Homeschool Update: Week of 3/21/22

Lent Activities

Each day, we added a Jesus tree ornament to our clothesline display, prayed a decade of the Rosary, read a quote from a saint, colored a square on our Lenten path, and watched a meditation from Brother Francis. We sang "Think of the Son of God." 

Morning Time

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read "The Deer" by Mary Austin, "The Peppery Man" by Arthur Macy, "Wynken Blynken and Nod" by Eugene Field, and "Sisters" by Eleanor Farjeon. 

Art appreciation: On Friday, we looked at Annunciation by Fra Angelico from The Vatican Art Deck and watched this video. We also listened to The Angel Gabriel.

Music appreciation: My husband continued reading aloud Carmen: The story of Bizet's Opera by Robert Lawrence and played recordings of pieces from the opera.

History 

In Builders of the Old World, C. and I read "First Steps in Democracy" and "The Greeks Defend Their Freedom." She wrote a narration defining democracy, and continued reading Our Little Athenian Cousin of Long Ago.

M. started reading The Year of the Horseless Carriage by Genevieve Foster and read these sections: 

• Richard Trevithick
• Robert Fulton 

M. also began reading Robert Fulton and the Steamboat by Ralph Nading Hill. 

Science 

We started BFSU Lesson B-11 Plant Science II: Germination, Seedling Growth and Responses. We read aloud Linnea's Windowsill Garden by Christina Bjork and discussed sexual versus asexual reproduction in plants. The girls watched another episode of The Private Life of Plants. 

English

C. continued working on pages from the Treasures Grammar Practice Book for Grade 1. M. worked on Rex Barks Exercises 2-6 and 2-8. 

At lunch, we continued reading aloud The Golden Name Day.

E. and I continued reading books by Beatrix Potter. 

E. began reading transitional books between easy readers and chapter books, including Dan Frontier.

Math 

C. practiced division with rods and worked in Singapore 2A. 

M. worked on geometry and Challenging Word Problems.

Both girls did Khan Academy daily. 

Art

C. completed a drawing using the How to Draw a Unicorn video from Art for Kids Hub.

Physical Education

In addition to several bike rides, the girls also enjoyed trying Move Its from Amanda Hooper on YouTube.

Instrumental Music 

M., C., and E. practiced piano daily.

M. and C. practiced recorder daily.

Homeschool Update: Week of 3/14/22

Lent Activities

Each day, we added a Jesus tree ornament to our clothesline display, prayed a decade of the Rosary, read a quote from a saint, colored a square on our Lenten path, and watched a meditation from Brother Francis. We sang "Come To Me All Ye Who Labor." 

St. Patrick's Day Activities

On Wednesday, the girls made leprechauns from Mrs.Merry.com. On Thursday, we went to our friends' house for a playdate and they did coloring and activity sheets about St. Patrick. On Thursday night, we had corned beef and cabbage. 

Birthday Activities

On Friday, the twins turned two. They opened presents in the morning and had cake after lunch. The older girls had a light school day as a result.

Morning Time 

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud "One, Two, Three!" by Henry Cuyler Bunner and "I Remember, I Remember" by Thomas Hood. 

Music appreciation: My husband read Carmen: The story of Bizet's Opera by Robert Lawrence and played recordings of pieces from the opera.

Art appreciation: We looked at Michelangelo's Pieta from The Vatican Art Deck and watched this video.

History 

C. and I finished Black Ships Before Troy. She continued reading Our Little Athenian Cousin of Long Ago. In Builders of the Old World, we read "The Olympic Games" and "The Tale of Troy." She wrote a narration about the Olympics, and she watched Ancient Greece 101 and History of the Olympics.

M. finished George Washington's World after reading these sections: 

• Beware the Tyrants
• Liberty
• Death for Louis XVI 
• The United States Proclaimed Neutral
• The Reign of Terror 
• Dr. Jenner and the Smallpox Germ
• Catherine the Grandmother
• Napoleon Bonaparte
• To Italy
• To Egypt
• The Rosetta Stone, Clue to an Ancient Riddle
• Ch'ien Lung's Reply to George III
• New Rulers for a New Era

Science 

We continued working on BFSU Lesson B-10, Plant Science I: Basic Plant Structure. M. and C. filled in diagrams of the reproductive parts of flowering plants and learned how non-flowering plants reproduce.  They watched: 

• Reproductive Cycle of Pines
• Pine Cones Opening Time Lapse
• Apple flowers blooming time lapse
• Flower to Fruits 
• A group of fern sporangia hurling spores
• Moss Life Cycle Under the Microscope
• Tops and Bottoms

They also watched an episode of The Private Life of Plants. We began reading aloud Linnea's Windowsill Garden by Christina Björk. 

