Homeschool Update: July/August 2022

We have started the new school year, and I'll be posting about that at the end of this month, but in the meantime, here is a round-up of what we did during our summer session. 

Poetry & Art Appreciation 

We continued reading Talking to the Sun: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems for Young People selected and introduced by Kenneth Koch and Kate Farrell, and finished the entire book. 

Music

The girls practiced singing most Friday nights this summer. 

English

M. diagrammed a sentence from Rex Barks every day all summer. C. started taking one sentence per day and identifying its parts of speech.

Science 

The girls watched all the remaining episodes of Eyewitness. 

History 

M. continued working on history through the summer. She covered from 1865  to around 1900, using a variety of sources.   

Math

Math also continued all summer. M. worked on Challenging Word Problems 3 and C. worked on Singapore Primary Mathematics 2B. E. learned to count to 100 on the soroban. 

Art 

M. drew illustrations of various historical figures to accompany narrations. All three girls made birthday cards for Daddy and for a friend with a summer birthday. M. also did lots of drawing on her own. 

Physical Education 

The girls went to the pool almost every week, took walks, rode bikes, and went to playgrounds.

Homeschool Update: June 2022

We are fully in summer mode here now. We began the month in North Carolina visiting one side of the family and ended the month in New York with the other side, so schoolwork was sporadic at best, but here is what we did.

Poetry & Art Appreciation 

For the summer, we're reading poetry and looking at paintings in Talking to the Sun: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems for Young People selected and introduced by Kenneth Koch and Kate Farrell. In June, we covered the first two sections: Hymn to the Sun and Come Unto These Yellow Sands. 

Music

The girls learned to sing "America the Beautiful" and practiced piano and recorder daily when we were home. 

English

C. finished Grammarland. 

M. continued doing a daily sentence diagram from Rex Barks. She was working on sections 3-2 and 3-3 in June. 

We read aloud The Narrow Passage by Oliver Butterworth.  

Science 

For the summer, the girls are watching Eyewitness Videos for science. They have watched the first 8 episodes so far: "Cat," "Fish," "Horse," "Dog," "Jungle," "Bird," "Amphibian," and "Insect."

History 

M. attended Little House on the Prairie Camp at the home of a fellow homeschool mom. To prepare for the experience, she came up with a prairie backstory for herself in which her name was Mary Ellen O'Keefe. At camp, she learned to wash clothes in the wash tub, sew, churn buttermilk, make bread, bake cookies, make an autograph book, and she acted in a skit. 

She read Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder and The King's Beard by Leonard Wibberley. She has also been watching Victorian Farm.  

Math

C. continued working on multiplication in Singapore Primary Mathematics 2B and started some division.  

M. worked on Challenging Word Problems, algebra basics on Khan Academy, and continued reading Life of Fred: Liver. 

Art 

In addition to M.'s handicrafts at camp, the girls did some summer-themed 3-D coloring pages from Krokotak.com and they made birthday cards for Aunt B.  

Physical Education 

The girls went to the pool twice in June. They also ride bikes and played on the playground. M. learned a ball game called Hunters and Bunnies at camp. 

Homeschool Update: May 2022

Poetry 

From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "Trains" by James S. Tippett, "Barbara Frietchie" by John Greenleaf Whittier, "A Nautical Ballad" by Charles Edward Carryl, "The Archer" by Clinton Scollard , "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Swimming" by Clinton Scollard, "The Brown Bear" by Mary Austin, "All But Blind" by Walter de la Mare, "The Spider and the Fly" by Mary Howitt. 

Music

M., C., and E. read Turandot from The Random House Book of Opera Stories as well as the version by Marianna Mayer. Then they watched an animated version as well as a full stage production from the Metropolitan opera. They learned to sing "The Battle of New Orleans" and "Crown Him with Many Crowns." 

Art Appreciation 

E. completed the first two levels in Child-Size Masterpieces. All three girls looked at paintings from The Vatican Art Deck and The Louvre Art Deck, including Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio, Madonna of Chancellor Rolin by Jan Van Eyck, and The Deposition of Christ by Rogier Van der Weyden.  

English 

C. continued to work on Grammarland. M. completed Rex Barks lesson 3-1.

At lunch time, the girls listened to Spiderweb for Two by Elizabeth Enright.  

E. read books from the Cowboy Sam series , books from the Dan Frontier series, My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett, Pony Scouts series by Catherine Hapka,  and Katie Woo and Friends by Fran Manushkin.  

C. read Redwall by Brian Jacques and The Trouble with Jenny's Ear by Oliver Butterworth, as well as some of  Detectives in Togas by Henry Winterfeld.  

M. read The Erie Canal by Samuel Hopkins Adams, The Santa Fe Trail by Samuel Hopkins Adams, Kit Carson and the Wild Frontier by Ralph Moody, Remember the Alamo by Robert Penn Warren, Simon Bolivar: The Brave Liberator by Arnold Whitridge. 

Science

We completed our science work for this school year, so for fun the girls watched some Sci Show Kids videos. C. did the Levitating Lantern Kiwi Crate, and E. did the Bird Koala Crate. 

History 

From Abraham Lincoln's World, M. read:  Victoria is Born; Hard Times and Bad Kings; Victoria, Who Was She?; Charles Dickens, or, David Copperfield; Wild Turkeys and Waste Time; The Story of Brazil; The Drama of Greece; Ulysses Grant, Named and Renamed; Railroads Are Here;  A Three-Day Revolution; Young Patriots of Italy; A Bloodless Revolution; Union and Liberty; Time Makes an Old Idea New; The Sultan's Guest; India; Li Hung Chang, a Boy of China; Slavery, What to Do About It?;  Abe Lincoln of New Salem; Remember the Alamo;  On to Oregon; Into Darkest Africa; Young Lion vs. Ancient Dragon; R stands for Regina; Corn and Potatoes; Rebellion in Canada; Steam Across the Atlantic; Behind Japan's Closed Door; Wedding Bells; Authors and Visitors; Telegraph and Photograph; On to the West; To the Halls of Montezuma;  Gold!; Canada; Corn and Potatoes, continued; The Year 1848; A Beautiful Uniform or a Spiked Helmet; The Peace Festival; Napoleon III; Der Tolle Bismarck; At Home in Springfield; Free Soil and Slave; Uncle Tom's Cabin. 

C. learned about Pompeii from The buried city of Pompeii: what it was like when Vesuvius exploded by Shelley Tanaka. She watched Pompeii Walking Tour in 4K Part 1 and Behind the Scenes of the First Excavation of Pompeii in 70 Years. We also read One Day in Ancient Rome by G.B. Kirtland. 

Then we covered the New Testament. We briefly used In Bible Days by Gertrude Hartmann, but I quickly determined that it wasn't in line with Catholic (or really any branch of Christian) teaching and we switched to The Holy Bible Adapted for Young Catholic Readers edited by Jane Werner Watson and Charles Hartman and illustrated by the Provensens and Feodor Rojankovksy. On her own, C. read Tomie dePaola's Parables of Jesus and Miracles of Jesus. 

C. finished history for the year with the section about the fall of Rome from Builders of the Old World.  

Math

C. worked on the addition and subtraction exercises in Singapore 2B. 

M. worked on Challenging Word Problems and geometry.  

Art 

M., C., E. made Mother's Day cards for me and their grandmothers. 

Religion 

We read from the Catholic Children's Treasure Box volumes 3 and 4. 

Homeschool Update: April 2022

In the interest of simplifying my record keeping, I've decided to switch to monthly homeschool updates. I'm also going to focus less on the routine of our day and more on the materials we use for each subject. From time to time, I might make some separate posts to record how we divide up our days, but I'm finding that these posts are most useful as an archive of what we used to teach certain subjects and at what grade level. 

April included Holy Week and Easter Week, as well as an abundance of playdates that required a lighter workload. It was also the month in which we submitted our homeschool review forms to our umbrella organization. Both M. and C. have "completed" this year in terms of paperwork, but we will press on regardless. 

Poetry

From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "There are so many ways of going places" by Leslie Thompson, "To the Dandelion" by James Russell Lowell, "Stocking Fairy" by Winifred Welles, "On Easter Day" by Celia Thaxter, and "From a Railway Carriage" by Robert Louis Stevenson. 

