Homeschool Update: March -June 2025

All Grades

Latin

We finished Keep Going with Latin and started So You Really Want to Learn Latin? Book 1 by Nicholas Oulton. We are watching the videos and doing one exercise per day and will continue through the summer.

Memorization

M. memorized the Preamble to the Constitution. C. memorized "The Ballad of William Sycamore" by Stephen Vincent Benet and "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll and is learning "What is so rare as a day in June?"  E. is still slowly working on "Casabianca" by Felicia Hemans.

Catechism

During Lent, we prayed for two seminarians and did a "Jesus Tree" with daily Bible readings. We also prayed with Veronica Brandt's YouTube videos for the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

Art

In March, we studied: 

• The Large Turf by Albrecht Dürer 
• The Gleaners by Jean Francois Millet
• The Boy Lincoln by Eastman Johnson
  
• Little Dancer Aged Fourteen by Edgar Degas

In April, we studied: 

• The Letter by Mary Cassatt
• The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh
• The Broncho Buster by Frederic Remington
• Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

In May, we studied: 

• The Country School by Winslow Homer
• I Wait by Julia Margaret Cameron
• The Water Lily Pond by Claude Monet
  
• Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

In June, we studied: 

• Cloud Study by John Constable
• Cockroaches and Flowering Pineapple Moth, Larva, Pupa and Beetle on Citron by Maria Sibylla Merian
• The Torn Hat by Thomas Sully
  
• Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat

Music 

The girls have continued watching Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts on Wednesday evenings, as well as some additional musical performances. All three continue to practice recorder and piano daily. C. is also practicing ukulele. They participated in a recital in May and planned an additional recital on their own at home for Father's Day. R. has begun piano. 

5th Grade (M., girl, age 11)

Social Studies 

M. finished the rest of Oxford's Medieval & Early Modern World textbook series. She watched related Great Courses episodes and completed workbook pages daily. Together, she and I watched Birth of the Modern Mind, a Great Course taught by Alan Charles Kors. 

Science 

M. continued watching John Long's Great Courses videos about robotics and did Arduino activities from Arduino for Beginners. 

English 

M. made further progress in Editor in Chief, Sentence Diagramming Level 2, and Easy Grammar, and she finished Vocabulary from Classical Roots C. 

Math

M. is still reviewing Algebra I on Khan Academy and she continues to work on Life of Fred: Pre-Algebra 1 with Biology. 

3rd Grade (C., girl, age 9)

Social Studies

C.'s studies of the 20th century continued past WWII to include the Korean War, the Berlin Airlift, the Civil Rights Movement, the Beatles (she's now a huge fan), the space race and the moon landing, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Cold War, suburbia, television, teenagers, Elvis, etc. 

English

C. continued working on Sentence Diagramming Level 2, Daily Grams, and she finished Vocabulary from Classical Roots A. 

Science 

C. continued working independently on The Book of Birds, and she finished ahead of schedule.She finished reading Mystery of the Periodic Table by Benjamin Wiker and watching The Mystery of Matter. 

Math

C. completed all the reviews in Singapore 4B and 5A.  She is close to finishing  Life of Fred: Ice Cream. She finished Khan Academy 8th grade math and moved into Algebra I . 

1st Grade (E., girl, age 7)

Social Studies 

E. and I finished the year with Story of Civilization (just for the Reformation and Counter-Reformation) and Builders of the Old World. We read a (heavily biased) picture biography of Martin Luther, and she read picture books about Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare. 

Science 

We finished the year with books from Isaac Asimov's How Did We Find Out About series about light and lasers. 

English

E. continued working in Sentence Diagramming Beginning and Easy Grammar Workbook 3-4. 

Math

E. finished continued with Singapore Primary Mathematics 3A and finished Life of Fred: Edgewood. She is currently in Life of Fred: Farming and finished 6th grade math on Khan Academy and moved on to 7th, where she is currently 39% finished. 

Pre-K (R., boy, age 5 & A., girl, age 5)

The twins turned 5 in March. 

We finished The Golden Book of Cavemen and read Getting to Know the Hudson River.

A. finished all the Hooked on Phonics readers and started reading other easy readers. She has worked her way up to Little Bear and Oliver Pig.

Both twins worked on Early Math Review in Khan Academy and practiced with the soroban. R. completed early math review, kindergarten and first grade and is currently in second.  

R. is reading chapter books by Carolyn Haywood, Beverly Cleary, Johanna Hurwitz, etc.

Homeschool Update: January/February 2025

All Grades

Latin

After weeks of drilling the first and second declensions, we returned to daily lessons in Keep Going with Latin. 

Poetry

M. memorized "The Highwayman" -- finally. C. memorized "The Destruction of Sennacherib" by Lord Byron and "Pied Beauty" by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and now she is working on  "The Ballad of William Sycamore" by Stephen Vincent Benet. E. is working on "Casabianca" by Felicia Hemans.

Catechism

The girls continued memorizing a few questions each from the Catechism lessons.

Art

In January, we studied: 

• A Strawberry Girl by Joshua Reynolds
• The Banjo Lesson by Henry Ossawa Tanner
• George Washington, The Athenaeum by Gilbert Stuart 
• Follow The Leader by Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel

In February, we studied: 

• Abraham Lincoln (the Lincoln Memorial) by Daniel Chester French 
• The Stone Breakers by Gustave Courbet
• Little Miss Muffet by Jessie Wilcox
• The Horse Fair by Rosa Bonheur

Music 

The girls have continued watching Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts on Wednesday evenings, as well as some additional musical performances. All three continue to practice recorder and piano daily. C. is also practicing ukulele. 

5th Grade (M., girl, age 11)

Social Studies 

M. finished The Asian World and The Age of Empires in her Oxford textbook series and started The Age of Voyages. She watched related Great Courses episodes and completed workbook pages daily. 

Science 

M. continued watching John Long's Great Courses videos about robotics and did Arduino activities from Arduino for Beginners. 

English 

M. made further progress in Editor in Chief, Sentence Diagramming Level 2, and Easy Grammar, and she moved into Vocabulary from Classical Roots C. 

Math

M. continues to do a Challenging Word Problem each day. She is still working on Algebra I on Khan Academy (around 90% complete). She finished Life of Fred: Pre-algebra 0 with Physics and moved on to Pre-Algebra 1 with Biology. 

3rd Grade (C., girl, age 9)

Social Studies

C. studied WWI and WWII. She watched Wartime Farm (her favorite), Dunkirk, Sink the Bismarck, Station X, The Battle of the Bulge, and The Longest Day. 

English

C. continued working on Sentence Diagramming Level 2, Daily Grams, and Vocabulary from Classical Roots A. 

Science 

C. continued working independently on The Book of Birds. We worked together on Snap Circuits, but started to find that it was too much, so we switched gears. She watched the first episode of The Mystery of Matter and we tried reading Romance of Chemistry, but it was too much for her, so we switched to Mystery of the Periodic Table by Benjamin Wiker, and that's going well. She is still doing a few Snap Circuits projects the last week of each month.

Math

C. continued working on Singapore Primary Mathematics 4B, including correcting past incorrect answers. She finished Life of Fred: Honey and moved onto Life of Fred: Ice Cream. She finished Khan Academy 7th grade math and moved on to 8th grade math. 

1st Grade (E., girl, age 7)

Social Studies 

We jumped ship with Story of Civilization because it was disorganized and tedious and picked up with A Picturesque Tale of Progress beginning with the Renaissance. We started reading about Marco Polo as February ended. 

Science 

Let's Read and Find Out About Science was too easy, so we switched to Isaac Asimov's How Did We Find Out About series. We have read about earthquakes, volcanoes, coal, and oil so far. 

English

E. continued working in Sentence Diagramming Beginning and Easy Grammar Workbook 3-4. 

Math

E. finished Singapore Primary Mathematics 2B and Singapore Primary Mathematics 3A part 1, and she finished Life of Fred: Dogs. She is now 40% through 6th grade math on Khan Academy.

Pre-K (R., boy, age 4 & A., girl, age 4)

We started reading aloud The Golden Book of Cavemen. 

A. read many Hooked on Phonics readers and some other easy readers. 

Both twins worked on Early Math Review in Khan Academy and practiced with the soroban. 

R. is reading chapter books. 

Homeschool Update: November/December 2024

All Grades

Latin 

We worked in Keep Going with Latin up to the point where the third declension was introduced. Then we took a break to go back and really nail down the first and second declensions before we proceed. We are doing "Latin bees" to drill vocabulary and declensions. 

