Bigger Hearts for His Glory - Unit 18

Mercie picked up in Bigger Hearts for His Glory (Heart of Dakota) right where she left off last year, on Unit 18. She had such a fun week and looked forward to school each day.

In history, we read about Robert Fulton and his inventions. He made the first steamboat that actually worked. As a child, his nickname was Quicksilver Bob because he once bought some quicksilver (mercury) for an experiment. She gets to choose one word to define for vocabulary, and she chose "quicksilver". She wanted to know what mercury looked like, so we did a Google images search, and she drew a picture on her vocabulary page.

She used a plastic fork to paint 'fireworks' on a piece of paper, because Robert Fulton once made his own Roman candles for the Fourth of July. This was a lot of fun! She wrote a sentence about Robert Fulton on this once it dried.

She was excited to add "Robert Fulton 1765-1815" to her timeline.

She also made a Notebooking page that told facts about the invention of the steamboat.

In science, we finished up the One Small Square: Woods book. We compared the wingspan of six different owls by measuring and cutting yarn. Then we measured her arm span and compared it to the owls!

We also used straws to see how an insect sees things with its compound eyes.

She made a Notebooking page with funguses and plants and learned that fungus can't make its own food while plants can.

Her poem this week was "The Harbor". She illustrated it with a cute steamboat and we talked about onomatopoeias. She had fun reading the poem with feeling. She had it memorized by today!

She memorized Proverbs 19:21 this week - "A man can make many plans, but the Lord's purpose will prevail." (NLT) We learned about the character trait optimism.

She picked right up in Rod and Staff grammar 2, learning about adjectives. I forget how wonderful this grammar book really is! We do most of the pages orally, but I have her write down one exercise in her composition book. It's usually around 5-10 sentences or phrases.

In math, she learned how to multiply and divide by 4, reviewed clocks, addition with carrying and subtraction with borrowing, and finding the perimeter of a square.

She continued reading "The Mouse and the Motorcycle". I may start Drawn into the Heart of Reading with her - I spotted it in my storage building this week and can't quit wanting to go back and get it!

I found this picture she had taken on my phone of her bed and her stuffed animals and doll. She got the unicorn last year for Christmas, and she still loves it! The thing is bigger than she is, but she sleeps with it every night.



How was your week?

HOD: Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 17

We completed Unit 17 in Bigger Hearts for His Glory this week. Mercie is in 2nd grade, and Eli is in 5th grade. Here is our week in review.

In history this week, we read about Daniel Boone. The kids really like listening to the crazy stories about his life in the wilderness. We wrote a little about his life and drew a picture of him swinging from a grapevine {which is how he escaped from Indians once}. As you can see, we used our journals for some of this!

They defined vocabulary words, added to their timeline and made a notebook page.

In science, we read about the parts of a root and made a notebooking page. We also used our journals to draw pictures of bacteria and parasites that eat dead wood, draw a squirrel and do some copy-work.

Our poem was called "Under the Trees", and the kids illustrated it.

Mercie worked on addition and subtraction in math, and Eli worked on Khan Academy on several different math concepts. He likes skipping around, and he is doing great in math, so I let him work on whatever he feels like.

Mercie worked on nouns and verbs in grammar and her Fun-Schooling Spelling book. Eli worked on IXL, and had some spelling pages in his journal.

They both work on Cheerful Cursive several times a week and are really doing well.

Eli got his Bible Journal in, and he and Mercie worked in those. I really like these journals, because they have room to write verse, prayer requests, things you are thankful for, and pictures to color and read the scriptures. It gives them room to think and ask questions.

 

Next week, Mercie and I will be using Five in a Row. Eli will continue in Bigger Hearts. He is doing great, but she is bored with it. She is on the young side of the placement for the guide, and I feel like she is competition with Eli {who is 3 grades above her} every day. He doesn't have as much difficulty as she does because he is older, and I feel like he could expand on some subjects. I don't want her to feel like she's always trying to compete with him, and I really want her to enjoy schoolwork. I explained to her what FIAR would be like, and she was so enthusiastic that I ordered it.

