Weekly update for the week of 1/24/2011

 I am a little late getting this done this week.  This week he was studying Greece and therefore everything revolved around Greece. For his Independent History Box he drew and then colored the Parthenon.  This was a huge hit.  This is such a big deal for him.  He should hate sketching and drawing because of how much effort it takes and how his hand cramps, but in the middle of drawing using the instructions from Draw and Write Through History he says "Have I ever told you how much I love this book?". 

For his History project this week he made a Greek Column.  He chose which style to draw and he picked the most complicated one.  His sister had to get into the act so she made one also.

His Science experiment this week was making a Plant Part Meal.  He enjoyed going thru the fridge and picking out the different things that were different parts of plants like carrots for the roots, apples for fruit, etc.

Archimedes and the Door of Science remains a huge hit for our read aloud during story time.  He likes telling his dad things he learned in this book.

One interesting thing I am seeing with him is that last year I remember posting I was worried how he didn't seem to retain some of the history we read.  I was reassured by Carrie and Julie that he was establishing hooks to hang information on in later years.  Well sure enough as we study things this year he will out of the blue bring up something related that he studied last year.  In fact making connections with his reading is something I am seeing him do more and more.

We did make one minor change to the curriculum and that was we stopped doing Genesis Finding our Roots.  N. was struggling some with understanding this book  and he is now going through a class at church which requires homework and that was adding to his day.  Since this was bible study work he had to do, I decided to substitute it in instead of the Genesis book.

Books 6 and 7

I am better at reading them than I am at blogging about them.  Book 6 was Stars Collide by Janice Thompson.
This book is a fun, lighthearted, entertaining book.  The characters are interesting, likable and sometimes quirky.  It was a great book to read just to relax after a crazy day.  It is a Christian Romance book that takes place in Hollywood, which seems like an unlikely premise, but it works.

The 7th book I read was "An Unlikely Blessing" by Judy Baer.  This book was also a very enjoyable read. The book is about a Pastor who takes his first church in a small town in North Dakota.  The characters in this book are ones you want to know more of.  This book reminds me of the Mitford series by Jan Karon.  The book leaves you with many things up in the air so I am hoping that a sequel is in the works because I find myself wanting to know the answer to several unanswered questions.

Weekly update for the week of 1/17/2011

Another good week.  I feel like N. has really found his groove and is really enjoying his days (other than the rare frustration with math).  This week he had lots of drawing and was back with the painting so that made him very happy.

He and S. both did paintings again this week for poetry.

In Science he started reading "Plant Life in Field and Garden".  He did an experimet looking at how plants get nutrients.  He did a good job of doing the experiment by himself.  He put one stalk of celery in sugar water and one in plain water.  Today he tasted the leaves and discovered that the ones in sugar water were sweet, especially the stems of the leaves.

In Storytime we continue to read "Archimedes and the Door of Science".  This book is a big hit.  He enjoyed telling his Dad all about how an Archimedean screw works.

In History he drew a Greek Soldier using the directions in Draw and Write Through History".  Again I was impressed by how careful he was to follow all the step by step directions for drawing.   This is a huge improvement over last year.

For his history project he made a scytale message and then acted out Phidippedes run from Athens to Sparta. He ran a mile and then we told him that he would have to run 150 of those for it to equal the run from Athens to Sparta.

After the thread on the HOD board about oral narrations we worked on capturing the authors voice when he narrates.  He does better if he acts it out.  Written narrations are still very much a work in progress, but he is showing improvement with oral narrations.

5 of 52

My 5th book of this year is Dancing with Max by Emily Colson who happens to be the daughter of Chuck Colson.  It is the story of life with her severely autistic son Max.  It is a beautiful book full of real life pain, hurt , joy and the ever presence of God.  As a physical therapist that treated children with Autism and the parent of a child with special needs I found this book to be a wonderful read.  It challenged me to embrace my child where he is, but also to be willing to be open to where God might take him.  Emily doesn't sugar coat things and she is very honest with the fact that parenting Max mostly as a single parent has been a real challenge, but she also sees the gift that is Max.  Chuck Colson writes the forward and the afterward and gives some good insight also into how God has empowered Emily to be a fantastic mom to Max.  If you have a child with special needs in your life and even if you don't I think you will find this book encouraging.

Weekly update for the week of 1/10/2011

   N. had another good week this week.  He is really coming into his own as far as the independent boxes go.  He even did his science experiment independently this week.  Usually I have to help him just due to the fact that his hand tremor can make things difficult to do, but I see that he really wants to be able to do things on his own so I am trying to sit back and wait and only help if he asks for it.  What's a few spills if it means he feels more independent. 

Science has been the favorite subject around here.  He has become an avid bird watcher thanks to the book "Birds of the Air".  He worked very hard on his bird notebooking page this week and drew a purple finch.

We have several bird feeders right out the window and he loved watching them this week as the birds stocked up before snow fell. He loves cardinals so made sure to tell me every time he saw one so that I could get a good picture.

 For his science experiment he made 2 feathers out of paper and then coated one in shortening.  He was pretty amazed that the one with shortening floated. He was very careful to follow the directions exactly.

He had to memorize a poem and he chose the shortest one called "Dust of Snow".  I don't think he chose it because it was short, I think he picked it because it talked about a bird.  He dressed up as a crow to present it as his dad and proceeded to "fly" across the room and land on his snowy tree (the couch).

He did some mapping work of Greece for his history project and he started a new book called "Ancient Greece"  in his read about history box.  He struggled more with his written narration this week, but I think because it was a new book with a new writing style.  I also realized that I haven't done a very good job of getting across to him that he isn't summarizing as much as he should be retelling what he read.  So we are going to focus on that more and see how it goes.

