Homeschool Update: Week of 1/17/22

Morning Time 

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "The Fairies" by William Allingham and "Stately Verse" by Anonymous. In honor of St. Agnes's feast day on Friday, we read "The Lamb" by William Blake from the Poetry Foundation website. 

Music: We read chapter 4 in Mozart the Wonder Boy by Opal Wheeler and listened to these pieces: 

• Wiegenlied (K. 350) 
• Longing for Spring (K. 596) 
• Piano Sonata no. 16 in C Major (K. 545 )
• Piano Sonata in G Major (K. 283) 
• Rondo in C Major (K. 309)

As they listened the girls colored some pictures of composers from MakingMusicFun.net. (Note: This site has many errors and is really only useful for coloring pages.)

The girls practiced singing Mozart's Lullaby from The Fireside Book of Children's Songs. 

Art appreciation: We started using Tell Me a Picture by Quentin Blake and we looked at the first three paintings, A Winter Scene with Skaters Near a Castle by Hendrick Avercamp, an illustration by John Burningham from Oi! Get Off Our Train, and A Love Affair by Emma Chichester Clark. 

Catechism: On St. Agnes's feast day, C., who has a special devotion to her, watched Story of St. Agnes. 

History 

First Grade: C. and I switched to In Bible Days to begin our study of the Hebrews. We read the sections entitled: "Abraham, the Great Forefather," "The Children of Israel," "Joseph and his Brothers," and "Seven Years of Famine." 

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

• Ch'ien Lung and the Barbarians
• India and the European Traders
• France and England in America
• French and Indian War Begins
• Seven Years War Begins
• The Empire Builder
• Pontiac, the Patriot
• George III

She also read a Landmark book about Catherine the Great. 

Science 

We did BFSU Lesson D-7: Gravity II: Rate of Fall, Weightlessness in Space, and Distinction between Mass & Weight. We read Weight and Weightlessness by Franklyn M. Branley and watched these videos: 

• Danger! Falling Objects from Crash Course Kids
• Free Fall and Weightlessness
• Everything Revolves Around You from Crash Course Kids
• How does the International Space Station Work?
• International Space Station Tour
• Using a Pan Balance 

English

In Grammarland, C. worked on Chapter 3, Mr. Pronoun.  

In Rex Barks, M. worked on Exercise 1-3, about verbs. We supplemented with some exercises from Simply Grammar.

 

We finished our read-aloud of The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street and started reading Miss Plunkett to the Rescue. My husband continued reading aloud The Blue Cat of Castle Town by Catherine Coblentz. In the car, we listened to My Side of the Mountain.

 

C. continued reading The Adventures of Dr. Dolittle. M. started reading The Flight and Adventures of Charles II. 

E. finished reading the Adventures of Little Bear. She also read Come and Have Fun, Thunderhoof, Chester, and Piggle. 

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 Wednesday. E. started to work with little friends and the two times table. 

Preschool Skills

E. continued doing some exercises in her cutting workbook. 

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. E. started piano lessons with Daddy.

Health

M. and C. received their first doses of the Covid vaccine on Thursday.