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!

pictures