Preparing & Res to Ref - Unit 2

Preparing Hearts for His Glory

This week we started reading from Life in the Great Ice Age.  

We learned that Noah's decedents were very intelligent.  The world changed after the flood and it took time to adjust to the climate in the new land.  

After our reading, I asked the kids to write their narration.  Some struggled with the written narration and honestly it was PAiNFUL....  but, overall I think as with anything, the more we do it the easier it will be for them.  *Fingers Crossed*

This has been their first experience with writing their thoughts in a written narration instead of oral. So, writing these guidelines on our dry erase board to get their brains churning was helpful. We took time to go back and correct spelling errors and punctuation after their thoughts were on the paper. 

We continued reading The True Story of Noah's Ark.  The kids had heard the story many times before but have been fascinated with all the details that they didn't know.  We learned that the flood story has been passed through the generations in most cultures.  We know that God promised not to flood the world again when he placed a rainbow in the sky.

This week the history projects involved learning about warm and cool colors. We skipped the magazine cut out on Day 1 because my 3 already know about warm and cool colors.   However, the kids enjoyed painting a cool water color background using green, blue, and purple. 

Then, they added a beautiful rainbow to their picture with tempra paints by only using the 3 primary colors. The kids enjoyed this project and their rainbows all turned out beautiful! 

The kids drew and colored Noah's ark and a giraffe this week with 'Draw & Write through History'. They seem to all enjoy the draw & write lessons. 

Love the new cursive tracing copy work that we found on the files section of the Preparing Facebook page.  This has helped tremendously for my 3rd grader. She is working on cursive and this will help solidify the style.  My 5th graders can easily copy in cursive and it looks great! 

In Poetry, we read 'Bed in Summer' by Robert Louis Stevenson.  The kids could relate to going to bed in summer while it's still daylight outside. 

They wrote down a few ideas and then creatively added them to their poems. 

 They enjoyed the silliness of the creative writing changing a few lines of the poem into their own.  I am really loving this creativity in writing part of Preparing Hearts this year! 

In Science, this week the kids learned that God gave animals layers of fur and birds inner and outer feathers to help them survive the cold weather in the Arctic tundra.  

 We learned that fox and the ermine are predators and hunt for prey in the snow.  

Our Science experiment was to explore what causes ice to melt.  We learned that heat helps ice melt quicker.  When we used a hairdryer, the ice melted faster.

We learned that in the Arctic, the heat from the summer sun slowly melts the ice through radiation.  As the ice and snow melts animals return to the area to have their young.

Our vocabulary words were taken from our story reading.  This week we learned the meanings of barge, sulfur, and generations. 

The kids continued to diagram sentences this week and specifically worked on Asking, Telling, Commanding, and Exclamatory sentences. 

Recess this week was filled with a lot of locust shells. It's definitely the end to our  summer soon.  We love and our ready for fall weather season!

Resurrection to Reformation

This week, the big one created a beautiful stained glass window art. He made a cross in the center and outlined his black paper in glue. After a day of drying, he colored the spaces with brightly colored chalk. We sprayed it with hairspray to set the chalk and added a brightly colored frame.  I love the way this turned out. 

I've really noticed the big one really enjoys the art projects in HOD. He said he hadn't done much for several years in public school and didn't realize he missed it. 

In poetry, this week we read another poem by Emily Dickinson. Love these poetry worksheets to deepen their thoughts on the poem. 

This week he started one of his extension reading books.  So far, the response has been pretty good.  The extension reading is beyond DITHOR and my plan is for him to design a book report and review following the conclusion of the book. 

In geometry he worked with a protractor this week finding angles. He's doing great with Math U See. Love seeing a 100 on his weekly test! 

Science with planets! 

The routine feels great!  Hopefully, we are able to keep going full speed ahead once we add our new co-op to the schedule in a couple weeks! 

See you next week! 

Be blessed! 

Preparing & Res to Ref - Unit 1

After prayerful consideration, we have become a NAVY family with 4 homeschoolers!  We have enjoyed our homeschooling experience the past 2 years with Heart of Dakota.  This year our younger 3 children (2 Fifth Graders & a Third Grader) will be in Preparing Hearts and we will begin an additional guide as our oldest son is now homeschooling.  It was a hard decision because he has done exceptional in public school studies.  He is technically in 8th grade however, his honors courses have excelled him and could be considered a 9th grader.  We chose Resurrection to Reformation for him because this is his first formal biblical study.  He loves to read and we have added the extension books.  Math-U-See Geometry, Spanish 2, and DITHOR reading program with the other children are all a part of his education this year.  We are starting a co-op for the first time and we are looking forward to the adventure that brings.   I am certainly ready to take on the challenges and know that this opportunity is part of God's plan for our family as we prepare for more changes in the near future.  I couldn't be more grateful for the chance to grow our blended family closer together as we seek Him in all that we do.  Thank you for following our homeschooling journey one unit at a time!

