Heart of Dakota Week-in-Review Nov.13-17

Heart of Dakota Week-in-Review
Nov.13-17


Emmett loves our Storytime reading in Creation to Christ, and he often times sets up special places for us to read Jashub's Journal together.  This week, he set out pillows, blankets, coffee (for me), cider (for him), spritzer cookies, and turned on the fireplace.  What fun!  I love these times together in Heart of Dakota!

Some other favorites of the week were his science experiment after reading Land Animals..., his travel log after reading Geography of the Holy Land, and his CTC Notebook entries - he especially loves the timeline!  This week he finished reading about King David's Reign and began reading about King Solomon.  We also started reading God King for Storytime, which I know from reading it to my other sons years ago will be another amazing read together!

In R & S English, Emmett is learning so many solid language arts skills.  We read the lesson together, discuss 2/3 of it orally, and assign 1/3 of it to be written.  If there are several diagramming sections, for one of the sections I draw the skeletons on a marker board and have Emmett point to where he'd write each portion as he orally tells me his answers.  For the other section, I have him complete it in his notebook.

 In USII High School, Wyatt has been learning about the Battle of Dunkirk.  We went to the recent movie of this battle, and it was gripping!  Wyatt enjoyed reading more about Dunkirk in history, and as Christians, we can clearly see God's hand in the evacuation of Dunkirk. Wyatt has been inspired reading Something Greater Than Gold for his living library reading.  This book is about Eric Liddell and his missionary work in China.  So inspiring, as he was an Olympic athlete that made Christ 1st in his life, even when the 'world' didn't understand it.

For Economics, Wyatt has been writing down economic principles and answering "What do you think?" questions pertinent to his readings of Economics:  A Free Market Reader.  This has been balanced nicely with Dave Ramsey's Personal Finance course.  Wyatt especially loves Dave Ramsey's video footage and radio talk show, where Dave answers listeners' questions impromptu.  With Wyatt graduating soon, this could not come at a better time.  We'll be putting together a budget with Wyatt, easing him into paying for a few things at a time, so that by the time he graduates college, he'll be used to keeping/balancing a budget with monthly payments.

In World Geography, Riley has begun his unit on the printing press, the spice trade, and Columbus in the Caribbean.  He learned that Gutenberg's first book to be printed was the Bible - what a wise decision by Gutenberg!  He gave a great summary oral narration about this.  Summary oral narrations are limited to 7-10 sentences.  Riley used to prefer detailed oral narrations to summary oral narrations, as he found it easier to narrate in detail than to be limited in sentences.  Now, he is good at both!  I love how Heart of Dakota teaches him step-by-step through the guides to practice multiple forms of both oral and written narrations.  Riley is studying binomials in Foerster's Algebra 1.  It was hard at first, but now he is doing well with it!  David Chandler's lessons on the flash drive, along with the full solutions line by line are a must.

I hope you all had a good week too!
In Christ,
Julie

Heart of Dakota Weekly Check-In Nov. 6-10

Heart of Dakota Weekly Check-In
Nov. 6-10

In Creation to Christ, Emmett has been learning about the ancients time when first King Saul and second King David reigned.  He loves to read these stories, and I love that Bible history is a key part of the ancients history.  His book The Story of the Ancient World is so narrative, and he enjoys reading it almost as much as he enjoys reading The Illustrated Family Bible for his Bible quiet time.  After all of this history reading, he gets to do some pretty neat follow-ups!  He has gotten to make a sling, arm it with a stone, and swing it around his head, aiming for the mighty Goliath. He has also gotten to research prophecies of Christ by looking up first the prophecy and then its fulfillment in his Bible using Scripture references.  He likes to sing his Philippians Chapter 2 memory work for me, and he can already belt out 10 verses!  He made an ancient game called Twenty Squares, and he will get to play it with his brothers the next school day.  Here are some pictures from this week's school...

One of his very favorite things is to use props to reenact his Storytime reading.  We have been reading Jashub's Journal, and Emmett reenacted the part of Jashub judging Koshen and whether it was safe for Koshen to leave the city of refuge and return home after committing an unintentional murder.  He looked up in the Bible how this would be judged, and then he retold the story with props.  Here you see "Jashub" with his shepherd's headdress and walking stick, proclaiming his judgment...

For science, Emmett made a venn diagram comparing and contrasting reptiles and amphibians.

For Write with the Best, Emmett wrote a descriptive story about a setting.  He chose to write about his favorite room in our house - the basement!  As you can see, the basement is a place the boys can get creative, messy, and loud- which is of course why they love it so much!


