Tag: Heart of Dakota

Week in Review: August 10-14

Grace-Filled Writer

Another week has come and gone. This week was easier in some ways and harder in some ways. We battled this week with negative attitudes and bickering between my girls. School has gone well, but it hasn’t felt like a “good week” because of the other stuff. We’re all a little tired perhaps…I know I am! I’m also gearing up to begin my part-time jobs teaching piano to 32 boys, girls, and adults next week as well as anticipating the English class I teach to junior high homeschoolers starting in a few weeks. So maybe my own distractions have played a part in a less-than-stellar week. All the same, school was amazing and my girls had fun learning, so even if we had some rocky bumps at least we had this as a bright spot!

Grace: Little Hearts for His Glory (Unit 21)


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Each week I feel conflicting emotions as we forge on. This is such a sweet and gentle guide and while my girl is growing as I want her to, I hate to see it come to an end as this is also my youngest. We read about Native Americans and some of the earliest explorers. In particular my favorite day was reading about Ponce de Leon “discovering” Florida. My in-laws live in Florida so with that frame of reference as I began to read the story Grace pipes up with, “Were Grammy and Grampy already living there when he found it?” Tee hee…

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She finished up one level of the Rod and Staff ABC series and forged on into the next. I’m having her focus on neatness in her coloring and really trying her best. Grace tends to get so excited about what we are doing she hurries through it to find out what we are doing next! I love her zeal for learning and life in general, but this year one of our big focuses will be patience and best effort. Here she is using her colored pencils to color the animals on the first page to match what they look like on the cover. 
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We finished up the main portion of the Fundanoodle handwriting book and now we are just going over the letters as review. Soon we will be moving forward onto words and sentences!
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Math hit a bit of a bump this week as we started looking at fact families and how numbers relate to one another. We also added in some new math vocabulary like “fewer than” and “how many more” as related to word problems. Grace wasn’t exactly a fan of these new things because she had to put on the brakes so I could teach her the new concepts. She much prefers independent learning. 
Beth: Preparing Hearts for His Glory (Unit 1, 2nd half)


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Beth was a bit perturbed at math this week as well. Honestly, I think this mostly came from the fact that she had been exposed to some type of poisonous plant which resulted in the need for some medicine which left her rather sleepy. Who wants to do math when you are sleepy? Most kids don’t want to do it when they are awake! But we made it through and even though it took longer than normal she did quite well. 
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This week as we finished up unit 1 Beth was very excited to begin her new timeline! My girls have loved the Heart of Dakota method for timelines which includes drawing their own pictures. There are some great files in the various social media groups for Heart of Dakota with pictures, but I wouldn’t trade having my girls artwork in this form at all. She loved this first card about Creation.

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Just like Rose, Beth loves the Draw and Write Through History book. She was not thrilled with the cursive writing portion and we clearly will need to work some on handwriting, but we will get there. I just have to remember each child is different and some will dislike certain portions of their schoolwork that others didn’t. This also could have been due to her mild sleepiness during the day. It will be interesting to see how next week plays out. 

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Our first attempt at drawing Eve resulted in a disastrous meltdown that included huge tears, a scribbled mess of a design, and a ripped paper. So the next day we started over and I drew alongside my girl. We had a much better outcome this day!

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This week Beth had her first taste of diagramming. Her main response was, “Why in the world are we doing this?” So I had the opportunity to explain how this shows us a map of a sentence and helps us make sure that as we create sentences we are placing words in the correct spot as well as using them in the correct way. She said, “Oh, so like a treasure map for a sentence?” Yup…we’re going to go with that! 
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Written narration is new for Beth in Preparing. I had her narrate to me and then copied down what she said. We will be working on her handwriting through this as well as her narrating skills. Spacing is the biggest issue with her. 

Rose: Creation to Christ (Unit 15)

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So when we need help in math, it’s always Daddy to the rescue! Sometimes it is because we have been working at it too long, or maybe because my way of explaining hasn’t worked. I’m so grateful my husband is willing to step in and support us! 
So this week with math we tried something new. Instead of doing it first to get it out of the way, we saved it for last. This was unintentional at first, but it cut a good 30-60 minutes off of our day! I’m not sure why except that we started with things that were more interesting, but we will stick with this new scheduling of math for a while to see how it works. 


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Adverbs…oh adverbs. Need I say more?
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Rose is almost done with Sinbad and Me. If you haven’t read this book, run to your library or local bookstore or Amazon and get it! I read and loved this book as a kid. I remember doing a big book report on this in 5th grade with a house that had windows that opened to give information about the plot. Such a fun storyline for boys or girls and Rose has been begging me to read more each day!
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When Rose first started having independent work she was less than thrilled about using the guide. Now she really likes that she’s doing her own work and doesn’t have to wait on me. Usually the directions are easy to follow and this year I’m just making sure I’m doing a better job at the follow-up. 
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She was sooooooo excited to find out she gets to use Draw and Write Through History again this year! 
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Yeah…we’re all tired! She did manage to start a beautiful picture of the hanging gardens of Babylon from this posture amazingly enough! She’ll finish it up this coming week. 
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This year I am striving really, really hard to include all of the art. For various reasons it has been sidelined in the past. This year will be different. So we are going alllllll the way back to Unit 1 for the weekly painting projects and I’m trying to get more than one done in a week. We actually have Unit 2 in the works and it will be finished up tonight. She begged me to paint with her which was a big deal. I used to love art when I was a kid and drew all the time until about junior high. Then for some reason I stopped. While I’m not sure why, I really haven’t picked up any art supplies for years. I decided to give it a go and see what happens. I’ve discovered I actually really like painting! I don’t remember ever working with real water colors like this before and I’m thoroughly enjoying the process! Rose loves that we’re doing these together and we have decided to get some portfolios to keep our work. Rose’s rendition is on the top and mine is on the bottom. 
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We are using the guides as well as the tutorials from A Garden for Sara. Her tutorials for each unit are really great. She is quite an amazing artist! 

