Tag: Heart of Dakota

Peek at Our Week: April 3-7

Grace-Filled Writer

Pretty low-key week. We’ve had quite a few of those recently. If your weeks haven’t been low-key, don’t fret! We are in a very different season now. We’ve been doing this homeschool thing for 10 years now if you include preschool. My kids are becoming more independent and comfortable with our routines. I’m not teaching the basics anymore so we are doing more building on our learning than just base knowledge. Trust me, low-key will come!

Rose (6th grade): Resurrection to Reformation Unit 29
Rose is getting excited as we are rounding the corner for the final weeks of Resurrection to Reformation. She’s doing great and just moves through without any trouble these days. So much is independent with these guides. This is great for her age because she is pulling away more into independence in many areas of her life. She’s also becoming more of a writer! She’s using a baby name book here to choose names for her characters in a story she is writing. I love seeing her create!
Grace (1st grade): Bigger Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 4

Here is my fun-loving girl! She’s so diligent with her studies, but this doesn’t stop her from having fun! She continues to love looking up words in the dictionary, loves to complete her math, and loves to read. I asked her this week if there was anything we did in school she didn’t love. She thought for a minute and said handwriting because it takes too long! This is exactly her personality, she’s always on the move and wants to go a quickly as possible! We do sometimes have to go back and fix things, but for the most part even in her desire to move fast she does very well with school!
Beth (4th grade): Creation to Christ Unit 10
   
Beth is enjoying Creation to Christ although she is rather quiet about it. She puts forth great effort in her notebooking and her handwriting is improving tremendously due to writing letters to her cousin! She wrote her cousin initially as a writing assignment and when she received a reply she was amazed at how nice her handwriting was. In response I have seen a dramatic improvement in her cursive. I love these unforeseen benefits! In math we are still using Math Mammoth and she thoroughly enjoys it until I make her show her work. She calculates quickly in her head, so writing it down feels tedious. We are working on it! She learned about weights this week and were able to utilize a balance scale which was gifted to us from a retired teacher last year. I never say no when people want to bless us with cool tools like this! 

Like I said, low-key…I’ll take it! How was your week?

Peek at Our Week: March 27-31

Grace-Filled Writer
 Another week has passed. All went well and we are excited to head into the weekend!

 Beth (4th grade): Creation to Christ Unit 9

 Beth had a good week. In math she worked on measurements including temperature and weight. History focused on the time leading up to King David’s reign. We are working through level 4 of All About Spelling. Spelling is very easy for Beth, but she enjoys the lessons and I see great value in learning the why behind our sometimes very strange English spellings. In the picture Beth is using white board colored pencils I found once for some spelling practice. She finished reading her novel this week, Mandie and the Secret Tunnel. This is a very special book series to me and I’m so excited to share it with my girls!

Grace (1st grade): Bigger Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 3

Grace is maturing now very quickly. My mom commented on a picture I posted this week that she just doesn’t look like our little girl anymore! Bittersweet it is, but it is also fun to watch her find her independence! We are moving right along at full-speed in Bigger Hearts without any problem at all! Grace loves vocabulary and spelling. She told me so this week! When I asked why she said it was probably because she loves to talk so much and it’s nice to have new words to say. I got a little giggle out of that. 
She also is continuing in both Math Lessons for a Living Education and Math Mammoth. You would think two curriculum might be too much, but honestly it isn’t for her. She loves both and happily completes it all. We will back off of one or the other if it gets to be too much. 
Rose (6th grade): Resurrection to Reformation Unit 28
Rose and Beth are working on dictation here. Grace is too, she’s just out of the shot! I find doing the same subject at the same time can be a great time saver for all of us! Especially now that all three are completing dictation. I recite the sentences and when they are ready for the next part they put their pencil down. It is also an exercise in self-discipline because I require them to stay silent so as not to distract their sisters. 
Rose is devouring history and anything else she can get her hands on to read! She loves reading anything and everything she can find. She also found joy in reading some of the Imagination Station books she never read before. They are geared towards a younger reading level, probably 2nd or 3rd grade, but the stories are still wonderful. She finished one in just about an hour I think, but said she really enjoyed it. It is so lovely to see my girl who is reading on a high school level still enjoy the simpler stories! 
Here are a few more pictures from our week…

 Rose: Reading for literature – Beth: Reading for History
Beth: Weighing a little spring creature for math
Grace: Sitting in my lap reading dictation to her sister on the front porch. 
(This is actually from last week, but it’s such a sweet picture I didn’t want to miss posting it!)
And now our beautiful spring weather has turned to watery mush for the weekend it seems. The girls are all done with school early today. They played with some remote controlled cars in the kitchen for a while, then used items from the recycling bin to create something for the cars. They have made cards and creations and some other things. Now they are getting a little screen time. They have been busy, busy bees this morning!

