Weekly Update - October 29 - November 9, 2018

Again, I missed a week in posting a weekly update. 

But, we have been making progress.

History:

Megan has been studying the missionary Jim Elliot.  In the process, she has also been learning about the Aucas, South America, the Waodani, the Andes Mountains, animals native to the area, the climate of the area, and Ecuador.

Bible:

In New Testament studies, Megan has been reading and learning about the book of Hebrews.  She has also been reading about John the Baptist, the birth of Jesus, Simeon and Anna, the Magi, and Mary and Joseph fleeing to Egypt.

McGuffey:

Megan read three McGuffey stories in the last two weeks.  We do McGuffey daily, but each story takes several days as she rereads, does vocabulary, draws original artwork, writes narrations, answers questions, and does copywork. 

Literature:

Megan continues to read Miracle at Camp Friendship.  She has also learned about Owls, first and third person point of view, homophones, phases of the moon, and lizards.  Yes, all of that was in her literature study.

Megan finished When Will This Cruel War be Over and began reading Derwood, Inc. 

Word Building:

Megan has continued to progress in her learning of contractions and the months of the year. 

Science:

Megan finished the science workbook she had been studying and went back to reading about the Birds of the Air.  When she finishes that book she will be jumping into a special study about horses.

English:

Megan has continued to study about making words plural.

Math:

Megan has been learning more advanced place value, fractions, sequencing, Greatest Common Factor, and Factoring. I am proud of how hard she has been working in her math and the gains she has made.

Read Aloud:

We have been switching off our time between reading Anne of Green Gables and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.  She is enjoying both books immensely.  We just read the part in Anne of Green Gables where Anne dyes her hair green. Megan was laughing hysterically at that part. 

Things are going to be changing up a bit over the next few weeks as we dive back in to some delight-directed learning. 

Weekly Update - October 22-26, 2018

We actually completed a five day week! 

Some Megan Art in McGuffey

History:

Megan finished learning about Adoniram Judson and began to learn about the missionary, Jim Elliot.  She will also learn about Ecuador and the Waodani tribe. 

Bible:

In New Testament study, Megan began to study Paul's letter to the Hebrews.  She also had begun to read about the Birth of Jesus in her Illustrated Family Bible.

Megan's Art

McGuffey:

Megan spent the week studying the story "Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter."  She also has created some original artwork to go with the story.

A Megan Landscape

Literature:

Megan read three chapters in Miracle at Camp Friendship this week.  She has also been studying metaphors, similes, point of view, and personification. She has nearly finished When Will This Cruel War Be Over.  

 

Word Building:

Megan finished her first "spelling" test.  She got a perfect score, so I know dictation has been effective.  Eventually we will go back to alternating dictation and spelling, but she is doing well with the spelling program that is helping her with some phonetic rules.  She began her new workbook, which includes "ch" words and contractions. 

Science:

Megan continued to learn about accurate measurements.  She learned about why there needs to be standards in measurement.

English:

Megan is learning about the different ways to make words plural. 

Math:

Megan dived into more advanced multiplication, factoring, and prime numbers this week.  She needed some work to understand factoring, but I think she gets it now.  She will be venturing into GCF and reducing fractions in the next couple of weeks.  She also covered three more chapters in Life of Fred: Honey.

Read Aloud:

We read several more chapters of Anne of Green Gables this week, putting us at 64% through the book.  

Weekly Update - October 15-19

We had a four day week, and it was a bit stressed.  I got sick and struggled each day to function.  School happened, but I had limited participation due to illness.  On Friday, we skipped school entirely so I could pick up my glasses from the eye doctor, which is an hour away from our home.  But, we had a good time hanging out at Barnes and Nobles for an hour or so.

History:

Megan continued to study Adoniram Judson.  She also learned some of the history of Robert Fulton and his steamboat.  She learned about Myanmar; the climate, geography, natural resources, and the culture.  She will finish her study of Adoniram Judson next week.

Bible:

Megan read about the Poetry and Wisdom books as well as the Prophets in the Old Testament.  She learned about Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Job.  She read a bit about Amos. 

McGuffey:

Megan finished the story "More Stories about Little Birds."  She did a lot of copywork and drew pictures of various birds.  She began "Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter."

Literature:

Megan began reading the book Miracle at Camp Friendship, reading the first three chapters.   She is learning about point of view in her literature study, such as first person and third person.  She also played an alphabet game where she had to come up with a word for each letter of the alphabet having to do with a topic.  She thought that was a fun activity.