Poetry

M. has not yet mastered "The Highwayman." C. memorized "In Flanders Fields," "Something Told the Wild Geese," and "A Christmas Carol" from The Wind in the Willows. E. memorized "Merry are the Bells" and "A Christmas Carol" by G.K. Chesterton. 

Catechism

We finished the section of the catechism on the incarnation and moved on to the chapter on redemption. We did our usual Advent prayers with the Jesse Tree. We used The Season of Light by Jay Cormier as our Advent Wreath book, and also prayed the Christmas Novena and watched some Brother Francis "Days of Advent" episodes. 

Art

In November, we studied:
Commuters by Norman Rockwell
Máh-to-tóh-pa, “Four Bears” by George Catlin
The Blind Girl by John Everett Millais
Dignity and Impudence by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer

In December, we studied:
Winter Landscape by Peter Brueghel
Sir William Pepperrell and His Family by John Singleton Copley
Madonna of the Chair by Raphael
Forever Free by Edmonia Wildfire Lewis

Music 

The girls have been watching Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts on Wednesday evenings. In November, they played "Skye Boat Song" in a recital. Since then, they have been practicing Christmas music on piano and soprano recorder. Additionally, C. has been playing alto and tenor recorder, M. has been playing alto and sopranino recorders, and E. has been playing the sopranino. 

5th Grade (M., girl, age 11)

Social Studies 

M. finished the Oxford University Press textbook about Africa and moved onto Asia. She watched related Great Courses videos and answered workbook questions daily. 

Science

M. continued watching John Long's Great Courses videos about robotics and did Arduino activities from Arduino for Beginners. 

English 

M. made further progress in Editor in Chief, Sentence Diagramming Level 2, Easy Grammar, and Vocabulary from Classical Roots B. 

Math

M. continues to do a Challenging Word Problem each day. She is still working on Algebra I on Khan Academy (around 80% complete). She is also still working through Life of Fred: Pre-algebra 0 with Physics.

3rd Grade (C., girl, age 9)

Social Studies

C. studied Prohibition and the 1920s and now she's moved into the 1930s and The Great Depression. She was especially interested in the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby. 

English

C. continued working on Sentence Diagramming Level 2 and Daily Grams, and she completed Vocabulary from Classical Roots 6. 

Science 

C. continued working independently on The Book of Birds. We worked together on Snap Circuits, up to chapter 5. 

Math

C. continued working on Singapore Primary Mathematics 4B, including correcting past incorrect answers. She continued Life of Fred: Honey and Khan Academy 7th grade math. 

1st Grade (E., girl, age 7)

Social Studies 

We continued reading from Story of Civilization, covering the Norman invasion, the Bayeux tapestry, monks, the Crusades, the Investiture Conflict, and a variety of medieval saints. E. watched Illuminations and The Secret of Kells. 

Science 

We read Let's Read and Find Out books about animals in shells, about living things and energy from the sun, about icebergs, glaciers, and arctic animals, as well as about satellites, rockets, computers, and telephones. 

English

E. continued working in Sentence Diagramming Beginning and Easy Grammar Workbook 3-4. 

Math

E. continued working on  Singapore Primary Mathematics 2B, finished Life of Fred: Cats and started Life of Fred: Dogs. She is in 5th grade math on Khan Academy.

Pre-K (R., boy, age 4 & A., girl, age 4)

R. read My Father's Dragon and Penny and Peter and started the Dan Frontier series. He started early math on Khan Academy. R. also used rods to make "trains" adding up to specific numbers. 

A. worked on sounding out three-letter words on flashcards. She also started reading an Ant and Bee book with me. She has been practicing tens and ones on her fingers and on the soroban. 

Both twins listened to a read-aloud of every single Beatrix Potter book. 

Homeschool Update: October 2024

All Grades

Latin

We continued working through Keep Going with Latin, and the girls created their own sentences to translate.

Poetry  

E. worked on memorizing "Merry Are the Bells," C. memorized "In Flanders Fields," and M. worked on "The Highwayman." 

Catechism

E. received her First Holy Communion at the Latin Mass. She and C. and M. worked on memorizing questions and answers about angels and sin.  

Art 

In October, we studied these works of art:

• The Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks
• Tiger in a Tropical Storm by Henri Rousseau
• Improvisation 31 (Sea Battle) by Wassily Kandinsky
• Wallpaper & Patterned Fabric by William Morris

We also went on a field trip to the Walters Art Museum. 

Music

M., C., and E. finished watching Orchestra!, the 1991 documentary miniseries with Dudley Moore. They continued practicing a four-part arrangement (with dad) of Skye Boat Song on recorder in preparation for a recital. M. and C. did music theory every week, and all three did ear training on the computer. 

5th Grade (M., girl, age 10)

Social Studies

M. completed the first book in the Medieval & Early Modern World series from Oxford University Press and moved into the second, which focuses on Africa. She watched related Great Courses videos and answered workbook questions daily. 

Science

M. watched John Long's Great Courses videos about robotics and did Arduino activities from Arduino for Beginners. 

English 

M. made progress in Editor in Chief, Sentence Diagramming Level 2, Easy Grammar, and Vocabulary from Classical Roots B. 

Math

M. has done one challenging word problem each day, as well as 30 minutes of Khan Academy. She is 77% done with Algebra I. She is also still working through Life of Fred: Pre-algebra 0 with Physics.

3rd Grade (C., girl, age 9)

Social Studies

C. has been studying World War I using World War I for Kids as her spine. She watched several videos and wrote a narration about Franz Ferdinand. 

English

C. continued working on Sentence Diagramming Level 2, Daily Grams, and Vocabulary from Classical Roots 6. 

Science 

We changed C.'s schedule so that she works on both her birds curriculum and her Snap circuits curriculum every week. She read and did workbook pages for two chapters in The Book of Birds and we have nearly completed Lesson 3 in Snap Circuits. 

Math 

C. continued working in Singapore Primary Mathematics 4B and did four chapters in Life of Fred: Honey. She finished Khan Academy Sixth Grade Math and moved on to 7th grade. 

1st Grade (E., girl, age 7)

Social Studies

E. listened to several chapters in Story of Civilization Volume 3. She read Irish Pilgrim, Our Little Frankish Cousin of Long Ago, and Viking Settler and wrote narrations about St. Patrick and Charlemagne. 

Science

We read Let's Read and Find Out books about fossils and dinosaurs, rocks and volcanoes, nocturnal animals, and weight and weightlessness. We watched a video tour of the International Space Station and a Reading Rainbow episode about dinosaur fossils. 

English

E. continued working in Sentence Diagramming Beginning and Easy Grammar Workbook 34. 

Math 

E. continued working on  Singapore Primary Mathematics 2B. We discovered that Life of Fred was really easy for her, so we decided to move more quickly through each book, doing two chapters per day. She finished Apples and moved into Butterflies. She finished fourth grade math on Khan Academy and is now about halfway through fifth. 

Pre-K (R., boy, age 4 & A., girl, age 4)

R. and A. listened to the Let's Read and Find Out read-alouds. We also read aloud Halloween picture books and some other classic picture books. R. slowly began to move from easy readers to very basic chapter books. A. read Pig Wig. 

Homeschool Update: September 2024

All Grades

Latin

We reached Lesson 60 in Keep Going with Latin, which we started over the summer. Once a week, the girls created their own English sentences to translate into Latin. 

Poetry

E. memorized "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost and began to memorize "Merry are the Bells." C. memorized "A Song of Sherwood" by Alfred Noyes. M. worked on "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes, but has not yet finished memorizing it. 

Catechism

M., C., and E. memorized assigned questions and answers from the first two lessons in the New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism. 

Art

The works of art we studied this month were: 

• The Blue Vase by Paul Cezanne 
• Roma by Anne Whitney 
• Wisconsin Landscape by John Steuart Curry 
• Plate No. 85, American Robin—Turdus migratorius by John James Audubon

Music

M., C., and E. have been watching Orchestra!, the 1991 documentary miniseries with Dudley Moore. They are also learning a four-part arrangement (with dad) of Skye Boat Song on recorder. 

5th Grade (M., girl, age 10)

Social Studies

M. completed the first 8 chapters in the first book of the Medieval & Early Modern World series from Oxford University Press. She wrote paragraphs comparing the Romans to the Germanic people and explaining the impact of viking invasions on Alfred, King of Wessex and Hugh Capet.  She watched supplemental videos from The Great Courses.

