Heart of Dakota: Bigger Week 13

This was a lazy week for us. We did not do much of the academic things, but we kept up on our history, science, Bible study and math.

We enjoyed the History Activity on day 1 with the water, but Mom forgot the camera that day. Oh Well. Now both my children understand water flow as well as know exactly where the Mississippi River is on a map.

Proverbs 30:5 talks about dependability. I thought that was a great time to bring back our past character studies on responsible and being trustworthy. I am constantly telling them that they need to be more responsible with their toys etc. But after this week there was a better understanding of those three character traits.

Oh My Gosh! Who was the one who thought of shaving cream to make mountains and valleys and hills?! Fantastic idea! The kids were having a hard time at first, not diving in and just have fun with the shaving cream. But once I told them that the activity would only take about 10 minutes and if they focus they can do whatever they wanted with the shaving cream, they focused right in. Just take a look at the pictures. Too much fun afterwards. They chased each other around the house with shaving cream gloves. The pro to this all…their hands and nails were sparkling clean! LOL!!!

On day 2 of science the kids always enjoy a time to draw. Yes, I helped my daughter do some of the writing. It still is a bit much for a 6 year old, but she enjoyed drawing her owl. And I learned they have 3 eye lids. Who knew?

But for day 3 learning about vertebrates and snakes was a cinch. We owned a snake at one time and knew exactly how they eat. The only thing was our snake was a python and he would suffocate the prey where as some snakes strike. But we still had fun do the science project. I love the science in Bigger. It is very simple and there are times I feel like it may not be enough, but it really is. They have learned a lot form the science aspect of Bigger!

For day 4 of science we had a good time jumping around and dancing and flying and acting like a Cookoo bird. My son says to me "Oh, Mommy is that why you call our Cookoo clock a Cookoo clock?" "Yes, honey, because the sound it makes is just like the common Cookoo bird." So of course we went online and looked up the sound of the common Cookoo bird. Sounds just like the clock we got from Germany! Hmm, imagine that?!

Our week ended with the typical timeline and note booking. I love the maps they made of W.Virgina, Ohio, Virginia etc. The map in the book was a bit confusing to them so we pulled up a map online of just those states with the rivers and lakes the assignment asked for and drew it from that. They did such a great job!

Well, tomorrow is Christmas Eve and we have the whole family coming over to celebrate Christ's birth as well as our church service that night. So sorry, this weeks entry was a bit short, but there it is! Got too much to do and so little time! You all know exactly what I am talking about! So I am off to get ready for Christmas! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend celebrating Christ's birth! Merry Christmas! We will see you in 2012. We are off all next week. YEA!

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Heart of Dakota: Bigger Week 12

This is a hard time of year for me to stay focused on school. With all the performances either that I am in or I am directing and parties and shopping and cleaning and preparing. Uugghh, it can over-take my mind and life. I think that is why I am very thankful that I am using HOD this year. it has really made school go smoothly and easy. Although we did skip school on Thursday this week to go to our Homeschool group party. But we made up for it on Friday.

Anyway, we had a grand time in school. I loved geography this week. It was a great experiment with the flash light and showing the different zones and how the sun is used to warm those zones. Just check out the pictures below. Both kids really got into using the flash light and figuring out on the wall map which zone is hot etc.

Self Control. Hmmm, can't we all use a little of that one on a daily basis. That was our character trait this week. At this time of year it is hard for parents and kids alike to have self control! You know? But I know the Bible verse, Proverbs 21:23, was talking more about our tongue. Luckily enough my kids are pretty good with their tongues. They speak nicely, for the most part, to each other and to elders.

Washington's rules for conduct and behavior was very interesting. My son's was "Wear not your clothes foul, ripped, or dusty, but…take head that you are not unclean." Need I say more about why that was chosen for him?! And my daughter's was "Do not laugh too much or too loud in public." My daughter can be very loud. And let me be the first to say I understand. I am not exactly the quiet rose sitting in the corner either, but she does have to learn to control it!

Ok, you all know by now by reading my blog that I usually do something that is not in the HOD manual. Well, I bought quills to write with and this was a perfect opportunity to pull them out for this writing assignment. How did it go? Well, take a look at the pictures below. In a few words, my kids have a great appreciation for the pen now. LOL Will we use them again? Uuh, "NO"! Wow, that is hard work!