She is still reading When Will This Cruel War Be Over. 

 Word Building:

Megan continued to study "ge," and "dge," words as well as the days of the week.  She also began some plural word spellings, which include words where the spelling changes when it is plural. 

Science:

Science has been relegated to every other day.  This week Megan was learning about Celcius and Fahrenheit.  She also read about how gravity impacts the weight of things.

English:

Megan finished learning about different sentence types and alphabetizing.  This next weeks she will move on to reviewing and learning new skills in nouns.

Math:

I realized I forgot to update Math last week.  Megan has made a lot of progress in her math.  She has been reviewing fractions and ordinal numbers.  She has also been practicing her long division and is doing very well.  The constant review in Ace Math helps her to solidify her skills.  I am proud of her progress.  She will be introduced to some new skills in the coming weeks, and I am certain she is ready now.  She also conquered another couple chapters in Life of Fred Honey. 

 

Read Aloud:

We are continuing to read Anne of Green Gables in the mornings.  We read four chapters, which was pretty good considering my cold limited my ability to read aloud.  

Weekly Update - Crazy Week - October 8-12

School did not happen as normal last week.  And, I am perfectly fine with that reality.  My second grandson was born on Wednesday.

He was in the NICU for a couple of days, fighting low blood sugars because his mom is a type-one diabetic.  So, there was a lot of time spent up at the hospital.

Then, on Friday, we skipped school completely for eye exam day.  This year my little bookworm-in-training needed glasses.  We had avoided them last year, as she was borderline then, but this year the doctor felt that her near-sightedness was getting bad enough that she could use them.  If she was in school, she would have probably struggled to see the board or Power Points.  At home, she does a lot of reading, but she isn't straining her eyes to see, and that might have helped.

With school happening only sporadically, I did make a decision.  I changed up our routine a bit, because Megan seemed to be getting dragged down.  I noticed she had skipped some work, and I don't want her doing that in a rush to get through her day.

History:

Megan is taking a break from World History to study Adoniram Judson and Myanmar.  She is also learning a bit about ships in her lessons.  I find it interesting that a young Adoniram Judson was not a Christian despite growing up in a home where his father was a minister.  This delved into studies about Lazarus and the Rich Man as well as The Prodigal Son.    A break from normal studies seems to help Megan to refocus later. 

Bible:

In her New Testament study, Megan continued to learn about Paul's Letters to Phillip and Thessalonica.  She also read Daniel 10 and part of Daniel 11. 

McGuffey:

In McGuffey, Megan finished up "Stories about Birds" and worked on "More Stories about Birds."  Above is her drawing of a canary.

Literature:

Megan is learning about synonyms and antonyms as she prepares to start Miracle at Camp Friendship.  She is still reading When Will This Cruel War be Over for her independent reading.

Word Building:

We are taking a break from dictation for a few weeks and delving into some Word Building.  Megan and I love dictation, but variety sometimes helps.  Word Building deals with more than just spelling, but adds in some vocabulary and handwriting practice. It also helps to reinforce words through repetition and word groups.  Last week she studied words that has the "o" before "r" sound, such as storm and forty.  This week she is reviewing "dge" words as well as the days of the week.  It's not her favorite, but she can work independently.

Science:

In science, we paused Megan's study of birds to focus on learning about length, weight, temperature, and time.  We will go back to birds when she finishes this study.  Doing two different studies at one time was getting confusing. 

English:

We set aside the Language Lessons briefly to study dictionary skills and alphabetical order.  I realized a couple weeks ago that Megan had not gotten much practical use in using a dictionary for awhile because we were using dictionary.com too often.  It's easy to rely on technology and not use real books.  Because of this, I made the switch and Megan is refreshing skills she hasn't used for awhile.

Read Aloud:

We are loving Anne of Green Gables.  We didn't get as much read aloud time in last week as we would have liked.  We stopped at chapter nine.  But Anne and Megan are quite similar in temperaments and chattiness. 

Weekly Check-Up: September 17-21

It was a busy week, with experiments and drawing and a lot of reading.  We even had a cool experience in meeting a local children's author!

On Thursday evening we went to our local library and got to meet Shannon Anderson, a local teacher and author.  Megan thought meeting an actual author was cool, even if her books are for a younger target audience.  We love books, so it is cool to meet someone published!

We got a lot done this week, even with a couple days where we were delayed in getting started.

