Week in Review: October 13-17

Grace-Filled Writer

I could tell you this week was so much better than last week…but I’ll go ahead and be truthful. Honestly, the temptation is there to gloss over it, but seriously, this week was worse than last. At least I can pinpoint the reasons why and I have a plan in place for next week.

First, let me share why things fell apart once again, because I’m one to spend a lot of time analyzing the why of everything. The week why was easy: Daddy wasn’t around. We are incredibly blessed that my husband’s schedule allows us a lot of time together as a family and that he is an incredibly involved daddy! This week he attended a conference for our denomination (The Christian and Missionary Alliance) which was just a short distance away. That meant he was here, but only early in the morning and late at night. This seemed to totally throw them off emotionally. We did get to celebrate with him on Tuesday as he was recognized for 15 years in the ministry and that was fun. (The quality is horrid {translate via iPad} because I forgot my camera at home!!!!)

Since this was during a business meeting the girls did quite a bit of schoolwork during the meeting which was great, but that didn’t involve any of our Heart of Dakota history stuff because that definitely wouldn’t have worked! They quietly did history, math, reading, grammar, vocabulary, and probably a few things I’m forgetting. Then Daddy took us to a nice restaurant and things fell apart! I won’t go into details, but I’ll just say it wasn’t pretty and I was never so glad to be leaving an eatery.

So, after that, here are just a few pictures of what happened the rest of the week…it isn’t very exciting, but we made it through! Read through to the end to read my game plan for next week…

Grace: Preschool

A blog about how I do reading is going to be in the works soon because I get asked about it a lot. My girls are all three reading well above grade-level and I am blessed that we are not faced with many of the reading challenges I know so many struggle through. Grace is blowing me away with her reading. She is becoming more and more expressive and has even started changing voices for characters at times! She asked me on this particular morning if she could read to her polar bear instead of me which I thought it was just fine.

Just about the only other thing we did was her Rod and Staff E book. She did tons of pages in this. I usually restrict her to 3 a day, but since everything else was crazy if she asked to do more I said, “Sure!” The look on her face each time was priceless and I’m wondering if I should restrict her at all?

We did a little math, but not much to speak of and she’ll be moving out of those books really soon.

Beth and Rose: Bigger Hearts for His Glory Unit 7 and Preparing Hearts for His Glory Unit 25
I know this is totally not Heart of Dakota or Charlotte Mason-y, but we did almost all the history on one day this week. Don’t tell on me! Because of our crazy week I was okay with stalling some on other subjects, but really didn’t want to get behind in history. We mostly read and did oral narration this week. I’ll admit we skipped out on Bible, poetry, and all of the history activities. Those are really some of my favorite parts, but I feel okay about it because I’m not behind. 


We did get through the weekly vocabulary and I’m very pleased with both girls’ effort on this. I’m still helping Beth quite a bit with looking things up and I did the same for Rose this week since they were doing it simultaneously with only one dictionary.

This is a really fun picture of how school looks sometimes…underneath a table! Our L-shaped school desks often get sat underneath instead of at because the girls just want a change. If no one else is in the room Rose will quietly slip under the table without my even noticing sometimes.

The End of the Week…

The end of the week was quite sweet. On Fridays I teach piano lessons to three sisters very close in age to my own girls. They have become close friends over the last few years and my girls look forward to Fridays and their time together. They get along so well and we are so blessed to have them in our lives! For movie night the girls watched one of my childhood favorites, Muppet Babies, on YouTube and enjoyed a pizza.


Next Week’s Plan…

So, my plan for next week…prayer. Now before you tune out because it is what you always hear, just give me a minute. I have always, always, struggled to maintain a consistent time with God alone. While I’m striving to do better this year, I’m still not doing great, and although I should fall to my knees when my plans fall apart, I didn’t do that once this past week. I didn’t respond well at all and had a hard time regaining my own composure. When this is true, how in the world can I expect my girls to regain theirs? When my own temper flairs, my words to them to control their emotions mean nothing.

I’ve decided to take the advice I’ve given my girls. They have each committed their hearts and lives to Christ meaning the Holy Spirit is there to help them when it gets hard to live in a Christ-like way. I have encouraged them repeatedly to seek the Holy Spirit’s help to them stay calm, respond appropriately, and think of others first. Good advice right? I think perhaps if I had followed this advice myself we would have had a better week.

So next week will be a new week. In the midst of world-wide turmoil and fear abounding, we will have peace. We will have joy. We will have love. When learning happens in the process, that will just be the icing on the cake.

