Heart of Dakota

Stay tuned - I'll be posting all week about Heart of Dakota so subscribe to stay informed! Some of the topics I'll be cover are...

• My homeschool story  and my review of Heart of Dakota
• How I organize and use Preparing Hearts for His Glory with two kids
• High School Plans with the newest program - Missions to Modern Marvels

Leadership Part 1

This past week my two oldest girls were part of something big. They were part of a group of teens that organized, designed, promoted, taught and led our church's Vacation Bible School. I cannot emphasize how proud of them I am. They prepared for months to welcome nearly 400 children ages 4-12. It all started with a carnival to welcome the community.

My oldest daughter and my son exploring some games. 

Velcro Wall

Bounce House

Giant Inflatable Slide

Face Painting

Ring Toss

European Bungee

The next night started the weeks worth of crafts, games, skits and Bible lessons all taught by our teens. My oldest daughter had a lesson on Zacchaeus. She studied her passage inside and out. She came up with a creative method to present to her age group (4's & 5's) using part puppet, part hands-on and part costume. I am so proud of her, but this isn't the first time she or her sister have been leaders. 

Crazy Hair Night - Rainbow

HOW TO:

1. Wet the hair where you want the color.

2. Using CHALK pastels from your local art store, draw right on to the wet hair.

3. Let dry.

This will wash out easily the next time you shampoo your hair. 

My daughter used cotton batting and bobby pins to make the cloud. 

Caterpillar made from 

HOW TO:

1. Hot glue different colors of pom poms to form the caterpillar body & head. 

2. Hot glue googlie eyes to the head.

3. Cut a small piece of pipe cleaner for the antenna. Hot glue mini pom poms to the ends. Bend in the middle and glue to the caterpillar. 

4. Hot glue caterpillar to a bobby pin.

Dragonfly

We bought these in the floral department of hobby lobby. 

Bee Hive

HOW TO:

1. Braid hair in several sections. 

2. Twist braids around head in a bee hive fashion, bobby pinning as you go. 

3. I purchased these bumble bee's from Hobby Lobby's floral department. They had wires on them already so I just stuck them into the bee hive bun making some of them fly. 

Decorations

 

My daughters painted these using watercolors

Friends working together

Ever since my kids were little I have been preparing them to be leaders. Some of my children are very shy, but I always made opportunities for them to stand up in front of people from the time they were very young. When they were little and I was teaching a Sunday School class, I would bring them with me to participate as my helper. They saw me teach. They saw me lead. When they hit their teens I encouraged them to teach as often as possible by teaching something they were familiar with to a small group of kids. (art lessons for my oldest) These experiences prepared them for this experience, teaching in an engaging way to a large number of children with adults looking on. I am proud of the work my daughters did for the Lord this week. I am thankful to God for the strengths He has given them. I know that as they grow older, they will use this critical skill to serve Him in even greater ways. 

Movies, Movies, Movies

I love movies. I have ever since we bought our first VCR and our first VHS movie (Dirty Dancing, ugg I hate to admit that) that I watched 37 times before we got a Video Connection membership and could expand our repertoire.

I really love to use movies in my homeschool. Right now my oldest daughter is at an age that I can show her more mature films and it has been a lot of fun. She is studying the 1960's and 1970's right now in history and last week she watched:

West Side Story

She has been singing the songs all week. Here is one of her favorites:

She has been learning about the Space Race for a few weeks now and so I thought it was a good time to include Tom Hanks in Apollo 13. Watching movies about real events can really bring the topic the kids are reading about alive. They begin to feel connected to the people and events that took place. 

Apollo 13

We have also been learning about the Civil Rights Movement. For my younger kids, I showed them films about Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges and the movie Selma, Lord Selma. My oldest has already seen these films so I decided to show her Remember the Titans. It is true story about a newly appointed African American football coach and his first season working with a racially integrated team. It is an excellent film and I am excited to share it with her.

Remember the Titans

I stumbled upon this film years ago and was drawn in by the amazing story line and excellent acting. We may not get to see this one because of time, but I wanted to mention it here in case it is something you may want to check out. 

The Right Stuff is a 1983 American film adapted fromTom Wolfe's 1979 book The Right Stuff about the test pilots  who were involved in high-speed aeronautical research at Edwards Air Force Base as well as those selected to be astronauts for Project Mercury, the United States first attempt at manned spaceflight. 

The Right Stuff

And a documentary: The surviving crew members from NASA's Apollo missions tell their story in their own words.

In the Shadow of the Moon

For my younger ones, we are going to reinforce their literature by watching the 1969 movie My Side of the Mountain based on the book of the same name that I am currently reading aloud. It is a wonderful story about a boy who is enchanted with nature and takes off to live on his family mountain alone with nothing but the clothes on his back. It tells all sorts of wonderful details about how he survives. I found this online pdf discussion and activity guide to add some interest.