Peek at Our Week: March 20-25

Grace-Filled Writer

I’ve skipped blogging about our studies with Heart of Dakota last week. We did them, but I focused on our field trip instead. This week was uneventful. Yay! It was just a good old standard week of homeschool. I really don’t feel like we get enough of those.

Grace (1st grade): Bigger Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 2 
I don’t fully understand the reason, but Grace has easily glided into Bigger with no apparent struggle with the jump in work-load in any way. My older two did not have this blessing! We are completing everything without any trouble. Being the youngest in a homeschool family has its benefits for certain. One being she will almost always be done with school before her sisters so she doesn’t really feel like she’s spending extra time working. She had already been asking for more work recently, maybe because she is such a little extrovert and felt left out since her sisters were still completing schoolwork an hour or more after she was done. Whatever the reason we are now completing full units in Bigger Hearts. I took four full units at half-pace with my older two before we jumped into the full load!

 We are studying early explorers. One of the activities was making a little paper boat and following the explorers’ routes on the globe. Grace loved it!

 The verses are a bit more demanding this year. She loves to memorize so this is not a challenge at all. 
 Poetry is a favorite for everyone. This year we learn about rhyme scheme. The best way I’ve found to teach this is to have the girls underline the rhyming words with the same color. Then we follow with the corresponding letters. This has been a great visual for learning rhyme scheme. 
Rose (6th grade): Resurrection to Reformation Unit 27
We are closing in on the end of our guide We have about 8 units left so I’m beginning to piece together the next guide. I buy all of the guides and notebooking pages new from Heart of Dakota every year. I really want to support this small family business and this is a way to do so. The rest of the material I try to find used. I have a big spread sheet my husband helped me make. I have all of the books listed along with the best price I can find new. I scour multiple websites to find these prices. Then I scour for used books. I aim for at least half the cost of the original, but sometimes that is hard to find. Sometimes the best used price is more than the new prices I find! It’s a great way to save money and honestly I enjoy the hunt!.

 I’ve been pleased to see the effort Rose is putting into her notebook this year. We did go through a season last year of minimal effort, but thankfully this seems to have passed.

Math continues to be her most challenging subject. I try to reiterate to her she understands the concepts. The breakdown comes in little mistakes in the steps. I’m not sure how to get her through this besides just plugging away. If anyone has any ideas I’m open to them!

 Our weather has finally warmed back up again! We had a beautiful, warm, and allergy filled February only to be greeted with a March snowfall! I went on the porch for a little while one day, but with pollen season well under way I couldn’t stay out very long! It was nice to complete dictation out there though.

 Beth (4th grade): Creation to Christ Unit 8
Beth is taking longer to finish her work these days. I’m finding her focus is drifting some. I remember Rose getting to this point as well when the CTC had worn off its “newness” but we also weren’t very far along into it. She gets it done eventually, but she is currently the last one finished and not very happy about it! I’m trying to find ways to help her see that if she would just buckle down and get things down she wouldn’t have to be last!

Little miss math whiz does not like it when we have to explain a new concept in math to her. She feels she can handle it on her own…which she probably could if she actually read all of the directions! Several times this week she came to me frustrated about not knowing how to complete a math assignment. “Did you read the directions?” Her answer was, “No,” every single time! Hopefully this is a season we move through quickly. 

 Penny likes laying in the sunshine so the girls often sit by the front door with her to work. Beth is reading her history assignment here.

We had a magical cure for Beth’s handwriting this week! She has very nice handwriting, but rarely wants to use it. Then she received a pen-pal letter from her cousin. Poof! we suddenly have great effort being expended into her handwriting once again. 
There is our week in a nutshell! How was yours?

