Cycle 1 Week 16 At Home Activities for Classical Homeschooling
Searching for fun and engaging ways to practice the Cycle 1, Week 16 memory work at home? Read along 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 15. My girls loved making their paper towel roll ships and playing the Prince Henry board game I made as we learned about the Age of Exploration. We also had a great time playing the trekking game I made as we learned about each continent’s highest mountain. Read more about what we did at home during week 15 here. If you’re curious about what we did at home during the first semester of Cycle 1, read more here. You can also get a peek into our first couple of homeschool weeks 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 seventeen weeks here.
Also, I have a youtube channel where I make videos with tutor and memory work ideas each week. Below is my tutor video for Cycle 1 Week 16. Visit my channel for tutor ideas for many other weeks and other videos with homeschooling tips and encouragement.
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 16 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 16 from the Foundations of the Bible study about Aaron. 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 and 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 16 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 African waters. First, I show my girls where the Congo River, Lake Victoria, the Zambezi River, and the Orange River are on their placemats. We continue to read these picture books that we are loving about Africa:
- Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema
- We All Went on Safari by Laurie Krebs and Julia Cairns
Make sure you check out the entire Cycle 1 booklist I made for second semester! I have amazing picture books that relate to the memory work for each week in the second half of Cycle 1 (weeks 13-24).
My daughters and I play this African Waters dice game that I made. We switch off rolling a die and trying to name the location that matches the number rolled. You can get this African waters dice game for free with my other Cycle 1 Week 16 Memory work activities at the end of this post. We also review the other locations in Africa that we have learned so far this year!
We sing a song together to the tune of Three Blind Mice. This helps my girls remember these African waters. See my video below.
Countries of Africa Notebook!
My girls also started coloring in their Countries of Africa Notebook this week. I really enjoyed making this book and I’m excited to share it with you all! There is a page for each of the 54 countries of Africa plus Western Sahara. Each day, the kids get to discover one or more countries as they learn about their location, capital, iconic animal, popular dish, flag, and a fun fact.
The kids can color the maps, animals, and flags for each country as they explore! At the end of the notebook, there is a complete reference of all the African flags. I have also included two labeled maps of Africa with all the countries marked (one in color and one in black and white). Plus, there are blank maps for your children to fill in as they learn about each country. We also enjoy reading J is for Jollof: An African Alphabet by Dr Gloria Fátúsìn which has great visuals and more information about some of the popular dishes in Africa.
Learning the Countries of Africa
We are LOVING learning the countries of Africa as part of the geography this second semester. I made this fun Africa map that we have on our wall by our kitchen table with all the countries made out of felt.
My girls love taking the countries off and on as we learn their names and locations. Download a paper map of Africa with all the countries labeled here.
I have the patterns for all the African countries, as well as a tutorial about how to make this kind of map in my Etsy shop. Also see my video for how to make this map with a few simple materials. You can find more information and links for these materials here.
We also made up a fun song to help us learn all of these African countries!
History
This week in history we learn about the civilizations of Mesoamerica. I read to my girls some from the books, Discover the Mayans: A Child’s Journey Into the Ancient World (Civilizations) by Ethan Braxton, Ancient Civilizations: Aztecs, Maya, Incas! by Anita Yasuda, and Maya, Incas, and Aztecs (DKfindout!) by D.K Publishing.
Civilizations of Mesoamerica Seek and Find
My daughter enjoys looking for the different pictures symbolizing the Olmecs, the Mayans, and the Aztecs in this I Spy activity that I made. The Olmecs created intricately carved jade and stone masks that likely held religious significance. The Aztecs are known for their art, especially their intricate patterns and bold geometric designs. The Mayans were known for their step pyramids which were built for religious, ceremonial, and astronomical purposes. You can get this I Spy for free with my other Cycle 1 Week 16 Memory work activities at the end of this post.
Mesoamerican Calendar
My daughter makes her own Mesoamerican calendar out of “clay” that we mix up with baking soda, cornstarch, and water. This is the Cultivating Curiosity history activity found on page 12 of the Cycle 1 Week 16 Sandbox Ezine in ccconnected.com.
I also print out this sample Mesoamerican calendar for her to get some ideas from. She explores using a toothpick, plastic utensils, and a plastic cup to make different designs, and she loves painting it at the end.
Timeline Image Coloring Page
Each week I also give my kids the Timeline Image from Scribblers in ccconnected.com. My girls enjoy coloring different Maya Glyphs 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 four kinds of volcanoes. My girls and I enjoy reading from several books we checked out from our library about volcanoes: The Magic School Bus Blows Its Top: A Book About Volcanoes by Joanna Cole and Gail Herman, Oh, the Lavas That Flow! All About Volcanoes by Todd Tarpley, Volcanoes For kids by Samuel John, and Volcanoes by Gail Gibbons.
Build a Volcano game!
My girls and I have a great time playing this build a volcano game that I made. Each player gets a “volcano” starting piece and then adds or takes away parts of their volcano according to the letter landed on:
- D (Dormant): move backwards two spaces and do what the letter that you are now on instructs
- I (Intermittent): add a new part to your volcano
- E (Extinct): put one part of your volcano back
- A (Active): Your volcano erupted! Put all your volcano pieces back!
Whoever has the most parts on their volcano when the game ends, WINS! This is a great way to introduce the different parts of a volcano which we will cover in week 17 as well. You can get this game for free with my other Cycle 1 Week 16 Memory work activities at the end of this post.
My daughter also colors the Science coloring page from Scribblers Cycle 1 Week 16 in ccconnected.com with the different kinds of volcanoes on it. We sing a song together to the tune of I’m Gonna Sing, I’m Gonna Shout. This helps my girls remember the different kinds of volcanoes. See my video below.
Lesson Plan Templates
Click here to download an EDITABLE template of my detailed lesson plans for Cycle 1 Week 16. Here is a blank template you can download too.
Picture Books for Cycle 1 Week 16
Here are all the picture books we enjoy this week:
- Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema
- We All Went on Safari by Laurie Krebs and Julia Cairns
- Discover the Mayans: A Child’s Journey Into the Ancient World (Civilizations) by Ethan Braxton
- Ancient Civilizations: Aztecs, Maya, Incas!: With 25 Social Studies Projects for Kids by Anita Yasuda
- Maya, Incas, and Aztecs (DKfindout!) by D.K Publishing
- Squares, Rectangles, and other Quadrilaterals by David A. Adler
- Rectangle Time by Pamela Paul
- The Magic School Bus Blows Its Top: A Book About Volcanoes by Joanna Cole and Gail Herman
- Volcanoes For kids: Educational science book for learning about volcanoes by Samuel John
- Oh, the Lavas That Flow! All About Volcanoes by Todd Tarpley
- Volcanoes by Gail Gibbons
You can see my ENTIRE Cycle 1 picture book list for weeks 13-24 here!
Cycle 1 Week 16 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, history, and science.
- Helping verbs cards
- Latin noun endings BINGO game
- Math shapes game
How has homeschooling been going for you so far this winter? Comment below and share something you do to spice the homeschooling routine up especially when it’s really cold outside!
