Preparing Hearts for His Glory:
This has been such a good week for Riley. He is coming into his own with PHFHG now. Every day, he becomes more confident in his work, and every day, he learns more and more wonderful skills. Drawing has become a favorite activity of Riley's, and "Draw and Write Through History" has really filled this need for creativity so well. This week, Riley enjoyed drawing a Phoenecian ship. He liked reading about the talent it took to build these, as working with his hands is a favorite pastime of Riley's especially.
Riley's timeline has begun to grow. This is a completely independent activity for him now. He has learned to read the manual, get out his timeline card, write the event and date neatly at the bottom of the card, draw and color the picture, and hang it in the appropriate place in the closet staircase timeline. When you really think about it, that's a lot to learn, and yet HOD has taught him how to do this very well independently now. He's so happy with his growing timeline!
Riley's written narration on "Grandpa's Box" this week shows he is improving in this skill. It was on the story of little King Joash. I loved how we read about this historical event in both the Bible and in "Grandpa's Box". Each reinforced the other, and each had their own style and details too. This pairing of the Bible with other resources to portray history is one of my very favorite things about HOD.
Here is his written narration...
In Israel Athalia tried to kill her own nephews, but then her daughter saved a boy whose name was Joash. Then she took hi to the temple where she had married a priest named Jehoida, and after seven years had passed, they brought him outside to the pillar where kings were anointed. In the palace Athalia heard people shouting, "Long live the king!" She tore her clothes and cried, "Treason!" Jehoida told the guards, "Go sieze her and kill her and anybody that follows her... kill them." So, they brought her to the courtyard and killed her, and God's promise had been fulfilled.
I realize there are still some errors in his narration (i.e. spelling of "seize" and verb tenses, etc.). But, I had him add some commas and quotation marks, as well as fix a few spelling errors, and I thought that was enough for him to fix that day.
I followed HOD's advice and jotted the marks in pencil in the margin, and he fixed them within the appropriate lines then. This is a great way to edit, as it teaches dc to locate their errors and fix them while providing a bit of help.
In science, Riley made his own fossil imprints. He learned that fossils need to be buried quickly and deeply. We ran out of bread and had to sub in hot dog buns, but it still worked out great!
He is making progress in his lab sheets each week. He is learning how to draw his procedure better and better, sequentially with labels.
In poetry, Riley memorized his favorite poem from what we've studied so far. He chose 2 poems, because he just loved them both too much!
He's my child that LOVES the microphone. He did "Rain" and "The Swing". We all gave him a hearty round of applause for a job well done, and he gave a grand bow!
What a fulfilling week of learning in PHFHG! I hope you all had a great week too!
In Christ,
Julie