Tag: preschool

It’s been a while, right? Well my unintended break from blogging has ended. We’ve gotten past the really rough spot we were in getting work done happily and weathered a rather wicked cold. We enjoyed a wonderful visit from Grampy and Grammy from Florida, celebrated Grandpa’s (my dad’s) birthday, and had a delicious Thanksgiving feast! Oh, and we also spent a few days in Atlanta. So, now you see why I haven’t been around blogging!

JUST in time for Christmas I have an awesome giveaway to bless one of my readers with! My kids love Signing Time and they have a brand new Christmas collection just in time for the holiday!

Here is a little peek into just this past week. Maybe I’ll get some posts about our Atlanta field trips up soon!

Preschool:Finishing up…

So after Christmas I plan to have Grace begin Little Hearts for His Glory. She’s already handling Kindergarten math and 1st grade reading, so I’m certain she is ready. Honestly, she was probably ready a little sooner, but with the problems we were having staying on task and with a good attitude the last thing I wanted to do was add in another guide!

She’s been begging me to learn to tie her shoes so we pulled out the practice shoe someone gave to us a while ago. It somehow doesn’t seem possible that my littlest sweetie is old enough to be learning to tie her shoes…and be in Kindergarten! But she is, and I have to embrace it.

The big news for the week is Grace has finally mastered the correct way to write an S!!!! Yippee!!!! I have to admit the reason I am so happy about this is a little selfish. I’m not sure if you experience this or not, but at times when my girls have something academic they do not know or haven’t yet mastered I am given a raised eyebrow and the ever so subtle, “Is this something you are working on?” comment. I’m grateful these comments and looks don’t come from family, but they can be a little frustrating nonetheless. So, this is a personal victory of sorts.

Grace enjoys her end of books assessments in the ABC series from Rod and Staff. This week she said, “Is this like a test?!?!?” She thinks it’s great because she knows her big sisters take tests and so it’s just such a big deal in her mind.

My best moment with Grace this week was when she said, “Mommy, I love that you homeschool me because I get to hug and kiss you whenever I want!” Warms a mama’s heart!

Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 10

We’re plugging away in Bigger Hearts and honestly it is so much easier. Nothing like completing a guide once before to make it seem like a piece of cake the next time around! Everything about school is easier with Beth. Maybe it’s because she’s heard it all before so it sounds familiar, or maybe that she isn’t quite the perfectionist that her older sisters is. Who knows, but I typically find her more laid back even if she is always asking when we’ll be done so she can go play. She’s started reading some of this history on her own by her request. I am happy to say yes most of the time because she is still comprehending and she’s moving forward with independence in her learning!

The girls did their vocabulary words on the same day this week…by accident. I accidentally had Rose’s guide turned a page ahead. Whoops! Anyway, they shared the dictionary and helped each other look for words, so maybe this happy accident will occur again!

Whenever I tell Beth it’s time for a timeline entry she bounces up and down and says, “Yay!” What more could I ask for? All my girls love history, but Beth seems to engage a bit more in the history right now. She loves early American biographies so Bigger has been a great fit for her.

This week I really started working with her on rhyme scheme. As an English teacher I really love how much literature is emphasized in the Heart of Dakota curriculum, especially poetry. My daughters are so very comfortable with poetry and I anticipate their ability to understand and analyze poetry to only increase as we progress. To begin their rhyme scheme instruction I teach them to highlight or underline the last words in each line of poetry which rhyme with each other in the same color. It is very simple and is a very visual way to see rhyming patterns. She loved it so much she begged me to go back and find the rhyming patterns in her previous poems! She didn’t really have to beg, but this is how she asked!

Last but not least, can I just say I am so happy that my daughters love grammar. I didn’t really learn to love it until my history of English class in college, but I did appreciate the order and need for it. I envisioned groans and complaints every time we cracked the grammar books, just like I experienced when I was teaching full-time. Not with these girls of mine! They love it and seem to enjoy picking out sentence parts. That’s what comes of learning in an environment without peer pressure to dislike some aspects.

