Heart of Dakota: Bigger week 22

Boy this week went fast. It seemed like I woke up and it was Friday. This week seemed that it was an easier week for school. Hmmm, well, easier may not be the right word. More like a simple than normal week.

Our week started with learning more information about John Audubon. Most of the stuff we had learned already from reading the extension book in earlier units, but it was nice to touch on it again and relive the information we had learned.

Our character trait this week was diligence. Hmmm, this made me think of all us homeschool moms and dads. We are very diligent in what we do, otherwise we would either give up with the thought of it being too hard or our kids would not learn a thing. I like this trait a lot. I was able to use it in their chores and show them what diligence means when doing your chores to completion or leaving just a little bit left over because you decided to cut corners to make it go faster. They realize they have to do the chore all over again and that corner cutting was not worth it in the end.

Geography was interesting. We took a map and divided it into the first states owned by Americans and then the states purchased from France in the Louisiana Purchase. You know what, Mommy learned a lot from this too. You can see in the picture that we even divided it with different colors. I think that will stick a while for them.

Oh, but our History activity was so much fun. We did it in the house, and nothing got broken. Yippee! I had them get a couple of hats and we happen to have 2 bean bags and played target practice. I did not do the candle, well, frankly because I did not have either a candle that was not used or a candle that was not in a jar. Just take a look at the pictures. You can tell they had a great time.

OK, I have to tell you, my husband is actually just outside of the pictures. He watched patiently at them laughing and having fun then he asked, “What does this have to do with history?” Oh that was great. I plainly said to the children, “What are we learning here?” And they explained everything they had learned about John Audubon. My husband asked nothing more! Now I want you all to understand that my husband’s question was NOT a derogatory question nor is he against having fun in school, just was curious how this all fit in. Don’t you just love it when the kids can answer those types of questions for you?!?!

As far as art this week, we did not have our art class nor did we do the art in the lesson. I felt it was very much like the art we did for the Indian sand art and decided to not do it this week. Next week we are making rolled pots for our art class. I cannot wait to see how that all turns out. And we are having it here at my house…OUTSIDE! It has been raining the last 2 days, so if it continues we are not having 15 children with clay all over in my home! Yuck!

Have I mentioned I really love the Pioneer Sampler book? This is such a great book and this week’s science was FANTASTIC! We learned how a boat can stay a-float. How air is trapped to keep it dry and floating. I loved this experiment and the kids were wowed by it!

Oh, but nothing beats the butter making. OK, my hubby got involved with this one. So we took the buttermilk and shook it and shook it and shook it. When it turned into whipped cream, I opened the jar and had everyone take a little lick. Yea, I know there was no sugar added, but they got to see the first stage of butter making. Whipped cream. My husband was actually shaking it when it turned into butter. He said that it was light and felt as if there was nothing in the jar and then all of the sudden it went thump in his hands. The children were in AWWW! We shook for a bit longer and then poured it out. My son was grossed out by it, but once I added a tiny bit of salt and squeezed the buttermilk out he loved the flavor. OMGosh, DO NOT skimp of this science experiment when you get to it. It was so much fun, a lot of work, and worth every WOW moment the kids had throughout the experiment.

Of course we have our Notebook page. Nothing exciting to tell about there. We just wrote out Henry Longfellow’s poem. Good practice for handwriting for my son and daughter. And of course we have out timelines which we added too. All in all it was another fantastic week. I really enjoyed the ending to the week with our science experiment. So now, as I told you, next Thursday we are having art class at my house and the kids want to make mini Johnny Cakes and homemade butter for everyone. So we will be cooking on Wed.

Have a great week and see you for week 23. Only 11 more weeks of HOD Bigger. God Bless!

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Heart of Dakota: Bigger week 21

OK, you all know what my first words are going to be. This was a great week as usual. We started off learning about our 7th President, Andrew Jackson. So one of the things I did was to do flash cards for the first 5 Presidents. I happen to have had these for some years now and so before we start our History reading I run through the first 7 Presidents of the USA. Hey I finally know then…I think?!?!? LOL.

Anyway, Geography is always interesting with HOD. I love how Carrie makes it fun and yet correlates it nicely with the history reading as well and correlates it with real life circumstances. And that is exactly what she did. You know when I was a kid, I do not think I could tell you the street names around my street (we happen to be living in the house I grew up in), but after this weeks assignment, my kids know exactly the streets around us. Good Geo lesson.

Our character study this week was decisiveness. I have to admit, I would have NEVER chosen this as a character trait. But it was actually really good decision to do this trait. He he. See how I worked that word into my sentence. LOL! There were many instances that I was actually able to bring up the word decisive over this week.

Art class this week was SO fun! OMGosh. I, personally, really wanted to do this weeks art, but I held back. Anyway, the idea was to draw out a picture and then cut fabric pieces into the shapes of your picture. We were suppose to incorporate different textures, colors etc. Both my kids turned out great. Actually, I wish now I would have taken a picture of everyone’s work at art class. They all turned out fantastic.

