Homeschool Update: Week of 7/5/21

Morning Read-Alouds

From Sing a Song of Seasons: A Nature Poem for Each Day of the Year selected by Fiona Waters,  illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon (Nosy Crow, 2018), we read "She sells seashells on the seashore," "Inside a Shell" by John Foster, "Five Little Peas," and "The Back Step" by Lee Knowles. 

From A Book of Americans by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1933) we read poems entitled: "Christopher Columbus," "Indian," "Hernando de Soto," "Peregrine White and Virginia Dare," "Pocahontas," "Miles Standish," "Pilgrims & Puritans," "Peter Stuyvesant," "Southern Ships and Settlers," "Cotton Mather," "Captain Kidd," "French Pioneers," "Oliver DeLancey," and "George Washington." 

Our picture book author for the week was Charlotte Zolotow. Grandma read The Seashore Book to the girls before we left New York, and I read The Storm Book at home. We also watched some videos of Zolotow's daughter, Crescent Dragonwagon, reading aloud her mother's books, Someday and One Step Two.

We read several articles from National Geographic Explorer magazine Volume 19, Number 2 (Pathfinder edition): "The Galapagos Islands," "Islands Born of Fire," "Home Only Here," and "Darwin."

Music

We learned to sing "Home on the Range" from Go In and Out the Window: An Illustrated Songbook for Young People (The Metropolitian Museum of Art, 1987). 

We listened to Tritsch-Tratsch Polka by Johann Strauss Jr, Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, maman" by Mozart, and  L'Arlésienne Suite: "Farandole" by Georges Bizet. 

Art

This week's painting was the Mona Lisa. We studied the card from the Louvre Art Deck: 100 Masterpieces from the World's Most Popular Museum by Anja Grebe and Erich Lessing and watched the SmartHistory video about the painting.

Catechism

M. and C. started learning the questions and answers in Lesson 7: "Jesus Opens Heaven For Us" in The New Saint Joseph First Communion Catechism.

Memory Work

E. recited the months of the year, days of the week, four directions, marks of the church, and continents. She continued to practice "Happiness" by A.A. Milne. 

C recited the 50 states, planets, Great Lakes, countries of Europe, the oceans, the books of the Bible, and our address and phone number. She continued practicing "maggie and milly and molly and may" by e.e. cummings. 

M recited the 50 states, the countries of Asia, the books of the Bible, the Kings and Queens of England, and our address and phone number. She continued to practice Oberon's speech from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene 1 by William Shakespeare.  

History 

In the summer, we typically do a quick American history study, so we started that this week. From The Great Heritage by Katherine B. Shippen (Viking Press, 1947), we read "The Great Heritage," "Beavers, Otters, and Furres of Price," and "Men of the Sea." From Yankee Doodle's Cousins by Anne Malcolmson (Houghton Mifflin, 1941) we read "Stormalong." From American Adventures by Elizabeth Coatsworth (Macmillan, 1968), we read "First Adventure." 

Math

M. and C. both did some work in Singapore and Khan Academy every day. C. is still working on multi-digit addition and subtraction. M. is working on algebra basics and time word problems.

Reading and Writing 

M. continued reading Thee, Hannah to Gran, and she also continued reading the Borrowers series. C. started the second Far-Away Tree book. In the evenings, C. and I started reading aloud Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field. At dinner, my husband read aloud from The Three Princes of Serendip.

Other Activities

On the way home from New York, we met up with a bookish friend my husband met on Goodreads who has been exchanging letters with M. We had lunch and the kids played on the playground at a park in her neighborhood. 

On Friday, we met up with friends at the Adventure Playground.