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
At Worksheet Works I created printing worksheets for the kids so they could practice their handwriting and learn their memory work!
Latin
We are learning the Anima Christi by listening to a few different versions on youtube.
History
This week's history sentence takes a look at the American Revolution and George Washington. This of course necessitated a George Washington craft complete with a cotton ball wig from DLTK-Kids. Once we had a grasp on President Washington's hair, we read George vs. George to understand him as a leader.
Other books in our studies this week included Revolutionary War on Wednesday and it's Nonfiction Companion: American Revolution, and Can't You Make Them Behave King George? The Timeline of the Revolutionary War was cool, but too much for my 7 and 5 year old. And I continued to score big points in the Best-Mom-Ever category by letting the kids watch three fitting episodes of Liberty's Kids: The Shot Heard Round the World, Bunker Hill, and Across the Delaware. Or you can watch this School House Rock song that pretty much sums up the entire history sentence.
Science
Here it is, your one week on sound, so listen up. (Sorry about that.)
Lesson 1
The supplies we used for lesson one are:
First we read All About Sound and then we did a few demonstrations on sound begin caused by vibrations. The Rookie book suggested a demonstration with a ruler...
and the CCM Teacher Text gives instructions for one using a tuning fork. (They suggest an optional percussion hammer, it is completely unnecessary.)
Lesson 2
In our next lesson we looked at sound as a wave and how sound works through mediums. Activity 6 in the Teacher Text gives instructions for a demonstration on sound in a medium, by using a glass and rubber band. My kids couldn't tell the difference between the band being plucked with the glass next to their ear versus it being plucked while the glass was pressed against their ear. Maybe they need their hearing checked, but it didn't work for us.
However, activity 4 was thoroughly enjoyed. Learning about sound waves by playing with dominoes, what's not to love?
Then we watched a Bill Nye episode on Sound. Bill Nye episodes always end with an educational music video that is set to a pop song, but my kids never understand this because we don't listen secular stations on the radio. According to Bean, this episode's song, Sound is a Vibe, set to I will Survive, is sung by girls who are dressed immodestly. I agree. Feel free to skip the last few minutes.
Math
We used a worksheet from Math Worksheets 4 Kids to help us understand this week's memory work on the area of a rectangle.
There are some interactive games online you can use to review perimeter (week 12) and learn area. Check out Finding Area and Perimeter and Party Designer (for older kids) from Math Playground for some additional fun.
Timeline
Lesson 1
Our timeline game was awesome this week. Simply put, we played Catch Phrase with this week's cards for the phrases. Since it was just Bean and me playing we passed the disc back and forth, and picked up a new card from a pile of cards between us when the disc came our way. Our goal was to work as a team and guess all 8 cards before the timer ran out. It took about four tries to get it.
This would be a exciting game to play in a co-op setting if you put 2-3 weeks worth of cards in the pile for review and played the game according to the standard rules. We will definitely be pulling this game out again soon!
Lesson 2
Our timeline book is getting quite full! Eight more images were added this week.
Geography
We finished up memorizing the countries in North America with a final group of Central American countries. The Kingfisher Student Atlas of North America served as our guide. I wasn't crazy about this atlas because they lumped several countries together instead of giving them each their own page, but it was the best that I could find without getting a 60 page book on each individual country.
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, but I hear it's not at all accurate), or check out this Pinterest board for snack and craft ideas.