E. did the Reptiles Koala Crate.

English

C. was struggling to understand verbs and verb tenses, so she took a break from Grammarland and did some pages from the Treasures Grammar Practice Book for Grade 1. We began reading aloud Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner. Independently, she read the Magical Animal Adoption Agency series by Kallie George. 

M. read Spymaster by Deborah Chancellor and Marquis de Lafayette: Bright Sword for Freedom by Hodding Carter.  

At lunch, we continued reading aloud The Golden Name Day.

E. and I continued reading books by Beatrix Potter. 

Math 

M. worked on geometry proofs as well as Challenging Word Problems.

C. worked on division in Singapore 2A. 

Both girls did Khan Academy daily. 

Instrumental Music 

M., C., and E. practiced piano daily.

M. and C. practiced recorder daily.

Physical Education

The girls rode bikes on several days and went to the playground on Friday.

Homeschool Update: Week of 3/7/22

Lent Activities

Each day, we added a Jesus tree ornament to our clothesline display, prayed a decade of the Rosary, read a quote from a saint, colored a square on our Lenten path, and watched a meditation from Brother Francis. We sang "Parce Domine," "Stabat Mater," and "Ave Regina Caelorum." 

Morning Time 

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud "The Brook" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "The Leak in the Dike" by Phoebe Cary, and "The Dorchester Giant" by Oliver Wendell Holmes. 

Singing: Our song was "The Darby Ram. "

Art appreciation: From The Vatican Art Deck by Anja Grebe. we looked at The Holy Trinity by Lodovico Carracci and Crucifixion by Tommaso Masolino da Panicale.

History

C. and I continued reading Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliffe. From Builders of the Old World, we read "Growing Up in Sparta and Athens" and "The Gods of the Greeks." She started reading Our Little Athenian Cousin of Long Ago on her own.

In George Washington's World, M. read: 

• Victory for the Third Estate
• To the Bastille
• Off With the Baker to Paris
• America and the Key to the Bastille
• The Cotton Gin

She also read The Great Little Madison by Jean Fritz and Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the French Revolution by Nancy Plain, and started The Man Who Counted by Malba Tahan. 

Science 

We started BFSU Lesson B-10, Plant Science I: Basic Plant Structure. M., C., and E. competed a Plant Scavenger Hunt I found online from Nature Conservancy Canada. M. and C. each filled out a diagram of simple plant anatomy from Enchanted Learning 

They also watched a few episodes of The Private Life of Plants from the BBC, along with these videos: 

• Strawberry Flower to Fruit
• Pear Flower Opening to Fruit
• Easy Strawberry Clones/Runners Transplanting
• Propagating From Cuttings 101

English

At lunch, we started reading aloud The Golden Name Day by Jennie Lindquist. M. and C. also started reading it aloud to Gran on Skype. 

E. and I started reading the Beatrix Potter books. She colored pictures in her Beatrix Potter coloring book to accompany the stories we read.

C. started reading the Magical Animal Adoption Agency series. She also started Freddy and his Cousin Weedly by Walter R. Brooks. 

M. worked on Rex Barks Exercise 2-5.

E. continued reading easy readers.

Physical Education

M., C., and E. rode bikes and played on the playground on all the nice days.

Instrumental Music

M., C., and E. practiced piano daily. M. and C. practiced recorder daily. 

Homeschool Update: Week of 2/28/22

Mardi Gras

On Tuesday, we made Mardi Gras masks and listened to Carnival music. We also colored and "buried" the Alleluia. 

Lent 

We started the Jesus tree devotion on Wednesday. We also prayed a decade of the Rosary every day starting on Wednesday and watched the daily Lenten meditations from Brother Francis on Formed. We practiced singing Stabat Mater, Parce Domine, and Ave Regina Caelorum. 

Morning Time 

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud "Cradle Song" by Sarojini Naidu, "The Railroad Cars are Coming," "Daffodils" by William Wordsworth, and "What Do We Plant?" by Henry Abbey.

