Learning Moments {Week 3}

In Bigger Hearts for His Glory Unit 3, we learned about bold explorers in American History, like John Smith and Henry Hudson. 

Everything all ready to go. 

Line drawing a tree for Art - she had to draw a tree with one continuous line without looking. 

Malachi thought that sounded like fun, so he did one too (on the left) and she drew another tree (not happy with her first one).

Looking up the definition of the word "bold." 

Talking about Proverbs 16:2-3 and how our character trait "boldness" relates. I ♥ knowing that the intentions of my heart are weighed by the Lord (and the Lord alone). 


Handwriting

Looking at samples of lichen (algae + fungus).

Vocabulary

Vocabulary notebooking

Memorizing Proverbs 16:2-3. She is writing the first letter of each word as a clue to help her.

Doing the Bonus Question in her head! :) 


She finished Math Lessons for a Living Education (MLLE) Lesson 5 this week. 

History Notebooking

Timeline (Oops, we were supposed to put John Smith in the 1550 column on the next page).

We got behind this week and had a big science and hands-on History catch up day on Friday.

History Activity 


Learning the part of a river (source, mouth, riverbed, riverbank) and what a bay is. She made a river through cornmeal noticing the path it makes. She asked to save the cornmeal so she could play in it with her Squinkies. :)

Science Exploration ~ What causes a seashore to weather over time?

Wind?

Rain?

Waves?

Experiment Log

Science Notebooking

Down by the Sea

Life in a Shower

She also did a Science Exploration activity to discover "What happens to seawater when the sun shines on it?"

Since we are not able to do the actual "one small square" activities from the book, I pulled up pictures of our time visiting the tide pools on the Oregon beach.







We finished Unit 4 this week, and I took a few more pictures of what else is going on in our homeschool and life these days to share next week for the Real Life Homeschool blog hop. If you are following along with my Bigger posts, next week's post will be spread out into three days to give you a picture of what else is going on around school. :) 

7 comments

  1. LOVE! Your posts on HOD have inspired me to check it out and now I'm seriously contemplating ordering for our family. This looks like a FANTASTIC curriculum. :) I love how planned out it is. Can I ask your thoughts? I am considering Bigger for our 2 eldest kids. Simon is almost 10 and Audrey is 8. Lots of Moms said not to rush them forward to "Preparing". What do you think? Audrey is keen to write and draw quite a bit but Simon is reluctant to do tons of writing. They are both quite advanced in their ability to process and retain information and read-alouds... which is what prompted me to consider Preparing but I don't want to overwhelm them with too advanced of a language arts program. I'm also torn between either Little Hands to Heaven or Beyond for my little guy who will be 7 in Sept... I've read the charts, the catalog, etc... so many choices! haha... PS. does the program come with all the sheets you are using for Science (the experiment log and notebooking page?) and the history notebook page and map of Jamestown? Oh, the choices overwhelm me but excite me too. I'm exhausted of planning every week by hand this year... it's taxing! This program looks LOVELY as time progresses too... so rich! Are you loving it? xo Cass @ TheUnpluggedFamily.com

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    1. Cass, I'm thinking 4th grade for Preparing, but you should visit my friend Tara at Monarch Room (http://www.monarchroom.com/). She did Bigger with a 1st and 4th grader, and then backed up and did Beyond with her 2nd grader, and moved her 5th grader into CtC, skipping Preparing, and separating them into their own guides.

      I'm guessing you meant Little Hearts for His Glory or Beyond? Little Hearts seems more appropriate for ages 5-6. Beyond would be great for 7-8. Bigger 8-9. Malachi just turned 10 and he would have needed to be in Preparing if I could have made it work. (I can't because we just got done with 3 years of World History - Sonlight Cores A-C, and I need to move on to American History). Next year for 5th, he would have placed in CtC, but I may consider HOD for him for high school. (He'll do Cores G, H, and maybe 100).

      I have had my eye on HOD for years, but could never make it work combining. This year, Malachi took off and Eliana needed to slow down, and I needed something planned out for me, so it has been perfect. After Bigger, we will do Prairie Primer with both Malachi and Eliana. Then I'll be ready to start over with world history. I know they say not to place where you are in the history cycle, but I am because I'm so ready to move on to American History!

      All of the notebooking pages in the lower levels are found on the HOD FB or Yahoo groups. In the upper levels, the notebooking pages come with the guide and are beautiful! It was easy to download and print and getting organized was so easy. Tara has lots of organizing posts on her blog. Lots of great info there!

      And yes! I am loving it. I love the balance of notebooking and activities, but it feels less intense. It is easy to double up. In fact we are adding Birds of a Feather unit study and jumping ahead to do science from Unit 10-14 in Bigger to read John Audubon Young Naturalist, so will double up on Science for the next 4-5 weeks. Tara added in another science when she did Bigger, so it is doable. I love that! It's just so nice to get done early and have some extra time, too. And no more planning, unless we throw in a row! (Thinking of rowing Albert to tie into our bird studies!). :) I love that I don't feel pressured to do every subject though because she gets all she needs from Bigger - it is gentle, but rich. <3

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    2. Thank you so much, and yes, I meant Little Hearts or Beyond. That's so funny as I was thinking the exact same thing about Albert - it goes great with birds! We are actually considering rowing "Angelo" soon too, as that has birds in it as well. Thank you so much for your insight. I really appreciate it. I know so many of the boards for HOD say to separate the kids as much as possible but here's the thing - my two eldest are very used to working together on the same things and it works quite well. It's my youngest who I know needs his own. I'm thinking of doing Little over the Summer/early fall and then moving into Beyond with him after that... he's still so small, but does turn 7 in Sept. I'm thinking HOD is a bit like Sonlight, in that you don't want to overestimate with the ages. So, younger is likely better. That's why I'm considering Bigger, even for my 10 year old son (he'll be 10 in a couple weeks). And I'll get him the extension pack. Thanks for your insight and inspiration!!! :)

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  2. Yay! Another great week! I love these posts :) She's doing such beautiful work!

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  3. It is bittersweet to read through your HOD weekly updates! Your daughter seems to be loving the program! {You too!! : ) } After much thought, I don't think we'll be doing Bigger with my son; he's more of a workbook kinda learner.... I am hoping my daughter will be more into learning through literature so that we'll be able to stick with HOD in the future!

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    1. Kristina, that's the beauty of homeschooling. :) I have one boy who loves workbooks too (Dylan). I can't make it work for Malachi right now either, but it really appeals to me for high school. I so enjoyed your Beyond posts! I was wondering what you were doing this year! I missed it!

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