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During one of our breaks this week the girls played with Story Cubes! They love this game! We have 6 differently themed sets and their creativity flowed by leaps and bounds! You can get these online or at Barnes and Noble. 


Week-in-Review: August 3-7

Grace-Filled Writer

We officially kicked off our school year this week! We’ve been schooling throughout the summer, but not strictly and not every day. August always feels like our official “restart” whether it is the first week or sometime later. This year all of our vacations were done and so the first full week of August fit well for us.

I’m using three guides from Heart of Dakota each day this year and it so far we’re moving along swimmingly. This is my 7th year using Heart of Dakota and so we’re pretty set in our routines. Our three guides are currently Little Hearts for His Glory (continuing on from last year), Preparing Hearts for His Glory (just starting out), and Hearts for Him Through Time: Creation to Christ (continuing on from last year). 

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It’s going to be a great year and so far my goal of actually getting the art done is happening! Yay!

Grace – Kindergarten (Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 20)

P1020003I am doing my best to savor every single moment in this guide. It is my third (and probably final!) time through with Kindergarten in Little Hearts. I have a better “bigger picture” view of Heart of Dakota this time and realize just how deep and rich it is for this age. Grace is gradually being prepared to move up through the ranks of Heart of Dakota and loves every bit!

I am the worst at keeping up with our school calendar so when Grace asked if that could be her job I jumped right on board. Each day she changes the calendar and has quickly learned her months and days in the correct order. She loves this job. I wish I had thought to have my olders to this when they were in Kindergarten!

P1020009We are close to finishing up Fundanoodle’s lower case letter curriculum. For anyone who likes the idea of Handwriting Without Tears, but feels it is a bit pricey, this is an excellent option. Grace started with the upper case which I had the opportunity to review and I fell in love with this sweet handwriting curriculum. When we are done we will be moving on into the Handwriting Without Tears books, mostly because someone gave us the entire set and I’m all for using what we are given for free!

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Grace is working through Math Mammoth’s 1st grade curriculum. She was more than ready for this last year and I’m glad we went ahead. We are moving at a slightly slower pace, but she is grasping concepts quickly and solidly. She gets bored quickly though and if I’m not on top of her I’ll find her drawing pictures on the blank back-sides of the pages. She finds math comes easily, but she’d much rather be doing something else!

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My girls have all loved the ABC series from Rod and Staff. Instead of just using the ones listed in the guide on certain days we use the entire series from start to finish. Grace is working on Hearing and Helping and will soon be in the next book.

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Here are my girls having fun with each other! Grace was learning about the growth of a tree and Rose said, “Hey! Can I chop the tree down?” Much giggling and laughter followed…and of course some really sweet memories! I love learning together. 
P1010915The simplicity of science at this age is so nice. Real scientific concepts taught in a hands-on, active manner. Grace is super excited to begin a class this year with her sisters at Deerstream Learning Center. She’ll be learning along with her peers two days a week in a gentle and enriching environment. One of the subjects covered is science and she is over-the-moon to begin this new adventure!

I don’t have any pictures from history but we studied about King Richard which is always a fun section. Grace has loved learning all about some of the many fascinating individuals from history. 
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The other science topic we covered this week was sound. My budding photographer (aka Rose) asked to take a few pictures so I could make it on the blog this week. Yup, uniform for mom at home is typically a t-shirt and comfy pants! 

Beth: 3rd Grade (Preparing Hearts for His Glory: Unit 1 first half)

My girls all start their guides on the “young end” as it is explained by ages. They do well, but there comes a point where we usually need to go half-speed for a bit. Preparing is a pretty enormous jump up from Bigger as far as work-load is concerned so even though she is prepared, I wanted to ease Beth into the greater amount. This was a good choice because she has thoroughly enjoyed taking her time as we are learning new skills and she is gaining more independence in her learning.

P1020011Each of my girls has a tablet in addition to our schoolroom computer. As they get older many of their books are on the Kindle App and they use the Bible as well. Here Beth is studying her Bible verse for the week. Most days they use a traditional Bible, but many times for the story time portion I’ll use the app because I can choose a more kid-friendly translation.

I also use the myHomework App each day. They have a list of their assignments and can work on many things on their own which helps them with their independence and keeps us all on task!

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Beth is one of those kids who finds just about everything in school easy. She rarely misses a problem in math, unless she is feeling crabby and not really trying very hard. You can see the calculator there. She does NOT use this to calculate answers, but rather to check her work on her own. She doesn’t always do this, but I’m finding great value in allowing them to find their own mistakes in math. It has been very useful for both of my older girls to do this.