Preparing Hearts for His Glory: Unit 28

My ever studious first-born rarely smiles in these pictures, but she really loves to have fun! Rose seems to separate school into a work-is-serious type of category. At least, that is how she wants to look when I’m snapping pictures! We talk a lot about diligence and the need to work this way each day. She made great effort this week to work diligently and also helped her sisters stay more focused. Such a sweet, grown up little 9-year-old!

This week Rose very much enjoyed our book-mark history project. I modified it a bit because I was concerned the original instructions would leave it too thick and break the binding in her Bible eventually. So we used 3 flat ribbons to mark sections in the Scriptures and she was so pleased she asked to make more for Christmas gifts!

Rose writes a 3-5 sentence narration (or summary if you aren’t familiar with Charlotte Mason terminology!) about one of the history readings each week. This weeks turned into a full-page! When I realized she had written so much I reminded her it didn’t have to be that long. She said, “Yes it did! There were too many things I needed to say!” I think I have a writer on my hands. Here is what her narration about the Aztecs…

The Aztecs were very civilized people. They had houses, treasure, and temples. Now the Aztecs were not Christians and they worshiped idols and sacrificed human beings to their gods. Cortes sailed to conquer them. The Aztecs thought that their ship was a bird that sent them from heaven. Cortes burned the ship so the sailors could not go back and then they started to shoot cannons which the Aztecs thought were lightening. But their leader offered him gifts. Then Cortes went into the temple to get their leader to become a Christian, but he wouldn’t, so Cortes captured him. This caused great fighting, but they were no match against shells and cannons. 

We had an excellent conversation about why what the Aztecs were doing went against God’s Word, but Cortes’ actions weren’t godly either. One of the things I’ve loved about Preparing Hearts for His Glory is how my daughter is encouraged to think critically on her own about the rights and wrongs in history. While we don’t delve into all the dirty and dark corners of the past, we touch on them enough for her to begin realizing how people sometimes do things in the name of God, without really doing them for that reason in their hearts.

We are taking our time reviewing the multiplication math facts. The first time around they didn’t seem to stick and higher level multiplication just wasn’t going to happen. I’m so grateful I paused and reflected before pushing her on to something which would cause greater frustration. As my husband is fond of reminding me, “This is why we homeschool, right?” I’m grateful for my man to remind me of this so faithfully!

I keep hearing that eventually all the spelling rules we are learning through All About Spelling and dictation will translate beyond spelling lessons. I’m still waiting for that to happen, but in the meantime, All About Spelling level four is going splendidly. Rose and Beth both typically remember the previous rules we have studied without pause. Grace will start this up in January as well…oh boy! Three levels of Heart of Dakota and three levels of All About Spelling! We’ll see how long my sanity holds out.

So there was our week. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

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

First off some highlights…

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

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

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

Grace: Preschool

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

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

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

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

Beth: Bigger Hearts for His Glory Unit 5

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

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

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

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

Rose: Preparing Hearts for His Glory Unit 24

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

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

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

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

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

We had such a great week! We enjoyed our bi-annual global focus week (think missions conference) so much as we learned about what God is doing in Japan. We made new friends and enjoyed fellowship with our church family for four days. It was a great time, but as you can imagine, the kids got worn out pretty quickly. We started off strong and got all of our work done the first two days, but I took a cue from the kids that they were getting really worn down, so we just stuck to history and literature for the end of the week.



Grace: Preschool

Grace is counting down the days to her 5th birthday! She’s feeling quite grown up and can’t wait to celebrate turning five. It’s bitter sweet watching my baby’s birthdays pass each year, but much more sweet since I am able to enjoy watching them grow and develop through homeschooling.

