Heart of Dakota BLHFHG ~ Unit/Week 8

What a fabulous day for Homeschoolers at Colonial Williamsburg! The weather was incredible and we enjoyed walking where our great American Patriots walked before us.  Have I mentioned how blessed we are to be living in this part of the country as we study and learn all about it?!?!  Thank you, US Navy!

Colonial Williamsburg was very hands on for the kids and they enjoyed each of the activities from watering the garden, playing Colonial games to watching the blacksmith and the cabinet maker at work. 

I'd highly recommend a visit to the Virginia area. With Jamestown & Colonial Williamsburg near each other,  it would make a great homeschool field trip or family vacation. 

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Our memory verse for this week was 1 Thessolonians 5:11

This was a helpful verse for me as I reminded the kids daily of these words when I overheard their sibling disagreements. 

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In Art, we observed the leaves falling off the trees and made a season appropriate watercolor painting with fingerprinted leaves.   We started raking leaves outside this week too so, that is a painted leaf pile beside the tree. 

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In History, we learned that it was difficult for the pilgrims to say goodbye to their friends the Hollanders. We learned that they trusted God, had faith that he would watch over them, and went forward on the 'Speedwell' to England.  They met their friends in England and planned to start sailing with both 'The Speedwell' and 'Mayflower.'  The 'Speedwell' had leaks that couldn't be repaired. They returned to England and set sail again with only the Mayflower.  Some pilgrims  had to stay behind.   We learned that the weather was sometimes rough with storms and John Howland was tossed overboard during one storm.  He was pulled to safety after he grabbed onto a trailing rope. In winter, the deck became icy and cold and the children had to stay below. To keep them busy, they told stories and played games. We also learned that 2 babies were amazingly born on their journey.  

Our writing included this cute idea making pilgrim suitcases from file folders that they could open.  We added construction paper handles.  The prompt was, "If I were going to a new land, I would pack..." 

They both put the obvious necessities of barrels of food, water, and clothes. 

A few of their funny answers were:  Dry bananas, lovie blanket, pizzas, doll, crayons and paper, and of course... UNO cards.

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In Math, we are trying a new way to learn multiplication tables with this special offer from 'Times Tales'.   Times Tales Free Trial 

I had heard great things about the program and it is reasonably priced.  I sat my ds down at the computer to try out the free trial.  To my surprise just from one 15 minute video, he learned the first set 3's and 4's with simple stories about the numbers. It is very visual and I was sold with the results. We ordered the product and I think I will even start working with my dd on these as well.   Can't wait to get started!  If you have a little one trying to memorize with boring flashcards. This might help them too! 

~ Science Exploration ~

We tried using the bags as seen on the left that were recommended by HoD and found it difficult for the kids to observe so we repeated the experiment again using a jar. 

We combined oil and water in the jar and learned that oil is lighter than water. We added food coloring for a dramatic color effect.  The food coloring slowly fell thru the oil and the droplet burst into color into the water.  We did this several times * tip* start with lighter colors first.  Next, we added salt and observed that the salt made the oil heavier and it sank blending all the colors as seen below.  It was much clearer in the jar and the kids enjoyed the rainbow colors. 

The kids recorded their results onto their Science Exploration sheets. 

We also talked about the orbit of the earth & sun and experimented by spinning a gluestick on the floor. The gluestick was able to spin many times compared to the kids.  This helped the kids understand that the earth completes a revolution on its axis every 24 hours but it takes much longer -365 days- to revolve around the sun. 

We held a flashlight to represent the sun and demonstrated with a globe.  The area that was shadowed showed night time and the area in the flashlight beam showed daytime.

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To carry on with our adventure reading 'The Twenty-One Balloons', we have each been captivated by the oddness of this book.  I may have to read during Storytime at school and at bedtime to get it completed on schedule as there have been many questions and explanations needed as we go along.  Overall, I think the kids are enjoying it and we decided they should make a movie out of this crazy story. 

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We finished the week with a celebration! 

We went to see Disney on Ice and the kids loved it. 

Love being able to see their faces light up with the simple childhood joys like princesses skating or even as they experiment and learn new things.  It's so much fun being their mom and teacher! 

Be blessed! 