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We use both All About Spelling and the standard dictation written in the Heart of Dakota guides for my girls. I see good things coming from this with regards to their reading. We did complete the basic phonics curriculum and my girls are all really good readers. I feel All About Spelling is a natural way to continue reading instruction alongside spelling because of the phonetic practice they are receiving. Three levels of All About Spelling calls for some creative scheduling! I’ll be writing up a post about that soon.

P1010863One of the new skills Beth is learning in Preparing is research. I do not use the internet unless absolutely necessesary. We have acquired Encyclopedias, several dictionaries, and a large assortment of other resource books for the Bible, history, and science through gifts and yard sales. I much prefer this type of research because it is more reliable and is teaching them more than just a search function online. They already know how to do that, so I’m hoping to increase their knowledge this way. I’m very pleased that when my girls want to know the answer to a question they have they usually ask what book to look in first.

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Beth’s first research assignment was about a coat of arms. It took us some time finding a book with some good pictures, but one of my yard sale finds (A retiring teacher’s sale!) was the perfect source. After she was able to answer some of the questions we started work on her own coat of arms. Since we are taking two weeks to finish up unit 1, she will finish this next week.

For history we began my favorite book we’ve used in Heart of Dakota, Grandpa’s Box. Even if you aren’t using Heart of Dakota curriculum, even if you aren’t homeschooling for that matter, this book is a must-have for families looking to disciple their kids and point them to Christ throughout the Scripture. I absolutely treasure this book and it is one which will remain with us for years to come.

Rose: 5th Grade (Creation to Christ: Unit 14)

Rose has grown up through the Heart of Dakota curriculum and she is the reason we continue through and never even consider another company. I’ve seen her grow and mature in her studies and in her love for God. I can’t say enough about how gently this curriculum has helped me to disciple her in her faith. She can’t wait to get started and usually asks the night before if she can begin working on school when she gets up if I’m not downstairs yet. Several times this past week I found her up at 6:30 busily reading history or working on a project with great zeal and excitement. I don’t have quite the enthusiasm she does that early in the morning, but it makes my heart smile to see her so eager and happy to learn.

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Up until this summer math has been a bone of contention between us. This was the subject that revealed her tendencies to learn towards perfectionism to the point of extreme anxiety way back in 1st grade. Ever since that point she has said repeatedly, “I hate math.” and “I’m not good at this.” It broke my heart because I know just how able she really is. We finally settled on a math curriculum which we all enjoy, Math Mammoth, and I slowed down to accommodate her. About a month ago as we were working she suddenly looked up at me and said, “You know what? Math is my favorite subject now!” I’m not sure why, but I’m praying this remains! She definitely has more confidence and doesn’t get quite as upset when we have to rework some problems together.

P1010905Spelling and handwriting are two more areas which I have seen sudden maturity. I have a suspicion there might be some very, very minor dyslexic tendencies which she displays. Nothing which would be severe enough to show up in a classroom potentially, but consistent enough I see it. She has begun to more carefully address spelling issues and be more concerned that she is not only spelling correctly, but also writing more neatly. This is a relief. I’m not certain when most kids come to that point, but I was starting to wonder if it would ever happen!

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We love history! As Rose progresses through this guide she can’t seem to learn enough to satisfy! I’m so grateful for all the resources we have at her disposal to dig more deeply. We are having some great discussions about historical events and she loves researching for her history projects each week. She is also really good to help her younger sisters find out more information or understand what they are learning more clearly. She has some teacher in her and I would not be surprised if her dream to be an art teacher comes alive some day.

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We purchased the E-book for many of the HOD titles this year to save some money. I really like that we both have a copy to read from for the read aloud times together, and she loves using her tablet as much as she is allowed for school. I’m not sure if she is reading her main history text or one of the extra books here, but this is quite often how I find her reading.

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This is one of my favorite pics of the week! Although we have desks and a schoolroom, the girls do not feel bound to remain in an assigned seat. Quite often they get a little closer together, move to another room, sit on the floor, trade desks, and lay in their beds. I don’t restrict this unless I need to be present for whatever they are learning. In this way they can learn where and how they are most comfortable. I like having the option of desks (which they really love!) but also allowing them to move around and learn wherever they prefer at the time. 
How was your week? 
Don’t forget to checkout the other Heart of Dakota Weeks in Review at the weekly blog link-up!

Heart of Dakota Weekly Link-Up!!!

Grace-Filled Writer

Time for absolutely first ever weekly link-up hosted by myseltf (Melissa) and Misty at Joy in the Journey! Each week we will bring you a place for all of you homeschooling Heart of Dakota mamas out there to share what is going on in your classroom! The linkup is open to everyone using Heart of Dakota this year. Take a minutes to link your blog, then enjoy your fellow moms on this journey. Don’t forget to leave them some love! 


Are you a homeschool mom using Heart of Dakota curriculum? Then sit back and take some time looking over what other Heart of Dakota families are doing in their homeschool. This gives you the opportunity to reminisce over your past Heart of Dakota experiences and allows you to see what exciting adventures are in store for you on your journey with Heart of Dakota!  

Are you a blogger using Heart of Dakota curriculum? If so, feel free to link up your weekly recap posts below. Your posts will be shown on two blogs:

Misty @ Joy in the Journey and Melissa @ Grace Filled Homeschooling 
Our only requirement for bloggers linking up is that you visit and comment on at least two other posts. We both love Heart of Dakota and look forward to sharing our homeschooling journey’s with you! Also, be sure to check out the Heart of Dakota weekly check in on the main forum. 