History:

Megan began learning about Jonah and Ninevah.  She began to delve into Babylon, Jeremiah's prophecies, and Nebuchadnezzar.  She read the book of Jonah in the Bible and is continuing in the book, Within the Palace Gates, which is a story about Nehemiah.

Bible:

In Bible, Megan read about Ninevah and Judah.  In New Testament, Megan learned more about Paul's letter to Colosse.

Science:

Megan worked on her science experiment, which included soaking a raw egg in vinegar for three days.  She is currently soaking that same egg in Corn Syrup for an additional three days.  This is teaching her about eggs and how baby birds survive and grow before hatching.  She also began studying baby pigeons and sketched some local birds.

Poetry:

This week, Megan studied Robert Frost's poem, Dust of the Snow, and began to paint a snowy landscape.

McGuffey:

In McGuffey, Megan read and learned about turtles, writing facts about turtles and sketching one in her notebook.  She then began reading a story called "The Quarrelsome Roosters."

Language Lessons:

Megan reviewed subjects and predicates as well as complete and incomplete sentences.

Literature:

Megan finished reading My Father's Dragon.  She then began to read The Bridge.  She also learned about the character traits Love, Compassion, and Tolerance.  She touched on emotions displayed in My Father's Dragon.  When she began The Bridge, she studied the setting and began to evaluate the moods displayed in the book.  In her independent reading, she is reading the mystery, The Scripture Sleuth.

Read Aloud:

In our read aloud time, we are still making our way through The Penderwicks at Last.  

Dictation:

Megan only passed one dictation.  We have slowed down in our progress, as the passages begin to progress in difficulty and length.  I am allowing for two days copywork for each passage before we do the day of dictation.

Math:

Megan continued to review in Ace Math.  She will soon be jumping into new concepts, but I have noticed that the review is helping her so much.  Her error rate has dropped drastically.  Often, she doesn't miss any.  This is building her confidence greatly and helping mathematical thinking to come to her more naturally.

In Life of Fred: Goldfish, Megan finished chapters 9, 10, and 11.  She continued to learn about review, sequencing, and algebraic expressions.  She reviewed some multiplication and geometry problems, with real-life examples.   She also worked on some word problems involving money and measurement.  I love that Life of Fred, while funny and fantastical, also uses a lot of scenarios that require the student to think about the math they are doing.  It isn't all by rote. 

Piano:

Megan began piano once again, already getting assigned a Christmas song for the recital in December... a Chimpmunk's Christmas Song.

Weekly Checkup - September 10-14, 2018

 Weekly Checkup

September 10-14, 2018

This week went quickly.  We didn't do school on Monday as there were appointments.  But, that didn't stop my daughter from being such a good help with her nephew while we were in the waiting room.

On Tuesday, we dove back into our studies... both of us.  My college classes continue, and I work steadily beside my girl. It is working well for us so far this year.


Here's a breakdown of my Meggy's week:

History:  

Megan is continuing to record the prophecies and fulfillments of Christ.  This week was about Christ coming out of Galilee. She is also reading about Assyria and the Assyrian King, Sennacherib.  She finished the book, God King, and began to read the book of Jonah in the Bible.  She continued to read the book, Palace Gates.

Bible:

This week Megan read about Hezekiah and Josiah in The Illustrated Family Bible.  In her New Testament study, she also read about Paul writing to the churches of Ephesus and Colosse. 

Science:

Megan is studying the book Birds of the Air in science.  This week she learned about how birds sing and the different types of nests they build.     Last week, she began a book where she will draw different kinds of birds over the next few weeks.

Poetry:

Megan is studying the poem Once by the Pacific by Robert Frost.  This week she painted an ocean with whitecaps.  (I didn't get a picture.)

McGuffey:

Megan is studying the 48th lesson in the Second McGuffey Reader (original), Stories About the Monkey.   She researched facts about monkeys, drew a monkey picture, answered questions, looked up vocabulary words from the story, and wrote original sentences.

Language Lessons:

In Megan's Language Lessons this week, she first reviewed Capitalization.  She reviewed syllables. Then she dived in to learning about Haiku.  She loves using Language Lessons, because it isn't drill and kill and she gets to write more. 

Literature:

In the beginning of the week, Megan finished up a book project over the book Five Smooth Stones.  She then dived into the next genre, Fantasy.  She will be reading My Father's Dragon and The Bridge for this genre.  She began My Father's Dragon on Wednesday. Her study has her searching out different moods in the book as well as differentiating between realistic and unrealistic aspects in the story.