Eli, Mercie, and Silas had karate Monday and Wednesday. Eli and Mercie got two green stripes on their white belts! Eli and Mikaela had Bible Drill this week, and Mercie, Silas and Titus had Team Kid. We had a fun and busy week that flew by way to quickly.

How was your week?

 

Heart of Dakota: Week in Review {September 21-25, 2015}

This week, we completed Unit 9 in Bigger Hearts for His Glory and Little Hearts for His Glory. I know I post a lot of pictures, but we have so much fun and fit in so much learning in each day. I really don't even post pictures of everything we do! So, here goes...

Bigger Hearts {unit 9}:

We learned all about Benjamin Franklin this week in science and history. One thing I love about Heart of Dakota, is that the science and history are intertwined. History is also presented from a biographical perspective, which makes it much more interesting. Anyway, we read about Ben's childhood, his inventions, and his contributions to Colonial American science.

Eli and Mercie completed a notebook page about Ben:

I had them read Now and Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin. This book was really interesting, and taught them all about Ben's crazy, yet practical inventions.

they also made a science notebook page about Ben. They copied Job 37:11-12, and then drew a picture of one of Benjamin's experiments. Mercie drew the kite experiment, and Eli drew the lightning rod experiment.

We attempted to do an experiment with balloons on static electricity. Our balloons were NOT working right! We were supposed to rub the balloons on our shirts, and then rub them together to see sparks. We tried rubbing them everywhere, but we could never see sparks. So, I did what any good homeschool mom would do. We YouTubed it! And then the kids completed their science experiment sheet.

Our poem this week was Consider. The kids illustrated their poem as always.

 

Our Character trait this week was thriftiness, and our scripture memory was Proverbs 15:16 and 17, "Better to have little with fear of the Lord, than to have great treasure with inner turmoil. A bowl of vegetables with those you love is better than a steak with someone you hate." I actually wrote that from memory, so another plus about HOD is that I am memorizing scripture right along with the kids.

We also made potato stamps and used paint to stamp a picture.

 

Our vocabulary words this week were lathe, molasses, and scour.

 



Here is what Eli did and learned in his extra science this week:

what makes up blood cells

vitamins and minerals and where to find them in food

food groups

the anatomy of the heart

 

Little Hearts for His Glory {unit9}:

 

Silas had a fun week. In math, we learned about geometric solids. I ordered this kit to help him visualize the shapes:

 

He does really well at matching and recognizing them, but can't remember the names.

 

He is still working on handwriting. Forming letters is really hard for him, but his other fine motor skills are developed well.

 

His memory verse was Philippians 2:14. He traced it and colored a picture.

 

 

In Bible, we learned about Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, and King Joash. He loved our Rhyme in Motion, Five Special Prophets. There were several fun activities this week. He pretended to be a raven and brought me bread {cotton balls}. He used a clothespin for a beak, and insisted on putting it in his mouth!

 

 

We made a Jonah craft and then performed a float or sink experiment.

 

 

He made a picture of heaven by dipping chalk into sugar water and drawing with it.

 

He also made a crown like the young, 7 year old king would have worn. Then, he hid while I searched for him.

 

 

I order him the All About Reading pre-reading level. It came in Thursday, and boy, do we love it. He already knew the letter A, but we went ahead and spent two days on it. He made his craft, we read a poem, and he used pipe cleaners to make an A.

He loves Ziggy the puppet, who helped us play a rhyming game with body parts! Ziggy would point to his arm, and call it a "farm". Silas would laugh and say, "No, my arm!" He still doesn't understand the concept of rhyming, although we are still working on it.

 

I have a feeling we are going to enjoy AAR. It did make phonics seem more fun to him.

 

And Titus, my 3 year old, was not left out. He tags along and does many crafts and experiments with us. I ordered an extra student packet for AAR, and he is learning along with Silas.

 

 



Week in Review: September 14-18, 2015

We completed Unit 8 in Bigger Hearts and Little Hearts this week! Here is a summary of what we did.

