Latin Noun Cases: Hand Motions

My camera isn't working properly, so my little one can't "model" these motions for you. As soon as I figure out the problem, I'll come back and post pictures (pictures would make this much easier to understand!). I learned these hand motions from a very talented CC mama. I met her at our recent Practicum and she showed us these motions. I wish I remembered her name to give her credit.

The words in bold are the words you say, of course. This looks complicated, but as you read, you'll see it's VERY simple and repetitive. My little Abecedarians love it!

NOMINATIVE: extend left arm in front of you and make a fist; hold it there
SUBJECT: extend right arm in front of you and make a fist; hold it there

You'll have two fists in front of your body. Now retract them!

GENITIVE: extend left arm in front of you and make a fist; hold it there
POSSESSIVE: make a "claw" with your right hand and use it to "grab" the left fist

You'll have a captured left fist in front of your body. Now retract them!

DATIVE: extend left arm in front of you and make a fist; hold it there
INDIRECT: extend right arm in front of you and make a fist; place right fist directly beside left fist. OBJECT: quickly swing right fist away from the left fist.

Retract them!

ACCUSATIVE: extend left arm and make a fist; hold it there
DIRECT: extend right arm out to the right side of your body and make a fist. OBJECT: quickly swing right fist towards the left fist and "slam" into it. Hold your two fists together for a second.

Retract them!

ABLATIVE: extend left arm and make a fist; hold it there
Now everyone's favorite part: OBJECT OF THE PREPOSITION: make a fist with your right hand; place it on top of the left fist. Quickly begin stacking your fists as you call out "Object of the preposition!"

Clear as mud??? :) Hopefully, I can have the pictures up before weeks 13 and 14, when we study noun cases again.

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!

getting real

Photo

Have you ever had one of those days (or moments) when you gained a clear understanding of who you really are? Well, Week One provided one of those times for me!

As a homeschool mom, I want the very best for my boys! I want them to know everything and do everything that is available to them. But, I realized

that is not going to happen.

Oh, there were so many great ideas! SO MANY! Pinterest, blogs, and other CC moms have given me so many creative ideas and plans. I could envision myself plowing through my day doing all of these great things with my three and four year olds. We would laugh and get messy, and I would be patient and sweet. They would follow my directions. I would rub their little backs while they watched five videos about Egyptians.

Ahem.

Needless to say, that didn't happen.

I eliminated several activities that I had planned, simply because we just didn't have the time. My boys didn't have the attention span.

I don't want to recreate school at home. I want us to LIVE. We simply can't do three activities before lunch that require glue and scissors.

I need to find my limits and delight in them. Psalm 16:6 says, "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance." (For major encouragement in this area, read this precious post.) I realize that I should educate these boys while being the mom God created me to be. And that "me" is not a mom who loves messes and crafts. Those activities pile on stress for me. And you know what? My boys would rather build or read than glue or cut. Isn't God good?

I have two little boys who need to run and play and cuddle with Mama. That's fine with me!

Week Two will be much more realistic. I'm saying this while in the midst of week one...and I'm already feeling the urge to think,"Well, yes, this week was over-planned and hectic, but OH, LOOK at ALL of these great ideas for next week!" :) Needless to say, you'll find a much slower-paced Week Two on the blog later today. 

"Let your moderation be known unto all men." Philippians 4:5

CC Cycle 1: Resources We'll Use Year Round

This post will probably be updated as we begin the school year, but here are some of the sources that I know I'll be using as of now. These first three books are ones that Classical Conversations recommends for tutors and parents. I'm happy with them so far!

Of course, we'll use the wonderful CC Foundations Guide, 4th ed. I can't even begin to describe how impressed I am with the Foundations program. 

We love The Jesus Storybook Bible. I get teary-eyed almost every time I read it. The wording is profound, and the illustrations are beautiful. 

Rhymes Round the World is a precious book of poetry for children. It is one of the books that came in the mail from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. It is filled with poems written by people from other countries. If I can find a poem written in a country that we're focusing on, then we'll read it!

The Story of the World. This is a wonderful resource, but I'm not yet sure if it's the perfect fit for our family. I chose this book for several reasons. I love the way Susan Wise Bauer writes, and I have tremendous respect for her. The book is in chronological order. It's told like a story. It's great! However, we believe that God is the center of everything--including history. This book uses Bible stories as an aside--just as it uses myths and tales as asides...I'm not sure about that. After hearing my concerns, a friend suggested that Mystery of History might be a better resource for our family. I probably won't switch over until next year, since the boys are so young anyway.

