Heart of Dakota- BLHFHG Unit 3

We just finished our 3rd unit of Beyond and I feel like we’re getting into a good routine.  I am really enjoying Heart of Dakota and I like learning right along side of Hailey.

History:

This week we learned about the Brewster family who ran an inn in Scrooby, England.  The Brewster family had church meetings at their home because many of the people in Scrooby did not want to worship the way King James wanted them to.  King James ordered the people to worship at his church and sent soldiers to find out where people were having church.  When they were caught, the men were sent to jail.  At the end of the week we read about the people making secret plans to leave England and move to Holland.

Hailey made this picture of a stone wall to represent the Brewster’s inn, which at one time was a palace.

One of our favorite history activities was playing a game to see if Hailey would worship the way King James wanted or if she would end up in jail.  I didn’t take any pictures of the game, but it was fun and Hailey ended up in jail.

Geography:

We are using Road Trip USA to learn all about the states.  We learned about our first state this week- Connecticut.

We read about Connecticut in the National Geographic US Atlas.  To start teaching some mapping skills, I had Hailey look up the capital of Connecticut (Hartford) in the index.  Then she used the grid to find it on the map.  She thought it was really neat and wanted to try finding other locations too.

Since the robin is the state bird for Connecticut, we made a cute a Robin Craft– you can see the finished craft here.

Hailey added Connecticut to our US map.

Hailey designed a postcard for Connecticut.

Hunter and Hailey tried clam chowder for lunch.  Hailey said she liked it, but then after a few bites asked for some chicken nuggets.  Hunter ate most of his, but he’ll eat pretty much anything 🙂

Language Arts:

I am not loving the curriculum we are using for Language Arts.  I am going to try to keep using parts of it, but I’m also starting to do a bit of my own thing too.

I had Hailey sort sticky notes onto either “sentence” or “phrase” to practice what makes a sentence.

I looked over the remainder of unit 1 in Rod and Staff Preparing to Build English 2 and made up a test for Hailey that covered all of the material in that unit.  She did very well on the test, so I decided we are done with unit 1.  She has been asking to write a story, so I decided that would be good practice for what we were working on in unit 1.  She filled out a brainstorming paper and then wrote a rough draft.  We worked together on fixing her rough draft and she started working on her final copy.  She will finish it up this week.

Science:

We pretended that these 2 plates were flowers.  I crushed up some Cheetos and put them in the middle of one of the plates to represent pollen.  Hailey and Hunter pretended to be bees landing on one flower, and then carrying the pollen to the other flower.  Hailey learned how flowers need bees for pollination.

We also did a science experiment with light- I hung up a piece of black paper and a piece of white paper in a dark room and then we shined a flashlight on them to see the difference.  Since white reflects light, that paper was much brighter than the black paper because black absorbs light.

Hailey filled out her science notebooking paper about the light experiment.  She thinks it’s great when she can do her work on the floor instead of at her desk 🙂

Bible:

Hailey and Hunter loved doing toe-touches in between saying their Bible verse.

Music:

We are really enjoying the Hide ‘Em In Your Heart CD.  Hunter always asks to have the music on and wants everyone to dance.

Unit Study:

We finished up our Apple Unit Study this week.  I am going to post more about it this week and show more of what we did and the lapbook that Hailey made.

We did a science experiment with apples.

Hailey made an apple and labeled the parts of it, which we put in her lapbook.

Art:

Hailey and Hunter made this Apple Core Craft together.

We did this cute Apple Tree Activity.  I love how these turned out.

We did some fun activities for Johnny Appleseed’s birthday, and I will post more about those this week.

We also made a basket of apples, which turned out cute and I will post it this week.

We had a really good week and I am looking forward to unit 4!

Be sure to like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any of our fun activities.

Heart of Dakota- BLHFHG Unit 2

Our second week of homeschooling is complete and was a success 🙂

Hailey practicing counting by 3s during calendar time.

Hailey read her journal to Hunter.

History/Geography:

This week we read about Sally and Richard, two kids who lived in Jamestown, and what it was like for them.  Hailey really enjoys the readings each day and doesn’t want me to stop reading.

One of the readings was about Richard getting lost and Sally searching for him.  Hailey drew a map to show where Richard went.

Language Arts:

Hailey’s illustration of her poem from this week.

Hailey is working through the Emerging Readers and started with The Beginner’s Bible.  She is enjoying reading it, although it is not challenging her.  I am hoping it is building confidence for when we move on to the more difficult books.

We are using Rod and Staff Preparing to Build English 2 for grammar and I am finding it to be boring.  I have been looking at Pinterest trying to find some ideas to make it a bit more fun.

Math:

This week in math I introduced the concept of division.  Hailey picked some fairies and then had to give each of them an equal amount of Cheeze Its.  She loves the activities we do like that.  She’s not a fan of the work in her math book, but she loves our hands on activities.

Science:

Hailey is really enjoying science.  We only have it 2 times each week, but she is always so excited when I tell her we are doing science.  Even though the activities seem very simple she really enjoys them.

Hailey had to pick an animal from a different climate that she wanted to learn more about.  She decided she wanted to learn more about giraffes.  After we read about giraffes she picked a stuffed animal and narrated a play to show what she had learned.

We also studied tree squirrels and how they stretch out their legs and flatten their bodies and tales and then glide through the air.  We did the following experiment:

Hailey dropped a piece of paper that was crumpled up.

Then she dropped a flat piece of paper.  She immediately made the connection to the tree squirrels flattening out their bodies.

 This is Hailey’s notebooking page for the our tree squirrel experiment.

Music:

Hailey and Hunter really liked the song that went with our Bible verse this week and had a lot of fun dancing along with it.

Unit Study:

We are still learning all about apples.

Hailey made applesauce with the apples we picked last week.

