to some new things.

Beth is reading A Wrinkle in Time for literature. She’s enjoying it, but I don’t plan on watching the movie with the girls. I’m not thrilled with what I have heard about the changes made to the original story. I don’t usually like the film version of books! She’s learning about converting units of measurement.

Rose: Hearts for Him Through Time – Revival to Revolution Units 21-23

Yes, you read that right. We got slowed down last year for a variety of reasons and she really wanted to get through this portion of history. So we decided to go ahead and shift our way of doing things. We are skipping a lot. Yup. I’m not following the guide letter-by-letter! The important thing for me is that she reads all of the books, and she is.

Rose asked if she could study a high school English course this year. I told her yes and we would see how it went. She is THRIVING! I’m so glad I listened to her and moved her into this course. She’s writing excellent essays every week and devouring books like Beowulf and Macbeth. In math she is continuing through our Pre-Algebra course.

We had the chance to visit Old Salem! Click on the picture above to read more about it!

I would love to hear more about your week! How was it? See what my Crewmates are blogging about here!

Field Trip: Old Salem

September 23, 2018 Grace-Filled Writer

We had a fantastic visit to Old Salem on Museum Day!

Grace and Beth planned where to go using the map. The girls had a scavenger hunt and had fun searching for the answers!

Daddy tried out a colonial method of sawing! HARD work!

Each of the girl shad a turn helping turn a table leg. The interactive nature of our visit was a superb experience for them!

I loved seeing some of the fall decorations!

The girls adored getting to try their hand at quilting! They would have stayed here for hours I think. I will have to get some hand-sewing projects up and going around here for them!

The old well pump is beautiful! They had fun pumping the water and even trying a taste!

The pottery house was so beautiful! The craftsman there was so kind and involved the kids in his teaching!

The replica microscopes were so neat! The girls had fun exploring at the doctor’s house.

The upstairs of the boys’ schoolhouse provided a fantastic learning opportunity for music! My girls have seen the insides of our grand piano at church, but this model helped them see a little more closely how it worked. Oh how I would love to have this for my piano students!

I told my family I couldn’t leave without seeing the giant coffee pot! I adore funny unique things and giant tin coffee pots certainly make the list!

Ireland ~ A Part of the By the Way Book Series from By the Way: A TOS Crew Review

September 19, 2018 Grace-Filled Writer

The inclusion of geography into our studies always encourages conversation and fun! We especially love studying about the locations of our ancestry. We have done this before, but only rarely do we have the opportunity to do so with a resource that has a wonderful message from a biblical worldview. Learning about our family heritage was new once again when we read about Ireland, a part of the By the Way Book Series from By the Way Book My daughters had a great time reading this book together! I did too! The photographs are stunning and I could imagine walking the green hills and rocky coast. We learned about animals which I did not realize were a part of the geography. I also absolutely love the addition of Scripture scattered throughout the pages and pictures. While we have studied quite a bit of geography that has been very informative this is a wonderfully unique resource in how it brings in spiritual truths so seamlessly to the story and information.
I absolutely loved that this was a story alongside informational. The use of Irish dialect brought the characters and their adventures to life. We love using living books as a part of our mostly-Charlotte-Mason way of homeschooling. This is the first time I’ve encountered a living book for Geography! The girls liked this aspect as well. They seemed surprised when I told them they were going to get to read and learn about Ireland, but found the book to be very story-like. While we already knew the basics of the history of St. Patrick, it was wonderful to be reminded of this again and with new information added!
Another aspect the girls enjoyed was looking at all the glorious pictures of the castles. The history that resides there is amazing, but I think they were all imagining living inside as well. This sparked an interesting discussion about what it would really be like to be royalty. We talked about the good, but also what the downsides would be. They came up with some really interesting thoughts, like not being able to go shopping whenever they wanted or having to always have guards around. In the end while they still were in awe of the castles, I think they decided this may not be the life for them!

I saw my girls pick this book up several times before and after we officially read it together. They enjoyed reading and rereading it. Each page is so fully packed with information I’m sure they learned new things each time! I really loved that in addition to the narrative style of text there were fun informational boxes and ideas for your family to implement. One that we want to give a try is geocaching! We tried this several years ago when the girls were really small, but they did not find it to be much fun. I think they will enjoy giving it a go again soon, especially with how fun the book made the activity sound!
The best way to show just how inspiring this book was to my girls is this quote:
Mommy, can we go and visit Ireland? Their interest has been peeked and their eyes opened to the world beyond what they have always known. While a trip is not in the near future, our daughters often talk of world travel and I won’t be surprised if one or all of them ended up living overseas at some point and one has expressed she feels called to overseas missions work. Who knows where the Lord will take them, but books like this one are just the thing to let them experience a small taste of other lands while they are still young. In addition to this fantastic title here are a few others available:
I highly recommend any one of these whether you are looking for an additional resource for your geography studies or you are just looking for some fun new reading material!
Don’t forget to check out what my Crewmates have to say!

