Cycle 2 Week 19 Tutor Ideas for Classical Homeschooling

It’s Cycle 2 Week 19, and it’s amazing to see how far the kids have come! At this point in the year, they’re settling confidently into our routines, remembering so much of what we’ve practiced, and showing genuine excitement as we introduce each subject. This week’s plans build on that momentum with simple hands-on activities, movement, and songs that help memory work stay fun, active, and meaningful.

As always, I’m not affiliated with any Classical education organization—just sharing ideas and routines that have worked well in my own classroom. I hope these Cycle 2 Week 19 tutor plans give you fresh inspiration and help your students enjoy learning together!

We love being part of our Classical homeschooling community. Read more about how God redirected our path from private education to homeschooling and Classical education here.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.

Are you new to the Classical model and want to know more about it? Keep reading below about how it’s organized, the different cycles, our community time, and MORE!

If you already know about the Classical homeschooling model and you are ready to jump to the actual tutor ideas, click HERE.

A Classical model of homeschooling

We are part of a Christ-centered homeschool program that follows the Classical model. The younger children, ages 4-12, focus on a memorization-based curriculum which acts as the groundwork of learning that is built upon in later years.

Children and their parents learn key facts across the core subject areas including history, science, English, mathematics, geography, and Latin. Tutors use fun activities, games, songs, and lots of energy to introduce the new material. The parents can then expand on that material at home throughout the week.

Cycle rotation

The material is divided into three cycles, which each last one year. The cycles continue to rotate every three years, so most children who start when they are kindergarten age, complete each cycle at least twice. This allows them to develop a deeper comprehension and grasp of the material through repetition.

Cycle 2 material

This year in Cycle 2, we’re learning about pre-Reformation to modern history, ecology, astronomy, and physics; Latin verb endings; English pronouns, adverbs, and conjunctions; skip counting, conversions, and more!

The following ideas are what I’m planning to do with the group of kids I am tutoring this year (ages 4-6). You may use these ideas if you are also tutoring in a Classical homeschooling community, or if you’re a parent who is looking for memory work ideas to use at home.

Also, you don’t have to be part of any particular Classical homeschooling group to use these ideas! These are ideas to help children learn key concepts in the core subject areas. If you are a homeschooling parent, or just a parent who wants to supplement what your kids are currently learning in school, these ideas will be helpful for you.

Community group time

Our homeschooling community has been meeting on Tuesdays. Our leader starts off the morning with everyone together in a big group setting. She typically begins that time with a devotional reading and prayer, and then continues with some announcements, celebrating birthdays, the pledge of allegiance, and anything else she wants to cover with everyone.

After this time, we split off into our different groups based on age. The tutors lead their groups into different classrooms and begin the New Grammar part of the day. This is when the tutor introduces the memory work for each core subject. Check out my post and video about how to make your own tutor board!

Cycle 2 Week 19 Tutor and Memory Work Ideas

Geography – Southeastern Asia

This week in geography, we’re learning about Southeastern Asia: North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, and Guam.

Before class, I prepare our trivium table maps ahead of time. You could also print a map and laminate it if you prefer. (This is the printer and laminator I use all the time!) I outline the countries we’re learning about this week each in a different color of dry erase marker so they’re easy to distinguish.

To make this lesson fun and hands-on, I’ll be giving each child a  tiny hand that fits on their finger. Using their “mini hands,” they’ll point to each country on their laminated trivium table maps. Before class, I outline the five countries in different colors with dry erase markers so they stand out clearly and the kids can easily distinguish each one.

We’ll begin by pointing to and naming each country together using our tiny hands. Then I will teach a simple song to the tune of Oh Susanna (see video above). We’ll sing it several times while pointing to the countries, which helps reinforce the memory work in a playful and memorable way.

Once the children feel confident, we’ll turn it into a quick review game. I’ll ask questions like,
“Who remembers the name of the red country?”
“What about the orange country?”
Using their tiny hands to point, the kids get a fun challenge while reviewing the new map locations together.

This simple activity brings a ton of joy and keeps everyone engaged while learning the geography for the week!

English – A Gerund

This week in English we’re learning the definition of a gerund: A gerund is a present participle verb form used as a noun.

To help the kids remember this, I’ll teach them a simple song to the tune of He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands. The rhythm makes the definition easy to sing and repeat, and it’s perfect for this age group.

After we learn the song together in our normal voices, I’ll hand out my silly voice cards. Each child gets a different card—robot, whisper, opera, lion, and more! We’ll take turns singing the gerund definition using the different voices on their cards. This always brings lots of giggles and gives the kids tons of repetition without feeling repetitive.