We focused on writing the letter I this week and she really liked this one because it was so easy and because it is in her name. We are not learning the letters in ABC order, but by style. Right now our Fundanoodle book is teaching the basic lined letters first. I think this is a really smart way to build their fine motor skills.

Grace enjoyed some time using our school-room computer this week. She can use this really well now and navigates to the approved websites with ease. It is a bit overwhelming how well young kids can use computers and the internet. We use their computer time to help them learn responsibility and teach rules of use as well as enjoy whatever learning games they are using.

Beth: Bigger Hearts for His Glory Unit 4 (2nd grade)

Beth seems to enjoy spelling and I think she is a natural speller as long as she is putting forth the effort. I don’t know what one child finds spelling easy while another doesn’t, but I’m glad for her sake it isn’t difficult. We’re over half-way through book two of All About Spelling and I can’t say enough how great this curriculum is.

Beth loved loved loved our history readings this week. We studied about Pocahontas! She wrote an excellent acrostic about her and just like her big sister the best part of the week was when she found out Pocahontas became a Christian because that meant she will get to see her in heaven one day.

We really enjoy the history readings. I feel badly for families who struggle through them, but so far we haven’t found them to be tedious at all. If you are in Bigger and finding the readings hard, try giving your child something to do. Right now my daughters are working on a 3D version of Jamestown, which goes along with Beth’s history at the moment. They are actively engaged in listening because they can answer questions, but they enjoy keeping busy while I read.

I didn’t get a picture of it, but she also passed the first level of Typing Tournament! She was so excited.

Rose: Preparing Hearts for His Glory Unit 23 (4th Grade)

Rose is so very close to passing the second level of Typing Tournament. She really enjoys it, but like with many things, gets frustrated when it takes her longer to complete than she wants it to. I think she is learning to take this much better this year and I’m happy to see her getting closer.

We took a look at Rome this week and the various cruel and not so cruel leaders. We learned about Pompeii as well and she was fascinated by this ancient city. I recently read a wonderful historical fiction book called City on Fire by Tracy Higley which is just excellent. It was like my own living book study!

I would not say Rose is a natural speller, but she is a determined student. She’s doing incredibly well as we enter into the fourth book from All About Spelling. She takes her time and really thinks about it. I’m finally able to see some improvement in spelling in other areas. Not always, but most of the time which is a huge thing for her!

We had a really good week overall. Last year it took maybe 2 or 3 months to feel like we were in a routine. Even then it wasn’t a consistent routine for a lot of different reasons. I’m so grateful this year to God for good health as we start out this year. I know there will be bumps, but starting off healthy is just such a wonderful feeling.

Oh, and I have last week’s post, but completely forgot to share it anywhere last week! So you can click here to see what last week looked like.

Grace: Preschool

We are plugging away at our “preschool” curriculum which is actually kindergarten level work. She’s reading at a beginning 1st grade level and I found out by accident she already gets the concepts behind addition. She is flying through the the ABC series from Rod and Staff. To be honest, I think she could handle the work in Little Hearts for His Glory, but I want to make sure I’m ready to add in another guide! We’ll see how things go.

She completes her work so well and then I let her have some time on the computer, usually PBS kids. She likes having a little freedom to play and I love letting her. Our computer is used from a friend and we can set it so they can only go to particular websites. Recently she’s also been using Nick Jr.

We have some art projects from a preschool Abeka book that was passed down to us. They are super simple, but Grace loves them so we did one this week with her hand print and footprint! They didn’t exactly fit in either square.

This is by far my favorite picture of the week. Beth almost always goes outside to read her literature. Even when it is raining she’ll sit on our porch swing. Sometimes she doesn’t look very comfortable, but she always looks happy!

One thing Beth seems to really love each week is the timeline. She as introduced to this last year in Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory and was excited to start all over again. She also seems more interested in the history, however, it is partly due to my figuring out I needed to give her something to do. I figured this out with Rose, but not for several units in. Thankfully I remembered this at the start and so my second little sweetie benefits. Right now she’s working on a 3D village of Jamestown we snagged back when Scholastic was having a dollar sale. 