Secrets of Sloane House: A BookLook Blogger Review

Grace-Filled Writer

Shelley Gray takes her readers into the world of Chicago, 1893, through a mystery filled with suspense in Secrets of Sloane House: A Chicago World’s Fair Mystery. Both the social elite and those who served them play a role in the dramatic mystery. The opulence of the wealthy during this era is highlighted as Rosalind Perry searches for the truth about her missing sister. Her hunt takes her on an unexpected journey as she looks for answers to a fearful question.

Gray is a new author to me and I appreciated her attention to historical detail of this time period. I didn’t have trouble placing where we were historically and thoroughly enjoyed all that the novel provided by way of information about the Chicago World’s Fair. I knew a little about it, but not very much and this backdrop was a fun and interesting setting I’d never read about in this way.

I was taken by surprise with this novel and honestly didn’t know how it would end until the last chapter. I don’t typically gravitate towards mystery novels, but this one was a lot of fun for me. I shy away from anything too suspenseful because they typically affect my sleep. While there was suspense, it was not so much that I disliked the book.

I also liked that the main characters grew throughout the pages. My favorite novels are the ones in which a character or two grows and learns more about life, themselves, and God. This is an excellent example of spiritual and personal growth. I also liked that while God is evident throughout and the characters seek His guidance, it didn’t feel preachy at all.

Reading this novel has set me on a path to learn more about the World’s fair and I have been fascinated to see many pictures from it. I do hope another in this series is published soon because I will definitely pick it up to read!

Disclosure:  I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook.com® <http://BookLook.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Buttermilk Sky: A Tyndale Blog Network Review

Grace-Filled Writer

One of my favorite past times which I unfortunately neglected after my kids were born was reading for me. I read a lot…a lot. It was typically about child-rearing or motherhood or something else which was incredibly beneficial, but not for my personal enjoyment. Blogging and reviewing has pushed me back to something I loved and the only downside is I have a hard time putting my most recent novels down!

The basic plot centers around Mazy Pelfry, a young, life-loving lady who is seeking to branch out on her own. Mazy decides to make a drastic change, leaving her Kentucky hill-life and swapping it for bustling Lexington as she attends secretarial school. While this is a huge change, Mazy does her best to fit in and play the part of a city girl. Along the way her integrity and loyalty are tested by several housemates as she navigates the balance of relationships and school. 
Waiting back home is the young sheriff, Chanis Clay, who must himself grow into his own. He has big shoes to fill after his father’s death and wants nothing more than to be taken seriously and take care of his town. Chanis is also working hard to win the heart of Mazy whom he has always assumed would return to him. 
Buttermilk Sky was a light read and enjoyable to pick up for a few minutes when I had time throughout the day. Sometimes I felt like there were missing pieces to background information which made sense once I found out this is part of a larger series, Troublesome Creek. I am intrigued to read the other books by Jan Watson as they are placed in Kentucky, which is where my mother’s family is from.  
While there were moments when I felt a little distant from the characters, I did thoroughly enjoy my journey through this book. There were many people who popped into the story whom I would have loved to learn more about. Perhaps there will be follow-ups to this coming soon!

Disclaimer: I received a paperback copy of Buttermilk Sky from Tyndale Publishers as part of  the Tyndale Blog Network in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review and did not receive any other compensation. 

Week in Review: October 6-10

Grace-Filled Writer

Well…the following pictures need a bit of a disclaimer. They look great…and in no way represent what this week was actually like. You see, I wasn’t snapping the photos of the crying, procrastinating, or storming off…I mean, I’m not trying to hide those things, but who actually takes those shots? I can’t pinpoint an issue exactly, just little things. There were some bad attitudes, a bit of disorganization on my part, and unplanned circumstances. We didn’t do anything new or difficult either, but boy am I thankful we get to start over tomorrow!

Preschool

Grace actually had a really good week and was the easiest to teach! We worked with the letter O, which you would think is fairly easy to write, but we struggled a bit with this one. Partly because she wanted to hurry through it I think. We conquered capitol O however by the end of the week!

Reading is so easy for her now and we’re easing through the Abeka 1st grade readers to solidify her phonics instruction. Once finished with these we will begin All About Spelling level 1 to continue with phonics.

We started Rod and Staff’s level E book from the ABC series. It is hard to pace her through these books. She wants to do as many pages as possible, but I’m trying to limit her to 3 a day. When I let her do as many as she wants she tends to hurry and not really try for neatness which totally defeats the purpose. She doesn’t care to color much anymore in this book which is fine by me because she takes more time and is very careful when that isn’t in her mind for the future.