Rescue Me! What Superheroes Can Teach Us About the Power of Faith from The Captain Sun Adventures: A TOS Crew Review

September 17, 2018 Grace-Filled Writer

The idea of good verses evil is fascinating our current culture. Superheroes permeate everything from movies to television to books and along with them toys, games, and clothing. It is a truth as old as creation itself, from the beginning of time in the Garden of Eden. We know this battle well and I believe it is what has fascinated the rest of our culture. We were very excited to read a super hero story with a biblical core. Rescue Me! What Superheroes Can Teach Us About the Power of Faith from The Captain Sun Adventures was enjoyed by all three of my daughters, ages 13, 11, and almost 9.

The idea behind this fantastic little book is a great story of good vs evil, woven together with truth from God’s Word creating a wonderful devotional with will teach and inspire children of all ages. Each short chapter is created as a comic book. At the end there is a devotional which is fashioned as a newspaper. I love this creativity!

Rose is an artist and snatched this out of my hands almost as soon as it arrived in the mail! She told me she thought it was so much fun that it was a comic, but also a devotional. She read through it very quickly that afternoon and told me she thought she would like to write her own devotion in the style of a comic book. The graphics are beautifully crafted and compliment the story in a lovely way.

These two gals enjoyed reading the devotion together. They too read it all at once. Because it is short and simple, I really liked that they wanted to read it on their own. One of the things I’ve attempted to instill in my daughters is the desire to study God’s Word for themselves. As they grow and mature in their faith I look for ways to show them just how exciting the Scriptures can be. This is a wonderful tool to develop a perspective of excitement as they read.
I LOVE the idea of this for personal devotions. While it would work well for group family devotions as well, I think it served us the best as personal quiet times, even though 2 daughters read together. I really like that in addition to explaining the biblical truth behind a Scripture, a question is also posed in each devotion directly to the reader to ponder. The best part about this book is that while secular super heroes point the glory to themselves or their teams, everything about this book points the glory back to God. This very biblical, but very uncommon perspective makes this a valuable resource for kids. I and my daughters all highly recommend this whether you are looking for a way to spice up your family devotions or to encourage your children to have quiet times with the Lord on their own. You may even use it for yourself and explore a different way of studying the Scriptures! Don’t forget to take a look at what my Crewmates have to say!

Peek at Our Week: September 10-14 aka Hurricane Week!

September 15, 2018 Grace-Filled Writer

There has been quite a lot of hullabaloo around here!

Here in central NC, we don’t see much more than a tropical storm or two. Then there was Hurricane Fran in 1996. It was stronger, bigger, and faster than it was believed to be when it made landfall and was still a hurricane when it came over our town. Lots of damage, power out for days…definitely a memorable thing! And because of that, whenever there is the threat of a storm people get concerned.

My husband and I don’t feel quite the same way. Having lived in Florida with hurricanes where we prepared like this…

October 2005 – This is me!!! And Rose when she was 2 months old!

And have turns life upside down like this…

October 2005 – Crop Duster’s air field with a sugar cane factory in the background.

We weren’t too concerned. We know how to prepare and we did. We didn’t board up our windows or anything, but we prepared all around the house and made sure we had what supplies we might need if the power was out for a few days. The hurricane from the previous photos left us without power and a boiled water order for 11 days.

So far, we have not had much more than a nice breeze. We shall see what else will come…

The girls started their science class on Wednesday! My first class teaching English was Monday. It’s going to be a great year for all of us!

Picta Dicta Natural World from Roman Roads Media: A TOS Crew Review

September 12, 2018 Grace-Filled Writer

Latin is one of the foundations of western languages. Learning this ancient language is beneficial for so many things, but especially in gaining a better understanding of our own language. I personally have not studied Latin formally although I have taught Latin roots for years in the English class for middle school homeschoolers I teach. I was exited to learn alongside my daughters using
Picta Dicta Natural World from
Roman Roads Media. We have had so much fun!
Traditional language teaching utilizes more of a book-learning method. My experience with most digital programs has not been incredibly positive…until now! The pairing of a traditional approach added with the visual images of the program plus the auditory component has been incredible. My daughters and I are learning at a fast pace and retaining the information! With just a few minutes each day the girls are gaining a wide range of Latin vocabulary.

I love the delightfully painted illustrations. The artistic renderings are lovely and have a more traditional look. They also provide such a clear visual that remembering the vocabulary words is incredibly easy. My girls are used to learning new things all the time. I am not so used to this, so I was surprised at how much I did retain from day to day.

Another component I really like is the use of ancient stories to help with a fuller understanding of the words. The stories are easy to read and all three of my daughters enjoyed them. There are different levels within the program so you are able to decide which is the best fit for each of the students you have enrolled. Rose (thirteen) and Beth (eleven) are using Reader II. There are six levels from which to choose and they may be adjusted as needed even after the student has begun.

The portion of the program which helps you check for retention feels more game-like and not like a test even though that is essentially how it functions. You are able to see how many you got correct, continue practice, and try again if needed. I have been assigning this to the girls daily and they are eager to get to this point of their day! Learning Latin is incredibly fun for them as a result and this will continue to be a part of our routine for the coming year.

The anatomy section really grabbed Grace’s attention as she wants to be a nurse and begged to study anatomy this year!

One thing I did find that as this is an internet-based program it is important to use a browser that helps it function at its best. For us that was Chrome rather than Firefox, our usual browser. We highly recommend this program to all ages. If you are already learning Latin it will be a great review or if you have never begun to learn the language it is an incredibly fun way to start! This is also a great add-on to other foreign language learning which is rooted in Latin. Our family is studying French and we have found some helpful carry overs from one language to the next. Picta Dicta Vocabulary Builder and Fitting Words Classical Rhetoric (complete program) are two more quality products available from Roman Roads Media. This is our family’s first opportunity to work with the company, but based on our experience with Picta Dicta we are highly impressed and interested in what else they have to offer.
Take a look at what my Crewmates have to say!

Who Was Jonah? & Who Was Mary, Mother of Jesus? from the Kingdom Files series by Barbour Publishing: A TOS Crew Review

September 10, 2018 Grace-Filled Writer

For the last year or so I have included reading a chapter from a biography every day as a part of my daughter’s schooling. They have the chance to choose any person they want and read an age-appropriate biography of that individual. They have had the opportunity to read about a wide range of individuals. Since most of these have been from more recent history, Beth and Grace were both excited to get to read 2 books from the Kingdom Files series: Who Was Jonah? and
Who Was Mary, Mother of Jesus? from Barbour Publishing.

Kingdome Files Who Was Mary Mother of Jesus

Biblical biographies are a lovely way to continue our historical study of Scripture. Materials like these are an excellent way to reinforce our worldview that Scripture is 100% historical. These fantastic little biographies are quite engaging! They are structured in a modern way and are written so that even early readers could enjoy them. As long as your students can handle small chapter books, they can read these on their own. If they are not quite there yet, or you would like to engage with these titles as a family, they would also make very nice read aloud selections.

These two read through the books in less than a week! Even though I only assigned one chapter a day, they eagerly read much faster. They also decided to take a chance to read each other’s books.

The books are illustrated beautifully inside and out. The color cover invites the reader to dig in and learn more. Within the pages are beautiful drawings which feel like sketches. The pages art structured like a notebook “clipped” notes which are shadowed to give a 3D appearance.

As far as the information, it is historically accurate and completely compatible with Scripture. I love knowing I can send my girls off to read material which will supplement and never contradict God’s Word. That is a rare find in children’s literature and it is important to know a company is trustworthy. Barbour Publishing has proved themselves to be a trustworthy resource in our household time and time again.

My favorite part is the “Power File” section towards the end of the book. This creates greater substance beyond just the facts. We are a family who wants to study God’s Word as a historical text, but also as the living, active Word of the Lord. It should and does teach us if we are willing. There are 10 life application lessons directly written to kids so they see that God’s Word is for them too! This is such an awesome feature.

Seeing my girls snuggled up reading is one of the greatest blessings of homeschooling. They get great pleasure reading and learning from what they read. Including biographies in our daily structure. These are great resources for your family to start the habit as well!

The best news is, these are not the only books in the series! Take a look at all these great titles available in the
Kingdom Files series…

WOW! Check out what my Crewmates have to say!

Week in Review: September 3-7

September 8, 2018 Grace-Filled Writer

This is the week before I start my job teaching at a learning center for homeschoolers. Sooooo… I’ve learned from past experience to take things easy. This does not mean no learning! We spent most of the week working with Take Time for Art! We ADORE this art curriculum! Even more wonderful is that it was created by a very dear friend. She used to teach with me at the learning center. They watched some wonderful history videos and then step-by-step art videos. Their projects were fantastic and you will get to see the finished products soon!

One of the art projects was actually more of an engineering project! The girls are trying out their catapult and had a ton of fun launching marshmallows off the front porch!

We have a dear friend who is coming over every other week to tutor Rose in art! She is attending a local college to be an art teacher and will graduate in December. She is such a blessing to our family and such a sweet, gentle soul! She was also a homeschooler which is really cool for my daughters. She’s such an amazing role model for them all!

