Cycle Two – Week Nineteen

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History – I was originally hoping we’d visit the above pictured Korean War Memorial in D.C.  Not sure we’ll be able to pull that off right now, but I did learn there are other options, even closer to home.  There is a Korean War Memorial in Philadelphia and one in New Jersey.  Who knew? Not me!

English – The CC app uses the question, “Do you like my singing?” as a gerund example.  I’d like to play with my littles to see if they can swap out the gerund with other active examples…like jumping, eating, talking, running, etc.  I’ll go first to get them started.  Then I’ll quiz them to see if they can recite the memory work while acting out their gerund. 

Latin – Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood’s Latin story prompts seem to work really well for my guys, so we’ll be using these again! 

Science – Please tell me I’m not the only one who needs to read science explained for kids to understand it myself!  Or maybe I am? Well, I did that! As they say, redeeming my own education in the process of educating my children.  I plan to show my littles the first law of thermodynamics through lunch preparation. We’ll boil some water, cook up some noodles (probably for this salad!), and discuss the transfer of energy.  

Math – This week seems to call for a lot of food examples! Or again, maybe that’s just me? We’re going to make a pie or cheesecake.  Something circular that we can slice up and talk radius while we enjoy it!

Geography – We’ll definitely get our maps out again and do some chocolate chip review.  If you haven’t tried it, place a pile of chocolate chips in front of your littles and have them mark the locations you name with the chips.  Snacking permitted throughout! 

As you can probably tell, we set aside time for specific memory work review.  But, I also look for opportunities to include our memory work among our daily conversations and activities.  The ideas I’ve suggested for science and math this week don’t need to be specifically included in the school day.  Especially in the foundational years my littles are currently occupying, I don’t want to spend a lot of time in expanding the memory work, but I do want to introduce learning through conversation.  I’ll ask them questions, they’ll ask me questions, and we’ll see that learning isn’t limited to the times we’re sitting down with a book.

How about you? I’d love to hear how you’re learning in your home when you’re not “schooling”?