Friday 22 July 2011

heart of dakota: Unit 1 Week 1

Well I will be updating here now more regularly. Heart of Dakota has arrived! We are using preparing for my ds 10 and my almost 8 year old dd. The week has been really bumpy, not because of HOD, but because my ds doesn't like change amd it takes a while for him to settle into a new routine.

This week we have been learning about creation up to the flood. The kids have been reading Grandpas Box by starr Meade, it is a story of the biblical redemption. The kids have really enjoyed hearing the grandpa telling stories of the war stories (the stories of God, humans and satan from the Bible)and they love how he uses his box of figures to illustrate his story. This book really writes about all the well known bible stories in a very interesting way.

Their history project this week was to make a shield of faith. The kids really enjoyed this process and my dd 4 enjoyed being involved in this creating her own also.



They have also been doing an independent history stody using draw and write through history. This week we have been following instuctions to draw creation images, trees, bushes, dinosaurs and man. Poor Adele who is arty but also a perfectionist! has found this difficult as she wants hers to look fantastic! And they do but she gets really frustrated through the process! We have also been copying truths about creation from this book.






We have started our timeline of world history from a christian worldview. The kids love this idea :)





We have found the 7 continents of the world on a globe, we have researched coats of arms and designed our own.

The kids have enjoyed reading One small square: The Arctic Tundra. This week we did an experiment to discover how layers keep animals warms. The kids had to drop atwo coins into a hotcup of water. They had to prepare two clip lock bags, one with a wad of tissue in the bottom. They placed their hot coins into these bags (one coin was wrapped in the tissue) and these bags were placed in a sink of cold water for 5 secs. The results were layers helped keep the heat in and the cold out.







My dd4 has been working through Little hands to heaven. We are slowly moving through this and she is so excited that everywhere we go we have to stop at signs to point out a, b, c, m or s!! She is very exited. My ds 1 loves being involved in the ctivities. Earlier on we were doing a sink or float activity outside. ds 1 thought it would be fun to test himself!!
Here is a photo of dd 4 writing b in chaljk in our backyard.





This term our extra curricular activities are focused on learning new skills. A friend of ours is teaching us machine sewing. We have all designed our own cushion cover and we are in the middle of making these. I will post photos when these are done.

The kids are doing a photography workshop and will do a project using their pictures to create their own original storybook. adele has decided to use her china doll and take photos of her life. Damon is documenting wildlife that he discovers on our outings. damon is our zoologist :)

A friend has also offered to teach Adele and I to play piano, so we will be strating that. Ds is continuing with guitar.

And a friend has also offered to come and teach us how to be gardeners, so I am really looking forward to this.

These are all skills I have wished to have for years. Now that we are homeschooling we are learning them together.

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