Read-at-Home Mom: Homeschool Update: May 2022

Poetry

From Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris (Doubleday Books, 1957), I read aloud: "Trains" by James S. Tippett, "Barbara Frietchie" by John Greenleaf Whittier, "A Nautical Ballad" by Charles Edward Carryl, "The Archer" by Clinton Scollard , "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Swimming" by Clinton Scollard, "The Brown Bear" by Mary Austin, "All But Blind" by Walter de la Mare, "The Spider and the Fly" by Mary Howitt.

Music

M., C., and E. read Turandot from The Random House Book of Opera Stories as well as the version by Marianna Mayer. Then they watched an animated version as well as a full stage production from the Metropolitan opera. They learned to sing "The Battle of New Orleans" and "Crown Him with Many Crowns."

Art Appreciation

E. completed the first two levels in Child-Size Masterpieces. All three girls looked at paintings from The Vatican Art Deck and The Louvre Art Deck, including Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio, Madonna of Chancellor Rolin by Jan Van Eyck, and The Deposition of Christ by Rogier Van der Weyden.

English

C. continued to work on Grammarland. M. completed Rex Barks lesson 3-1.

At lunch time, the girls listened to Spiderweb for Two by Elizabeth Enright.

E. read books from the Cowboy Sam series , books from the Dan Frontier series, My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett, Pony Scouts series by Catherine Hapka, and Katie Woo and Friends by Fran Manushkin.

C. read Redwall by Brian Jacques and The Trouble with Jenny's Ear by Oliver Butterworth, as well as some of Detectives in Togas by Henry Winterfeld.

M. read The Erie Canal by Samuel Hopkins Adams, The Santa Fe Trail by Samuel Hopkins Adams, Kit Carson and the Wild Frontier by Ralph Moody, Remember the Alamo by Robert Penn Warren, Simon Bolivar: The Brave Liberator by Arnold Whitridge.

Science

We completed our science work for this school year, so for fun the girls watched some Sci Show Kids videos. C. did the Levitating Lantern Kiwi Crate, and E. did the Bird Koala Crate.

History

From Abraham Lincoln's World, M. read: Victoria is Born; Hard Times and Bad Kings; Victoria, Who Was She?; Charles Dickens, or, David Copperfield; Wild Turkeys and Waste Time; The Story of Brazil; The Drama of Greece; Ulysses Grant, Named and Renamed; Railroads Are Here; A Three-Day Revolution; Young Patriots of Italy; A Bloodless Revolution; Union and Liberty; Time Makes an Old Idea New; The Sultan's Guest; India; Li Hung Chang, a Boy of China; Slavery, What to Do About It?; Abe Lincoln of New Salem; Remember the Alamo; On to Oregon; Into Darkest Africa; Young Lion vs. Ancient Dragon; R stands for Regina; Corn and Potatoes; Rebellion in Canada; Steam Across the Atlantic; Behind Japan's Closed Door; Wedding Bells; Authors and Visitors; Telegraph and Photograph; On to the West; To the Halls of Montezuma; Gold!; Canada; Corn and Potatoes, continued; The Year 1848; A Beautiful Uniform or a Spiked Helmet; The Peace Festival; Napoleon III; Der Tolle Bismarck; At Home in Springfield; Free Soil and Slave; Uncle Tom's Cabin.

C. learned about Pompeii from The buried city of Pompeii: what it was like when Vesuvius exploded by Shelley Tanaka. She watched Pompeii Walking Tour in 4K Part 1 and Behind the Scenes of the First Excavation of Pompeii in 70 Years. We also read One Day in Ancient Rome by G.B. Kirtland.

Then we covered the New Testament. We briefly used In Bible Days by Gertrude Hartmann, but I quickly determined that it wasn't in line with Catholic (or really any branch of Christian) teaching and we switched to The Holy Bible Adapted for Young Catholic Readers edited by Jane Werner Watson and Charles Hartman and illustrated by the Provensens and Feodor Rojankovksy. On her own, C. read Tomie dePaola's Parables of Jesus and Miracles of Jesus.

C. finished history for the year with the section about the fall of Rome from Builders of the Old World.