You can download my UPDATED printable Silly Voice and Action Cards for free by entering your email in the form below and I’ll send them straight to your mailbox!

Timeline

The timeline stays the same each cycle, and this week we continue with the next seven cards.

I often use these Timeline Cards in class: Set 1 (Ancient World), Set 2 (Medieval World), Set 3 (New World), and Set 4 (Modern World) I highly recommend investing in them (you should get all four sets) whether you are a tutor or a parent. I consistently use them as a tutor and also at home with my kids.

Since I have the 4-6 year old children, I like to tape the paper letter that the timeline event starts with at the top of the card. I have found these letters at my local Dollar Tree. Some of the children in my class can’t read yet, so this helps them identify the event I’m referring to.

Cycle 2 Week 19 Timeline

Before class begins, I tape all of the timeline cards to the wall using painters tape—but I intentionally place a few of them out of order. When it’s time for Timeline, I have the children look at the cards on the wall while we sing this week’s section of the timeline song together. I sing it myself (instead of playing the music) so I can control the speed. You can see the tune for this week’s song in my tutor video.

I don’t tell the kids that some cards are mixed up. As we sing, I watch to see who notices the error. If no one notices right away, I give a small hint. When a child realizes a card is out of order, I let them go to the wall and fix that card. Then we sing again until another child spots the next mistake. We repeat this process until all the cards are in the correct order.

After this I have the children come stand against the wall in front of the timeline cards and we go over the hand motions together. I put these spot markers against the wall in front of each timeline card so it’s clear where each child should stand. See my video below which includes the hand motions for this week in the timeline section:

Math

This week in math, we’re learning about the area of a circle, and to make it extra fun, I bring a few hula hoops for the kids to use during our activity!

When it’s time for math, I begin by showing the children the circle I’ve drawn on my tutor board and introducing the area formula. We talk briefly about how area tells us how much space is inside the shape. Then I teach them the next part of our geometry song to help them remember the formula. See my video below:

We’ll continue using this same geometry song next week as we add more formulas.

Next, I spread the hula hoops around the room and divide the children into small groups. Each group stands along the edge of a hula hoop, and as we sing the geometry song together, the kids take turns doing these fun movements:

• 🚶 Walk along the outside of the hula hoop
• 👣 Tiptoe carefully along the outside (without stepping on the hoop!)
• 🦶 Hop on one foot along the outside
• 🦶 Switch and hop on the other foot
• 🕺 Jump from the inside of the hula hoop to the outside

This movement-based activity helps the children visualize the circle’s area while giving them a physical way to connect with the geometry song. It keeps energy high, builds confidence, and makes learning the formula both memorable and fun!

History

This week our history sentence is: In 1950, General Douglas MacArthur led United Nations forces to stop communist North Korea from capturing all of South Korea during the Korean War.

To help the kids learn this sentence in a fun and memorable way, we’ll play the “Silly Words” game again!

First, I’ll sing the history sentence correctly and ask the children to listen carefully (see my tutor video for this week’s tune). Then, I’ll sing it again—but this time, I’ll sneak in a few very silly words. For example:

In 1950, General Snuglas MacArthur led United Nations horses to stop funnyist North Korea from capturing all of Snow Korea during the Korean Roar.

Whenever they hear something silly, the kids will raise their hand and tell me the correct word. Each time they correct me, I’ll go back and sing that part again correctly before moving on to the next line. This keeps everyone laughing, listening closely, and hearing the correct sentence multiple times.

After the game, we’ll sing the history song a few more times together, but this time, the kids will dance around the room as we sing.

Science: The First Law of Thermodynamics

This week in science, we’re learning about the first law of thermodynamics — energy cannot be created or destroyed.

First, I will introduce a new song to the tune of I’ve Been Working on the Railroad. This tune is catchy, easy for little ones to follow, and it includes the next two laws of thermodynamics we’ll learn next week as well. We will just focus on the beginning of the song with the first law this week.

Before we start singing, I teach the children two simple motions:

• CREATED — open both hands wide like you’re making something appear
• DESTROYED — gently swipe your hands downward like something is disappearing

Once the kids know the motions, we begin singing the science song together. When we sing “created,” everyone opens their hands wide; when we say “destroyed,” everyone uses the downward hand motion. These small motions help anchor the vocabulary while keeping the kids engaged and moving.

We’ll repeat the first part of this song a few times, slowly at first, then a little faster once the motions feel familiar. This fun, musical routine gives them a memorable way to internalize the laws of thermodynamics while adding joyful movement to our science time!

Latin

This week in Latin we’re learning the first conjugation verb endings in the perfect tense:
ī, istī, it, imus, istis, ērunt.

