Tag: Little Hands to Heaven

Week in Review: August 5-9

Grace-Filled Writer


In retrospect, this was not the ideal week to begin school. I had these wonderful visions of what our first day back at it would look like with eager faces shining up at me begging to be enlightened…yeah…and I’m not even a newbie anymore either! My girls were coming off a 2-week vacation with their grandparents, I was only 2 1/2 weeks out from having thyroid surgery, and I started one of my two part-time jobs teaching piano for 2 1/2 hours every afternoon. I obviously didn’t think this through! Yet, when my mind is made up to begin something, I have a very difficult deviating from that thought.

Our first week was not what I had planned, yet it was still pretty good. I learned some things, tweaked some things, and regrouped more than once! We ended the week with a fun field trip giving us some much needed family-time as well.

We’re using three guides from Heart of Dakota once again…

Grace – K4
Beth – 1st Grade
Rose – 3rd Grade

Little Hands to Heaven: Unit 20


Grace did a little over half the guide of Little Hands to Heaven last year for K-3. I had originally intended to do this guide twice in a row, but plans changed, life happened, and here we are. This unit was a review so it was a perfect starting point for Grace. All of the letters have special motions and a rhyme to help out with remembering their sounds. I was so pleased that even though she didn’t remember all of them she did recall them quickly when I reminded her of the motions. 

We are moving fairly quickly now through the About 3 series. Rod and Staff is an excellent company and very solid, although not flashy. Much of their curriculum focuses on rural life and has given us some great discussions we may not have had otherwise. My grandfather was a farmer so it has been fun to explore things like farming tools as well as less modern conveniences such as oil lamps. 

We are also reading through Master Book’s N is for Noah. I am loving being a Mom of Master Books! (Click on the picture for my full review!)

Grace is also starting to learn to read! We’re using Reading Kingdom (A TOS Review product) and Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons…but more will come next week!




Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 1

Beth has grown up so much in the last couple of months. She has decided to grow her bangs out and is typically the first one starting her lessons, most often without my even saying anything to her. She loves to learn and never, ever balks at her schoolwork. I have no idea if this will last, but believe me, I’m going to enjoy it while I can!

She is finishing up the last few pages of the Inside Outside Rod and Staff workbook, which she is sad to see end. J, the next book in the series has just been published and I may just have to get it for her! 

She was a bit hesitant about history last year, but by the end of Little Hands to Heaven she really enjoyed our readings. She couldn’t wait to get started with history this year. Living history is one of the beautiful aspects of the Heart of Dakota curriculum modeled after Charlotte Mason’s style of learning. 
Beth did her first timeline entry today! Timelines are a big part of Heart of Dakota. Beth was very certain she could never do a timeline entry…then was so proud of herself when she did! Everything is her own writing and drawing. I did give her an example of what she could draw to get her started though. 
We are also continuing with All About Spelling (close to finishing level 1!) as well as cursive instruction. She has started the year off quite well! 
Preparing Hearts for His Glory: Unit 1
Rose was not quite as eager to get started this summer as I expected and I think it may have been my fault. I over ambitiously assumed since she completed Bigger Hearts for His Glory on such a high note we could dive right into Preparing Hearts for His Glory at full speed…and after two days I saw this had been a big error! I believe from now on I’m going to need to start every guide at half speed and then see how it will go. Since Rose is at the younger end of the age-range for the guide I had to be reminded by other Heart of Dakota moms that I need to give her a bit of time to grow into the higher expectations of this guide.
Rose’s least favorite subject is math. I’ve been having her continue with Math Rider which is really helping with this. Rod and Staff is our math curriculum which has a lot of practice. Since I feel it is more at this level than she needs I have been having her do just the even or odd numbers on the page. If she has any trouble we go back and do the opposite the following day. So far this has been a great plan and has eased her anxiety over this subject. 
Draw and Write Through History: Creation to Jonah is definitely her favorite part so far! These creation based history lessons excite my little artist! 
Dictation is alternated with All About Spelling, level 3. She does well with both, so I combine the two with an alternating schedule. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are for dictation while Tuesdays and Thursdays are All About Spelling. I have been so pleased with her progress in this area. She still has some letter switching issues, but this seems to be most prevalent when she is less focused or tired. I just try to make sure she is fresh when we cover these subjects from now on. 
Over all the week was good. I did have to change up my plans and back off a bit on Rose’s work, but otherwise it was a good week.

Week in Review: May 6-10

Grace-Filled Writer

The beginning of May is a whirlwind around here! We finish up with Deerstream Learning Center and I finish up teaching piano lessons. Life feels crazy and then there is a sudden and wonderful calm. It hasn’t arrived yet, but it will next week after my piano recital. With the craziness we try to squeeze in a bit of fun like New Orleans Style shaved ice! (Yes, it’s pouring the rain, but boy was it a memorable visit!)

Some things have come up for us that has made me feel like I need to finish up school for the year in the next couple of weeks. Because of that I’ve made a few changes. Grace is going full-out fast-paced through Little Hands to Heaven. I’m doing 2-3 units a week. I want to get through this guide so she experiences the poems for each letter and we’ll be doing it again next year for k-4. I’m only going to be reading the history and finishing the last several units with Beth by the end of next week. She is already into her 1st grade math and reading so I’m okay with moving more quickly. Rose will be finishing the last two units of Bigger next week.

The following week Rose and Beth will be completing their required state testing. Testing is one of the few requirements in our state for homeschooling and it is required to begin the school year when a student turns eight. I choose to test earlier because I want them to feel comfortable with testing in a comfortable environment I can control and I am covering my bases for the state. With the way educational requirements change so frequently I want to make sure I have done everything possible in order to show I am providing my girls with an excellent education.

In between all of this I have found time to still squeeze in my reviews! Make sure you check out the review of Trailblazer Books. They are offering a free e-book to my readers for this month only! More reviews will be headed your way soon!

