Read-at-Home Mom: Homeschool Update: Week of 11/1/21

Weekend Activities, 10/30/21-10/31/21

This weekend was Halloween, and we did our usual traditional Halloween activities. On Saturday, the girls gutted a pumpkin, and my husband carved a face in it. On Sunday, we went to Mass, and afterwards, we dressed up all the kids. M. was an evil queen, C. was a magician, E. was a clown, R. wore an owl mask, and A. wore a witch hat. We also ate donuts and some candy and drank apple cider.

Morning Time

Music: I continued reading aloud from Sebastian Bach: The Boy from Thuringia by Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher, and we listened to these pieces referenced in the text:

Singing: Our hymn for this week was Praise My Soul the King of Heaven.

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "Lake Isle of Innisfree" by William Butler Yeats, "Hiawatha's Childhood" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and "A Little Song of Life" by Lizette Woodworth Reese.

Art Appreciation: In 100 Masterpieces in Color (Hamlyn, 1972), we looked at The Lamentation Over the Dead Body of Christ by Giotto. We compared it to Lamentation over the Dead Christ by Niccolò dell'Arca. We also watched the Smarthistory video about the Giotto painting.

Catechism: We continued learning to understand the Apostle's Creed using I Believe in God by Lawrence Lovasik. On Monday, we prayed the Litany of Saints. On Tuesday, we prayed the Litany for the Holy Souls in Purgatory and the prayers for All Souls Day from The Catholic All Year Prayer Companion. We also watched the All Saints Day and All Souls Day videos from Brother Francis on Formed.

History

First Grade: C. continued learning about Egypt. We started reading aloud Pharaoh's Boat by David Weitzman. Independently, she read Tutankhamun's Gift by Robert Sabuda. She also watched the video adaptation of Pyramid by David Macaulay and then spent some time looking at the book. She watched a Pyramids of Giza Walking Tour on YouTube as well.

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

In Memory of Shakespeare
Pocahontas in England
The Law vs. the King?
Raleigh's Last Adventure
The House of Burgesses
Servants and Slaves
They Knew That They Were Pilgrims
John Smith, Unhappy Admiral

Science

First and third grade: This week's BFSU lesson was supposed to be D-6 Seasonal Changes and Earth's Orbit, for which we were meant to be doing data collection since last fall. The level of data analysis the curriculum calls for is far beyond anything that would interest either M. or C. so it ended up being a good thing that we didn't really keep up with the record keeping. Instead of doing what the lesson prescribes, we watched Seasons from Earth Rocks and Earth's Orbit, Rotation, Seasons and Moon from High School Science 101. Then M. and C. watched two Disney productions: The Living Desert and The Vanishing Prairie, to review the last few lessons we have covered.

English

C. finished King Oberon's Forest and started reading Runaway Ralph. M. continued 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. started working on sounding out the words in Sam and the Mitt.

E. continued to practice beginning blends in The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading. This week she focused specifically on words beginning and ending with SH.

We continued reading the section Three Children and Shakespeare about Julius Caesar.

We began listening to A Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter during lunch.

Typing and Handwriting

Both girls did typing and practiced cursive most days.

Languages

C. started learning Over the River and Through the Wood in ASL. She also started working on the letters of the alphabet in ASL as well, also using videos from We Play Along. She covered letters A, B, and C.

Math

M. continued working on Challenging Word Problems 3. C. worked on the Weight unit in Singapore 2A. C. also worked on addition and subtraction with renaming on the soroban. Both girls did a chapter from Life of Fred.