Singing: We continued to practice singing  "Raggle Taggle Gypsies Oh!"

Art appreciation: From The Vatican Art Deck by Anja Grebe. we looked at Pieta by Lucas Cranach the Elder. From Tell Me a Picture by Quentin Blake, we looked at Saint George and the Dragon by Paolo Uccello, a painting from Ernest est Malade by Gabrielle Vincent, and a painting from Bats in the Belfry by Jozef Wilkon. 

History 

C. and I abandoned the Golden book ediition of the Iliad and the Odyssey because she wasn't enjoying it and switched to Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff. From Builders of the Old World, we read "The City-States of Hellas" and "Greek Homes and Farms." Independently, C. read Our Little Spartan Cousin of Long Ago.

In George Washington's World, M. read: 

• Back to His Good Land
• Lonely Thomas Jefferson at Monticello
• Aviation Is Born
• The Marriage of Figaro
• Three Americans Meet In France
• Rousseau and Silver Sheep Shears
• John Adams and George III
• Hisses for Marie Antoinette
• Old Frederick's Last Review 
• Catherine's Turkish Fairy Tale
• The Assembly of the Notables
• The Not-Yet-United States
• The Constitution
• Mr. President

Science

We started BFSU Lesson B-10 Plant Science I - Basic Plant Structure and Reproduction and watched Parts of a Plant and Eyewitness: Plant. 

Health

C. and I finished Follow My Leader. M. and I read the chapter about breasts and bras in The Body Book for Younger Girls.

English 

At lunch, we read aloud The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz. 

M. read Boy King by David Belbin and The Thieves of Pudding Lane by Jonathan Eyers.

E. read more easy readers.

M. and C. worked on writing some original stories. 

Physical Education

M., C., and E. rode bikes whenever the weather was nice enough. 

Instrumental Music

M., C., and E. practiced piano daily. M. and C. practiced recorder daily. 

Homeschool Update: Week of 2/21/22

Morning Time

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "O Captain My Captain" by Walt Whitman and "The Lost Doll" by Charles Kingsley. 

Music: From The Random House Book of Opera Stories by Adele Geras, we read "Aida." Then we listened to the Opera Abbreviated episode about the opera and watched this clip. 

Singing: We continued singing "The Raggle Taggle Gypsies, O!"

Art appreciation: From Tell Me a Picture by Quentin Blake, we looked at Serenato in Vano by The Quay Brothers, Sleeping by Paula Rego, A Street Show in Paris by Gabriel-Jacques de Saint-Aubin, and The Building of the Trojan Horse by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo. 

History 

In Builders of the Old World, C. and I read "Carriers of Civilization" and "Empire Builders." We also started reading the Golden book edition of The Iliad and The Odyssey to begin our study of Ancient Greece. She started reading Our Little Spartan Cousin of Long Ago by Julia Darrow Cowles. 

From George Washington's World M. read: 

• Valley Forge
• The French Alliance
• George Rogers Clark
• A Hero in Two Worlds
• The Bon Homme Richard
• Lafayette, Herald of the French Expedition
• Spain Besieges Gibraltar 
• Napoleon Buonaparte
• Holland Defends Her Trade
• Benedict Arnold, Traitor
• Cornwallis Surrenders 
• Washington Refuses Absolute Power
• Money
• Peasants of Russia
• The Peace Treaty
• Empires Old and New
• Stars and Stripes in China

She also watched a few more episodes of the 1995 Discovery Channel documentary series The Revolutionary War.   

Science

We finished studying Rocks and Fossils with BFSU and watched these videos: 

• What Are Rocks and How do they Form?
• Fossil Record Mystery
• The 10 Oldest Fossils, and What They Say About Evolution
• A Brief History of Geologic Time
• Fossil Found in Kitchen Counter
• What is Weathering?

Health

C. and I continued reading Follow My Leader. 

English 

C. read and listened to Grammarland chapter 8, Dr. Verb and completed the accompanying worksheet. She also watched the Schoolhouse Rock verbs video.

M. redid Rex Barks exercise 1-4 to correct her mistakes. She also read Robbers On The Road by Melvin Burgess and The Dance Of Death by Andy Croft. 

E. continued reading easy readers every day. 

Physical Education

M., C., and E. rode bikes whenever the weather was nice enough.

Instrumental Music

M., C., and E. practiced piano daily. M. and C. practiced recorder daily. 