And here is our week…

Little Hands to Heaven: Unit 19
We studied the letter P this week…mostly in one day to be completely honest! Grace did other work the other days, but we spent mostly 1 day focusing on this letter. I really enjoy adding in Do-A-Dot pages to coordinate with these. So does she! I let her pick the colors and then she has fun dotting the pages. To find these and others like them simply google “Do-A-Dot alphabet pages”. You’ll find more than you can ever use!

She opted to do her work in the hallway. Grace has been clearly trying to become her own person recently. This has sometimes played out in some rather defiant moments, but also has shown itself in small ways like when she says, “Mommy, can I do lessons on the floor?” As long as there isn’t a good reason I’m trying to allow her some flexibility. I am having to say, “No!” to her so often at the moment that anytime I can, “Yes,” it is a relief.

Her favorite part of the lessons is almost always the finger play which goes along with the letter for the week. She really gets into this and it typically involves her entire body, not just her fingers!






Little Hearts for His Glory: Units 28-29

I have several units to finish this coming week, but that’s okay. I need to finish and so we’ll make it! Beth love the GHI series from Rod and Staff. This is the new series Carrie Austin has chosen for Little Hearts for His Glory since Thinking Skills for 1st grade has been discontinued. We were using them already because Beth finished the Thinking Skills book in about a month. She kept sneaking it into her room during rest time and working on it when I didn’t realize it! I have to say I am very pleased with the switch and find these to be more challenging and fun than that Thinking Skills book was.

Since she finished up her reading books last week I’ve just been having Beth read books to me and I’ll ask 2-3 comprehension questions at the end. Her favorite book a Dick and Jane reader given to her by her great-grandmother. It is very simple for he at this point, but she loves it so much and at this age, reading is reading! I love our time cuddling on the couch while she reads to me. It is such a blessing!


Beth continues to use Math Rider in addition to her Rod and Staff math. This has improved her already strong math facts and she loves it! If you haven’t heard of it, take some time to check out my review. It has been a wonderful blessing to our homeschool curriculum!


Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Units 31 and 32

When I told Rose we were going to move more quickly through her curriculum, she said, “Oh. I guess I’ll just have to be more diligent!” What a sweet answer! We’re already on target to finish grammar and math next week without speeding up pace. Rose worked on practicing alphabetizing this week in her grammar book. This was very simple for her since the vocabulary with HOD gives her a chance to practice alphabetical order.

She was very excited to study two poems this week! Both poems for the week are on the page so it was easier. When studying rhyme scheme I have her first highlight the rhyming lines and then add in the letters. This has been a great way for her to visually see the rhyming pattern. I love that Heart of Dakota incorporates poetry from the very first guides. They are developing and appreciation for poetry and Rose has even been chosen for publication recently for a poetry contest! Her inspiration to write poetry definitely came fro her studies each week.

I often let Rose read her history on her own by her choice. Her narration skills have improved so much and I’m so pleased with her progress! She will many times read in the living room while I teach her sisters in the school-room. I will usually find her snuggled under a blanket completely drawn into her reading assignment. This week she finished up the entire book about the Wright Brothers. I didn’t intend for her to, but she got so excited about finishing she didn’t realize she was supposed to stop! You know you have an excellent history program when a child is so absorbed they completely forget to end their assigned reading for the day.

One more subject we have added to our week is typing. Rose has been hounding me to let her learn how to type. When the opportunity came up to review Typing Tournament I was so excited! Check out this really fun program for typing lessons for kids and adults. My husband said that if he’d had this to use to learn about typing when he was in school he might have actually learned the first time around.

That was our week! We’ve has a busy and full weekend with a fun surprise coming for the girls next week! I can’t wait to share it with you!

Here is a hint: They Glow 
Any guesses?

Week in Review: April 29 – May 3

Grace-Filled Writer

School is starting to wind down and everyone is getting a bit anxious for a break. I remember coming back from spring break when I was teaching full-time was always difficult and the same seems to be true for homeschool! The excessive pollen which is still floating around isn’t helping either! Still, we are making it through our curriculum and finding fun things to do along the way. Check out our break-from-the-ordinary field trip by clicking on the picture.

We have been reviewing a lot of really great things from several companies! In case you’ve missed some here is a list of our most recent reviews:

Advice for Seekers by Charles Spurgeon
Composers Activity Pak
Dr. Craft’s Active Playbook
Tower of Babel: The Cultural History of our Ancestors

Look for many more to come in the coming weeks!

Little Hands to Heaven: Unit 18
Grace is so incredibly impatient with me if we don’t do lots of school! I’m trying to teach her that sometimes she has to wait and sometimes we won’t do everything. She doesn’t like either of those truths, but I do try to make it up to her another day and do more!

Our letter of the week was O. All of our magnet letters are stored in this large tin. We play a search for the letter game sometimes on the lid. I didn’t realize until after I took this picture that I had put the O’s all together! But Grace didn’t mind, and didn’t even notice to be honest.

She has moved on to the C book of her About 3 series from Rod and Staff Publishing. These books have progressed her thinking skills and handwriting to a really good place as we finish up her K-3 year. She is one of those kids who would either start Kindergarten as a 4 year-old or wait and start just before she turns 6. While I completely hated the idea of her older sister starting Kindergarten just as she turned 5, I knew academically it was the best thing for her. Now I don’t have to worry about those problems! I can challenge her academically without the added stresses of needing to mature somewhat.

I did a fun new activity I found on Pinterest. I actually combined a couple of activities. I put a dice into an empty baby-food jar. She shook the dice, then she put that many noodles in one of the cubes in the ice cube tray. This occupied her for a full 30 minutes. Win!

Grace enjoys these types of activities and she’s still at an age that she thinks it’s a new activity if I change from noodles to dry beans or beads! It’s also really nice to be able to give her these small things and know she’s not going to try and eat them and choke. She really likes to use Cheerios  but ends up eating more than she counts.

Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 27

Beth is working hard and getting close to finishing up! Since our allergy attack last week knocked us off from finishing up Unit 27 we just picked up where we stopped last week. We finished up the history readings which she enjoyed as usual.

