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 we transition from Catechism memory work to Scripture memory work. Each week I plan on creating a worksheet for my kids to copy the verse to help with memory and handwriting. You can easily create your own at Worksheet Works.
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| Size 12 font worked for this worksheet. |
We are learning the Anima Christi by listening to a few different versions on youtube. I couldn't find a simple song version I liked with lyrics. Do you know of one?
History
Lesson 1:
Kevin read the kids Struggle for a Continent: The French and Indian Wars. It's fairly long for a picture book, so they spent two nights reading it. Fortunately it is full of colorful pictures and great information, which kept the kids engaged!
Lesson 2:
My latest "Do we really have time for this?" project is the addition of American Girl Doll Unit Studies. As we begin to study American history I can't think of a better way to make it come alive than reading and studying history through fiction. This is a Bean only project however, Pal is too young... and I don't think I could convince him to get into a series about a bunch of girls. Anybody know of a similar series for boys?
For the last two weeks we studied Kaya with a lapbook, craft, food, games, and tons of books. Although her tribe, the Nez Perce, would not have fought in the French and Indian War, I thought it was still a fitting time to learn about Native Americans. You can check out the entire unit here.
For the last two weeks we studied Kaya with a lapbook, craft, food, games, and tons of books. Although her tribe, the Nez Perce, would not have fought in the French and Indian War, I thought it was still a fitting time to learn about Native Americans. You can check out the entire unit here.
Science
Lesson 1
Supplies needed:
However... the lesson was another utter fail in the science department.
We were supposed to begin our study of thermal energy by observing how a chunk of clay can change the temperature of water. To start you put the clay in hot water then, move it to cold water and see how it raises the temperature of the cold water. Well, my clay just turned to goop in the hot water and thus was untransferable to the cold water.
It did go back to a malleable clay once it cooled down to room temperature, but at that point I was already out a travel mug (which probably hadn't been used in 4 years) and patience. The clay we used is the kind that never dries out, so maybe try using clay that can dry out?
Before the clay mishap, I did pull off a complicated demonstration of the difference between ice melting at room temperature vs in a cup of warm water.
And I was impressed when I asked if anyone had any guesses about what thermal energy might mean, and Bean responded "Does it have anything to do with a thermometer?"
Finally we tried watching a Magic School bus on energy, but I realized that the DVD is for next week on electricity. Oops. Homeschool mishap.
Lesson 2
You'll need:
And fail again. It was a rough week in science. We were supposed to do a demonstration that is basically the same as a week 8 demonstration that uses hot water and dyed cold water. The convection demonstration happened so fast that the kids couldn't really see it. So it kind of worked, but not really.
And then we attempted another go at demonstrating convection using fire and a paper spiral. The paper should have started to spiral while being held over the heat. No dice. I tried cutting the spiral bigger and smaller, still no dice. I think I needed a bigger flame, or maybe doing it over the toaster or space heater would have been better?
We did pull off the complicated foot-on-foil-foot-on-carpet demonstration to show conduction! Make sure your kids wear socks to warm their feet up first. Then have them take the socks off and stand on the foil and carpet right away. If they already have cold feet they won't feel much of a difference.
Well, my one redeeming factor is the Ted Ed video we watched to finish up this lesson. Sometimes you find the perfect video for your topic, and this is it. Basically it said everything I was trying to show!
Math
Lesson 1
This week we played a drawing-out-of-a-bag game. I had Bean write out the multiples of 8, 9, 10, and 11 on little squares for four players. Then we put the squares into a bag and each player was assigned a set of multiples to be searching for. We took turns drawing out one number at a time, hoping to get a number that belonged in our set. If the number belonged in our set, we kept it, if it didn't, we put it back. The bag went around the circle until someone found all of their multiples. We played with four players. It took forever. Play with two.
We played Pumpkin Multiples online with the multiples of 11. I'll remember to play this one next year around Halloween.
Timeline
Lesson 1
For timeline this week we had a little Scrabble challenge. The kids recited for me the first card for the week, then we picked one word from the phrase and built it with scrabble tiles. Then they told me the next card and we picked one word from the phrase to add to the first word. We continued until one word from all eight cards has been added to the board. Yes, I helped with spelling.
It also happened that it was St. Thomas Aquinas' Feast Day during the week we added him to the timeline. So we had a special star lunch in honor of him.
Lesson 2
More pictures went into our timeline book this week.
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 (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!
Pierre, South Dakota
Bismarck, North Carolina
Helena, Montana
Boise, Idaho
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Denver, Colorado
Salt Lake City, Utah
Great Words I
We continued memorizing "Pocahontas" by Rosemary Carr Benet this week.
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.
