Week in Review: September 16-20

We've deviated one more week away from Heart of Dakota. I'm in a season of life where I'm trying to heal physically from not just 1, but 2 major surgeries within a year. This second one wasn't as major as the first back at Christmas except that it occurred so soon after the first. As a result my iron levels are low...crazy low! I now know why I have had hardly strength, energy, or focus. I'm told I have another 3 weeks before I'll start feeling better, but I'm on an iron supplement and adding in lots of iron-rich foods into my diet. I also have lots of dear friends praying I'll feel more energized and more like myself even before the doctors think I will!

As a result our homeschooling has been modified slightly. My daughters take classes specifically for homeschoolers so science is covered for me. Since we spent a few days at Colonial Williamsburg I figured history could be put on hold for a week too! So this week we focused mainly on mathematics and language arts. I am grateful for the flexibility which homeschooling allows. My girls are already ahead in all of their subjects anyway so taking it easy isn't a big deal for us.

Grace - K4
Grace mostly focused on her reading lessons even though she also did a lot of work-book pages. I now have several on hand that she can just work through at her leisure since I can't keep this girl satisfied with what I plan for her lessons.

Beth - 1st Grade
Beth read one of my favorite books from my own childhood this week, Wagon Wheels, about a family who goes west and starts a new life. I remember seeing this on Reading Rainbow. My parents would write down all the books at the end and we'd immediately head off to the library to see how many we could find! Beth loved this story and it was so great sharing it with her again!

She also completed way more math than I had planned. Beth enjoys working with numbers. She finds it interesting and fun. I wish I had her enthusiasm! For me, numbers are a tedious necessity. I much prefer words.

Rose - 3rd Grade
Rose is reading a wonderful book called A Little Maid from Virginia which has been a stretching read for her. It was written in the early part of the 20th century so the vocabulary and style are very different from what she is used to. I do encourage her to read anything she wants any other time of the day, but I like to give her literature like this as I think ahead to the types of books I want her to be reading in a few years. Since I do plan for Jane Austen and Mark Twain to enter into our world eventually this has been excellent preparation.

Rose never loved math the way her sisters did...until a few weeks ago that is! I cannot sing the praises of Life of Fred enough. I will be writing a review of this eventually. Until then know that it has moved my girl who dreaded math and dragged it out for 45-60 minutes each day now begs to begin with math and flies through her lessons. We have not abandoned our regular math with Rod and Staff, but just added to it. Rather than making math take even longer, it now takes only about 20 minutes each day.

We have some fun things coming up this week including a field trip to a new children's museum and a concert with Mrs. Kate Carpenter! She is a personal friend of ours and my girls love her music. Take a minute to check her out and look forward to a post about her concert next week!