Homeschool Update: Week of 1/10/22

Morning Time 

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "The Bear Hunt" by Margaret Widdemer, "Night" by William Blake, and "The Rainbow" by David McCord.

Music: We started reading aloud Mozart the Wonder Boy by Opal Wheeler and listened to these pieces: 

• Minuet in G 
• Sonatina in C Major 
• French Melody with Variation 
• Piano Sonata no. 16 in C Major 
• Bagatelle in G Major  
• Piano Sonata in F Major
• Sonata in F Major 

Our hymn for the week was "For the Beauty of the Earth."  

Art appreciation: On Monday and Tuesday we looked at The Adoration of the Magi by Gentile da Fabriano and watched two videos. On Friday we looked at the first painting in Tell Me a Painting by Quentin Blake, which was A Winter Scene with Skaters near a Castle by Hendrick Avercamp. 

History 

First Grade: C. finished her month-long study of Mesopotamia. We read The Warrior Nation and King Nebuchadnezzar from Builders of the Old World and she watched The Rise and Fall of the Assyrian Empire and The Great Ziggurat of Ur. She did coloring pages of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Ziggurat of Ur. 

Third Grade: M. read these sections from George Washington's World: 

• Catherine, Her Journey to Russia
• The King of France and His Subjects
• Pierre Caron, Born a Bourgeois
• The Great Voltaire
• James Cook, A Boy Who Went to Sea
• James Watt, A Clever Lad of Scotland
• A King, But Not a Ruler
• Benjamin Franklin Looks and Learns

Science 

We continued our lesson on friction and watched videos about how ball bearings work, the tablecloth trick, wind tunnels, and how to make a fire by rubbing sticks together.

C did her Disk Launchers Kiwi Crate, which helped review inertia. 

English

C. continued reading The Adventures of Dr. Dolittle. M. started reading Catherine the Great by Katharine Scherman. E. read some more from The Adventures of Little Bear. 

C. worked on articles in Grammarland. M. worked on pronouns in Rex Barks and Simply Grammar. Both girls finished and mailed their thank you letters. 

I continued reading aloud The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street. My husband finished reading aloud The Tale of Despereaux and started The Blue Cat of Castle Town by Catherine Coblentz.

Math  

C. worked on multiplication and division in Singapore 2A and did some soroban practice. M. worked in Challenging Word Problems. Both girls did Khan Academy almost daily. Both girls also did chapters from Life of Fred on Wednesdays. E. did some soroban work as well. 

Preschool Skills

E. started learning to cut with scissors. 

Languages 

C. continued her sign language course on Udemy through the local public library.

Instrumental Music

M. and C. both practiced piano and recorder every day.