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
For the next two weeks the kiddos are memorizing the 10 Commandments. For an exhaustive list of ideas for learning about them check out The Catholic Toolbox.
Lesson 1
We made a simple 10 Commandments tablet out of brown constructions paper and then the kids wrote down the first 5 commandments on the left side of the booklet and next week they will write down the second 5 commandments on the right side.
While doing the craft they listened to Keep the Rules from Angel Food. P.S. I love this one!
Lesson 2
You can also check out what Family Catechism has to say on this topic as well.
Latin
We are learning the Anima Christi by listening to a few different versions on youtube.
History
Lesson 1:
It was all things Industrial Revolution and inventors this week. We read Kids During the Industrial Revolution and then perused Hooray or Inventors (review this one before you pass it to your kids) and The Industrial Revolution.
Kevin also did his dad-teaching-history-thing and explained how technology is good, but we don't want to sacrifice humans for efficiency talk.
Lesson 2
Then mom did her mom-doing-crafts-thing and had the kids come up with their own invention and draw out a prototype. Pal would like to invent a flying car (and asked if he could put some wings on our new van to test it out) and Bean will be making a Wild Kratts inspired Creature Power Suit.
Kevin also did his dad-teaching-history-thing and explained how technology is good, but we don't want to sacrifice humans for efficiency talk.
Lesson 2
Then mom did her mom-doing-crafts-thing and had the kids come up with their own invention and draw out a prototype. Pal would like to invent a flying car (and asked if he could put some wings on our new van to test it out) and Bean will be making a Wild Kratts inspired Creature Power Suit.
Science
For the next three weeks will be memorizing one of Newton's laws of motion each week. There are three fun videos you can watch on various aspects of the laws. Here's what I suggest, but you can watch them in any order you'd like :).
Week 15: The Magic School Bus Plays Ball
Week 16: Bill Nye Momentum
Week 17: Bill Nye Motion
I compacted this week's science demonstrations into one lesson because it's a pretty straightforward concept. Here are the supplies we used:
First we used the balls for the opening discussion on motion and force by rolling one ball on a blanket and another ball on our "hardwood" floors (it's pergo).
Then we did activity 1 in the Teacher Text. This involved abruptly stopping a moving object and allowing the other objects to go flying off of it. (You can't see it but there are books on the highchair, not a baby... yes my son is wearing his PJs... don't your kids homeschool in PJs sometimes?)
Finally instead of doing activity 3, which is a simple version of the tablecloth trick, we watched this video of the real deal. I wasn't brave enough to let me kids try it.
Then we watched this quick demonstration on Newton's First Law of Motion.
Math
Lesson 1
To demonstrate the formula for the area of a triangle we did a worksheet from Math Worksheets 4 Kids.
Lesson 2
And we played an area of a triangle online game at Fact Monster. I gave Bean a calculator to use for the problems with bigger numbers.
Timeline
Lesson 1
Missing Timeline Card was the name of the game this week. It's pretty simple. The cards are laid out in order on a table. One child closes their eyes while another child or adult removes one card from the sequence and squeezes the rest of the cards together so the missing card is not apparent. The child opens their eyes and determines where the missing card belongs and identifies the name of the card. In this case "The Alamo, the Republic of Texas, and the Mexican War" is missing.
Lesson 2
And our timeline book gained 8 new events this week.
Geography
Now that we have memorized all of the countries in North America, we are focusing on memorizing our continent's major geographical features. I'm letting our Journey Across America continue to be the supplemental fun on this one, as I point out these features as we study the states they reside in.
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 the books Pocahontas a Life in Two Worlds or Pocahontas, 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.
