Tag: Heart of Dakota
Heart of Dakota Weekly Link-up: November 16-20
Heart of Dakota Weekly Link-up: November 2-6
Week in Review: October 26-30
After being sick most of last week with a horrible upper respiratory thing going around I was so grateful to feel well this week. There is nothing like bad health to remind you to be grateful for the good health we often take for granted. Thankfully this just hit my husband and I. Our girls mostly missed it with only a few sniffles.
This week went really well for the most part except for a few moments of meltdowns with my youngest. She is in one of those phases right now that everything contrary to her immediate desires requires an overly dramatic response. I remember this being pretty common for this age. I also remember that this phase passes as they all do…thankfully!
Grace – Kindergarten: Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 30
We studied about Abraham Lincoln, General Lee, and D. L. Moody this week. Grace loved the poem this week about these three men who lived during the same time period of the Civil War. This was especially meaningful because all of the students at our learning center had the opportunity to hear from a couple of Civil War reenactors the previous week. Grace is the little blond head with the pony tail!
She started reading about Buffalo Bill this week. All of my girls are excellent and eager readers, but of the three Grace is the most curious. She always wants to learn more and more and more…
We struggled with handwriting this week. She no longer wants to practice and just rushes through her work. More than a few of our meltdowns occurred when I erased the ones she had not tried her best with and asked her to redo them. This did not please her at all, but by the end of the week she figured out this would keep happening and I noticed a marked improvement in her effort.
While I read history this week I gave Grace some different activities to do with her hands. She loved this and my goal is to help her grow in the area of finger manipulation activities.
I love how she props her little foot up. Do you notice her sweater and bare feet? She takes after me in that way. Even though I’m quite cold natured I really don’t like wearing socks. I do once the cold weather hits, but all three of my girls prefer their bare feet like their mama!
Beth – 3rd Grade: Preparing Hearts for His Glory Unit 6 (1st half)
Beth continued studying about ancient Egypt this week. She loves the history projects. I really like that there is purpose in the art and creations she is making. Not only is she learning a variety of artistic mediums, but she is furthering her understanding of history.
In preparation for creating her Crook she researched using our Bible dictionary. This has been one of the best resources for us for both Preparing and Creation. If you are able to invest in a really good in depth Bible dictionary, do it!
We use the Rod and Staff worksheets and tests. I really do like testing my girls and they are not stressed at all. It is a helpful gauge for both me and them to see what we need to make sure we review again. I use the worksheets at the end of a chapter as review. Both of the girls likes these and really prefer them to the regular book-work!
My sweet Beth can be found in any number of areas when she reads! This week she was reading Sarah Plain and Tall. She wanted to know why it was titled this and I told her to read a bit and see what she found out. She came to me so excited when she figured out to whom the title referred!
Rose – 5th Grade: Creation to Christ Unit 24
Math is going very well and this week we moved into working with decimals. That little grin on her face has nothing to do with math and everything to do with my teasing her for looking so serious while she was working!
As I was trying to get over my cold completely I wasn’t able to read aloud quite as much today. Rose is such a good sport and happily read a lot of her geography on her own this week. I did read some with her, but she understood my need to read more to her youngest sister and helped me out a lot this way!
We really struggled with spelling when we first started out with HOD. We ended up following both the HOD spelling recommendation and All About Spelling. I’m grateful to both methods and where spelling was once one of the longest parts of the day, we now move through it quite quickly.
It’s a bit hard to see as I was struggling to get the lighting adjusted correctly this week for my pictures! Rose is working on her notebooking pages for history, which she loves. I really like how timelines are presented in Heart of Dakota. She draws beautifully and the timeline entries are more meaningful to her because of this.
How was your week? If you use Heart of Dakota curriculum please link-up your week in review below!
Heart of Dakota Weekly Link-Up: Week of October 26-30
Heart of Dakota Weekly Link-Up: October 19-23
Week in Review: October 12-16
The beginning of this week was a little harder than usual. My husband was away at his annual District Conference for all the pastors in our district of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. We did just fine on our own (It was only one night after all!) but my husband is a very hands on dad, so even just a night away left my girls missing him a lot!
We kept our routine as usual for the most part. Daddy did come home with a cold that is now making its round among the rest of us. Thankfully it doesn’t seem all that serious so we’re hoping to bounce back soon.
Here is a peek at what school looked like this week…
Rose – 5th Grade: Creation to Christ Unit 22
Rose has really enjoyed the notebooking pages in Creation to Christ. We really like the erasable gel pens from Frixion and there are often coupons for these in the Sunday paper. For coloring pictures and the timeline portion we use sharpie markers. We have worked towards neater handwriting without lines as well as proof reading. One of the best ways we work on that is for me to read her work out loud phonetically. This helps her hear both her grammar and spelling mistakes…and sometimes it gives us quite a giggle! This is also a little secret way I’m helping my perfectionist daughter treat her mistakes a little lighter. When we can laugh about it together she doesn’t take it so seriously.
We started reading about Cleopatra this week. Rose reads her story time assignments to herself. Running three guides and a part-time business from my home teaching piano every afternoon means we have made a few changes to how the Heart of Dakota guides are done. I don’t mind because we still discuss the reading selections. I like how much my girls are learning independently.
