Heart of Dakota BLHFHG - Unit/Week 1

What an amazing week we had together for our first week of homeschooling! It was such an incredible joy to watch the kids learn new things and light up as we talked about the world, continents and early settlers that came from Spain.

We used a big ball to tape on the locations of the oceans and continents. The kids also enjoyed putting together our continent puzzle several times. They both did a great job and got really quick at putting it together! 

We worked hard on the memory verse each day. To help them, we listened to the CD, (which they both loved and sang all week) and we used the verse for copy work.  I also cut the verse into sections and they put it together by memory. They both got a special gold star at the end of the week for knowing the verse.  Psalm 4:8

We talked about ocean currents in Science and I decided since it was raining outside that we would just go play in the rain with our little boats we made and droppers to demonstrate currents. The kids really enjoyed this or just playing in the drizzly rain!  :) 

Don't pay any attention to my sweet son who dressed himself quickly to run outside to do the experiment! Lol! Stylin'! 

We colored a picture of a storm to go with our poem "The Storm."  The kids loved Pablo and Catalina's story in the storm as they crossed the ocean. 

We did a little more experimenting this week with our Science Exploration on Blubber! The kids thought this was awesome. Tip of the day is to put the lard/shortening in a bag around another bag that the kids hand is in like a glove to avoid mess.  It was great because it was obvious the blubber helps keep whales insulated because the hand without the lard just couldn't stay in the ice water! 

They wrote about the experiment on their science exploration worksheets. 

We made ships using construction paper and Popsicle sticks to show what Columbus ship may have looked like  as they sailed to Florida and finished up celebrating a good day at school with a snow cone! 

The sweet girl needed a bit of extra practice writing her numbers. Somehow they just keep getting backwards! So, she traced the highlighted numbers I wrote out for her... 

But she seems to have the hang of it much better now! 

We started our timeline and love the pictures that we found under the HOD Facebook files. I printed the timeline sheets, slipped them into plastic sleeves and taped the pictures on because my kids are crazy about wanting to move them around to different spots. Guess I could've laminated them but, it works. 

We finished out the week making our shields! The kids really loved this project and they turned out SO cute!! 

It's been a great first week and we can't wait to see what exciting things HOD has planned next week!  I love how the history is woven carefully into the biblical principles. Deciding to homeschool is the best decision I have made for my kids in a long time. It's been pure joy watching them learn, seeing their lights turn on to new ideas and discover new things. I feel like I've been missing out!