School Summary - Nehemiah, Ezra, and Ancient Greece

A Summary of April 29 - May 10

We are a mere 2 weeks away from the end of our school year. I'm in shock at how quickly it has gone by! The days tend to seem long but the years overall are very, very short. It's been a good school year thus far. We finished up our MFW studies this week although we have some extras to do next week.

Here's what we did:

Things that were scheduled as usual:

Math

Soprano's math is getting to the end of the book so we're spacing out her lessons until the end of the year. Only 3 times per week these two weeks.

Language Arts (Grammar, Spelling, Penmanship, Reading, and Writing)

Electives:

Typing

Spanish

Soprano finished up her lessons with Switched on Schoolhouse's Elementary Spanish so she's done for the year.

Health: three worksheets on nutrition labels, what exercise is, and why exercise is good for us.

PA History: Just like Health, I changed my mind about this year's PA History book. They are working to finish it up by the end of the year. We did worksheets on PA weather, Indian Tribes, a website page, and the state dog.

My Father's World Creation to the Greeks-

We completed week 33 and 34 of MFW which means our journey from Creation through the Greeks is at an end. I'm not a huge ancient history fan (although I love history) but seeing how ancient history was so completely influenced by and interwoven with the history and narrative of the Old Testament has changed my mind about it.

Bible: We finished learning Isaiah 40:21-31 adding the last 2 verses this week. We also reviewed our other Scripture memory passages from earlier this year: 2 Timothy 3:16-17, the Old Testament books, the 10 Commandments, Psalm 1, and Psalm 23. 

We read passages in Nehemiah to finish up our Bible studies.

Science: We finished reading about Archimedes life and discoveries. Thankfully, the latter chapters have been much shorter than the earlier ones.It was great to read about part of his life that was on the Galileo and the Stargazers recording by Jim Weiss.

History: We did a notebooking worksheet about Greek children and a map of Alexander the Great's empire. We read about all different aspects of Ancient Greek culture and Alexander's empire.

They held their own mini Olympics in the backyard and tried to play knucklebones.

Other MFW: 

Music: For week 33, they again each picked one of the Messiah songs and copied out the verse that Handel based that song on and drew a picture.

Art: They did lessons on drawing a Greek building and learned about the Greek orders of architecture and epicureanism. They finished their year of art with some lessons on drawing Samson and using contrapasto.

Extras:

Web:

no web videos these weeks

Videos:

Ancient Greece by Schlessinger Media

Favorite Books:

Count Your Way Through Greece by Jim Haskins
You Wouldn't Want to Be a Slave in Ancient Greece by Fiona MacDonald
How We Learned the Earth is Round by Patricia Lauber
A Greek Potter by Giovanni Caselli

School Summary -- Daniel, Esther, and the Persian Empire

A Summary of April 15 - 26

Co-op is done, Easter has passed, and we're rapidly approaching the end of our school year. Subjects are getting finished up which is making our days a little lighter and easing us into a summer schedule. We are all quite ready to take a break but until we're officially finished, the younglings are enjoying the lovely spring weather and playing outside as much as they possibly can!

Here's what we did:

Things that were scheduled as usual:

Math

Tenor finished up Saxon 6/5 and we moved him right into Saxon 7/6. He'll most likely end up doing all of the higher maths so we wanted to keep him going right onto the next level.

Language Arts (Grammar, Spelling, Penmanship, Reading, and Writing)

Electives:

Typing

Spanish

Civics: I didn't realize but we finished up for the year last week. I'm looking for ideas on how to incorporate civics next year without a lot of extra work.

Health: I've been going back and forth several times about whether or not to finish the whole health book that we used this year. I had copied all the worksheets at the beginning of the year and then decided we'd only do half the book. Looking at next year's MFW, they'll get 2/3 of a year of anatomy so we won't need health. They'll also be getting one term of health with our co-op. But I have all the photocopies which will be too 'young' for their grade level in 2 years so we're going to finish out the book. It's not too much because everything else is already finishing up. They did a worksheet on 'Water and the Body' this past week.

PA History: worksheets on the highs and lows (elevation) and the rivers of PA.

My Father's World Creation to the Greeks-

We continued with the story of Daniel and then read about Esther, both of whom lived during the time of the Persian empire.

Bible: We kept working on learning a long passage from Isaiah 40 adding several verses this week. To help us remember, we're making up motions to go along with the different phrases. We also reviewed the 10 Commandments and Psalm 23. 