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Preparing Hearts for His Glory - Unit 1

What an amazing feeling to get back on track and into our school routine!  Don't get me wrong summer and vacation were nice but, the smell of the homeschool books, glue, markers, and salt dough keep me excited!

We started the week with the book Grandpa's Box.  What a fantastic read!  The kids enjoyed the reading so much that they begged me not to stop!  We learned that Grandpa had a box with wooden carved figures that he used to tell his grandchildren about a very important war.... a spiritual war.  The kids asked to make their own box!  As we read about the figures, the kids drew them. They turned out so cute!
We didn't have a yellow treasure box so we just used a Minecraft chest!  I'm really excited about this book!


Our history project was to design a shield of faith and their own coat of arms.  The kids did a similar project previously in the Beyond guide but, they didn't mind making another.   We learned that a shield of faith protects Christians from the arrows of the enemy.  The coat of arms identifies the soldier.

The kids each had unique symbols of faith and were proud of the end result! 

The Draw and Write Through History book was a hit! The kids all liked the step by step art.  They struggled more with the people but, still managed to do a great job.

In Science, we are reading One Small Square - Arctic Tundra.  The kids are doing their Science reading and note booking in their binders.

We learned that the arctic tundra is known for its long cold winters and chilly summers.




The Arctic Circle is the farthest away from the sun.

We learned that arctic animals have adaptations like white fur and white feathers to camouflage them into their surroundings.

Our Science experiment this week was to discover how layers help to keep animals warm.  We placed coins into hot water and then wrapped one with a tissue.  We next dipped both the coins into cold water.  When we removed them both, the one with the tissue was nice and warm snug in the tissue and the other was cold.

Vocabulary Sheet

We will continue recording 3 vocabulary words from our readings each week into our notebook.  This page is also from the Preparing Facebook file.  I love seeing their drawings of the definitions.

This year we are continuing with Rod and Staff for our English.  The workbook and test pages that go with the selection are wonderful.  This week we worked on alphabetical order and diagramming subjects and predicates.

This year we have changed our spelling program to something a bit more hands on. We are using All About Spelling.   I found a black magnetic board that works great for the magnetic tiles.  We actually hung it in the kitchen so we can review our lessons right after lunch.  So far with just a week of lessons, I am already seeing such an improvement.  It's almost like a lightbulb moment for one of my children.  Amazing that just a change in the program can give a child a different outlook on the same concepts.  

We worked on our memory verse Psalm 1:1-2.  We played the song, His Delight, on the Lead me to the Rock CD all week.  We learned that we can have a close relationship with God when we delight in the word and seek to do His will.

We had a review of the continents and found this neat worksheet.  You can find the link to the free printable here:  Continent Worksheet

The kids wanted to do a continent cake again this year! I can't ever argue with learning with food!  We made a chocolate cake, mixed up some blue icing for the water and green for the land.   The kids really loved icing the cake!  Then, they made flags to label the continents.  

The continent cake turned out yummy and was a fantastic review for the continents!

We started Drawn Into the Heart of Reading for the first time this year with all 4 of the kids.  Our first genre was Biography.  We visited the library and I let the kids choose their own subject.  We have a wide variety of biography selections.  The books they are reading are LeBron James, Harry Houdini, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Betsy Ross.  This will be an interesting book project day for sure.  

We will continue using the Christian Light Education workbooks for Math. 300 & 500 Series.  The kids did great this week with the pretests as we determine just how much they retained throughout the summer.





So glad the pool is open for a few more week.  These hot days are more fun after school at the pool.   It's a perfect way to get all their energy out! 

Resurrection to Reformation - Unit 1

The big one is taking on the Heart of Dakota style very well for his first unit.  Although, I will not be as involved with every detail of his studies because of the other 3 children in Preparing, I would like to post the projects, main ideas, and readings along the way of each unit.  Although, he is quick and often gets finished before I have the chance to snap a picture.... please know I am trying!  LOL!

He loved following the recipe and kneading the dough by himself.

Loved the way this came together! 

The big ones history project this week was to make a Roman Arch out of air-dry clay.  He learned that the Arch of Titus was built to commemorate Titus' destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD as prophesied by Jesus.  

The big one has been reading and orally narrating what he has learned.  We are using the Student Notebook pages and he has been recording his research.

In Science, he has been completing the note booking pages that we found in the Facebook files.

This week with the Shakespeare study he began to read The Tempest.  I think he really enjoyed this bonus feature! 

After much research, we decided to use Math U See for Geometry this year.  So far this program is going great!  He made perfect scores on both of his tests so far! 

We hope you had a great first week too!  All in all, I think we will be rocking' it soon with our new routine.  *fingers crossed*

See you next week! 

Be blessed!