In World Geography, Riley finished one unit and began the next.  This last unit he has been learning about Ibn Batuta traveling to Persia, China, and India, as well as Prince Henry navigating his way through Africa.  He gave a key word oral narration, and as he did, I looked in the World Geography guide to check off the key words he included in his oral narration.  These are the words I checked off that he mentioned: Batuta, Mecca, Imam, Imam's 3 brothers, China, Africa, Constantinople, ambassador to China, costly presents, attacked, junks, hurricane destroys ships in harbor, reach China, Chinese poultry, death of Great Khan, home to Tangier.  Whew!  That was a lot of amazing words relevant to his history reading that he included in his oral narration!  He has worked up to the skills needed to do this type of oral narration gradually within Heart of Dakota, and I'm happy with his progress!

 He also did a typed oral narration about Henry the Navigator, who was the third son of the King of Portugal. He is adding more details now!

I love to see Riley all cuddled up reading his Mapping the World with Art book!  It is very narratively written and makes geography so much more fun than it was for me when I took it in high school!  Here is one of his latest maps he has drawn for his history.




In United States II for high school, Wyatt has been studying the Spanish Civil War, Albert Einstein, the Blitzkrieg, and the "Phony War."  The different history books he is reading work together to give such a rich, deep story of this time period.  This turbulent time of Franco, Hitler, and Stalin comes to life with these readings, and the visual aids in the USII colored notebook, the listening to of speeches such as Britain's declaration of war against Germany after Hitler invaded Poland, the watching of the American Testimony DVD coverage of the war - all work together to truly make these events come to life.  Listening to Wyatt's oral narrations and hearing him read his written narrations shows how much he understands and retains with this multi-faceted approach to learning USII history - and what's more - it shows how much he cares.  These were real people, involved in a real war, and it wasn't all that long ago that it happened.

 It was especially interesting reading this primary source document, which is a letter from Albert Einstein to President Roosevelt.  Einstein, a German physicist made famous by his theory of relativity, immigrated to the U.S. to avoid Nazi persecution, as he came from a Jewish background himself.

Finally, Wyatt gave his first speech to our family. He chose to give his Heroes speech about George Washington, who has always been a favorite President of his.  What a great week of school -

I hope you enjoyed your week too!

Heart of Dakota Week-in-Review Oct. 30 - Nov. 3

Heart of Dakota Week-in-Review
Oct. 30-Nov. 3

USII History:
One of Wyatt's history assignments was to write a persuasive written narration reflecting his opinion on the question "Which building project from today's reading was most impressive?".
He chose to write about Mount Rushmore, which is fitting as we just recently visited it, and it truly was beautiful!  Mount Rushmore is located in South Dakota, which is where we reside.  We have visited it many times, but it was an especially beautiful day this last visit!

One can hardly believe it possible that Gutzon Borglum's dream of carving this monstrous mountain into the likeness of some of our most famous Presidents came to fruition!  Maybe these lovely pictures and Wyatt's written narration will persuade you and your family to visit Mount Rushmore!

This past week Wyatt read about FDR's court-packing scheme, the Anschluss of Austria, and Fascism spreading.  He finds America: The Last Best Hope Vol. II fascinating to read, and all of the follow-ups in his full color notebook are a wonderful way for me to assess his response to his readings.

 In World Geography, Riley has been reading about India's influence, Angkor's temples, and Marco Polo's Tales of China.  He loves to cuddle up and read his books, and he and Wyatt have learned to work together in the same room in a way that doesn't distract them from each doing their best at school.  Riley will often do his reading near Wyatt in our addition, but then he will do his written work in our dining room on his own.  This helps him have his own quiet space for doing his written work and for storing his school books and supplies, while also having camaraderie with his big brother.  As they do their readings from their different HOD guides' assignments, I often hear them share what they find interesting from their readings with each other - usually just a few sentences here or there - but always with the intent to share that which piques their interest the most with each other. I love how they encourage one another, while I am often working with my youngest son in the living room.



I really enjoyed hearing Riley's oral narration this week. He likes to stand as he narrates, and he shared some visual aids as he gave his narration by showing his WG Notebook's photos.  He often makes sound effects as he narrates, which I wasn't sure about at first, but which I have now come to love!  He has his own style of narrating, and his love of what he is reading and sharing shines through in that style.  Likewise, his own personal writing style is emerging.  I challenged him to add some more descriptive words to his written narrations, as well as gradually increase their length, and he is doing a wonderful job of working on each of these goals I have for him!

Riley has always had nice cursive, and it has been neat to see his Charlotte Mason style Common Place Book entries each week.  He writes these in a special book we got him from Crossroads Christian bookstore, and he has written in the same Common Place Book for the past 3 years.  This book is full of special quotes, Scriptures, poetry, etc. that he has chosen to write through the years.

