Bigger Hearts for His Glory - Unit 3

Proverbs 16:2-3

This week we learned about a new character trait - Boldness.  We learned that being bold can be used for good or bad.  

Our verse was Proverbs 16:2-3.  I love her sweet picture of a time when she was bold when she learned to ride her bike.  :)

Poetry

In poetry, we read Sea Fever by John Masefield.  The kids wrote a portion of the poem as we talked about the similes that were written. The kids circled the rhyming lines in the stanzas. 

In history, we learned about John Smith. He was a bold man and sometimes his boldness caused trouble. Early in his years he had unfortunate mishaps and became a slave of the Turkish people. He was violent in his escape and fled to England. 

I was thankful there was a note in the guide warning about violence. I was able to read ahead and make sure it was appropriate.  We touched on this lightly and found it to be fine after explanation. 

John Smith learned of ships traveling toward America and he was bold again as he desired to start a new life in the new found land. 

As the voyagers approached the land near Jamestown, the Indians attacked. A cannon was fired in the air with a large crossbow shot. It fell through the trees knocking down branches and the Indians were frightened. 

Outline Art of Tree

In art, we studied a tree.  Then,  they drew the tree using only an outline - without looking at their paper. They were hesitant with this project but, I really thought it turned out fine. 

Outline Tree Art

Outline Tree Art with Shading Details

I let them add details after they were finished and overall they thought this to be a fun art project after they got over the shock of not looking at their paper. 

We read that John Smith was captured by Indians while exploring a river. The Indians treated him with respect and thought him to be a smart man that could help them greatly.  Chief Powhatan eventually released him and they traded many items over time.  John Smith ended up in charge of the settlement in Jamestown.

We learned about the area near Jamestown, VA and colored maps of the rivers and bay area. These were the waters that many ships sailed in seeking fortune up and traveled up and down looking for the Pacific Ocean.   This was a great project because we live so close nearby.  We were able to talk about the rivers and the Chesapeake Bay.  We hope to visit Jamestown in the coming weeks.

We read about another explorer who was friends with John Smith named Henry Hudson. He was called the "Bold Englishman".  He wanted to reach India from Europe by traveling North.  He was successful discovering many whales in the Artic Ocean along his journey but, never the riches of the Far East or the Pacific Ocean as he had hoped.  He did discover the Hudson Bay. 

Parts of a River

We reviewed parts of a river and the kids remembered our clay river model we made last year in Beyond.  I decided to quiz them on the chalkboard before experimenting and they remembered quite a bit. 

I printed a few color pages to go along with our readings of Christopher Columbus, John Smith, & Henry Hudson.  You can use these also.

Columbus Coloring Pages Click HERE!

We talked about how explorers used compasses. We talked about directions and drew a compass rose. 

We learned a compass is very useful when traveling and always points towards the direction north.  We drew a compass rose with chalk in front of the house. I gave the children directions and ended up playing a game of 'Mother may I?' ... Using the directions and the compass rose. 

 The kids had fun with this simple compass rose project.

Unit 3 Vocabulary 

Our vocabulary this week was the words:  apprenticed, trinket, and explorer.  I love adding vocabulary to our weekly units and hearing the kids use the new words they've learned in the correct way. 

We are working on cursive letters with Cheerful Cursive.  This seems to be going good so far.  

We have been talking about sentences and phrases in English.  We took our first English test with R&S.  We are learning how to write complete sentences.

English Test

They didn't seem to have any trouble identifying phrases and sentences.  They understand punctuation and the differences between asking and telling sentences.  

In science, we talked about the animals that live in the mist of the shore.  We leaned that God made all the animals and knew what they would need to survive. 

Evaporation Science Experiment

We learned that as the tide goes out, animals some times get trapped and need water and air.  They often prepare when they know they may be in danger by storing up when the tide is high. We also learned that as the sun shines on a tide pool, it causes the water to evaporate... Leaving the salt behind.   The kids were excited to see the water disappear and the salt remaining after a day of evaporation. 

Giving a thumbs up for a good week!

Smiles and Flips! 

A little swimming this week to enjoy the last bit of the summer.  As you can see, it was hard work keeping one of them above the water even long enough for a quick picture.  These 2 are fish! 

We finished up the week with soccer tryouts. We sure are ready for fall over here on the east coast! 

See you next week!

Be blessed!


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Bigger Hearts for His Glory - Unit 2

Unit 2 - Character Trait is Humility

This week we learned about humility.  I sure love these character traits each week! We learned that we should not take all the praise for ourselves. 

Our verse was Proverbs 11:2.

History Timeline

We added a little more to our timelines as we learned more in history. 

We learned more about Christopher Columbus' journey from Haiti back to Spain. Columbus was once mocked and considered crazy and he soon was being held at the highest honor in Spain because of his new found land.  He wasn't humble and over time found himself in misery and even chains as he tricked and frightened the Indians with his knowledge about the earths rotation. He predicted a lunar eclipse and declared it to be from the gods to get whatever he wanted from the Indians. 