Grace loves reading with me on the couch. I’ve started doing her work mid-morning, around 10:00 am after I’ve had time to work with her sisters on history, spelling, and language arts. This has been a really good plan and is working great for her. Her sisters work in the school room independently and we enjoy a little cuddle.





Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 6

Beth very much enjoyed her cursive book and we should finish it up this week. We’ll move into joining cursive letters together, probably with a book Rose worked part-way through a couple of years ago. She was excited to get to color van Gogh’s painting, Starry Night, since she studied it in her homeschool class last week. She took some liberties with the colors, but really enjoyed it!

She’s getting quite good at history vocabulary each week. She still needs some help looking words up, but it is mostly just because she gets frustrated from not being able to find the words quickly. Her sentences are really quite good and thoughtful. I sometimes think she is creating an entire story with her sentences!

Math…oh math…Usually this is the subject which Rose struggles to complete in a timely manner, but for some reason Beth just had trouble this week. We did have a new concept, but she quickly mastered the idea. For whatever reason she had a difficult time staying on task. We struggled through, however, and did get finished with all I had assigned last week.

The girls have been working on a model of Jamestown together while I read their history for a couple of weeks and completed it this week. It was a lot of fun for them to color and build together and a wonderful way to occupy their hands while they listened to their history readings.

Preparing Hearts for His Glory; Unit 24
We began multiplication last year. The concept was mastered, but memorizing the facts has been a struggle. We started back this week with studying the facts and will go through them over the next month. I love that with homeschooling I can do whatever I need to in order for my girls to succeed. Sometimes it means reviewing…
…Sometimes it means trying something new. In addition to the regular curriculum from Math Mammoth we are using Math Sudoku and Math Fun-Flaps from Scholastic to review the facts each day in addition to flash cards. It seems to really be helping and as we head towards more complex multiplication knowing the times tables will be vital to Rose. 
The Fun-Flaps are like those old-school fortune tellers. I remember playing with one once which a friend gave me. When I brought it home my parents explained why they did not want me to play with these from a biblical perspective, and so I didn’t, but boy were they fun! This is a really cool way to practice the facts and there is a type of word problem when you lift the flaps to further review. 
Math was a HUGE victory this week, but history was great too. We studied about the Dark Ages and Vikings. I wouldn’t say it was the most fun part of history, but it was incredibly interesting for both of us. Beth has enjoyed listening in. I’ve been keeping the girls separate until a couple of weeks ago as I read as suggested by Heart of Dakota, but his is working out best for us. 
The end of the week was super fun with family pictures! So, even if it was a little rough, we did have a great time with a wonderful friend who took pictures for us. Looking forward to a NEW week starting tomorrow and praying for it to be a FUN week instead of a thank-the-Lord-we-made-it-through week!

Barren Among the Fruitful: A BookLook Blogger Review

Grace-Filled Writer
Photo Credit: Inscribedstudies.com
I have been so blessed to have the opportunity to review all of the titles in the Inscribed Bible Studies Series. While these studies are fresh and new, their message is the ageless truth of God’s holy Scriptures. Each is unique with it’s own author and presentation. They are a perfect way to engage my generation, both believers and seekers. 

Barren Among the Fruitful is an honest look at the heartache of infertility and miscarriage surrounded with the truth of Scripture. Amanda Hope Haley gently guides the reader through the pain, heartache, questioning, grief, and loss through the Word of God. It is full of truth and and encouragement. The words don’t sugarcoat the pain, but provide hopefulness in the midst of the pain.

Something I didn’t expect from this study was the amount of medical information included. It may not seem important to include in a study like this, but this is sometimes a helpful way to process it all. It might seem a little strange to have mingled within this study to see what Scripture says about hurt and loss medical causes for what is going on, but I felt they were all handled delicately and with enough information to be helpful.

I also really liked the in-depth look at the many matriarchs of our faith who were also barren. Realizing you are not alone in this is so important. In addition to the biographical biblical studies are also personal stories and testimonies from real women. They are real and honest in a way that

This is a book I wish I had 10 years ago. While I have never walked the path of infertility, we did experience miscarriage with our first pregnancy. I had a miscarriage at 10 weeks, but didn’t discover the loss until 15 weeks. I actually learned through this study that it is called an incomplete miscarriage. It was an incredibly hard time for me. God in His graciousness blessed me with three precious daughters within 5 years following our heartache, but the pain is still there at times.

