Week 3

Hello everyone,

I'm loving the time we have together... something I look forward to.  I am really happy because I can actually see the kids entering into the dialectic phase.  Now, it is not only knowledge and spitting out memory work, I see them thinking and understanding more. Jacob, we miss you, but we hope you are having fun.

Presentation was really fun.  Getting to know them through their favorite Scripture passages and what they learned from God's word.  As I have shared in our family presentation, our family enjoys memorizing Scripture through songs. We use a lot of our songs from the Harrow family from Sing the Word.  If you are interested, you can check out their website. Next week's presentation is "Tell us something about a country/city in Europe". Where is it on the map? Climate? Type of Government? Official language? And anything else you want to share about the country or city. Have fun researching and using KWO in writing your presentation.

Science experiment with Mr. Reeser was new and fun as well.  We learned about why we see Saturn through its rings. Saturn's rings are made of chunk of ice and rock, but because they move so fast, our eyes blend the color making them appear to be a continous surface.  This reminded me of an experiment Dawn and I did last summer on optical illusion - the thaumatrope, you can check out a video here. We also learned a few facts about Saturn.  We will learn more about the planets later on when we study Astronomy beginning Week 7.

New Grammar
History: Song - CC CD
I told them a little bit about the Crusades and Richard the Lion-Hearted.  Maybe you can ask them what they remember. If you want to read more about the Crusades, you can check this  site or this site. If you want a few facts about King Richard, you can visit this page.

Science: Song - CCC NoGreaterJoy5
We briefly talked about the food chain, they gave examples of the producers and consumers. They struggle with examples on the decomposers (fungi, earthworm, mushroom, bacteria). To learn more about the food chain, you can visit the site I gave you last week and this is a wonderful and simple slideshow of the food chain. It is a wonderful time to review the three types of consumers at this time. 

English:  Song - CCC NoGreaterJoy5
Pronoun Order... we had (sort of) a demonstration on the first, second and third person. The following few weeks will be dedicated to pronouns according to that particular order.  Keep on reviewing the memory work which will be a big help for Essentials' class.

Latin: Song - CC CD
First conjugation imperfect tense.  The clue to remember imperfect is BAM! It is not perfect...

Timeline: Song - CC CD
We reviewed Timeline from the beginning. Keep on singing!

Geography: 
We learned about the Western European countries including review of the European Seas that is close to where we are.  I also encourage them to draw the Western European countries at home. This week is the best time to start and slowly work our way in drawing Europe and finish the whole map (of Europe) by the end of the year.  This will be a great accomplishment for them. Since we are learning about England, I gave them a brief summary of the difference between England, Great Britain and United Kingdom.  They all should know the difference by now. You can test them when you're reviewing this topic. If you want to read more about it, you can check out this site.

Math: Song - CC CD if skip counting
We recited and wrote the multiplication tables of 5 and 6.  Keep on practicing saying and writing. Any suggestion of making it more exciting to memorize in class is welcome.

Scripture: Song used in Opening Ceremony
We worked on the sign language and the song for Ephesians 6:1-3.  Keep reminding them that it is our goal to do the whole Ephesians 6 by the end of the year. Keep singing!

Fine Arts
We learned upside drawing and had a lot of fun and excitement doing it.  I gave them an envelope that contained an upside down picture.  The exciting part is, they cannot take the whole picture out, but they have to slowly take out the picture a little portion at a time. The trick is to just follow the lines and draw what they see (not what they think it is). I gave them a paper with grid lines (pictures have grid lines, too) to make it easier for them.  I keep stressing that they should let the right side of their brain do the drawing - just follow the lines.  Do not even think about what the drawing is, just find the relationship in the lines. STOP THINKING for once...hahaha.  Some of the parents actually saw the transition from using the right side of their brain to the left side of their brain (when they knew what the picture was, they are drawing based on what they know, not what they see).  Finish the drawing at home and let them take their time doing it.  This type of drawing will prove helpful when we start drawing our maps.  For this exercise at home, we play audio books or music (Scripture memory for us) so our left brain can focus on the listening part and our right brain can focus on just following the lines. What a wonderful way to train both sides of your brain, right?  If you want to read more about upside down drawing, you can visit this site. Just a quick announcement, next week's art involve painting with acrylics.

Review
The kids had fun testing each other and they are doing well. I encourage them to start mastering the memory work now, while we only have 3 weeks worth of memory work.  So far, so good.  Keep on memorizing and don't forget to have fun (and sing!).

Book Recommendation 
King Richard the Lion-Hearted and the Crusades in World History by Katherine M. Doherty 
The Food Chain by Frank Staub
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards
The Turn Around Upside Down Alphabet Book By Lisa Campbell Ernst (just a fun book)

      

Thank you for the help of parents who are in the class with us.  It has been wonderful working with you. When we see each other next, it is going to be October... Enjoy and have fun.

Zabrina