A Peek at Our Week: June 1-5

Grace-Filled Writer

We had a really fun week! School was great, but the real fun began when my sister-in-law surprised the girls by bringing their cousins to visit!

First off school…

Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 16

Grace almost always wants me to allow her to read her history on her own now. She can always narrate to me about what she read so I’m allowing it to encourage her independence. I still read to her, but I appreciate that she wants to learn! This week we learned about Christ’s resurrection. While she has been told this beautiful truth from history from the time she was first born, it is always meaningful no matter how many times we hear it.

Grace like her older sister loves our old Dick and Jane reader my husband’s grandmother gave us. She thinks it is so much fun! She’s close to finishing this book and I think she will find it sad. I’ve looked at getting more of these old books, but they are a bit pricey on ebay so I’m hoping to stumble upon some at a book sale sometime.

She’s moving along quite well with All About Spelling. Teaching three different levels isn’t as hard as I expected! I’ll chat more about that later, but for now if you are looking for what to follow up with for your phonics instruction I think All About Spelling is the best choice. It take what your kids learned with phonics and helps them reverse the process while learning to spell and solidifying what they learned. My older daughters are both reading 3-4 grade-levels high with excellent comprehension and feel their solid phonics and reading instruction through the Heart of Dakota Emerging Readers set.

Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 27

Beth is doing really well with her cursive handwriting. She is now working towards writing on her own in cursive without having a model. It is a process through which I have learned to be patient. I’m very pleased with how well she is doing as she finishes up 2nd grade.

This is her picture after studying imagery within poetry this week. She very much enjoyed this assignment!
Beth looks bored here, but she really loves math. Honestly, she may be a bit bored too! She’s coming to the end of her curriculum and as we study money she is probably finding it a bit tedious. This is the girl who watches the purchases ring up, asks how much we are giving the cashier and tries to figure out the difference before the change comes up on the little screen. Yeah, she’s math-minded! 
Creation to Christ: Unit 10

Rose is really enjoying this guide. It wasn’t a huge jump for her from Preparing and we didn’t even have to start at half-speed like I did with Bigger and Preparing. She really likes learning about ancient history. We talk a lot about what other cultures believed and why. 
For a girl who doesn’t love math, Rose loves long division. Who knew? Somehow all those multiplication facts which couldn’t seem to stick suddenly make sense to her and she really likes it. She’s doing quite well and we’re just moving right along. We aren’t even needing to take the lessons at half-pace anymore. I think one of the biggest reasons is she received and enormous boost in confidence when she received her standardized testing scores which showed she is working 2 grade levels higher. She suddenly brightened up and math isn’t quite so bad any more!
She’s recently discovered the Little House books and is almost finished with her second one. I’m moving her own to a new series soon and allowing her to read these on her own time. I love how she is drawn to these books, but I try to expand her exposure to different types of literature and authors. She tends to focus in on one and devour everything in that genre or by a particular author so I feel it necessary to help her branch out. 
#LearningTogether

If you follow me in Instagram you’ll see this hashtag quite a bit. My girls are all working in different guides at different levels, a true one-room schoolhouse. Yet one of my favorite blessings on homeschool is how much learning takes place together. Here are a few pictures of that taking place…


This is what my desk looked like during spelling one day. All three levels of spelling at once. Yikes! I do the main instruction separately and then call out the words. Sometimes we do this separately but on this particular day I tried out juggling the three levels at once. It actually worked quite beautifully. I’m training them to put their pencils down when they are done writing what I have called out so I am cued to give them another word or sentence but they at the same time do not distract their sisters by talking out loud. So far it is working and although I won’t always do three at once, it is sort of fun when I do!And now for the visit! We had so much fun having family here. My sister-in-law was my roommate in college and we are very close. It is always refreshing to spend time together and it is so much fun to see our kids playing together. 

First the surprise! 
Then the fun!
They stayed from Tuesday through Thursday and it was a really fun diversion during the middle of our week. 

Week in Review: May 25-29

Grace-Filled Writer

We had a great week! Our week began with a field trip to a Science Center which gave us a great start. I’m planning on more field trips this summer and will blog about them all!

Lessons went really well and we had some fun almost every afternoon at the pool!

And when we weren’t playing, here is what we were learning…
Grace: Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 15

Rod and Staff is the best for thinking skill type workbooks. I’ve used them with all three of my girls and all three have loved them. Grace  is in the G book. She began with these when she was 4 and we have just moved through them steadily. She has gotten to the point where she will read the directions ahead to herself, so I have to watch her and make sure she is doing it correctly! She sometimes has trouble identifying some of the pictures as the words intended for activities such as rhyming. It’s been a neat way to introduce her to some things we don’t have around our house as well as synonyms. 
My little girl isn’t so little anymore! Look at her being all grown up and working on 1st grade word problems for math! I am not one to rush my children in their academic abilities, but neither am I one to hold them back. My little smarty pants was begging for more math so I tried out 1st grade an I’m so glad I did. She is learning at her own pace and just moving right along so smooth like a hot knife through butter. 
She’s seeming rather bored with our Abeka readers. Maybe bored isn’t the right word, but Grace is definitely not being challenged. I believe we will be starting with the Emerging Readers from Heart of Dakota. We may skip the Bible which comes first because she has read this over and over both with our family devotions and during her afternoon quite time. 
Beth: Bigger Hearts for His Glory Unit 26

