Heart of Dakota: Bigger week 19

OK, OK, here are those famous words once again. We had a great week. Actually it was short. I actually combined Friday's material to Thursday so I could have Friday off. You see my son's is turning 10 tomorrow (2-25) and I wanted to have Friday to get everything ready for his little party at our home. It was really easy to combine the two days together. The only thing we did not get finished was painting our mountains. But we will get to that in a few minutes.

I have to admit, this week we learned a very little bit about Thomas Jefferson. I was hoping to learn more. But the week was more about Lewis and Clark. That's OK, I know it will come back around once more.

Our character trait this week was about friendliness. This is a good one since my son can sometimes act a bit put off towards his sister. So this week his homework assignment was to find ways to act friendlier to his sister. I really liked the way we talked about the differences between acquaintances, friends, family and then Jesus. This was one character study they really understood and liked.

The history activity was OK, They enjoyed marking up that dry erase map I have. My daughter is still learning how to read so finding things on a labled map can be hard for her, so my son showed friendliness to her and helped her mark the map.

I love their pictures of the rooster. OMGosh! How cute they turned out. And of course my daughter wanted to copy all my sons ideas. He has been much nicer to her this week and she feels much closer to him. But for Science the candle burning and the source of its fire was wonderful. My daughter loved it and asked me over, and over, and over again to re-light the candle so she could put it out.

But the highlight of the week was making the Rocky mountains. Oh my. They had so much fun making the mountain range. OK, so we did not do the assignment exactly the way we were suppose to. But we had a good time and have a greater understanding. That is the whole concept of this. I will post pictures next week of the finished mountain range. We got so busy today (Fri) trying to clean, cook the potato salad, make the cake, clean up the yard, finish laundry (which I still have 2 loads left) and shop for food we just ran out of time to paint our mountains. So we will finish it Sunday after church…along with laundry!

Of course we have pictured our timeline and notebook pages below. But also take a look at our art project form our art class this week. This project was so fascinating that Mom had to get into the act of it too. The basis of it is as follows. We paint a picture using either very dark or very bright colors then we have to wait for it to dry. Once it is dry we paint over it with another coat of the opposite of what we painted. Another words if we painted dark then the coat over the top would be bright. Before this top coat is dry we use the other end of our brush and scratch a designe into the paint revealing the undercoat. OMGosh, they turned out so great. And for those of you who remember, we have ducks, sooooo we all decided to paint…a duck! I love this project.

Anyway, another week down and on to week 20 coming up. Wow, did I say week 20. Going so fast. See you next week!

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Heart of Dakota: Bigger week 18

So I say it every week, another good week. I think it is about time to come up with a new opening line to my HOD updates. But it really is true. This week was not only good in school, but my voice is back so I was able to sing while I was teaching the hymns, while I was teaching my children’s choir, as well as for all the other singing engagements I do on a weekly basis. I feel like I am on cloud 9 right now. I don’t have it all 100% back, but good enough that I can SING! YEA!

This week, art was a continuation from last week. Wait till you see the pictures. The medium was water colors and how to mix and shade with it etc. They both did 2 paintings and they turned out beautiful. They both really enjoyed working with watercolor. However this is not a new medium for them. When we draw in our nature journals we usually use either pencil or water colors.

In geography the children learned what the difference between Rural and Urban is. I actually went online and pulled up some pictures of some so they could see the difference between the two. Good project!

Our character trait was optimism. Now this was easy breezy for me because I tend to always try to look at the good side of things. If someone cuts me off on the fwy, I think “Oh, it was probably a mistake and they are kicking themselves for it.” I have always been like that although I find the older I get the less optimistic I become! Again this week the kids had a little hard time really understanding this character trait. But like I said before, the idea is to plant the seed in their little brains!

Science this week was all about finishing up the things of the forest. We learned and drew about the different plants that are green and can make their own food verses a fungus that cannot make food. Their drawing turned out good. Oh, and just look at the science experiment from week 17. The pictures are great! I have to add a quick funny story. Our mold experiment got eaten. I had a small piece of bread in a baggy sitting on the counter with a damp paper towel in it. I guess the wetness form the paper towel moistened the extremely hard piece of bread enough that my Mom ate it. So we had to start over. Luckily enough I had a rotting orange in the fridge and that is what you see in our picture. Oh, boy did it mold fast after I took it out of the fridge!