Since finishing up her handwriting book we’ve moved on to a phonics practice book which also incorporates handwriting. She really likes these activities and it has not only helped improve her handwriting, but it also incorporates critical thinking, spelling, rhyming, and reading. Yay for Grandma fining this for her!

Beth also completed her first math speed drill! Rod and Staff is a very traditional mathematics curriculum without any frills. It’s no-nonsense approach has been a good fit for my girls and they do quite well with it. I’m not actually doing the speed drills exactly as they are intended yet because she has moved on to 1st grade level math very quickly. I told her to do them as quickly as she could and I just kept track of the time. I was very pleased that she finished all 18 problems in only 65 seconds. She knows the answers quickly, but is sometimes slow about writing the numbers because she wants them to look neat.

She also finished up her reading curriculum this week. Now that she has completed through 1st grade Abeka phonics we’ll move on to the emerging readers set used in Heart of Dakota. I’m not sure if we’ll start them next week though. For now I think I will just have Beth do some reading and narration each day.

Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 30

Rose started off the week with an art show at Deerstream Learning Center. She created her own national park complete with unique land forms. She was so proud of her project and her grandparents were able to come and see it. Homeschool classes have been a great addition for Rose. Beth gets to start taking classes next year and she is looking forward to joining her big sister.

Rose has adjusted well to completing all three of the vocabulary words which encourages me that she is completely ready for the next guide from Heart of Dakota, Preparing Hearts for His Glory. She does tend to get a little sloppy with her handwriting at times. Her original sentences were excellently written with good context, but were not nearly as neat as I knew she could write. I decided to have her rewrite them. She wasn’t thrilled at first, but when I asked her if she thought she had used her best handwriting, she gave me a guilty smile and didn’t say anything more!

We have added an official typing program which Rose begs to use frequently! I’ll have a review of this program coming up soon. It’s one of the most fun I’ve used and is quite affordable. She has completed 2 lessons and is working on her write hand letters. I honestly wasn’t certain how well she would do but I have been pleased with her progress!

Another great week and looking forward to just a few more in our guides!

Week in Review: April 22-26

Grace-Filled Writer

Our week coming off of Spring Break was nice and easy. The girls were up late every night the week before…2 hours after bedtime late! Their Grammy and Grampy were visiting from FL and we also spent some time with their cousins. No wonder they were up late! Then the allergies hit. I really struggle with allergies here in the south every spring and have lost my voice for 2 weeks for the last 5 years and this was the week it started! So we had a couple of sick days when my voice was at its worst. I also pondered all the advice I was given when we first started homeschooling and wrote a fun post incorporating it all! Click the graphic and you can read the only complete list of homeschooling advice you’ll find!

Little Hands to Heaven: Off Week
I’ve been thinking about what to do next year with Grace next year since she’ll still be preschool. I plan to start teaching her to read because she is ready although I’m flexible depending on how she responds. I have decided to do Little Hands to Heaven through once more with a different Bible option and more letter and number practice in addition to the Rod and Staff ABC series. I think she’s really going to like it!

This week she just explored, colored, played games, built puzzles, and worked in preschool workbooks. My favorite part of the week was when she took her magnifying glass and examined a but outside on the back porch. She loves bugs as long as she is assured it won’t sting or bite. She looked at this little guy and said, “He looks sad Mommy!” I’m not sure what kind it was, but she had a good time inspecting it!

Moments like these make me so grateful she’s spending her preschool years with me and not in a classroom with a different teacher. I love seeing her explore, teaching her the basics, and encouraging her to try new things. She has friends her own age she plays with each week and she gets along with kids of all ages because of church. I know universal preschool is probably inevitably going to happen and almost many of my mommy friends send their youngers to preschool, but I feel blessed to have had all three of my girls for this age!

Little Hearts to Heaven: Part of Unit 27
Poor sweet Beth has inherited my allergies. She’s had a tough time getting a full night’s sleep and spends her days blowing her nose and coughing with me. So we started off with Unit 27, but then I just let her read and color for most of the rest of the week. This is not a big deal at all since she is almost finished with her first grade reading, half-way through 1st grade math, and half-way through All About Spelling level 1. Taking a few days off certainly won’t get us behind!

Beth loves coloring more than any other child I’ve seen! She begs to color and loves it when someone colors with her. Grace happily colored along with her all during the week! She did some math and spelling early in the week before she started feeling really crummy and has enjoyed learning about how to tell Time!

She spent lots of time reading and is in the middle of reading a chapter book her older sister picked out for her at a local thrift store for $0.10. I love it when the girls encourage one another’s love for reading like this! I also love that when she can’t think of anything else to do, she picks up her book to read.




Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 29

I was neglectful of pictures this week! I think all the allergy medicines I’m using is messing with my thinking skills. We continued reading through The Wright Brothers and Their Sister. I have to keep Rose from reading ahead in this one! She has loved this part of our history this year. Rose loves history of any kind in reality. This week she asked permission to get some extra books off the shelf to read about George Washington. Um…yes! I also told her there was no need to ask permission to read anything we weren’t going to use in school. She told me she liked being able to learn even more about history than what our curriculum tells us. When your regular curriculum inspires more curiosity and learning you know you have an excellent curriculum!

She also spent time completing up a lapbook on composers we’ve been reviewing for the TOS Review Crew. I’ll be posting about this on Monday so stay tuned! Her favorite part has been reading about all the different composers. This is my first try at lapbooking and although it has been a good experience I have to say that I prefer our HOD curriculum. It has been a good addition to our regular studies though.

In addition to the regular schooling we did the girls enjoyed watching The Magic
School Bus. Grandpa and Grandma gave them this for Valentines Day this year. It has inspired lots of scientific conversations! This series does talk about millions of years, but that is the only reference to evolution I have found. Our family believes the Bible refers to a literal 6 days of creation and do not teach our children that the earth is millions of years old. However, this does not keep me from allowing them to watch mainstream science videos. When these references started popping up a few years ago in shows like Dinosaur Train I simply told Rose that the people who made the show didn’t believe God created the world. I also explained that the other information was good, but we just needed to remember that when they say millions of years that means they don’t believe God created in the way the Bible says He did. This has been a fine explanation and my girls are not confused or conflicted by it. 