We also started a new storytime book called "Archimedes and the Door to Science".  I was afraid that he would have trouble paying attention to this book, but it is written in a style that seems to draw him in.

He finished his project for Drawn into the Heart of Reading and made a puppet of Sheriff J.D. Saddlesoap.

4 of 52

    My fourth book to read this year was "An Old Fashioned Girl" by Louisa May Alcott.  I downloaded it for free from www.manybooks.net for my e-reader.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  I think I like this book better than Little Women.  The simplicity of it is charming.  It is the story of Polly, a country girl who is gentle and kind and not enamored with material things.  She goes to stay with her cousins in the city.  Her cousins are the complete opposites and well on their way to becoming brats.  However Polly's appearance in their lives helps prevent this from happening. I am a huge fan of L.M. Montgomery and in some ways this book reminded me of her books. 

  I continue to read "In His Steps" along with my daughter.  This book is different than I thought it would be, but I do find myself anxious to read the next chapter.

3 of 52

I finished my 3rd book for the year.  "Without a Word: How a Boy's Unspoken Love Changed Everything" is by Jill Kelly, the wife of Hall of Fame football player Jim Kelly.  It is the story of their son Hunter and his life.  Hunter was diagnosed with Krabbe's Leukodystrophy shortly after birth.  It is a progressive, fatal disease.  I was very interested in reading this story because when I was a physical therapist I worked with a little girl with a different form of leukodystrophy.  The Kelly's had gone public with their son's diagnosis at the time I was treating this little girl and her mom was so encouraged by the fact that someone important was working on a cure.

This book is a very real look at what living with a chronically ill child is like, but she doesn't focus on the negatives.  She focuses on all the gifts they received from having Hunter in their lives.  The biggest was the through Hunter Jill became a Christian and eventually so did Jim.  It is a story of hope and redemption as much as it is a story of loss of a child.  Much of it is Jill's journal entries which allow the reader to truly see into her heart. This makes it a very real book that deals with real issues.  This book truly allows you to see how God worked things for good out of horrible circumstances.  

Weekly update for the week of 1/3/2011

We jumped back in to school this week.  Well the kids jumped, I might have crawled a little bit.  They were eager to get back and did well.  N. continued on with CTC as if he hadn't taken 2 weeks off. 
 
I asked him the week what his favorite parts of the day were and he said Science and the history project.  He is definitely my hands-on learner.  In Science he is still reading "Birds of the Air".  This week on the day he was to do his oral narration for this book I had him take what he used to call "stop and jot" notes.  He wrote just a few phrases down on sticky notes.  The difference in his interacting with the text and his ability to narrate was huge.  I know it is not true Charlotte Mason style, but whatever his learning glitch is that messes with his reading comprehension this sure helps, so I let him do it.  It also seemed to help with his retention later in the day as he was telling me something about birds he had read. For his science experiment he was a small seed eating bird grabbing raisins off the ground.  I timed him for 15 seconds to see how many he got and then his sister was a hawk and she circled him in her best hawk imitation and then tagged him to show she ate him and we compared how many seed he caught.  This was a big hit. I did end up modifying it and just letting him use his fingers.

 

He finished reading "More Tales from Dust River Gulch" this week for DITHOR.  He will work on a project for this book next week.

For his history reading he read about Cyrus and Darius the Great.  He also read about Daniel and the Lions Den which was of course a big hit.  

In Storytime we continued reading Esther.  Since that is one of my favorite books in the bible it has meant we have had some good discussions.  For his history project he made a Grager and also Hamentashen.  He loved when we read out of Esther and he shook his Grager every time he heard the word Hamen.   We talked about the festival of Purim to go along with this.

Next week he starts a new main History book as well as a new storytime book.  I love how just as winter is setting in and sometimes boredom can hit we get to start all new books.

2nd of 52

I knew when I started this that I wouldn't actually stick to the 1 book a week idea.  I know some weeks I will read more than one and some weeks I won't finish one so my goal is to just to have read 52 books at the end of year.  I finished a second book this week and if falls into the lighter reading category.  I do enjoy reading Christian fiction and have several authors such as Karen Kingsbury that I love. The book I read this week is by Tracie Peterson and is called "Embers of Love".  It is the first in a series called Striking a Match.  It is a lighter read, but one I enjoyed.  It takes place in East Texas in 1885.  The main character stands up to her domineering mother and refuses to marry someone she doesn't love.  She goes with her best friend back to a small town in East Texas.  There she encounters a way of life that is totally foreign to her, but one she ends up embracing.  This book also deals with some of the prejudices that were present at the time.  I look forward to reading additional books in this series as they are released.

1st of 52

I finished my first book of the year. I decided to start the year off with a book that Carrie the author of the Heart of Dakota curriculum recommended. It is called "Stepping Heavenward". The description on google books sums up the book very well: "How dreadfully old I am getting! Sixteen!" So begins 'Stepping Heavenward' by Elizabeth Prentiss, the journal-like account of a nineteenth century girl who learns, on the path to womanhood, that true happiness can be found in giving oneself for others. "This book is a treasure of both Godly and womanly wisdom told with disarming candor and humility, yet revealing a deep heart's desire to know God," says noted Christian speaker Elisabeth Elliot. "I do not hesitate to recommend it to men, who need to understand the wives they live with, and to any woman who wants to walk with God."
I really enjoyed this book and strongly recommend it. I downloaded it for free for my e-reader at www.manybooks.net

I am also reading "In His Steps" along with S. She is doing it for her Literature class and we enjoy reading the books at the same time so we can discuss them.