I love that the last chapter. It is so full of hope and encouragement, reminding us that God’s plan for us is not limited to whether or not we have children. Yes, they are an immeasurable blessing, but His plan for us is to fully and wholeheartedly embrace wholeness in Christ. Happy endings aren’t wrapped up in any one definitive moment. It feels that way in the midst of sorrow, but there are such greater things than we can ever imagine once we open ourselves to the healing God wants to bring us. This study is a huge step in that direction.

Disclosure:  I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook.com® <http://BookLook.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.


Just Rise Up!: A BookLook Blogger Review

Grace-Filled Writer
Photo Credit: Inscribedstudies.com
I have been so blessed to have the opportunity to review all of the titles in the Inscribed Bible Studies Series. While these studies are fresh and new, their message is the ageless truth of God’s holy Scriptures. Each is unique with it’s own author and presentation. They are a perfect way to engage my generation, both believers and seekers. 

The cover of this study makes me feel energized! Full of energy and life Just Rise Up! calls us to live a life that proclaims Christ with every moment we live. Telling others about our relationship with the Savior can be a daunting proposition, but this wonderful Bible study will help you realize that there is so much more to sharing our faith than what we typically think of as evangelism.

 Sarah Francis Martin breaks down each chapter into five shorter readings and includes a spot for journaling. I love how I was encouraged to really think about what I was reading, not just read to complete. Each section calls us to rise up, become the believer Christ intended us to be from the moment of our salvation.

I felt the main purpose of this study was to give the reader a mindset of eternity, to help us remember every action we take, every word we speak, can point others to Jesus. It is hard, really, really hard, to take a stand which sets us apart from the world. I get the feeling that as a pastor’s wife some people think it is easier for me but honestly, it isn’t. My role as pastor’s wife does not give me any magical super-power…oh wouldn’t that be awesome!?!?! No, I have to rely on the Holy Spirit and pray for courage just like everyone else I’ve ever met.

Most evangelism studies I have worked through give a lot of practical advice. While this study does include helpful insights, the whole point is to bring us so close to Christ that we can’t help but ooze out love and evangelism just sort of spills out as a result. If you are looking for the exhortation you need to push you onto courageously share your faith, this is the study for you!

Disclosure:  I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook.com® <http://BookLook.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Inseparable: A BookLook Blogger Review

Grace-Filled Writer
Photo Credit: Inscribedstudies.com
I have been so blessed to have the opportunity to review all of the titles in the Inscribed Bible Studies Series. While these studies are fresh and new, their message is the ageless truth of God’s holy Scriptures. Each is unique with it’s own author and presentation. They are a perfect way to engage my generation, both believers and seekers. 

When we are made new in Christ at our rebirth, we are a new creation, but what does that look like? I was raised in the church and we have a heritage of faith stretching back generations. I’m overwhelmingly blessed by this, but because of this I didn’t have an overwhelming and dramatic conversion testimony and recognized my need for a savior at a very young age. I also didn’t feel a struggle with my identity in Christ growing up. It wasn’t until I was married and had my girls that I really started to struggle with my identity. I’m sure this is a common emotion wives and mothers go through as we serve and meet needs throughout the weeks and years. Being on call as Mommy can really be tough sometimes!

As I struggled with my own identity I came to realize I had never really placed my identity in Christ and that was all I really needed. Inseperable takes us through Romans to discover what our  new identity really is. No matter where you are in you walk with Christ this is a great place to begin. Romans is full of such great stuff and Ashely Linne’s easy writing style makes it simple and down-to earth.

I really like how the sections are broken down into three main areas:  Our initial transformation, how our lives should be changing, and what to expect for the future. This clearly written study is like a road-map for what happens after we follow the Savior. I need to be reminded of these things to make sure I am following Christ as fully as I can. I also think it would make a great study for new believers as a discipleship class.

No matter where you are in your journey with the Lord this study will challenge and exhort you to draw close to the Savior and find contentment in your identity as His child.


Disclosure:  I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook.com® <http://BookLook.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Grace-Filled Encouragement: I Willn’t!

Grace-Filled Writer

A few years ago my three-year-old liked to talk as if she was 25. She did her best to mimic and emulate our speech. Some of her phrases were just plain funny and many of them took us a while to decipher their meaning.

At one point she used the contraction willn’t. In reality it’s much more logical than the correct contraction, won’t. Think about that. Why do we change the phrase will not to won’t. The letters o and n do not appear in the word will. I wonder who came up with that? Logical or not, won’t is indeed correct.

