Cycle 1 Week 3 At Home Activities for Classical Homeschooling

Read along to see the activities I have planned to do at home with my kids to help them practice the Cycle 1 Week 3 memory work.

We are now back full swing into our homeschool rhythm. Last week we had fun playing games including Preposition Memory the Assyrian Empire dice game that related to the Cycle 1 Week 2 memory work. We also spent a lot of time outside enjoying summertime while it lasts. Read more about what we did at home for Cycle 1 Week 1 and Week 2. You can also get a peek into our first couple of homeschool weeks here.

girls wearing laurel wreath greek and roman gods crowns for history

Tutor Ideas for Classical Homeschooling

How is your homeschool year going so far? 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 five weeks of Cycle 1 below:

  1. Cycle 1 Week 1 Tutor Ideas
  2. Cycle 1 Week 2 Tutor Ideas
  3. Cycle 1 Week 3 Tutor Ideas
  4. Cycle 1 Week 4 Tutor Ideas
  5. Cycle 1 Week 5 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 3. If you are thinking past the third week, I also have videos for Cycle 1 Week 4 and Cycle 1 Week 5. Visit my channel for tutor ideas for future weeks and other videos with homeschooling tips and encouragement.

Cycle 1 Week 3 Tutor and Memory Work Ideas

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 3 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.

morning time materials and books set out on kitchen table
mom reading children's bible to children at breakfast table

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, bible study, coloring books, and breakfast plates set out on kitchen table.
Foundations of the Bible study and Children's Bible laying out on top of table.

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.

girls working on morning time coloring activities at kitchen table

This week, I read Lesson 3 from the Foundations of the Bible study about God’s covenant with Adam. 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.

Children's bible and coloring sheets laying out on kitchen table
family way number 3 coloring page colored by little girl

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. 

Our 24 family ways book and coloring books laying on table
mom teaching about 24 family way 3 to her kids at kitchen table

I also have found songs that match with each Bible verse that I play after we eat breakfast.  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.

24 Family Way Devotional plan and books.

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.

This week I also sing He Hideth My Soul with my kids. This hymn isn’t in My First Hymnal but I play it for them. I love reading about the history and author of each hymn to my kids using these beautiful Hymn Study Cards.

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.

The Good and the Beautiful math curriculum laying out on table.
girl working on math page about even and odd numbers

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.

Handwriting without tears book opened up on table with little girl working on it.
Handwriting without tears book opened up on table

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 3’s songs for English, Science and Geography below.

Cycle 1 Week 3 English, Geography, and Science songs

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):

Weekly subject focus schedule

Geography

This week in geography, we learn about the Hebrew Empire. During our morning snack time, I start out reading to my kids from Maps and Globes by Jack Knowlton.

I show my girls where the Hebrew Empire is on their placemats. I show them where Judah, Israel, the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, Phoenicia, and the Sea of Galilee are.

pointing out the mediterranean sea on placemat map on kitchen table.
geography dice game on table with chocolate chips on locations

We sing a song together to the tune of A Wise Man Built His House Upon a Rock. See my video below.

Cycle 1 Week 3 Geography song

Then we play the geography dice game I made (see picture here). To play this game, my daughters switch off rolling a die. Each number they roll corresponds to a location in the Hebrew Empire that we are learning about this week. For example, if they roll a 4, they try to identify the place on their map that is labeled with a number 4. You can get this for free with my other Cycle 1 Week 3 Memory work activities from the Resource Page on my blog.

History

This week in history we learn about the Greek and Roman gods. I give my kids the Timeline Image from Cycle 1 Week 3 Scribblers (page 3 and 4) in ccconnected.com and my girls paint it.

girls painting history coloring pages at picnic table
water colored leaves and history page drying on table

Greek Wreath Crowns

We also do the Laurel Wreath Crown activity from ccconnected.com (Cycle 1 Week 3 Sandbox Ezine page 12). In ancient Greece, wreaths made out of olive or laurel leaves were given to the winners of the Olympic games as well as other heroes. These wreaths reminded them of the gods. This is a great opportunity to contrast these false gods with the one, true God.

My girls enjoy painting leaves that I cut out. Once these leaves dry, we staple them to the crowns. The leaves are the different leaf shapes that we will learn about in Cycle 1 Week 10. I thought it would be fun to go ahead and talk about them since the activity says to put leaves on the crown. You can download this leaf template here.

painted history coloring page and laurel leaf crowns made with painted leaves
girls wearing their laurel leaf crowns with the painted leaves

Greek and Roman God Puzzles

My daughter also enjoys putting together these Greek and Roman gods puzzles. You can download these puzzles for free from the Resource Library on my blog. These are part of the Cycle 1 Week 3 Memory Work Activities. My kids and I love playing games. I love making the memory work into a game so we are playing a game and practicing the memory work at the same time!

Greek and Roman god puzzles put together on picnic table

I read What’s Your Angle? Pythagoras by Julie Ellis to my kids this week. This is a math book and I love that it’s about Pythagoras who is an ancient Greek philosopher. We usually have some reading time while they have a mid morning snack.

I am also trying to start some read aloud time with my oldest daughter. She is very into puzzles lately, so I read Chapter 23 from Story of the World Volume 1 (SOTW) that relates to the history we are learning this week while she works on her puzzle.

Science

This week in science we learn about Some Parts of an Animal Cell. My daughter works on the Animal Cell Color by Number that I made. You can get this for free with my other Cycle 1 Week 3 Memory work activities from the Resource Page on my blog. I also read to my kids from the book: Plant Cells vs Animal Cells by Rebecca Woodbury.

animal cell color by number colored by little girl
mom reading animal cell book to kids

We also have a blast doing the animal cell experiment from the “attending” part in “Take A Look” in Scribblers. I fill a ziplock bag with items that represent the different parts of an animal cell. The bag zipper represents the cell membrane and the bags are filled with coconut oil (cytoplasm), cashews (golgi bodies), marshmallow (nucleus), pasta (mitochondria), and gummies (vacuoles).

We talk about what the different items in the bags represent as the girls enjoy mashing them around. I encourage my daughter to try to count how many golgi bodies there are, mitochondria, etc. We talk about how there is only one marshmallow or nucleus because an animal cell has only one nucleus.

mashing around items in plastic bag while doing animal cell experiment at kitchen table
animal cell activity, book and experiment out on table

We also sing a song together to the tune of Oh When the Saints Go Marching In. See my video below.

Cycle 1 Week 3 Science song

Math, Latin, and English

In math this week we learn about skip counting the 5’s and 6’s. My daughter traces and colors the ice creams and then counts by 5’s to make a huge ice cream cone. You can get this for free with my other Cycle 1 Week 3 Memory work activities from the Resource Page on my blog.

girl coloring skip counting ice cream activity
skip counting ice cream activity put together into very tall ice cream cone

Latin Noun Endings BINGO Game

We also enjoy playing the Latin noun ending Bingo game I made. My daughter decides to use chocolate chips as markers. We practice saying the noun endings as we mark them on our Bingo board. This game is part of the Cycle 1 Week 3 Memory Work activity set. You can download this entire set with activities for each subject from the Resource Page on my blog.

mom and daughters playing Latin noun ending Bingo game with chocolate chips as markers
preposition bingo game on table with chocolate chips and hat with bingo cards
mom reading preposition book to children

We end the week with reading the book, Out the Door by Christy Hale about prepositions. My daughter asks to read this book almost daily because she loves it so much. It is a perfect introduction of prepositions for small children.

I have a video with the Preposition song and all the hand motions in slow motion. See below:

Preposition Song and Hand Motions (slowed down version)

Lesson Plan Templates

Click here to download an EDITABLE template of my detailed lesson plans for Cycle 1 Week 3. Here is a blank template you can download too.

Here are all the picture books we enjoy during Cycle 1 Week 3:

Cycle 1 Week 3 Memory Work Activities

Here are activities to help practice the remaining memory work (you can sign up below download these for free from my resource library):

  • Skip-counting activity for counting the 6’s.
  • Preposition card game (we learn the second five prepositions this week)

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.

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