Homeschool Update: Week of 10/11/21

Weekend Activities, 10/9/21-10/10/21 

This weekend, Grandma, Aunt B. and S. came to visit and celebrate M.'s First Communion with us on Sunday. The girls went to the playground,  played Yahtzee, and ate Munchkins, and we had cake on Sunday. 

Morning Time 

Music: On Monday and Tuesday, M. and C. listened to Beethoven Lives Upstairs by Susan Hammond (1992), and on Wednesday, they watched the 1998 video adaptation. 

Singing: We learned to sing My Home's in Montana. 

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Mountain and the Squirrel" by Ralph Waldo Emerson,  and "The Secret Cavern" by Margaret Widdemer 

Art Appreciation: We discussed Lady in Blue by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. 

Catechism: We started learning the Apostle's Creed using I Believe in God: the Apostles' Creed by Lawrence G. Lovasik. On Thursday, we prayed a Rosary, and on Friday, we listened to the St. Teresa of Avila episode of the Saint Stories for Kids podcast.  

History 

First Grade: In addition to the "Trading and Counting" section in Builders of the Old World, C. read two books on Open Library: One Small Blue Bead by Byrd Baylor (Macmillan, 1965) and Time of the Bison by Ann Warren Turner (Macmillan, 1987). 

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

• Sir Francis Bacon Rings the Bell
• The King James Bible
• Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot
• A Meeting in Scrooby Village
• A Frenchman Reports on New Spain 
• Santa Fe, New Mexico
• Champlain Visits Canada
• Off to Virginia 
• New France, the First Colony

Science 

We finished BFSU Lesson D-4, Land Forms and Major Biomes of the Earth. We looked up the body of water that our watershed feeds into, and then followed it on the map until we reached the ocean. We also discussed how irrigation and transportation make it possible for people to have food that would not necessarily grow naturally in a given climate.  

English

M. and C. both worked in their Mad Libs reading workbooks. C. finished the first grade book and moved into the second grade book. M. worked on composing thank you notes for her First Communion cards and gifts and C. composed and started copying her birthday thank you notes in cursive.

C. continued reading Farmer Boy. She also read The Snowbound Mystery from the Boxcar Children series. 

M. finished Martin the Warrior  and started reading The Man Who Was Don Quixote by Rafaello Busoni and The Adventures of Don Quixote by Leighton Barret and illustrated by Warren Chappell. 

E. practiced beginning blends in The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading. 

We started reading Anna Witch by Madeleine Edmondson at lunchtime. My husband is still reading from Polly and the Wolf in the evenings. 

We continued reading Three Children and Shakespeare, and got close to the end of A Midsummer Night's Dream. 

Typing & Handwriting 

M. and C. both wrote their thank you notes in cursive. They also both worked on their lessons on Typing.com. C. completed the beginner level and received a certificate. 

Languages

Caroline continued working on This Little Light of Mine in ASL. 

Art

Using kits from the Dollar Tree, we glued together some felt Scarecrows. We also colored some wooden pins with Halloween designs and used them to hang some Halloween-themed coloring pages on the string we use for our art display. On Wednesday, the girls drew with chalk in the driveway. 

Math 

M. started working on Challenging Word Problems 3. C. finished Review 1 in Singapore Primary Mathematics 2A. She continued to practice addition and subtraction with renaming on the soroban.  

Physical Education

Almost every weekday, the three girls rode their bikes before dinner. 

Instrumental Music

M. and C. practiced piano and recorder daily.