Cycle 1 Week 9 At Home Activities for Classical Homeschooling
Looking for fun ways to work through the Cycle 1, Week 9 memory work at home? Join me as I share the activities, games, and books that have enriched our homeschooling week.

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Last week we finished up Cycle 1 Week 8. My girls enjoyed playing an Age of Imperialism board game as we practiced singing the history sentence together. We also had a great time playing a monocot, dicot, and conifer card game I made. It was such a great way to learn about these different types of seeds. 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, and Week 8. 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 ten 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
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 9. If you are thinking past the nineth week, I also have a video for Cycle 1 Week 10 and more coming soon! Visit my channel for tutor ideas for future 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 9 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 9 from the Foundations of the Bible study about Ishmael and Isaac. 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. 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.
This week I also sing Jesus Paid It All 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. 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 9 songs for English, Science 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 China. First, I show my girls where China is on their placemats. We find Beijing, Mongolia, the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, and the Yellow Sea.

Then we enjoy playing this geography dice game that I made. The girls switch off rolling the dice and try to identify the location on their map that matches the number rolled. Each number they roll corresponds to a location in China. 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 9 Memory work activities from the Resource Page on my blog.


We sing a song together to the tune of Jesus Loves Me. This helps my girls remember these locations in China. See my video below.
History
This week in history we learn about Lao-Tzu and Confucius in China. We enjoy reading the book Dim Sum Palace by X. Fang.

Chinese Lantern Activity
My girls also enjoy decorating Chinese lanterns with little pieces of red and yellow paper. Chinese lanterns have a very long history and people in the Han dynasty lit them to honor the Buddha. Now lanterns are very popular during China’s important festivals. In China, red represents wealth, fame, and prosperity which is why there are a lot of red lanterns. Yellow is associated with good luck and and neutrality, so many lanterns are yellow as well. I made this Lantern template that my kids use for this.


La0-Tzu and Confucius Tic Tac Toe
My daughter and I enjoy playing this Lao-Tzu and Confucius Tic Tac Toe game. As we play, we fill in the blanks with the missing word of part of the history sentence. You can download this game for free from the Resource Library on my blog. This is part of the Cycle 1 Week 9 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 Chinese lanterns this week.


Science
This week in science we learn about some parts of a plant. My daughter colors the Science coloring page from Scribblers Cycle 1 Week 9 in ccconnected.com. I read to my girls from several books we checked out from our library about plants. We really enjoy Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert, Flip, Float, Fly: Seeds on the Move by Joann Early Macken, Leaves by David Ezra Stein, and Plant Parts by Steffi Cavell-Clarke. These books talk about seeds too which is great review from last week!

My daughter enjoys coloring this “Parts of a Plant” color by number. It is a great way for her to learn about the different parts of a plant. You can get this color by number for free with my other Cycle 1 Week 9 Memory work activities from the Resource Page on my blog.


We sing a song together to the tune of Jesus Loves Me. This helps my girls remember the different parts of a plant. See my video below.
Lesson Plan Templates
Click here to download an EDITABLE template of my detailed lesson plans for Cycle 1 Week 9. Here is a blank template you can download too.
Here are all the picture books we enjoy during Cycle 1 Week 9:

- Dim Sum Palace by X. Fang.
- Where is Jumper by Ellen Stoll Walsh
- Out the Door by Christy Hale
- Flip, Float, Fly: Seeds on the Move by Joann Early Macken
- Plant Parts by Steffi Cavell-Clarke
- Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert
- Leaves by David Ezra Stein
Cycle 1 Week 9 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
- Skip counting the 15’s turkey hunt
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.