Week in Review: March 6-10

Grace-Filled Writer
We had a very good week back after our break. We will have another break in six weeks! 

Rose (6th grade): Resurrection to Reformation Unit 25
Here are some highlights from Rose’s week! She’s reading a new novel we are reviewing. It’s historical biblical fiction which is currently one of her favorite genres. She loves this book! I can’t wait to tell you more about it!

 I think Rose was working on her writing with Writing Strands in this picture. She loves sitting by the front door while working because our puppy likes the sun and they enjoy one anther’s company. Writing strands is such a great program! It’s simple to follow and very content rich. Rose has always loved to write and writing strands is helping her really hone her skills.

 

If you have followed our journey very long you already know math has never come easily to Rose. We have a good fit for her now, but it is something she has to work hard to find success. When she offered to help Grace with her math (2nd grade multi digit addition with carrying) I was just a little unsure. Then I remembered how teaching can help cement learning. It was an absolute beautiful moment to see Rose working to help her little sister learn, make sure she had the right answers, and then help her when she missed a problem. The fact that she had the confidence to do this was really encouraging and also showed me how God is shaping her desire to be a teacher one day.

 Beth (4th grade): Creation to Christ Unit 6
Beth absolutely loves the timeline portion of her notebooking each week! She can’t wait to get to it and spends a long time making sure the pictures are just to her liking. She’s also really progressing with her cursive and doesn’t have to reference her page to know how to make the letters as often.

Another part of her new guide which Beth really enjoys is her quiet time. I love that Heart of Dakota helps my girls to build a habit of daily time with the Lord. 
 

Math was with Daddy (And Lucy the cat!) this afternoon! She had already completed the work earlier in the day buy my husband was nice enough to go over her work with her when he came home at lunch. I’m so blessed that he is willing to jump in and help out anytime he can!
Grace (1st grade): Bigger Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 1 (1st half)
This week began our adventure through Bigger Hearts! I always start this guide at half speed because there is a huge jump in work-load. 
Grace loves reading with Lucy. We have a very, very tolerant cat. She gets dragged around the house and seems to actually enjoy it! Grace is reading another book we are reviewing here. You’ll get to read all about it this coming week! 

 Our curriculum does an amazing job of teaching geography! We reviewed the continents and oceans this week. I still have trouble remembering to include that 5th ocean sometimes because we only had four when I was a kid! She of course loves to spin the globe as fast as she can every time we get it down!

 Grace was over-the-top excited to learn to use the dictionary for vocabulary! I didn’t actually have to teach her though. She has been using a dictionary since she was five. We used to call her our little dictionary because she loved words and always wanted to know what different words mean. She also can often be found reading one of our many dictionaries for fun in the afternoons.

So that was our week! I spent this afternoon reorganizing our schoolroom! It feels good to have an organized space for learning. And no doubt I will be reorganizing again in about six weeks!
 

Week in Review: February 20-24

Grace-Filled Writer

 I slacked off on the pictures again this week, but this time it was because my daughter had a make-up basketball game Monday night and then I forgot where I put my camera! Yup, that’s my life. I forget things all the time, misplace things all the time. This is my normal. Am I the only one?

We will be taking next week off from school. We school for 6 weeks and then take a break. We are all looking forward to the break! It is refreshing and has kept us from burning out over the last couple of years.