Having a literature focus, I have assigned extra reading every day. She also finished up Penguin Puzzle in her extra reading and began Scripture Sleuth.

Read Aloud:

We finished up Penderwicks in Spring, which broke our hearts.  It was the best one so far.  We began The Penderwicks at Last.

Dictation:

Megan has been completing her dictation as copywork for a day or two before we do the actual dictation.  I like this pattern as she learns the passage much better and has less repeating due to less errors.  The dictation passages are listed in the back of the Heart of Dakota guide and are taken from Dictation Day by Day: Book One by Kate Van Wagenen.  Megan is on Level 4, passage thirty nine. 

Math:

Megan is using two different math curriculum at this time.  She is using ACE Math and Life of Fred at this time.  I really want to strengthen her skills.  We are still doing some review, making sure the skills are strong before we dive into new material. 

In Life of Fred Goldfish, Meg read chapters 7 and 8, which covered sequencing, algebraic concepts, polygons, and perimeter.

In Ace Math, she practiced place value, multiplication and division concepts, expanded form, and fractions.  She complained at first about going to a "drill and kill" program, but she is changing her attitude.  She is understanding so much better and her confidence is growing as she does well on the problems.

Piano:

Megan has practiced a few times.  Her lessons begin again next Monday. 

This was our homeschool week.  Sometimes I wonder if we are doing enough, especially when she completes her entire day in a few hours.  As I go back through the week and actually type all that she has accomplished, I am surprised.  It is definitely a full schedule with a lot of variety in her learning. 

Twenty-Three Days Into Our School Year

We have completed twenty-three days of school.  So far, this year has flowed rather smoothly.  At first, it was taking a LONG time to get through the school days.  But, in the last couple of weeks, a rhythm developed, and my girl is finishing her work for the day in 3-4 hours.

We have been reading aloud regularly, which is often the first thing to go when life gets busy.  I have had a much easier time blending homeschooling with college classes. And with my new grandson due in the next month, helping my daughter with my first grandson has been a treat!

I have a strong literary focus this year in our homeschool.  Perhaps it was the inspiration of Sarah Mackenzie and her book, The Read-Aloud Family.  Perhaps it was reviewing Sally and Clay Clarkson's book, Educating the Whole-Hearted Child.  Either way, I dropped our Heart of Dakota to half-time so I could add more literature and some extra math.

My girl is working diligently, and she is loving the extra literature.  We are both such bookworms that extra reading is a delight.  Yes, Heart of Dakota is a literature-based curriculum, but I have found that sometimes the emphasis on history can feel like overload after awhile, taking away the joy of reading other things.  I am using a lot of Heart of Dakota's Drawn Into The Heart of Reading (DITHOR) this year.  I love that I can choose the literature.  Over the next couple of years I will mix DITHOR and Ace's Literature and Creative Writing. 

I plan to begin weekly updates.  I don't always, with college classes and busy lives, get to post as often as I used to when the older girls were home.  I was looking at some of my older posts, and I loved the times I posted weekly updates.  It was so awesome to look back at the things we worked on and the lessons learned. 

When I kept the weekly updates, I more diligently recorded the art work, what we were learning, the adventures, the ups as well as the downs.  I was more diligent about taking pictures of what we did.  It was such a great record of our homeschool, and a glimpse into our lives.  I loved looking back!  It even helped me with planning what I wanted to do for my youngest girl when I see what I loved and what I hated in the past.

Here's to the more recording of the adventure of Sixth Grade!

Welcome to Sixth Grade

And so, we have reached the first day of sixth grade.  This beautiful girl has never been to public school.  She has been homeschooled since day one.  And now we are starting what, in our area, is "Middle School."

This year is usually stressful for students in public school.  It's the first year of switching classes for every subject.  It's the first time using lockers.  From what I remember of my older girls when they were in public school, it was a year of intense homework.  I remember saying, "I think every teacher believes their class is the only one the child has."  It was not uncommon for them to have hours and hours of homework, often going well past bedtime.

And, other than causing a lot of stress, it was often unnecessary.  Now that I have been homeschooling for a number of years, and have researched how children learn, the massive amount of homework only fulfilled the purpose of seeing if the child could handle the stress.

Homeschooling sixth grade is not like that.  Yes, the workload increases yearly.  The difficulty grows.  But, children are meant to learn line upon line, precept upon precept, slowly and steadily.  Occasionally there will be giant leaps in skills.  In between first and second grade, the girl that is now in sixth grade jumped several reading levels in one summer just because she read all the time.  For the most part, however, steady growth is best.  Stressing out a child until they are exhausted or in tears doesn't promote learning.