See my tutor video for the tune we use to sing these! Before we begin, I write the endings clearly on my tutor board and review them with the children.

To make it fun and memorable, we’ll add silly poses while we sing. First, I have all the children stand up and place their right foot against their left knee (like a simple balance pose). We try to hold this pose while we sing through the perfect tense endings.

Then, I ask the children to help choose new a new pose as we sing through the endings again. Each child gets a turn to pick a pose for the group to try. Here are some pose ideas we might use:

• Downward Dog: Make a triangle shape like a stretching puppy
• Snake Pose: Lie on your belly, push up, and hiss like a snake
• Tree Pose: Stand on one foot with arms reaching up like branches
• Mountain Pose: Stand tall and strong with arms by your sides
• Star Pose: Stretch arms and legs wide like a shining star
• Flower Pose: Sit with feet together and open legs like blooming petals
• Bridge Pose: Lie on back and lift hips up like a sturdy bridge

We’ll switch poses each time we sing through the endings. The kids love choosing the poses, and it helps them stay engaged while giving them lots of repetition with the perfect tense endings!

For review time this week, I split the children into two groups and we play tic tac toe. I make a big tic tac toe board on a white board and I assign one group to be the “X’s” and one group to be the “O’s.”

I ask the “X’s” a review question and anyone in the group can answer. If they get it correct, one of the team members comes up to the white board and marks an “X” on the space they choose. Then I ask another review question to the “O” team. If they get the answer correct, I have one of the team members come and write an “O” in the space they choose.

If a team doesn’t get the correct answer to a review question, they do not get to write an X or an O and I ask a question to the other team. The first team to get three “X’s” or three “O’s” in a row wins! We play this a few times depending on how much time we have.

I prefer to ask review questions on the fly instead of preparing them ahead of time. Here are some example questions I ask (remember I have the youngest children in my group):

1. Can you name one of the countries in World War I?
2. What do you remember about the Industrial Revolution?
3. Who remembers one of the states of matter?
4. What is one purpose of a sentence?
5. What is one form of energy?

LoveBug Review Game

You could also play this fun Valentine’s Day review game that I made called Lovebug! This game is similar to the Stinky Feet review game we played during previous weeks.

Before community group, I cut out and laminate this love bug sign and heart cards. You can download these for free! You can also just draw a heart on a white board and use sticky notes as the cards if you don’t want to print anything out.

The heart cards have either a positive number on the back or a negative number with a bug. The numbers are from -2o to +20 in increments of 5.

I split my class into teams. I ask the first child a review question from any subject and after they answer they get to pick a heart card off of the board. If they don’t know the correct answer, I let the rest of their team help. They turn the card over and see it’s a “love bug” card or not. A “love bug” card is a negative number with a bug on it.

Whatever point value is on the back of the card gets added or subtracted from the team’s score.

The game ends when all the heart cards are gone! Whichever team ends up with the most points wins! Or you could switch it up and have the team with the least points win.

Composers and Orchestra in Fine Arts

Now that we’re in the final stretch of Cycle 2, Fine Arts shifts to Composers and Orchestra, and it’s such a peaceful and beautiful way to end the year. Over six weeks, the children are introduced to great composers, learn to recognize the four instrument families, and begin to hear the unique styles that make each composer memorable.

In our community, this time is simple and engaging—one composer at a time, a featured piece to listen to, a few meaningful takeaways about their life and music, and hands-on ways to connect what they’re hearing to real instruments.

If you’d like to see exactly how we structure these weeks (both in community and at home), I’ve shared all the details in this post, along with resources that make planning easy. I also share:

✨ Three Great Composers Mini Books – Beethoven, Brahms, and Dvořák
Each 11-page mini book introduces one composer with short, kid-friendly text, listening prompts, and interactive pages that help children connect to the music in a personal way. They’re perfect for morning basket time, quiet table work, or reinforcing what your child learned on community day.

✨ Instruments of the Orchestra Activity Book
With 38 hands-on activities, this book walks children through the four instrument families—strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion—helping them recognize instruments, understand their sounds, and see how they fit together in the orchestra.

✨ Instruments of the Orchestra UNO Card Game
This fun, family-style card game turns instrument review into an exciting kitchen-table activity. Kids practice recognizing instruments and families while playing a game they already love.

✨ FREE Instrument Family Posters
A bright, kid-friendly set of four printable posters featuring the strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion families. They’re perfect for hanging in your homeschool space or keeping nearby during music study to reinforce what children are hearing and learning.

