Tag: Weekly Review

Week in Review: September 2-6

Grace-Filled Writer

Fall is here! This is my favorite season of the year and it seems to be coming early to the south. The leaves on our trees are starting to fall, something that doesn’t usually happen until mid-September at the earliest. My girls will soon be outside raking up leaves and we’ll be enjoying the cooler air. I decorated last week for fall inside, something I’ve done since we lived in Florida where fall simply does not exist! I’ve also been enjoying my favorite Yankee Candle, Pumpkin Spice…mmmmm!

School has finally seemed to hit its groove for us this week. We have the normal bumps, but much less dragging things out and a lot of

Little Hands to Heaven: Unit 23

This week’s letter was S and the Bible lessons focused on Jesus performing miracles. For our math activity Grace practiced choosing which group had more or less. I even had groups of smaller numbers, like 5 and 7, and she was able to tell me that the group with 7 had more. I continue to be surprised by concepts she already grasps and continue to see the benefit of doing school with older siblings. Both Grace and Beth have learned many things I’ve never had to teach them simply from observing Rose.

We are also reviewing a new handwriting and letter recognition curriculum that is so much fun! I can’t wait to share it! As you can see, Grace’s fine-motor skills are really accelerated for her age. She’ll be four in a few weeks and already can write almost all of her letters without any help or guidance from me. There are a couple she forget or gets confused, but so far she hasn’t needed a lot of help.

This is my favorite picture of the week! After reading about the little boy Jesus healed Grace said, “That was so sweet. Jesus is really sweet to make the little boy well.” Then she asked to pray for our friend, Diego, who has cancer that Jesus would heal him too. I was again surprised at the depth of her connections to real-life.







Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 5

We have continued to study about the Pilgrims and I was reminded again this second time we are going through Beyond that there is so much I just wasn’t taught in school. I can’t help but wonder if it was intentional. I mean I know the whole argument of there is only so much time we have to teach and something has to be left out, but if they are going to spend time on the information in class, shouldn’t it be accurate and complete? The Pilgrim’s frequent imprisonment and hardships in Holland were never mentioned, but merely glossed over. My husband and I watched Kirk Cameron’s documentary, Monumental and there is much which we have learned included in it. This documentary is excellent and I plan to let the girls see some of it as we continue to study about the Pilgrims.

Math has always been a favorite part of Beth’s day. She frequently requests to do more than one lesson in a day and I usually let her. I’m happy for her to move at her own pace and she rarely makes any mistakes! This week she learned how to read a thermometer which is marked of by twos. Rose didn’t remember learning this before so Beth volunteered to teach her! It was so sweet to see her be the teacher and she did a great job! She explained the concept clearly, did an example, then had Rose try one. Since her answer was correct Beth followed it up with lots of encouraging words! Sweet moments that make homeschooling such a wonderful blessing!

Preparing Hearts for His Glory: Unit 3 (first half)

This history in Preparing has been so much fun for us! I had heard that it was a favorite guide for long-time Heart of Dakota families, and it is fun to finally experience it ourselves! Rose loves our history readings. She loves them to the point that she is incredibly disappointed that I don’t keep going. She also really enjoys the drawing for her notebook. She loves art anyway and it has been fun for her to do the independent history.

We have continued on with both dictation and All About Spelling and she’s doing great. We had taken a bit of a break from All About Spelling for the summer and have had a little trouble staying consistent with it, but that has been my issue with planning for all three and I’m getting the kinks in our day worked out. We started working with suffixes which gave us an entirely new set of tiles to work with! They’re pink and pretty. What more can I say?



The Rest of the Week

I’m trying to make sure I take time to enjoy my girls. This week we enjoyed more read-aloud time, playing Kids of Catan, and playing some putt-putt in the backyard. It is easy to get distracted with the duties I have, the work I must complete, and the things I would like to do, but I’ve decided missing out on time with my kids is just not going to be an option anymore. I will stop and take time to enjoy them, learn about who they are. I will not make it just something I check off a list or try to claim school-time is the same as spending time with them just having fun.