Emmett has been learning about the Israelites suffering from idolatry and the reign of King Saul in Creation to Christ this past week.  We've been doing school 5 days a week, so since this guide is only a 4 day a week guide, we sometimes cover several different history themes within 5 days.  The history projects continue to be a favorite of Emmett's, and this week he had a blast making a Philistine helmet and a sling like the one David used to kill Goliath.  He wore his football helmet when practicing with the rock in his sling, which chose to be a wise move as it did drop on his head a few times.  Turns out using a sling with accuracy is pretty tough!  He had such fun with these projects!

We are really enjoying our Storytime read-aloud Jashub's Journal!  This book is the perfect read-aloud for this part of the ancients that we are studying because it includes stories in which an assigned Israelite judge (Jashub) during the time of Moses would have had to determine consequences. The scenario is given after the story has been read, and Emmett looks in his own Bible at the provided Scriptures to guess what judgment Jashub will give.  We then read the judgment Jashub gave to see if he was right.  Emmett begs me to read more each time!  What a wonderful week we had!

I thought I'd include a few beautiful pictures I snapped on a jog I took - isn't South Dakota lovely this time of year?!?

I hope you all had a wonderful week and a good weekend!

In Christ,
Julie

Heart of Dakota Weekly Check-in Oct. 23-27

Heart of Dakota Weekly Check-in
Oct. 23-27

World Geography:
Riley is learning about Arab Conquerors, Viking Explorers, Iceland's Landscape, and Sinbad's Travels this week.  He gave a topic oral narration about Mohammed after reading about him in his Book of Discovery.  He also used the maps provided in his WG full color Student Notebook to locate places Erik the Red and Leif the Lucky explored, raided, and pillaged.  He wrote a written narration about Iceland, and I found that so interesting!  Who knew such a cold place could have so many hot springs!  I really liked Riley's written narration - his personal style is really developing!

We are doing school 5 days a week, so Riley is often finishing one unit and beginning another.  He also enjoyed completed his Medieval Map of the World via his Mapping the World With Art book and DVD-rom, as well as some other mapping assignments.  One of the things I enjoy most is the Practical Happiness devotion we are discussing together.  Bob Schultz is always a favorite author of ours, and his book is full of timely advice not only for my 14 yo son, but also for this nearly 46 yo mama!

 For Living Library, Riley has been reading Big John's Secret.  I love to see him all curled up the fireplace reading awesome books for school!  What a blessing!

For Algebra I, Riley is using Foerster's Algebra. The helps on the flash drive by David Chandler are super helpful, and he is doing well with this course - much better than I thought!  I especially appreciate the line by line Solutions Manual and the paired down list of assignments composed by David Chandler.  I can see why this often considered an honors level course!

In USII High School, Wyatt has been reading some outstanding literature of his own!  A Room of My Own is about the Depression, and it is a gripping story that shows the unexpected changes that took place in just a short amount of time as people despaired of jobs, homes, and even basic needs like having enough food.  He's also studying I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, which is an outstanding study about defending our Christian faith based on scientific evidence and the Scriptures. For British Literature, he's been reading Jane Eyre, as well as watching a short matching segment each day on DVD.  I love that after all these many years of homeschooling, he still loves to read!  What's even more amazing is he loves reading classic literature!  What a blessing!

 Of course one of my favorite things to do is to see his USII full-color Student Notebook grow!  Correcting his work has gotten fun for me! In fact, it's like an engaging, exciting, interesting history lesson for me!  He reads his work aloud to me, making any editing changes he sees he needs to make, and then I look over it one final time.  I love these times together!

 Written narrations and oral narrations are Charlotte Mason inspired assessments, and they are an excellent way to improve retention, to encourage personal creativity, and to produce higher level thinking that can often be recalled with clarity years later.

Emmett and I are enjoying our Bible Study called The Radical Book for Kids.  It is an excellent accompaniament to our Ancients study this year!  We like to cuddle up on the couch and read and discuss it.  Emmett often gets out the electric throw blanket and sets out a coffee for me - how great is that!  He has also been enjoying seeing the Prophecies About Christ he reads about in the OT come true in the NT!  

I really am pleased with Emmett's CTC Student Notebook progress!  His written narrations are getting better - more detailed, in a better sequence, with neater handwriting - hooray!  He actually likes to write in cursive now, and often chooses to even when it is not specifically assigned.  He is also getting better about writing neatly within each box's specified area.  This has helped him learn to 'shrink' his writing, so it now fits within each box.  I can tell learning to write within each box's parameter has also helped him learn to write smaller within the lines of notebook paper.  I often model writing for him, so he can see the size and spacing I'd like him to use.  This is especially helpful in R & S English and in Drawn into the Heart of Reading...