Do you remember how much I said my girls loved their Rod and Staff ABC books? Well Beth is finished up one this week. I intended her to only use them through 1st grade but when Beth figured out there was a new one, she begged me to buy it! She spent some time finishing up her last workbook this week. I find it really sweet that she loves them so much. 
Math is always easy for Beth, but she has recently begun making hasty mistakes. What I mean by that is she knows what to do, but does not take the time to carefully make sure she isn’t making errors. I’m working to correct this with her by making her redo the problems she misses. We’ll see how quickly she moves past it. 
History! We have moved on to the Civil War. One of our next field trips will focus on this time during history, especially slavery. Beth is more familiar with slavery because of our previous field trips and listening to the discussions I’ve had with Rose over the last couple of years. This week we looked at the states which sided with the Confederacy as well as some of the things which led to the war. 
Rose: Creation to Christ Unit 9

We are very much enjoying Write With the Best. I’ve seen some threads recently that some do not like it. I have not come across anything I dislike yet as we are about to finis up unit 2 this coming week. I also am looking at it from an English teacher’s perspective. I love how classic writing is analyzed and then used as a model for her own writing. She still has some editing to do, but I will share her completed piece next week.  
Math is flowing along swimmingly! We started long division like it was an afternoon spring breeze. That’s right, believe it or not, my Rose said to me, “Wow Mommy! This is pretty easy!” How sweet and beautiful those words were to me after the many struggles we have had. I cannot attribute this to anything except prayer, patience, and finding a math program (through prayer and patience!) that really works for us. 
One of the reasons I don’t have as many pictures of Rose this week is that my little studious worker got up early two days and began doing her schoolwork while I was getting ready for the day. Having a checklist and giving my girls access to it has allowed them to be independent which is great. 
And now for my favorite photo of the week…
This is pretty normal study habits around our house. Beth especially loves reading outside on our front porch. Grace has also been begging me to read her history alone most days. How beautiful is this? Here are my girls studying together independently. Our one room schoolhouse is just beautiful. 

Week in Review: May 11-15

Grace-Filled Writer
http://gracefilledhomeschooling.blogspot.com/2015/05/lightening-bug-lullabies-review-and.html
Not many have entered yet, which increases your chances to be blessed with this incredible CD! 
Now onto our week…

So this was the start of our week. Standardized testing!

Yeah, I know, not super exciting, but it isn’t too bad. The girls don’t mind and it is a nice deviation from our normal routine. Grace isn’t quite old enough, much to her disappointment. The funny thing is that for all the stress so many of my friend’s kids are under with testing in traditional school, my girls really do find it kind of fun. I make sure they know it doesn’t really count for anything, it is just a way for me to see what they have learned and what we may need to work on some more. Rose has finally moved past her struggle with timed tests where she isn’t so stressed out about how much time she has left. I found out Beth is doing all of the math in her head and getting it right, which is just incredibly exciting for me!

We test because I do like to know where they stand academically, but also because it is required in our state. In the past I’ve used Seton Testing Services which I still highly recommend. This year we opted to use the older CAT Test provided by Christian Liberty Press. I liked it much better and it is a bit more academically expectant than the newer tests. I’m very interested to see how my girls score on this.

Since the first two days were testing  I opted to work on the basics for the rest of the week and finish up a few things we didn’t get to last week, but no new unit in our Heart of Dakota Guides. Here is a mish-mash of the learning we accomplished this week!

Little Miss Grace was over-the-moon to start using the All About Spelling tiles this week!
She also had a lot of fun using the abacus to work on some math facts. This is such a great tool and the girls love when they can use it for their math work!
Fundanoodle handwriting just keeps getting better!
Beth did a lot of her work in other areas of the house this week. Reading outside, handwriting in the kitchen, and sometimes in her bedroom. I forgot to get pictures of her doing all of those things! She did math in our school room so that’s what I have recorded. 
Beth is very mathematically minded and does well, but gets distracted sometimes, maybe because she feel sit is too easy, but she almost never makes a mistake except for not writing down the “what” for word problems. By that I mean if her answer is dollars or cats or chips, she usually forgets to include that. We’re working on it though!
Rose had some notebooking to finish up from her last unit. She really likes the notebooking which I require to be completely in cursive. 
We had a lot of bumps along the way with math over the last couple of years, but Rose is doing great now. Her confidence in math builds every day and she doesn’t dread it nearly as much. Not to mention the tears have finally subsided when it comes to math! 
I hope you all had a good week! I’d love to hear about your standardized testing. Leave a comment if you test telling me what you use and when you test. 


Week in Review: May 4-8

Grace-Filled Writer
Happy Mother’s Day to you all!


We had another good week although we got a little off track towards the end. Some unexpected doctor’s appointments came up and we had to compact our days a bit at the end of the week. I also only remembered to get my camera out one day, just so you don’t think my kids wear the same thing every day or something!

Before I go into our week…how about a giveaway?!?!?! Just click on the CD cover below to see how delightful this CD is! (You’ll also get to hear my three darlings sing!)


Now me as we review our week!

Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 14

Grace begged me to read her history this week. She reads aloud which is good because I can make sure she is understanding what she is reading. Her favorite story this week was when Jesus had the children come to Him even though His disciples said He was too busy. This is such a good reminder for me too. In the busyness of our days I can’t forget that Christ made children His priority and made sure they knew it. I need to follow His example in this more fully.