We read passages in part of the book of Daniel and most of the book of Esther.

Science: We continued reading about Archimedes life and discoveries. Some of the early chapters have been pretty long but the book is well written and engaging.

History: We did some notebooking worksheets about Daniel and Esther. We also read how the Persians captured Babylon and their subsequent wars with Greece.

We also added a few pieces to our timelines.

Other MFW: 

Music: Two more weeks of Handel, including Lascia Ch'ia Pianga (one of my favorites) and several pieces from the Messiah. The younglings notebooked about 1 song during week 31 using these sheets and then for week 32, they each picked one of the Messiah songs and copied out the verse that Handel based that song on and drew a picture.

Art: They did lessons on light against dark, painting vases, and drawing columns.

Extras:

Web:

Lego Purim

Persian Wars

The Persian Wars

Greek Philosophers

Time Warp Trio: My Big Fat Greek Olympics (part 1, 2 and 3)

Videos:

no videos this week

Favorite Books:

Esther's Story by Diane Wolkstein
Artemisia of Caria by Shirin Bridges
The Greek News by Anton Powell

School Days Summary - Celebrating Passover and the Babylonian Empire

A Summary of March 25 - April 12

We had such a busy spring this year. Our church brought in a man from Chosen People Ministries to do a Passover Seder service for Good Friday. Since it was kind of my idea, it kind of became my project to put together. I used to do event planning for a previous job so planning out the service details wasn't hard. It just took more time and effort than I was anticipating because it had been so long since I put together an event of this scale. I had a ton of willing helpers though which made it so much easier. 

We enjoyed participating in a Seder with our church family, and the younglings got to be a part of all the set-up and tear down. :) But I was so busy I didn't get any pictures!

The week of Passover, we only did our MFW readings about Passover and prepped for the service at church. The following 2 weeks we were back to our regularly scheduled work.

These were the final weeks of our homeschool co-op as well. We finished out the spring session (of 10 weeks), had a concert rehearsal, and participated in a spring concert. It's been good (my 4-6th grade music class performed exceptionally well at the concert) but I'm ready for a slightly easier schedule without co-op.

Here's what we did:

Things that were scheduled as usual:

Math

Language Arts (Grammar, Spelling, Penmanship, Reading, and Writing)

To align Tenor's writing (IEW's Ancient History Based Writing Lessons) with our history, he didn't have any writing these 3 weeks. He didn't complain at all. Hmm... I wonder why?

Electives:

Typing

Spanish

Civics: Community Helpers Bankers

Health: an acrostic worksheet 

PA History: We did a newspaper article style worksheet and one on the neighboring states.

Geography: We reviewed the continent of North America.

My Father's World Creation to the Greeks-

We did the Passover week of activities and reading then finished up with the Seder at church. Then we completed weeks 29-30 which finished up King Hezekiah, then Josiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel.

Bible: We kept working on learning a long passage from Isaiah 40 adding several verses this week. To help us remember, we're making up motions to go along with the different phrases. We also reviewed the Old Testament books and Psalm 1. 

We read passages in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and part of the book of Daniel.

Science: They finished Day 7 (rest) for science from Genesis for Kids. Then we started reading about Archimedes. 

History: We did some notebooking worksheets about Athens, the Greek Alphabet, and Athens and Sparta. We also read about Assyria's decline and fall and the Babylonian empire.

We finished reading the Children's Homer, added a few pieces to our timelines, and did some map work about Babylon.

Other MFW: 

Music: Again these 2 weeks, we listened to several music pieces by Handel. The younglings notebooked about 1 song each week using these sheets.

Art: They did lessons on clothing people, drawing designs, designing coins, and Greek pottery.

Extras:

Web:

no web videos these weeks

Videos:

Adventures in Courage by Porchlight
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Questar

Favorite Books:

Galileo and the Stargazers by Jim Weiss (CD)
The Matzah That Papa Brought Home by Fran Manushkin

Co-op Concert:

Simple Spring Mantel

This year I haven't done a clean sweep of the mantel for each season. After Christmas, I just edited and replaced to do the winter mantel. Then I did the same for St. Patrick's Day... and now the same for spring. (Things were too busy and Easter was so early in the year that I didn't do an Easter display.)

I used my sheet music paper wreath and rag garland. Check out the tutorials.

 I like this year's slightly more muted spring look. Lots of green but with earthy tans and blacks.