Next week will be a break for us and I’m looking forward to a really fun field trip at the end of the week!

Week in Review: August 26 – August 30

Grace-Filled Writer

Phew! I’m one tired mama! I’m always tired by the end of the week, but it is a good tired. Can you relate? This week has been good, a bit more relaxed and felt more in routine. We have one more week before Rose and Beth start classes at Deerstream Learning Center and I’m enjoying the slower pace.

One of my major goals this year is to make story time with the girls a priority. Until this year I have found it very hard to have a consistent story time. Not only am I doing the girls’ individual story times with their own guides more consistently, I’m also trying to do group story time. I let them color, draw, build with legos, or whatever else to keep their little hands busy. Right now we’re reading through the Felicity American Girl books in anticipation of a trip to Williamsburg coming very soon!

Little Hands to Heaven: Unit 22

Sooo…I forgot to take any pictures of our Heart of Dakota work in Little Hands to Heaven this week! Our letter was R and Grace enjoyed the Bible stories about Jesus as a boy and the early part of his ministry. We also continued with reading lessons. Some days are easier than others, but she’s doing great. The biggest challenge is that she is convinced she can already read after 10 lessons and sometimes balks at doing a lesson each day!

We got a chance to review the sweetest little book about safety while crossing the road. All three of my girls loved it even though I think it was geared more towards Grace. You can read my full review here.





Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 4

Beth has matured an amazing amount from last year to this year.  A lot of this just has to do with age, but I also credit Little Hearts for His Glory. The beauty of Heart of Dakota for my goes far beyond the wonderful history readings and delightful activities. It reaches farther than the outstanding weekly poetry selections. Heart of Dakota has been a wonderful asset as we teach our girls of the grace of God. Beth accepted Christ as her Savior just a couple of weeks prior to beginning her kindergarten. Our curriculum’s primary focus is pointing our children back to their Savior. Yes, academics are major, but seeing my girls’ hearts seek after Christ is primary.

I clearly got distracted this week and flaked on taking pictures! Beth’s handwriting is becoming quite lovely and I am so happy with her efforts! Spelling is also going smoothly. Our pretest usually reveals a couple of words she needs to work on, usually rule breakers, and this has been going well. I tried orally quizzing her on her words this week, and this didn’t go so well…and back to our original quizzing it was!

Preparing Hearts for His Glory; Unit 2 (second half)

Rose is loving this year’s guide! I am seriously having trouble holding her back in history. I am going to go with at least one more week at half-speed, however, as we adjust to the schedule once her science class starts. As we move through our sweeping look at history we have continued to focus on the Ice Age.

She is enjoying every subject this year…except math…until this week! I am not a fan of changing curriculum for math or reading. There has to be a rather big problem for me to be willing to make a major change. The reason for this is because although math and reading are fundamental, no one curriculum teaching in the same way or order. I am, however, more than willing to try something new to supplement. Enter Life of Fred.

In addition to shortening the amount of work she does each day, Rose also has been reading a chapter (or more!) from Life of Fred. This is a very unique approach to mathematics instruction. While inteded to be a stand-alone curriculum I am choosing to use it as a supplement. Math is no longer an issue. In fact, for the first time in I’m not sure how long Rose is now asking to do her math lesson first each day. I typically find her giggle over something she’s reading about Fred. I’m not sure how far we’ll continue with Fred, but I’m thrilled he is now part of our homeschooling!

And so ends another good week. The girls are right now having their weekly slumber party in their playroom. I’m so blessed our girls enjoy one another. Today they told me they’d formed a club of which they were all a part. My girls are truly friends, not merely just sisters. Do they bicker? Yes. Do they get tired of each other sometimes? Absolutely! Yet, at the end of the day, there is a love and a bond which cannot be missed. I frequently pray their relationship continues to grow as they grow up.

