Cycle 1 Week 12 At Home Activities for Classical Homeschooling
Looking for fun and engaging ways to practice the Cycle 1, Week 12 memory work at home? Join me as I share about activities, games, and books that have enriched our homeschooling week.

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Last week we finished up Cycle 1 Week 11. My girls loved making rainbow mosaics as we learned about the Byzantine Empire. We also learned about the different parts of a flower and played a fun game where my girls made their own garden of flowers. Read more about what we did at home during the previous weeks of Cycle 1 here: Week 1 , Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, and Week 11. You can also get a peek into our first couple of homeschool weeks here.
If you missed it, we also played FOUR different fun review games recently that helped us practice the memory work we have learned so far in Cycle 1. Read more about these review games and download them to play with your kids here.

Tutor Ideas for Classical Homeschooling
If you are part of a Classical homeschooling community, are you tutoring? If you are, be sure to check out my posts with tutor ideas for the first eleven weeks of Cycle 1 below:
- Cycle 1 Week 1 Tutor Ideas
- Cycle 1 Week 2 Tutor Ideas
- Cycle 1 Week 3 Tutor Ideas
- Cycle 1 Week 4 Tutor Ideas
- Cycle 1 Week 5 Tutor Ideas
- Cycle 1 Week 6 Tutor Ideas
- Cycle 1 Week 7 Tutor Ideas
- Cycle 1 Week 8 Tutor Ideas
- Cycle 1 Week 9 Tutor Ideas
- Cycle 1 Week 10 Tutor Ideas
- Cycle 1 Week 11 Tutor Ideas
- Cycle 1 Week 12 Tutor Ideas
Also, I have a youtube channel where I make videos with tutor and memory work ideas each week. Below is my video with tutor videos for Cycle 1 Week 12. I have tutor videos for Weeks 1-12 and I’m working videos for next semester. Visit my channel for these tutor videos and other videos related to homeschooling and healthy living.
Practicing the Memory Work At Home
In this post, I share with you about my weekly homeschool rhythms with my small children (ages five, three and one). I explain about the activities, games, and readings we do together to practice the Cycle 1 Week 12 memory work (new grammar) at home throughout the week.
Morning Devotional Time
I begin each day with our morning devotional time. This is my favorite part of the day with my kids. It is also one of my favorite things about homeschooling. I love that we don’t have to rush out of the door in the morning. My kids get the sleep they need and we can linger over breakfast and read God’s word together.
I have learned some morning habits that help us all get down to breakfast at the same time. This helps me make the most of our morning time together. Read more about these habits here.
Once we are all sitting around the breakfast table and my kids start eating, I begin with our Bible study time. I read to them a small passage from my Bible and then the corresponding story in The Complete Illustrated Children’s Bible. (TCICB). This Bible has BEAUTIFUL illustrations and is very accurate to the truth of the actual Bible. We follow along with the Bible readings and study that corresponds with the Bible memory work we are learning.


Bible Study
What Bible study am I doing you might ask? I love using the Foundations of The Bible study from @drivenbygrace. This Bible study goes along with Bible memory work. Lindsey, the author of the study, matches the stories from TCICB that go along with the Bible study and Bible memory work for that week. If there aren’t enough Bible stories for each day of the week, then I find others that go along with the theme. After I read, I try to ask my kids a few questions about it to see how much they understood. My five year old is pretty sharp at this.
If you’re curious about more of what I do in our morning devotional time, read my post about it here.
This week, I read Lesson 12 from the Foundations of the Bible study about the 12 Sons of Israel. The Bible stories from TCICB that I read each morning either correspond to the Bible study or part of this week’s memory work. See the end of this post for my PRINTABLE lesson plans with details of what I read each day.

The 24 Family Ways
As I read to my kids from the Bible Study Lesson, I have them either color their 24 Family Ways coloring book or one of the activity pages from the Foundations of the Bible study activity book. This works well because they can concentrate on coloring and listen to me read.
After I read the part of the Bible study lesson to them and we talk about it, I go over the Family Way (from Sally and Clay Clarkson’s 24 Family Ways) we are learning about this week. We also work on memorizing the Bible verse that goes with that Family Way. I write both the Family Way and the Bible verse on chalk boards that I have hanging up by our kitchen table so we can see them often.


I also have found songs that match with each Bible verse that I play after we eat breakfast. The songs I use are mostly from Steve Green’s CDs. Songs are amazing for helping children memorize the Bible. Download my matchup of the 24 Family Ways with Bible verses and songs from my Resource Library.

Singing Hymns
Then comes my kids’ favorite part, SINGING HYMNS! I stumbled over this gem of a book called My First Hymnal by Karyn Henley and it is AWESOME! I let my kids each choose a hymn to sing and I sing it for them (sometimes they join in). It’s great that they are learning hymns and the ones in this book are fabulous for kids. I also show my kids one of these Attributes of God letter cards from @drivenbygrace.