Music Appreciation 

M., C., and E. continued listening to my husband read aloud Carmen: The story of Bizet's Opera by Robert Lawrence. When they finished the book, they watched a production of the opera on video. After that, they listened to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and Beethoven's  Eroica Symphony On YouTube M. and C. watched the Keeping Score documentary about the Eroica Symphony. 

Art Appreciation

During the final days of Lent, we looked at many of the paintings and sculptures related to Christ's Passion that are included in the Vatican Art Deck and the Louvre Art Deck. We also took a close look at da Vinci's The Last Supper, using this article from Catholic Icing to point out key features and to learn about the Apostles. We watched this video about Caravaggio's Deposition of Christ.

English

We finished our lunchtime read-aloud of The Golden Name Day and then read Carvers' George by Florence Crannell Means.  This was a fascinating book, and it also complemented our study of plants for science. After that, I started reading aloud The Secret Garden. 

C. read The First Men in the World and The Fantastic Flying Journey, and then moved on to Redwall. She is enjoying imagining the voice of Cluny the Scourge and has announced she would like to be him for Halloween. I also read aloud Floating Island by Anne Parrish to her, and we both really enjoyed it. It combines all the best elements of our other favorites: The Doll People and Baby Island. In Grammarland, C. worked on nominatives and prepositions. 

Independently, E. read Busybody Nora by Johanna Hurwitz, My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett, In a Dark Dark Room and Other Scary Stories by Alvin Schwartz, and Warton and Morton by Russell E. Erickson. To her, I read aloud All About Sam by Lois Lowry. We have now started Here Come the Elephants by Alice Goudey. 

M. has been diagramming one sentence per day from Rex Barks. She creates the diagram in Google Drawings and then shares it with me so I can check it. She is also working on doing pages in the Macmillan McGraw-Hill Treasures grammar curriculum. 

History 

M. finished The Year of the Horseless Carriage after reading these sections: Napoleon: Emperor; Beethoven; Richard Trevithick; Robert Fulton; James Madison; Napoleon: Defeated; and George Stephenson. 

Then she started Abraham Lincoln's World and read these sections: The Year 1809; Napoleon The Next Emperor; Because of England and Napoleonl; Young Creoles of Venezuela; Ships and Trips and Businessmen; Tecumseh, the Falling Star; Sam Houston Becomes the Raven; The Year 1812 in North America; 1812 in South America; To Moscow and Return; Don't Give Up the Ship; Andrew Jackson, the Indian Fighter; A Boy and a Fish; Napoleon Defeated; The Very Young William Gladstone; Just Before and After the End; Back to the Kings Again; Trails to the West; Abe Moves to Indiana; Robert Lee of Virginia; Harriett Beecher, the Preacher's Child; What About Missouri; Steamboats and the Law; Kit Rides to Santa Fe; Benito Juarez, a Boy of Mexico; Toda America es Mi Patria; Citizens of the World

She also read No Other White Men by Julia Davis Adams, Violet for Bonaparte by Geoffrey Trease, The Slave Who Freed Haiti: the Story of Toussaint Louverture by Katharine Scherman, The Pirate Lafitte and the Battle of New Orleans by Robert Tallant. She looked through The Incredible Journey of Lewis and Clark by Rhoda Blumberg.

C. finished with Ancient Greece and began studying Ancient Rome. In Builders of the Old World, she read The Wooden Walls Save Athens, The Golden Age of Pericles, Lovers of Wisdom, Greece Loses Her Freedom, and The Gifts of Greece to Civilization, followed by The City of the Seven Hills, Early Roman Heroes, Rome Becomes a Republic, How the Early Romans Lived, Going to School in Rome, Rome Conquers All Italy, Rome and Carthage, How the Later Romans Lived, and Cornelia's Jewels. 

We also read aloud In Search of a Homeland, the children's retelling of the Aeneid by Penelope Lively, and then started Detectives in Togas by Henry Winterfeld, and C. watched Virtual Rome and Ancient Rome 101. 

Science 

We finished BFSU Volume 1. The girls monitored the beans they planted in baggies, tracking their progress with drawings until they germinated. Only E.'s grew leaves and a stem, so we mainly focused on that one.  M. and C. also picked a few random weeds outside and we brought them in to identify and learn about them. We also read about some wildflowers from a Fandex Family Field Guide.  

M. and C. watched these videos: 

• How Does a Seed Become a Plant? 
• Erosion and Soil
• The Swish Machine Rube Goldberg machine 

Our read-aloud of Carvers' George was also part of our plant studies, and we found this clip of his voice to listen to so we could better understand the author's descriptions of his distinctive speech.  

Math

C. finished Singapore Primary Mathematics 2A and moved on to 2B. 

M. worked on Challenging Word Problems 3 and geometry proofs using worksheets found online and Geometry by Harold R. Jacobs.

E. used flashcards, rods and the soroban to learn about place value. 

Health 

M. and read the nutrition section from The Body Book for Younger Girls. She also came to the twins' check-up with me and watched their exam.

Physical Education

M., C., and E. rode bikes on most of the nice days. M. and C. went on a couple of bike rides with Daddy. All three girls played on the trampoline at our friends' house, and they visited the Adventure playground for a playdate.  

Art

M., C., and E. did chalk designs in the driveway and colored Easter-themed coloring pages.

Religion 

We attended the Novus Ordo Easter vigil and then Mass in the extraordinary form on Divine Mercy Sunday. We read aloud Catholic Children's Treasure Box volumes 1 and 2. 

Homeschool Update: Week of 3/28/22

Lent Activities

Each day, we added a Jesus tree ornament to our clothesline display, prayed a decade of the Rosary, read a quote from a saint, colored a square on our Lenten path, and watched a meditation from Brother Francis. We sang "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say."  We also looked at some of the paintings in The Louvre Art Deck and The Vatican Art Deck connected to Jesus's Passion.

Morning Time 

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud "Written in March" by William Wordsworth, "" by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and "Swallow Tails" by Tom Robinson. 

Music appreciation: My husband continued reading aloud Carmen: The story of Bizet's Opera by Robert Lawrence and played recordings of pieces from the opera.

History 

From The Year of the Horseless Carriage by Genevieve Foster, M. read these sections: 

• Napoleon: Conqueror 
• Thomas Jefferson 
• Toussaint L'Overture 
• Lewis and Clark 
• Napoleon: Emperor 
• Beethoven

She also started reading The Louisiana Purchase by Robert Tallant. 

C. read these sections from Builders of the Old World: 

• The Athenians at Marathon
• The Spartans at Thermopylae

She also started reading The Athenians in the Classical Period by Leonard Weisgard. Independently, C. read The First Marathon: The Legend of Pheidippides and continued reading Our Little Athenian Cousin of Long Ago. She watched this video walking tour of the Acropolis of Athens.

Science 

We began working on BFSU Lesson B-11, Plant Science II: Germination, Seedling Growth and Responses. M., C., and E. each planted four beans in a plastic baggie and began drawing them each day to chart their progress. M. and C. also watched these videos: 

• Leaves folding 
• Gravitropism 
• Sunflower Field Time Lapse 
• Sunflower following the sun 

Math

E. began to work with rods. She made a double staircase and practice making the various two-rod trains that added up to particular larger rods.  

C. continued working in Singapore 2A, finishing division. 

M. worked on geometry proofs with my husband. 

English 

At lunch, we continued reading aloud The Golden Name Day.

E. and I continued reading books by Beatrix Potter. 

Physical Education 

The girls rode bikes most nice days. 

Instrumental Music 

M., C., and E. practiced piano daily.

M. and C. practiced recorder daily.

Homeschool Update: Week of 3/21/22

Lent Activities

Each day, we added a Jesus tree ornament to our clothesline display, prayed a decade of the Rosary, read a quote from a saint, colored a square on our Lenten path, and watched a meditation from Brother Francis. We sang "Think of the Son of God." 

Morning Time

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read "The Deer" by Mary Austin, "The Peppery Man" by Arthur Macy, "Wynken Blynken and Nod" by Eugene Field, and "Sisters" by Eleanor Farjeon. 