Weekly Review: August 19-23

Grace-Filled Writer

This is what I do to prepare each week. Let me be clear, Heart of Dakota is a completely open and go curriculum with no additions or planning needed. I find it helpful for me personally to have a checklist. The biggest reason for this is I am using three guides. The first four guides are scheduled for a five day week and every guide after that as a four day week. I love having an extra day to have for field trips and catching up if we missed something. I also feel like I have more freedom to skip something and come back to it if needed. So at some point towards the end of the week…or on Sunday night…I sit at our kitchen table and write on my weekly grid all the activities for the week. I really loves this part of the week because I get a chance to look ahead, anticipating all the fun in store!

Little Hands to Heaven: Unit 21

This week we studied the letter Q and read through Jesus’ birth. It was quite fun having Christmas in August! For our storytime I pulled out several books from my box of Christmas stories and we read through several of those. Our favorite was The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy. It is about a puppy who asks his mother for a boy for Christmas and his mother says is fine as long as he can find one! It is super sweet and ends with the puppy finding more than he had hoped for!

Little Grace isn’t so little anymore! This will be the third time I complete Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with one of my children. Somehow I feel it may be bitter sweet at the end. She is doing fabulously already! She was so excited to read the words at and me this week. One of the most amazing treasures I have received from homeschooling is being there for all of these sweet moments of learning.

I also started back with Touch Math again this week. Grace begs for more, more, and more learning so I try to do what I can to encourage her desire to know more. Touch Matht has been a great hands-on learning tool to introduce the ideas of more and less, equals, and other early math concepts. I use clear mats I purchased from Target to slip the pages I print into each day.


Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 3

The first time I went through Beyond it was our first year homeschooling. I am appreciating it so much more this second time through. Beth is fully engaged during the history readings which is partly due to the wonderful history selections, but also having completed Little Hearts for His Glory. She has matured a lot through schooling and we have had some wonderful discussions.

Beth definitely enjoyed our history activity this week. She was slightly disappointed not to include a new entry on her timeline, but this made up for it! We played a game which helped her think more about the persecution of the Pilgrims. The bottom of the steps was the jail because this was where the Pilgrims who refused to worship God the way King James was requiring went. Depending on the roll of the dice she either obeyed the king or chose to worship the way the way she felt the Bible said she should. She ended up in jail…and was quite happy about it! We talked about how jail is not usually a place you want to be, but if you are there because you are following God, then it is okay. 

She is illustrating the poem Uphill here. Using both the upper and lower guides at the same time has given me such an appreciation for the full Heart of Dakota curriculum. Everything is intentional and there is no such things as busy work with this guide. I love how the poems and Scripture study always relate to our history readings. The connections between disciplines are seamless. This year is truly starting out wonderfully for Beth!

Preparing Hearts for His Glory: Unit 2 (1st half)

Rose was thrilled we started Life in the Great Ice Age this week. We firmly believe the Bible’s account of creation, completely rejecting the idea of evolution because it does not fall in line with the Genesis account. Resources like these were not available to me when I was in grade school. It is blessing my socks off to learn alongside my daughter. Rose devours all things historical and scientific. I really have to hold her back and limit how much she reads! I don’t think we’ll be going half-speed much longer.

While Rose does enjoy learning new words, she’s had to adjust to completing her history vocabulary each week. She completed it more quickly this week, but we’re still only doing 3 of the 5 words. I plan to work up to the 5 words by the end of the year.

Ahhh, grammar…need I say more? The English teacher in me can’t help but love it! Rose says she really liked diagramming. Yeah, she pretty much melted my heart when she told me that!

We took some time to study a little bit about microscopes using a unit from In the Hands of a Child. You can click on the picture to see a full review!

Math has been a bit bumpy this year. There is a big jump from the last grade-level to the next in Rod and Staff. I’ve restructured a bit and pulled my husband in for advice since he is very mathematically minded. I think we’ve got things figured out for the most part. I’m not a fan of switching curricula when we hit a bump. I am, however, considering supplementing with something which will engage her a bit more.

