Homeschool Update: April/May 2023

Group Activities

The girls worked on learning to pray the Anima Christi. 

Our read-alouds in April were The Turf-Cutter's Donkey by Patricia Lynch, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, and Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. In May, we read ...And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold, Soup by Robert Newton Peck, and Time at the Top by Edward Ormendroyd.  

Our April poet was William Butler Yeats and our May poet was Walt Whitman. We read the Poetry for Young People volumes for both. 

In the final days before Easter, the girls watched the Witnesses trilogy on Formed.org and M. and C. watched Jesus of Nazareth. For the Easter season, they each colored in a map from Catholic Icing counting the days until Pentecost.  

In early May, C. had her first Confession at our parish and her first Communion at a Latin Mass.

History 

M. continued studying World War II and its aftermath. She read a ton of historical fiction: 

• The U.S. Frogmen of World War II by Wyatt Blassingame
• We Were There at The Battle of the Bulge by David Shepard
• We Were There at the Opening of the Atomic Age by James Munves
• We Were There at the Normandy Invasion by Clayton Knight
• We Were There at the Battle of Britain by Clayton Knight
• We Were There at the Battle for Bataan by Benjamin Appel
• Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr
• The House of 60 Fathers by Meindert Dejong
• The Girl from Hard Times Hill by Emma Barnes
• Pancakes-Paris by Claire Huchet Bishop
• The Treasure Trove of the Sun by Mikhail Mikhailovich Prishvin
• Little Girl From the City by L. Voronkova
• The Impossible Journey by Gloria Whelan
• Burying the Sun by Gloria Whelan
• Winston Churchill by Quentin Reynolds
• Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot by Margot Theis Raven
• To Build a Land by Sally Watson
• Teammates by Peter Golenbock

She also watched a variety of history documentaries: 

• A Walk Through the 20th Century
• Berlin Airlift
• Candy Bomber
• Berlin Airlift - 1st Battle
• Days that Shook the World 

C. studied the Spanish explorers, and the history of the civilizations they discovered, followed by Martin Luther, King Henry VIII, and Queen Elizabeth I. 

In A Picturesque Tale of Progress (the last volume of which we finished), we read: 

• Ancient America (The Peopling of America, The Basket Makers,  The Cliff Dwellers, The Mound Builders, People of Plain and Forest)
• The Brilliant Civilization of the Mayas
• The Conquest of Mexico (Aztec Conquerors, The Empire of the Aztecs, The Spanish in America, Hernando Cortez Leads the Spaniards to Tenochtitlan, The Conquest of Mexico)
• The Indians of the Southwest (Spanish Exploration, The Pueblo Indians and Their Dances, The Poetry of the Indians, Arts of the Indian,  Acoma, the Sky City)
• The Conquest of Peru (Explorations of Central and South America, Ancient Peru, Conclusion)

We read about Martin Luther and Henry VIII from the Catholic perspective in The Story of Civilization.  We read about Henry VIII and Elizabeth I in Rulers of Britain. We also read Martin Luther by May McNeer and Lynd Ward, which is heavily biased but has beautiful illustrations. 

On her own, C read:

• The Ancient Maya by Lila Perl 
• One Day in Aztec Mexico by G. B. Kirtland 
• Good Queen Bess by Diane Stanley 
• The Spanish Armada by C. Walter Hodges 
• The Queen's Progress by Celest Davidson Mannis and Bagram Ibatoulline

She also watched Armada: Twelve Days to Save England and Macchu Picchu. 

Math 

M. worked on Khan Algebra Basics and Get Ready for Alegebra I on Khan Academy. She continued working through Life of Fred: Fractions and she drilled multiplication and division facts daily.  

C. worked on 4th grade math on Khan Academy and long division in Singapore 3A. She continued working on Life of Fred: Edgewood and she drilled addiiton and subtraction facts daily. 

E. worked on 4-digit addition on the soroban using rods and she started Early Math on Khan Academy.  

Science 

C. and E. finished the BFSU lessons we planned for this year. 

M. finished the rest of the lessons in Middle School Chemistry. Together we continued reading Story of Science: Newton at the Center by Joy Hakim. 

M. also undertook some research on ravens. 

English 

In addition to reading independently, M. worked on chapter 4 of Rex Barks and C. continued to work on the Treasures grammar curriculum. 

P.E. 

The girls rode bikes and played on various playgrounds. 

Art

All three girls created animations using Flip Animation for various occasions including Mother's Day. They also created Mother's Day cards. We continued reading A Child's History of Art. We're in the architecture section.  C. and E. also did some drawing videos from Art for Kids Hub. 

Music 

The girls practiced piano and recorder daily. They finished listening to The Twilight of the Gods. 

Health 

M., C., and E. went to the dentist and began a new flossing regimen. C. got a new orthodontic appliance and learned to care for it. M. had her braces removed.