School Days Summary - Elisha, Jonah, Isaiah, and King Hezekiah

A Summary of March 11 - March 22

The school year is definitely flying by. There has been so much going on that blogging about it got put on the back burner. I'm going to try to catch up in the next few days so that I have a record of what we accomplished. (That makes the end of the year portfolios so much easier to put together!)

Here's what we did:

Things that were scheduled as usual:

Math

Language Arts (Grammar, Spelling, Penmanship, Reading, and Writing)

To align Tenor's writing (IEW's Ancient History Based Writing Lessons) with our history, he only had 1 week of writing.

Electives:

Typing

Spanish

Civics: Community Helpers Chef

Health: a worksheet on 'How Does Our Body Work?'
PA History: We did worksheets on the People of PA and the size of our state.

Geography: We reviewed the continent of Europe.

My Father's World Creation to the Greeks-

We completed weeks 27-28 which looked at Elisha, Jonah, Isaiah, and King Hezekiah.

Bible: We started working on learning a long passage from Isaiah 40. We'll tackle several verses each week for the rest of the school year. We also reviewed the 10 Commandments, Psalm 1, and Psalm 23. 

We read 2 Kings 4-18 and the book of Jonah.

Science: They started  Day 7 (rest) for science.

They did the Noodle Bridge, More Stressed Noodles, Bud Watch, Waking Buds, Staying Cool, and Trust Me! experiments.

Tenor making his own noodle construction. It ended up holding over 20 books.

History: We did a notebooking worksheet about Elisha and one about Jonah. We also read about Assyria-their wars, at home, and their architecture.

We continued reading a chapter a day in the Children's Homer and added to our timelines.

Other MFW: 

Music: Again these 2 weeks, we listened to several music pieces by Handel. The younglings notebooked about 1 song each week using these sheets.

Art: They did lessons on drawing people, drawing still life objects, and the appropriateness of nudity in art. We also started discussing ancient Greek art.

Extras:

Web:

Babylon and Assyria (The Kings: From Babylon to Baghdad)

Art of Assyria and Babylon

Assyrian Empire

Jonah: Bible Time Stories

Videos:

Veggie Tales: The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything (Story of Jonah)

Favorite Books:

The Mysterious Visitor by Nina Jaffe

Jonah and the Great Fish by Warwick Hutton

 

School Days Summary -- Elijah and Elisha

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Eden Olympics for Science

A Summary of February 25 - March 8

We're back on track and looking forward next week which marks the end of the 3rd quarter. Now the end of the school year is in sight, and I'm wondering how it got here so fast.

Here's what we did:

Things that were scheduled as usual:

Math

Language Arts (Grammar, Spelling, Penmanship, Reading, and Writing)

Electives:

Typing

Spanish

Civics: Community Helpers Factory Workers 

We're getting to some random occupations that they put in the Community Helpers cards. I couldn't find any extra books on Factory Workers for this week.

Health: a worksheet on 'Choosing Healthy Food'
PA History: We did worksheets on Crops, State Holidays, and the State Nickname.

My Father's World Creation to the Greeks-

We completed weeks 25-26 which focused on the ministries of Elijah and Elisha, mostly in the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

Bible: We finished learning Psalm 1. I wasn't paying as much attention so I didn't memorize the whole passage but the younglings did. We also reviewed the Old Testament books. 

We read through the rest of I Kings discussing how the kingdom of Israel was divided and how most of the kings following Solomon were not godly.Then we read about Elijah's ministry and then the calling of Elisha, who took Elijah's place.

Science: They finished up Day 6 (people and animals) in science these past two weeks.

They did the Eden Olympics, 

 

the Veins and Valves experiment, Bagel Brain, explored their sense of touch, hearing, smell, and sight. They skipped the tongue mapping (sense of taste) experiment. 

Seeing through Things experiment

Trying to drop pennies in a cup

History: We did a notebooking worksheet about Solomon and one for Elijah. We read about the decline and fall of Israel after the kingdom split into two, and then spent time learning about the caste system of India as well as Hinduism and Buddhism.

We continued reading a chapter a day in the Children's Homer. We are now in the second part which are the stories about Odysseus. I'm still butchering the pronunciations. :)

Elijah and Elisha both made it on to our timelines too.

Other MFW: 

Music: We listened to several music pieces by Handel. The younglings notebooked about 1 song each week using these sheets.