 Beth (4th grade): Creation to Christ Unit 5
 Beth was so excited to work on her history project this week! It was as simple recipe but she thoroughly enjoyed creating the honey bread and the eating it. As I’ve said before this was a smooth transition into a new guide. Preparing is such an amazing learning year and that coupled with the previous guide (Bigger Hearts for His Glory) both of my girls were eagerly ready to move up and become more independent. 
I’ve been especially impressed with her effort and success with memorizing chapter 2 of Philippians. My oldest, who memorizes very easily, did not like this part of CTC. I think she saw the length and even though she knew it would be in short amounts she felt it was too hard. Beth, on the other hand, just put her mind to it and is now a full 5 verses in. She can quite word-for-word with ease and seems to really enjoy it! Beth rarely struggles with schoolwork. Really none of my kids do, but she especially finds everything easy. It is hard to know if it is a result of being the second born and therefore she’s watched it all happen before, or if things are just easy. Either way she’s a joy to teach and finds joy in learning!
Grace (1st grade): Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 34
 You might notice a jump from unit 31 last week to unit 34 this week. What happened? Well… this little miss asked me if we could squish the end of Beyond into one week. She is eager for more work. Although she is officially in “1st grade” as far as her age is concerned, she’s working at a much higher level. She’s asking for a challenge, and I understand. This is one driven little 7-year-old when it comes to academics. She dreams of becoming a nurse and has sought out nurses in our church to ask all sorts of questions. She reads everything she gets her hands on and questions everything she doesn’t understand. How could I say no? 
Well, I did say no to squishing 3 units into a week. I said yes to skipping a few units and finishing up this week before our break. It’s a good time anyway so I can prepare for her to start Bigger. There will be some changes this time around and I’m looking forward to those! Stay tuned to see some of these in about a week!
Rose (6th grade): Resurrection to Reformation Unit 24

We are over half-way through grammar 5 of Rod and Staff Grammar. The girls learn so much with this curriculum! It’s not the flashiest, but it is so solid. Rose is learning more about diagramming and when we finish she’ll know more grammar than most high schoolers do. She’s definitely learning more than I did in class. My dad taught me most of my grammar. So here we are carrying on the tradition! 
Everything is going well in all other areas. It’s time for me to start piecing together next years curriculum. I buy the guides directly from Heart of Dakota because I like to support this small family business. I try to buy everything else used from a variety of sources. With only 10 units left it’s time again! I love this part. I know that sounds crazy, but my goal every year is to spend $300 or less and I usually do quite well! It’s all about hunting for the bargain. 
Well, that was our week. How was yours?

Peek at Our Week: February 13-17

Grace-Filled Writer
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 (6th grade): Resurrection to Reformation Unit 23
 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 (4th grade): Creation to Christ Unit 4

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.

Peek at Our Week: February 6-10

Grace-Filled Writer

After a couple of weird weeks of trying to get over a cold we were happy to be back to a normal schedule and on pace with our Heart of Dakota curriculum. So this week was as “normal” as our weeks get! We squish a full Heart of Dakota unit into 3 days. The girls work incredibly hard on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. On Wednesday they take a science class and still complete language arts and math. On Fridays we also complete language arts and math, but that is usually it. Starting this next week I’m hoping to incorporate some other more fun learning opportunities for them. We’ll see how this goes!

Beth (4th grade): Creation to Christ Unit 3

Beth has settled in very quickly with the Creation to Christ guide. I’m not surprised as she has been with Heart of Dakota since preschool. Also watching her older sister work through the guides ahead of her gives her a nice idea of what to expect. For kids who are new to Heart of Dakota with this guide it will feel like a lot of work, but she is enjoying the challenges and mostly enjoying the independent nature. The one thing she said she misses is my reading history to her.  
(She collects Pandas! The 4 in the picture are just the tip of the iceberg!)
Beth is really enjoying the notebooking pages. They are so beautifully created! She is drawing a timeline entry here. We found for handwriting it is best to use Frixion Erasable pens on these pages. For drawing they sometimes use those or a pencil to begin and then use sharpies to fill in the color or outline. My girls have not had extensive art instruction, but Heart of Dakota encourages them early on to express themselves through art and all of them do a very nice job creating pictures. She did ask me to find a picture of a hand holding a heel for the timeline entry about Jacob and Esau. She couldn’t quite figure out how to make that! 
Rose (6th grade): Resurrection to Reformation Unit 22
 
There is nothing quite as cozy as reading in Narnia! We redecorated the girls’ room for Christmas last year as winter and spring Narnia. If you look closely at the stuffed animals on the bed you will see one that is a bit more alive than the others! One of the wonderful things about homeschooling is the freedom to study wherever is the most comfortable or least distracting. Rose and Beth like to study in their room and when the weather is nice outside because I’m still working so extensively with Grace. The quieter locations are preferred for them.