Bigger Hearts: Unit 8

In history this week, we read about an Indian called King Phillip and a man named Benjamin Church, and the war that took place between the white men and the Indians. The kids made a wampum belt with purple and white rice:

We added Captain Church and King Phillip to our timelines. These are starting to look really nice!

We defined vocabulary words for this week {wampum, plunder, and sachem}:

In science, we continued reading in our Science in Colonial America book. The kids like listening to this science book. We did an experiment showing the path of light. We read about some the transit of Venus and watched a video on YouTube showing the one in 2012. We then drew the planets in our notebook, and using the NASA website, colored the planets correctly.

Our poem this week was titled A Prayer, and the kids illustrated it:

Our memory verse this week was Proverbs 29:25, "Fearing people is a dangerous trap,  but trusting the Lord means safety." We had some really good discussion on peer pressure and trying to please our friends, versus pleasing God and going against the grain. Our character trait this week was Courage.

They are both still working in Singapore Math and Rod and Staff grammar. They each have devotions they do daily, and Mercie has handwriting. We are doing HOD's spelling lists for Mercie. I found a free e-book, The Modern Speller Book Two for Eli to begin dictation. He likes it a lot better than spelling lists! He really needs to work on his handwriting, so I ordered him Cheerful Cursive. He can write a little in cursive, but I think it will be much easier for him to write in cursive all the time. I also ordered Mercie a copy, so she will learn right along with him.

They both finished their books for Drawn into the Heart of Reading. This program is fantastic, and I have enjoyed watching them get so much from their books.Some of their answers in their workbooks surprise me with the depth of understanding. Mercie read Dolphin Adventure and Eli read Cabin on Trouble Creek, which he loved!

Little Hearts: Unit 8

This week, I stopped our "phonics" lessons and started working on basic letter sounds. We started simple, with A, B, and C. We practiced writing them on the board, played listening games, and tried to sound out "cab". He seemed to have much more fun with this, and his attention span increased to about 15 minutes of lessons. 

He worked on A, B and C in handwriting book, so that gave me a few minutes to practice the sounds with him {without it being "phonics"}.

In math, he practiced counting 1-10 and 10-1. I made some index cards labeled 1-10 for him to put in order, and he did a pretty good job. He gets confused with 6, 7, 8 and 9, even though we've been working on them for a few weeks. He is getting much better at forming and writing numbers.

 He also practiced his shapes - square, triangle, rectangle, and circle. He already knows these, but it was good practice to trace and draw them. I even had some shape buttons that I had him sort {no circles}.

He memorized Psalms 56:3, "When I am afraid, I will trust in You." We talked about being afraid, and how God is always with us to help us.

He made a tambourine to celebrate with singing and instruments, just as David did with the Ark of the Covenant was brought back to Jerusalem.

He also had to use his "wisdom" to guess items in a paper bag just by feeling them. I put a paintbrush, feather, crayon and pair of scissors in the bag. 

God's Design for the Human Body: Eli's extra science

I don't feel like the science in Bigger Hearts is sufficient for a 5th grader, so he has been going through this book for the past month or so. He read about the digestive system this week, and had to label the parts:

 He also read about taste buds, and had to label them by color.

 He enjoys this book, and he is always telling us really cool facts about the human body.

7th grade week in review: Mikaela

Mikaela had a good week this week. I didn't get many pictures, because her work is mainly independent. She is almost through with Book 3 in Key to Fractions. In Easy Grammar, she is finding the predicate adjectives and direct objects in sentences. I love how they teach to mark out the prepositional phrases first. It helps so much in finding the other parts of speech.

She had some writing assignments in her Spectrum workbook, and worked in her Art book. She had several science experiments this week; one was on buoyant force. In history, she continued working in her America the Beautiful curriculum. As I said before, this is one of her favorite parts of homeschooling.

She finished reading The Little White Horse for Drawn into the Heart of Reading. We start our project next week! 

So, we had a productive and busy week!