Learning about the birds beaks was cool. We did our project but we also looked at the few birds that were in our yard that day as well as our own ducks and how the beaks/bills of the different birds work.

Food chain was nothing new to my son, but my daughter had an Ah Ha moment and using the index cards was a great idea. Very simple and very easy yet a great impact on how the food chain works and what happens if something is missing.

I loved the art project this week even though we still had our art class and finished the painting of our Henri Rousseau pictures from last week. Check out how wonderful they turned out! Anyhow, the art project was about symmetry in the HOD manual. I had to join in on this one. Their cherry trees came out great. And yes, I allowed then to paint an ax only on one side to signify it was Washington's cherry tree!

And then the Science project of the egg. As I have said before we did a whole year on flying creatures, including the bird, back in 2009. But this was a great refresher for them both. My daughter remembered everything we had gone over about the egg form 2009. As well as my son did too. But I did catch a great picture of the air pocket in the egg. It really marvels me how wonderful God is in creating everything that everyone and every animal needs!

Of course we finished up our week with our timeline and our note booking pages too. Once again we had a great week. We had our homeschool party where we made snowflakes out of hot glue which was a great idea and it came out so cute. Gifts for the Grandma's. The bad part about the party? Toooooo much yummy deserts! I brought some veggies which I am glad I did. I tried to munch on those, but yummies kept sneaking into my mouth. I don't know how, but they kept landing there. Oh, well, Christmas is only 2 weeks a year. Or is it a whole month? LOL!

Well we have one more week of school then we are off for a week. So onto week 13. Have a great pre-Christmas week!

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Heart of Dakota week: 11 update

It was interesting on Day one of Unit 11 how it talked about finding out where we came from. My son went right to the map and touch Poland, Austria, Czech and Germany. We really did not get a chance to call anyone, but we talked to Grandma for a few minutes about her parents from Poland, Czech and Austria. I think the kids learned a bit more about themselves on day 1.

They also learned how much easier children have it now a days. Learning about Anthony Benezet was an eye opener to how children were treated and thought of in those days gone past. They have always known that the children worked much harder then they do now, but they did not realize how school was. How children were not taught 3 hours (like us) a day with breaks in between. Or that when they got something wrong they were told to just try again. They were struck with rulers and beaten and NEVER allowed to speak before spoken to. So far that lesson has stuck all week.

OK, so, in my "got to have it my way" style I changed things up just a bit for geography on day 2. It did say to get a little toy and make it go to the Polar, Tropical and Temperate zone. Well, we made little people dressed according to their zones and stuck them to the globe. That was fun. I even got in on the act and drew a few little people. Seems because of this time of year we all drew either Santa or Elves. LOL.

OK, I know this has nothing to do with HOD, but for all those out there who do not agree with Santa…please do me a favor, make sure that your children do not ruin it for those friends of yours that do participate with the Santa theme of things this time of year. Even if you have a 1000 reasons for not doing Santa and even if those 1000 reasons are 100% right, don't let a silly thing like Santa ruin another friends holiday season with their children and their family holiday traditions no matter how right or wrong anyone may think they are. Talk to your kids and make sure they say NOTHING to your friends children! Ok that is my soap box for today!

The assignment for the feathers was a repeat for us. 2009 we spent a whole year on flying creature and part of that year was birds. So this was a fast experiment for us. Plus we have ducks, so we know all about the different feather as well as the zipper effect of feathers and all about the oil glands etc. But they enjoyed going over the information again. And enjoyed looking around the yard for feathers from the ducks.

I loved the Bible verse this week. Proverbs 20:22. All about Perseverance and reliance on GOD! Can not get any better of a lesson. You know for whatever reason all of the sudden the Bible verses are really hitting home for the kids as well as the character traits. They are really understanding what this all means. Well, mainly my son. But even my daughter has really had a deeper understanding. I really love HOD's Bible Study portion. It is so simple, but really has a great impact! Both my children are growing stronger in the knowledge of God. Especially this time of year, it is really important to me that they understand who God is and what Christmas is all about.

The science experiment was so much fun. Both my kids love to draw so this was a ton of enjoyment for them. They were pretty close to the size of what they thought the Thrush to be, but way off on the sound. My son now wants to move to the east coast so he can see a thrush. Umm! Let me think about that one. "NO!" Too cold. California is warm 24/7. I think we'll just look at pictures thank you!