Math and Language Arts
Each day I try to do at least a little math and language arts with my oldest daughter. This year she is working through The Good and The Beautiful Level 1 math curriculum. Read here why I decided to switch from Saxon math to The Good and The Beautiful (TGATB). TGATB is very open and go and a good mix of lessons and activities. It’s beautiful too! I try to do a lesson with her after our morning devotional time. She is usually the freshest then and if I wait until later in the day to do it, I’m not as consistent.


I also have this Handwriting without Tears for my oldest daughter the first level for my younger daughter. Sometimes it works out to have my girls do some of this in the mornings. If we don’t have enough time the, I have my older daughter do a bit in the afternoon when it’s quiet time. I don’t do it every day with her, just a few times a week.
Weekly Memory work songs
I try to review as much of the weekly memory work with my kids as possible during the week with songs and games. Often when I’m cleaning up breakfast, I play this week’s playlist of memory work songs. We also listen to these songs in the car when driving. See my playlist of Cycle 1 Week 12 songs for English, Science, Math and Geography below.
Daily Subject Focus
I like to dive deeper into one subject each day. I’ve found that focusing on just one subject each day is very manageable and doesn’t feel overwhelming. Here is our usual weekly schedule (you can download this template here):

Geography
This week in geography, we learn about the Muslim Empire. First, I show my girls where these cities are on their placemats. We find Mecca, Medina, Baghdad, Damascus, Tours, and Syria. I found these lovely books at our library about children from Syria that we enjoy reading. One is called, A Refugee’s Journey from Syria by Helen Mason and the other one is called, Birds on Wishbone Street by Suzanne Del Rizzo.

My daughter and I enjoy playing this geography treasure hunt game that I made. We switch off rolling a dice and moving our marker that number of spaces either horizontally or vertically. Once we land on a square with a city in it, we get to collect the corresponding city card. The goal of the game is to be the first one to collect all six city cards. This game is a great way to learn about these cities and where they are located! We also review some of the other locations we have learned about this year including the Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, etc. You can get this for free with my other Cycle 1 Week 12 Memory work activities from the Resource Page on my blog.

We sing a song together to the tune of Little Bunny Foo Foo. This helps my girls remember these locations in the Muslim Empire. See my video below.
History
This week in history we learn more about the Muslim Empire. We continue reading the books, A Refugee’s Journey from Syria by Helen Mason, and Birds on Wishbone Street by Suzanne Del Rizzo.

Geometric Patterns on Mosques
We learn that Mecca and Medina, two significant cities in Saudi Arabia, are home to grand mosques that serve as sacred destinations for Islamic believers. Each mosque is adorned with geometric patterns. My daughter enjoys coloring these geometric patterns that I put together for her. This idea is from the Cycle 1 Week 12 Scribbers “Our Story” history page from ccconnected.com.
Muslim Empire Puzzle
My daughter enjoys putting together this Muslim Empire puzzle that I made. In order to put it together correctly, she has to practice singing the history sentence. You can download this puzzle for free from the Resource Library on my blog. This is part of the Cycle 1 Week 12 Memory Work Activity Set.


Timeline Image Coloring Page
Each week I also give my kids the Timeline Image from Scribblers in ccconnected.com. My girls enjoy coloring a Muslim man leading his camel this week.

I like to laminate these each week and make a timeline of them on our wall as we go through the school year.
Science
This week in science we learn about some plant systems. My daughter colors the Science coloring page from Scribblers Cycle 1 Week 12 in ccconnected.com.

I read to my girls from several books we checked out from our library about plant systems. We really enjoy How Plants Clean the Air: One Leaf at a Time by Ellen Lawrence, Leaves by Melanie Waldron, and Experiment with Photosynthesis by Nadia Higgins.


Plant Systems board game
My daughters and I also enjoy playing this plant systems board game that I made. We switch off trying to answer questions related to photosynthesis, respiration, and transpiration. This is such a fun way to learn about how these different plant systems work! You can get this game for free with my other Cycle 1 Week 12 Memory work activities from the Resource Page on my blog.

We sing a song together to the tune of We Wish You a Merry Christmas. This helps my girls remember the different plant systems. See my video below.
Lesson Plan Templates
Click here to download an EDITABLE template of my detailed lesson plans for Cycle 1 Week 12. Here is a blank template you can download too.
Picture Books for Cycle 1 Week 12
Here are all the picture books we enjoy this week:

- A Refugee’s Journey from Syria by Helen Mason
- Birds on Wishbone Street by Suzanne Del Rizzo
- Where is Jumper by Ellen Stoll Walsh
- Out the Door by Christy Hale
- How Plants Clean the Air: One Leaf at a Time by Ellen Lawrence
- Leaves by Melanie Waldron
- Experiment with Photosynthesis by Nadia Higgins
Cycle 1 Week 12 Memory Work Activities
Here are activities to help practice the remaining memory work. You can sign up below to receive these AND the activities I mentioned above for geography and science.
- Preposition card game
- Latin Bingo game
- Teaspoons and Tablespoons math game
How many weeks are you into Cycle 1? How are things going? Comment below and tell me about any activities you have done or fun books you have read.