We are trying a different approach with math again. We aren’t changing curriculum though as I’m very happy with both Master Book’s Principals of Mathematics and Math Mammoth to supplement when needed. The trouble is mathematics is not my strongest subject. As we get to higher and higher levels I’m finding I struggle to remember all of the rules for various things so I am constantly looking things up to double check myself. My husband, on the other hand, absolutely loves math. He was planning to become a math teacher before he felt the call from God into ministry. So starting this week we are adjusting when Rose works on her math. She doesn’t even touch it until the afternoon when he comes home from the office. So far this has been great for all concerned. I’m not worried about telling her something incorrect and it also saves us time during the day. Since Rose does not really look forward to math it is good for her to know she does not have to worry about it in the morning. 

 Grace (1st grade): Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 30

  When questioned about Grace’s grade-level we always say, “1st grade,” but in reality, a better answer would be, “Well, it’s complicated.” This is in reality true for all the girls because they are working at higher levels for the most part than grade-level expectations. It’s the most true for Grace. She’s working through 2 levels of 2nd grade math and is about half-way through with both. She’s reading on a 5th grade level as well as beginning to write full stories, writes in cursive, and is learning formal grammar. All of these are typically not things children do until around 2nd grade. Such is the life of a homeschooler who is eager to learn. Still, she completes her work dressed as a princess and often has a stuffed animal on the desk or in her lap, because that is age-appropriate. What a beautiful thing to see her blossom academically, but remain the sweet young child she still is!

Sometimes she is no longer patient to wait on me to finish with one of her sisters before she begins reading her history. Since it is written at about a 3rd grade level this is no big deal for her until she comes upon a word of which she is unsure. When she was a little younger we used to call her our little dictionary because she would constantly ask what words meant that she did not know. Her vocabulary is quite varied and she still loves to learn new words. 


Math comes easily to Grace as well. We are completing two different curricula at her request: Math Lessons for a Living Education Level 2 and Math Mammoth 2nd grade. I cannot say no to this request and it doesn’t take her too much extra time. She’s typically finished with school 2 hours before her sisters anyway so having something a little extra to do is a great thing! 

How was your week? Leave a comment below and let me know!

Peek at Our Week: January 23-27

Grace-Filled Writer
I’m typing this in between tissue breaks and sniffles. I can speak, but I don’t sound very good. So what were we up to this week? The girls got a lot of work done in spite of my not feeling well. It seems that in the last several years if I get a cold, I will lose my voice. I don’t know the reasons behind this, but it has been 100% true for at least the last 5 years! I don’t really feel too horrible except for severely clogged sinuses, but away my voice will fly. This time it started with a sore throat so talking was not very fun. Thanks to a wide variety of treatments including essential oils and modern medicine I am on the mend even if I don’t sound very good.
The girls were so good about it all though! I modified our schedule a bit and we took a break from our full language arts (grammar, writing, literature, & spelling) and they just read for fun. We also took a little break from math. We did stay the course with history, Bible, and poetry, basically all that makes Heart of Dakota unique and fun! I knew they could handle these studies with only a little help from me because they love them so much and are eager learners. They have also learned our routine quite well and it is no big deal if Mommy is down for a day or two…or 4! 
Rose (6th grade): Resurrection to Reformation Unit 21

 So if you look at last week’s week in review, this picture will look very familiar. Rose is cuddle up in her favorite sweatshirt under her favorite blanket in her favorite spot to read for school! The only thing missing is a little puppy, who joined her soon after I snapped this picture. She is reading Mr. Pipes here, but this is usually where she snuggles in for all of her reading assignments. 
She actually kept reading the book I had assigned for literature this week. I usually assign books but every once in a while they get to make their own pick for literature with my approval. She’s currently reading through the Epic Order of the Seven. If you haven’t heard of these books before, go look them up now! They are so very well written and engaging. I would classify them as biblical fantasy fiction. I know those first two wouldn’t normally go together, but the main characters are animals who talk and converse with one another, so that is where the fantasy comes in. FYI this is not a review endorsement. I just stumbled upon this title at our local Christian bookstore and it was a hit!
 Beth (4th grade): Creation to Christ Unit 2