Art appreciation: On Friday, we looked at Annunciation by Fra Angelico from The Vatican Art Deck and watched this video. We also listened to The Angel Gabriel.

Music appreciation: My husband continued reading aloud Carmen: The story of Bizet's Opera by Robert Lawrence and played recordings of pieces from the opera.

History 

In Builders of the Old World, C. and I read "First Steps in Democracy" and "The Greeks Defend Their Freedom." She wrote a narration defining democracy, and continued reading Our Little Athenian Cousin of Long Ago.

M. started reading The Year of the Horseless Carriage by Genevieve Foster and read these sections: 

• Richard Trevithick
• Robert Fulton 

M. also began reading Robert Fulton and the Steamboat by Ralph Nading Hill. 

Science 

We started BFSU Lesson B-11 Plant Science II: Germination, Seedling Growth and Responses. We read aloud Linnea's Windowsill Garden by Christina Bjork and discussed sexual versus asexual reproduction in plants. The girls watched another episode of The Private Life of Plants. 

English

C. continued working on pages from the Treasures Grammar Practice Book for Grade 1. M. worked on Rex Barks Exercises 2-6 and 2-8. 

At lunch, we continued reading aloud The Golden Name Day.

E. and I continued reading books by Beatrix Potter. 

E. began reading transitional books between easy readers and chapter books, including Dan Frontier.

Math 

C. practiced division with rods and worked in Singapore 2A. 

M. worked on geometry and Challenging Word Problems.

Both girls did Khan Academy daily. 

Art

C. completed a drawing using the How to Draw a Unicorn video from Art for Kids Hub.

Physical Education

In addition to several bike rides, the girls also enjoyed trying Move Its from Amanda Hooper on YouTube.

Instrumental Music 

M., C., and E. practiced piano daily.

M. and C. practiced recorder daily.

Homeschool Update: Week of 3/14/22

Lent Activities

Each day, we added a Jesus tree ornament to our clothesline display, prayed a decade of the Rosary, read a quote from a saint, colored a square on our Lenten path, and watched a meditation from Brother Francis. We sang "Come To Me All Ye Who Labor." 

St. Patrick's Day Activities

On Wednesday, the girls made leprechauns from Mrs.Merry.com. On Thursday, we went to our friends' house for a playdate and they did coloring and activity sheets about St. Patrick. On Thursday night, we had corned beef and cabbage. 

Birthday Activities

On Friday, the twins turned two. They opened presents in the morning and had cake after lunch. The older girls had a light school day as a result.

Morning Time 

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud "One, Two, Three!" by Henry Cuyler Bunner and "I Remember, I Remember" by Thomas Hood. 

Music appreciation: My husband read Carmen: The story of Bizet's Opera by Robert Lawrence and played recordings of pieces from the opera.

Art appreciation: We looked at Michelangelo's Pieta from The Vatican Art Deck and watched this video.

History 

C. and I finished Black Ships Before Troy. She continued reading Our Little Athenian Cousin of Long Ago. In Builders of the Old World, we read "The Olympic Games" and "The Tale of Troy." She wrote a narration about the Olympics, and she watched Ancient Greece 101 and History of the Olympics.

M. finished George Washington's World after reading these sections: 

• Beware the Tyrants
• Liberty
• Death for Louis XVI 
• The United States Proclaimed Neutral
• The Reign of Terror 
• Dr. Jenner and the Smallpox Germ
• Catherine the Grandmother
• Napoleon Bonaparte
• To Italy
• To Egypt
• The Rosetta Stone, Clue to an Ancient Riddle
• Ch'ien Lung's Reply to George III
• New Rulers for a New Era

Science 

We continued working on BFSU Lesson B-10, Plant Science I: Basic Plant Structure. M. and C. filled in diagrams of the reproductive parts of flowering plants and learned how non-flowering plants reproduce.  They watched: 

• Reproductive Cycle of Pines
• Pine Cones Opening Time Lapse
• Apple flowers blooming time lapse
• Flower to Fruits 
• A group of fern sporangia hurling spores
• Moss Life Cycle Under the Microscope
• Tops and Bottoms

They also watched an episode of The Private Life of Plants. We began reading aloud Linnea's Windowsill Garden by Christina Björk. 

E. did the Reptiles Koala Crate.

English

C. was struggling to understand verbs and verb tenses, so she took a break from Grammarland and did some pages from the Treasures Grammar Practice Book for Grade 1. We began reading aloud Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner. Independently, she read the Magical Animal Adoption Agency series by Kallie George. 

M. read Spymaster by Deborah Chancellor and Marquis de Lafayette: Bright Sword for Freedom by Hodding Carter.  

At lunch, we continued reading aloud The Golden Name Day.

E. and I continued reading books by Beatrix Potter. 

Math 

M. worked on geometry proofs as well as Challenging Word Problems.

C. worked on division in Singapore 2A. 

Both girls did Khan Academy daily. 

Instrumental Music 

M., C., and E. practiced piano daily.

M. and C. practiced recorder daily.

Physical Education

The girls rode bikes on several days and went to the playground on Friday.

Homeschool Update: Week of 3/7/22

Lent Activities

Each day, we added a Jesus tree ornament to our clothesline display, prayed a decade of the Rosary, read a quote from a saint, colored a square on our Lenten path, and watched a meditation from Brother Francis. We sang "Parce Domine," "Stabat Mater," and "Ave Regina Caelorum." 

Morning Time 

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud "The Brook" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "The Leak in the Dike" by Phoebe Cary, and "The Dorchester Giant" by Oliver Wendell Holmes. 

Singing: Our song was "The Darby Ram. "

Art appreciation: From The Vatican Art Deck by Anja Grebe. we looked at The Holy Trinity by Lodovico Carracci and Crucifixion by Tommaso Masolino da Panicale.

History

C. and I continued reading Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliffe. From Builders of the Old World, we read "Growing Up in Sparta and Athens" and "The Gods of the Greeks." She started reading Our Little Athenian Cousin of Long Ago on her own.

In George Washington's World, M. read: 

• Victory for the Third Estate
• To the Bastille
• Off With the Baker to Paris
• America and the Key to the Bastille
• The Cotton Gin

She also read The Great Little Madison by Jean Fritz and Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the French Revolution by Nancy Plain, and started The Man Who Counted by Malba Tahan. 

Science 

We started BFSU Lesson B-10, Plant Science I: Basic Plant Structure. M., C., and E. competed a Plant Scavenger Hunt I found online from Nature Conservancy Canada. M. and C. each filled out a diagram of simple plant anatomy from Enchanted Learning 

They also watched a few episodes of The Private Life of Plants from the BBC, along with these videos: 

• Strawberry Flower to Fruit
• Pear Flower Opening to Fruit
• Easy Strawberry Clones/Runners Transplanting
• Propagating From Cuttings 101

English

At lunch, we started reading aloud The Golden Name Day by Jennie Lindquist. M. and C. also started reading it aloud to Gran on Skype. 

E. and I started reading the Beatrix Potter books. She colored pictures in her Beatrix Potter coloring book to accompany the stories we read.

C. started reading the Magical Animal Adoption Agency series. She also started Freddy and his Cousin Weedly by Walter R. Brooks. 

M. worked on Rex Barks Exercise 2-5.

E. continued reading easy readers.

Physical Education

M., C., and E. rode bikes and played on the playground on all the nice days.

Instrumental Music

M., C., and E. practiced piano daily. M. and C. practiced recorder daily. 

Homeschool Update: Week of 2/28/22

Mardi Gras

On Tuesday, we made Mardi Gras masks and listened to Carnival music. We also colored and "buried" the Alleluia. 

Lent 

We started the Jesus tree devotion on Wednesday. We also prayed a decade of the Rosary every day starting on Wednesday and watched the daily Lenten meditations from Brother Francis on Formed. We practiced singing Stabat Mater, Parce Domine, and Ave Regina Caelorum. 

Morning Time 

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud "Cradle Song" by Sarojini Naidu, "The Railroad Cars are Coming," "Daffodils" by William Wordsworth, and "What Do We Plant?" by Henry Abbey.