Rose helped Grace with her handwriting on this day, helping her make sure she formed her letters correctly. We still love Fundanoodle and Grace is much happier now that we are moving more quickly. I would have her practice the same letter more than one day in this book at first because she needed shorter amount of practice in order to stay neat, but she has matured past this and does one letter every two days with Handwriting Without Tears on the in-between days.


We are moving right along with All About Spelling, level 1. She reviewed her phonograms herself some and did a great job with that, so we moved onto segmenting words by each letter. Well be moving on to actually using the tiles next week which she is very excited to do.

Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 25

Since we had to catch up some during the week Beth read this history assignment by herself. She loves finding each of the numbers on the map in the Journeys in Time book for each reading. This is her favorite of the history books.

 Beth does not care to read A First Book in American History herself so she will often color a colonial coloring book while I read to her. I’m fine with her coloring or drawing while I read as long as she can accurately tell me what I read to her afterwards. If she cannot, then she has to read it on her own again and then tell me about it.

I love this picture. Beth twirls her hair all the time while she studies. This is just her normal thinking state. She also tends to pace while she recites verses for homeschool or for Awana at church. She’s very studious these days and works hard to finish quickly most of the time, which is nice as I think ahead to Preparing next year and the big jump it is to that guide.


Creation to Christ: Unit 8


We started off the week with Arithmetic Village and King David Divide to practice more division and learn about remainders. These sweet little books teach the concepts behind the traditional math so clearly. Rose is 9 and I wasn’t sure she would want to use this, but when I asked her she was really excited.

Rose still completed her Math Mammoth pages. I’m very excited that she finally realizes she is not “bad” at math. This has been something I have been trying to help her understand since we started homeschooling in 1st grade. Because she struggled with the pressure of timed tests she believed she wasn’t good at math. At some point in the last couple of weeks she looked up at me during her math lesson and said, “Mommy, maybe I really am good at math. What do you think?” Oh yes, sweetheart! You are very good at math! I’m so grateful she has finally realized her ability is not measured in a timed test.

For story time this week Rose read the Book of Ruth. We used I Am Ruth, an incredible book from New Leaf Publishing which includes amazing photography as well as cultural and historical background information on each chapter. The entire book from Scripture is included. I had Rose look at the pictures before she read the chapter and she really enjoyed it.

I love, love, love how independent Rose is becoming through Heart of Dakota. I still oversee her learning and we discuss what she is learning, but as a 9-year-old 4th grader she is becoming more and more in charge of her own knowledge. I’m merely a facilitator. What is really cool is that she now knows how to find out information on her own when she has a question. She understands to look words up in a dictionary, information in an encyclopedia, and even more details in resource books using the index. What is even better is that it is her idea to look things up instead of just asking me the answer. I’m more than happy to help her, but seeing her mature in this way because of Heart of Dakota is such a blessing.

Here is our history project for the week. She loves the projects. Rose parted the red sea with paper. I love that I just give her the guide and the materials and she can usually figure it out on her own. Learning at its best! 






I had some great health news this week as I anticipated the possibility of another thyroid surgery. It was heavy on my mind and made it hard to focus. I also had some news about a good friend that grieved my heart. Our neighbor from Florida and one of my students when I was teaching full-time early on in our marriage lost her baby unexpectedly a few days ago from either SIDs or a medical complication. My heart grieves for this family. If you have a moment, pray for this family as they grieve the loss of their beautiful baby girl, Ella.

Week in Review: April 27-May 1

Grace-Filled Writer

Two weekly reviews in a row feels great! This week went very well. We didn’t get through quite everything I wanted to and got a little sidetracked by some some health issues, but I feel good about the week. We had some really neat experiences in addition to our regular lessons I’ll share at the end.

Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 13

Grace thoroughly enjoys all of her history, Bible and poetry in her guide. She really likes having her own readings and focused attention at her own level. We will continue through the summer and probably start Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory in the fall even if we haven’t finished Little Hearts.

For handwriting we are using Fundanoodle. This is a program I reviewed with The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew a couple of years ago and we absolutely loved it. It has the same type of feel as handwriting without tears, but is more affordable. I love that Grace builds the letters on a magnet board before writing them. She has worked through all of the upper case letters and is now doing lower case. My younger two daughters both used A Reason for Handwriting, which was good and did the job, but I really like the tactile nature of this program. She uses this one day and then practices the same letter in the Handwriting Without Tears book the next day.

For reading Grace is using the 1st grade readers from Abeka and a Dick and Jane book her great grandmother gave her. She loves the stories about Dick, Jane, and their little sister Sally. She actually likes it better than the Abeka books. If I could find more Dick and Jane reasonably priced I would probably just stick with that. After we get done with the 1st grade readers we’ll move onto the Emerging Readers set from Heart of Dakota. She could probably handle them okay now, but I like the idea of building her retention and comprehension before moving onto those too quickly.

Since she is reading really well, I let her call out sentences to Beth this week for her dictation in All About Spelling. She really enjoyed this and felt quite grown up. Her older sisters quite often help her with various subjects so this was a nice change for her.

Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 24

We only have 10 more units left in Bigger! I may just do the history activities when summer comes because I want to start Preparing as she is entering 3rd grade. She may only go half-paced as her older sister did, but I feel she is definitely ready to move ahead in the guides.