I find myself questioning God’s logic sometimes. It just doesn’t make sense. I return over and over to 1 Corinthians 1:21-25 and 1 Corinthians 3:18-20 which explain the problem of our logic versus God’s.

One of my favorite singers is Michael Card. The song below is one of my favorites. Praise God for His wisdom, foolish as it may seem to mankind.

Seems I’ve imagined Him all of my life

As the wisest of all of mankind

But if God’s Holy wisdom is foolish to man

He must have seemed out of His mind

Even His family said He was mad

And the priest said a demon’s to blame

But, God in the form of this angry young man

Could not have seemed perfectly sane


We in our foolishness thought we were wise

He played the fool and He opened our eyes

We in our weakness believed we were strong

He became helpless to show we were wrong


So we follow God’s own Fool

For only the foolish can tell

Believe the unbelievable, come be a fool as well


So come lose your life for a carpenter’s son

For a madman who died for a dream

And You’ll have the faith His first followers had

And you’ll feel the weight of the beam

So surrender the hunger to say you must know

Find the courage to say I believe

For the power of paradox opens your eyes

And blinds those who say they can see


So we follow God’s own Fool

For only the foolish can tell

Believe the unbelievable, come be a fool as well

By: Michael Card

Yuletide Ice Cube Fair: A Book Look Review

Grace-Filled Writer

“Is that for me!?! Is that for me!?!” Grace could hardly contain her excitement when I opened the package. We’re a family of die-hard veggie fans. I’ve been watching since high school thanks to an awesome babysitting gig and my husband since college at Liberty University. It was great when we finally had kids and had a legitimate reason to fule our veggie fanaticism!

This sweet little Christmas book from Veggie Tales delighted all three of my girls. My oldest two snuck off with it on separate days and enjoyed the story before I got a chance to read it to their little sister. It is written in poetic verse and feels Seussian in style. Kids always love a good story in rhyme. The characters are true to their personalities and once again Junior teaches us a lesson to remind us to focus on the Savior throughout the holiday.

This book is really, really short and is best suited for preschool and early elementary. Grace could read some of it on her own which really excited her so early readers will thoroughly enjoy it. I appreciated that there was a good message to focus on Christ and the simplistic message is one we can all benefit from remembering.

Grace read it on her own, then asked me to read it to her…then asked if she could read it again! That’s what a good book is like for a kid. They want to read it over and over. If they are bored, it’s difficult to get through the first reading. Rhymes are great because it helps kids learn new words while reading a little faster. They recognize the endings and can often figure out words based on the rhyme pattern.

This is a great book for the Christmas season coming up, the perfect gift for the Veggie Tale fan in your life!


Disclosure:  I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook.com® <http://BookLook.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Week in Review: September 29-October 3

Grace-Filled Writer

Another week is done…yay! We had a lot going on outside of homeschool, so it wasn’t exactly a stellar week, but we made it through and finished strong. Unfortunately, I’m behind on grading the girls’ work and getting next week’s lessons ready so guess what my Sunday afternoon will hold?

First off some highlights…

My husband ran in our local Chick-Fil-A 5K race and placed 10th overall and 1st in his age group. No, I didn’t run. I completely hate running, so while we enjoyed the race I have absolutely no motivation to join in! The girls had a blast with all the fun stuff to do while Daddy raced and our big news was the Grace is no longer afraid of the cows! This is huge…majorly huge! She’s been afraid of them since she was just an infant and yesterday she kept running around hugging all of the cows (I think there were 6!).

Our other big event was Grace’s 5th birthday! We had a family party like we always do with a Splash Mountain cake as requested by the birthday girl. We celebrated with my parents since Grace and my mom share a birthday. Fun, right? When Grace requested a Splash Mountain cake a few months ago I had no idea how I was going to pull it off, but it came out pretty great thanks to the adorable figurines I found cheap on Ebay!

And onto school news…the other stuff was more exciting, but most of you reading are much more interested in school than the other details I’m sure! We had a good week. Like I said, nothing really spectacular, but good nonetheless. I love these pictures of all three working studiously. It isn’t like this is what our day looks like most of the time, these are the rare moments and I love capturing them! Most of the time it is me sitting in that empty chair trying to answer questions while simultaneously teaching a completely different subject. I have figured out that my oldest two do better if I do the same subject at the same time with them. We do everything they need me right there for (History, grammar, spelling/dictation, poetry, Bible, etc) first and then what they can do fairly independently (math, literature, vocbu-lit, handwriting, independent history, etc.) afterwards. This has not only created a smoother morning, but given them greater incentive to get done sooner. If they don’t get finished before lunch they have to work after lunch which they prefer not to do.