Beth has been really interested in biographies recently, even just for fun evening reading. This is a really neat biography series is brand new and we got the opportunity to review one of the titles! They are all about people from the Bible and incredibly engaging for my daughter. You can read my full review here!

Both of my girls have been faithfully working on their typing skills. Typing Tournament is what I recommend for anyone looking for a kids typing program. We reviewed this last year and several months later they still beg to play it even if I don’t plan to have them do it each day. Beth is doing great. She hasn’t passed the first test yet, but she doesn’t care because she keeps getting higher and higher scores making her more determined than ever to pass it. She loves the games and so does Rose. Grace is the only one frustrated by it because as 4, she’s just not ready. 

Rose is really enjoying school this year. Remember how I said before Bigger is easier because Beth is more laid back than Rose was when she went through the guide? Well I’m very pleased Rose seems to have relaxed a lot and genuinely is enjoying the process. We still have our moments where her perfectionism rears its ugly head, but they are becoming fewer each week. She is happier with herself and her accomplishments and tells me almost every day how much she loves homeschooling. She is why we started. Her intense nature and inward focus on her work was not a good fit for a traditional classroom. She is such a sweet girl and extends grace to those around her all the time. I’m so thankful she isn’t as hard on herself as she was in the past. 

For anyone just starting out on the Heart of Dakota Path who feels the writing is light, do not worry. I honestly felt the same way at the beginning, mostly because I didn’t fully understand that Heart of Dakota follows a Charlotte Mason methodology. Now that we are 5 guides into this program I am totally sold. Rose is becoming and excellent non-fiction writer and it is coming easily. It didn’t at first, but it has so far this year. I love her creative poems with inspiration drawing from our weekly poetry units. I’m really excited for the creative writing in Hearts for Him Through Time: Creation to Christ which we’re on track to start in January. 

She was seriously sitting like this thinking while we were working on her creative writing for poetry. I love that we’re talking about similes, metaphors, and personification. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love this curriculum and I fall more in love with it every week! 

And then my husband gave me this crazy awesome t-shirt! Icing on the cake for my week. Before anyone asks, I would LOVE to share the link with you, BUT it isn’t in the website anymore. T-Spring is the company and it seems to have been just a one-time thing. Sorry!

Great week at our house. It feels so good to say this, but honestly, I know very well what tough weeks look like. Take a look at most of my weeks in review from last year! I’d love to hear from you. How was your week? Good? Tough? Somewhere in between? Please share! 

Crazy week around here! I teach English one day a week to junior high homeschoolers and as class starts to gear up I have to once again restructure our days. The older girls also take a class while I teach so I have planned for this but our previous week and next week will be a little lighter than normal as we all get used to the new schedule. This isn’t even going to be a full week in review like I usually do and next week will be a little sparse as well.

Isn’t homeschooling great though? My kids still got quite a bit of content into their days even if it wasn’t the full-load. There is nothing wrong with doing less during a week which is intense and I’ve learned to be okay with not finishing everything on my checklist every single week. I am typically super disciplined with their schoolwork, so one or two weeks of light work is not a big deal.

Grace: Preschool

Grace is barreling through her reading books. Oh how fun it is to now hear her reading with intonation and inflection, not to mention voices for characters! I wish the picture had come out a little clearer, but you can see Grace asked if we could do her reading under a tent one day last week. She giggled the entire time we were building it and thought this was just so much fun. I barely fit, but she didn’t care. Rose is the one who grabbed my camera to take this picture. She’s so thoughtful and likes to capture “moments” just as much as I do!

She absolutely loves Fundanoodle! If you like the idea of Handwriting Without Tears, but feel like it is a bit too pricey, this is such a great option. We’re doing a letter each week, just like HOD suggests in Little Hearts, but using this along with a Handwriting Without Tears set which was gifted to us. Grace’s favorite part is the stickers!