Science 

M. watched videos on the history of computers and finished the Arduino unit on programming. 

English 

M. made progress in Editor in Chief, Sentence Diagramming Level 2, Easy Grammar, and Vocabulary from Classical Roots B. She also wrote an explanation of Otzi the ice man using guidelines from Write Source 2000.

Math

M. has done one challenging word problem each day, as well as 30 minutes of Khan Academy. She is 63% done with Algebra I. She did not pass her most recent bridge in Life of Fred: Pre-algebra 0 with Physics and is in the process of correcting her answers and making a second attempt. 

Field Trips

M. went to the National Museum of Health and Medicine for a forensics class, and to the National Cryptologic Museum for a class on cryptoanalysis. A docent at the Cryptologic Museum was impressed with her and spent an extra hour with her after the tour. 

 

3rd Grade (C., girl, age 9)

Social Studies

C. read about Teddy Roosevelt, The Boxer Rebellion, The San Francisco Earthquake, Marie Curie, the Panama Canal, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, and the Titanic. She wrote one narration each week. 

Science 

C. read the first two chapters in The Book of Birds and completed the accompanying workbook pages. She did all of the first lesson in Student Guide for Electronic Snap Circuits and the first two sections of the second lesson. 

English

C. made progress in Sentence Diagramming Level 2, Daily Grams, and Vocabulary from Classical Roots 6. 

Math 

C. worked on division in Singapore Primary Mathematics 4B and did four chapters in Life of Fred: Honey. She is still working her way through  Khan Academy Sixth Grade Math. 

1st Grade (E., girl, age 6)

Social Studies

E. listened to the first four chapters of Story of Civilization Volume 3. She read A Medieval Monk. 

Science

Our first four topics covered by books in the Let's Read and Find Out series were: the sun and moon, the human body (bones, heart, blood, skin, and lungs), spiders, ants, and cockroaches, and trees and leaves. E. wrote narrations about the heart  and about the sun. 

English

E. made progress in Sentence Diagramming Beginning and Easy Grammar Workbook 34. 

Math

E. worked on fractions and time in Singapore Primary Mathematics 2B. She did the first four chapters in Life of Fred: Apples and has completed more than 60% of 4th grade Khan Academy. 

Pre-K (R., boy, age 4 & A., girl, age 4)

R. and A. joined in on the Let's Read and Find Out About Science read-alouds.

R. has read over 200 easy readers total. A. has read Rag and Dad and Sam. 

Homeschool Curriculum and Schedule: 2024-2025

Our sixth official year of homeschooling has begun! This year, I have three school-age kids. According to Maryland they are in 5th grade (M., girl, almost 11), 3rd grade (C., girl, almost 9), and 1st grade (E., girl, almost 7), though they all vehemently disagree with these classifications. I also have two four-year-olds (R., boy and A., girl) who are doing Pre-K stuff from September to January and kindergarten stuff from January on.

---

All Grades 

All school-age children will be memorizing poems, geography, and Catechism questions and answers. They will also also participate in Latin exercises from Keep Going with Latin by William Linney. P.E. will be a combination of bike riding, running laps, and playing at the park. They also swam all summer. For art, we are using an elementary art curriculum from Concordia University. The school-age kids also use Typing.com to practice typing, and they review their math facts using online flashcards. 

---

5th Grade

Social Studies

• Medieval & Early Modern World series (with workbooks) from Oxford University Press 
  Daily, plus two narrations per month 

Science

• Arduino for Beginners from Udemy; Robotics from The Great Courses
  At least twice a week, with Dad  

English

• Editor in Chief Level 1
  Friday
  
  
• Write Source 2000
  Monthly writing assignment
  
  
• Sentence Diagramming Level 2
  Monday 
  
  
• Easy Grammar
  Five pages every Thursday 
  
  
• Vocabulary from Classical Roots B
  Monday and Thursday

Math

• Life of Fred: Pre-algebra 0 with Physics
  Friday, with Dad
  
  
• Elementary Algebra by Harold W. Jacobs; Khan Academy Algebra
  daily, taught by Dad 
  
  
• Singapore Challenging Word Problems 4
  one problem daily 

Health 

• The Care and Keeping of You: Body Book for Girls 2 
  monthly or less

Music 

• Denes Agay Book 3 ; The Soprano Recorder by William M. Weiss
  daily practice of piano and recorder 

---

3rd Grade 

Social Studies

• The Century by Peter Jennings and other 20th century resources
  daily, with Dad

Science

• The Book of Birds (and workbook) and Student Guide for Electronic Snap Circuits
  alternating weeks, Tuesday and Thursday, and sometimes Friday

English

• Sentence Diagramming Level 2
  Friday
  
  
• Daily Grams
  daily
  
  
• Vocabulary from Classical Roots 6
  Tuesday and Thursday

Math

• Singapore Primary Mathematics 4B
  daily
  
  
• Life of Fred: Honey
  Friday 

• Khan Academy Sixth Grade Math
  daily 

Health 

• The Care and Keeping of You: Body Book for Girls 1
  monthly or less

Music 

• Denes Agay Book 2; 50 Graded Studies for Recorder, and Recorder Time
  daily practice of piano and recorder

---

1st Grade

Social Studies

• The Story of Civilization Volume 2
  Monday 
  
  
• supplemental picture books
  weekly 

Science

• Let's Read and Find Out About Science series 
  grouped weekly by theme, one book per weekday 

English 

• Sentence Diagramming Beginning
  daily
  
  
• Easy Grammar Workbook 34
  daily 

Math

• Singapore Primary Mathematics 2B
  daily 
  
  
• Life of Fred: Apples
  Friday 

Music

• Denes Agay Primer and Hands on Recorder
  daily practice of piano and recorder  

---

Pre-K

• Let's Read and Find Out About Science series 
  grouped weekly by theme, one book per weekday 
  
  
• The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading
  A. only, daily 
  
  
• Liberty's Kids history video series
  several times per week
  
  
• Other skills: riding a bike, cutting with scissors

Homeschool Update, March-June 2024

Group Activities 

Geography/Art 

From The Complete Book of Marvels by Richard Halliburton, Dad read these sections, and the girls watched accompanying videos: 

• Parthenon, Temple of Athena [video]
• Mt. Athos, Country of Men [video]
• Moscow, Heart of Russia [video]
• Santa Sophia, Mother of Churches [video]
• Ephesus, City of Ancient Temples [video] 
• Halicarnassus [video]
• Colossus, Statue of Helios [video]
• Pharos, Towering Lighthouse [video] 
• Pyramids, Huge Man-Made Wonders [video]
• Knossos, Buried Cretan City [video]
• Timbuctoo, Desert City [video]
• Victoria Falls, Sounding Smoke [video]
• Mecca, Sacred Moslem City [video]
• Petra, Enchanted City [video]
• Dead Sea [video]
• Jerusalem, Rock of Abraham [video]
• Baalbek, City of Marvelous Ruins [video]
• Palmyra, Zenobia's Domain [video]

We also used historical and current world maps to locate different countries that came up in our reading in other areas.

Latin 

We finished Getting Started with Latin: Beginning Latin for Homeschoolers and Self-Taught Students of Any Age by William E. Linney. We spent some time reviewing some of the translation exercises by translating from English to Latin, then started Keep Going with Latin. 

Shakespeare

We read a children's version of As You Like It and the girls watched the animated adaptation.  We will soon watch a version of the play as well. 

Read-Alouds

Dad read aloud these historical fiction titles:

• Children of the Fox by Jill Paton Walsh 
• Hostage to Alexander by Mary Evans Andrews 
• The Eagles Have Flown by Joanne Williamson
• Runner for the King by Rowena Bastin Bennett 

I read aloud these titles: 

• A Swarm in May by William Mayne 
• Noodlehead Stories (excerpts) by M.A. Jagendorf
• The Cottage at Bantry Bay by Hilda van Stockum
• The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge 
• Mystery of the Roman Ransom by Henry Winterfeld
• Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome 
• Magic or Not? by Edward Eager 
• The Whale People by Roderick L. Haig-Brown 
• Barefoot Days by Anna Rose Wright 
• Over the Blue Mountain by Conrad Richter 

We listened to these books on audio: 

• James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl 
• The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
• When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson 

Catechism 

We continued practicing questions and answers in our Catechism books.  

Science 

C. and E. listened to me read aloud The First Book of Trees by Margaret Wiliamson and Here a Plant, There a Plant, Everywhere a Plant, Plant: A Story of Luther Burbank by Robert M. Quackenbush, and they finished science for the year with the Green Planet documentary series.