We had some really fun moments this week and this was one of my favorites. Beth was working on a vocabulary page when she said, “Hey guys! Come quick! You have to see this!” I love seeing my girls excited about learning, discovering together, and sharing with one another. 
How was your week?

Week in Review: August 12-16

Grace-Filled Writer

This week was a little smoother than last week, but we’re still trying to find our groove! We’ll get there eventually. Last year I stagger started as was suggested by other experienced Heart of Dakota moms. I should have done that again and plan to next year. Ah, the wisdom of experience. I would encourage you to connect with moms using the same curriculum, no matter what that curriculum is. There are message boards and facebook pages for just about everything you can imagine. Utilizing these as well as personal friends who use the same materials as you helps you have good collaboration. I also like bouncing ideas off of other moms who may have more experience and know if what I am thinking is wise.

Little Hands to Heaven: Unit 20

We did a handful of activities we missed in Unit 20 of Little Hands from last week. She was also very excited to finish Bigger Steps, the “B” book from Rod and Staff’s About 3 series. Last year I limited her to one page a day, much to her chagrin. She really needed to move slowly to give her motor skills time to develop. I’m so glad I forced her to stick to this as her fine-motor abilities have very much improved since last fall. Now I allow her to do 2-4 pages a day.

The “C” book, Coloring and Cutting, uses shapes to help teach the colors. Every color has an assigned shape so they can begin to do more on their own. It has mostly been coloring, but there is some handwriting and I’m assuming there will eventually be cutting!

Grace is not yet reading, but she is very observant! This activity wants the kids to coloring the pain cans the colors written on them. Down the side are the various shapes with the color words in them. I helped her remember which shape was which color and then told her to look for the matching words to color the paint cans. She completed this perfectly and was so very proud of herself!

Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 2

Beth loves this guide so far. She is thoroughly enjoying the history readings and math. The only part she is reluctant to do is the emerging readers set. I have a strong suspicion this is because the first book is a Bible we have read over and over. I’m seriously considering skipping to the next book in the schedule because of this. Most of the emerging readers are on a 1st or 2nd grade level. She is actually reading on a higher level than this, but because I want to work more on comprehension I want her to finish them.

This is the “I” book of Rod and Staff’s ABC series called Inside and Outside. We are sad to be at the end of this series as she loves it so much, but after checking out the “J” book online I really think she has surpassed the levels intended. I may end up getting it for her because she just loves them so much.

In math Beth completed the speed drill in one minute for the first time! She was so excited about this! She is farther in the workbook than the speed drill indicate because when the speed drills were initially scheduled her handwriting speed was holding her back, causing a great amount of frustration. I decided to wait a bit and now she is doing quite well. It is exciting for me to see her feeling so accomplished with her math.

For spelling Beth is still using All About Spelling, but I use the Heart of Dakota spelling as well. On Friday or Monday morning she takes a “pretest” of 20 words found for each unit in the back of the guide. The words she misses or has to think about a while become her spelling list. This week’s list included next and when which she originally spelled neckst and wen. On Monday Beth writes each word 5 times. On Wednesday she writes a sentence with each word. For now she is dictating a sentence to me and then copies it in her spelling composition book. We’re also working on word spacing which is why she’s using her pinky as she writes. She takes the test on Friday and got both words correct!

Working on a timeline has been great fun for Beth. She’s watched her older sister do this for two years now so she feels very grown up. I typically write down the entry for her to copy and give her some guidance on how to draw the symbol.



Preparing Hearts for His Glory: Unit 1 (week 2)

After a rough start last week we’re now going half speed through preparing until the point at which I feel Rose is ready to handle full-speed. I’m so thankful for the great HOD moms who helped me work through this decision. I’m prepared for this guide to last 2 years if it needs to, but also happy to move up to full-speed if she is ready at some point this year. I originally intended Bigger Hearts for His Glory to stretch out over two years. After 4 units at half-speed, however, she was only taking about 1 1/2 hours for school. That was the point we moved into full-speed mode!

