heart of Dakota: Bigger week 16

Back to school this week. As you all know I had to take off last week because I did not have a voice to teach with. I still can not sing a lyc, but at least I can teach. So this week was very interesting. We had a lot to learn about the new Government of the late 1700's and the branches of the Government. I was not too sure how my daughter would do with all this information, being she really is only in 1st grade, but she did FANTASTIC.

First let me say that a friend of our has a son that has been widdling rubber band guns for a while now. I still think he should sell them to all the kids and make a few dollars. You know? Anyway, that has gotten my son to want to learn to whittle. BUT, after much research I found out that whittling is really called wood carving and for a child of 9, the knives you have to use are extremely sharp and is not recommended. Most of the sites I went on recommended soap carving to start with. So that is what we did. We got his pocket knife and some Ivory soap and he has now, at the writing of this, carved a duck and a car with windows. I only have the duck pictures up right now. This is a great little hobby and he can gift the soaps to friends and family as well as sell them too.

On Monday we had our art class and we finished up our paintings. My son's is of the race track and my daughter is the ice skaters. I took pictures of some of the other kids paintings too. They ALL turned out soooo good! I love this class. Not only because my kids are learning how to express themselves through different mediums of art, but also because we are doing it with all are great friends!

So the first thing we did in school this week was to learn to recognize the 13 colonies on the map plus the other 2 East Coast states. I have this huge dry erase map of the USA and World and we had so much fun playing a game of who can tell me where the state is and what the abbreviations for each of the 15 states? You can tell in the pictures my son was having fun trying to be the first one to say "I found it!"

Our Bible study this week was Proverbs 27:19 and all about integrity. I was really able to show them how such a young child can have integrity just by not allowing another child to talk them into doing something that is not right either morally, lawfully or Biblically. Good character trait this week.

For our first Science project this week we learned about how animals and bugs camouflage themselves from predators. So they had to draw their own animal or bug, color it, hide it and then have dad try to find it. So I had them use just the dinning room because I figured it was small enough that dad would not take all day to find them. Their bug drawings came out cute and dad found them in just the right amount of time! Along with all this we also learned about the lifecycle of a butterfly. I found a wonderful book (picture below) that really made it come to life for them. But I have to say I loved how they worked together to draw their lifecycle picture!

And lastly today for science we learned about the Maple tree and how the fruit/nuts are distributed around to reproduce a new plant. The project did not work as well as I was hoping. But we finally found that if we threw our little paper Maple nut in the air we had better luck of it traveling. Oh, and then, of course, the wind started blowing about an hour after school ended. Couldn't have done it while we were doing our project. I found a few more books I truly thought were great for learning a little bit more about trees. See the pictures below.

Now I have to say, I taught my son cursive first and then printing. However, I did not quite do the same with my daughter. She taught herself how to print while I was working with my son when she was about 3 and 4. So we are working on cursive now. Just look at her work. She really is picking up on it quickly and doing a great job. She has said many of time she wants to learn how, so here we go!

We also had to map out or branches of the Government. I did it on the white board and the children copied what I did. Here is another thing I went on-line and found some great sites that really helped to make it more clear to the kids and me. The best site I visited was Ben's Guide to the USA. I thought this site was the easiest to run around in and had the best info in easy to understand format. I also had them find the 15 states on a small paper map and mark them on Friday just to see if they got it. They did really good. Raquel found 9 out of 15 by herself. Good job for a little 1st grader doing 4th grade work!

Oh I almost forgot, we also did our timelines. OK, wait till you see the pictures. Not that big of a deal until you see my drawing of the Presidents seal. OMGosh! What the heck is that thing? Is it an animal, vegetable or mineral??? We had a good laugh and my son made me promise I would share it with my readers so you all could get a good laugh at my artistic skills. Well at least my bird drawing skills. YES! That is an eagle!

OK, we are off to the weekend. See you again next Friday for week 17! Remember to double click on the picture to see them bigger.

