Monday, January 20, 2014

School Summary - Vikings and Feudalism

Viking Runestones (and some extra treats)
I respectfully ask that you not pin pictures of my children to Pinterest. Thank you!
 A Summary of January 6-17
We're getting back into the routine of school. It's been nice to feel like we're accomplishing things, especially before our co-op starts meeting again.
Here's what we did for the past two weeks:

Things that were scheduled:
Math
Language Arts (Grammar, Spelling, Penmanship, Reading, and Writing)
Soprano finished her last reading book and began Jim Thorpe: Olympic Champion. Somewhat appropriate with the Sochi Olympics coming up.

Electives:
Typing, Spanish, Civics, Geography, and PA History for both.
Tenor learned 2 more Greek letters. Soprano had Home Ec which included her last cooking lesson (she was thrilled) and her first cleaning lesson. I think I'm going to like the cleaning section of her Home Ec book.
My Father's World Rome to the Reformation-
We're back on our normal schedule. Full weeks of the 3 'Rs' and full weeks of MFW. We learned about Vikings and their explorations and the Battle of Hastings and Feudalism.

Bible: We continued reading through Luke and studying the life of Jesus. Our Scripture memory passage has been 1 Corinthians 13:1-8. We've been learning about a verse a week and adding them on to what we've already memorized. We read about Alfred the Great and Anselm in Trial and Triumph.

Science: We're still working through the AIG Human Body book. We learned about the immune system, genetics, Gregor Mendel. I had found a neat DNA kit at Hobby Lobby on clearance, so the younglings put together a DNA model with it.
I, of course, forgot to take a picture of the completed model.
We also read "The Wonderful Way Babies Are Made" as scheduled in the RTR manual. I was fortunate that Bass had taken Tenor away during our Christmas break for his Passport to Purity weekend. They had a great time staying overnight in a local hotel, going glo mini golfing, hitting the Lego store, and working through the PtP CDs and journal. It made things less 'new' and uncomfortable when I read through the book with him.
One of the things recommended in Passport to Purity is to present your child with a gift at the end of the weekend. Something that will symbolize the weekend for them... a lot of times, I guess the gift of choice is a purity ring or purity necklace. We knew that Tenor wouldn't quite be ready for that or really wear one at this point so we had to come up with another idea. 
Knowing that our history studies would soon get to knights and castles and the code of chivalry, I came up with the idea of getting him a sword. We found a long King Arthur-type dagger online. It's realistic enough to be a 'grown-up' gift and something that symbolizes manhood being powerful, having responsibility and skill and yet on the hand could cause damage or destroy.
I also made a certificate modeled after this one that Bass and Tenor both signed. We'll frame it and hang it in his room as a reminder of how God defines manhood.

History: We have definitely gotten into Vikings. I know there's lots of great extras Vikings out there but we just didn't have time to add anything. We did make Viking Runestones, Lefse (not a success), play Nine Men's Morris (the younglings enjoyed it), and had a Medieval Inn meal.
Runestone 'carving'
Runestone carving
Viking Lefse
Nine Men's Morris
Medieval Inn meal by candlelight with ham pot pie served on bread with "wine" (grape juice) to drink
This year, I'm also incorporating Story of the World Volume 1 as well as Mystery of History Volume 1 and 2. 
For week 18, we didn't have any substitutions.
For week 19, I eliminated Streams of Civilization on Day 1 and added MOH 2 p214-216.
Other MFW: 
Music: We listened to a few more Mozart pieces and kept up with listening at lunch most days.

Art: They drew a portion of the Bayeaux Tapestry, designed fanciful letters, and finished a lesson about illuminating a manuscript.
Extras:
Web:
The Vikings (song parody)
William the Conqueror (song parody)
Videos:
Explorers of the World: Vikings by Schlessinger Media
Human Body by Rock N Learn

Favorite Books: 
Adventures with the Vikings by Linda Bailey
Adventures in the Middle Ages by Linda Bailey
Diary of a Castle Adventure by Nicholas Harris
Mystery History of a Viking Longboat by Fred Finney

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