Classical Conversations Anderson ~ Week Two and Nature Study

 This week we are working on our second week of studies with Classical Conversations Anderson. Our community learning day is on Tuesday and the remainder of the week we continue our studies at home.

Each day at home and in our CC Anderson community learning day, we study our CC memory work in the Foundations Guide, which covers History Acts and Facts Timeline, History Sentence, Geography, English, Latin, Math, and Science.

For Cycle 1, at the end of 24 weeks of study, we will have covered/memorized:
~161 events and people in a chronological timeline
~44 U.S. Presidents
~24 history sentences covering World History
~120 locations and geographic features in Africa, Europe, and the Old World
~24 weeks of science facts for Biology and Earth Science
~5 Latin noun endings with declensions
~24 weeks of English grammar facts
~Multiplication tables up to 15 x 15, squares and cubes, geometry formulas, and unit conversions

To aid in our memory work at home, we use the Memory Work tutorials in CC Connected. The tutorials are a simple but effective audiovisual presentation which covers the weekly memory work.

Some of our favorite resources this year are the gorgeous new Classical Acts and Facts cards which detail the 161 events and people in a chronological timeline format. I am having quite a bit of fun learning the new timeline with the kids. The new timeline song is a catchy tune.

This year, CC has offered the timeline song with hand motions in CC Connected. It is presented in 5 videos divided by historical periods. The kids in our CC Anderson community really enjoy doing the hand motions with the timeline song.

CC Connected is a subscription based service. If you are not a subscriber, you can check out CC Connected for FREE until Sunday, September 16th! You can log in and watch the timeline videos at the Classical Learning Center link. You will need to enter guest1 as the Username and guest1 as the Password to access. If you are not currently enrolled in a CC community in your area, you may enjoy viewing some of the engaging resources that are available.

Here are a few supplements we plan to sprinkle in our weekly studies to compliment our CC memory work for this week.

History:
Ancient Egypt / Commandments 6-10

I am saving ideas on my Week 2 / Cycle 1 Pinterest board.

We are continuing our Ancient Egypt History Pocket project this week. If all goes as planned, we will complete 1-2 additional pockets. I saved a few lapbook ideas for Ancient Egypt, but we have not been able to work on lapbooks for this unit. The History Pocket is a comprehensive unit to cover and we did not have any extra time to work on lapbooks. I do hope we can complete a few lapbooks for future studies.

We are continuing with our exploration of several great apps:
Ancient Egypt: Britannica Kids app
Wonders of Old Ancient Timeline app
KQ TimeTraveler app
MapTrek Ancient World

Geography:
Assyrian Empire
This week in our geography memory work we are studying the Assyrian Empire: Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Caspian Sea, Black Sea, and Babylon. One of the supplementary resources we are using in our studies is Map Trek Ancient World which I reviewed over the summer. This resource is a great compliment to our CC Cycle 1 studies.

I love this idea I found on Pinterest: Edible Ancient Egypt Cookie Map. This is a fun activity that we will need to try for other geography studies as well.

Science:
Kingdoms

I am saving ideas on my  Cycle 1 Science Pinterest board.

This week we are studying the 5 Kingdoms of Living Things: Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, Monera. We are going to work on narration activities from our science readings. I really like this image of the Kingdoms and we are going to make either a sketch or poster of this image.

Fine Arts:
Drawing Mirror Images

I am saving ideas on my Cycle 1 Fine Arts Pinterest board.

We are going to work on drawing a few mirror images of leaves this week.

During the CC Family Presentation time this week, Briyah, Malachi and I were able to share about our nature studies. We have been going outdoors each day in the beautiful weather with a concerted effort to do more nature study, sketching, and painting. This week the kids and I discovered an insect habitat in the field behind our backyard.

Peeking at the insects

I had my iPhone handy and snapped a few shots of the insects. I was pleasantly surprised to see some of the images I captured.

We observed wasps (from a safe distance)

I will share more photos from our observations in an upcoming blog post on nature studies.

This month we are studying Insects with Handbook of Nature Study. You can join the Outdoor Hour Challenge too if you are interested in nature study. If you sign up on Barb's list, she will send you a monthly newsletter which is a delight to read and complete the activities.

Handbook of Nature Study is one of my top recommendations for nature studies. You can even access the jumbo (900+ pages) online version of the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock for free to go along with the Outdoor Hour Challenges.

Do you like to study nature with your family? I would love to hear what works well for you!


I hope you are having a wonderful week of studies!

Blessings!

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