Grace: Preschool


Grace and I used to do our work together first thing, but since I switched how we work with my older two, she does her lessons about 10;00 or 10:30. This seems to be working well for everyone. She doesn’t mind waiting and I feel less pull from my older girls needing me. This week we practiced writing capital H for handwriting. We use a combination of Fundanoodle and Handwriting Without Tears along with some traditional manuscript paper.

We got to move into the next Abeka reader this week and I like that we’re focusing more on reading comprehension. She sometimes likes to add to the stories or make up new stories with the pictures!

Grace also finished the D book with Rod and Staff. I’m trying to figure out exactly when to start Little Hearts for His Glory. I think she could actually handle it right now, but I don’t want to push too hard and it will be a jump for her to get used to more work, not to mention more for me! I want Beth to be a little more comfortable with Bigger Hearts before adding in another full guide. Who knows, maybe in a couple of weeks we’ll start out half-pace or maybe we’ll wait until January. I guess you’ll just have to stay tuned to find out!

On Friday I had a few things left for Grace to do so I let Rose be her teacher. Both of them loved this arrangement, at least for this one morning. We tried it once or twice last year and it failed miserably! It was really nice for this to work out particularly on this day because I had some things to finish up with Beth.

Beth: Bigger Hearts for His Glory Unit 5

Beth seems to relaxed and doesn’t even seem to mind the increased workload. I remember last year as we were finishing up Beyond Little Hearts she would sort of grump around with a bad attitude about it all. I guess this shows how ready she was for the jump! Vocabulary is especially an area I see her doing much better than expected. I’m still helping her find the words, but for the most part she does an excellent job without my help. The sentences are challenging and this week she forgot to use the word in a sentence, but wrote a sentence which was about the definition. They were great sentences though!

This history activities are her favorite part and sometimes Beth will ask to do them again on another day. This week she made a collage about wants vs. needs. The hardest part about this for her was acknowledging our pets were wants, not needs. It only came up because of the examples in the guide, but she did agree in the end they weren’t a necessity. She also had a hard time with clothes because she felt we don’t really need those, just wanted to have them. It was a great time to talk about modesty!

We do Bigger mostly in 4 days. On Fridays we complete a math lesson, a grammar lesson, dictation, a chapter for literature, and the timeline and notebooking page if they haven’t been done already. She gets soooooo excited about her timeline. She isn’t not typically into art, but enjoys drawing the miniature pictures. I think writing on the small timeline has really helped her handwriting!

This girl loves dictation and grammar. I have no idea what it is, but she gets so excited and says, “Oh goodie!” when I tell her it is time for either of these two subjects. Let’s hope it lasts!!!! (Don’t worry, I’m not going to be crushed when it doesn’t…)






Rose: Preparing Hearts for His Glory Unit 24

I’ve figured out we are hopefully going to be finished with this guide just before Christmas. It is going to be bitter-sweet saying goodbye to this guides. We have loved it so much, but I also know how great Creation to Christ is going to be! At least I have the pleasure of knowing we’ll hit Preparing 2 more times!

Rose has very much enjoyed the globe activities this year. We’ve been using a globe since Little Hearts for His Glory and this is the first year where I feel like she really gets continent placement and how to find stuff. Once again staying with the HOD way has paid off. Sometimes I wondered if she would ever grasp these ideas!

One of Rose’s favorite activities is diagramming sentences. When I tell her that is what we’re doing she says, “Yes!!!!” I love this girl!

Since I’m often calling out spelling or dictation while working on something with another of my daughter’s Rose will often draw on our whiteboard. This week she suddenly is writing beautifully and is being much more careful about her spelling and neatness. Now I’m just waiting for the breakthrough in math.

Rose really loves the timeline cards as well. I forgot to have her do them last week (oops!) so she had double this week. Even so, completing 6 cards didn’t seem to bother her at all. Her favorite was the Mt. Vesuvius card to remember Pompeii.

For me, this is what homeschooling is about…
…learning together. We may not all be learning the same thing, but we’re learning together, all in the same place, all with the same goal. It isn’t always pretty. Right now our school room is a disaster and I’m going to clean it up a bit after I’m done typing. But pretty or not, learning is happening and we’re growing together as a family as well as academically. 
How was your week? I’d love to hear about it!