I do not add a lot to our HOD guides, but vocabulary is one area we supplement with. It isn’t so much that I feel HOD is lacking in this area as I want her to be fully ready for the SAT when the time comes. I use Wordly Wise because I feel it solidly prepares kids from the first books to think the way the SAT test encourages thinking. Right now Rose is doing a lesson a week with a test on Fridays which she is completing quite well. I plan to finish these books faster than in a year as they are written.


Diagramming!!!!!!!! I love diagramming sentences, and no it isn’t because my background is in English! To be honest, I was only taught diagramming by my father, never once in school that I recall. Rose is only in 3rd grade, but she is already starting to learn the basics which I just love about Rod and Staff grammar. I know this is one of those things many grumble about from school-days, but honestly, understanding how words fit together properly really does help you build a correct and understandable sentence. Not to mention in the future Rose will understand direct and indirect objects more easily because of their placement in the sentence. So yahoo for diagramming!

And then there is math…this is Rose’s least favorite subject. It isn’t that she struggles, she just gets bored with it. Singapore was a struggle in 1st grade and Rod and Staff was an excellent switch for us in 2nd. I think the problem is she much prefers words over numbers. For example, word problems are a much more enjoyable portion of the work for her than just rote practice. I still strongly believe in Rod and Staff and I am really not one to switch up curriculum unless there are major issues. Still I’m starting to consider some different options.

Rose’s first timeline entry of the year! I’m not sure why, but it doesn’t really feel like the year has started until we begin our timeline. I just love this concept for learning history and I love how Heart of Dakota is so consistent with their timelines.

This year’s timeline is written on index cards and will be a lot of fun for her to complete!

Rose and Beth are too old for naps, but they still do best when they have quiet time either reading or working on a craft. Quite often they hang out on their bean-bag chairs with me and we all read. On this day they sat on the couch and read while I read in one of their chairs. I realized my girls rarely actually see me read and I thought this was something I should remedy. While Grace naps in the afternoons we now all ready for 30-60 minutes. This has been a lot of fun! Our kitty-cat Zoe quite often joins us as well.

Well that was our week! I’ve also been posting some really great reviews from the TOS Review Crew, Mom of Masterbooks, and a handful of other companies. You can see some of my recent postings below.

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 13-17

Grace-Filled Writer

This was our last week of Heart of Dakota for the year!!!! Well…sort of. I’ve held off with Grace and Little Hands for a few weeks. I’ve had something unexpected come up for this summer and I wanted to get school done sooner than I originally planned. So I bumped everything ahead and we have been doing two units of Heart of Dakota in a one week time period. This seems like a lot…and it is! Keep in mind that I do skip a lot of science due to the fact that my daughter takes a three-hour science class each week.