Here is Beth in her preferred spot for reading for school. Snuggled under the covers in her bed. Sometimes this is the bottom bunk and sometimes the top. Beth is loving the Creation to Christ guide. I always find introducing my younger two girls to new guides. I think this reason is two-fold. The first is that I have gone through it once or twice, so I know exactly what to expect. The second is they have watched their older sister (or sisters for Grace!) travel through history the Heart of Dakota way, so they anticipate each guide. 
Beth is also fairly introverted so she likes working independently. She’s very good about coming and asking for help, but once I give it, off she goes to complete an assignment alone. She is enjoying the wonderful literature paired with this guide. I love how historical fiction draws them into the time period.
Grace (1st grade): Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 29
 
Grace is enjoying poetry more and more! I remember when we started this guide and she could not really understand what the poetic language was saying. Now she loves to tell me what she thinks it means before I have a chance to explain it and most often she is correct! That is the beauty of studying poetry together. It helps kids to learn to think creatively and also to interpret for themselves what is being said. I still of course help her know some of the harder things, but she generally gets the overall meaning. 
Grace is reading on a 4th or 5th grade level at this point, so she enjoyed reading her history aloud to me instead of me reading it to her! She also asked to start the 3rd book in the Chronicles of Narnia. I’m constantly amazed at the progress my children make academically and I love that I get a front row seat to it all! We have difficult things and struggles, but conquering those are all the sweeter because I’ve watched the struggle first-hand. 
So there was a little glimpse! If you look closely at this last picture you’ll notice our laundry piles waiting to be washed. Yup, we’re normal! The laundry room is in the hallway behind where Grace is standing so I often leave the sorted piles in the floor while I’m waiting to get them in the wash. Chores definitely happen in between all the schoolwork!

Comment and tell me how your week was!

Peek at our Week: Janurary 16-20

Grace-Filled Writer
Another week has come and gone. Nothing extraordinary, but that is what God is teaching me as the new year unfolds: Faithfulness in the ordinary is extraordinary. When we feel like we aren’t accomplishing anything or that we are spinning our wheels in vain when it comes to our daily routines, it glorifies the Lord when we press on with a good attitude. This is true whether you are home for most of your day or working full time. It is also true that we all feel this way from time to time. When it starts to bubble up, push back with prayer and Scripture. 


Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31

Do all things without grumbling or disputing
Philippians 2:14 
Realigning your perspective with Christ can change everything. 
Here is a peek at our extraordinarily ordinary week
Grace (1st grade): Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 28 

 Grace is becoming anxious to begin her new guide because her sisters started a new guide this week. I’m glad we have a few weeks before we begin though as I’m helping Beth become acclimated to her new guide. Grace learned more about Davy Crockett this week in history. We enjoy the history book in these last units, both the style of writing and how each chapter teaches how people lived in colonial and pioneer days. There are a lot of good illustrations and descriptions of things like soap making, churning butter, making a canoe, and more.

We are plodding along with all of our other subjects. They are all going well with no real bumps except she would like to be moving more quickly through her studies! For literature she has been reading through the Kirsten books from Pleasant Company. She finished the last book this week and asked to read the next book in the Chronicles of Narnia, so she will soon be voyaging on the Dawn Treader.

Rose (6th grade): Resurrection to Reformation Unit 20

Our pup Penny loves to cuddle with the girls while they read for school. Usually they read literature and history assignments in the living room or their bedroom and Penny quickly follows when she sees a book in hand! Rose is enjoying the Mr. Pipes book she is reading in this guide. She says the one thing she loves about our history studies is how all the reading is connected and she gets to read lots of different books about the same time in history. This is just one more reason I’m grateful for Heart of Dakota and all the time the author put into researching and finding these great gems of literature!

Math is bumpy, but less bumpy than previously. Hope for fewer and fewer bumps!

Beth (4th grade): Creation to Christ Unit 1


The start of the a new guide is always exciting. Beth was happy to have notebook pages like her big sister. She dove right in, completing all the boxes with gusto. Although she sometimes gets tired of the amount of writing which is required now, she rarely complains with more than a sigh, and those are getting less and less. This guide is a big jump in independent workload from Preparing Hearts for His Glory. Her days were a little longer than I think they will be in the future this week because I had to explain quite a bit about how to complete each box. 

She has come to love diagramming as much as Rose! She loves order and logic, so diagramming is just a way to express the order and logic of our language. 
I’d love to hear about your week! 


