School Summary - India, Iran and Iraq, Nuclear Power, and the End of the Cold War

 

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A Summary of April 25 - May 6

So we're in the final stretch. It's starting to seem like I've been writing the same things every two weeks for the past four years. This year especially there's been much less as far as hands-on activities go. Looking ahead, I'm feeling torn about the end of this year. It's bittersweet in that next year the youngling and padawan won't be learning together anymore. Tenor is headed into high school so his curricula will be completely different. At the same time, I'm kinda tired of writing the same thing every two weeks. :) But staying in the moment, here's what we did:

Things that were scheduled:

Math

Language Arts (Grammar with Writing and Literature for both; Spelling for Soprano)

Reading vocab -- Soprano never figured out that I had written the answer key on the back of these sheets.

Electives:

Greek and Computer Science (Tenor), American Sign Language, Photography, and Sewing (Soprano)

Soprano finished photography and ASL. She's just been reviewing both of those and stalling on sewing. We'll be working on projects well into the summer.
 

My Father's World 1850 to Modern Times
The Middle East is still a mess. Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun, eh? We did learn about nuclear power and the mess of Chernobyl. I found pictures online of some children and animals affected by the disaster. Tenor thought they were interestingly gruesome. Soprano wanted no part of viewing them. Someone in the FB group for this curriculum posted a link to this article. Crazy to think it's only been 30 years!
We learned about Ronald Reagan's presidency (kind of had issues but one can not doubt that he loved America and Americans), the end of the Cold War, and the Berlin Wall coming down.

Bible: This year we will be learning (reviewing) basic Christian beliefs and memorizing key Bible passages. We kept working on verses (9-12) from 1 Peter chapter 2.

 

History and Geography: 

Project-wise: We read about making a Langar meal, the oil tankers, and the Brandenburg Gate in the SOTW Activity book. However we actually did the Muslim Calendar math project (hint: tell your kids not to round their answers), the Nuclear Warning Sign art,

 

 

and the Tiananmen Square art. 

 

 

We also did the outlines and writing from outlines, timeline pieces, and maps.

Science: We're  using the World of Science reading assignments to review what we learned this summer.
Tenor has been working on a 1/2 credit natural science course during the year to add to his transcript. His 1/4 credit of Archaeology did not go well so I won't be including it this year. He might retake it down the road. But his 1/4 credit for Speleology is almost done. Some of his work included carving axe heads out of soap

and making a 3-D model of some cave features.

A cereal standing in in a pinch because we don't usually keep shoe boxes.

Other MFW: 

Music:  We have the iPod playing at lunch most days. We kept listening to Aaron Copland and listened to our hymns playlist as well.

Art: They had a lesson on bouquets of flowers (Matisse), geometric designs, and painting on a toned surface. Those are our last paint cards which makes me a very, very, happy mama. :)

 

Extras:

Web:

You can see them all in my Youtube playlist for weeks 17-34.

Videos:

The Presidents by the History Channel
Mao's Last Dancer

Favorite Books: 

Ronald Reagan by Mike Venezia
George H.W. Bush by Mike Venezia
The Remarkable Ronald Reagan by Susan Allen