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Heart of Dakota: Bigger Week 15

We had an exceptionally fantastic week this week. You see my daughter took a huge step in school this week. Usually she can sometimes be disruptive during the readings and when I ask her to retell, of course after I read and after my son retells, her answer, most of the time, is I don't remember. But not this week., She was on top of it this week. She even asked to retell before my son on a few occasions. And during her phonics/reading lesson…OMGosh, what leaps and bounds she did this week. All this time, I was not sure she was listening and guess what? She was!

As far as HOD goes, of course it was a good week. I can not recall a bad week yet. Our geography lesson was fun. We drew the Delaware River on a piece of paper and then my son got his army men and the kids had the battle of the British/Cornwallis and General Washington and the crossing of the Delaware River. They enjoyed this activity, but my son asked why he had to play the British each time?

Our Bible verse was Proverbs 13:13. Oh boy! I got to use this one on several occasions this week. I love natural consequences and how they work to really hit home a Bible verse you are memorizing. And the character study was a good one too. Initiative. This one was used during an argument the two of the children had the other day. My question to them was who will take the initiative to apologize? It worked out good. Oh yea, and of course I used it several times to ask who was going to take the initiative to give me a kiss. They both ran to me so they could be the first ones. LOL. I enjoyed that!

During art class this week the kids were learning about drawing portraits. I was their model. My daughter did real good on her first try. My son, on the other hand, took 3 tries to finally get it. But once he got it he did a great job. I think what was tripping him up was the fact we were using a new medium…chalk. He had really never used chalk before so I think he was just trying to get used to it. Anyway, yes, I had pigtails in my hair if you are wondering why they drew my hair that way.

We really enjoyed science this week. I know I have seen some reviews saying the science is weak, but really it is complete! Learning about the leaf and tree was a joy for the kids. My daughter could not say the words correctly. She says them like this, "phototsisasis and clarpill". At least she has the right idea and understands what we are talking about. We did some leaf rubbings which turned out real pretty. Just looking at a leaf real close up under a magnifying glass and learn about the parts of a trunk of the tree was actually exciting to them. It was a very good week for science. On Saturday we plan to go to the Park for a hike and try to look for galls on leaves and look for the burrowing bugs in the tree trunks. Or at least I hope to. Today I have a fever, so we shall see.

OK, the Lincoln Logs activity was so much fun. They built the tower like Marion had built and they even made a flat top for the toy soldiers to stand on and fight. They once again had fun acting out the battle of Marion and the British armies. Can I just stop right here for a minute and say that I have such an appreciation for our forefathers now that I never had growing up. I only wish my teachers would have taught me American History the way my children are learning it. This has been such a great experience for them as well as me.

Of course the kids did their timeline this week and for the note booking project we drew a map of New Jersey and Delaware and the River in which Washington crossed to fight the British. And after we were all done doing our projects today, the kids really wanted to look through their history and science notebooks. That was fun. Dad even came in for a moment and looked too. I, and even the children, were amazed at how much we have learned in just 15 weeks of school so far. My son said, "We really have learned a lot. It does not feel like it!" Just in case you were wondering, I love this program. I think it is the most comprehensive curriculum I have used even though I do not use the spelling and reading program. Next year I will use the reading program with my son, I just thought it was way too much for him this year. I can tell already that he will be ready for it next year. If you are just contemplating what to do for your school curriculum, I highly recommend Heart of Dakota.

Oh gosh, I almost forgot. My daughter came in this afternoon with a paper plate filled with dirt and two worms. One thing I can say about homeschooling is my kids are not growing up being scared of God's creation. I am really glad about that. We will see you all next week.

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heart of Dakota: Bigger week 14

My poor little girl was very sick for the first three days of school this week. I have to admit, as bad as it may sound, that it was actually really nice to only school one child. You see, my daughter is, well, the child who always makes the teacher have to stop class to correct, discipline or wait on. Where as my son, just does it right away and answers a question right away. Plus, without having to do her math, reading and penmanship, the day went faster too because I only had to focus on one grade level for the academic subjects. Despite the fact that the first three days went very quickly, we had a good week. I was able to bring my daughter up to speed on the things we had learned while she was out. And since she was still very tired the rest of the week from being sick, I just went onto Starfall.com to do her reading and math instead of her regular school books.

