CC at Home: Cycle 1, Week 3

"The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands." ~Acts 17:24

Ancient Greece is the name of the game this week! I can't wait to give the boys a fun glimpse into the lives of these interesting people.

BIBLE: Each day, we'll simply read Exodus 20. Review Ten Commandments with hand motions and song. Continuing using Doorposts' "Put On Chart" to discuss kindness. We usually do a simple, fun skit during this time, too.

Monday: Read Joshua 3-4 where the Joshua leads the Israelites across the Jordan River on dry land.

I like the idea of making a river to use during our Cycle 1 studies! How convenient it would be to just pull out our river whenever we study the Jordan, Nile, Ganges, and Huang He! We could reenact events on the "river". We could even cut out other cities or regions and place them on the appropriate side of the river. Countless possibilities! This week, we could place 12 memorial stones in the "Jordan" river. Fun!

Wednesday: Read Acts 17:22-31, which describes Paul's sermon on Mars Hill. This will be a great way to lead into our history sentence about the Greek and Roman gods. Here is a coloring page of Paul preaching to the Greeks. I'll point out the Greek architecture and clothing on the coloring page.

Thursday: Read Acts 19:23-41 and discuss how important it is to worship the one, true God. We'll talk about who did the right thing (Paul) and who did the wrong thing (Demetrius). I'll hold up a little statue and ask, "Can this little thing help me when I'm sick? Can this help you when you're scared?" (No.) I'll try talking to the little statue and waiting for it to answer me. We'll discuss how our God is the only One who listens to us, comforts us, and shows us how to do good. We'll reference the painting and drawing below.

"Paul preaching before the Temple of Diana at Ephesus" - by Adolf Pirsch, 1885

"Demetrius the silversmith stirs up a riot" by Edward H. Corbould, 1894  

HISTORY/BIBLE/GEOGRAPHY: Week 3's history sentence is: "Tell me about the Greek and Roman gods." We will focus on Ancient Greece this week, but we will not focus on the gods. I don't feel comfortable presenting that information to my children yet. Of course, as they mature, they'll need to know the names of the gods and what those gods represented. I just don't think preschool is the time. They are still getting to know the one true God of our family. This verse gives us caution:

"When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise." ~Deuteronomy 12:29-30

I wish I had known about this book earlier. It looks wonderful. It's on my wish list!

Monday: GREEK ARCHITECTURE. This day always needs to be a bit simple, because we're getting ready for our CC community day on Tuesday. We'll just look at the little Parthenon in our Toob of landmarks and try to replicate it using these colored blocks. I'll point out the columns and symmetry (which is  timely, since we studied symmetry last week).

Tuesday: CC Community Day; no "school" at home.

Wednesday: GREEK ART. After reading a chapter 20 in The Story of the World, we'll create these very simple Greek "vases" using black markers and small terracotta flower pots. If you have older children, they might enjoy this worksheet on Greek vases.

Thursday: GREEK ATTIRE. Today is an important day, as we'll be making Greek clothes for our feast on Friday night. Our Greek attire is awfully complicated: a white sheet and a construction paper laurel wreath. ;)

Friday: GREEK FEAST. Tonight will be the Greek feast with Daddy! We'll all dress up and dine! The idea came from this blog; how inspiring! She even has recipe ideas for a Greek feast. We probably won't try the recipes, but we will recline at our very own homemade triclinium table using couch cushions and beach towels. It'll be fun and rather, um, interesting messy to eat while reclining!

After the meal, we'll cuddle on our triclinium and watch Disney's Hercules.

*This week, we'll be reading Susan Wise Bauer's Story of the World, chapters 18-25. 

*I haven't viewed these videos yet, but I'll preview them and see if they are suitable for our little study of Ancient Greece. 

Aesop's Fables are perfect to read while studying Ancient Greece. 

ENGLISH: Continue learning prepositions using our Preposition Penguin.

LATIN: Begin memorizing Latin noun endings (1st declension) using the song on the CC Audio CD.

SCIENCE: "What are some parts of an animal cell?" I had the urge again. I saw an animal cell pizza and an animal cell made out of JELL-O. I immediately began writing down the ingredients, but I stopped myself. We just aren't going to have the time. And would my boys really "get it" anyway? They don't even like the ingredients on the animal cell pizza! I had to let it go. We'll either do a coloring page or use an animal cell model for a reference.

MATH: Skip count by 5s and 6s. See this post for skip counting worksheets.

TIMELINE: Johnathan's favorite part of memory work, by far, is his timeline. He loves to sing the song, play with his timeline cards, and do the hand motions! We'll simply continue doing what's working!

FINE ARTS: Drawing upside-down images. This book looks so fun!