CC at Home: Cycle 1, Week 2

He changes times and seasons;  he removes kings and sets up kings;he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. ~Daniel 2:21

How I love redeeming my own education through Classical Conversations! I never studied the Assyrian Empire when I was in school, nor do I remember learning the differences between protista and monera. This stuff is fascinating! Here is our slowed-down plan for Week Two:

BIBLE:

Read Exodus 20 (our CC memory work for Cycle 1). Our family has used Doorposts for years during Bible time. We love their character lessons, and since our family really loves the book of Proverbs, Doorposts is a favorite. We've been focusing on the "Put-On Chart" during Bible time lately. The boys are learning so much--and putting it into practice. 

HISTORY/BIBLE/GEOGRAPHY: (Talk about integration of subjects! A friend asked why I group history and Bible together. Please tell me I'm not the only person who grew up thinking secular history occurred during a totally different time period than Biblical history! Where Biblical history and secular history coincide, I'll try to point it out to the boys.) We're focusing on the Ten Commandments and the Assyrian Empire this week. 

Monday: We'll continue reviewing the Ten Commandments. I've grown to love the song CC included on the audio CD. I caught myself singing, "These are the words of my GOD....these are the words of my GOD." Now THAT'S a song I don't mind getting stuck in my head. Our CC community has the most precious hand motions to use with the Ten Commandments.

I had these DVDs in a cabinet and had forgotten all about them, until this wonderful blogger posted them! What a timely reminder! Thanks, Melody! :) My boys have already watched them all! They're short and entertaining.

Listen to a child tell the story of the three Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace. Hopefully, Johnathan will be able to complete the puzzle on the site while he listens! We'll discuss the importance of commandment one: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 

Tuesday: Community Day--no "school" at home

Wednesday: After reviewing our geography memory work (Assyrian Empire), I'll read Chapter 16 in Story of the World. What an interesting chapter, especially for boys! Seige towers, military tactics, lions--oh, my! They'll love it. This wonderful site has Assyrian Empire activities that are very simple and relaxed. We'll have time in the sandbox to recreate Ashurbanipal's siege tower tactics.

Thursday: More geography practice locating the Assyrian Empire and its features. We'll focus today on the Red Sea by reading Exodus 14, where God parted the Red Sea. The boys can watch this powerful video. I'm glad we'll be able to see the horse-drawn chariots in action, since we discussed them last week when studying the Egyptians. We'll color this page. I'm not big on coloring pages, but I do like the discussions that the page below could bring up: Did everyone look happy? Can you find someone who looks scared? What would you have been scared of? How do you think Moses felt? Find someone who looks like he or she is trusting God. Do you think the babies would remember this when they got older? If not, how will they know about it? 

Friday: More geography and Ten Commandments review. After reading pages 118-121 in Story of the World, we'll go out on the porch and make clay tablets! I'll write messages about our daily lives and I'll let the boys draw something on theirs. We'll discuss how important things written on paper would burn up if they caught on fire, but clay tablets would be preserved for a very long time.

*For those on CC connected, NoGreaterJoy5 has a Cycle 1 "History Coordinated Reading Schedule (A reading schedule which coordinates CC history sentences with World History Homework (Scholastic), SOTW, MOH, Kingfisher, VP Cards)." TALK ABOUT HELPFUL!!! 

MATH:

We'll continue to practice skip counting by 1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s using songs. These charts really help Johnathan recognize the larger numbers. I also write the numbers on index cards and have him literally "skip" count! 

SCIENCE: 

Skip through this video which shows great real-life images of protista, monera, fungi, etc. I'll also let the boys watch this video, which is more entertaining and child-friendly! We do have a big mushroom patch in our yard, so I'll put on gloves and we'll explore the fungi!

LATIN:

Johnathan is quickly memorizing his Latin noun cases. I am impressed! At a CC Practicum over the summer, we learned hand motions for the noun cases. If you'd like for me to share those, please let me know.

FINE ARTS:

We'll continue our picture studies and drawing practice. This week, we'll focus on mirror images.



TIMELINE:

Johnathan really likes for me to mix up the timeline cards  so he can put them back in order. I also use them as flash cards. We love those cards!