What was your week like?

GrammarPlanet: A TOS Crew Review!

September 7, 2018 Grace-Filled Writer

Grammar is one of those areas many homeschooling moms find intimidating. I’m a self-proclaimed word-nerd so it grammar doesn’t intimidate me personally, but teaching it can get a little more complicated. We haven’t had very many bumps along the way as my girls love words too, but I always love reviewing new-to-us grammar products! GrammarPlanet is the brain-child of the same family who gave us Analytical Grammar, a much loved product among homeschoolers everywhere! The author dreamed of having an online resource available for everyone regardless of economic background or school setting. She has sadly passed away, but her family has worked to make this dream a reality. We eagerly jumped in with gusto to check out this new resource!
The interface of the program is easy to use and follow. Students are first instructed in a portion of grammar. They learn what a noun, pronoun, very, etc. is and how it functions in the setting of the sentence. Then students are given example sentences and must assign labels to the words. They are only asked to assign those labels which they have already learned. After a student finished the lesson they may move on if they succeed in completing a certain percentage correct. If not, they should redo the lesson and master the concept before moving forward.

I love that as the parent/teacher I can see exactly what mistakes my daughters made. This helps me be able to re-instruct or further explain areas which may have been confusing. One of the more confusing areas for my daughters was learning the same word can be two different parts of speech depending on how it is used in a sentence. For instance, house is usually assigned as a noun, but when used in the phrase house arrest, house is then an adjective. In the same way arrest is most often thought of as a verb, but in this same example it is a noun. This was a harder concept for my Grace, who is eight, to fully grasp. One of the things I did not like as much was in a noun phrase, specifically with proper nouns, if one did not choose the correct direction for the dashes to indicate the beginning or end of the phrase, it was counted incorrect. In my thinking this does not exactly show incorrectness, just a misunderstanding of how the program works.

This is usually my complaint with most online or computer-based programs. It is impossible for there to be fully fluid dynamic learning because computers cannot be intuitive enough to know what the intent of the student is. A computer can only assess right or wrong based on a specific answer. With my girls, they felt a little discouraged to see something was marked incorrect for this reason.

This is a portion of Rose’s practice in progress.

My children have had deep grammar instruction from 2nd grade and moving forward. My oldest daughter has placed at a college writing level based on her assessment testing last year. She struggled quite a bit, but the struggle was very good for her because she learned how words can be used differently and really analyzed the sentences more accurately as she progressed. My younger two just felt discouraged. They did not want to use it very much.

Here is what the page looks like for the teacher to see what was missed and the reason why. You can see the example of knowing the word was a part of an adjective phrase, but missing the correct assignment of dashed lines to indicate the beginning and end of that phrase.

Based on this and my own use of the program, I think it would be excellent for high schoolers who have not had any grammar instruction (not uncommon in the homeschooling community) or middle schoolers who have had deeper instruction and this can work as a solid review. I also think it would be excellent for adults who may be going back to school or just want to improve their writing skills and need a refresher course. The complexity is a little much for elementary students in my opinion, even word nerds like us! Check out what my Crewmates had to say!

Adventures in Odyssey: Monthly Joy!

September 1, 2018 Grace-Filled Writer

This month’s exclusive Adventure Club episode featured Trail Life! My girls loved this episode, but they love every episode with Jay Smouse! He’s one of my husband’s favorites as well. After their third time hearing the episode Rose said, “That sounds like such a neat thing! I wish Trail Life was for girls too.” I was really excited to tell her all about American Heritage Girls! Not only that, one of our good friends leads a local group! We have plans to try it out in September and the girls are completely excited. I am too, especially since I know the girls will already have friends there and they can do this all together. What a fun adventure we are beginning all thanks to The Adventures in Odyssey Club!

This is the next big news our crew can not wait to get their hands on! We adore all things Odyssey and this new series about Whit as a kid has us completely on the edge of our seats! We can’t wait to get our hands on this. I would like to say we will read this aloud together, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to get snagged and read within a few days for each person. They really can’t wait to give it a try!

We finished listening to all the episodes in the newest album thanks to the Adventures in Odyssey Club! We enjoyed them all and especially the episode with Morrie Rydell! We are fans of Atticus Shaffer, the actor who voices Morrie, and we have been anxiously awaiting more information about him and what he is up to exactly! We all have our theories because we don’t really know very much about this character.

The first day of each month is always a day of great anticipation because of the new monthly episode! I expect that will be the first thing I’m asked in the morning…”Can we listen to the new episode?!?!?” And of course, I will say, “Yes!”

Disclaimer: In exchange for promoting The Adventures in Odyssey Club I receive a membership to The Adventures in Odyssey Club. I am not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.