Beth: Bigger Hearts for His Glory (Unit 2ish)

We went ahead and started Unit 2 in Bigger Hearts, but didn’t quite make it half-way through. She did do a lot of work in math, grammar, and vocabulary, all of which she enjoys. We’re finishing up a series of worksheets for vocabulary from Scholastic and then will move into Vocabu-Lit like her big sister. She always gets excited about grammar and just loves it. I’m so thankful because I know most kids don’t really love grammar! She finished reading The Littles and will The Storm next week. I’m really glad she’s past her, “I’m too little to read chapter books” phase. It didn’t make any sense to me because she has had this ability for over a year, but now she believes she can and it is making literature much easier to get through.

Rose has been doing great at full-pace in Preparing. I was the one who needed a half-paced week because of teacher meetings and preparation for teaching this coming week. Rose has such a sweet countenance and has been excellent in her attitude towards her school work. She helps make my day go more smoothly because she sets the tone well for her sisters.

We’re splitting up math into two different parts of the day which seems to help her feel less intimidated by it. She made the Christian fish out of apple sauce and cinnamon for the history project and it was beautiful! And then it fell and broke, so I promised we’d do it again next week. Like her sister she loves grammar and was excited to get to do some diagramming this week. She was pleased to find it was review instead of just adding in more new. She loves the history and I don’t blame her! Preparing has been my favorite guide so far, but each year I try a new one feels like it is better than the previous. Now as I am going back through them again with the younger girls I keep saying, “I just love this guide!” What a blessing to have a curriculum which engages me as much as my children!

“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. “Pooh?” he whispered.
“Yes, Piglet?”
“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s hand. “I just wanted to be sure of you.” 

Phew! Week one down and many, many, many more to go. It was a great week, incredibly hectic, but great. I’m so proud of myself! I struggle immensely with keeping organized and especially keeping up with grading. Because I work from home for 2 1/2 hours every day I had to come up with a way to keep all this under control and I think I have found what works for me. I’ve tried several things including weekly grading (disastrous!), as soon as an assignment was finished (distracting!), and grading the following morning (Do I even need to say how horrible this was?). This past week I chose to do grading while my girls were having their alone quiet time and it is perfect. Grading was done promptly, I went any issues with my girls the following day before our lessons, and I am under less stress.

The Homeschool Helper App has been my best friend this week! I used it a lot last year, but I didn’t really utilize it to the maximum of it’s potential. I’m thrilled with how well it is working for me this year. I’ve also fallen in love with Motivated Moms all over again. My housework is getting done (mostly!) and there is a calm and peacefulness surround us because of it. If this is an area you need some help with, don’t hesitate to give both of these apps a try! You can click on these links (Homeschool Helper and Motivated Moms) to see my full reviews from last year. Yes, that is a cup of hot cocoa…I like to reward myself for a job well done!

Now, on to my girls’ week!

Grace: Preschool and Awaiting the Next Heart of Dakota Guide
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Grace has just blossomed with her reading. I first want to say I have not pushed my daughter into reading early; she wanted to…begged me to. I think it is imperative for parents to only teach reading when their children are fully ready whether 3-years-old, 8-years-old, or even later. Homeschooling provides such wonderful room for learning at correct pacing and I hope you embrace this as you walk your own journey.

Grace is reading through her big sisters Abeka readers from her year at Christian school and is doing great. She almost always forgets what the silent e does on her own, but as soon as I remind her to think about this rule she gets it. My only issue with her right now is she doesn’t see a need to read with me. She wants to do it all on her own, which clearly doesn’t work out well sometimes.

We are using Fundanoodle for handwriting this year. I reviewed it last year and fell in love with its structure and format. We will also be using some Handwriting Without Tears workbooks. I’m not quite as big of a fan of this one, but a dear friend gave us the entire set which she no longer wanted. I’m all about utilizing free! It is good and goes well with Fundanoodle’s structure.