Can I just say that Science is wonderful we are having a blast with the book Pioneer Sampler. This really is a fun book to read and the experiments have been a blast. This week we did a few things for Science. We learned the different tracks for foxes, weasels and skunks. Well, we already knew skunks because we have them in our yard all the time and when our Dog was young and spry he use to kill them. And yes he did it without ever getting sprayed. Amazing isn’t it? Anyway, all these animals love eggs and we know that too because we also have ducks and before we started putting them in a huge Dog house at night the skunks would steal their eggs. So real life learning!

We also learned about how they use to plant the seeds in the Pioneer days. Oh my, can you imagine how hard it was for them just to grow a few little sprigs of lettuce? It was fun learning all the different ways they would use all the parts of the corn they grew! Except the toilet part. OUCH! Oh, and we absolutely enjoyed making the Johnny Cakes. I had no idea what a Johnny Cake was until I started to read the ingredients. Then I figured that they were Corn bread. Mmmmm, Yum! They were so good. The kids want to make some for our Art group next week. So hopefully we have time on Sunday to make some for Mondays Art.

Our last thing we did other then of course our Time line and Notebook Page was to do our History activity. Building the boats and trying to sink them was SO much fun! The kids did it over and over and over again! Each time it took a ton of pennies to sink the ship and, well we sunk our ketch a couple times too. Not sure there was much remembering why we were doing it, but they had fun either way and they know what a ketch is now!

Overall, again this week was fun. We did an extra day from last week because we had cut our week short. I went ahead and added the photos for that to week 20. I figure I will keep it all together. So go and take a quick look at them It was all about fence building. We used the Lincoln Logs as well as popsicle sticks. It turned out pretty cool!

I am looking forward to next week and unit 22. Hmmm, as I write this I cannot believe we only have 12 more units left before school is done. Oh Boy, I guess I have to start thinking about what we are going to do during summer. Yes, we school year round, but summer months are only 3 days a week with only 2 of those days being fulltime and the third day is usually fun stuff like science experiments and art etc.

Well, I will catch you all next week for unit 22. Have a great week!

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Heart of Dakota: Bigger week 20

This week was cut a bit short. Yesterday afternoon both my kids and the entire household came down with fevers. So needless to say we only completed 4 days of the 5 days for week 20. That is OK, we will just do Friday on Monday and then combine unit 21 day 5 to day 4 next week.

So far this week we did learn a ton of stuff. I loved our character study this week of loyalty. We actually had a great example of this on Thursday where the children were not loyal to me and the instructions I give them on how to behave inside the home. I am glad that each week we learn a new character study, but sometimes I wish it would go 2 weeks long on each character trait! This one would be one of them. As far as the hymn this week…well, this one was not for me. I know we will be on this same hymn for a few weeks, but I may change it to something else. We shall see.

I loved our geography this week. Mapping was always a hard thing for me until I got into my late 20’s and my husband actually taught me how to use a map. So this activity with the grid was fantastic for us to experiment with. However, I did things a bit different. I did not explain what we were doing. I had the kids lay down the grid and mark the numbers and letters. I knew my son understood right away what we were doing so I had my daughter go first. It only took her about 2 tries to get it without any instruction. The kids were having fun doing this project and so did I.

Learning about the war of 1812 has been very interesting. OK, call me dumb or whatever, but I had no idea. I know, I know, I probably did learn this stuff in elementary school, but I did not remember ANY of it until this week. I was learning 100% right along with the kids. I really enjoyed playing the card game WAR with the kids. We have not played that game for a while so it was a lot of fun to do it over, over, over, over and over again. Yes, we played 5 times. LOL. It gave the kids a different perspective on war. Red cards were the Indians and black cards were the settlers.

This Pioneer Science is very fun and interesting. It has given the kids a great perspective on how EASY our lives really are. Yea, we may have all these chores we have to do and learning in school etc, but it is NOTHING compared to what they had to do in the pioneer days. This week we once again learned the layers of the tree so we could better understand tapping into a tree for maple syrup/sugar. I promised the kids that Friday we could go and buy TRUE/REAL maple syrup not the fake stuff we get at the grocery. But we are all sick and it will have to wait till next week.

We also learned how the pioneers measured things. In most cases they really had no real means of a measuring stick of sorts. They had to use their bodies as some sort of measurement. My kids hit that straight on. They knew from me using body parts over the years to measure. The tip of my thumb=1inch, my two arms =2 yards, my foot as almost = 12 inches etc. But we still had fun measuring each other’s body parts!

I really wanted to do the art expression this week, but as we kept going on the kids were getting tired and at this point I realized that no one was feeling good, so we may go ahead and do it on Monday with day 5 of unit 20. We shall see, especially since we do not have our art class this week and next.


Well, as I write this I am praying that I feel better by Sunday and the kids do too. My children’s choir, MERGE, which I direct, is singing for our Missions conference this Sunday morning. I and the kids need enough strength for about 30 minutes! Anyway, we are off to sleepy land for a while and then Monday morning back to finish week 20 and on the week 21. Have a great week ya all and we’ll write to you next week!

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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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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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