I hope your week was lovely and you can enjoy the spring weather more than I can!

Week in Review: April 8-12

Grace-Filled Writer

Next week is spring break! My in-laws will be visiting with us next week and we’ll be enjoying the company of Grammy and Grampy! We’ll also get to see my niece play Amaryllis in The Music Man at the end of the week. I can’t wait to blog about that field trip!

Don’t forget to stop by and enter the giveaway I’m hosting this week! It ends Sunday (4/14) at midnight! This is a really fun one and my daughters have thoroughly enjoyed this particular review!
Little Hands to Heaven: Off Week
We’re half-way through Little Hands to Heaven and I’m so pleased with Grace’s progress. I decided to take a week off because of some plans for major house cleaning! We still did “lessons” because Grace won’t let me get away with much of a break. We just didn’t follow the plans in her guide.
This is a fun math activity I’ve had tucked away which I found a while back. Unfortunately I can’t find the link to where I found this! If I find it I’ll add it in later. Each flash card up to 10 has a stack of legos. Grace simply counted and stacked until what she had matched the card. This is done to scale, but since we only have duplos our towers were MUCH taller! 
We began learning about O even though we didn’t move forward in the book. I intend to go through the guide a second time next year since she loves it so much for preschool and I found a new book of worksheets for each letter at Scholastic’s dollar deals sale. If you haven’t checked out Scholastic Teacher Express I encourage you to do that. I have found a number of resources during their Dollar Days Sale (On right now!) which have enhanced our HOD studies and provided more learning fun! I plan to use the book I found next year.

Grace also enjoyed another of my own creations for a math game! She found the correct number of dots on the ladybug wings and matched them up to the correctly numbered ladybug. This was another activity I made several years ago and never got around to printing and using. I regret not doing so for Rose and Beth, but I’m glad I did get them done in time for Grace! She loves staying with us in the schoolroom, but so much of my time is needed to be focused on the older girls’ studies. I like providing new learning for her so she can stay with us, not be a distraction to the girls, and still be learning! 
She also insisted on working in her Rod and Staff books. They are also having their huge spring sale right now for three more days on all their curriculum. I need to get my order in!
Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 26
Rose loved our unit this week! I didn’t get any shots, but she particularly liked the poem about the start of the American Revolution which included Patrick Henry and the Boston Tea Party. She also seems to enjoy handwriting now, which is a blessing because it wasn’t always so! We’ve moved into handwriting which practices phonics (Thanks to this book my mom found for free!). It is such good practice and each page has a coloring or drawing activity to get her excited to finish well.
She continues to thrive in spelling as well. I honestly can’t say enough about All About Spelling. This has been the best follow up for phonics instruction I have found because it causes my girls to think about phonics in a reverse way. Both girls’ reading skills have improved as a result and neither one complains when it’s spelling time. I usually hear the opposite, “Can we please do spelling now?” Now that indicates a good spelling program! 
Our Word-Wall letter for the week was Q which I don’t believe we finished so we’ll pick that up again after our break. Her words were quill, quail, quake, and queen. I love how many of these words she is finding on her own. Sometimes her eager older sister wants to jump in when Beth gets stuck, but I’ve convinced Rose she at least needs to give clues, not just the word!
Beth is over-the-moon excited to be working on time! She is flying through her 1st grade math curriculum and the concepts are sticking! Rod and Staff takes a more traditional approach to math, but it seems to be the right one for our girls. I’m so happy to have found a math which is a blessing to our family instead of a trial. It has been a lesson in showing me just how unique each family is and how different curricula will work differently for each family. 
Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 28
We are getting so close to finishing up this guide! we only have 6 more weeks left in Bigger Hearts and it only keeps getting better. When your kid begs to read, “…just one more chapter, Please?” You know it’s good! We moved on to studying the Wright brothers and their sister this week which is interesting considering the new controversy surrounding them which has just come to surface. I haven’t decided if I’ll let her in on that or just stick with what we’re learning!
Where I once heard grumbling about vocabulary I now hear excitement about learning new words. Sometimes it just takes a while for a new skill to sink in. She now enjoys learning new words, illustrating them, and even writing sentences which are also getting more creative and wordy. Heart of Dakota is so gentle in its instruction and I love seeing how much she has matured over the last year. 
We also finished up our biography unit on Sacagawea with a book by Knowledge Quest. She loved this really great, interactive e-book. I’ve already written a review about it, so if you want to see more click on the picture. I was very impressed with the quality and she loved being able to quickly research more information! 
Here are samples of her post-reading projects: 

I intend to blog very soon about out language arts plan because it deviates a little from the Heart of Dakota guide. If nothing else it will come this summer!
Just for fun here is what our room looks like after a day of learning! (Notice the kitty still hanging around!)

I hope you had a wonderful week as well!

Week in Review: April 1-5

Grace-Filled Writer
Rose and I had a week off from our homeschool classes for spring break. I teach junior high literature and writing and Rose takes a science/humanities class. We both enjoy them, but also thoroughly enjoyed the week off! We had a more relaxed schedule even though we kept on with our regular at-home school schedule. Don’t worry, I’m not refusing my girls a break! My in-laws are coming up for a visit in another week and we chose to take our at-home break then. Many of my piano students are also out of town this week so it sill feels like break!
Thankfully the south decided to finally thaw a bit from the cold and dry out from the rain! The girls have enjoyed a lot of time outside. Unfortunately a fever/cold also made it’s round and we haven’t enjoyed as much time with our neighborhood friends as we would have liked! Now that they’re all better, it’s sleeting outside. What a crazy spring!
Grace-Filled Homeschooling is also now on Twitter and Tumbler! I was so intimidated by these two, but now enjoying the benefits of both! I don’t have many followers yet, so look forward to these new options for giveaway entries. 

Before I got on with our week-in-review…
There is still a chance to enter two giveaways from two fabulous companies! 
          