We talked about lunar and solar eclipses and referenced these videos a sample on YouTube.  This one I found the kids thought the music was a bit creepy and we imagined how the Indians must have been frightened as Columbus tricked them.

You can watch it with your kids too here:  Time Lapsed Lunar Eclipse Youtube Video

The children then were able to draw a picture showing just what happens. 

Lunar Eclipse by 7 yo

Solar Eclipse by 9 yo

We also used our globe, a ball and a flashlight to demonstrate exactly how the shadows of the earth and moon differ with a lunar and solar eclipse.  The kids thought this was so neat!

We also learned that John Cabot was another explorer in about the same timeframe that seeked fame and fortune from voyages from the King of England by setting sail across the oceans once he heard of Columbus travels.  He too was short on humility upon his return. 

We learned that John Cabot thought he had reached Japan but, instead found North & South America. He discovered seas filled with codfish but, he was more interested in finding gold and spices. The king grew tired of Cabot after he realized he had only seen Indians, a small amount of copper, and not fine riches. 

Codfish Watercolor Art Project

In art, we made an outline on wax paper and then watercolored.  On the long pic on the right, you can see if you look closely the vertical outline of the codfish. We tried wax paper first and didn't have great results... we redid this with a white crayon outline and it worked much better but, still very light.  We placed Saran Wrap on top of the wet watercolor picture and when we removed the saran wrap it made it look like an underwater picture. 

Unit 2 Vocabulary 

Our vocabulary word sheets are going well and I really like this addition to Bigger. 

In poetry, we read a poem titled 'The Ship that Sails'.  I only had the children copy the first stanza. They also circled the new vocabulary words and drew a picture. 

I used a highlighter to write the first line in cursive as a guideline of size.  

In geography, we learned about the equator. We also learned that along the equator is the hottest temperatures, as it is closest to the sun. We located the north and south poles and used our little boat to navigate to and from different continents above and below the equator around the globe. 

CLE LightUnit 401

In Math, Christian Light Educations Light Units are going great.  We love the workbooks and it has been a nice change up and good fit for my son.  I anticipate changing to this for the little one next year also.  

Our Science note booking sheets are a fun recap of the reading material.

In Science, we read more about the seashore. The kids drew pictures of animals in the shore and animals between the tides. I thought her art was pretty cute. 

We also talked about different birds and how they use their different shaped beaks to find their food in the wet sand. 

We used tweezers, clothes pins, and pliers to find different foods like birds would. 

With all the seashore talk, we decided to take our first field trip and a day off of school to go to the beach with some friends! 

Fieldtrip to Buckroe Beach

We discovered early morning jelly fish washed upon the shore, horseshoe crabs, birds with long beaks feeding in the wet sand, crab legs and other shells under a pier nearby and kept the kiddos exploring all day. The sun was hot and the waves were peaceful.  A beautiful day reinforcing what we have learned in our Seashore Science Book.

I love this drawing from my 7yo.  She was inspired by the birds on the shore as they swooped down to eat grapes, strawberries, and bread from our lunches.  

We talked about the differences between fresh water and sea saltwater.  Our science experiment revealed that an egg floats in saltwater and sinks in fresh water because the saltwater is more dense. 

Our project this week was learning how to weave. This little one was pretty impressed with her American Girl Doll purse she made by herself! 

Not a great pic because she was wiggling but, you can still see the excitement of her accomplishment!  

Overall, week 2 was a success and we are looking forward to next week as we learn more about the early explorers. 

Hope you had a great week too! 

Be Blessed! 

Bigger Hearts for His Glory - Unit 1

 2014-2015

Our first week homeschooling with 'Heart of Dakota's Bigger Hearts for His Glory' was a great success!  It looks like we have a future race car driver and a ballerina as of the first day of school!  I enjoyed summer break but, it sure felt good getting back into our routine.  

This week the kids loved the review of the globe, learning about persistence, the journey of Christopher Columbus, the seashore, and a famous hymn.  

We learned about the character trait 'persistence' and how Christopher Columbus persisted through many difficulties on his journey to find a "shorter way" to Asia across the ocean.  He thankfully was able to gain funding and support from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. We learned that on his journey Christopher Columbus was mocked and others wanted to return to Spain.  He told them if they didn't discover land within 3 additional days they would turn the ships around and return.  He soon saw the land of the Caribbean islands and planted the Spanish standard.

Using the history note booking pages, we drew Columbus journey on the map. 

We added Columbus to our timeline. 

We started our week making a paper mache globe. We used a 2 parts water, 1 part flour mixture and dipped strips of newspaper to cover our balloon.  It was a bit messy but, the kids had a blast with this ooey-gooey project.  