M. and I finished reading Secrets of the Universe. 

The Van Cleave experiments started getting old, so she wrote up her last few lab reports on demonstrations from ExperimentArchive that were too dangerous to try at home. 

Health

Both M. and C. visited the orthdontist. M. visited the pediatrician and also accompanied A. to several appointments after she broke one arm, and a month later, the other. 

History 

C. read The Year of the Horseless Carriage and Abraham Lincoln's World. 

M. read The Ancient Greek World, The Ancient Roman World, and The Ancient American World and completed related pages in the accompanying workbooks. 

E. continued reading A Child's History of the World by V.M. Hillyer through the Fall of Rome. She started listing to The Story of Civilization Volume 1 for review of this year's history topics. 

All three girls went in period dress on a field trip to a one-room schoolhouse. 

English

In Critical Thinking Co.'s Sentence Diagramming program, M. completed level 1 and level 2. C. finished the beginner level and moved on to level 2.  E. did some adjective worksheets to help her practice. 

M. finished Vocabulary from Classic Roots level 6 and started level B. 

R. finished reading all but the last of the Hooked on Phonics readers. A. started reading consonant-vowel-consonant words.

Math 

M. continued working on Challenging Word Problems 3 and finished Singapore Primary Mathematics 6B. In Life of Fred, she continued with Decimals and Percents and she worked on 7th grade math and Algebra 1 on Khan Academy. She is working on Algebra this summer. 

C. finished Singapore Primary Mathematics 4A and made significant progress in 4B, as well as in fifth grade math on Khan Academy.  

E. finished Singapore Primary Mathematics 1A and started 1B. She finished early math and is worked quickly through 2nd grade math on Khan Academy and is now making significant progress in third grade math. 

Music 

M. and C. continued working on the music theory exercises in Practical Theory by Sandy Felstein. All three girls practiced piano and recorder daily. C. started learning ukulele and M. started guitar. 

Physical Education

Now that pool season is here, our main focus is swimming at the pool. The girls played freeze tag and other group games with friends in the neighborhood. M. and C. learned the basics of baseball from their aunt while watching Mets games on our visit to NY. 

Homeschool Update: January & February 2024

Group Activities 

Geography/Art 

From The Complete Book of Marvels by Richard Halliburton, Dad read these sections, and the girls watched accompanying videos: 

• Carcassonne, City of Romance [video]
• Mount St. Michael [video]
• Reims Cathedral, Holy Monument [video]
• Matterhorn, Tiger of the Alps [video]
• St. Bernard Monastery [video]
• St. Peter's, Church Supreme [video]
• Vesuvius, Famous Volcano [video]
• Pompeii, City of the Past [video]
• Blue Grotto, Cavern of Loveliness [video]

C. also learned the locations of the continents using this game. 

Latin 

We continued our lessons in Getting Started with Latin: Beginning Latin for Homeschoolers and Self-Taught Students of Any Age by William E. Linney, which introduced the second declension. 

Shakespeare

We read the children's versions of Richard III and Othello from Shakespeare Stories by Leon Garfield and the girls watched the animated adaptations. For Richard III, the girls acted out part of Act 2 Scene 2 as a group, and then watched the film adaptation starring Laurence Olivier. For Othello, M. memorized Iago's speech from Act 1 Scene 1, lines 57-65, C memorized Othello's speech from Act 3 Scene 3, lines 267-279, and E. memorized Desdemona's speech from Act 1 Scene 3, lines 179-188. At the end of February, they were still working on finalizing those.

Read-Alouds

Dad read aloud this historical fiction title:

• At the Hot Gates: An Account of the Battle of Thermopylae by Donald Sampson  

I read aloud these titles: 

• The Animals' Christmas by Anne Thaxter Eaton
• The Tough Winter by Robert Lawson
• Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper
• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
• Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce  

Catechism 

We did a little bit of work in our Catechism books, and then got ready for Lent with Ash Wednesday  coloring pages, Lenten paths to color in, and Mardi Gras masks (with hearts for Valentine's Day!), and we  colored and "buried" the Alleluia in a bookshelf. We attended the Latin Mass once in January once in February. 

Poetry

We finished reading Poem Making by Myra Cohn Livingston and then analyzed "The Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee" and "Barbara Frietchie" using what we learned.   

Science 

C. worked as far as I wanted her to go in the Classic Science student book by Scott McQuerry. Then she read Lili: A Giant Panda of Sichuan by Robert McClung. E. and I read The First Book of Bugs by Margaret Williamson together. 

Both girls started listening to me read The First Book of Plants by Margaret Wiliamson. They also watched Life on Earth: Plants and wrote narrations on the Venus fly trap.  

M. and I continued reading Secrets of the Universe, covering these chapters: 

• The Law of Conservation of Matter
• Pascal's Law - How Liquids Behave
• Boyle's and Charles's Laws - How Gases Behave
• Bernoulli's Principle
• How the Elements Combine - The Law of Definite Proportions and Gay-Lussac's Law

From Physics for Every Kid by Janice Van Cleave, she did experiments 55 (Crash), 61 (Bonk), 79 (See Through), 89 (Hot Band), and 97 (Twang) and wrote reports. 

Health

C. had two visits to the orthodontist and read about puberty in The Body Book for Girls. 

History 

C. read with Dad from The World of George Washington by Genevieve Foster. She wrote narrations on  the Declaration of Independence and Benjamin Franklin.  

M. read The Ancient South Asian World, and watched episodes of the History of India from Great Courses, as well as The Story of India and What the Ancients Knew: India. She took notes on the Great Courses videos. Then she read The Ancient Chinese, and did a worksheet for each chapter, focusing on the Word Bank, What Happened When, Cast of Characters, and All Over the Map exercises. She did narrations on the Ramayana and Mahabarata and on Confucius. 

M. and E. read Virginia Schomp's collections of Indian and Chinese myths together. 

E. continued reading A Child's History of the World by V.M. Hillyer.  She also The First Marathon: the Legend of Pheidippides by Susan Reynolds and A Gift for the King by Christopher Manson. 

English

 M. switched from from Rex Barks, which was becoming tedious to Sentence Diagramming. She completed the Beginner level quickly and moved on to Level 1. She finished Vocabulary from Classical Roots A, but we realized there were earlier levels she would benefit from doing and gave her Level 6 next. 

C. continued working on the Beginner level of Sentence Diagramming. 

E. did several worksheets to practice identifying verbs. 

R. worked with me in The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading and practiced reading these Hooked on Phonics readers: Pig Wig, Pig Wig Can Hit, Tag, and Ann's Hat.  

A. practiced identifying her letters and started learning the sounds for short A and short E from The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading. 

Math 

M. continued working on Challenging Word Problems 3 and Singapore Primary Mathematics 6B. She needed extra work on fractions and area. In Life of Fred, she continued with Decimals and Percents and she worked on 7th grade math and Algebra 1 on Khan Academy.

C. -finished Singapore Primary Mathematics 3B and moved on to 4A. She finished Life of Fred: Farming and moved on to Goldfish. In Khan Academy, she is still in fourth grade math. 

E. continued working on Singapore Primary Mathematics1B, and she is 80% finished with early math on Khan Academy.

Music 

M. and C. have been working on the music theory exercises in Practical Theory by Sandy Felstein. All three girls did note identification and ear training on the computer and practiced piano and recorder daily.  M. and C. played recorder duets of "Rondo" and "O Come All Ye Faithful"; C. and E. are doing a recorder duets of "Rigaudon."  Occasionally, they watched episodes of How to Play the Piano with Pamela Pike from Great Courses.

Physical Education 

This winter, they ran outside when the weather was nice and played with a sled on the hill with neighbor kids in the snow.

Typing and Handwriting 

All three girls practiced typing on Typing.com. M and C. also did Ten Fast Fingers and C. also did some typing on Keybr.com. E. practiced cursive daily; the other girls wrote their narrations in cursive. 

Homeschool Update: November & December 2023

Group Activities

Geography/Art 

From The Complete Book of Marvels by Richard Halliburton, Dad read these sections, and the girls watched accompanying videos: 

• Fort Jefferson, Coral Outpost [video]
• Popocatepetl, Smoking Crater [video]
• Chichen Itza, Mayan Capital [video]
• Christophe's Citadel [video]
• Panama Canal, Mammoth Ditch [video]
• Machu Picchu, Inca Fortress [video]
• Iguazu Falls [video]
• Rio de Janeiro, Glittering City [video]
• Gibraltar, Rocky Sentry [video]

Latin 

We continued our lessons in Getting Started with Latin: Beginning Latin for Homeschoolers and Self-Taught Students of Any Age by William E. Linney. 