Click the images above to see my reviews and enter the giveaway!
Little Hands to Heaven: Unit 17
Grace was very insistent this Monday that she do her lessons first. After her week off I can understand! She loves lessons. Her sisters do as well, but Grace nearly cries when they are over each day! Our letter for the week was N and her finger-play rhyme for this was N-N-Naughty. She thought this was incredibly funny. We also studied about the kings of Israel who were often n-n-naughty! 
One of her favorite things to do now is handwriting. I have used the pages from The Learning Page with all three of my girls and I adore them. They have sets of traditional handwriting pages with just a few examples, but they also have full sheets of dotted letters for tracing for both print and cursive. It is free to sign up and there are lots of other freebies as well.  Although they do link to sites where you have to pay for resources, all of the handwriting sheets can be downloaded free.
Our printer decided to be finicky right when I was ready to print Grace’s N to glue on, so we went old-school with a sharpie and piece of blank paper! I could have just used the glue, but her favorite color is blue, so I thought this would be more fun. My girl could do this for hours. I’m not sure what it is she loves about it, but gluing things onto paper makes her day! 
We’re just about finished with the B Book in the About Three series by Rod and Staff. She has progressed so much as a result of these simple black-line workbooks. She loves coloring the pages after she is finished so I’m glad they are black and white! I highly recommend this series and you can read my full review of them by clicking on the picture. 

Grace enjoyed playing a new game this week. Back when Rose was about two, I made a bunch of file-folder type games for her for matching colors, shapes, etc. I didn’t know of all the resources to be found online at the time and I had several made and laminated. I also made a few games like this which I never ended up printing. I came across them a few weeks ago and I printed and laminated them. The point is to match the numbers on the fish with the correct number of bubbles in the fish bowl. It isn’t fancy, but she had a lot of fun with it!
Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 25
Our cat can’t get enough of sitting with Beth during lessons. You’ll often see her little ears peaking out of Beth’s lap in our pictures! One reason is because she loves the girls, but it also helps that our schoolroom is the warmest spot in the house on cold mornings! This is partly because of the large window facing west, but in no small part due to the space-heater I keep at my cold-natured feet!

Beth’s word-wall letter was P. Her words included panda (her favorite animal), pig, pogo-stick, pumpkin, pen, pin, and Penny (the name). She has fun coming up with words and it has been a great starter for journal writing now. I really like the e-book journal I purchased at the dollar days sale for her which lets her draw pictures and fill in just a small portion of the entries. It has been an excellent tool for her and we’ll continue this on into 1st grade.

I’m hoping to do a write-up of our reading/language arts program soon because I’ve been asked a lot about it. I will go into more detail at a later date, but for now here is what we do in the order they are added:

Heart of Dakota’s Dictation

I start teaching my girls to read when they ask which has been 4 and 3 and a half so far! This is also the route Rose took via private school (k) and homeschool (1st). It left her with a very solid reading foundation which we’re building on continually with All About Spelling. It seems a bit eclectic for my style, but our choices came from what we owned and what I saw working. I plan to stick to this path with Grace.

Our study of George Washington was a lot of fun this week! We learned about the cherry tree story including that it may or may not be true as well as another story of his disobedience to his mother concerning a colt! I had never heard this one before and Beth really enjoyed it. One of the activities was pretending to be a colt and George Washington riding it. Grace filled in for GW since the purpose was to follow directions (right, left, etc.) Beth did a fabulous job and I even through in some north, south, east, west directions. The only trouble she had was being able to follow the directions through the giggling!

We are almost through with the the Inside Outside book from the ABC Rod and Staff series. We’ll be starting this series again with Grace next year and I will be a little sad to see them pass. My girls have all loved them and they have taught so very much. This last book focuses on wildlife in North America.

Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 27
I have been informed this is my portrait! I’m glad she drew me happy and waving. She also asked me to take her picture with it, so I suppose she is very proud of how nice it looks. Nothing like a portrait of you to make the say just a little sweeter!

Arithmetic has become just a little sweeter for both girls thanks to this wonderful program we are reviewing for the TOS Review Crew! I’ll be posting on this in another couple of weeks, but I an tell you now that we use it daily and the girls beg to practice math facts now! Rose particularly likes that she is beginning to learn multiplication now. Her regular math curriculum starts that in 3rd grade and she’s been regularly asking to go ahead and learn multiplication. Now she can!

We’re on unit 8 of All About Spelling book 3. This is one of the best phonics follow-ups I’ve ever heard of or seen. Rose continues to easily recall all the spelling and phonics rules she has learned with ease. This rule we focused on this week was doubling letters to protect the short vowel and using y as a vowel at the end of words. Oh yeah…and my portrait is now saying, “I am a robot!” Hmmm….

For history we studied about the naturalist, John Muir, and touched lightly on the Spanish-American War. I appreciate that Rose is being introduced to the wars now lightly. She is young, but hears about them all the time. She also learned about some of the animals in North America that have gone extinct just in the last century. She drew a Florida Black Wolf as part of her notebooking page.

For literature Rose is reading a biography about Sacajawea from Knowledge Quest. It’s also a review we’re doing from the TOS Review Crew. I like that it is written from her perspective and Rose is thoroughly enjoying it. Since my background is teaching literature I make up my own literature units using a variety of pages and ideas. She just finished up her mystery unit and after the biography we’ll move on to historical fiction.

I’m excited to announce I’ll be hosting a giveaway from Safari, Ltd! If you’ve never seen their amazing animal and historical figures you’ll really need to check them out. It starts Monday, so don’t forget to stop by next week to enter!








Week in Review: March 25-29

Grace-Filled Writer

I remember being told when we first started homeschooling that one of the downsides would be that my kids wouldn’t be exposed to enough germs. I can’t remember who said that, but boy were they wrong! Another cold decided to visit our home although it only took down 3 of the gang. Thankfully it seems to be passing and it wasn’t very severe so we continued with school as usual for Rose and Beth.

