Little Hearts For His Glory, Unit 7

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, 9 months.
He will turn 6 in December 2013.

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

It’s so hard right now to separate Bible/history.  Our history readings ARE Bible readings!

In this unit, we read about Goliath.  We hung a picture of Goliath near the ceiling, talked about how tall Goliath might have been, and then threw “sock rocks” at Goliath.  Alex was very excited to knock the picture off the wall after several throws!  (Then, I had to rehang it, and the kids spent the rest of the day randomly grabbing a “sock rock” to throw at Goliath as they passed through the room!

  
http://newspring.cc/kidspring/blog/categories/preschool/36/P35/
is the link for the Goliath printable…they recommend using large marshmallows as stones!

 

Alex did a GREAT job with his memory verse this week!
He recited it to Daddy at the end of the week.

I *LOVE* how Heart of Dakota ties the memory verse in with the daily Bible/history reading, finding a way to make the Bible verse for the week related to the lesson of the day!

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

Alex has been learning about compound words and plurals.
Just a few lessons to go, and he’ll be moving on to Level 2!

(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!)

I can’t even begin to tell you how much FUN math can be if you use the plans in LHFHG!  Just look at this – silverware, jelly beans, blocks…and all in the name of learning!

We’ve been working mainly on patterns during Unit 7.  We made patterns out of silverware.  Then Alex would close his eyes, and I’d remove an item (a fork, for example) and replace it with a post-it note.  He had to figure out what was missing from the pattern and put the correct silverware back in place.

The manual recommended raisins and crackers, but we had a bunch of jelly beans left over from the class I teach at co-op.  We had lots of fun making patterns from jelly beans and extending the pattern across the table.

We also made patterns from unifix cubes. 
Let me tell you – after this week, the boy truly understands patterns!



And yes, we did a few workbook pages about patterns too…

One of our Bible readings was the story of Ruth.  For science, we read about how grains (which Ruth picked in Boaz’s field) are a type of grass.  We then made a simple chart about grains and foods made from grains.  We looked at foods in the pantry to see what was made with grains.

We also worked on “push” and “pull”, exploring the house to find things that we might push or pull.  We made a list of what we found:


Here’s Alex pushing on a light switch during our push-pull hunt:

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

 

I don’t know what it is about the “Do It Carefully” book, but Alex would probably gladly do the whole book in one sitting!  He begs to do more, but I almost always stop him after one page.

I was happy to see that Max (who was playing with the camera while I read) got a picture of me reading to Alex this week.  We’re really enjoying the Burgess books!  Alex can answer most of the comprehension questions in the teachers guide.  If he can’t, Max is quick to jump in with the answers, as he’s enjoying the stories right along with us!

Alex made a paper ‘tapestry’.
 

Some days, Max & Jensyn are very good about playing nicely in a bedroom or the playroom.  Other days, they beg to stay in the kitchen with us.  One day, they both drew on dry erase boards while I worked with Alex.

  

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