Shakespeare 

We read Twelfth Night from Shakespeare Stories by Leon Garfield and watched the animated adaptation.  The girls each memorized a speech from the play. E. had Orsino's "If music be the food of love..." from Act 1 scene 1. C. had Olivia's "O, what a deal of scorn looks beautiful" from Act 3 scene 1, and M. had Malvolio's "Daylight and champaign discovers not more" from Act 2 scene 5. 

Read-Alouds

Dad read aloud these historical fiction titles: 

• "The Winged Cat,"  "The Prince and the Golden Ax," and "The Demon Pazuzu" by Deborah Nourse Lattimore
• The Winged Girl of Knossos by Erick Berry 
• A Song for Gilgamesh by Elizabeth Hodges 
• Mara of Old Babylon by Elizabeth Witheridge 

I read aloud these titles: 

• Mist on the Mountain by Caroline Flory 
• Christmas, edited by Alice Dalgliesh
• The Best Christmas by Lee Kingman 
• The Lion in the Box by Marguerite deAngeli

Catechism

We did our regular lessons from the Catechism books in November, but in December, we focused mainly on Advent. We did the Jesse Tree and our morning Advent prayer service and in the evenings we lit the Advent wreath and prayed using Lisa Hendey's 5 Minute Prayers Around the Advent Wreath. We also attended the Greccio Living Nativity at the Shrine of St. Anthony, carols in the church at our parish, and Mass for the Immaculate Conception and Christmas Eve in addition to the Sundays of Advent. We also read Hanna's Christmas for St. Lucy Day and watched Juan Diego: Messenger of Guadalupe on Formed, as well as the Christmas specials of Story Keepers, Brother Francis, and Benjamin Cello.

Poetry 

In November, we continued reading Poem Making by Myra Cohn Livingston. In December, we read Christmas poems from the Dalgliesh Christmas book in lieu of poetry lessons. 

Science 

C. and E. finished the animal sections of The Golden Treasury of Natural History, but I felt we needed further study. C. started working on the Classic Science student book by Scott McQuerry and E. started Animals: A Science Workbook for Ages 4 to 6. After a couple weeks, we weren't happy with E.'s book so I told her to stop and we started reading The First Book of Birds by Margaret Williamson together. My plan is to continue studying animals separately, then bring the two girls back together in February or March to study plants.

From Secrets of the Universe, M. and I read: The Law of Universal Gravitation, Conservation of Momentum, and Optics - the laws of Light. From Physics for Every Kid by Janice Van Cleave, she did experiments 39 (Balancing Act), 41 (Paper Flop), and 45 (Ramp) and wrote reports.

Health

In December, we had several health-related appointments. C. had a visit to the orthodontist. E. visited the optometrist and ended up with glasses. All 5 kids went to the dentist. 

History 

M. read The Ancient Egyptian World and staretd The Ancient South Asian World. She watched Great Courses lectures from History of Ancient Egypt and History of India as well as episodes of Ancient Lives and Story of India. Independently, she read The Lost Queen of Egypt by Lucile Morrison,  Boy of the Pyramids by Ruth Fosdick Jones. 

With Dad, C. read these sections from The World of Captain John Smith:  Indians and Thanksgiving (1621); Trouble in Bohemia; Of Kings and Brides; Massacres, Indian and White; Hugo Grotius; A Painter Goes to Paris (Rubens); Buckingham Finds a Bride for Charles; 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 (1622); 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 (d. 1632); Plans for Massachusetts; John Smith Is Not Invited; Governor Winthrop;  Pilgrims and Puritans; The Bell Tolls (1631)

They also read The Puritan Revolution by C. Walter Hodges, and The World of William Penn by Genevieve Foster, which includes these sections: 

• William Penn, 1660-1684 
• Three French Explorers (Marquette, Joliet, La Salle, 1672, 1682)
• Louis XIV, 1643-1715
• Two Moghul Emperors (Shah Jahan & Aurangzeb Alamgir, 1658-1707)
• Sir Isaac Newton, Edmund Halley
• William Penn, 1684-1699
• James II
• William and Mary, 1688
• K'Ang-Hsi, 1662-1722
• Peter the Great, 1682-1725
• William Penn, 1699-1718

In A Child's History of the World by V.M. Hillyer, E and I read these chapters: 

• Fairy-Tale Gods
• A Fairy-Tale War
• The King of the Jews
• The People Who Made Our ABCs
• Hard as Nails
• The Crown of Leaves
• A Bad Beginning 

We also read Life Long Ago: The Athenians by Leonard Weisgard, Archimedes Takes a Bath by Joan Lexua and The Iliad and The Odyssey by Jane Werner Watson. Independently, she read Lysis Goes to the Play by Caroline Dale Snedeker, The Spartan Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins, Our Little Athenian Cousin of Long Ago by Julia Darrow Cowles, and Our Little Spartan Cousin of Long Ago by Julia Darrow Cowles. 

English 

M. switched from Rex Barks to the Beginning book of Sentence Diagramming and continued with Vocabulary from Classical Roots A. 

C. continued with the Beginning book of Sentence Diagramming. 

E. switched from Grammarland to Treasures Grammar Practice Book Grade 1 

R. (age 3.5) worked with me in The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading and practiced reading Dad and Sam.  

A. (also 3.5) is slowly working on learning letters.

Math

M. continued working in Challenging Word Problems 3. She finished all the review sections in Singapore Primary Mathematics 5B and 6A and moved on to the final book, 6B. She started Life of Fred: Decimals and Percent and worked on 7th grade math and algebra basics on Khan Academy. 

C. continued with Singapore Primary Mathematics 3B and Life of Fred: Farming. She moved into 4th grade math on Khan Academy. 

E. finished Singapore Primary Mathematics 1A and started 1B. She continued with Early Math on Khan Academy.  

Music

All three girls practiced piano and recorder. They sang carols at church and at the Greccio Living Nativity. 

Physical Education

When the weather is good, the girls have been running on the hill and playing on the playground. Indoors, they have done some exercise and dancing videos.  

Homeschool Update: October 2023

Group Activities

Geography/Art 

From The Complete Book of Marvels by Richard Halliburton, Dad read the sections about the Boulder (Hoover) Dam, Niagara Falls, New York City, and Washington, DC. Then we watched these videos: 

• America's Most Powerful Dam
• Thundering Waters
• New York, the Wonder City
• District of Columbia

Latin 

We continued working our way through Getting Started with Latin: Beginning Latin for Homeschoolers and Self-Taught Students of Any Age by William E. Linney. After we learned a few verbs and how to conjugate them, we took a break from the book to make sure all three girls were solid in their understanding of how to identify and translate each verb. E. took a bit to catch up. C. is our strongest Latin student right now. 

Shakespeare

The girls spent October memorizing some of the three witches' lines from Macbeth. They recorded a performance on Halloween. 

Read-Alouds

In October, Dad read aloud The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis Mcgraw and Egyptian Adventures by Olivia Coolidge. I read aloud A Lemon and a Star by E. C. Spykman and we played the audiobook of The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury. 

Catechism

M. and C. continued to memorize answers to questions in the New St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism Volume 1 and E. continued to memorize the answers to questions in  The St. Joseph First Communion Catechism. 

Poetry

We are reading Poem-making: Ways to Begin Writing Poetry by Myra Cohn Livingston on Fridays. 

Science 

C. and E. read about birds and insects in The Golden Treasury of Natural History. In Secrets of the Universe, M. and I read three chapters: "Planetary Motion," "Pendulums and Falling Objects - Galileo's Laws of Motion," and "Newton's Three Laws of Motion." She watched several demonstrations by Julius Sumner Miller, and did two experiments from Janice VanCleave's Physics for Every Kid, one about buoyancy and one about gravity. 

Health 

E. watched the episodes of How the Body Works about the tongue and the nervous system. M. visited the orthodontist. 

History 

E. and I read about Egypt in A Child's History of the World by V.M. Hillyer. We also read Pharaoh's Boat by David Weitzman and The Great Pyramid by Elizabeth Mann. On her own, she read: 

• Mummies Made in Egypt by Aliki
• Pepi and the Secret Names by Jill Paton Walsh 
• Hatshepsut, His Majesty, Herself by Catherine M. Andronik
• Zekmet, the Stone Carver: A Tale of Ancient Egypt by Mary Stolz
• Seeker of Knowledge by James Rumford 
• The Shipwrecked Sailor: An Egyptian Tale with Hieroglyphs by Tamara Bower
• Sokar and the Crocodile by Alice Howard 

She also acted out an Egyptian burial using a homemade paper mummy and a shoebox sarcophagus she decorated herself using drawing instructions from Ralph Masiello's Ancient Egypt Drawing Book. 

