Sharing the Light

The JOYS Of Using HOD With Children Who Learn Differently

I have a 12 year old son who learns at his own pace. God made him this way and he is perfect. His giftings lie in music and art. I thought I would share how we use HOD with our Special Learner.

This year I am using "Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory" with a 6, 8 & my 12 year old. The program is written for a 6-8 year old. However, the 12 year old fits well into Beyond because the history is perfect for him. It's small readings and wonderful discussion questions help his brain to process through what he is learning. He isn't quite ready for the higher level readings of "Bigger" or the longer read a loud times, but he will be next year.

Something I have found that gets me excited with Heart Of Dakota Curriculum is that each manuel begins to build the skills to prepare them for the next program. Colton wasn't quite ready for "Bigger" this year, but by next 2009-2010 he will be because of his work with "Beyond.

I love that, as a home educator I can choose my children's levels and their pace. I can meet them where they are rather than striving to make them fit where the "norm" says he should be. I would much rather work under his grade level and meet his cognitive skills then to constantly push to do more. Colton LOVES learning and he feels confident and successful.

Tweaking HOD To Make A Younger Program Fit An Older Child

Because my 12 year old is my son who excels artistically, he thrives in art and projects and some of those scheduled in "Beyond" would be too young for him. I am finding it very easy to fit Beyond to him. He still does the science portion with his younger brothers and is exposed to the Key Idea's, but then we add something simple to help make beef up those areas he's ready to move forward in.

This week my 6 & 8 year old are making star fish by cutting them out of construction paper and using a glue mixture of cereal to give them the texture a real sea star would have. Colton would have felt too old for this activity so we gave him something more age appropriate. We had him do a notebook page for his science notebook.

In addition to the science book in Beyond we got him a book from the library:

KEY IDEA "The Pilgrims were on a beach by the ocean. They may have seen ocean animals like the sea star. God made each animal in His creation very special."

One of my favorite parts of Heart Of Dakota is how it easily incorporates copywork. Colton loves to write, but at the beginning of this program he could not copy an entire poem. Not even a full paragraph. I am still getting him started, (I wrote the first paragraph) but he is getting stronger and better every week. I see him making such gains. Here is his poem,

"Maker Of Heaven And Earth"

I hope to take pics of the younger boys star fish and get them posted, but we are off to our co-op this morning!

Quiet On The Set!
One of my fondest memories in all the years I've taught at CHOSEN, was the year
we filmed commercials for our yearbook! What a BLAST we had! Taking that
experience, I have turned it into a DRAMA class of sorts! This semester we are
going to have a classroom full of props, A camcorder, and a weekly challenge to
see who can come up with the most creative commercials. We will break into
teams and you will be given the "Product" that you and your team must sell! We
will be mixing the skills of Drama with Marketing and Communication! Join us
this year as we have FUN learning together!

Lights..., Camera..., ACTION! (filmmaking)
This class is for our future film-makers! Each week you will be putting
together your own short movies! We will delve into different genre's...,
Fiction, Fantasy, Biography, Mystery and Humor. We will talk about what each of
these categories mean and then YOU will turn them into stories that you play out
on film! You will be given lots of freedom, (within guidelines) and surprise us
each week with your very own masterpieces. You will need a camcorder to
participate in this class. Hope to see you there!

Celebrate America, A Journey through the U.S. (2-3rd)
Election time really brings out the Patriotism in all of us! Come celebrate
this wonderful country of ours. We are going to learn all about American
Landmarks and Icons. Your student will memorize the Pledge Of Alliegience
while we learn about The United States Flag, The Pledge Of Allegiance, The
Liberty Bell, The Statue Of Liberty, the Declaration of Independence, The
White House and more! This class is HANDS ON! Each Icon has a Project for the
students to take home! Even our little ones can be in the patriotic spirit
with the upcoming election!
Supply Fee- $25

The "Spin" stops HERE! (9th-12)
With the election around the corner what better time to dig into our
candidates lives and find out about the issue's at hand. You are going to learn not to
base your decisions on what the media tells you is true, but how to research and
think through what YOU believe to be true! Your child will learn the
difference between democrat and republican. They will be required to watch
or listen to 30 minutes from a political discussion show as well as asked to
read the newspaper. Each week we will have deep discussions into the issue's
and find out how they line up with the Word of God. Our goal is to ignite a
fire for our children to take an active role in politics!