Read-at-Home Report: February 2022 Wrap-Up

My Month in Books

February was a great reading month. I read and/or listened to 19 books, most of which I enjoyed. Here is the rundown.  

40 Re-reads Before 40 

I read three more books for this project. A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton (5 stars) is the first book in the Kinsey Millhone series,  which I discovered back when I worked in the public library. Both Kinsey and the 1980s setting held up quite well for me. The English Patient (2 stars), which I read in college, was a dud for me this time around. The writing I found so beautiful as a 20-year-old felt saccharine to me now. Wise Blood (5 stars) was a last-minute addition to my list, inspired by my recent obsession with classic Catholic novels. The audiobook read by Bronson Pinchot is excellent; if you're a first time Flannery reader, I think audio is the way to experience this book. 

Read-Alouds 

I read these three books for homeschool. Joseph Haydn The Merry Little Peasant (3 stars) was our music appreciation title for the month and Amos Fortune Free Man (5 stars) was our lunchtime read-aloud. Amos Fortune was excellent, and my three oldest kids were all really invested in it. I read The Golden Bull (3 stars) to my six-year-old as a supplement to her recent studies about ancient Mesopotamia. It was perfect for her, as she prefers (like I do) to get her historical information through story.  

Challenges and Book Clubs

My in-person book club discussed the first half of Purgatorio this month, but I'm reading The Divine Comedy as a single volume so although I've finished Purgatorio, it doesn't count as read just yet. I read the ebook copy of Must Love Books (5 stars) that I won in a Goodreads giveaway for the Read Your Bookshelves challenge, the February prompt for which was to read a book with "love" in the title. I read As I Lay Dying (5 stars) along with the Close Reads podcast, and it also counted for the Buzzword read-athon prompt of a book with a pronoun in the title. The End of the Affair (5 stars) and The Moviegoer (4 stars) were two of my modern classics for the #WorldFullofBooks group on Instagram. I counted The End of the Affair as the classic I'd never read before for the Goldberry Reading Challenge. The Hawk (3 stars) was the book my husband and I read and discussed with our Goodreads friend over Zoom.  

Mood Reading

I listened to Welcome to Dunder Mifflin (4 stars), which made me really nostalgic for the mid-2000s. I really enjoyed all the behind-the-scenes information about the development of the American version of The Office. I listened to The Odd Couple (5 stars) to see how I would like the audio version of a play, and it was great. I plan to listen to some more productions on Hoopla. Grave Reservations (4 stars) is a cozy mystery with a touch of paranormal fantasy. I really enjoyed the writing. Jacket Weather (5 stars) is a literary fiction novel about two people falling in love in New York City about a decade ago. The writing was excellent, and it made me want to visit New York. 

I read two Scarpetta books - The Scarpetta Factor (4 stars) and Port Mortuary (4 stars) - and they were both fine. I'm really glad the author switched back to the first person point of view. I struggled with a lot of her books written in third person. I alternated between audio and paperback for The Winter Lodge (3 stars). It was fine, but not a favorite of the month. 

As for the rest of the family's reading...

R. (boy, 23 months): 

• Gossie and Friends Say Goodnight by Olivier Dunrea
• 10 Reasons to Love a Bear by Catherine Barr
• 10 Reasons to Love a Turtle by Catherine Barr 
• 10 Reasons to Love an Elephant by Catherine Barr
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar's First Spring 

A. (girl, 23 months): 

• What's in my Truck? by Roger Priddy
• 100 First Words by Edward Underwood 
• Mrs. Peanuckle's Bird Alphabet
• Mrs. Peanuckle's Flower Alphabet 

E. (girl, 4 years, 4 months): 

• Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel
• Penny series by Kevin Henkes 
• Sam the Minuteman by Nathaniel Benchley
• George the Drummer Boy by Nathaniel Benchley
• Six Silver Spoons by Janette Sebring Lowery

(These are just a few favorites. She's read nearly 200 easy readers so far this year.)

C. (girl, 6 years, 5 months):

• Freddy and the Ignormus by Walter Brooks
• Casting the Gods Adrift by Geraldine McCaughrean
• Captains of the City Streets by Esther Averill
• Jenny Goes to Sea by Esther Averill
• The Orphelines in the Enchanted Castle by Natalie Savage Carlson.