As Beth has progressed I am encouraging her to read some history on her own as well as do some of the activities with little guidance from me. I now give Beth the guide and she works on her timeline alone. She is free to ask questions or ask for help, but this is one way I am helping her become more independent.

This week we had to catch up with four units on the timeline. Sometimes this box gets left out, but it’s something I always make sure to go back and catch up all the way. She has very much liked reading Stories of Great Americans and she can easily read and comprehend this book. I like giving her the freedom to read on her own although I do still read it to her sometimes.

Isn’t this the best picture???? We are working on math. Ha! The thing is that both girls are doing well with math, even Rose who has struggled some in the past. They weren’t upset or anything, just a bit tired and ready to be done. But hey, I felt the same way they did at this point that day!

Creation to Christ: Unit 7


Although it is a little strange to have started this guide mid-year, it’s working out well. The level of work has increased, but not too significantly. Rose really likes the notebooking pages and has done well to transition to using cursive all the time. She forgets sometimes, bu these erasable pens recommended in the forum and facebook group have been excellent. She loves having a special pen just for her to use.

Here she is listening to the “What in the World?” CD by Diane Warren. She absolutely loves this and I’m excited that she’ll get to use the next 2 CD sets in the upcoming guides.

I love learning about grammar, but I never expected my kids to! I’m so thrilled they love it. Yes, Rod and Staff can be a bit tedious, but the more you can do aloud, the better. I usually leave the written work for diagramming. I know diagramming can seem old fashioned and unnecessary, but I do see a benefit in being able to identify and classify the part of a sentence not only for school studies but for language study in the future. I don’t know what language she will study, but when she does having a solid grammar base will help her tremendously.

Other exciting opportunities…

I know other families have the same opportunity to do fun stuff that we do, but I think it is sometimes a little easier to fit into our lives because we homeschool. Here are some fun things we did this week.

This week was the Deerstream Learning Center Art Show and Exhibition. Each students has several pieces of art showcased. These are just a couple of pieces my girls had in the show. Grace is very excited to be a part of this next year. 
You can listen to the radio drama my English students recorded and produced for the art show by clicking here!
Another really cool thing is that these…
Hatched into these! 
This has been an amazing observational experience for them! They check on the little babies daily and have named them. They are at ground level inside an old plastic filing cabinet and easy for the girls to see without disturbing the chicks or their mama. 
Our final really cool experience was skyping with my aunt while she was in Haiti. My aunt takes a yearly trip to Haiti and works with a school there. We arranged for the girls to Skype with students in the second grade class there. They sang Jesus Loves Me and the girls sang Amazing Grace. We showed them around our schoolroom. It was really cool! 
I also enjoyed International Scrapbook Day and purchased some digital scrapbooking supplies on sale and completed a few layouts. This is one of my favorite leisure activities. I love preserving our family memories and I like the creativity of scrapbooking. I’m working on our 2008 album so Rose and Beth are quite little! Grace was a little confused that she wasn’t in any of the pictures, but very much enjoyed seein gher big sisters at play. 

So there was our week. Pretty smooth and lots of fun!

The Long Overdue…Week in Review!

Grace-Filled Writer

Okay, so this is really more like 3 or 4 months in review. I got blog-discouraged back in the winter when 2 years worth of pictures just disappeared. Yup. They’re gone. Hundreds upon hundreds of pictures vanished leaving my blog looking rather bare. I researched and tried to recover them, but to no avail. I became quite disheartened and so I paused blogging. What was intended to be just a couple of weeks break turned into a few months break.

In the meantime, school has been absolutely delightful! We are 12 units into Little Hearts for His Glory, 6 Units into Creation to Christ, and 24 units into Bigger Hearts for His Glory. The girls are loving school, we are in our groove, and for all the bumps over the last couple of years, it couldn’t be going better. Praising God for that!

So what have we been up to? 

During my blogging pause we enjoyed some snow… 

I know this isn’t a big deal to many of you, but it is to us! We got 2 really good snowfalls this year which is rare. I love that when we do get snow it is gone in about 2-3 days though! 

Took a fun vacation to Florida…

We spent some time at Disney World with my parents and then got to visit my husband’s parents afterwards. So much fun and a much needed break from the cold. My girls enjoyed meeting several characters and our favorite without a doubt was Cinderella’s step-mother and step-sisters.

Celebrated Passover and Easter…

Our family Passover Seder is my favorite Spring tradition! 

And Continued on with school!

So as far as school, things are going really, really well. You can see we’ve purchased some school desks and the girls absolutely love them. They still do school around the house in various places, but they really like having a desk that is all their own. We also bought them wiggle seats. One of my girls tends to need a lot of motion while she learns which was distracting to another daughter who needs a distraction-free learning area. This was an excellent compromise and although we only really felt like it would benefit one, they all have better focus after using them. 
Here are some more specifics about each level…
Grace: Little Hearts for His Glory

