Heart of Dakota: Week in Review {August 31- September 4, 2015}

We completed Unit 6 in Bigger Hearts and Little Hearts this week! Man, these units are flying by!

Bigger Hearts: Unit 6

In History, we read about William Penn and Benjamin West. Benjamin West was a painter, and when he was a child, he used berry juice to paint. He also used hairs from his cat's tail to make brushes! We painted a picture with juice:

We also made a notebooking page about Benjamin West. They drew pictures of an art palate and wrote facts about Benjamin in the "paints".

We did some jumping games like the Indians used to have. That was a lot of fun!

In science, we learned about natural remedies that the colonists used. Some of them didn't work {like wolf fangs hung around your neck giving you courage or bleeding you to reduce a fever}, but some of them did {like willow bark curing headaches}. They made a notebook page listing a few remedies that worked, and a few that didn't.

We did a demonstration where we learned how the body fights off infection.

We also learned about simple and compound leaves, and are going outside later to find some examples of each.

We read the poem "For A Child" this week, and the kids illustrated it.

We memorized Proverbs 3:3-4, and talked about the character trait Faithfulness.

We also started Drawn into the Heart of Reading this week, and we LOVE it so far. Mercie read "Buffalo Bill and the Pony Express" this week, and will be starting on Dolphin Adventure Monday. Eli is reading "Cabin on Trouble Creek". We started in the Adventure genre. This week, Eli made a bookmark and filled out a few sheets, and Mercie filled out a few sheets and we had some discussion. It doesn't take long at all, and I think it will be very beneficial for their literature analysis skills.

Eli learned about the nervous system and brain this week in God's Design for the Human Body. He had some fun brain exercises and had to color the three major parts of the brain and the nervous system. 

Eli is learning about singular possessive and plural possessive nouns in grammar. He is finding it a little confusing, but we are working on it. Here is a chart he made today:

He is adding and subtracting mixed fractions in math like he's been doing it all of his life.

Mercie is learning about nouns in grammar, and adding with carrying in math. She does well in Singapore math.

Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 6

Silas is continuing to enjoy Little Hearts. He learned about Joshua and Jericho this week. We had fun singing "Joshua fought the Battle of Jericho" and doing the Rhyme in Motion. He made this craft with the red rope hanging out of Rahab's window.

We read about the sun and moon stood still while the battle was still going on, and he drew a moon and a sun on opposite sides of the earth. We talked about how the sun shines during the day and the moon at night.

He also made an edible model of the dirt. The first layer is chocolate chips, the second is crushed cookies, and sliced almonds on top. He  mixed it with chocolate pudding and had a nice sugary snack!

He is still learning to recognize the numbers 6-10. He can recognize 10, but 6-9 he is having trouble with. He made flashcards with the corresponding number of stickers. He also used a ziploc bag filled with dish soap to practice writing his numbers. This actually helped a lot.

We are still working through Reading Made Easy, and we are on lesson 12. He is having so much trouble sounding out the words, that we may take a break from it. I printed out the first 30 pages of Simply Phonics from Shoelace Books. We are going to start with that Monday and see how he progresses.

He worked on a few pages in his thinking skills book and his handwriting book. Here is a page where he had to write his name.

I also started speech with him today with Super Star Speech. It looks like a great program, and I'm hoping with improved speech, reading will come easier. He was in an IEP when we were at home in Louisiana {at the public school}, but it didn't help at all. So, instead of putting him in an IEP in Ohio, we are going to do our best at home.

That was our week! Thanks for reading such a long post.