Art: We finally got to the painting lessons in art. The first one was simply creating blended colors. They each blended colors and painted samples on the included paint cards. Then they recreated the Stag Beetle painting (originally done by Albrecht Durer) while creating more blended paint shades.

Tenor's blending and beetle

Soprano's blending and beetle

We also read about Tintoretto and they drew a colored pencil sketch of Christ at the Sea of Galilee.

Extras:

Web:

Elijah the Prophet (part 1, part 2, and part 3)

Lego Elijah

Elisha Man of God

Hinduism and Buddhism

Videos:

What's in the Bible? volume 6

Favorite Books:

Albrecht Durer by Ernest Raboff
Wild Tracks! by Jim Arnosky
Your Insides by Joanna Cole

School Days Summary - King David's Reign and King Soloman's Wisdom

 

A Summary of February 8 - 22

 

February may be the shortest month of the year but for some reason it seems to just drag on. I think we've all been suffering from some winter doldrums. The weather has been a huge tease too! It got warm for two days tempting us with spring sunshine and then it went right back to snow. We are all anxiously waiting for warmer temps so the younglings can spend some time outside. To combat the winter blahs, we spent one week just doing our My Father's World studies and then jumped back into a full schedule the next week. Perhaps it would have been better to not do any work that first week but it will be worth it for an easier end-of-year workload.

Here's a quick look back at what we did:

Things that were scheduled as usual:

Math

The first week they just did flashcards and played math games online.

The second week we went back to just plugging away one lesson at time with both younglings. Tenor will be moving up to the next level of Saxon math in about a month. He's is naturally talented in math so we're going to just keeping moving him up as he finishes each level.

 

Language Arts (Grammar, Spelling, Penmanship, Reading, and Writing)

One week off, one week as usual.Although Tenor did do his IEW Ancient History based lessons writing assignment to keep it coordinated with our MFW work.

Electives:

Typing

Spanish

Health: a worksheet on the 'Benefits of a Healthy Diet'
PA History: We did a worksheet on our current governor, Tom Corbett. The state website had a great biographical page about him as well as a picture that we included.

My Father's World Creation to the Greeks-

We completed weeks 23-24 which focused on King David's reign and then his son, Solomon.

Bible: We continued learning Psalm 1. The younglings had learned part of it for their Tae Kwan Do class but they hadn't finished. Our first two weeks working on it was more of a review for them. We also reviewed the 10 Commandments and Psalm 23. 

Our Bible reading has been all about the first kings of Israel. We read through most of 1 Samuel, all of 2 Samuel, and began 1 Kings.

 

Science: More Day 6 (people and animals) for science these past two weeks.

We tried making the fruit fly farm. Any other time, we can get fruit flies without even trying. This time... nothing!

They did have good success making fossils

doing the Solar Critters experiment, learning about Enzymes, and they loved the Oxygen In, Carbon Dioxide Out and Take Your Breath Away experiments.

 

History: After notebooking about Saul, we continued studying King David these two weeks. We read about how he brought the ark back, how he cared for Mephibosheth, how he sinned with Bathsheba and the consequences that followed. We also notebooked about David using sheets from this set. After that we read about his Solomon. We also looked at the Phoenicians and their alphabet and Arabia.
We continued reading a chapter a day in the Children's Homer.

Other MFW: 

Music: We listened to Handel's biography. The younglings wrote out what they remembered on notebooking sheets.

Art: For art, they created a Diptych, did a nature study with pen and ink, and drew some still lifes of household objects.

Extras:

Web:
King David (What's in the Bible? Vol. 5)

2 Samuel (the Fabulous Bentley Brothers)

Phoenicians

A History of the Hebrew Part 8: The Proto-Semitic Alphabet

2 videos about the Phoenicians here

Archaeologists Uncover 3,000 year old wall from Solomon's Time

Solomon's Temple Aerial Tour

Solomon's Temple

The Wisdom of Solomon (Moody Bible Story)

We were a little behind on these but watched several episodes of Drive Thru History from itbn.org

Conquest, Canaanites, and the Holy City Episode 4

Conquest, Canaanites, and the Holy City Episode 5

Covenants, Kings and the Promised Land Episode 2

Covenants, Kings and the Promised Land Episode 3

Videos:

Handel's Last Chance

The Magic School Bus: Human Body

Favorite Books:

George Handel by Mike Venezia
Why Don't Haircuts Hurt? by Melvin Berger

See Inside Your Body by Katie Daynes

This looked fun but we didn't have time: Phoenican boat craft