As well, we also learned a bit more about the different wing spans of different owls. Of course I pulled up pictures of each one. Who knew there was an owl that could fit in the palm of your hand?! I could not find our string, so we just drew the project on the floor. Oh, don’t worry when you look at the pictures, we used dry erase marker. My son’s wing span is almost the same as the great horned owl. Good wings for flying. LOL!

Our last science exploration was about the compound eyes of insects. I loved how we got several straws together to make a compound eye. Hint for those who are not on unit 18 yet…do not hold it right up to your eye. Make a funnel with your hand and out it up to your eye and then put the straws at the end of your hand. The way our eyes work without doing it the way I suggested, it automatically makes just one of the straws the one we look through. We enjoyed this activity!

Our history activity this week was all about the paddle boat. OK, the kids really enjoyed getting spatulas and spoons etc together and tapping them up. We made a little error with my son’s paddles. We made it a bit too long for our sink, so it was really hard to work. But my daughter's paddle was just right. The end result, they understand how it works. Although I think they already understood because of the fact we have ducks and they see how their feet works i.e.: a paddle boat!


Well, week 18 down and on to 19. I still cannot believe how far we have come and so far it has been so easy. Oh, and the extension reading book for these past two weeks, Buffalo Knife, was such a joy to read. We finished it today. Do you know what they asked me? “Mommy, can we read it again?” Now that is a good book!

Have a great week and we will see you on the flip side of next week!

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Heart of Dakota: Bigger week 17

Daniel Boone! What a man! I do not think I could do half of what he did or expected his family to do! This week learning about how this Frontiers-man crossed over form Pennsylvania to North Carolina to Tennessee then on to Kentucky was amazing. We even mapped it for Geography. See the picture below!

Our character study was on Endurance this week and let me tell you this man must of had endurance! I think we are very soft now a days! Well, and very lucky and blessed too! Unfortunately my kids just did not get the whole thing of endurance. Hey, you know sometimes they get it and sometimes they don't. The thing is to repeat, repeat, repeat and eventually it sinks in!

If you are wondering why I do not have any art posted from our art class we go to each week, it is because it is a two part project so I will post it next week. However, this weeks art project from HOD was SO very cute. The kids and I had so much fun painting Boone swinging from the vine just like in the story where he lost the Indians doing that. Just take a look at the pictures below. My daughter's is so cute with the cheeks painted in and the fearful expression. Mine looks a little too happy! And my son's is just right. Hmmm, sounds almost like the 3 bears! LOL!

One of the other History activities we did was to follow a paper towel trail. Just like Daniel Boone did to find his daughter and friends after being captured by Indians. 40 miles he went. Can you believe it? Well my kids did not have to go 40 miles to find the lost little American Girl doll, Kit, sitting in the driveway! They had a lot of fun doing this activity and asked if they could do it again. So we did!

For Science this week we are still learning about the forest. One of things we learned this week was about the root system and how it gives life to trees and other plants. Their picture of the root, tip and hair was pretty good. Check it out below.

Along with learning about the roots we are doing an on-going experiment trying to grow mold with a piece of stale bread in a baggy and spores using mushrooms. I have a picture of us putting each of the experiments together and then one of the mushrooms two days later. I will keep you all posted on how we are doing because I know you are all riveted to the edge of your seats waiting to know what happens next! LOL!

Oops, I almost forgot. We also read about pollination. Now I have to admit we had mixed feeling on the experiment for this one. It worked fine, but neither of us were very excited about it. Maybe because we used Chocolate and Strawberry milk mix. Maybe if we would have used some other powder it would have worked better!? Oh well, you can not have 36 weeks of excitement. You have to have one or two here and there that just are kinda OK. Right? Either way they did understand how pollination works and the experiment was helpful.

Of course we added to our Timelines and History Notebook today. My son wrote out some facts about the frontier. As an example, originally there were only about 400 people in Kentucky in 1775 and just 15 years later there was more then 75,000. WOW! Now that is expansion! My daughter did the same assignment but a little less facts written. She also drew a very cute picture of Daniel Boone and some other guys dreaming about who knows what. I am still not sure I get it, but that's OK, she at least knows who he is and what he did!'

Well, this week was just a little off for me. I am still not sure why. Maybe because I am having singing withdrawals. Yup, it has been 3 weeks since I have sung a note and I am still not all the way healed form that laryngitis. Bummer. Hopefully I will get back into all my singing that I do weekly and be back on track next week. Well, until then, have a great homeschool week!

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