Together, these tools make composer study and orchestra appreciation engaging, memorable, and easy to weave into your week. 🎶

NEW Cycle 2 Weeks 13-24 Review Activity Book

I’m excited to share with you about my brand new Weeks 13-24 Review Activity Book! I designed it to help kids review, connect, and celebrate everything they’ve learned in the second half of Cycle 2 — from geography and history to science, math, Latin, English, and even the timeline.

Inside, you’ll find 50 engaging activities that make review time interactive and joyful. Each page reinforces memory work while encouraging deeper connections and confidence. Whether you use it during a mid-cycle break, after you complete cycle 2, or as part of your regular review time, it’s an easy, low-prep way to keep learning fresh and fun.

You can find the Cycle 2 Weeks 13-24 Review Activity Book in my shop below! I also have a Cycle 2 Weeks 1-12 Review Activity book that review the material from the first have of Cycle 2.

Cycle 2 Historyopoly

One of our favorite ways to review history is with Cycle 2 Historyopoly, a brand new game I created this year.

It is modeled after Monopoly but uses all of the Cycle 2 history sentences. The kids love rolling dice, moving around the board, and reviewing history facts as we play. It turns review into something exciting and fresh, and we will definitely be pulling it out again many more times this year. You can grab this NEW game below!

Cycle 2 Memory Work Activity Book

If you’re looking for a fun way to review the memory work at home with your kids this year, check out our NEW Cycle 2 Memory Work Activity Book. I created this notebook to give kids a fun way to practice their memory work, without adding extra prep for mom, dad, or grandma.

Inside, there’s one short activity for each subject for all 24 weeks of Cycle 2. When we do geography on Monday, they do the geography activity for that week. When we get to Thursday, they do the science page. It’s so easy to match to whatever we’re focusing on that day.

I love that it keeps things simple and fun. It’s NOW available in digital and printed form, and there is a sample page you can take a peek at if you would like too! Check it out below!

Cycle 2 History and Science Placemats

These brand-new Cycle 2 History and Science Placemats are designed to make memory work fun and interactive for kids, whether you’re using them alongside Classical Conversations or on their own as a way to dive deeper into history and science.

Each placemat is filled with colorful visuals and simple explanations that bring the topics to life. Just print, laminate, and use them again and again during meals and review time. They’re an easy, no-prep way to dive deeper into the history and science topics with your kids. Get your set for Weeks 19-24 below. The other three quarters are also available HERE! 

Cycle 2 Geography Passport

We also have a fun addition for geography review — the Cycle 2 Geography Passport! Whether you’re a tutor or a homeschool parent, this printable resource helps kids track their Classical Conversations Cycle 2 geography week by week with full-color maps and matching cut-and-glue stamps.

Each page highlights that week’s memory work with clearly labeled locations, making it easy for young learners to connect what they’re memorizing with what they see on the map. Kids love collecting stamps as they “travel” through the world. You can also print these stamps on these sticky circular labels which makes it even more fun!

You can use the Geography Passport at home with your own children, or print it out for use in class. A group license option is available if you’d like to use it with your tutoring class or community group.

It pairs perfectly with the Cycle 2 Memory Work Activity Book, giving your students or children a hands-on, engaging way to practice their memory work all year long. If you’d like both resources, be sure to check out the bundle option available in my shop!

Memory Work Meadowland

Another one of our favorite ways to review is with fun, themed board games. I created a set of Candyland-style games that make memory work review exciting and interactive for kids. These games can be used with any cycle and are a great way to practice all of the memory work subjects together.

We’ve been playing Memory Work Meadowland, a Spring/Easter-themed review game. It works just like Candyland, but with the addition of memory work review built in. Players move along the board by drawing cards with color blocks or picture spaces. Then they answer a review question that matches the space they land on. Correct answers let them stay put, but if they miss, they move back. The game also includes fun twists with slides and ladders to keep things lively. The first player to reach the church wins!

The best part is that I now have a fall version, a winter version, and a spring version, so you can rotate them throughout the school year. You can grab each one individually, or get the seasonal bundle with all three at a special price.

These games have been such a hit in our home. They are perfect for community review days, family game nights, or just a fun way to end your homeschool week. You can find them all in my shop below.

Printable and Editable Cycle 2 Week 19 Tutor Plans

Here is a printable EDITABLE template of these Cycle 2 Week 19 Tutor Plans. Here is a blank template too! If you want the plans as they are, here is a PDF version (filled out) and a PDF version (blank).

Cycle 2 Week 19 Memory Work Games

Also check out the FREE activities and games that you can use at home to help your kids practice the memory work this week.

I hope this helps give you some ideas and songs to use whether you are a tutor or a parent. Please comment below if you have any questions about anything.

Blessings to you on this homeschooling journey!