We also made apple crisp.

Yummy!

Art:

We made this simple Apple Tree Craft.

We also made this Apple Life Cycle Craft.

Field Trips:

We went on 2 field trips and had lots of fun!

First Hailey and I went to see The Three Little Pigs opera.  It was so cute and she loved it!!

Hailey with the three pigs and the big bad wolf after the show.

We also went to see how donuts are made.

We got to see the process for making apple cider too.

After all of the juice has been squeezed out of the apple this is what is left.  It was pretty neat to see.

We are all ready for another fun week of homeschooling!!

Be sure to like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any of our fun activities.

Heart of Dakota- BLHFHG Unit 1

We just completed our first full week of homeschooling… and we survived 🙂  Here is a recap of our first week.

History/Geography:

We are learning about the pioneers who came from Spain and settled in Florida and what it was like for them to travel across the ocean.

I put the earth on the floor using masking tape, then printed out the continents.  Hailey did various things (hoping, tip toeing, twirling) to get from one continent to another.

She used one of her toys to show the path Columbus took across the ocean.

Hailey also completed a notebooking page for history.

We started a timeline to keep track of important dates as we study them.

Language Arts:

Hailey thought it was great that I let her sit on her desk to work on a grammar lesson.

So far Hunter has been so good during school, and I am very thankful for that!  He likes to do whatever Hailey is doing.  He saw her on the floor copying some sentences off of the board and he had to get down there and do some writing too.

Practicing her spelling words by using pipe cleaner to spell the words.

Copywork using her Bible verse.

We are also reading the biography Helen Keller by Margaret Davidson.  I read just a little bit to Hailey each day and she is really enjoying it.  I love that when I stop reading she always asks to hear some more.  Hailey also reads to me each day and is currently working her way through The Beginners Bible.

Math:

Hailey is learning multiplication using lots of hands on activities.  The blue paper represents water and the graham crackers are boats, while the cereal represents people in the boats.  We did several different examples to get some practice seeing how multiplication works.  Afterwards we enjoyed a little snack 🙂

Science:

We learned about how currents work and how they make paths in the water as they move.  Hailey used a medicine dropper, held it under the water and squeezed water out behind the boat, which pushed the boat forward.

Hailey and her science notebooking page.

We also learned how blubber protects some sea creatures from cold water.  I put very cold water in the bucket.  Hailey put a bare hand in, then her other hand is being protected by shortening.  She loved this experiment!  I was talking to Rich on the phone a little while after we did it and she had to tell him all about it.  When he got home from work she had him do it too.

Science notebooking page about blubber.

Unit Study:

We have been studying all about apples.  We did a taste test to see which variety we all liked the best.

We also went apple picking, which was a lot of fun!

Art:

Hailey made a shield which represented that the Lord is our shield and we can trust God to protect us when we are scared.  She really loved decorating it!

Hailey also drew a self portrait.  I plan to have her do another one at the end of the school year.

We made some apple prints and Hailey thought that the star shape left in the middle of the apple from where the seeds are was pretty neat.

We had a really great first week and I am super excited about our first year of homeschooling!!

Be sure to like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any of our fun activities.

2013 – 2014 Curriculum

Now that I have made the official announcement that we will be homeschooling this year, I thought I would share our curriculum choices with everyone.

Our core curriculum will be Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory from Heart of Dakota, with a few extras added in, which I am using for second grade.

My teacher’s guide 🙂  I love how everything is so nicely organized for me!!

Language Arts: (we will do this daily)

We are using Heart of Dakota for LA.  I will use their spelling lists (list 2) as well as some of the language arts activities.  We are also using the Emerging Readers Set from Heart of Dakota, where Hailey will read the books in the picture and then answer various questions about the books.  We are using Rod and Staff 2 for grammar.  For handwriting we are using Cheerful Cursive, since Hailey has been asking to learn cursive.

These are story time books from Heart of Dakota that I will read to Hailey.

Math: (we will do this daily)

It took me a really long time to decide what math curriculum to pick.  I finally decided to go with Singapore.  This summer we are going over 1B since Singapore tends to be ahead of where public schools are.  So far it’s going very quickly because it’s all review, but I know when we get to the end of the workbook it will slow down.  When school starts in the fall we will do 2A and 2B.

History: (we will do this daily)

We are using Heart of Dakota for history and will use the books pictured above as our text.

Geography: (we will do this 2 times per week)

We are going to use Road Trip USA for learning about the 50 states.  We are only going to cover 1 state per week to start.  Depending on how it goes we might move up to 2 states per week as the curriculum is written, but we’re going to see how it goes first.  In addition we are also using Highlights Which Way USA magazines and/or Little Passports US edition.  Right now are getting both subscriptions because I can’t decide which one I like better hahaha

Science: (we will do this 2 times per week)

We are going to use Heart of Dakota for our science curriculum and the book pictured above will be our text.  It seems pretty light to me, so we are planning to add in some unit studies based on Hailey’s interests.

Bible: (we will do this daily)

We are going to use Heart of Dakota for our Bible curriculum.  In addition to that we are going to read through Bible stories and do activities based on the stories.  We are also going to use the What’s in the Bible DVDs, although right now we only have the first DVD and I want to make sure we like them before I buy anymore.

My Planner:

I love planners and writing my plans down 🙂  It took me forever to decide which planner to buy and so far I’m glad I decided on this one.  It might not be totally necessary to have a planner when using Heart of Dakota, but the plans are written based on a 5 day week.  We are going to go to a homeschool co-op once per week (this will be our art, music and physical education) and will be gone for most of the day on our co-op days, so I am trying to re-write the plans to fit things into a 4 day week.

So, that is my plan so far.  We will see how it goes and adjust as needed 🙂

Be sure to like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any of our fun activities.