M. and I finished The Early Human World and read most of The Ancient Near Eastern World. She watched most of the episodes of the Great Courses class, Between the Rivers. She wrote a narration about Hammurabi and read The Three Brothers of Ur by J. G. Fyson. 

C. and Dad continued reading The World of Captain John Smith by Genevieve Foster, covering these sections: 

• John Smith, Sightseer in Italy (1600)
• Galileo
• A Royal Wedding (1600 - Henry IV & Maria de Medici)
• Grand Opera and the Violin
• John Smith and the Terrible Turks (1601-1603)
• John Smith, Slave (1603)
• Cervantes and Don Quixote
• Boris Godunov
• The Queen Is Dead (1603)
• King James I
• The Globe Theater
• Ben Jonson
• Sir Walter Raleigh a Prisoner (1603)
• Sir Francis Bacon Rings the Bell
• The King James Bible (1604)
• Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot (1605)
• A Meeting in Scrooby Village
• A Frenchman Reports on New Spain (Champlain)
• Santa Fe, New Mexico
• Champlain Visits Canada
• Off to Virginia (1606)
• New France, the First Colony
• The Great Chief Powhatan
• John Smith at Jamestown (1607)
• A Compass and Talking Paper
• Pocahontas and John Smith
• John Smith Draws a Map of Virginia (1608)
• Half Moon on the Hudson River
• French and Indians on Lake Champlain
• President John Smith (1608)
• Starvation and Shipwreck
• (Tobacco to the Rescue)
• A Synagogue in Amsterdam
• At Home in Leyden
• (The Telescope (1608))
• Galileo and the Planets
• Henry IV is Dead
• Galileo in Rome (1611)
• French Missionaries in Canada
• Pocahontas Is Married
• The Royal Couple
• King Gustav Adolf
• Russia's New Tsar, Michael Romanov (1613)
• The Naming of New England
• In Memory of Shakespeare (d. 1616)
• Pocahontas in England
• The Law vs. the King?
• Raleigh's Last Adventure (1616)
• The House of Burgesses (1619)
• Servants and Slaves (1619)
• They Knew That They Were Pilgrims
• John Smith, Unhappy Admiral
• The Mayflower Sails (1620)
• Anchored at Plymouth

C. also read Puritan Adventure by Lois Lenski. 

English 

M. continued working on Vocabulary from Classical Roots A and Rex Barks. E. continued working in Grammarland. C. continued working in the Beginning book of Sentence Diagramming. 

R. started sounding out consonant-vowel-consonant words. 

Math

M. continued working on Challenging Word Problems 3. She finished the reviews in Singapore 5A and moved on to 5B. She also continued with Khan Academy 6th grade math, Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents and drilling math facts with flashcards online every Friday. 

C. continued with Singapore 3B, Khan Academy 3rd grade math, and Life of Fred: Farming.

E. continued with Singapore 1A and Khan Academy early math. 

Music

All three girls practiced piano and recorder daily. 

Physical Education

The girls rode bikes and played on the playground. They also did an exercise video from the Ten Thousand method once or twice. 

Homeschool Update: September 2023

Group Activities

Geography/Art  

Dad is reading aloud geography this year from The Complete Book of Marvels by Richard Halliburton. This month, he read the sections about the Transbay Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon. After each section, the kids all watched a related video. The videos were:  

• Building the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge (1937)
• BUILDING THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE 1960s BETHLEHEM STEEL PROMOTIONAL MOVIE SAN FRANCISCO MD65664
• Let's See Yosemite, 1938
• 1940s SANTA FE RAILROAD GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK PROMOTIONAL FILM 46014

The architectural landmarks covered in this book are our focus for art this year.

Latin 

We completed the first 20 lessons of Getting Started with Latin: Beginning Latin for Homeschoolers and Self-Taught Students of Any Age by William E. Linney, and it's going well so far. E. (almost 6) struggled at first, but she is holding her own. The girls take turns translating the exercises each day, and we use the audio recordings to help with pronunciation. Even the twins have picked up a little bit. 

Shakespeare 

Our play this month was Macbeth. We read the children's version from Shakespeare Stories by Leon Garfield, and the girls started to memorize the "double, double toil and trouble" passage in parts. 

Read-Alouds 

We are doing two read-alouds at a time this year. Dad reads a historical fiction novel and I read an additional novel. September's books were Attar of the Ice Valley by Leonard Wibberley, The Axe of Bronze by Kurt Schmeltzer, The Crystal Tree by Jennie D. Lindquist, and Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson (which we finished on St. Francis's feast day owing to his role in the end of the book.) 

Catechism

M. and C. memorized the answers to the questions in Lesson 1 of the New St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism Volume 1 and E. memorized the answers to the questions in the first few lessons of The St. Joseph First Communion Catechism. 

Science 

C. and E. are having science with me every morning before breakfast. We're reading The Golden Treasury of Natural History, and we have covered the formation of rocks, early animals (such as trilobites), and creatures of the seashore (including mollusks). 

M. and I read two chapters from Secrets of the Universe: "What is a natural law?" and "Archimedes' Principle." She watched a Demonstrations in Physics video with Julius Sumner Miller and did two experiments from Janice VanCleave's Physics for Every Kid, one about electricity and one about magnets. 

Health

E. watched the KidsHealth How the Body Works videos about the ear, nose, eye, and teeth. M. read some of the later chapters in The Body Book for Girls (she's almost done) and C. started reading it. C. and M. also both had orthdontist visits. 

History 

E. and I read the first four chapters in A Child's History of the World by V.M. Hillyer. We also read They Lived Like This in the Old Stone Age by Marie Neurath and The First Farmers by Leonard Weisgard, and she created some cave art with crayons on brown paper. 

M. and I read all but the final 5 chapters in The Early Human World. She wrote a narration about archaeologist Mary Leakey. She also watched supplemental videos: 

• Science Odyssey: Origins 1
• First Peoples - Africa
• Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life
• Becoming Human Episode 1
• Science Odyssey: Origins 2
• Dr. Leakey and the Dawn of Man
• Life on Earth Episode 13
• Becoming Human Episode 2
• First Peoples - Europe
• Becoming Human Episode 3
• Neanderthals: Meet Your Ancestors 
• Lapedo Child 
• First Peoples - Australia
• Cave of Forgotten Dreams
• Lascaux: How to Save 18,000 Years of History
• Ice Age Art
• First Peoples - America
• Prehistoric Animals of the Tar Pits

C. and Dad are reading The World of Captain John Smith by Genevieve Foster. They have covered these sections: The Queen's Little Pirate; Queen Elizabeth; Philip II; A Declaration of Independence; The Virgin Queen and Her Frog Prince; Mary Stuart; The Three Henrys and the Queen Mother of France; Young Walter Raleigh and Virginia; No Gold - But Tobacco; Little John Smith; To and From Holland; Mary Stuart and the Honest Man; James; Lord Roanoke and Virginia Dare; Spanish Armada; War of the Three Henrys; The Lost Colony; John Smith, Schoolboy; The Faerie Queen; The Upstart Crow (Shakespeare); The White-Plumed Henry (of Navarre); El Greco and Philip II; John Smith, Would-Be Knight; El Dorado, City of Gold; Akbar of India; Mr. Pilot in Japan; Entrance to China; Sun, Moon, and Stars; A Star Gazer, Tycho Brahe and His Dog; Gustav Adolf, Star of the North. 

Independently, C. read The Lost Colony and she wrote a narration about Roanoke as well. 

English 

M. worked on Vocabulary from Classical Roots A. C. started working in the Beginning book of Sentence Diagramming. E. did the first three chapters of Grammarland and the corresponding worksheets. 

All three girls read independently pretty much every day.

Math

M. continued working on Challenging Word Problems 3 and started doing the reviews in Singapore Primary Mathematics 5A. She is also working on Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents and she drills math facts with flashcards online every Friday. 

C. is working on Singapore Primary Mathematics 3B and Life of Fred: Farming, and she also does flashcards online. 

E. is working on Singapore Primary Mathematics 1A as well as Khan Academy Early Math.

M. and C. also continue to work on Khan Academy.

Music

All three girls practiced piano and recorder daily. 

