School Summary - Oppression and Freedom

Reading book basket choices together. Of course the kicking and pushing started as soon as I took this pic and said, "Aw, are you guys being buddies?"

I respectfully ask that you not pin pictures of my children to Pinterest. Thank you!

A Summary of March 30- April 3

A quick one week summary because next week is a break week. Cue happy dance.

Here's what we did:

Things that were scheduled:

Math

Language Arts (Grammar, Reading, and Writing; Spelling for Soprano)

We got one week behind in writing because the assignments needed more time to be polished and finished. But we doubled-up this week and got caught up again.

Electives:

Typing, Greek (Tenor), Spanish (Tenor), Home Ec (Soprano)

My Father's World Exploration to 1850

This was a week that touched on historical events happening at the same time but on four different continents. The main theme though was oppression (either by other people groups, countries, or governments) and the fight for freedom.

Bible: This year we're doing an in-depth study of the book of James and attempting to memorize the entire book. We've now learned all of chapters 1-4. This week was supposed to be a week of devotions from "Boy, Have I Got Problems." I'm pushing that back a week because of our hymn study. Instead we learned chapter 5, verses 1-4.

Science: We did all of our botany work, using AIG's The World of Plants, over the summer. At this point, I'm just including books for the book basket as review.

History: 

Day 1: Mexican oppression and the fight for freedom

Day 2: Slavery and the abolitionists' fight

Day 3: Oppression of Zulus and other South Africans by the Boers and English and the scramble for Africa

Day 4: Native American oppression and their relocation

We made Assegai Stabbing Spears like Shaka had his warriors use. Our handles might be a little too long though.

We continued our state and president study. 

I added in some map work from SOTW (Native American Relocation). No extra timeline pieces though. 

We skipped making African Groundnut Sauce. My "cultural" recipes from SOTW never turn out properly. It tends to just waste time and money because no one will eat it.

Other MFW: 

Music: We did a quick review of Beethoven by listening to "The Story of Beethoven in Words and Music" and reading "The Young Scholar's Guide to the Composers" and "Meet the Great Composers." For our hymn study, we continued with "Amazing Grace." I also added in an Easter hymn study (When I Survey). We learned four of the hymns from that.

Art: We read about Romanticism and Delacroix.

Extras:

Web:

You can see them all in my Youtube playlist for weeks 15-34.

Causes of the Civil War

Videos:

The Presidents (Quincy Adams; Jackson) (History Channel)

Explorers of the World: The American Frontier (Schlessinger Media)

American History for Children: United States Expansion (Schlessinger Media)

The Life of George Washington Carver (Alabama) (RBC Ministries)

Favorite Books: 

Andrew Jackson by Mike Venezia

John Quincy Adams by Mike Venezia

Dangerous Crossing (John Quincy Adams) by Stephen Krensky

Don't Know Much About the Presidents by Kenneth C. Davis

Going West by Jean VanLeeuwen

Helen Keller: Courage in the Dark (Alabama) by Johanna Hurwitz

Rosa (Alabama) by Nikki Giovanni

Saving Strawberry Farm (Illinois) by Deborah Hopkinson

Lives of the Musicians (Beethoven) by Kathleen Krull

Shaka: King of the Zulus by Diane Stanley

The Sea Chest (Maine) by Tony Buzzeo

You Wouldn't Want to Be an American Pioneer by Jacqueline Morley