Wrapping Up Week 2 (2014-15)

Posted on July 19, 2014 by Deanna

As we finish up our second week of school, I am more excited than ever about this year. I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy the first year of our history cycle as much as some of the others, but that was actually one of my favorite parts of this week. We had a lot of fun exploring different books related to our history and science subjects, as well as watching a couple videos (always Ian’s favorite part).

Bible

During our morning Bible time we continued reading Wisdom and the Millers. We read chapters 21-24 and would have finished the book except we skipped one day when we went on a field trip. Ian would love to read multiple chapters each day, but I like to keep him wanting more. After our chapter we always read a few verses in Proverbs. This week we read Proverbs 13:12-14:10.

We’re on Week 77 in Long Story Short by Marty Machowski, which continues the story of Ezra, so we didn’t move ahead in Bible Road Trip Year One (which only spent one week on Ezra).

Math

Ian finished up Year 1 of the Mathematics Enhancement Programme. We took a break partway through his Kindergarten year when it got a bit frustrating, so I wanted to be sure we finished that before diving into Year 2 for 1st grade. (The years are a bit confusing because the program is from the UK and doesn’t follow the US grading system. I’ve heard of people using Year 1 for 1st, but initially I had read that it was for Kindergarten so we started it then. If it gets to be too challenging I may stretch the material for Year 2 beyond 1st grade.)

Common Core, Super Hero Double Digit Addition With and Wit We also did some work on learning to add 2-digit numbers using a really fun supplement called “Superhero Addition” created by a friend of mine. Ian loved it and did really well! It turns out he knows his addition facts much better than he lets on. I was so surprised by how fast he flew through the pages we did–without a single mistake! Evidently superheroes are highly motivating. He was eager to do extra math pages all week. (Thanks, Katie!)

Literature (Ambleside Online)

For poetry I took a break from A Child’s Garden of Verses to read poems to go along with our history lesson. Prayers from the Ark and The Creatures’ Choir by Carmen Bernos De Gasztold, translated by Rumer Godden contains poems written from the perspective of various animals. We made a fun game of it where I would read the poem and then the boys would guess which animal it was about. They really enjoyed it and we read at least six or seven each day.

I’m so thankful for Ambleside Online’s weekly schedules. They take a rather daunting booklist and break it down into really manageable chunks, spreading some books out over many months, which I think will really help Ian remember them better in the long run. We read everything scheduled for week two and finished “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” in Andrew Lang’s Red Fairy Book on the additional free reading list.

In addition to readings for AO Year 1, the literature program we’re reviewing had us spending the week with The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. It was perfect timing, because the Skirball Cultural Center, which we decided to visit for a history field trip, happened to have a special exhibit on this book!

The kids loved seeing the familiar pictures and learning more about the author. I wish we’d had time to stay longer.

History Cycle

I’m generally following the lesson topics for Mystery of History, Vol. 1, though I’m not necessarily using that curriculum as designed. (Do I ever?) Week 2 covers:

Noah and the Flood
Ice Age
Dinosaurs

That’s a lot to pack into one week, especially since we could spend a lot of time on each one! I prefer to use living books to teach topics whenever possible, only resorting to the textbook (which I paraphrase) when I can’t find an appropriate book. Here’s what we read this week:

Noah and the Flood

We have lots of books on this topic (see below), but I focused on Noah’s Ark by Jerry Pinkney. It’s very well written with beautiful watercolor illustrations. My favorite page is an underwater scene where sea creatures are swimming through the ruins of buildings now submerged by the flood:

“The water rose over cities and towns. Whales swam down ruined streets. Schools of fish darted through empty windows.”

We repeated many of the things we did last time we covered Noah, since the younger ones didn’t remember much. We read several of the books below (and had them all out for the children to look through on their own) and watched Greatest Adventures of the Bible: Noah’s Ark. We also talked about how people groups around the world had flood legends that seem to point back to the story of Noah. We read a page in Dinosaurs by Design by Duane Gish that shared some of these different legends, which Ian really enjoyed.

IMG_20140715_133305 The highlight of our week was definitely visiting the Noah’s Ark Exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center. Ian has been asking to go back ever since we first went two years ago. We noticed many new things and used up every minute of our two-hour time slot. The boys are already talking about “next time,” but since it’s well over an hour away, we may have to wait all four years until our history cycle comes around again. Then at least Nicholas will be old enough to remember it too!

Here’s our collection of Noah/Flood Books (some of these are basic preschool level books I read with Arianna and Elijah):

The Story of Noah and the Ark illustrated by Gennady Spirin (KJV text)
Inside Noah’s Ark by Charles Reasoner
The Real Story of the Flood by Paul L. Maier (has a couple paragraphs at the end that reflect an unbiblical “day-age” view when talking about dinosaurs, but I just crossed those out and wrote a brief note in the margin for my kids in case they read it on their own. I really like the rest of the book.
Noah’s Wife: The Story of Naamah by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
Naamah, Noah’s Wife by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso (a condensed board book of the above title, better for Arianna)
Naamah and the Ark at Night by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Noah’s Crew Came 2 by 2 by Mindy MacDonald

The Ice Age

I read the page on the Ice Age from Dinosaurs by Design by Duane Gish. It was just an introduction to the topic, but that’s all I wanted this time around. I ordered Life in the Great Ice Age by Michael J. Oard, but since it hasn’t arrived yet, I think we’ll probably just save it for the next time through the history cycle.

Dinosaurs

There are so many possibilities when it comes to studying dinosaurs. I considered extending our time on this subject into next week, but Ian isn’t especially fascinated by them so I think once he’s had time to create a page for his history notebook we’ll just move on.

I tried to keep it simple this week so that dinosaurs didn’t overwhelm the rest of our schoolwork. We read through What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs? by John D. Morris and Ken Ham. Then we watched The Creation Adventure Team: A Jurassic Ark Mystery and Buddy Davis Adventures: I Dig Dinosaurs! (I like the second one much better, but Ian really likes them both.)

Science

In The World of Animals (part of the God’s Design for Life curriculum from Answers in Genesis), we went deeper into our study of mammals. Ian made a collage of mammal pictures for his notebook:

We read in the textbook about spiny anteaters (echidnas) and the platypus, mammals that are unusual because they lay eggs. Ian was interested in that, so we read a little more in a book we have that also happens to be called World of Animals (by Martin Walters) We also watched an episode of Wild Kratts called “Platypus Cafe“.

Later in the week we read in the textbook about primates. There was a special section about the intelligence of primates, which reminded Ian of Koko, whom we read about in Koko’s Story by Francine Patterson. In Ian’s notebook he wanted to record that Curious George is not a monkey because he has no tail (which would make him an ape).

After reading About Mammals by Cathryn Sill, Ian also wanted to read About Rodents, so even though they weren’t covered in our textbook, we spent a little time talking about rodents. He really enjoyed learning about them because we see lots of squirrels in the park near our house, and he was processing what we read with what he’s observed there. The Life Cycle of a Beaver by Bobbie Kalman was full of great information. (We’ll be finishing it up this weekend, and then I’m planning to let the kids watch Wild Kratts “Build it Beaver.”

We still have quite a bit of time left on mammals, so I’m sure Ian will have no trouble finishing up that last notebook page.

As you can see, it was a busy week! I really enjoyed exploring these subjects with Ian and was reminded once more how glad I am that we get to homeschool!