Little Hands to Heaven: Week Off
Grace got a much lighter week which didn’t bother her for the days she told me, “I don’t feel good, Mommy.” By Thursday she was ready to be back at it, but was still a bit crabby, so we just did a few lighter things. The girls all love playing on my Kindle Fire and I don’t blame them!

She also enjoyed using her pattern blocks with some printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I’ve had these printed for a while, but I finally got around to laminating them so Grace could use them easily.

Grace also enjoyed using our newly acquired Nature Blocks (a set of building blocks from Lake Shore Learning). She was enthralled with these! You can click on the picture to see my full review of these really nice building toys.

Grace is feeling much better and will be back to our normal schedule next week!

Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 24
Beth had a great start to the week, but ended up catching her baby sister’s cold! We continued with school as usual because she didn’t have as much discomfort as Grace, but she didn’t mind one bit.

In math Beth moved forward to subtraction! I once again didn’t really have to teach it to her. She just understood after having sat in on lessons with her older sister last year. I did do a few manipulative explanations, but I don’t know that there was really a need.
She also started word problems for the first time this week! She has made so much progress and I just love that we can set her own pace because of homeschooling.

For handwriting we continued with Draw Write Now. I can’t say enough good things about this curriculum! Click the picture to take a look at my review. It has gently moved Beth to thinking more about shaping her letters with appropriate size and spacing. I love it!

Our history lessons focused on the early settlement of America. Her poem introduced the concepts of North, South, East, and West. She kept asking which way was north wherever we went and then would tell me the other directions based on that. She also learned the location of the first 13 colonies. She is learning so much this year!

We took our All About Spelling curriculum and tried something new this week! Beth spelled the words, then stamped them. I found a printable online for this, but I’m not thrilled with it so I’ll probably create my own. She had a lot of fun with this and it was a nice, time-filling activity which kept her focused while I taught history to her older sister.

Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 26

Our field trip last Saturday to the Bennett Place to see a reenactment of camp life for Civil War soldiers was a great kickoff for our history this week. An added bonus was that my dad was part of the reenactment! This was the first one he has participated in and it’s great that the girls were able to see him and even wear their old fashioned dresses made by their great-great-grandmother for me when I was a little girl. Click the picture to see more of our trip!

I wasn’t certain how this introduction to war would go over. Rose is very factually oriented, but can also be very sensitive to the evils of the world like slavery. She didn’t ask many questions, but did ask if a lot of peopled died. I’m glad she feels free to ask about these things. I love being able to be completely in tune with Rose’s education so I am able to address any questions or worries she may feel when studying various aspects of history. It would be easy for me to avoid some of the more difficult aspects of our history. I’m very grateful for Heart of Dakota once again which gently introduces even the harsh aspects of history in a way which is age appropriate, engaging, and leaving her wanting to learn more.

We learned more about fractions and Rose is very anxious to move on to multiplication! She asks nearly every day how soon she can move onto third grade math. I’ve told her she can move forward once she finishes and she can’t wait!

This is a diorama Rose made in her homeschool class of a cave. We don’t follow the science plan in our curriculum since she takes this outside class. I do intend to cover the science we’re skipping this summer because she loves science so much!

Even though we don’t do a lot of science during the school-year outside of her class, we did take time to review a neat unit study for the Review Crew! Click the picture to learn about this fun Astronomy Unit from A Journey Through Learning that my girl couldn’t get enough of!

To end on a really fun note, I have a question: How many of you have pets who enjoy joining in on the learning? Meet Zoe, our sweet kitty who loves Beth and can typically be found sitting right by her during lesson time!

Week in Review: March 18-22

Grace-Filled Writer

Spring has bloomed which usually means bad allergies for me, but I have a new medication this season and so far I’ve had a good start! We’ve even had the windows open some which has’t happened in a while. The girls have had fun playing outside. We are blessed to have neighbors on either side of us and across the street our kids’ age. They also all go to different schools and with our homeschooling the kids love opportunities to get together. Since our yard is the center they seem to often congregate within our fence. I love this. I love seeing what sometimes feels like half the neighborhood hanging out in our backyard!

We had a great week and lots of things to look forward to! Tomorrow we are going to see my dad in a Civil War reenactment which coincides perfectly well with our history lessons next week on the Civil War! No, my dad isn’t doing this just for our benefit and I didn’t plan it that way, but it is a certainly a lovely addition to our lessons. There will also be a really exciting giveaway coming Monday, so don’t forget to check back about that! Do you like this bird’s eye view of our schoolroom?

Little Hands to Heaven: Unit 16

Grace learned about Elijah and Elisha this week with our Bible readings. She wasn’t as excited about these stories and kept wanting to skip ahead to the New Testament! I understand how she feels sometimes, but I also know there is much to learn from the Old Testament. One of her activities was sorting out small pieces of food. She asked to eat the cheerios while she was sorting. This girl loves cheerios. 
Our letter of the week, M, received a lot of attention! I started letting her trace letters as part of her letter-of-the-week work. She has become quite proficient at letter writing for those she already knows. She does extremely well with tracing and enjoyed these pages. 
Something I’ve learned from having kids who are advanced in various abilities is that often their abilities will surpass their maturity. It means I have to have greater patience when she scribbles all over the M page rather than tracing nicely like she did the day before. Grace has amazing pencil control and dexterity for her age, but she still has to develop the maturity to exhibit it consistently. 
We also had a failed soap making activity to go along with our story about Naaman washing in the Jordan River for healing, so we did something a little different. To learn about our awesome replacement activity click on the picture! 
In her spare time, Grace has been  learning piano! We have been reviewing an excellent computer-based piano teaching program for the Review Crew. Click the picture to take a look. Even though she is only 3 1/2, Grace has been learning and is thrilled to be having piano lessons alongside her sisters!
Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 23
Beth learned about the Pilgrims, their relationship with the Native Americans, and the religious persecution which pushed them here. She is really enjoying the readings from History Stories for Children. She did tell me that it was really sad that so many of the pilgrims died. We learned that there were only 4 women still alive for the first Thanksgiving feast! 
This week our word wall words started with N. My favorite word she chose was Neverland. I was surprised she thought of it! It was a little long for the space we had available, but she made it work. 
Here Beth is chatting with her Daddy on the phone while she works on her handwriting. The girls enjoy taking a break and and chatting with him when they have a chance. All of a sudden Beth’s handwriting has gone from being random sizes to looking more uniform! She has always been one to want to do things her own way and it has taken some convincing that she should form her letters without smiley faces inside of them except on special occasions! 
This week also brought three-digit addition. She jumped right into working on this while I was cleaning up from breakfast without any how-to instruction needed! I wish I had her mind for math. She definitely takes after her daddy. On the sixth problem she looked up at me and said giggling, “Oh! I almost missed that one!” 
This week Beth learned that c says /s/ if it comes before an e, i, or y. Before any other letter c says /k/. I am amazed over and over again that there are so many wonderful rules for spelling! I am incredibly thankful to be learning them myself since spelling was always difficult for me. All About Spelling is hands-down the easiest and most thorough curriculum I have seen for spelling.

Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 25

Rose learned a great deal about the gold-rush, Kit Carson, and much more! She enjoys the history readings as well and in preparation for more independent studies next year I have begun having her read her assignments on her own. Her narrations have improved so much from where they were at the beginning of the year. Ever since Christmas she has caught on to how to narrate. This was new to both of us this year so it has been a joy to watch her skill improve so much.

Her vocabulary page has also improved! After I took the picture went back and edited her mistakes, but then I forgot to snap another one! I don’t believe in ignoring kids’ mistakes in writing. After teaching junior high students who came through programs which felt it would stifle their creativity I can say it only seems to cripple them. By the time I got these kids I had to teach such basics as capitalizing I consistently that there wasn’t room to help them learn to craft their writing. With this experience in my background I make certain my girls correct their mistakes in writing. They don’t seem to mind and frequently Rose even thanks me for helping her!

Cursive continues to go well, but I’m trying to stress to her the need to be careful when she copies her words. She tends to forget letters in what I think it a rush to get finished. I am very pleased with how pretty her handwriting has become!

She particularly enjoyed one of her grammar lessons this week. It focused on making sure all the sentences in a paragraph pertain to the topic of the paragraph. The examples in the grammar book had random thoughts placed in the paragraphs and she got quite a giggle out of them!

We also started studying homophones for practice this week. We have talked about them before in the context of her writing, but haven’t formally practiced them. She enjoyed this activity a lot!

She typed up her writing assignment for the week about being healthy. She has moved on to two-paragraph expository writing. She sometimes still has trouble thinking through what to write, but the outline sheets (part of the curriculum) help her so much!

Finally she worked on memorizing more state locations and their abbreviations. She learned the 13 colonies plus a couple more the last time. This week she learned the rest of the states which were around when the Civil War began. If she couldn’t find the state I’d give her N-S-E-W directions. She did a great job!


We had another wonderful week! How was yours?



Week in Review: March 11-15

Grace-Filled Writer

Since the adults in the house started off with the week with a horrible cold, we didn’t start off with our usual gusto. Thankfully none of the girls caught it, although we can’t figure out how! I did score some more bargains on books to go with next year’s curriculum. Click here or on the picture to read about how we found Heart of Dakota as our home curriculum.

We also have had a great time reviewing more products for the Review Crew! This week I posted my review for Touch Math. If you are looking for a multi-sensory math program this is one of the best I’ve ever seen. Click here or on the picture to read my review.

Even with taking Monday and Tuesday off from lessons, we still managed to squeeze in the entire unit for each of my girls and I didn’t even feel like I was rushed to do so!

Little Hands to Heaven: Unit 15

This week we focused on Solomon. Grace built Solomon’s Temple out of building blocks and insisted she needed to Bible story book to make sure she built it correctly. She even placed two half- circles together for the bowl shown in the picture! I was surprised at her attention to detail for this activity.

She also insisted on including water-slides (the blue blocks) at the temple as well as bringing a bus-load of people to it. I wasn’t certain if she understood the point. So I asked her what the people were doing. She looked at me very indignantly and said, “They are worshiping God!” I’m so glad she understood the meaning behind the story even if she wanted to add the water slides. Anyway, who wouldn’t want a water slide at church?

I really like how the Heart of Dakota Guides build math concepts for preschool into their week. This week Grace enjoyed matching socks. I had this activity already made up and pull them out to play with every once in a while. These are some wild socks I saved of her baby socks. She has a fun time putting them together.

Grace realized this week she couldn’t read. She never seemed bothered by this before, but she suddenly feels frustrated that she can’t read books. I started teaching her sisters around this age with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, but when I asked she said she didn’t want to learn yet. I don’t like to push my girls faster than they are ready, so I’m just going to wait until she asks about it. My other two daughters did great even at this young age, but they both begged me to learn. We’ll see how this plays out with Grace!

Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 22

When Mommy isn’t feeling well school often moves to the living room. It’s nice we aren’t tied to the table all the time. Beth curled up with me on Wednesday and we caught up on her reading and history. This week she learned about Martin Luther. It dawned on me at some point during one of our readings that I was in college before I had even heard of Martin Luther, or at least retained the information I had heard. I thankful to be able teach my children history which includes church history. It is a blessing I do not want to take for granted.

Beth finished up her K-5 handwriting book a little early. My mom found a great 1st grade level handwriting book which also incorporates phonics. She’s now practicing whole words and there are still pictures for her to color. She also finished up her first grade readers this week. We will be working on the emerging readers found in Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory soon, but for now I’m just having her read from the books on our bookshelf. I don’t want to push her too far ahead, but reading and handwriting are two areas I’m happy to let her take the lead to pace herself!

Beth loves math…and loves to sing during math! She sometimes sings songs she knows and sometimes sings the addition facts she is practicing. She also tried out a funny new pencil which helps teach grip. She’s using it here and seemed to really enjoy how different it is!

Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 24

My Rose can be so thoughtful while she works! She often prefers to skip breaks just to keep on working. This picture is not posed and shows just how thoughtful she can be. She is very anxious to start learning multiplication. Knowing my girl she’ll want to start in her 3rd grade math as soon as it arrives!