Heart of Dakota - BLHFHG Week/Unit 6

It was nice to have a review of the memory verses this week. The kids enjoyed going back over and singing all  the previous songs from 'Hide Em' in my Heart' CD. 

We started out the week with a fun way to practice the new word lists. The kids love play doh and even though it ranks right up there with glitter and requires breathing therapy for me as they ball it up, get it under their nails and the colored crumbs scatter onto the floor...  I decided to let them spell out their lists with play doh. It was a success!

The kids both enjoyed making their letters out of the smelly stuff and I survived much better without the cutting tools and spaghetti makers getting tiny pieces of play doh everywhere!!  :) 

Multiplication is going well for the oldest.  The concept was simplified by graphing the tables out with rows x columns on graph paper. My visual learner grasped it much better this way and is beginning to memorize them. We are using flash cards, worksheets, math computer games and songs. 

With the 1st grader, we talked a lot about time. She is doing great with a lot of practice and enjoyed making this clock! 

In History, we continued learning about the lives of the Hollanders.  We talked about their Dutch language, windmills, tulips, wooden shoes and canals. We listened to this song about a mouse in an Amsterdam Windmill and the kids thought it was so silly!   

You can listen to it here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj40JtpqI0U

We learned that people in Holland did weekly scrubbing of their houses.  Since we weren't going to scrub our house, we had a family car washing day!  The kids also washed both of their bikes!  :)  

We also talked about storks and how the people in Holland believed it was good luck to see a stork and that you shouldn't harm them. The pilgrim boy didn't believe that it was good luck and exclaimed blessings and good things are from God;  not a lucky stork.  We talked about the 4 seasons and learned that migration is what God gave birds as a natural instinct to fly to warmer areas to avoid cold temperatures. 

In Science, we explored water birds a bit further and learned that God made them on the 5th day of Creation. Storks do not have webbed feet as they do not swim in the water.  Storks only stand in the shallow parts of the water to eat fish and frogs. We talked about the food chain a bit too learning that storks eat the fish and frogs- frogs eat insects and fish eat algae. 

Our experiment was to use a spatula to paddle through the water. We had more resistance on the webbed (aluminum covered) spatula.  The other spatula allowed water to pass freely and did not resist water as much.  The kids decided they would like to have webbed feet to be able to swim faster in the water. I think we will just get them some flippers! 

For Storytime, we are reading more in our adventure book, 'The Twenty-One Balloons'.  In my opinion, it is starting out a bit slow and I seem to have to reread a lot to get them to understand.  It is a bit complex in explaining but seems to be picking up as we go.  The kids begged for me to read just a little more! They narrate the reading back to me and are learning about conflicts/problems.  Here is one review:  

You can get this review form here on my Pinterest Homeschool Board.  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/98938523037146653/

We learned that the main character, Professor Sherman had a very persistent personality trait as he kept his story a secret!  We learned that the town prepared for his arrival by decorating everything with balloons.  To tie into our Storytime, the kids did a watercolor of hot air balloons flying above the ocean water. They enjoyed the painting. 

If you are reading The Twenty-One Balloons and are interested in this FREE PRINTABLE then you can get it from my Heart of Dakota Pinterest page at this link: 

http://pinterest.com/pin/98938523037146878/

In Language Arts, we talked about what gets a capital letter.  Here's what was on our dry erase board all week long! 

In our journal writing, I asked the children to write their very own short story. The story had to include a setting, character, conflict and solution. This proved to be an easy task for my daughter and more complex for my son. It still amazes me how different they each are and am still learning how to develop their strengths and weaknesses. Anyone else notice this with their little ones? 

 Look at what I got in the mail today!?!?!

    

"PIZZA HUT BOOK IT!" READER REWARDS

I was really excited about learning that we could enroll in the 'Pizza Hut Book It!' program as homeschoolers. The kids enjoyed it last year in public school and it is a fun reward for reading books that we can continue doing.  If you haven't signed up yet.... you can still enroll here:  

http://www.bookitprogram.com/enrollment/

Overall, it was nice to have the review this week as it gave us somewhat of a break in our routine. Hard to believe we have completed 6 weeks with Heart of Dakota and still loving it! 

See you next week!

Blessings!