Little Hearts For His Glory, Unit 3

This year, we are using Heart of Dakota’s Little Hearts For His Glory curriculum. 
It is adaptable for children ages 5 – 7.  To read more about our choice, CLICK HERE.

Alex is 5 years, 8 months.
He will turn 6 in December 2013.

 Alex is learning right now that history is HIS story – the story of God’s world!

Our history is mainly Bible focused right now.  We’ve read this week about where people spread after Babel, about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob & Esau. 

Our Bible verse is Ephesians 6:1 NIV.  Here he is saying it with a lovely milk mustache…

The fun activities for learning memory verses are really appealing to Alex.  This week, we tossed an Angry Bird back and forth while practicing our verse!

We are finishing All About Reading Level 1 – and (in 2014) moving on to level 2 – this year.

Alex has made it through Lesson 30 in AAR 1, and he’s doing great!  We enjoyed playing this direction word game & reading the words to find the way to the treasure.

(Please keep in mind that I have the older version of LHFHG, and if you purchase a new guide, your math will follow a different sequence than what we are doing.  I created my own spreadsheet to match the math activities in the older version of LHFHG to the lessons in Singapore Essentials.  It’s not perfect, but it will work for us!)

While he can do WAY more than counting to 10,
I think it’s important to give Alex time to firm up his neatness in number writing.

 

Just like Isaac uses his sense of smell to help him distinguish whether Jacob or Esau is standing in front of him, Alex used his sense of smell to determine what was on each q-tip.

After that, we went on a “smell hunt” around the house – smelling dog food, yummy chocolaty treats, and even a garbage can with a stinky diaper!

We are using Happy Handwriting and Rod & Staff ABC series.
 

I love the giant lowercase ‘e’ in the middle of his name.
I look forward to seeing improvements in his handwriting this year, but I will enjoy this cute kindergarten handwriting while it lasts!

Rod & Staff “Do It Carefully” book

We’re a little bit behind in our readings.  I think I may need to do two a day or read on Saturday & Sunday to get caught up!  It’s hard to remember to read in the afternoon on the days that I’m babysitting!

 

Oooh, did Alex like this activity!  Mommy wrote his lightly name on paper with white crayon, set the paper on a towel, and asked him to use a nail to poke holes in his name.  Permission to use a nail was a very special treat!

This project tied in with our Bible lessons about Jacob and Esau.  It’s about how we think we can hide something, but nothing is hidden from God.  His light shines in & through everything we do.

This picture is from a Thinking Game about following directions (over, under, next to, above, between).

Jensyn wandered in and took some pictures of school time that included me.   They’re not flattering pictures; I hate that I’m wearing my glasses!  Since it’s hard to get pictures of Mommy during school time, though, I figured I’d post these just for fun…even if it is a little embarrassing.

 

I have two main reasons for posting our homeschool updates:
1) It gives us a beautiful record of our homeschool journey.
2) It may helps someone else who is looking to use this curriculum.

For both of those reasons, I want to be TOTALLY honest here.  Alex is not loving LHFHG so far, and I don’t quite know why.  MFW K last year was a thematic, picture book based program.  LHFHG has a different format to it, and Alex is really having trouble making the adjustment.  He just doesn’t have the same joy and enthusiasm for school as he did last year.

I’ve spent some time exploring other options, but even if we moved to MFW 1st (which I think he COULD do now…) or another curriculum I just don’t think it would be the answer.  Nothing is going to be picture book/activity based in exactly the same way as MFW K.  Growing a bit older means that the lessons grow a bit more challenging and won’t have that fun preschool feel to them.

Since LHFHG really DOES have some neat activities and FUN built into the program, we’re going to stick with it.  Just look again at the fun activities we did in this unit…look at the pictures where he is grinning…it’s not a boring, workbook based curriculum!  I fell in love with it for a reason, and I think Alex CAN grow to love it if he can just change his mindset.  I did order a used copy of a picture book activities manual meant for 3 – 5 yr olds, and when that arrives, we’ll try adding a bit of that into our days just for fun.  I’m also going to borrow a copy of Five In A Row (google it if you’re unfamiliar) to see if we might be able to add a weekly picture book and pick just one activity per day to add a little fun to our days. 

I’m praying that God can help me find a way to make his school days a little happier or give my sweet Alex a change of heart.  But looking through the pictures as I posted this made me realize that, despite Alex telling people he isn’t enjoying school, he *IS* having fun throughout our days!  I’m so thankful that we keep the camera handy during school time!

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