Here are my girls working on their weekly history projects. They were so sweet chatting away as they worked. Rose kept telling Beth how much fun her project was going to be. My girls get really excited about seeing one another do things. I used to wonder what it would be like when the were all doing projects and if they would wish they were doing each other’s. I certainly would understand that, but they seem to just take it as a matter of “this is how we do things around here”. They also are really great about complimenting each other’s efforts which is sweet to observe.
Beth – 3rd Grade: Preparing Hearts for His Glory Unit 5 (1st half)
Beth never really seemed interested in art until this year. She was not at all excited when we first began Draw and Write Through History, but now she really seems to like it. She takes more time with her drawings and I even catch her drawing the same thing later on just for fun sometimes.
Cursive is getting much, much easier. It’s just a matter of time. Her letters still seem a bit awkward, but I know it will come. Her printing seemed to improve overnight this summer and we will keep plugging away at cursive!
Here she is working hard at her Egyptian hieroglyphics project. She was frustrated at first because it wasn’t turning out like she expected. So I helped her see how best to etch in the hieroglyphics, she smoothed out my work and did her own pretty quickly. And yes, her body position is just about as awkward as it appears in this picture! The way my kids contort themselves while they study amazes me, but I’m glad we have the freedom for this. Beth is typically the one wanting to work on the floor. Rose likes to sit at a table Grace would rather dance her way through her work!
Grace – Kindergarten: Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 28
I love this picture! While Grace and I were working on Spelling Beth couldn’t help but listen in. She was supposed to be doing her copywork I think, but I didn’t really mind. Every time Grace spelled something correctly she would say, “That was good!”
I have a favorite handwriting program (Fundanoodle!) but, when you are gifted a handwriting series for free, you say, “Great!” and fly with it! My girls have honestly all used something different and they’ve all done fine. Grace is now in the second handwriting book for Handwriting Without Tears. I was having her do 1 page a day, but she has been asking to do more, so I think I may plan more for this coming week.
Grace is so excited about her history now and sometimes enjoys reading it on her own. I have a feeling watching her big sisters do this is part of the reason, but I’m grateful she finds so much joy out of learning on her own. We actually call her our little dictionary because she loves to define words and if she doesn’t know what something means she’s quick to ask. She is always thinking and driven by curiosity. Her eagerness to know more is contagious!
Did you have a good week on your own journey through Heart of Dakota? We’d love to hear about it! Don’t forget to link-up below!
Weekly Link-up: October 12-16
Week in Review: Ocober 5-9
Our weeks are in a nice routine now so that when we do deviate from the “normal” like last week it really isn’t a big deal and feels more like a break. The only frustrating thing for the girls this week was that their year-round school friends from across the street were on break and we kept plugging away. It was nice that their friends didn’t have homework in the afternoon and could play longer! Especially once the rain subsided. We certainly got a “wetting” as Winnie the Pooh would put it!
Beth – 3rd Grade: Preparing Hearts for His Glory: Unit 4, 2nd half
Beth has settled into our routine with Preparing much quicker than I anticipated. She seems to take added workload a little more in stride than her older sisters. Perhaps knowing what is coming helps her in that way. The only thing she does not love doing right now is the cursive copy work. We did however manage to get through it this week with minimal sighs and no complaints. This may have been due to the fact that she lost certain screen-time privileges for pulling out her complaints the week prior.
When it comes to whining and complaining I take the timeless advice of Barney Fife…
Beth really loves her history projects. I’m doing much, much better this year about making sure they happen but it is easier that she is taking two weeks for each unit. We’ll see if I continue to do this well once we move to full-speed!
Grace – Kindergarten: Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 27
Grace loves studying her Bible verses out of her “real” Bible as she loves to call it. She can read them on her own and seems to feel very grown up as she studies in another room and comes back to recite to me. We talk about what the verses mean, but she needs much less help from me. While it is a little bitter sweet sometimes I love that she, and her sisters, are becoming independent learners. I’m facilitating the process, but they are understanding how to discover and discern for themselves which is really what my purpose is.
History is so much fun with this little sweetheart. She has such a passion and excitement for life! We spent some time learning about George Washington these last couple of weeks and she is very much anticipating our visit to Washington DC very soon which will include a visit to Mt. Vernon.
A couple of years ago we were gifted a set of Handwriting Without Tears. While it isn’t the program I recommend most often (I really like Fundanoodle handwriting!) I can’t complain about free! She does tend to rush a lot when she writes and we are working mostly on taking time to do the best she can. I tell her, and her sisters, quite often that I do not expect perfection, but I do expect their best effort.
Rose – 5th grade: Creation to Christ: Unit 21
When we started Write With the Best I was a bit nervous. I kept seeing comments that people did not like it so I was a little nervous. My background as an English teacher tends to make me very, very picky about what kind of Language Arts materials we use. I can say now we absolutely love this program! Here are some of my reasons…
1. Using the model of classic literature
2. Editing practice
3. Focusing on one concept in each lesson
4. Small steps for longer lasting projects
Rose has also been excited to get back into the Draw and Write Through History books now. She loves these and her art is improving all the time. She usually uses a pencil to draw, then outlines with an erasable pen and colors with sharpie markers. The results have been really beautiful.
The girls finish up math and language arts after their science class on Wednesdays. This was one of the first days of sunshine in the south after all that rain! They enjoyed a honey lollipop on the back porch while doing their reading. All three girls are here, but Grace is sitting on a little stool in between the older two lower on the ground.
Great week for us! How about you!
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