Peek at our WeeK: January 9-13

Grace-Filled Writer

Our first week back went very well! It always does though. By the time we start back after our break everyone is ready for routine, especially me! That being said, our routine was still not quit back because we had a nice little snowstorm over the weekend. My poor kids still had school while all the neighbors were off, but they said they didn’t mind and understood. Not to mention the high was in the 20s, which I know is not a big deal for some of you! We, however, are not used to those temps here in the South.

Here are a few highlights of the week…
Rose (6th grade): Resurrection to Reformation Unit 19
 
 We utilize a number of other wonderful resources. This is a World History book from Usborne. We have been given so many wonderful resources between the reviews I write and the generosity of family and friends. I’ve bought a few, but only a very few beyond our regular curriculum. Many times we use these for research or further study of things that are interesting to the girls. Here, Rose is doing some research for one of her boxes using the book and our globe.
We finished up a short unit on fractions in Math Mammoth and this week began chapter 5 in Principals of Mathematics again. This chapter on fractions did not quite click with Rose, so we took a break from the book to study them in a different curriculum. This was exactly the right course to take. The chapter is going very well this time around!

Rose really loves the notebooking pages from Heart of Dakota. They are so very beautiful! Lots of paintings, maps, and space to write what she is learning. We use Frixion erasable pens and they write beautifully on the pages which are a little slick. Anytime she needs to draw she uses the Frixion pens for outlining and skinny sharpie markers to add color details. 
Beth (4th grade): Preparing Hearts for His Glory Unit 35
My girls love grammar! I love that they love grammar. There is so much good that comes from understanding the structure and parts of sentences. “New” research suggests there is no benefit from learning to diagram sentences. I disagree mostly because of experience. I do not claim to be a researcher or to have studied extensively, but my experience as an English teachers has shown me otherwise. I have 9 years of experience teaching 7th and 8th grade English. The students who come into my classes with a strong grammar background, including diagramming sentence, are better writers. They know not only how to form sentences, but how to add to them in a creative and correct manner. So that’s my soapbox about grammar and writing! 
I feel a little teary as we end our studies in Preparing this week. It is such a rich guide, full of new things and introducing so many topics. One of my favorite things about this guide is the introduction to other religions. I know that may seem odd to some, but I love that we explored several other belief systems in a way that helped my daughter see why we believe the truth of God’s Word. I do not shy away from telling my girls about these things because I want them to know it is okay to come to us and to God with questions concerning their faith. Beth accepted Christ as her Savior when she was four. There is so much growth which will happen for her as time passes and I want her to feel free to come to us with any questions she has. She will encounter other religions and we believe it is important we introduce those to her so she does not feel like we have been hiding anything from her as she grows up. 
Grace (1st grade): Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 27

 Grace told me this week she absolutely loves school! She never complains, gets excited about everything we do, and usually tries her best. Sometimes she does rush through an assignment, but that is usually because she is so excited to get to something new. If she had to pick one thing she probably doesn’t love as much as others I think it would be Bible memory. She does this very well, but seems to feel it takes too long. She likes to move quickly! I am very pleased at how her understanding of the verses is growing. Where at the beginning of the guide I usually had to guide her to an understanding, she is getting it more and more all on her own. It is such a beautiful thing to see her spiritual growth through our studies!

This week we cooked cornbread for her history project. It was delicious! This was my first time cooking it from scratch, but it is a recipe we we will come back to again I’m sure. We have only seven more weeks to spend in this sweet guide. Grace is excited to move forward. I’m sad to see it pass. It is bittersweet with her each time we finish a guide because she is our youngest.

In looking ahead I am considering using a different text in both Bigger Hearts and Preparing Hearts. Some of the resources from Master Books may be a better fit for us. We do want to keep the feeling of living history though so I will see what I think as time gets closer. 
Other highlights…
Rose scored 4 points in her first basketball game with Upwards! 
Beth made a Snow Panda sculpture once it started melting enough to stick together. We don’t usually get snowman or snowball making snow! 
Grace cheered in her first Upwards basketball game! She is totally in her element and I’m totally out of mine with this, but she is doing a great job and this program is very good, and probably the only cheer program that we would be comfortable with our girls participating! 
Busy week and lots more busy weeks to come this year. I’m glad it got off to a good start!