This year, my daughter is continuing in Heart of Dakota, Creation to Christ.  Last year, she finished up unit 12 before we stopped for the year.  She will use the program, with extensions, at half-pace to complete the year of history, bible, and science.  I am keeping her half-speed so that she can focus on some other skills.  I have typing planned, though she can't begin it until we get our computer monitor repaired or replaced.  I also want to focus on reading a lot of really great books.

So, here are our plans for sixth grade:  (All are subject to change, if they don't work out for us.)

Math:   Math is always difficult for my girl.  She struggles.  I am using a mixture of things.  She does math twice a day.  I split it up so she isn't overwhelmed.  We are using Ace Paces math, Life of Fred, and Easy Peasy Math.  I will also use some Khan Academy videos for extra explanations when needed.  Ace has so much practice that, once my daughter has mastered a concept, I may skip some problems.  I have noticed, however, that she understands the explanations very well.  We have used many other things, and much of it brought her to tears or it wasn't enough practice for her.  With the games on Easy Peasy and the stories in Life of Fred, the concepts stick more.

English:  Grammar....  Charlotte Mason liked to wait until a child was a bit older before she introduced grammar.  Personally, I introduced it much earlier through the years, and it went well.  My youngest just isn't retaining as I would like with the traditional methods.  So, I am taking a break.  We are using Queen's Language Lessons this year.  I do have an Ace Pace or two mixed in a very slow way where the concepts are not crammed with three or four pages per day.  I may continue onto next year, depending on her retention.  A more gentle year of grammar, mixed with copywork and picture studies helped one of my older daughters.  When we went back to grammar study in a more serious way, her brain had matured and she had spent a year approaching grammar gently and with more writing and less drill. 

Good grammar skills are important for writing, but many times these skills are somewhat picked up when a child is well read.  For some students, this is enough.  For others, they need more structure.  For me, I want to see the grammar study work its way into writing.  I want a steady build, but sometimes we hit a wall.  I have learned that when we hit a wall, pull back and take some time to let the brain mature.  In the meantime, we are going to work on some writing.

Spelling:  We don't do a formal spelling program.  Instead, we do the dictation that is located in the back of the Heart of Dakota guides.  Much more than spelling, it works on grammar, sentence structure, and grammar also.  It is very effective.

Literature:  I use several things for literature.  First, the history and science have a ton of literature as Heart of Dakota uses living books.  I am also using Heart of Dakota's Drawn into the Heart of Reading.  I rotate that with Ace's Literature and Creative Writing.  I also really like Easy Peasy's writing lessons and may use some of them.

Writing:  Coinciding with literature, Ace's Literature and Creative Writing contains a lot of writing instruction.  Also, Creation to Christ teaches how to write written narrations, teaching about how to write effectively about the history reading completed.  Probably my favorite writing materials that I use are the McGuffey readers.  More than just a reader, when used effectively, these little gems contain spelling, vocabulary, copywork, narration, and so much more.  I learned so many ideas about how to utilize the McGuffey's from Sherry Hayes at Mom Delights.  They really are like a potent multivitamin for the mind, and only take a few minutes per day.

History and Science:  Heart of Dakota's Creation to Christ holds the majority of these lessons.  This also includes Bible and Geography.

Music: Megan will begin once again her piano lessons in September.  She spent the summer participating in the musical, Newsies.  I also plan to add in music once a week from Easy Peasy.  The lessons are fun and engaging.  Again, I have to wait until I have repaired or replaced my computer monitor.

Art:  Heart of Dakota's Creation to Christ has Megan painting a scene once a week, bringing Robert Frost poetry to life.   She also will be drawing with Draw and Write through History, drawing in her science, and illustration some of her McGuffey.  Art is central for my girl.  She is naturally artistic.

Typing:  Meg will be using Typing Instructor for Kids when the computer monitor is repaired or replaced.

These are the plans for the sixth grade.  We are looking forward to an exciting year.

Christians with Courage - A Review

My daughter, Laura, loves missionary stories.  She asks for them.  She feels called to missionary work.  Wherever God takes her, I love filling her heart and mind with stories of famous Christians.  I can't think of a better way to give her Godly heroes.

Laura will soon be reading Christians with Courage by Ruth Johnson Jay.  I just finished the book, and it touched my heart.  Christians with Courage is a novel containing biographical sketches of 14 heroes of the Christian faith.  These men all contributed to furthering the Gospel in a mighty way.  Their lives were full of adventures and trials as they sought to share the Gospel. We get to catch a glimpse of men such as Hudson Taylor, William Booth, John Wesley, Billy Sunday, and more.