Anyhow Both the kids had a love/hate relationship with the History activity this week. My son's smile just got bigger and bigger as I kept taxing his M&M's until he had 1 left and he said to me "is this one for me?" Mommy said, "Oh wait I forgot about the tax for children with messy rooms. 1 please. Ok, honey now you can have your M&M's. Go ahead eat them all up." I say this as I have 20 M&M's dripping from my mouth. LOL! Needless to say I gave him 20 back. My daughter's reaction, later in the week, was not so funny. She sat there almost in tears. She hated the idea I was eating all her M&M's. Don;t worry folks, I gave her 20 too. But I will tell you they both got the WHOLE idea of taxation.

Proverbs 11:14 was this weeks Bible Study verse which was all about Leadership. I loved this one once again. I think I love them all so far. Anyway, I showed each child that even though they are not adults, they are still leaders. "What do you mean Mommy?" Well, I showed my son that he is a leader in the home with his younger sister. That she looks up to him for guidance, asks him question she does not understand and asks him to help her with things. I told him it is up to him to guide her correctly and be a good leader. Wow the smile I got from that. "Light Bulb!" My daughter then asked me, "I guess I am not a leader at all since I am the youngest?" My answer was of course "Not true." I asked her how many friends of hers are younger then her…all. Well then, they look up to you for guidance on how to act like a young lady, how to play, do makeup/hair or maybe even to look to God in everything you do etc. She was so happy that she was considered a leader too. I want my kids to be leaders in everything. Whether it be in a play group to show how to play or act or even in their own home as we homeschool Moms are leaders. Great subject for discussion this week.

Now last week we were on vacation from school, but we still finished reading "Guns for General Washington", which I am glad we did. This week I got to pull out a few books I had on hand to read in place of the "Guns for General Washington "book. What a great book BTW. The Henry Knox story was very inspiring. The Geography lesson was really good to see the difference between what kind of determination they had to have to get those guns across to Washington compared to what it would be like today to go that same 300 miles. WOW!

OK, bad Mommy, we got the first science exploration only half done. My son did not draw pictures of birds, but on the last day of science both kids drew the three birds we talked about. Ostrich, Humming Bird and Bustard. Ah, but day 3 of science was so much FUN! OK, so my son drew the mouse and put it in the sidewalk. Then our tape measure was only 25 feet, which was a good refresher for counting by 25 for him. Do you know we actually got to 250 feet before it was really truly unrecognizable. But really 150 feet is where we would not have know it was a mouse. We could see the white piece of paper, but really if we did not know what it was we would have never known. I think a few of our neighbors thought we were crazy measuring 3 house down. Oh well, crazy homeschool Mom!

By the time we got to the Art Exploration my daughter was feeling much better. So after giving her a run through of everything we had learned thus far, and because we did not have our art class this week, and because I thought this project was a good one to help remember Valley Forge, I went ahead and did art. I loved the way the foot prints came out. I had my son trace my daughters foot and visa versa. They came out so cute and it was a great fun day for my daughter after being sick for 4 days. She got to go outside to get some fresh air for a little bit while we finished our art.

This week we learned about the Declaration of Independence. I have in my possession so many very cool things from when I was a kid. I got to pull out a copy of the Declaration, a movie about the Declaration as well as the Constitution, School House Rock DVD (always fun), several books and we even went over the difference between the Declaration and the Constitution. The movie we watched was very good. A little long for young kids, but Very good. You know it even cleared up some confusion in my mind about a few things.

OMGosh, I almost forgot. I read a book to both kids on Monday while my daughter was in bed called "Breakfast for General Washington". It was so cute. It was about a boy who was very into George Washington and wanted to know what he ate for breakfast. So he researched and researched and finally found out. Both the kids were so into finding out what a hoecake was that we looked up the recipe and I made some. Well, lets just say that they DO NOT cook up like a traditional pancake, nor taste like one, smell like one or look like one. Shoot I had to use OIL to cook them. Ok, ladies, I almost NEVER use OIL! They do not taste bad, but it would not be something I think I would do again. But it was a fun experiment for the kids.

Once again, we had a good school week. My daughter is better and today we walked down to Rite Aide and got ice cream. I look forward to week 15.

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