Physical Education

The girls rode bikes many afternoons and played on the playground across from our house. 

Homeschool Plans: 2023-2024

This school year will be my fifth official year of homeschooling, and I will have three students - M., C., and E. Because these three girls have fall birthdays, they all did a year of kindergarten the year they turned five, so while the state of Maryland classifies them as 4th grade, 2nd grade, and kindergarten, we think of them as being in 5th, 3rd, and 1st, and they work at all different levels in all different subjects. 

Social Studies 

M. has completed the first phrase of the trivium, so she will be doing the Ancients at the logic level this year. E. will be doing the same time period at the grammar level. 

M. will be reading The World in Ancient Times textbook series, including the volume of primary documents, and we will discuss the material and supplement with related video series, including Between the Rivers, History of Ancient Egypt, History of India, From Yao to Mao, Ancient Greek Civilization, History of Ancient Rome, Maya to Aztec and Lost Worlds of South America. 

With E., I will be reading aloud A Child's History of the World by V.M. Hillyer and supplementing with  most of the same picture books and videos M. and C. read their first year.

C. is in year three of the grammar stage, and she will be studying the Late Renaissance and Early Modern periods with Daddy using books by Genevieve Foster and the same videos and supplemental reading M. used two years ago. 

Together, all three girls will learn about important geographical and architectural landmarks from The Book of Marvels. 

Science

We designed our own physics curriculum for Meg with Secrets of the Universe by Paul Fleisher as her spine. She will be watching video demonstrations starring Julius Sumner Miller and simulations from PhET at the University of Colorado, and doing experiments independently using Janice VanCleave's Physics for Every Kid. 

Though we are still technically using Building Foundations for Scientific Understanding as our science curriculum for C. and E., I wanted a change, so we chose The Golden Treasury of Natural History as our spine for learning about our main subjects of plants and animals. At the end of the year, we will do a quick unit on magnetism to finish out the two-year course we've been on. 

English

M. will continue her work with Rex Barks, as well as with Vocabulary from Classical Roots. She will also be writing narrations to accompany her history, with the goal of learning to identify and communicate the main ideas of the chapters she reads. 

C. will begin sentence diagramming this year. She will also do some narrations.

E. will work through Grammarland by listening to the lessons and completing the worksheets for each one. She will work on narrating her history and science lessons. 

Additionally, we will have daily read-alouds. The plan is to have one historical fiction and one realistic or fantasy title going at all times. We will also read one Shakespeare play per month and do a weekly poetry lesson from Poem Making by Myra Cohn Livingston. 

Latin 

All three girls will begin Latin together this year. We'll be using Getting Started with Latin. We will also continue to memorize prayers and psalms in Latin and to attend the Latin Mass once a month. 

Math 

The girls kept up with math all summer, so everyone is already well into their work for this year. 

M. is doing algebra on Khan Academy and will be doing the review sections of Singapore Primary Mathematics 5A. 

C. is working on third grade math on Khan Academy and Singapore 3B. 

E. is working on Early Math on Khan Academy and will be working on Singapore 1A. 

M. will move into Life of Fred: Decimals and C. will begin Life of Fred: Farming. M. and C. will continue to drill math facts using online flashcards, but we will be reducing the frequency from daily to weekly. 

Religion 

E. will begin her two-year preparation for First Communion using The St. Joseph First Communion Catechism. M. and C. who have received First Communion, will move into the New St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism Volume 1, and we will take that at whatever pace they can manage it. 

Health

M. will be finishing The Body Book for Girls, and C. will begin to read it. 

E. will study human body systems using the resources from Kids Health. 

Art 

This year, art will mainly be covered by the material in The Book of Marvels, but the girls will also create art using how-to-draw videos, craft kits, and various media. 

Music

All three girls will continue playing piano and recorder and learning to sing. E. is using the Denes Agay Primer and Hands on Recorder, C. is using Denes Agay Book 2, 50 Graded Studies for Recorder, and Recorder Time, and M. is using Denes Agay Book 3 and The Recorder Guide.

Music appreciation will most likely include a mix of ballet, opera, and musicals.

Physical Education 

We got a good jump-start on PE with all three girls practicing their swimming at the pool this summer. They will continue to ride bikes and play on the playground, and hopefully they will get a chance to practice more with their basketball. We may also reintroduce the morning warm-up exercises they did a few years back. 

Preschool 

R. and A. are three and a half, so this year is preschool for them. We will be doing some good read-alouds and making sure to review their letters and numbers. I expect their learning to pick up a lot more in the second half of the year, as they are still quite young compared to their sisters when they were starting preschool. 

Homeschool Update: Summer 2023

Group Activities

The girls continued to work on memorizing Anima Christi. We also chose seven additional prayers to practice on a weekly rotation: 

• The St. Michael Prayer (Sunday)
• Memorare (Monday)
• Hail, Holy Queen (Tuesday)
• Come, Holy Spirit (Wednesday)
• Apostle's Creed (Thursday)
• Glory Be (Friday)
• Domine Non Sum Dignus (Saturday)

Our June read-alouds were I Will Adventure by Elizabeth Janet Grey and Canadian Summer by Hilda van Stockum. Our July read-alouds were: Shadow of the Hawk by Geoffrey Trease, Summer at Buckhorn by Anna Rose Wright, and The Road to the King's Mountain by Margaret Ann Hubbard. Our August read-alouds were: The Midnight Horse by Sid Fleishman, Friendly Gables by Hilda van Stockum, and Bambi by Felix Salter. (E. had a very strong emotional reaction to a certain chapter in Bambi.)

Our June poet was Carl Sandburg. In July, we read American Poems from the Poetry for Young People series, and in August, we read Animal Poems from the same series.

We read children's versions of Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Tempest. The girls watched animated and live-action productions of the plays as well as Kiss Me Kate. 

History 

M. continued reading about the 20th century using The Century by Peter Jennings as a spine. She is ending August with the Reagan presidency. 

She has read many history and historical fiction titles: 

• Ben-Gurion and the Birth of Israel by Joan Comay
• Other Sandals by Sally Watson
• The Garden by Carol Matas
• Exploring the Himalaya by William O. Douglas
• The Ark by Margot Benary Isbert
• The Korean War by Tom McGowen
• The Korean War Soldier at Heartbreak Ridge by Carl R. Green
• The Shoes from Yang Son Valley by Yong-ik Kim
• The Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi 
• Echoes of the White Giraffe by Sook Nyul Choi
• Rowan Farm by Margot Benary Isbert
• Alexander Fleming by Richard Tames
• The School Segregation Cases by Janet Stevenson
• Brown v. Board of Education by Diane L. Good
• The Story of Jonas Salk and the Discovery of the Polio Vaccine by Jim Hargrove
• You Choose: The Civil Rights Movement by Heather Adamson
• Americans Into Orbit by Gene Gurney
• Walk in Space by Gene Gurney

She also watched a variety of videos, including episodes of Days that Shook the World and the following documentaries: 

• Korea: The Never Ending War 
• Festival of Britain 
• Planet Earth: Mountains (about Mt. Everest)
• Exploring the Himalayas
• Nine from Little Rock
• Space Race 
• Suez: A Very British Crisis
• Cold War Roadshow 
• The Man Who Saved the World 
• Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment  
• Martin Luther King and the March on Washington 
• Dancing in the Street (part of episode 3)
• A Hard Day's Night
• Neil Armstrong: First Man on the Moon 
• People's Century: Freedom Now 
• Simple Justice: The History of Brown vs. Board of Education  
• Polio Crusade 

C. finished her history in June with the printing press and Shakespeare. 

She read:  

• Shakespeare: His Work and His World by Michael Rosen
• The King's Beard by Leonard Wibberly
• Crossbows and Crucifixes by Henry Garnett

Math 

M. continued Algebra Basics and Get Ready for Alegebra I on Khan Academy. She continued working through Life of Fred: Fractions and she drilled multiplication and division facts daily.  

C. moved into Singapore Primary Mathematics 3B and finished Life of Fred: Edgewood. She also drilled her math facts daily. 

E. continued working on Early Math on Khan Academy. 

Science 

M. and I finished reading  The Story of Science: Newton at the Center and then read The Story of Science: Einstein Adds a New Dimension. All three girls watched some episodes of Watch Mr. Wizard. 

English 

M. continued working in Rex Barks and Vocabulary from Classical Roots A. Everyone read independently all summer. 

P.E. 