In the very first chapter, about Hudson Taylor, discusses how Mr. Taylor wasn't a Christian despite his family following Christ.  The story is told of his sister prayed for her brother three times per day and decided that she wouldn't cease praying until he gave his life to Christ.  Hudson Taylor's mother decided to lock herself in her room, determined to pray until she knew that her prayers for her wayward son were answered.  He became a Christian that day.

These are the types of stories that fill my heart with joy and faith.  I love that these stories are being read by my daughter at an age when she is impressionable and longing to learn more of God.  Having a missions focus for the world is important.  With all the worldviews in the world, I want my daughter to have a view of Christians throughout history and in different places around the world. 

Could You Pray This Prayer?

While reading aloud Elisabeth Elliot: Joyful Surrender to my daughters today, I came across a prayer that Elisabeth copied into her Bible.  She had copied it from a biography written about Betty and John Stam, missionaries to China that were killed in the Communist Revolution.  The story of the Stams inspired many to become missionaries, including Elisabeth Elliot. 

John and Betty Stam

Elisabeth Elliot had actually met Betty Stam and Betty's parents as a child, when Elisabeth's parents hosted the missionaries at their home.  Elisabeth was touched by the tragic death of Betty and her husband John and the story of their martyrdom.  She copied this prayer into her Bible when she was only a young girl:

"Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept Thy will for my life.  I give myself, my life, my all utterly to Thee to be Thine, forever.  Fill me and seal me with Thy Holy Spirit.  Use me as Thou wilt, work out Thy whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever."

Can we say that same prayer?

Could we say it knowing that the future might be like the Stam's?  Could we say it knowing that we might have to endure what Elisabeth Elliot herself endured, the loss of her husband Jim Elliot to the Auca Indians of Ecuador?

Neither the Stams nor the young Elisabeth knew what God's plans were when they wrote those words.  And yet, I don't believe they would have changed that prayer or their devotion to serve Christ. 

The Fugitive King - A Review

I chose the Fugitive King for Laura to read because it looked adventurous.  It's an adventure story about David, before he was King of Israel.  David the shepherd boy, David the warrior, David the harp player, David the fugitive... all are portrayed in this wonderful story by Elizabeth Rice Hanford.

As I always do, I read the story before Laura.  In fact, Laura hasn't even read it yet.  I wanted to give a review of this book because it was really a neat book.  I was a little afraid it would be boring or too advanced.  What I found was a wonderful retelling of the story of David.  While reading the story of David in the Bible is best, this story put it all together in a format that mixes fiction with Scripture.  The author added dialogue and imaginative descriptions not found in Scripture, making this a work of fiction. The result is an interesting exploration of King David's life from his early teenage years until he became King.

The book highlights David's relationship with God, his friendship with Jonathon, as well as his defense of King Saul, even when running for his life from Saul.  Most of us, in this day and age, have a hard time understanding showing mercy over and over to someone that is trying to kill you.  Yet, David continually showed mercy and respect over and over to Saul for being God's anointed, even to the point of sparing his life and not letting his soldiers take Saul's life.

I think Laura will enjoy this book.  We are working hard this year to build certain skills that we have not focused on as much in the last couple of years.  Reading for more than enjoyment, reading for application and information, are skills that Laura hasn't used and built much.  She can often tell me highlights of the story, but not truly get in depth.  While we are reading a lot for enjoyment and as books to highlight certain studies we are doing in history or science, The Fugitive King is one of the books I have scheduled for Laura that have study guides with them to teach her to look more in depth when she reads a story. 

The guides will teach Laura about what protagonists and a antagonists are.  She will study maps of the areas where many of the events in David's life take place.  She will do some descriptive writing work as she learns about contrast paragraphs and short essays.  She will learn what a covenant is when she studies David and Jonathon's friendship.  She will learn what an ephod was in the Old Testament.  She will also learn about shepherding and sheep, including different classifications of sheep in the Middle East.  All of these studies make one book more of a unit study than just a quick reading of a story for enjoyment.  I'm even thinking of adding a movie about King David to the study, but I will need to find one acceptable.

I'm trying not to add too much to any of my children's studies.  It's easy to get excited about a topic and over-schedule them.  The Fugitive King looks to be a fun adventure, though, that we will enjoy.