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