She enjoys doing her vocabulary with World Wise each week. Heart of Dakota begins teaching vocabulary each week from the history books, but she wanted to learn more about words and I like the more traditional format of Wordly Wise. She is learning about context clues and how to use words with more than one meaning correctly.

Rose studied about inventions like the telegraph and tires this week. She very much enjoyed writing out the alphabet in Morse Code and also writing a message using it. I appreciate how the history and geography activities engage my girls and give them a love for history.

We can’t wait until next week!

Week in Review: March 4-8

Grace-Filled Writer

We have had a full week. I had the week off from reviews, but my Crewmates were busy posting all about some great homeschool products!

I didn’t plan it this way, but it was a really good thing to have the week off from posting reviews because we were busy the first of the week with our Global Focus Week! Our denomination, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, was not founded in order to be a new denomination. It was created in the 1880’s to be a movement of Christians from all denominations who were passionate about missions at home and abroad. Churches eventually emerged from this movement and the denomination was officially formed in the 1960’s.

We love when our international workers come and tell about their work overseas. Our girls are especially excited about our visitors. Grace was being shy in the picture of course! One of the great things for my girls about these times is it helps them understand what missionaries do as well as how and why we need to pray for them. It is a blessing for our family to personally know so many serving Christ overseas.

We did have our regular school days, which made everyone tired! In retrospect I will plan a lighter week during our next Global Focus Week. We managed, but Grace is the only one of my girls to still take naps and Beth and Rose had a harder time focusing because they were more worn out.

Little Hands to Heaven: Week Off

Grace is usually begging for more work, but I suppose being quiet at our meetings every night wore on her and she didn’t seem to even notice that we didn’t do her normal schoolwork! She enjoyed cutting paper. At first I drew lines for her to cut on, then she started drawing her own cutting lines.

She played some learning games online…a HUGE treat for Grace! We limit the girls’ time in front of a screen and she was given a little extra time to play this week than usual. Her two favorite websites to play games at are PBS Kids and Disney Junior. She is particularly fond of Mickey Mouse and Elmo.

She also  enjoyed drawing on the chalk board quite a bit. When she got done with this particular picture she said, “Mommy, do you know what kind of animal I just drew? I’m not sure!” She’s just so funny sometimes!

My favorite part of the week was when I caught Grace teaching the Incredible Vegetables a Bible story. I heard her ask Junior what he learned. He said, “I didn’t learn anything!” She gave an incredibly dramatic sigh and said, “Oh Junior. Now we have to learn all over again!” 

Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 21

Beth has begun to really enjoy her history readings. She had always listened well, but she now gets really excited about reading them. I love history so seeing my girls get excited about history! I credit my love of history to my dad who used to tell me stories about real people and interesting things about them when I was a child. He made history alive and interesting, so much more than mere dates and facts. The living books used in Heart of Dakota remind me so much of these stories and just like me, my girls are falling in love with the past as well!

An idea borrowed from traditional school that I’m implementing is a word wall. Each week Beth looks for words beginning with a specific letter in the alphabet. This week was the letter M. A retired teacher friend gave me several word wall pages and it’s something else she really looks forward to each week.

Our cat, Zoe, really loves Beth. She can typically be found in her lap, on her bed, or just sitting beside her at any given moment throughout the day. Beth read her a story out of her reading book one day and I was quick enough to get a quick picture of it!

Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 23

We received next year’s guide, Preparing Hearts for His Glory, at the end of last week. When your child gets as excited, maybe even more, than you are, about your curriculum, you know you have something fantastic happening in your homeschool. Rose asked to see all the books we’d be using as well as the teacher’s guide. I mentioned already my love of history. Heart of Dakota is helping me pass that love on to my daughters! I can’t say that everything always goes as planned, that my girls love every activity we do, or that I never have to deal with any complaining. That’s life as a teacher, homeschool or otherwise! I can tell you that overall, my girls genuinely enjoy school more often than not. I really can’t take credit for this because I just follow my guides!

This week Rose learned about John Audobon, Louisa May Alcott, and a handful of other authors as children. It is so easy to think of the great minds of our past as always being adults. I’m glad that someone took the time to research and find out some of what they did as children years ago so my daughter could see that she could one day grow up and do great things as well. Rose is getting much quicker at vocabulary now. She has come so far from week one when she looked up her first word in the dictionary.


Rose continues to do well with cursive in A Reason for Handwriting. We had it on hand already and so I went with it this year. She does quite well when copying, but still has a hard time spelling words correctly when she writes in cursive on her own. I’ve been told this is fine and it will come soon. For now if she is going to write something in cursive she tells me what she wants to write and I write it for her first in cursive for her to copy.

I have to confess…we didn’t get to any of the history activities this week which we normally do. Our week was so full with the special services every night. I was planning on playing catch-up on Friday…but then we had a surprise visitor for the day! A sweet family in our church needed childcare for their adorable little boy. We of course jumped at the chance and you can believe this little guy was spoiled rotten by my little girls for the day.

One of the things I like about homeschooling is we are available to help friends out like this. My older girls still did their schoolwork while Grace and I kept an eye on Little Dude. Since Fridays are light anyway they pretty much worked independently. I was so pleased with how well they listened to directions and worked so diligently.

And so another week of our lives comes to an end. It is amazingly easy for moms to feel as if we’re just marking time. Whether we’re stay-at-home moms, working moms, or a little of both Satan has a way of making us feel unsuccessful and not doing anything that will make a difference in the future.

Every once in a while God allows me to get a little glimpse of the truly important roles I fill each day. Rose and Beth both have a love for far away places and foreign languages due much to the passion for missions my husband and I are trying to show them. Beth loves to pretend she is a mommy and today when she had a chance to care for someone younger than her she did her best to entertain and teach.

This week when you feel discouraged for whatever reason, remember that training your kids is an important calling, kingdom work from the ground up.

And finally…just to make you smile…I present for your viewing pleasure Beth’s dramatic reading of My Beautiful Cow.