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Catholic Schoolhouse Tour 2: Week 21

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Catholic Schoolhouse Tour 2: Week 21

Don’t forget to socialize your kids!!!!

socialize the kids!

Just kidding! I know many homeschoolers homeschool because their children may have too much social interaction. Without homeschooling, you may never see your kids because of all the CCD, soccer, ballet, music, karate, birthday parties, and playdates.

Memory Work Idea

Grab several buckets or coffee cans (or boxes) and label them with each subject of memory work.  Then have your students take turns tossing a bean bag (or small ball or stuffed animal, whatever you have) toward the buckets.  Whichever bucket they get, they have to recite the memory work.  For your older students, you could hand them a checklist and see who can make a bucket for and recite every subject’s memory work first.  Then we have prizes for everyone!

Religion

It’s the last week to finish up your Saint Dominic Fun pack!

Saint Dominic Fun Pack

  • The religion focus this week is on Confirmation.  If you have pictures of any of your older students’ confirmations (and maybe a party after), you could pull that out this week.  I love excuses to look through old pictures, and it’s even better when it’s with purpose.
  • Here is a Confirmation handwriting and coloring page.

Math

  • There are lots of free printables online for the months of the year.  Here are a few that I like:
  • Have a writing exercise: What is your favorite month and why?  Or List everything interesting that happens in <insert month name here>, like holidays and feast days, birthdays, major historical events, etc.  Assign a different month to each student, or let them pick their birthday month.

Language Arts

  • We are working on prefixes and suffixes. Check out the CSH Tour 1 Week 21 post for fun ideas on using prefixes and suffixes in a game.
  • Here is a site with a list of words with prefixes and suffixes.  (This list is not exhaustive; it is just a place to start. Some answers students give may not be on this list— accept anything that is a real word.)
  • Grab a newspaper and some highlighters.  Have your students highlight all the words with prefixes yellow and all the words with suffixes pink.  Words that have a prefix and a suffix get highlighted with both (and become orange!)

Art

  • I found this cool Gothic Architecture Printable.  I’m trying to figure out a cool way to use it, other than as a coloring page.   Maybe your older students can use it as inspiration for designing their own Gothic cathedral.

Music

History

  • Since we are still in the medieval period and even studying Feudalism this week, I say capitalize on the fun that castles are.  If you are looking for a beautifully illustrated (and a little funny) book about castles to captivate your students, then you’ve got to get a copy of Castle by David Macaulay.  It’s on Amazon, and I bet even your parents will enjoy looking at it.

(This is an affiliate link)

  • ‘Play’ Feudalism this week with your kids using their army dolls, stuffed animals, even dinosaurs- whatever characters you have.  Establish who the king is, then the lords, vassals, counts, and the serfs.  Make sure the serfs are the ones growing the crops and serving the others higher up.  (I suppose some toy food could be useful here). Alternatively, if you have a big enough family, you could play Feudalism with your family members.  Dad is the king, of course, Mom is the queen, and then maybe your oldest students can be lords, and so on down the line.  You could even give the ‘serfs’ weed-pulling duty 😉
  • Saint Vladimir was so impressed by Saint John Chrystostom, and one church service that he chose Christianity for all of Russia and led thousands to the faith.  Have a writing exercise, where you imagine that you are Vladimir and have just experienced a mass for the first time.  Write to someone a letter to a close friend/council man/relative describing your experience. His words were “We didn’t know if we were in heaven or on earth” so you know it must have been life-changing.  The mass is such a beautiful opportunity for all of us every day and at least every Sunday.  Each time we participate in the Eucharist should be a ‘life-changing’ experience for us.  See if your students can create a link between their faith and the new faith that Saint Vladimir found in Constantinople.
  • Make a Saint Stephen Crown with this printable!  The Royal Crown of Hungary, also known as Saint Stephen’s Crown has been used since the 12th century to crown new kings (until they stopped having kings).  It is still on display in the Hungarian Parliament Building.  The printable Royal crown is a bit simplified but you can easily add more detail if desired.  Print, color, and cut out the pieces.  Take the two decorated sections and tape or staple them into a crown shape.  Add the bands across the top using tape attaching to the inside of the crown and lining up with the icons. Finally, fold the small rectangle at the base of the cross and tape it down to the top of the crown.

Printable Holy Crown of Hungary

Printable Holy Crown of Hungary
  • I found this 8-minute video about William the Conqueror who conquered the Saxons. The video and the people in it are not graphic but show some illustrations that are a little weird/could be considered graphic.  Watch and make sure you’re ok with it before showing it to your kids. I thought it was a good summary of the battle and showed some reenactments and strategies employed by William.
  • Here is a Battle of Hastings ‘game’ online at the BBC.  It’s pretty simplistic, but if you don’t make the same choices that William the Conquerer made, then you don’t win. Maybe your computer-age students will have a little fun trying to win the Battle of Hastings as either William or Harald.

Geography

  • If you haven’t started, go ahead and print and start assembling your Asia Lapbook!
  • Consider going to a Thai restaurant if one is nearby.
  • Try this Pad Thai recipe to make Thai food at home!
  • Vietnamese food is another one with an entirely different taste.  One of my favorite dishes is Vietnamese spring rolls.  The ingredients can typically be found at a grocery store and here’s a recipe. You can substitute regular basil for the Thai Basil.

Science

  • Rainbows are so fun, and there are so many crafts that include rainbows.  Here is a great activity Measuring Rainbow. Each color is a different-length strip of construction paper, and they align to the wavelengths of each color.  Red has the longest wavelength in the visible light spectrum and has the longest piece of paper.  You could even have your students draw waves on their construction paper before assembling their rainbow.
  • Check out The Magic School Bus Makes A Rainbow: A Book About Color
  • Or you can watch the Magic Schoolbus Season 3 Episode 7 on Netflix.

Did you miss Tour 2 Week 20? Check it out.

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