Seatbelts, everyone! I remember watching The Magic School Bus in school as a little girl. I loved the characters, and even though I didn't love science, these videos were fascinating to me! We've already been watching these DVDs at home. The boys love them. I haven't yet heard any references to evolution or "millions of years" (concepts my husband and I don't agree with), but if we do encounter them, I'll be sure to point out truth to the boys.

I purchased Usborne's Famous Paintings cards at a homeschool convention this year. I was planning on waiting a couple of years to use them, but Johnathan found them and was enthralled. He loved studying each painting. I was elated! So now, about every week or so, we pull out another picture card to study. Johnathan and Samuel are quickly memorizing the titles of the works and the artists who painted them. I'm an impressed mama! My plan is to continue doing picture studies all year, and I hope to purchase more cards at some point.

Alpha-Phonics. I purchased this recently, but I've always known that I wanted to use this book teach my children phonics. Notice I said book, not program. That's the beauty of Alpha-Phonics to me. Just a child, a mama, and a book. I wasn't planning on teaching phonics to Johnathan at four, but I think he has a different plan. We'll see!

An old photo I found of my "little boys" playing with their beloved bricks! In this photo, they had made a table and chair. :)

We ordered these cardboard bricks from Constructive Playthings a couple of years ago. Our boys have run on them, jumped on them, and knocked them down at least a thousand times. They're still in terrific shape! We'll love using these during Cycle One to construct pyramids, towers, homes, etc. My builder-boys will love this!

I'll update the list as the year goes on!

CC at Home: Cycle 1, Week 1

 "Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children: Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven." ~Psalm 148:12-13

Our first week of Classical Conversations will be a busy one, especially since I will be preparing to tutor my very first class. I'm trying to keep this week simple at home, but we're focusing on CREATION and ANCIENT EGYPT! There is way too much to discover. No simple week for this family!

*I think most CC families study history using the history sentence and not the timeline. After some deliberation, I've decided to use the history sentences as well as the timeline, at least where they correlate nicely.

Each day, I'll spend about thirty minutes with Johnathan reviewing this week's memory work (math, science, timeline, English, Latin, geography, and history sentence.) Then, we'll dig a little deeper!

HISTORY/BIBLE: 

At some point during each day, perhaps before naps, we'll read from The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer. This week, we will cover chapters 1-6.

Monday: Johnathan (4) and Samuel (3) have already heard the creation story many times, so we'll reread the Genesis account of creation and spend time thanking God for His power over creation and His love for us. We'll make these simple creation numbers to hang in our home as a year-long reminder:

Tuesday: Community day, no "school" at home

Wednesday: Read Genesis 7. Discuss God's power over nature.

• PURPOSEFUL PLAY: Use plastic animals, toy people, and a toy wooden ship to reenact the story of the flood.
• Color the ark.

Thursday: Read Genesis 11. Discuss the importance of being obedient to God and stamping out pride in our lives.

• ACTIVITY: We will speak in different "languages" and try to guess what the others are saying. I will give commands to the boys in a "babble" voice. We'll talk about how it became impossible for the men who were building the tower to understand one another. 
•  We'll construct our own "tower" out of cardboard blocks. 
• Video: Tower of Babel
• Color the tower of Babel.

Friday: Ancient Egypt! I wasn't fascinated by this study when I was in school, but I am excited about delving into this part of history now! To help the boys visualize what we'll be studying, we'll watch this video. My young boys will not sit through the entire video, nor would I want them to. We'll "cruise" through the video to show the very interesting parts. I especially would like them to see the Egyptians hauling bricks to build pyramids.

Read this book:

We will try building a pyramid using our big cardboard bricks. These bricks will be such an asset to our homeschool during Cycle One!

On Friday night, we'll show Daddy what we've been doing! We'll make Mummy Dogs for supper...

 ...and watch Prince of Egypt!
GEOGRAPHY: 

Use CC's Trivium Tables to review the Fertile Crescent. We might look at photos of the area or look up places in Scripture that mention these places.

SCIENCE:

Johnathan and Samuel just aren't ready to delve into the classifications of living things! We'll simply memorize the science facts this week.

LATIN: 

Memorize noun cases.

ENGLISH:

Review prepositions. On Community Day in CC, the students will use the "Preposition Penguin" (just a stuffed penguin we had at home) to act out prepositions, so we'll use him to review. I love this fun book, too!

FINE ARTS: Practice drawing basic shapes (OiLS) using these printables: