Weekly Review: August 17-21

We had a pretty average week across the board. I started teaching piano lessons full time and we began our schedule as if the girls were already taking their classes at our local homeschool learning schedule. I will feel more comfortable if we can practice this and this week went quite well. The basic change is that on Wednesdays the girls will only have math and language arts. We are squeezing a full unit of history (and science for Grace) into 3 days a week. This week went fine. We'll see how this goes throughout the year. You may notice everyone wearing the same clothes in most of these pictures. Yup...one main day of pictures from this week! I'm glad I chose a good day with fun stuff going on. 

Grace - Kindergarten: Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 22

So if you have noticed that Grace sometimes has more pictures than her sisters or why she is looking at the camera more I want to clear the air and let everyone know that no, she is not getting preferential treatment! Typically she is not merely willing for me to take pictures, but she is all about the pose! Not to mention that her personality is wide open. She always has a good week although as we are approaching 6, she tends to dissolve into tears more quickly than last year.

We finished up with Fundanoodle this week. It was a bit sad to say goodbye to this series, but move on we must! We are continuing with Handwriting Without Tears. The reason I'm doing this is that a friend purchased the series and then decided she didn't want it anymore and gave it to me. Anytime I'm given material for free I'm very grateful! 

Grace began using Math Rider this summer and loves being just like her big sisters practicing her math facts. I love that with Math Rider I can set the range to easier number sets for her and harder sets for her older sisters. 

 

All About Spelling is going great! Grace loves doing the tile portion of the lesson. 

This is one of my favorite pictures of the week! We are reading Owl at Home using the Emerging Readers questions in the Beyond guide. This is such a fun book. Grace loves finding humor in everyday life and she can't get through a page in this book without giggling, and let me tell you, her giggle is simply adorable!

We missed the science lesson last week about the earth being round (Not that uncommon around here) and so we went back and did the activity this week (Rather uncommon!). She loved spinning the globe round and round.

 

Another science experiment we did had to do with absorption or repelling of water onto an object. She really enjoys this. 

Beth - 3rd Grade: Preparing Hearts for His Glory Unit 2 (first half)

Beth had a good week although I'm really glad we are going at half speed. This is very good for her right now as she does need a work-load increase, but not so much as to burn her out. 

This week's research was about Noah and the Flood. We spent quite a bit of time researching both in secular encyclopedias and biblical reference books. A wonderful discussion about discerning while we read. 

 

Math comes easily for Beth, so when she hits something that is harder she almost always gets upset. We had a few bumps this week because of that, but we made it through and will be pressing on next week! 

 

Beth excelled at her poetry writing this week! I really like the poetry pages from the files in the Heart of Dakota facebook group. Because she is on the young end of the guides ages this really helps her to not feel so overwhelmed. 

 

Beth probably doesn't need Math Rider to retain math facts, but I still think it is good practice and she thinks its just plain fun! You can see here an example of the story-line and this is what captivates my sweet girl. 

Rose - 5th grade: Creation to Christ Unit 16

Rose is always so serious about her studies. Although the pictures don't always show it, she really loves what we do most of the time!

 

We continued our geometry unit this week and Rose learned about measuring angles with a protractor. Her biggest challenge was making sure she lined everything up correctly. 

 

This week I purchased some thin colored Sharpie markers for her drawings in her notebook. 

 

I have a good husband! 

Rose loves reading her history in the living room. Mostly because she realized last year she can focus better and the couch is more comfortable! 

Both Beth and Rose are learning typing and Rose enjoys typing her writing assignments from Write With the Best. She is doing really well with this program and I have to say that I absolutely love the way Write With the Best teaches writing! 

We had a great week! I'd love to hear about yours. If you are a Heart of Dakota Blogger you can join in the Weekly-Link Up by clicking below!