M. (girl, 8 years, 3 months):

• The Marquis de Lafayette: Bright Sword for Freedom by Hodding Carter
• Shield Maiden by Stuart Hill
• The Stone Street by Marilyn Tolhurst
• Mission to Marathon by Geoffrey Trease
• Casting the Gods Adrift by Geraldine McCaughrean 

My husband: 

• Dumb Cake by Leon Garfield
• Tom Titmarsh's Devil by Leon Garfield
• The Filthy Beast by Leon Garfield
• The Enemy by Leon Garfield

Up Next for Me

I made an actual TBR stack for March because there are quite a few books I want to get to. For the #WorldFullofBooks Irish theme, I have A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Dubliners by James Joyce, The King's Prey by Susan Peek, and The Copper Beech and Evening Class by Maeve Binchy. It's also Middle Grade March, and I have two middle grade ARCs I want to read: Birdie's Bargain by Katherine Paterson and Across the Pond by Joy McCullough. I'm also reading 1984 with Close Reads and The Power and the Glory with a small group of Close Reads fans. 

I'm adding this post to the link-up for An Open Book at CatholicMom.com. 

Homeschool Update: Week of 2/14/22

Valentine's Day Activities

The girls watched the Story of St. Valentine, and we had our annual Valentine tea party with sandwiches, fudge, and crafts. M. and C. did some Valentine-themed math and grammar worksheets.

Morning Time 

Poems: From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "Setting the Table" by Dorothy Aldis, "I Like Housecleaning" by Dorothy Brown Thompson, and "Sea Memories" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Music: We finished reading Joseph Haydn, The Merry Little Peasant by Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher and listened to the remaining pieces. 

Singing: Our song for the week was "The Raggle Taggle Gypsies, O!" 

Art appreciation: From Tell Me a Picture by Quentin Blake, we looked at Torchlight Procession by Adolphe Monticelli, Fantastic Ruins with Saint Augustine and the Child by Francois de Nome, Nameless and Friendless by Emily Mary Osborn, and A Satyr Mourning Over a Nymph by Piero di Cosimo.  

History 

In Builders of the Old World, C. and I read "The Sea Beckons," "A Nation of Traders," "Carriers of Civilization," and "Empire Builders." She wrote a narration about the Phoenicians and drew a Phoenician ship.  

In George Washington's World, M. read these sections: 

• The Declaration of Independence
• Echoes in Europe
• Benjamin Franklin in France
• Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI
• Lafayette Sails for America
• The Old Fox Retreats
• Misadventures of 1777
• To Carry the News

She also watched the rest of 1776, read two books about Caesar Rodney: Caesar Rodney's Ride and The Rescue Begins in Delaware, and watched a few episodes of the 1995 Discovery Channel documentary series The Revolutionary War.   

Health

C. and I started reading Follow My Leader, about a boy who is blinded in an accident and learns to work with a guide dog. To go along with the book, she watched Kids Meet a Guide Dog for the Blind and A Day in the Life of the Family with Six Blind Kids. 

M. had some bloodwork at the doctor's office (she's fine, it was just a precaution) and she learned about veins and how blood is tested. She also learned the hard way that caramel and lip bumpers don't mix. 

Science 

This week we began BFSU Lesson D-8, Rocks and Fossils. We discussed erosion and the creation of sedimentary rock and watched these videos: 

• Make Your Own Erosion 
• Coral Reefs 101 
• Fossils 101 

English 

C. practiced picking out the parts of speech in a few simple sentences that I wrote for her. 

M. diagrammed several simple sentences that I wrote to help her practice picking out the subject and verb. She also did Rex Barks exercise 2-2. 

M. read Shield Maiden by Stuart Hill, The Stone Street by Marilyn Tolhurst, Mission to Marathon by Geoffrey Trease, Better Than Gold by Theresa Tomlimson, and Casting the Gods Adrift by Geraldine McCaughrean.  

C read  Freddy and the Ignormous by Walter Brooks, Casting the Gods Adrift by Geraldine McCaughrean, Captains of the City Streets by Esther Averill,  Jenny Goes to Sea by Esther Averill, and The Orphelines in the Enchanted Castle by Natalie Savage Carlson.

E. continued reading more easy readers. 

Physical Education

M., C., and E. rode bikes four days this week. M. rode an additional day on her own. 

Instrumental Music 

M., C., and E. all practiced piano daily. M. and C. practiced recorder daily. m som