On Thursday we had the opportunity to go to a Ballet. OMGosh, I loved it! It was so well done considering there were so many children in it. The children ballet dancers were fabulous and the adults were even better. They took the Nutcracker and condensed it down to an hour long show with narration so the children could understand what was going on. Both my kids liked it a lot and my daughter came home and wanted to put on a ballet show for us which I proudly sat and watched for 30 minutes with her jumping and doing splits etc.

On Friday for our last day of unit 11 we caught up on the reading for Thursday. We did not do the art project for HOD this week. But take a look at the drawings they did in our Art class on Monday. We learned about Henri Rousseau in class. So this week we got to start with the drawings and our rendition. I will take another picture next week once they finish painting them too.

As normal we did our Timeline and Notebooking. Nothing really special about that one this week. Just the norm. But the science project was SO much fun. Hint for those who are not on Unit 11 yet. Use an ice pack under your kids nests and they will harden faster. We even doubled the recipe so Dad and Grandmas could have one each. We had so much fun doing the birds nest for our science experiment and even more fun licking the bowl. But the best part was eating them. Just look at those faces. Mmm, Mmmm good!

Well, once again I end my week with a smile on all our faces, happy children, a non-stressed Mom/teacher, no extra research for me as a teacher and all of us with a little more knowledge gained from this weeks school. What more can I ask for?!

By the way, I apologies ahead of time if there are spelling errors. For some reason the spell check was not working and you know how it is. Even if you read your own work 100 times, it is so easy to miss things. So sorry!

See the picture here

Heart of Dakota week: 10 update

What a great week. Well, I have to be honest, it was HARD at first. You see we had two weeks of vacation. One week away from home and then a week at home. So Monday was not easy to get back into the swing of things, but once we got the week going, by Tuesday we had things in full gear.

Monday started us off with a great little experiment in geography. We talked about how maps are taken from the sight of above the earth. I do not think my daughter ever actually realized that. So we got a few toys and had the kids stand over the toys and draw the toys from above. My son got this so fast and easy, and when my daughter struggled a bit, he helped her out.

I loved our Bible verse for the week: Proverbs 2:6. All about Wisdom. I was actually able to really use this several times throughout the week in our everyday life. I love when school stuff can go past the school hours. Don't you?

The migration map was not one of our favorite science activities so far. But you can see they did an OK job of their mapping skills. Oh, but the science activity on day 3 was so much fun! Flapping, soaring, fluttering, hovering and gliding. We actually spent a little too much time on this, but they were having so much fun. Just look at those happy faces as they fly around our school room!

Now this week we skipped our art class because at our church we do these huge Broadway Style musicals and we had a rehearsal that night and I still did not have 1 piece of my daughters costume so I needed to skip art class to go do that before rehearsal. Anyhow, long story short, we ended up doing the art in HOD this week. It was fun. Now, I have to admit we did things a bit different then what the guide told us to do. But you have to understand the art class we are in is far advanced then the art in the HOD manual. I gave them a white crayon and had them draw some designs on their kite then paint over them in watercolors. The only rule was that they were only given the primary colors to paint with so they had to mix colors. They turned out pretty darn good. We were going to try to fly them, but Mom got lazy and kept forgetting to get the supplies needed. So my son says all he really wants is to hand it on his wall. Okay Dokay!

Of course we added to our timeline this week, but one of my favorite activities was the Benjamin Franklin Quotes. I had both my kids only do two quotes. Both my son and daughter choose one of the same ones..."Early to be and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise". I loved the creativity they both put into the drawings to go with them. Let me explain them for you.

"Early to be and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise"

Daughter: you got a man sleeping at the table because he did not go to be in time. In the next frame you see him sleeping peacefully like he should in bed at a good time of night.

Son: The first frame shows a man going to be on time, 2nd frame show the alarm clock and a rooster waking him up early and the 3rd frame shows the same man at his lab inventing a cure for some horrible disease.

"A good example is the best sermon"

Son: Here you have a man off the street helping another man with a very heavy box just out of the good of his heart.

"Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow"

Daughter: She has a lady walking her dog in the park which is her job and in the 2nd frame you see her kneeling beside her bed praying to God before bedtime.

Anyway, you can see how imaginative they are with their art work. I am sure your kids are too. Well all in all we had a great school week. We are all a bit tired from all the rehearsals and performances this week, but it is all well worth it. If only one person in that audience receives Christ from something anyone of us did on stage, then that is all that matters. Right!?

Well, we are off to week 11.

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