Read-at-Home Mom: Homeschool Update: Week of 9/27/21

Weekend Activities, 9/25/21 - 9/26/21

On Saturday, the three girls rode their bikes, M. to the park with me and the twins, and C. and E. around the playground near our house. Grandma read aloud a chapter of Hickory by Palmer Brown over Skype. On Sunday, we went to the Latin mass as usual.

Morning Time

Music: I continued reading aloud Ludwig Beethoven and the Chiming Tower Bells by Opal Wheeler (E. P. Dutton & Co., 1942), and played recordings of the following pieces mentioned in the book

Singing: This week, we worked on learning to sing "Be Thou My Vision."

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "Joy of the Morning" by Edwin Markham, "A Boy's Song" by James Hogg, "Laughing Time" by William Jay Smith, "The Birthday Child" by Rose Fyleman, and "The Flowers" by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Art appreciation: This week, we studied St. Jerome by Leonardo da Vinci found in The Vatican Art Deck by Anja Grebe.

Catechism: We went over lessons 8 and 9 The New Saint Joseph First Communion Catechism, in preparation for M.'s first confession this weekend and first communion next weekend. We had already covered the content, but it was a good review. On Friday, we read the readings for the feast of the Archangels from The Catholic All Year Prayer Companion by Kendra Tierney (Ignatius, 2021), and prayed the prayers to St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael. We also prayed the Novena Rose Prayer each day until St. Therese's feast day on Friday. On Thursday, C. and I read St. Jerome and the Lion by Margaret Hodge for his feast day, which was also her 6th birthday.

History

First Grade: It was a light week for C. On Monday, she read about prehistoric worship, and learned about Stonehenge. For the next few days, we followed up with some videos The History of Stonehenge for Kids (from FreeSchool on YouTube), Stonehenge Monument (from National Geographic on YouTube), Stonehenge for Kids (from The Touring Teacher on YouTube), and Ancient Engineering: Stone Age Secrets (from Curiosity Stream). She also colored this Stonehenge coloring page. On Friday, she read about prehistoric clothing and watched a video about primitive weaving.

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

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

Science

First and Third Grade: We worked on Lesson B-5A from BFSU Volume 1: Adaptations and Survival. We discussed the adaptations animals and plants have to suit them to their environments. I read aloud Plant Adaptations by Julie Lundgren from Hoopla, and showed the girls Living Things Change (from Crash Course Kids on YouTube) and Adaptations at Animal Wonders (from Nature League on YouTube)

Pre-K: E. and I started reading the first section of the National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of How. We also read What Happens to a Hamburger by Paul Showers after she specifically requested to learn more about digestion.

Health

I recently purchased The Care and Keeping of You from American Girl for M., and it's going to serve as our health curriculum this year. I forgot to mention it last week, but we have covered the first chapter so far, and she is very interested in learning "how she will grow up." M. also went to the dentist this week to have four baby teeth removed in anticipation of some upcoming orthodontic work. This invited lots of discussion of baby teeth among all the three girls, and C. was inspired to the point that the loose front tooth that had been hanging by a thread was finally wiggled loose enough to fall out.

English

M. and C. continued working in their Mad Libs reading workbooks.

On Tuesday, we finished up the section of Three Children and Shakespeare about The Merchant of Venice, and on Wednesday and Thursday, M. and C. watched a video performance from the Globe. They really seemed to follow it, and they laughed loudly throughout the whole thing. M. is now working on memorizing Shylock's famous speech.

E. worked on some more words containing consonant blends in The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading. C. continued to read Farmer Boy to herself and started reading 26 Fairmount Avenue by Tomie dePaola to Gran over Skype. M. continued to read Martin the Warrior to herself and Ol' Paul to Gran.

At lunch, I started reading aloud Tatsinda by Elizabeth Enright. My husband is still reading Polly and the Wolf after dinner.

Languages

C. worked on learning "What a Wonderful World" in sign language. For her birthday, she received a copy of A Show of Hands: Say it in Sign Language and she and M. spent some time practicing signs from that as well.

Typing & Handwriting

M. and C. both practiced typing skills on Typing.com. M. copied questions from the Catechism in cursive and C. practiced writing her name and some other simple names in cursive.

Art

We created autumn gnomes using a printable template from Krokotak and some leaves and flowers from outdoors. The girls also created chalk art in the driveway.

Math

M. finished all the algebra quizzes on Khan Academy, and worked on measuring angles in Singapore 4A. On Wednesday, she and my husband read a chapter from Life of Fred: Jellybeans.

C. worked on subtraction with renaming using the soroban in both Singapore and with me for extra practice. She also did Khan Academy every day. On Wednesday, I read aloud a chapter from Life of Fred: Cats.

E. practiced adding and subtracting within 9 on the soroban and she worked on being able to identify the numbers represented by different configurations of the beads.

M. drilled multiplication and division and C. drilled addition and subtraction using the Flashmaster app a couple of times, but they missed a few days due to the dentist, C.'s birthday, etc.

Physical Education

In addition to their morning exercise routine, which I'm fairly certain was not completed every day, the girls also rode bikes on Wednesday morning and again on Friday morning. C. received pedals for her balance bike for her birthday, and she is making great progress. She also received a jump rope and is working on learning to jump with it.