Sunday, April 22, 2007

On the school menu this week...

Cold lunches and spring term work. We are on a finish-it-off kind of schedule right now; I have certain amounts of reading and so on written on index cards, and when all the cards are done, school's done for the year. Right now we're looking at the middle of June. If we miss a day because the weather's beautiful (like right now), we will just go on to the next card when we get back to schoolwork.

This week's menu (allowing maybe for one day off):

Day 1:
Sing a hymn or O Canada; say Luther's Morning Prayer; practice the second part of the Apostles' Creed (from Luther's Small Catechism--used in our family for memory work even though we no longer attend a Lutheran church)
Bible: finish off 2 Chronicles 25 (King Amaziah, who should wear a t-shirt with 2 Chron. 25:20 on it: 'But Amaziah refused to listen')
Copywork/Handwriting practice
Botany chapter 8--finish off the Stems chapter and do some of the Roots things that were too hard to do when it was cold
The Children's Own Longfellow: start a new poem
On Foot to the Arctic (Samuel Hearne): read 1/3 of chapter 6, "The Ways of an Indian Chief." "Matonabi had no wish to wander along slowly, as Hearne's previous guides had done. The weather was so cold now that sledges moved easily across the frozen snow. At a rate of sixteen or eighteen miles daily, they moved northward...." (Brrr.)
Math: Ponytails do page 191, Crayons work with Mom
Swallows and Amazons, chapter 5

Day 2
Opening: sing a hymn and pray
Say the 10 Commandments or sing the books of the Bible
Armed with Courage: continue reading about Jane Addams
Geography: finish chapter 9, about volcanoes
Ponytails work on either grammar or time-telling workbook
Art/Music: continue reading about Debussy in Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts, and listen to some of his music (we are reading this chapter because Bernstein compares Debussy's music with Monet's paintings)
Math: Ponytails finish the multiplication crossword on page 149; Crayons work with Mom
Swallows and Amazons, chapter 6

Day 3
Opening: pretty much like Day 1
Continue reading in 2 Chronicles
Copywork or handwriting practice
Botany: do 1/3 of the reading in Chapter 9, "Trees" (and go outside for some field work)
French
Continue reading the chapter in On Foot to the Arctic
History: read half of chapter 27 in Hillyer's history, "When Greek Meets Greek," about Athens, Sparta and Socrates
Swallows and Amazons, chapter 7

Day 4
Opening: pretty much like Day 2
Read Psalm 8 together
Read a legend from Canadian Wonder Tales
Math: Ponytails work on page 150, Crayons with Mom
Continue reading Longfellow
Grammar or time-telling workbook
Nature reading: The Wilds of Whip-poor-Will Farm, "Fox Watch" (a spring chapter)
Swallows and Amazons, chapter 8
Cooking lesson

3 comments:

Lisa said...

We are planning on doing the Botany book next year. Do you think it would be better to wait until the spring to start it or does it really matter?

Mama Squirrel said...

Spring would be a great time, but there are some alternative schedules posted (both on Jeannie's email list/files and on the Bookextras part of the Apologia website. http://www.apologiaonline.com/bookextras/ We started in the fall (August would have been better) and had to put some things off through the winter, but it still worked out all right.

Mama Squirrel said...

Sorry if that wasn't clear--the alternative schedules give suggestions for which chapters you really need to do when the ground's not covered with snow or when there are flowers blooming. (But you can always just go buy some flowers at the grocery store or go to a nursery...)