Singing: We continued to practice singing  "Raggle Taggle Gypsies Oh!"

Art appreciation: From The Vatican Art Deck by Anja Grebe. we looked at Pieta by Lucas Cranach the Elder. From Tell Me a Picture by Quentin Blake, we looked at Saint George and the Dragon by Paolo Uccello, a painting from Ernest est Malade by Gabrielle Vincent, and a painting from Bats in the Belfry by Jozef Wilkon. 

History 

C. and I abandoned the Golden book ediition of the Iliad and the Odyssey because she wasn't enjoying it and switched to Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff. From Builders of the Old World, we read "The City-States of Hellas" and "Greek Homes and Farms." Independently, C. read Our Little Spartan Cousin of Long Ago.

In George Washington's World, M. read: 

• Back to His Good Land
• Lonely Thomas Jefferson at Monticello
• Aviation Is Born
• The Marriage of Figaro
• Three Americans Meet In France
• Rousseau and Silver Sheep Shears
• John Adams and George III
• Hisses for Marie Antoinette
• Old Frederick's Last Review 
• Catherine's Turkish Fairy Tale
• The Assembly of the Notables
• The Not-Yet-United States
• The Constitution
• Mr. President

Science

We started BFSU Lesson B-10 Plant Science I - Basic Plant Structure and Reproduction and watched Parts of a Plant and Eyewitness: Plant. 

Health

C. and I finished Follow My Leader. M. and I read the chapter about breasts and bras in The Body Book for Younger Girls.

English 

At lunch, we read aloud The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz. 

M. read Boy King by David Belbin and The Thieves of Pudding Lane by Jonathan Eyers.

E. read more easy readers.

M. and C. worked on writing some original stories. 

Physical Education

M., C., and E. rode bikes whenever the weather was nice enough. 

Instrumental Music

M., C., and E. practiced piano daily. M. and C. practiced recorder daily. 

Homeschool Update: Week of 2/21/22

Morning Time

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "O Captain My Captain" by Walt Whitman and "The Lost Doll" by Charles Kingsley. 

Music: From The Random House Book of Opera Stories by Adele Geras, we read "Aida." Then we listened to the Opera Abbreviated episode about the opera and watched this clip. 

Singing: We continued singing "The Raggle Taggle Gypsies, O!"

Art appreciation: From Tell Me a Picture by Quentin Blake, we looked at Serenato in Vano by The Quay Brothers, Sleeping by Paula Rego, A Street Show in Paris by Gabriel-Jacques de Saint-Aubin, and The Building of the Trojan Horse by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo. 

History 

In Builders of the Old World, C. and I read "Carriers of Civilization" and "Empire Builders." We also started reading the Golden book edition of The Iliad and The Odyssey to begin our study of Ancient Greece. She started reading Our Little Spartan Cousin of Long Ago by Julia Darrow Cowles. 

From George Washington's World M. read: 

• Valley Forge
• The French Alliance
• George Rogers Clark
• A Hero in Two Worlds
• The Bon Homme Richard
• Lafayette, Herald of the French Expedition
• Spain Besieges Gibraltar 
• Napoleon Buonaparte
• Holland Defends Her Trade
• Benedict Arnold, Traitor
• Cornwallis Surrenders 
• Washington Refuses Absolute Power
• Money
• Peasants of Russia
• The Peace Treaty
• Empires Old and New
• Stars and Stripes in China

She also watched a few more episodes of the 1995 Discovery Channel documentary series The Revolutionary War.   

Science

We finished studying Rocks and Fossils with BFSU and watched these videos: 

• What Are Rocks and How do they Form?
• Fossil Record Mystery
• The 10 Oldest Fossils, and What They Say About Evolution
• A Brief History of Geologic Time
• Fossil Found in Kitchen Counter
• What is Weathering?

Health

C. and I continued reading Follow My Leader. 

English 

C. read and listened to Grammarland chapter 8, Dr. Verb and completed the accompanying worksheet. She also watched the Schoolhouse Rock verbs video.

M. redid Rex Barks exercise 1-4 to correct her mistakes. She also read Robbers On The Road by Melvin Burgess and The Dance Of Death by Andy Croft. 

E. continued reading easy readers every day. 

Physical Education

M., C., and E. rode bikes whenever the weather was nice enough.

Instrumental Music

M., C., and E. practiced piano daily. M. and C. practiced recorder daily. 

Homeschool Update: Week of 2/14/22

Valentine's Day Activities

The girls watched the Story of St. Valentine, and we had our annual Valentine tea party with sandwiches, fudge, and crafts. M. and C. did some Valentine-themed math and grammar worksheets.

Morning Time 

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "Setting the Table" by Dorothy Aldis, "I Like Housecleaning" by Dorothy Brown Thompson, and "Sea Memories" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Music: We finished reading Joseph Haydn, The Merry Little Peasant by Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher and listened to the remaining pieces. 

Singing: Our song for the week was "The Raggle Taggle Gypsies, O!" 

Art appreciation: From Tell Me a Picture by Quentin Blake, we looked at Torchlight Procession by Adolphe Monticelli, Fantastic Ruins with Saint Augustine and the Child by Francois de Nome, Nameless and Friendless by Emily Mary Osborn, and A Satyr Mourning Over a Nymph by Piero di Cosimo.  

History 

In Builders of the Old World, C. and I read "The Sea Beckons," "A Nation of Traders," "Carriers of Civilization," and "Empire Builders." She wrote a narration about the Phoenicians and drew a Phoenician ship.  

In George Washington's World, M. read these sections: 

• The Declaration of Independence
• Echoes in Europe
• Benjamin Franklin in France
• Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI
• Lafayette Sails for America
• The Old Fox Retreats
• Misadventures of 1777
• To Carry the News

She also watched the rest of 1776, read two books about Caesar Rodney: Caesar Rodney's Ride and The Rescue Begins in Delaware, and watched a few episodes of the 1995 Discovery Channel documentary series The Revolutionary War.   

Health

C. and I started reading Follow My Leader, about a boy who is blinded in an accident and learns to work with a guide dog. To go along with the book, she watched Kids Meet a Guide Dog for the Blind and A Day in the Life of the Family with Six Blind Kids. 

M. had some bloodwork at the doctor's office (she's fine, it was just a precaution) and she learned about veins and how blood is tested. She also learned the hard way that caramel and lip bumpers don't mix. 

Science 

This week we began BFSU Lesson D-8, Rocks and Fossils. We discussed erosion and the creation of sedimentary rock and watched these videos: 

• Make Your Own Erosion 
• Coral Reefs 101 
• Fossils 101 

English 

C. practiced picking out the parts of speech in a few simple sentences that I wrote for her. 

M. diagrammed several simple sentences that I wrote to help her practice picking out the subject and verb. She also did Rex Barks exercise 2-2. 

M. read Shield Maiden by Stuart Hill, The Stone Street by Marilyn Tolhurst, Mission to Marathon by Geoffrey Trease, Better Than Gold by Theresa Tomlimson, and Casting the Gods Adrift by Geraldine McCaughrean.  

C read  Freddy and the Ignormous by Walter Brooks, Casting the Gods Adrift by Geraldine McCaughrean, Captains of the City Streets by Esther Averill,  Jenny Goes to Sea by Esther Averill, and The Orphelines in the Enchanted Castle by Natalie Savage Carlson.

E. continued reading more easy readers. 

Physical Education

M., C., and E. rode bikes four days this week. M. rode an additional day on her own. 

Instrumental Music 

M., C., and E. all practiced piano daily. M. and C. practiced recorder daily. m som

Homeschool Update: Weeks of 1/31/22 and 2/7/22

We had friends over for story time on February 2nd, and they ended up sharing a cold with us.  Since we didn't do very much school during the time we were all sick, I've combined these two weeks into one post. 

Morning Time 

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "The Way Through the Woods" by Rudyard Kipling, "Open Range" by Kathryn and Byron Jackson, "In the Hours of Darkness" by James Flexner, "Freedom" by Jessamyn West, "Postman,"  "My Heart's in the Highlands" by Robert Burns, and "I'd Love to be a Fairy's Child" by Robert Graves.  

Music: We started reading Joseph Haydn, The Merry Little Peasant by Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher and listened to some of the pieces included. 

Singing: We practiced singing the US Naval Hymn "Eternal Father, Strong To Save." 

Art Appreciation: From Tell Me a Picture by Quentin Blake, we discussed a painting from Seasons of Splendour by Michael Foreman, A Scene from El Hechizado por Fuerza by Francisco de Goya, Night in the Park by Edward Hopper, a painting from The Adventures of Pinocchio by Robert Innocenti, The Garden Enclosed by David Jones, Clown by Ken Kiff, and Exhibition of a Rhinoceros at Venice by Pietro Longhi. 

Catechism: The girls watched Saint Brigid of Ireland for her feast day on February 1st and the Story of St. Scholastica for her feast day on February 10th. We practiced singing Ave Regina Caelorum. 

History 

C. and I continued reading from In Bible Days. We covered these sections: "Crossing the Desert," "At Mount Sinai,"  "The End of the Wandering," "The Conquest of Canaan," "In the Days of the Judges," "The Kingdom Established," "David the Hero King," "Solomon in All his Glory," "The Kingdom Divided," "Great Prophets," and "By the Rivers of Babylon." She also worked on the Moses and David Bible Activity Sticker Books I found at Dollar Tree, and she read Ruth, Moses, and Joseph and his Brothers by Maud and Miska Petersham. 

M. covered all of these sections from George Washington's World: 

• To the South Seas with Captain Cook
• Oxygen
• The Steam Engine
• His Majesty George III
• Frederick the Miser and Louis the Waster
• Marie Antoinette, the Little Austrian Princess
  Lafayette, a Young French Nobleman
• Italy, the Land of Beauty
• A King and a Painter of Spain
• Pirates
• The Empire of Turkey
• Poland
• Enter Napoleon Buonaparte
• The Empress and the Sultan
• Home to China
• Japan and the Passing World
• Holland and Her Trade
• Alexander Hamilton, Boy of the West Indies
• John Paul and the Hated Slave Trade
• Spain's New Colony
• Over the Mountain with Boone
• Rebellion in Massachusetts 
• The First Congress
• The Battle of Bunker Hill
• John Adams Selects a Commander

She also started watching 1776 and she read The Marquis de Lafayette: Bright Sword for Freedom by Hodding Carter. 

Science 

We worked on BFSU Lesson A-1, Rocks, Minerals, Crystals, Dirt and Soils. Independently, M. and C. each looked at Rocks and Minerals by Caroline Bingham. I read aloud Let's Go Rock Collecting from the Let's Read and Find About Science series.  We also watched a variety of videos: 

• Let's Learn About Rocks and Minerals
• Be a Rock Detective
• Diamonds, the Strongest Rock in the World
• Eyewitness: Rocks and Minerals
• How do Crystals Work?
• Material Magic: Making Diamonds
• What are Minerals, Crystals, and Gemstones?

While they were sick, the girls watched a few episodes of BBC Wonders of the Solar System. 

Art 

C. drew a kitten following video instructions from Art for Kids Hub. She also drew a snow bunny. M., C., and E. made Valentines for family members and mailed them. 

English 

M. worked on conjunctions exercises from Simply Grammar and watched Conjunction Junction. Then she did Rex Barks Exercise 1-6 and Simply Grammar p.70, about prepositions, and watched Busy Prepositions. She also watched The Tale of Mr. Morton to help her with Rex Barks exercise 2-1, which was out first foray into diagramming with this book. 

In Grammarland Caroline listened to Chapter 5: Mr. Adjective, Chapter 6. Mr. Adjective Tried for Stealing, and Chapter 7: The Quarrel between Mr. Adjective & Mr. Pronoun & Little Interjection, and she watched the Schoolhouse Rock videos about pronouns and interjections 

M. worked on an original story entitled "John the Thief."  

C. finished On the Banks of Plum Creek. 

E. read through a whole bunch more of our easy readers - too many to name. Her favorites are the Oliver and Amanda pig series and the Mildred and Sam series. She also enjoyed In a People House. She also read a few lessons in The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading. 

At lunch, we read aloud Amos Fortune, Free Man.

Math  

C. worked on multiplication and division in Singapore 2A and did some soroban practice. M. worked in Challenging Word Problems. Both girls did Khan Academy almost daily. C. finished Life of Fred: Cats. M. did two chapters in Life of Fred: Kidneys.

Preschool Skills

E. continued doing some exercises in her cutting workbook. 

Instrumental Music

M. and C. both practiced piano and recorder every day. E. had a piano lesson with Daddy. 

Health

From experience, we learned about how colds are spread.

Homeschool Update: Week of 1/24/22

Morning Time 

Poems:  From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "Father William" by Lewis Carroll, "Big Brother" by Elizabeth Madox Roberts, and "A Comparison" by John Farrar. 

Music: We finished reading Mozart the Wonder Boy by Opal Wheeler and listened to these pieces: 

• Piano Sonata in G Major (K. 283)
• Piano Sonata no. 16 in C Major (K. 545 "Sonata Facile"), 
• Violin Sonata in D Major (K 29) 
• Laendler (K. 606:3) 
• Country Dance (K 609:2) 

We continued singing "Mozart's Lullaby" from The Fireside Book of Children's Songs. 

Art Appreciation: We looked at Don Quixote and Sancho Panza by Honore-Victorin Daumier and Saint Paul on Malta by Adam Elsheimer in Tell Me a Picture by Quentin Blake. 

Catechism: On Friday, the girls watched The Story of Saint Thomas Aquinas and listened to Pange Lingua Gloriosi and Adoro te Devote. 

History 

C. and I continued reading In Bible Days, focusing on these sections about Moses: "Seven Years of Famine," "Let My People Go," and "Out of Bondage." She worked on a Moses sticker book I found at Dollar Tree and watched a clip from The Ten Commandments showing the parting of the Red Sea. 

M. read these sections from George Washington's World: 

• Pontiac, the Patriot
• George III
• George and Martha Washington
• Thomas Jefferson and His Mountain
• The End of the Seven Years War (1763)
• Goethe Sees Both Sides
• Catherine, Empress of the Russians
• Voltaire and His Pen

Science 

This week's BFSU lesson was C-7: Push Pushes Back. We went over the information in the corresponding chapter in Early Elementary Science Education and watched the first ten episodes of Eureka Physics.

English

C. worked on Grammarland Chapter 4, "Serjeant Parsing's Visit to Schoolroom-shire." She finished reading The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle and started On the Banks of Plum Creek. In the evening, we started reading aloud The Golden Bull by Marjorie Cowley. 

In Rex Barks, M. did exercises 1-4 and 1-5 and an adjective activity from Simply Grammar. She read Catherine the Great by Katharine Scherman, The Flight and Adventures of Charles II by Charles Norman, and Captain Cook and the South Pacific by Oliver Warner, and she started Stowaway by Karen Hesse. 

E. has been zipping through the easy reader collection. She read 40 books in January, including: 

• Because a Little Bug Went Kerchoo by Dr. Seuss writing as Rosetta Stone 

• Who's A Pest? by Crosby Bonsall 

• Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss 

• Piggle by Crosby Bonsall 

• The Adventures of Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik

• Come and Have Fun by Edith Thacher Hurd 

• What Have I Got? by Michael McClintock

• Thunderhoof by Syd Hoff

• Chester by Syd Hoff 

• Robert the Rose Horse by Joan Heilbroner 

• Mine's the Best by Crosby Bonsall 

• I Am Better Than You by Robert Lopshire 

• Put Me in the Zoo by Robert Lopshire 

• Who Will Be My Friends? by Syd Hoff

• A Fly Went By by Michael McClintock

• Tales of Oliver Pig by Jean van Leeuwen 

We also read a story from More Milly-Molly-Mandy.

At lunch, we started Miss Plunkett to the Rescue by Jane Flory as our read-aloud. 

Math  

C. worked on multiplication and division in Singapore 2A and did some soroban practice. M. worked in Challenging Word Problems. Both girls did Khan Academy almost daily. Both girls also did chapters from Life of Fred on Wednesday. E. reviewed "little friends." 

Preschool Skills

E. continued doing some exercises in her cutting workbook. 

Languages 

C. continued her sign language course on Udemy through the local public library, but has decided to take a break. 

Instrumental Music

M. and C. both practiced piano and recorder every day. E. had a piano lesson with Daddy.

Health

M. went to the orthodontist and we got instructions on how to turn the key in her palate expander. C. watched several "I'm no Fool" safety videos from Disney on YouTube.

Homeschool Update: Week of 1/17/22

Morning Time 

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "The Fairies" by William Allingham and "Stately Verse" by Anonymous. In honor of St. Agnes's feast day on Friday, we read "The Lamb" by William Blake from the Poetry Foundation website. 

Music: We read chapter 4 in Mozart the Wonder Boy by Opal Wheeler and listened to these pieces: 

• Wiegenlied (K. 350) 
• Longing for Spring (K. 596) 
• Piano Sonata no. 16 in C Major (K. 545 )
• Piano Sonata in G Major (K. 283) 
• Rondo in C Major (K. 309)

As they listened the girls colored some pictures of composers from MakingMusicFun.net. (Note: This site has many errors and is really only useful for coloring pages.)

The girls practiced singing Mozart's Lullaby from The Fireside Book of Children's Songs. 

Art appreciation: We started using Tell Me a Picture by Quentin Blake and we looked at the first three paintings, A Winter Scene with Skaters Near a Castle by Hendrick Avercamp, an illustration by John Burningham from Oi! Get Off Our Train, and A Love Affair by Emma Chichester Clark. 

Catechism: On St. Agnes's feast day, C., who has a special devotion to her, watched Story of St. Agnes. 

History 

First Grade: C. and I switched to In Bible Days to begin our study of the Hebrews. We read the sections entitled: "Abraham, the Great Forefather," "The Children of Israel," "Joseph and his Brothers," and "Seven Years of Famine." 

Third Grade: M. read these sections from George Washington's World: 

• Ch'ien Lung and the Barbarians
• India and the European Traders
• France and England in America
• French and Indian War Begins
• Seven Years War Begins
• The Empire Builder
• Pontiac, the Patriot
• George III

She also read a Landmark book about Catherine the Great. 

Science 

We did BFSU Lesson D-7: Gravity II: Rate of Fall, Weightlessness in Space, and Distinction between Mass & Weight. We read Weight and Weightlessness by Franklyn M. Branley and watched these videos: 

• Danger! Falling Objects from Crash Course Kids
• Free Fall and Weightlessness
• Everything Revolves Around You from Crash Course Kids
• How does the International Space Station Work?
• International Space Station Tour
• Using a Pan Balance 

English

In Grammarland, C. worked on Chapter 3, Mr. Pronoun.  

In Rex Barks, M. worked on Exercise 1-3, about verbs. We supplemented with some exercises from Simply Grammar.

 

We finished our read-aloud of The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street and started reading Miss Plunkett to the Rescue. My husband continued reading aloud The Blue Cat of Castle Town by Catherine Coblentz. In the car, we listened to My Side of the Mountain.

 

C. continued reading The Adventures of Dr. Dolittle. M. started reading The Flight and Adventures of Charles II. 

E. finished reading the Adventures of Little Bear. She also read Come and Have Fun, Thunderhoof, Chester, and Piggle. 

Math  

C. worked on multiplication and division in Singapore 2A and did some soroban practice. M. worked in Challenging Word Problems. Both girls did Khan Academy almost daily. Both girls also did chapters from Life of Fred on Wednesday. E. started to work with little friends and the two times table. 

Preschool Skills

E. continued doing some exercises in her cutting workbook. 

Languages 

C. continued her sign language course on Udemy through the local public library.

Instrumental Music

M. and C. both practiced piano and recorder every day. E. started piano lessons with Daddy.

Health

M. and C. received their first doses of the Covid vaccine on Thursday.  

Homeschool Update: Week of 1/10/22

Morning Time 

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "The Bear Hunt" by Margaret Widdemer, "Night" by William Blake, and "The Rainbow" by David McCord.

Music: We started reading aloud Mozart the Wonder Boy by Opal Wheeler and listened to these pieces: 

• Minuet in G 
• Sonatina in C Major 
• French Melody with Variation 
• Piano Sonata no. 16 in C Major 
• Bagatelle in G Major  
• Piano Sonata in F Major
• Sonata in F Major 

Our hymn for the week was "For the Beauty of the Earth."  

Art appreciation: On Monday and Tuesday we looked at The Adoration of the Magi by Gentile da Fabriano and watched two videos. On Friday we looked at the first painting in Tell Me a Painting by Quentin Blake, which was A Winter Scene with Skaters near a Castle by Hendrick Avercamp. 

History 

First Grade: C. finished her month-long study of Mesopotamia. We read The Warrior Nation and King Nebuchadnezzar from Builders of the Old World and she watched The Rise and Fall of the Assyrian Empire and The Great Ziggurat of Ur. She did coloring pages of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Ziggurat of Ur. 

Third Grade: M. read these sections from George Washington's World: 

• Catherine, Her Journey to Russia
• The King of France and His Subjects
• Pierre Caron, Born a Bourgeois
• The Great Voltaire
• James Cook, A Boy Who Went to Sea
• James Watt, A Clever Lad of Scotland
• A King, But Not a Ruler
• Benjamin Franklin Looks and Learns

Science 

We continued our lesson on friction and watched videos about how ball bearings work, the tablecloth trick, wind tunnels, and how to make a fire by rubbing sticks together.

C did her Disk Launchers Kiwi Crate, which helped review inertia. 

English

C. continued reading The Adventures of Dr. Dolittle. M. started reading Catherine the Great by Katharine Scherman. E. read some more from The Adventures of Little Bear. 

C. worked on articles in Grammarland. M. worked on pronouns in Rex Barks and Simply Grammar. Both girls finished and mailed their thank you letters. 

I continued reading aloud The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street. My husband finished reading aloud The Tale of Despereaux and started The Blue Cat of Castle Town by Catherine Coblentz.

Math  

C. worked on multiplication and division in Singapore 2A and did some soroban practice. M. worked in Challenging Word Problems. Both girls did Khan Academy almost daily. Both girls also did chapters from Life of Fred on Wednesdays. E. did some soroban work as well. 

Preschool Skills

E. started learning to cut with scissors. 

Languages 

C. continued her sign language course on Udemy through the local public library.

Instrumental Music

M. and C. both practiced piano and recorder every day. 

Homeschool Update: Week of 1/3/22

Weekend Activities

The kids had Skype calls with both grandmothers. We went to the Latin Mass on Sunday and ran into some friends from the summer and visited a bit. C. learned to tie her shoes. Monday was a snow day, and the girls played in the snow with the twins and watched The Snowman. 

Morning Time 

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "White Fields" by James Stephens, "Velvet Shoes" by Elinor Wylie, "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, and "The Duel" by Eugene Field 

Catechism: The girls colored pictures of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton for her feast day on Tuesday and watched an episode of Stories of Saints about her.

Music: We read Amahl and the Night Visitors and listened to the soundtrack. Then the girls watched the 1978 TV version of the opera. We sang Gaudete along with the King's Singers. 

Art Appreciation: We studied Giotto's Adoration of the Magi and read Madeleine L'Engle's accompanying reflection in The Glorious Impossible.

History 

First Grade: C. looked through Mesopotamia by Lorna Oakes. I read aloud the sections from Builders of the Old World called "Tower-Temples," "The Laws of Hammurabi," "Books of Clay," and "School Days in Babylon." She colored a picture of Hammurabi, then watched a video about writing in cuneiform and attempted to write in cuneiform herself using modeling clay and a wooden stylus. 

Third Grade: M. read these sections from George Washington's World: 

• A Boy of Virginia
• Daniel Boone, A Boy of the Backwods
• John Adams, A Farmer Boy
• John Hancock, A Boy of Boston
• Benjamin West
• The Friendly Printer 
• England vs. Spain in the New World
• Fray Junipero Serra
• Frederick, Soldier King of Prussia
• Johannes Sebastian Bach

Science

We started BFSU Lesson C-6: Friction and watched several video demonstrations:  

• Friction is a Force
• Friction Experiment
• Force, Friction, and Feet
• Friction and Shoes

English 

E. read The Whales Go By and Love is in the Air by Jonathan Fenske, as well as some selections from The Adventures of Little Bear, including A Kiss for Little Bear and Birthday Soup.  