The transition into using three guides was not nearly as overwhelming as I thought it would be. Yes, it has changed some thing about our day, but Grace is so happy to have her own history reading and be challenged a little more. 
Grace finished multiple Kindergarten math workbooks and I was honestly at a loss as to what to do with her because she isn’t even officially in K5 according to our state’s laws until this coming September. A very dear friend of mine at church listened to my dilemma one day. She herself was homeschooled and has been a great person to talk to throughout our schooling. So what did she that helped me out? “Why don’t you let her try out your 1st grade curriculum?” My genius response? “Umm…because she isn’t in 1st grade?” Yeah, we both laughed and she reminded me of one of the main reasons we love homeschooling: My girls get to move at their own pace! So we have moved on. 
We started with Arithmetic Village which I highly recommend if you are looking for a “living curriculum” start to mathematics. Grace loved it! After we finished the book and several days of activities from the corresponding booklet, we have moved into Math Mammoth, 1st grade. She’s doing great and loves it.
Like I said before, Grace loves history…loves history. She is reading really well and quite often asks to read a portion of her history for the day. She does really well and is always able to tell me about what she read. Since I want my girls to become independent anyway, I’m happy to let her read when she wants. 
The other major leap for Grace is that she finished the Abeka Handbook for Reading and we have therefore moved on to All About Spelling level 1. Yay! All three girls are using All About Spelling now. It’s more to balance now, but I’m very happy with this move. We’re still finishing up the 1st grade Abeka readers, but she’ll be done with those soon too. She’s moving right a long and loves all she is learning!
I’ve had a traditional school calendar in our room for years, but I’m horrible at keeping up with it. Grace has decided to take this task on as her own. It’s perfect! She is learning her days of the week and months of the year. She loves being in charge of this and I don’t have to remember anymore! 
Beth: Bigger Hearts for His Glory

Beth is really enjoying history. I know a lot of people don’t like the history spines in Bigger Hearts for His Glory. Some because of the perspective, some because of the terminology. I’ve used it as a teaching tool and usually replace the out-of-date terms (whites with colonists, Indians/Savages with Native Americans, etc.) as I read aloud. We talk about why different names are better to use and why it may make people uncomfortable to hear the older terminology. I’m also okay with the perspective because we talk about different perspectives. I love Stories of Great Americans and can’t wait to The Wright Brothers and Their Sister! 
Beth has finished our cursive curriculum book and has moved onto copywork with cursive. We take a portion of the poem and copy a bit each day. Since Beth is still getting used to cursive I use the font Learning Curve and write out what she is to copy each day. Right now we are using traditional lined handwriting paper as well. 
Math is going well as usual with Beth. She loves it and I love it and I can finally…finally…say we have hit our stride for this subject with all three of the girls! You are seeing this picture correctly…I let my daughters use white board markers on our floor! Yikes! Don’t worry, I tested this the first time I tried it. It is a great way to practice measurements and it’s so out of the ordinary that my girls just love it. 
It just so happened that the girls ended up on their measurement and weight unit at the same time. It isn’t often that they are studying the same things at the same time, so this was fun for them both and they really enjoyed helping each other out with the various activities. They measured each other, us, toys, so many things! 
You’re going to see a lot more technology in our pictures. While I am not interested in doing our studies as an online curriculum, I feel very strongly that I need to help my girls learn how to navigate technology responsibly. They each have their own e-mail addresses but are only allowed to e-mail family. Their readings are sometimes e-books. And finally we are using a homework app called Homework Helper. This is giving them more responsibility. The only glitch is getting my own checklist finished in time to get it put into the app using the Teacher version called Teacherio.
Rose: Creation to Christ

We are over half-way through level 4 of All About Spelling. I intend to finish this curriculum with each of my girls, and they are going very quickly through it. Rose started a little later than her sisters because we weren’t homeschooling as young as with them.  This scripted spelling curriculum is so thorough and my girls are retaining which is great, but that’s not even the best part! Rose is now automatically applying what she’s learning in AAS to her written narrations and other writing. So for anyone who isn’t sure if this is working, just hang in there. It will translate to their everyday stuff. We also use dictation as written in HOD for three days out of the week as well. 
Yes, that is a calculator in my daughter’s hand. I know, I know…first writing with Expos on the floor, then a calculator…what is math coming to in this house!?!?! After talking with my husband (who is very mathematically minded) we decided to allow Rose to check her own math after she had completed it. This has been amazing for her! I still require her to do all of the math by hand, but in checking her own work she is somehow feeling more confident. I also attribute her confidence to Math Rider because she now knows her math facts with confidence. 
One of the cool part of CTC which is new to us is the daily quiet time built into the studies. All of the Scripture memory up to this point has been preparing Rose for her own quiet time. I love that our curriculum is solid academically, but the fact that she is growing spiritually is just spectacular. It took her some time to be okay with highlighting her Bible until I let her do it with erasable colored pencils. She feels better about this just in case she makes a mistake. My little first-born has all the classic tendencies that follow with her birth-order. Knowing and understanding this helps me know how to help her succeed and feel successful. Giving her a way to be okay with mistakes is just a small way to help our entire day go smoother. 
#LearningTogether
I’m not a super-fan of the hash tag, but this is one I’ve been using on Instagram. My girls are all in separate guides, different grade-levels and studying different histories…yet we still learn together. We’re usually in the same room. Everyone is allowed to ask questions about what the others are learning as long as they are able to get focused again. Each is allowed to teach their sisters if they learn something new. Most importantly, they encourage one another to love learning. I don’t allow complaining about school work, but I usually don’t have to enforce that rule. Most often they are engaged and excited about what they are learning. Our little one-room-schoolhouse is a beautiful place to learn thanks to Heart of Dakota!