Our HOD Week in Review-Unit 31

It is so good to get back to our Heart of Dakota work! We enjoyed our Columbus Unit Study but our family is just so in love with all that Carrie Austin has put together for the Beyond manual!

This week we learned a little about what it was like on the Santa Fe Trail. This is the trail that many pioneers took heading west from Independence Missouri. We rode with a fictional young boy named Nick who was traveling with his father. We learned of how hard it was at times on the trail. Can you imagine having to get out and pull your wagon up a steep hill or use it as a boat to cross a river? And not just that but the fear of Indians, animals and getting lost.

We talked a lot about the trust in God that many of these pioneers had to have in God. What a great example they are of not worrying about tomorrow but trusting in the God of today.

Our poem this week was such a fun one entitled Weather, I'll type it for you since it was so catchy I think you'll like it too.

Whether the weather be fine

Or whether the weather be not,

Whether the weather be cold

Or whether the weather be hot,

We'll weather the weather

Whatever the weather

Whether we like it or not.

Anonymous

This poem ended up being another one of our favorites! I gotta get these girls to color their pictures for you! They just aren't the same in black and white!

I uploaded our work to Scribid so that you could see some of what we did.

Various Items for HOD's Beyond Unit 31

We did some map work on the Santa Fe using a printout that I found here. One day for science we learned about mosquitos. We learned that they are bothersome little bugs that can carry some mean diseases. We talked about the three parts of an insect and read a portion of our science text that goes along with Beyond.

I decided (after becoming reaquainted to these little bugs) to take the kids outside and turn over any place that might be perfect for mosquito breeding. Unfortunately we found a number of perfect places.

Because I thought that the girls could handle going a little deeper I printed out these worksheets from Enchanted Learning. I also had the girls reread on their own the portion about mosquitos from the Christian Liberty Nature Reader Book 1.

Since Nick, his father and the other pioneers had chosen to head to Santa Fe we  were given a small glimpse into what that town was like way back then. Of course there was much Spanish influence so one of the scheduled activities was to dance the Mexican hat dance. We had a blast doing our version of it. Check 'em out! I found the music here on Jan Brett's site.

We also completed the notebook page for this unit made by a fellow HOD mom and available on the Yahoo group boards. (You can see that up with the other embeded work from Scribd.)

During Bible time we talked about where God wants our treasures to be. We used the following verse from Luke to remind ourselves that whatever we set our heart on (whatever we value and hold dear) is where our treasures will be. Do we want them to be set on this earth where moth and rust doth corrupt or in Heaven where all things are eternal?

"For where your treasure is there will your heart be also."

I didn't have all the items recommended in the manual for the treasure chest craft (and I was bummed because it sounded so neat...) but I found this treasure chest, printed it out and had the kids decorate it. Then we followed the plans as outlined in the manual and wrote Luke 12:34 on it and dropped it into the treasure chest. After doing this and having the talk with the girls I could see a lightbulb go on inside of them. This simple craft gave them the understanding they needed to realized that just like that paper heart inside of that small treasure chest our hearts will be kept by what we hold dear.

This was a great week for us! We have had fun with Heart of Dakota! Now, click on the button below to see how much fun everyone else had!! Thanks for stopping by...

Lovin' Learnin'