C. finished The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum and the first three books in the Stella Batts series. She continued reading The Adventures of Dr. Doolittle by Hugh Lofting. To Gran, she finished reading aloud  Philomena by Kate Seredy and started to read Sarah Somebody. In the evening with me, she started reading The Enormous Egg by Oliver Butterworth. 

M. read the second Tumtum and Nutmeg book, as well as Isaac Newton: The True Story of His Life as Inventor, Scientist, & Teacher by John Hudson Tiner, Daniel Boone: The Opening of the Wilderness by John Mason Brown, and The Witchcraft of Salem Village by Shirley Jackson. She started reading Fire on the Wind by Geoffrey Trease. 

At lunch, we continued reading aloud/listening to The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser. After dinner, my husband continued reading The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo. In the car we listened to My Side of the Mountain Jean Craighead George. 

C. began listening to Grammarland, and she did the first worksheet, about nouns. M. started working in Rex Barks by Phyllis Davenport, and we're supplementing with exercises from Simply Grammar: An Illustrated Primer by Karen Andreola.  

C. wrote some poems on her own, and M. worked on finishing birthday and Christmas thank you letters.

Math 

C. worked on multiplication and division in Singapore 2A and did some soroban practice. M. worked in Challenging Word Problems. Both girls did Khan Academy almost daily. Both girls also did chapters from Life of Fred on Wednesdays.

Languages 

C. started a sign language course on Udemy through the local public library.

Instrumental Music

M. and C. both practiced piano and recorder every day.

Homeschool Update: Weeks of 12/13/21, 12/20/21, and 12/27/21

Advent Activities

For the rest of Advent, we continued with our Jesse Tree, Advent calendar, and Advent wreath, as well as the St. Andrew Novena, the Christmas Novena, and prayers appropriate for saint days falling within Advent.  We went to a hymn sing at our church and had a wonderful time meeting some new people and reconnecting with summer friends. We also prayed the O Antiphons. 

Christmas Activities

We attended Mass on Christmas Eve, and the girls wore fancy dresses and looked at the Nativity scene. On Christmas Day, we opened presents, ate houska for breakfast and roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, and chocolate pie for dinner. We're continuing the Christmas celebration throughout the twelve days with crafts (finger puppets, sticker collages, pom pom reindeer, etc.), and Christmas music. Our tree is still up. 

Morning Time

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "All Things Bright and Beautiful" by Cecil Frances Alexander and "Lone Dog" by Irene McLeod. 

Music: We finished reading Peter Tchaikovsky and the Nutcracker Ballet by Opal Wheeler. The girls also watched a production of The Nutcracker on YouTube, as well as my elementary school chorus rendition of the ballet in which I played a flower. We listened to the Coventry Carol and All Glory Laud and Honor on the feast of the Holy Innocents  As part of our Advent prayers, we sang O Come O Come Emmanuel, The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, O Come Divine Messiah, and Comfort, O My People. 

Art Appreciation: We looked at several paintings by Giotto in The Glorious Impossible by Madeleine L'Engle, and read her accompanying reflections. 

History 

First Grade: C. finished with Egypt and moved on to Mesopotamia. She colored a MapTrek map of Mesopotamia and labeled some key cities as well as the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. She read the Gilgamesh trilogy by Ludmila Zeman, City of Rainbows by Karen Foster, and we started reading aloud Lugalbanda by Kathy Henderson. In Builders of the Old World, she listened to me read the sections called "The Fertile Crescent" and "Life in Babylonia." She also read a little bit from National Geographic Investigates Ancient Iraq. 

Third Grade: M. read these sections from The World of William Penn by Genevieve Foster, which finished the book: 

• Three French Explorers
• Louis XIV, 1643-1715
• Two Moghul Emperors
• Sir Isaac Newton, Edmund Halley
• William Penn, 1684-1699
• James II
• William and Mary, 1688
• K'Ang-Hsi, 1662-1722

She also watched Versailles Rediscovered and The Last Magician. 

Science

We finished BFSU Lesson B-9, How Animals Move IV - Energy to Run the Body, and watched these videos: 

• How The Six Basic Nutrients Affect Your Body
• How do vitamins work?
• Dog Stomach vs Human stomach

The week of December 20th, we took a break from science and resumed on the 27th with Lesson C-5, Inertia, and watched these videos: 

• Top 5 Experiments with Newton's 1st Law of Motion Inertia - JoJo's Science Show
• Lesson 2 - Newton's First Law of Motion - Demonstrations in Physics

English

M. finished writing thank you letters for her birthday presents. C. became interested in writing poetry and started scribbling down rhyming poems. 

At lunch, we read aloud A Tree for Peter by Kate Seredy and started The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser. At dinner, our read-aloud has been The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo. In the evening, I've been reading The Family Under the Bridge to C. and my husband has been reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone aloud to M. 

E. finished the last of the Hooked on Phonics readers and has moved on to real easy readers, such as Gus Gets Scared by Frank Remkiewicz, Snow by Roy McKie and P.D. Eastman, Cat and Dog by Else Holmelund Minarik, Go Dog Go by P.D. Eastman, and Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman. She continues to read the exercises in The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading. 

Independently C. read Ralph S. Mouse and started The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum and The Voyages of Dr. Doolittle by Hugh Lofting. 

M. read the first Tumtum and Nutmeg: Adventures Beyond Nutmouse Hall. She also read two Landmark books, William Penn: Quaker Hero and The Explorations of Pere Marquette, as well as Isaac Newton: The True Story of His Life as Inventor, Scientist, & Teacher by John Hudson Tiner.

Math 

C. worked on multiplication and division in Singapore 2A and did some soroban practice. M. worked in Challenging Word Problems. Both girls did Khan Academy almost daily. Both girls also did chapters from Life of Fred on Wednesdays.

Instrumental Music

M. and C. both practiced piano and recorder every day. 

Physical Education

The girls rode bikes on warm days. One morning, we walked to the high school to run on the track while the public schools were out for Christmas break. 

Homeschool Update: Weeks of 11/29/21 and 12/6/21

A cold came through our house in the middle of last week, and we didn't do school for a few days, so I decided to just combine the past two weeks into one post again. 

Advent Activities 

We have simplified our Advent a little bit for this year. Instead of trying to manage one Jesse tree for each child, we printed only one for the family. We also received five sticker Advent calendars in the mail from a friend, but we're only using one this year. The three older girls take turns coloring the Jesse Tree ornament, putting the ornament on the tree, and putting the sticker on the Advent wreath. Then we do a short prayer service based on this Jesse Tree Prayer and Litany. Each week, we are singing a different Advent hymn. First, we did Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, and then Oh Come Divine Messiah. We also pray the Christmas Anticipation Prayer 15 times each morning. 

For the first time, we also have an Advent wreath this year. We light it after dinner and say the Advent prayer for that week from The Catholic All Year Prayer Companion. We finish by singing O Come O Come Emmanuel in English and Latin. 

On November 28, we went to the Advent Family Festival at the Shrine of St. Anthony. On December 5th, we went to breakfast with Santa at our parish. On December 6th, the kids woke up to shoes filled by St. Nicholas and we sang O Who Loves Nicholas the Saintly.

Morning Time 

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "Marjorie's Almanac" by Thomas Bailey Aldrich, "Prairie-Dog Town" by Mary Austin, "Goody O'Grumpity" by Carol Ryrie Brink, "Villagers all, this frosty tide" from Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame,  and "The Kitten at Play" by William Wordsworth. 

Music: We started reading Peter Tchaikovsky and the Nutcracker Ballet by Opal Wheeler, and we listened to the pieces included in the text: 

• Chanson Triste (Tchaikovsky, Op. 40, No. 2)
• Chant sans Paroles Op. 40 No. 6
• Waltz
• Morning Prayer

Art Appreciation: In 100 Masterpieces in Color (Hamlyn, 1972), we studied The Annunciation by Fra Angelico and Madonna of the Meadow by Raphael. We also watched the Smarthistory video about The Annunciation.  

