Cycle 1 Week 18 At Home Activities for Classical Homeschooling
Searching for creative and fun ways to practice the Cycle 1, Week 18 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 17. My girls learned about some more African countries as they continued to work through their new African Countries workbook. We played an African countries dice game which also includes all of the other locations we have learned about so far in geography. My daughter enjoyed putting together an Aztec puzzle while practicing the history sentence. We continued to play a “Build your own Volcano” game as we learned about the different parts of a volcano this week. My daughter also made her own volcano out of play dough and we watched it erupt! Read more about what we did at home during week 17 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 nineteen 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 18. 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 18 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 18 from the Foundations of the Bible study about the last 5 plagues of Egypt. 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 18 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 Mesoamerica Regions. First, I show my girls where the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, the Olmec Civilization, the Maya Civilization, and the Aztec Civilization are on their placemats. We enjoy reading these picture books about Mesoamerica:
- Ancient Civilizations: Aztecs, Maya, Incas!: With 25 Social Studies Projects for Kids by Anita Yasuda
- Discover the Mayans: A Child’s Journey Into the Ancient World (Civilizations) by Ethan Braxton
- Aztecs (All about Ancient Peoples) by Anita Ganeri
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 Mesoamerica dice game that I made. We switch off rolling a die and trying to name the location that matches the number rolled. This game also includes the Mesoamerica cities and lake we will learn about next week. You can get this Mesoamerica dice game for free with my other Cycle 1 Week 18 Memory work activities at the end of this post.
We sing a song together to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell. This helps my girls remember these Mesoamerica Regions. See my video below.
Countries of Africa Notebook!
My girls also continue 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 Mound Builders. My daughter practices the history sentence while completing this Mound Builder maze that I made. You can get this maze for free with my other Cycle 1 Week 18 Memory work activities at the end of this post.
Wigwam Craft
My daughters also love building their own wigwams as we learn about these Native Americans. This activity is from the Cycle 1 Week 18 Sandbox Ezine. I give the girls each a cardboard base and make a circular structure for the wigwam out of a cereal box. We staple some strips of brown construction paper to make the base of the roof. Then I make some homemade play dough for the girls to add to the base. They glue some pieces of brown construction paper to the top of their wigwams. We also make sure to cut out a door so they can put little play dough people inside.
Crafts are never easy for me to do, especially with an almost 2-year-old who wants to participate too. However, they are always worth the effort and my girls really enjoy making these!
Timeline Image Coloring Page
Each week I also give my kids the Timeline Image from Scribblers in ccconnected.com. My girls enjoy coloring the Hopewell falcon 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 the ocean floor. My girls and I enjoy reading Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea: Marie Tharp Maps the Ocean Floor by Robert Burleigh, and The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor by Joanna Cole.
Ocean Floor Color by Number
My girls enjoy working on this ocean floor color by number that I made. It’s a great way to learn about the different parts of the ocean floor. You can get this activity for free with my other Cycle 1 Week 18 Memory work activities at the end of this post.
My daughter also colors the Science coloring page from Scribblers Cycle 1 Week 18 in ccconnected.com with the different parts of the ocean floor on it. We sing a song together to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus. This helps my girls remember these four parts of the ocean floor. See my video below.
Historyopoly!
As we get closer to the end of the quarter, I am excited to share with you this Cycle 1 History Review board game! Step into the past with this engaging and educational history-themed board game where players buy, trade, and own famous historical events! This Monopoly-style game is a great way to review the Cycle 1 history!
This game includes ALL of this historical events from Cycle 1 history in Classical homeschooling. For example, some of the historical events are: The British North America Act of 1867, Prince Henry of Portugal, The Kush, Japan’s Heian Period, and The Romans.
Players roll a die and move through key moments in history. When a player lands on a historical event, they recite the corresponding history sentence in order to claim it as their own! There are also fun Discovery cards that can help or hinder the journey through history, historical currency, flag markers, and historical game markers representing different eras.
This game is PERFECT for learning about and reviewing Cycle 1 history! Download it from my Etsy shop below!
Science Review Old Maid Game
Another fun review game that you can play with your children is this “Old Maid” science review card game!
This game reviews the science memory work from Cycle 1, Weeks 13-24. There are 28 different science themed cards + 4 different “Old Maid” options. Download it for FREE below!
Lesson Plan Templates
Click here to download an EDITABLE template of my detailed lesson plans for Cycle 1 Week 18. Here is a blank template you can download too.
Picture Books for Cycle 1 Week 18
Here are all the picture books we enjoy this week:
- 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
- Aztecs (All about Ancient Peoples) by Anita Ganeri
- Triangles by David A. Adler
- Stone Age Geometry: Triangles by Gerry Bailey
- Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea: Marie Tharp Maps the Ocean Floor by Robert Burleigh
- The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor by Joanna Cole
You can see my ENTIRE Cycle 1 picture book list for weeks 13-24 here!
Cycle 1 Week 18 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!
