In the interest of simplifying my record keeping, I've decided to switch to monthly homeschool updates. I'm also going to focus less on the routine of our day and more on the materials we use for each subject. From time to time, I might make some separate posts to record how we divide up our days, but I'm finding that these posts are most useful as an archive of what we used to teach certain subjects and at what grade level.
April included Holy Week and Easter Week, as well as an abundance of playdates that required a lighter workload. It was also the month in which we submitted our homeschool review forms to our umbrella organization. Both M. and C. have "completed" this year in terms of paperwork, but we will press on regardless.
Poetry
From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "There are so many ways of going places" by Leslie Thompson, "To the Dandelion" by James Russell Lowell, "Stocking Fairy" by Winifred Welles, "On Easter Day" by Celia Thaxter, and "From a Railway Carriage" by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Music Appreciation
M., C., and E. continued listening to my husband read aloud Carmen: The story of Bizet's Opera by Robert Lawrence. When they finished the book, they watched a production of the opera on video. After that, they listened to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and Beethoven's Eroica Symphony On YouTube M. and C. watched the Keeping Score documentary about the Eroica Symphony.
Art Appreciation
During the final days of Lent, we looked at many of the paintings and sculptures related to Christ's Passion that are included in the Vatican Art Deck and the Louvre Art Deck. We also took a close look at da Vinci's The Last Supper, using this article from Catholic Icing to point out key features and to learn about the Apostles. We watched this video about Caravaggio's Deposition of Christ.
English
We finished our lunchtime read-aloud of The Golden Name Day and then read Carvers' George by Florence Crannell Means. This was a fascinating book, and it also complemented our study of plants for science. After that, I started reading aloud The Secret Garden.
C. read The First Men in the World and The Fantastic Flying Journey, and then moved on to Redwall. She is enjoying imagining the voice of Cluny the Scourge and has announced she would like to be him for Halloween. I also read aloud Floating Island by Anne Parrish to her, and we both really enjoyed it. It combines all the best elements of our other favorites: The Doll People and Baby Island. In Grammarland, C. worked on nominatives and prepositions.
Independently, E. read Busybody Nora by Johanna Hurwitz, My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett, In a Dark Dark Room and Other Scary Stories by Alvin Schwartz, and Warton and Morton by Russell E. Erickson. To her, I read aloud All About Sam by Lois Lowry. We have now started Here Come the Elephants by Alice Goudey.
M. has been diagramming one sentence per day from Rex Barks. She creates the diagram in Google Drawings and then shares it with me so I can check it. She is also working on doing pages in the Macmillan McGraw-Hill Treasures grammar curriculum.
History
She also read No Other White Men by Julia Davis Adams, Violet for Bonaparte by Geoffrey Trease, The Slave Who Freed Haiti: the Story of Toussaint Louverture by Katharine Scherman, The Pirate Lafitte and the Battle of New Orleans by Robert Tallant. She looked through The Incredible Journey of Lewis and Clark by Rhoda Blumberg.
C. finished with Ancient Greece and began studying Ancient Rome. In Builders of the Old World, she read The Wooden Walls Save Athens, The Golden Age of Pericles, Lovers of Wisdom, Greece Loses Her Freedom, and The Gifts of Greece to Civilization, followed by The City of the Seven Hills, Early Roman Heroes, Rome Becomes a Republic, How the Early Romans Lived, Going to School in Rome, Rome Conquers All Italy, Rome and Carthage, How the Later Romans Lived, and Cornelia's Jewels.
We also read aloud In Search of a Homeland, the children's retelling of the Aeneid by Penelope Lively, and then started Detectives in Togas by Henry Winterfeld, and C. watched Virtual Rome and Ancient Rome 101.
Science
We finished BFSU Volume 1. The girls monitored the beans they planted in baggies, tracking their progress with drawings until they germinated. Only E.'s grew leaves and a stem, so we mainly focused on that one. M. and C. also picked a few random weeds outside and we brought them in to identify and learn about them. We also read about some wildflowers from a Fandex Family Field Guide.
M. and C. watched these videos:
- How Does a Seed Become a Plant?
- Erosion and Soil
- The Swish Machine Rube Goldberg machine
Our read-aloud of Carvers' George was also part of our plant studies, and we found this clip of his voice to listen to so we could better understand the author's descriptions of his distinctive speech.
Math
C. finished Singapore Primary Mathematics 2A and moved on to 2B.
M. worked on Challenging Word Problems 3 and geometry proofs using worksheets found online and Geometry by Harold R. Jacobs.
E. used flashcards, rods and the soroban to learn about place value.
Health
M. and read the nutrition section from The Body Book for Younger Girls. She also came to the twins' check-up with me and watched their exam.
Physical Education
M., C., and E. rode bikes on most of the nice days. M. and C. went on a couple of bike rides with Daddy. All three girls played on the trampoline at our friends' house, and they visited the Adventure playground for a playdate.
Art
M., C., and E. did chalk designs in the driveway and colored Easter-themed coloring pages.
Religion
We attended the Novus Ordo Easter vigil and then Mass in the extraordinary form on Divine Mercy Sunday. We read aloud Catholic Children's Treasure Box volumes 1 and 2.
