I'm blogging my way through our four year curriculum program so I don't forget everything that worked for us! Please feel free to use what works for your family and share in the comments anything you would add. For more on Classically Catholic Memory go here.
Religion
This week's religion memory work was on the six laws of the Church, so we made a paper wheel book of the laws. You can grab a free template to print at Homeschool Share. Just print the large wheels on page four and five. I abbreviated the laws for the wheel, but it'd also be a good idea to have the kids copy them word for word to help with memorization.
You can also check out what Family Catechism has to offer on this topic!
Latin
We are learning the Sanctus by watching and listening to this version on youtube.
History
Lesson 1
History this week is on the Scientific Revolution and The Enlightenment, which influenced the French and American Revolutions. Whew, that's a lot to try to get a 5 and 7 year old to digest and it's really hard to find books on these topics that don't try to make the Church look like a bunch of oppressive idiots. Nicholas Copernicus: The Earth is a Plant is what we used, but you'll still have to do some explaining. Basically, the Church was seeing some conflicts between how they were interpreting the Bible's account of the solar system (like certain passages in Psalms which talk about how "the earth stands still") and what scientists were discovering. They wanted to be sure they could reconcile the two before making official statements and they needed time to do that.
Some other books with activities you can dive into are Isaac Newton and Physics for Kids: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities and Galileo for Kids: His Life and Ideas, 25 Activities.
Some other books with activities you can dive into are Isaac Newton and Physics for Kids: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities and Galileo for Kids: His Life and Ideas, 25 Activities.
For a quick and easy lesson on the French and American Revolutions we watched an episode of Liberty's Kids on Lafayette part 1 and part 2. Yep, that's it... I left it to the TV. P.S. You can buy the entire Liberty's Kids series on DVD for only $5-$10!
We are moving on from the chemistry realm into physics! Woo-hoo! I'm excited to start talking about something other than matter.
Lesson 1
To start we did an introductory lesson on energy. You'll need...
First we read Energy is Everywhere and learned that energy is everywhere. Then we did some of the activities that are suggested in the CCM Teacher Text. For example, we rolled a ball to knock over an empty 2 liter bottle and talked about how that relates to energy...
And we observed a toaster to discuss how there are different ways to get energy.
Then we read Energy Makes things Happen.
Lesson 2
Lesson number two on energy taught the kids the difference between potential and kinetic energy. Grab a ramp and lots of balls!
First we dropped balls from mid air to see the difference between potential energy (ball raised up) and kinetic energy (ball falling). We also flung rubber bands to demonstrate the two kinds of energy.
Next we rolled the balls down ramps. Elevating the ramp to different angles and using balls of different densities allowed us to discovered all kinds of fun things about kinetic energy! Details for how to walk your kiddos through these activities are in your Teacher Text.
Finally I passed the lesson over to Bill Nye and the kids watched his episode on Energy.
Math
Lesson 1
Multiples of 10 this week! We used dimes to review them, followed by money questions from mom. Things like, "How many dimes do you need to get a dollar?" Or "How many dimes do you need to buy a $0.70 toy?"
Lesson 2
We also used our hands to count out the multiples of 10. I think you can figure out how to do this one.
Timeline
Lesson 1
To have fun with our timeline memory work this week I put together a word search using a free word search generator from A to Z Teacher Stuff. Unfortunately I couldn't link to the one I made, but it is very easy to make one yourself.
I gave Bean the word search with no word bank and then told her things like "Leif _______ and the ______." She had to figure out the blanks and then find them in the word search (Erickson and Vikings in this case.) This would be something fun to do in a co-op setting if you had the kids race!
Lesson 2
And once again, pictures of each timeline card went into our timeline book.
Geography
Since May we have been studying one state per week to go along with our study of North American geography. Here are the states I've blogged about so far. (Um, none yet.) You could pick one thing from each lesson or just do something fun about a few states each week. I'll keep linking to the state studies as we move through our Journey Across America!
Iowa
Missouri
Arkansas
Louisiana
Texas
Oklahoma
Kansas
Nebraska
Great Words I
This week we began memorizing "Pocahontas" by Rosemary Carr Benet. We will continue to memorize it until the end of the year. That's a long time.
I don't know of any picture books of the actual poem, but as you memorize it you could do several things to learn about Pocahontas. Check out a book on her, watch the Disney movie (maybe, I don't know if it's any good, I've never seen it), or check out this Pinterest board for snack and craft ideas.