The girls rode bikes and practiced their swimming. All three girls improved their swimming skills. M. and C. can now go in the deep end independently and E. is almost there. 

Art 

We finished reading A Child's History of Art. The girls made birthday cards for their aunt and a friend whose birthday party they attended. M. made paper cube animals. 

Music

Everyone practiced piano and recorder all summer, and occasionally did some singing. 

Homeschool Update: April/May 2023

Group Activities

The girls worked on learning to pray the Anima Christi. 

Our read-alouds in April were The Turf-Cutter's Donkey by Patricia Lynch, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, and Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. In May, we read ...And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold, Soup by Robert Newton Peck, and Time at the Top by Edward Ormendroyd.  

Our April poet was William Butler Yeats and our May poet was Walt Whitman. We read the Poetry for Young People volumes for both. 

In the final days before Easter, the girls watched the Witnesses trilogy on Formed.org and M. and C. watched Jesus of Nazareth. For the Easter season, they each colored in a map from Catholic Icing counting the days until Pentecost.  

In early May, C. had her first Confession at our parish and her first Communion at a Latin Mass.

History 

M. continued studying World War II and its aftermath. She read a ton of historical fiction: 

• The U.S. Frogmen of World War II by Wyatt Blassingame
• We Were There at The Battle of the Bulge by David Shepard
• We Were There at the Opening of the Atomic Age by James Munves
• We Were There at the Normandy Invasion by Clayton Knight
• We Were There at the Battle of Britain by Clayton Knight
• We Were There at the Battle for Bataan by Benjamin Appel
• Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr
• The House of 60 Fathers by Meindert Dejong
• The Girl from Hard Times Hill by Emma Barnes
• Pancakes-Paris by Claire Huchet Bishop
• The Treasure Trove of the Sun by Mikhail Mikhailovich Prishvin
• Little Girl From the City by L. Voronkova
• The Impossible Journey by Gloria Whelan
• Burying the Sun by Gloria Whelan
• Winston Churchill by Quentin Reynolds
• Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot by Margot Theis Raven
• To Build a Land by Sally Watson
• Teammates by Peter Golenbock

She also watched a variety of history documentaries: 

• A Walk Through the 20th Century
• Berlin Airlift
• Candy Bomber
• Berlin Airlift - 1st Battle
• Days that Shook the World 

C. studied the Spanish explorers, and the history of the civilizations they discovered, followed by Martin Luther, King Henry VIII, and Queen Elizabeth I. 

In A Picturesque Tale of Progress (the last volume of which we finished), we read: 

• Ancient America (The Peopling of America, The Basket Makers,  The Cliff Dwellers, The Mound Builders, People of Plain and Forest)
• The Brilliant Civilization of the Mayas
• The Conquest of Mexico (Aztec Conquerors, The Empire of the Aztecs, The Spanish in America, Hernando Cortez Leads the Spaniards to Tenochtitlan, The Conquest of Mexico)
• The Indians of the Southwest (Spanish Exploration, The Pueblo Indians and Their Dances, The Poetry of the Indians, Arts of the Indian,  Acoma, the Sky City)
• The Conquest of Peru (Explorations of Central and South America, Ancient Peru, Conclusion)

We read about Martin Luther and Henry VIII from the Catholic perspective in The Story of Civilization.  We read about Henry VIII and Elizabeth I in Rulers of Britain. We also read Martin Luther by May McNeer and Lynd Ward, which is heavily biased but has beautiful illustrations. 

On her own, C read:

• The Ancient Maya by Lila Perl 
• One Day in Aztec Mexico by G. B. Kirtland 
• Good Queen Bess by Diane Stanley 
• The Spanish Armada by C. Walter Hodges 
• The Queen's Progress by Celest Davidson Mannis and Bagram Ibatoulline

She also watched Armada: Twelve Days to Save England and Macchu Picchu. 

Math 

M. worked on Khan Algebra Basics and Get Ready for Alegebra I on Khan Academy. She continued working through Life of Fred: Fractions and she drilled multiplication and division facts daily.  

C. worked on 4th grade math on Khan Academy and long division in Singapore 3A. She continued working on Life of Fred: Edgewood and she drilled addiiton and subtraction facts daily. 

E. worked on 4-digit addition on the soroban using rods and she started Early Math on Khan Academy.  

Science 

C. and E. finished the BFSU lessons we planned for this year. 

M. finished the rest of the lessons in Middle School Chemistry. Together we continued reading Story of Science: Newton at the Center by Joy Hakim. 

M. also undertook some research on ravens. 

English 

In addition to reading independently, M. worked on chapter 4 of Rex Barks and C. continued to work on the Treasures grammar curriculum. 

P.E. 

The girls rode bikes and played on various playgrounds. 

Art

All three girls created animations using Flip Animation for various occasions including Mother's Day. They also created Mother's Day cards. We continued reading A Child's History of Art. We're in the architecture section.  C. and E. also did some drawing videos from Art for Kids Hub. 

Music 

The girls practiced piano and recorder daily. They finished listening to The Twilight of the Gods. 

Health 

M., C., and E. went to the dentist and began a new flossing regimen. C. got a new orthodontic appliance and learned to care for it. M. had her braces removed.

Homeschool Update: March 2023

Group Activities

The girls finished memorizing Psalm 133 in Latin and we recorded a video of them reciting it. Then they started memorizing Anima Christi. 

Our read-alouds were: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (audiobook), Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, and The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes.  We also finished listening to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in the car.

We continued reading about sculpture in A Child's History of Art and watched related SmartHistory videos.

We finished reading the rest of the volumes of The Catholic Children's Treasure Box.

Our March poet was Emily Dickinson and we read the Poetry for Young People book about her. 

We read daily Scripture readings throughout Lent, and the girls colored in squares on a chart counting down to Easter. M. and C. started watching Jesus of Nazareth.  

Religion

C. continued working on memorizing the questions and answers The New Saint Joseph First Communion Catechism.  

History 

M. continued to study World War II, still with The Story of World War II by Robert Leckie as her spine. She also read World War II for Kids: A History with 21 Activities by Richard Panchyk, The Story of D-Day by Bruce Bliven Jr., From Pearl Harbor to Okinawa by Bruce Bliven Jr., The Flying Tigers by John Toland, and The Battle of the Bulge by John Toland. 

She also watched The Longest Day and Battle of the Bulge as well as several episodes of The World at War and Victory at Sea. 

C. continued learning about ancient Eastern cultures with Ancient China by Virginia Schomp and Ancient India by Virginia Schomp. She watched an episode of The Museum about the Terra Cotta Warriors. She also read Ancient India (Myths of the World) by Virginia Schomp, Seasons of Splendour: Tales, Myths, and Legends of India, Hanuman by Erik Jendresen, Rama and Sita by by David Weitzman, Columbus by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire, The Columbus Story by Alice Dalgliesh, The Log of Christopher Columbus,  Lost Worlds by Anne Terry White (first half only) 

E. finished watching Liberty's Kids, and we started reading D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire. 

Math 

M. watched Magic Numbers: Hannah Fry's Mysterious World of Maths. In Khan Academy, she finished 6th grade with 87% on the course challenge. She is now working on Getting Ready for Algebra I and Algebra Basics. She also continued working in Challenging Word Problems 3 and Life of Fred: Fractions, and she drilled multiplication and divisions facts on Math-Drills.com. 

C. continued working on Singapore 2B, 3rd Grade Math on Khan Academy, and Life of Fred Edgewood.  She drilled addition and subtractions facts on Math-Drills.com.

English 

In addition to history reading, M. read Across The Puddingstone Dam by Melissa Wiley. E. read Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary and Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  

 

M. and C. worked on their Treasures grammar books. M. continued working on exercises in Rex Barks. 

Science 

In Middle School Chemistry, M. and I completed these lessons:  

• Why Does Water Dissolve Salt?
• Why Does Water Dissolve Sugar?
• Using Dissolving to Identify an Unknown
• Does Temperature Affect Dissolving?

In BFSU, C. and E. covered these topics: 

• How is a Candle Burning Like Living Things Using Energy?
• Evaporation and Condensation 
• The Water Cycle

Physical Education

The girls rode bikes on nicer days and played on the playground.

Art 

We finished reading about sculpture in A Child's History of Art. C and E. created animations using Flip Animation. (M. gave it up for Lent).  

Health

M. had her well check at the pediatrician. 

Music 

The girls continued listening to The Ring of the Nibelung and they each practiced piano and recorder daily. We did some evening sing-alongs on Fridays after dinner.