I also just finished up the history readings for Little Hearts for His Glory. It bothered me at first not to do all the activities and I may go back this summer and do some, which would be a lot of fun! I’m not bothered by it anymore though. I know there are times I have to be flexible and homeschooling allows for that. No matter how much I plan and schedule, my good intentions will inevitable be interrupted by sickness, unexpected life events…sometimes even surprises and amazing once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. I like those interruptions best! 
Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Units 33 and 34
We have loved our time in this guide. Rose had learned so much and grown an incredible amount since we began in July. While I intended to do this guide half speed over two years, but after four units I realized she was more than ready for full-speed. Rose’s favorite set of units was the ones about The Wright Brothers and their Sister. She enjoyed this history so much I had to stop her from moving on! 
This week she studied more about the Panama canal and we looked at why it completely changed travel and commerce between the west and east coast. Since our studies have focused on American History she completed a map of the United States and its surrounding countries. She did a fabulous job! The proportions are a little funky, but I think this is great for a seven-year-old 2nd grader. 
She also finished up 2nd grade math from Rod and Staff and Wordly Wise 3000 book 2. There is something  incredibly satisfying about finishing a book for all of us. We came to that point in the year when staying focused was difficult. I remember this all too well from my full-time classroom teacher days, but honestly didn’t expect it with homeschooling. I think it may have to do with seeing an end in sight. We feel antsy and are so anxious to get to the end that it’s sometimes hard to stay the course. 
We are looking forward and excited to start Preparing Hearts for His Glory in August! 
Little Hearts for His Glory: Units 33 and 34
This is my second time through this guide, but I have enjoyed it immensely more. The first time I used it for K-4 as I anticipated never homeschooling my daughters. I really don’t recommend this unless you have an incredibly advanced child. Even then I’m not sure I would ever recommend this! 
This time as a K-5 curriculum Little Hearts was a fabulous fit. Beth really started to enjoy history and began asking questions and wanting to know more on her own. This was one of my goals for homeschooling. Learning for the sake of passing a test is not what we want for our children. Yes, I want them to do well as they go through school and remember what they have learned, but more than that I want to encourage a heart for learning and desire to know more. Heart of Dakota is just so good at that! 
Since Beth finished up the 1st grade reading curriculum I’ve just been having her read books at or slightly above her level and narrating for me. She has really enjoyed this and got  handful of books from my parents which I read at her age. She loves that they were once Mommy’s books!
We’re looking forward to Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory next year!
Little Hands to Heaven: Off Week
Like I mentioned I took a break from this guide with Grace this week so I could get through everything else with my older girls. She was not happy. My little sweetie loves to learn! I found out this week she has learned to read colors because of spending so much time with a small book about colors. I knew she loved it; I had no clue she was learning words! I plan to start Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons soon and I’ll be highlighting our language arts plan at this point. 

I kept her as busy as I could with fun activities, but it seemed I couldn’t keep her busy enough! She’s enjoyed her year with Heart of Dakota so very much. I plan to finish the guide throughout the summer and we’ll be using it again next year for her K-4 year along with reading, pre-K math, and the Rod and Staff ABC series. 

We’ve also enjoyed reviewing some really great stuff! 
Art… (Review Coming Soon)
Games… (Review Coming Soon)
Sign Language…(Click for Review!)
Be on the lookout for some really run reviews over the next few weeks! 

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!

Spring Break!

Grace-Filled Writer

We took our spring break a little later than normal this year. My in-laws had planned to come into town this week and with the late start after Christmas I didn’t feel bad having our break later than everyone else. We had a great spring break! Here are some pictures of our fun…

Catan with the fam! Rose enjoyed playing her first game on her own, at least as alone as she could! She’s grown up watching us play this game from the time she was just a baby.

I finally figured out how to check out books on my Kindle from our local library and my girls have loved this new way to read books like The Magic Tree House and A to Z mysteries! Beth read the one about Pandas.

My in-laws got to try out our local shaved ice. The girls chose a new flavor, Dirt and Worms. It’s root beer flavored with gummy worms. They loved it!

We played out in the back yard a lot because the weather was so very nice. We love the ideas in Dianne Craft’s Active Play Books so much that we tried out some new ones! Check out my review to see some more fun from this great resource for your little ones.

We ended the week with my husband’s family and watching my niece play Amaryllis in The Music Man in school.

We love playing with our cousins!

We love it so much I can’t get them to pose for the camera!

To end the week my husband and his brother ran a marathon! This is the second one my husband has run and he did a GREAT job! This is his brother’s third marathon. Nothing like a little brotherly competition to spur them on!

The run started early while the little ones were sleeping. I saw him start the race, but the girls missed that part. We found Daddy later in the morning along the way.

He did a great job, finishing up in 3 hrs and 45 minutes. I can’t even imagine running for that long. Way to go!

We had a good break and are looking forward to getting back to our regular schedule this week. The girls are anyway. They love school. I would have liked a little more time to get some other things done!