The first big balloon popped while we were working on it and the wet glue splattered everywhere! The kids thought it was hilarious!! 

Then, I decided they should each make their own smaller globe.  This worked a bit better, was quicker to dry, and just as much fun! We had to let them dry overnight. 

We used finger paints for the blue water on our globes. I printed the continents from this quick guide on Pinterest and the kids colored them and glued them in place.  You can get this guide and FREEBIE by clicking HERE.

   

Overall, this was a great project as you can tell they loved it... even the smurfy blue hands!  It also really helped them locate the continents and oceans with a bit of fun creative art. 

The kids were able to place the continents and label the oceans correctly.  It was neat to be able to show the kids - before they glued on the Americas - what it would have looked like had the Americas not been on the other side of the globe as some had thought. 

••••••••••••••••••••• ENGLISH

We have begun this week with Rod & Staff English 2. We learned the differences between sentences and phrases. We also reviewed and identified asking and telling sentences and learned the correct punctuation for each. 

I made these cute little balloon signs and read multiple sentences. The kids held up the correct sign after I read the sentence....   Asking or Telling.  They had fun with this! 

••••••••••••••••••••• STORY TIME

We started reading our Biography - Ben & Me.  This is a cute book and so far the kids are fascinated by the little mouse, Amos, narrating about Benjamin Franklin and his inventions. 

••••••••••••••••••••  VOCABULARY

Vocabulary is new this year in Bigger and the children did great! We are still working on dictation and I often have to spell for them but, overall this wasn't a battle and I was shocked!  They seemed to enjoy learning our new words, impostors, lamentation, and standard.  These vocabulary sheets are perfect to add into our binders.

••••••••••••••••••••• ART

The kids painted pictures of the waves in the ocean. They learned about fore ground, middle ground, and background as they painted their waves. 

They mixed different amounts of blue & red paint together to make different shades of purple for the ocean waves. Then, they mixed blue and white together for the swirly sky. 

I love seeing their unique creativity through their art expressions. 

••••••••••••••••••••• SCIENCE

In Science, we talked about high & low tide.  The kids made a diagram to show the gravitational pull. 

We learned God made the sea and dry land and designed the moon's gravity to cause the tides. He thought of everything!  The tides changing allows for plants and animals to live and eat as the tides change and water washes the shore.

We also talked about the strand line on the seashore. We are preparing for a beach day next week to look at all the cool things along the shoreline. 

One of our science experiments was about sinking and floating.

The ball floated because the water pushed back and kept it afloat. 

The coin did not float because it was too heavy and the water couldn't hold it up.

The kids completed their science sheets and we learned that water pushes back on the item but, heavy things sink. 

We also talked about what causes waves.  We learned that wind causes waves. 

We used a small glass dish and a little fan to show the wind making waves.  We learned that the tide makes the water rise and fall on the shore and wind makes the waves. 

These experiment sheets are great! I love the networking and sharing of the resources that the HOD Facebook pages offer. Everyone is always so helpful. 

•••••••••••••••••••••  MATH

Our 4th grader started with Christian Light Education (CLE) this week for math. We are new to CLE and so far I feel like this is a great fit for him.  It was a review of multiplication. 

Then quickly on to fractions. Great to review because the summer was a long break and there were some things forgotten.  

Our 2nd grader is continuing with Abeka Math and we are also beginning multiplication with Times Tales. We touched on this last year but, watched the video again this week.  She did great learning the stories and knows her first set of tables. Yay! 

••••••••••••••••••••• MUSIC

Music in 'Hymns for a Kids Heart' was about Reginald Heber, 1783-1826.  We learned he loved God and wrote a poem in school that won first prize. He wrote Holy, Holy, Holy! The kids listened to the famous hymn and sang along all week.  

The kids are using Rod & Staff Spelling workbook this year instead of the HOD list.  This workbook fit well into our schedule and gave time for one on one with math and reading while the other completed spelling and copy work.

We also started Cheerful Cursive with the little one. It's going good so far! 

Our verse this week was Proverbs 2:3-5.   I may need to print out some bigger lined paper with guidelines for better handwriting.  I love that there is room for pictures on this printable and the drawing my son did of Busch Gardens Mach Tower.  He has been persistent in trying to ride that for the past couple of years and finally did! 

We finished our week reading the parable of the woman who was persistent in Luke 18.  She did not give up.  We learned that we too should persist in our prayers to God.  We talked about being persistent with Him.  We learned that if we cry out to Him and seek Him, then we will find the knowledge of Him. What a fantastic study this week as we begin our homeschooling year. 

The kids had recess at the pool with some friends this week too!

I don't know about you but, I am already excited about this school year.  I pray that God will use this guide to speak through me and to me as we study more each week.  

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Thanks again for following our weekly blog!  Wishing you each the best in your 2014-2015 school year! 

See you next week! 

Be Blessed!