History 

First Grade: C. and I read two sections from Builders of the Old World: In the Hall of Truth and A Great Queen. Then we read Hatshepsut: His Majesty, Herself by Catherine M. Andronik and watched two videos: Hatshepsut Temple and Obelisk and Hatshepsut, The Woman Who was King. She also watched two more parts of BBC's Egypt from 2006. 

Third Grade: M. finished The Puritan Revolution by Walter Hodges (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1972) and has moved onto The World of William Penn by Genevieve Foster, in which she read the first section, about William Penn. 

Science (and Health)

We started BFSU Lesson B-9, How Animals Move IV - Energy to Run the Body. We discussed how the respiratory, digestive, circulatory, and urinary systems help the body use energy and eliminate waste, and watched a variety of videos: 

• Lungs 101 from National Geographic 
• Respiratory System from Dr. Binocs
• Digestive System from Dr. Binocs
• The Digestive System
• What Does the Liver Do?
• How Your Heart Works from Dr. Binocs
• Learn About Valves from Operation Ouch
• Blood Vessels from Operation Ouch
• How the Urinary System Works from Kids Health

C. asked about how her voice box works, and she watched a video about the larynx and colored a diagram of its part. 

M. and I read the chapter about hair care in The Care and Keeping of You Volume 1. She also went to the orthdontist to get her lip bumper put in, and she has been learning about caring for her teeth and her orthodontic appliances. 

E. did her Under the Sea Koala Crate. 

English 

C. read Philomena by Kate Seredy, Did You Carry the Flag Today, Charlie? by Rebecca Caudill, Lester and Mother by Myra McGee, and Henry and the Paper Route, as well as Very Merry Christmas Tales (Scholastic, 2004) and Here Come the Holidays (Scholastic, 2005). She started writing a thank you letter to her godmother for her St. Nicholas gift. 

M. finished Puritan Adventure by Lois Lenski. She started Tumtum & Nutmeg: Adventures Beyond Nutmouse Hall by Emily Bearn, which was a birthday gift from Grandma. She also wrote thank you notes for her birthday gifts.  

E. read Dog Bug, Mutt and Pup, Pig Fun, Rag Gets Wet, and Ann's Big Muffin. Now she is working on Tim the Truck. 

At lunch, we read The Genie of Sutton Place by George Selden. At dinner, the read-aloud was Little Pear and his Friends by Eleanor Frances Lattimore. 

Typing and Handwriting 

C. and M. both did typing daily. Their handwriting practice was primarily writing thank yous.

Languages 

C. started learning Christmas songs in ASL from We Play Along: O Little Town of Bethlehem, The First Noel, I'll Be Home for Christmas, and Little Drummer Boy. 

Math

C. worked on multiplication and division in Singapore 2A. M. worked in Challenging Word Problems. Both girls did Khan Academy some days, but they need to get back to a better routine. 

Instrumental Music

M. and C. both practiced piano and recorder every day. 

Art 

The girls colored the words "hope" and "love" for the first two weeks of Advent. R. and A. colored pictures of Santa. C. also made the "unicorn world" M. gave her for her birthday. 

Homeschool Update: Weeks of 11/15/21 and 11/22/21

I fell a bit behind on taking homeschool notes, so for this one I've combined two weeks. 

Morning Time

Music: We watched performances and visual interpretations of several Bach pieces: 

• Prelude and Fugue in B Minor 
• Ricercar a 6 from Musikalisches Opfer BWV 1079
• Bach, Musical Offering, Ricercar a 6
• Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor 
• Canon Perpetuus from Musikalisches Opfer
• Canon a 2 Cancrizans from Musikalisches Opfer 
• J.S. Bach - Crab Canon on a Möbius Strip

M. and I also read Crab Canon aloud.

Singing: We learned to sing "All the Pretty Little Horses" and "Over the River and Through the Woods."

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "A Song of Sherwood" by Alfred Noyes, "Come, Little Leaves" by George Cooper, "The Fairies" by Rose Fyleman, "The Modern Hiawatha" by George A. Strong,  "First Thanksgiving of All" by Nancy Byrd Turner,  "The Embarrassing Episode of Little Miss Muffet" by Guy Wetmore Carryl, and "When Young Melissa Sweeps" by Nancy Byrd Turner.

Art Appreciation: In 100 Masterpieces in Color (Hamlyn, 1972), we studied The Annunciation by Simone Martini, Les Tres Riches Heures: April by Pol, Hennequin, and Herman de Limbourg, and The Merode Altarpiece by Robert Campin. We watched Smarthistory videos about the Martini and Campin works. 

History

First Grade: C. and I read some of Life Long Ago: Ancient Egypt, but it was way more detailed than what we need at this stage. We switched to Life in the Ancient World by Bart Winer, (Random House, 1961) and read about daily life in Ancient Egypt instead. C. completed this worksheet about the Nile and she watched a BBC video entitled Egypt from 2006. 

Third Grade: M. finished The World of Captain John Smith by Genevieve Foster after reading these sections: 

• Enter Cardinal Richelieu
• Broken Promises
• La Rochelle and the Huguenots
• New France Again
• On the Way to China
• Inside the Great Wall
• Japan's Closing Door 
• In and Out for Christian IV
• John Winthrop of Groton Manor
• Neighbors, New Amsterdam and Plymouth
• Velazquez
• Velazquez Sees Rome
• Galileo's Final Visit to Rome
• Gustav Adolf 
• Plans for Massachusetts
• John Smith Is Not Invited
• Governor Winthrop
• Pilgrims and Puritans
• The Bell Tolls 

Then she started The Puritan Revolution by Walter Hodges (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1972). She is also reading Puritan Adventure by Lois Lenski. 

Science

First and Third Grade: We worked on BFSU Lesson A-9: Matter IV - Dissolving, Solutions, and Crystallization. We added various substances to water to see if they were or were not soluble. We also left some salt water out so the water could evaporate, but it took several days for it to evaporate and leave salt crystals behind. We also watched some YouTube videos: 

• The Great Picnic Mix-up from Crash Course Kids
• Mixtures vs. Solutions from 2 Minute Classroom
• What Dissolves in Water? from Science Universe
• Pop Up Science: Oil and Water from McGraw Hill Pre-K-12 
• Oil Water Detergent Experiment 

Preschool: E. and I read a few pages from the National Geographic Little Kids' First Big Book of Animals. Afterwards, she asked to see some real animals, so she watched Cheetahs 101  and Zebras Risk Their Lives to Reach This Place Every Year from Nat Geo Wild. 

English 

C. read The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum. To Gran she read Three Boys and a Lighthouse by Nan Agle and Ellen Wilson. 

E. read Pop Fox, The Fog, Pom Pom, The Big Log, and Tub Fun. She started working on reading words with a silent E in The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading. 

M. read This New Land by G. Clifton Wisler. 

We started reading aloud the final play in Three Children and Shakespeare, which is The Taming of the Shrew. We finished A Light in the Forest on audio and I started reading aloud The Genie of Sutton Place by George Selden. At dinner, Daddy finished reading Polly and the Wolf. 

M. and C. worked in their Mad Libs grammar workbooks. 

Typing and Handwriting 

C. did typing daily. M. has completed all of the typing exercises she can do with a Chromebook keyboard. C. practiced cursive daily. M. needs to get back to cursive.

Languages 

C. continued to practice Over the River and Through the Wood in ASL and started learning Jingle Bells. She also watched the We Play Along ASL letter videos for I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, and S. 

Math 

M. continued working on Challenging Word Problems 3. C. finished the another review section in Singapore 2A. C. also worked on addition and subtraction with renaming on the soroban. Both girls did chapters from Life of Fred. 

Physical Education 

All the girls rode bikes on several of the warmer days. They also did some dancing. 

Instrumental Music

M. and C. practiced piano and recorder daily. 

Art

All three girls made homemade birthday cards for me. They also glued felt turkeys, made Thanksgiving sticker collages, and colored some Thanksgiving coloring sheets.