For math we are using the old books from Singapore which are out of print. We do not have the ones used in the HOD guide and I’m not sure what I’ll use for K5 math when she is done. I’m considering Fundanoodle for this as well.

All three of my girls loved the Rod and Staff ABC series. Grace finished up Book C and is soooooo excited to be on Book D now!

For Bible we are using Rod and Staff’s Bible story book and coloring book. Grace loves this as well. There isn’t anything flashy or enticing in and of themselves, but this series does its job and definitely engages my daughters.

Beth: Bigger Hearts for His Glory Unit 1 (1st half)

Let me assure you Beth is not as miserable as she appears! She is actually quite focused. I have seen many recent conversations in the facebook group about kids having a hard time with the history readings in this guide. This was only our first week, but we completed all the history readings and so far she has been fine. I remember the same struggle expressed with my oldest until about half-way through, but so far Beth seems to be doing great. My advice is to keep at it. I like my girls reading older history readings for several reasons. I do like that it was written closer to the historical source, but I also think it helps kids develop their reading skills.

Contrary to what I expected, Beth actually loved looking words up in the dictionary for her history vocabulary. Let’s hope this continues all year!

I have another die-hard fan of Life of Fred in the house! She thinks he is so funny and I find it a great addition to our regular curriculum.

Of all my kids, Beth is the most apt to learn anywhere but her own seat. Sometimes on the floor beside me, sometimes on the porch swing, sometimes in her bed, sometimes in the living room…I even found her under the table in the kitchen a few times last year! Here she’s working on math. My only rule is she has to sit at the table for formal handwriting. She’s a little wiggle waggle and I try to give her the freedom to move as she needs.

I’ve introduced dictation in addition to our All About Spelling work. She’s half-way through AAS level 2 and doing great. Dictation will be a learning process, so I’ll let you know how it is going later.

Ahhhh grammar! This is one of the subject Beth asks to do right away. My girls love it and I love that they love it! Rod and Staff grammar is incredibly solid which I’m seeing even more now with my oldest. Rose fixed a writing assignment on her own to make the verbs match tenses without my saying anything about it! This is huge in my estimation.

I like giving my girls something a little extra for vocabulary every day to help them in preparation for required standardized tests at the end of the year. In addition to grammar and vocabulary she is also reading The Littles and loving it!

Rose: Preparing Hearts for His Glory Unit 18

Starting back in Preparing with Rose was easy peasy! She had been asking for a while to read Grandpa’s Box this summer and was thrilled when I pulled it off the shelf on Monday. She loves history and this guide has been such a joy to teach. We’re going full-speed and I hope to be finished in December or January. Right now history is focusing on the Roman occupation of, well, everywhere within the context of the life of Christ. We’ll be quickly moving on though.

I love the timeline cards she is making on her own. A lot of people print pictures or buy cards, but this has been a fun experience for her in each guide.

Math is getting a little easier. Thanks to some wonderful advice from my sister-in-law who also homeschools we are breaking her math assignments into two parts each day. She likes this idea and is able to handle the assignment better than when we try to do it all at once. We are continuing on with Math Mammoth and I am very happy with the scope and sequence of this program.

Rose is into All About Spelling level 4 and doing fabulous! I love this program as well and it is helping me become a better speller in addition to my girls! We’ve moved onto the next level of dictation and she is showing great maturity.

All About Spelling Levels 2 and 4

Grace and our neighbor’s daughter reading together.

Grace and I doing Bible while her sister finish math.

This year I’m doing something a little different and giving you a chance to see what my daughter’s had to say about their week as well! This is a great way for them to participate, practice typing (except Grace who isn’t ready yet), practice editing, and actively participate in this blog. I hope it lasts, but we shall see. You can click on each name below to see what they had to say about this week on their very own Grace-Filled Kids Blog!