This was another busy week!
Although we’re done with our formal religion lessons for the year, we’re still reading through Celebrating the Saints, as feasts, festivals, and commemorations days come up. April 6th was the commemoration for Lucas Cranach and Albrecht Dürer, Artists, and in addition to learning about their lives and how God used them in the church, we also had a really good art study. Although their names are not as familiar as some of history’s more famous artists, their work is very well-represented in our many art books. We enjoyed looking at both religious and secular pieces they created, and learning about how their art was different from many other of the artists’ of that time, and how it was influential, particularly Dürer’s impact on the illustration of books. I remain grateful that I was able to pick up a copy of the out-of-print Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting a few years ago…it is an incredible book, which has been beneficial to all of us in understanding the different eras of artwork, and learning about the artists who were a part of them!
Math was, once again, not too bad. Turkey and Bunny learned about exponential growth and decay functions. They also learned how to graph them, which was kind of amusing…they were not anticipating what the results of doing so would look like! Ladybug is continuing to work with decimals, and has added in metric measurements, which go together nicely.
Our history studies were all close to home this week. We learned about the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis. We then turned our attention to the assassination of JFK. We also talked about the broader Kennedy family, and the influence they had. We ended the week by discussing the Civil Rights Movement, and especially the stories of Ruby Bridges and Elizabeth Eckford. I find that talking about people who were young students like themselves really humanizes the movement to the children, because they can see how completely ridiculous the attitudes of adults toward schoolchildren were. This whole lesson was especially timely, as we’re going to the Missouri History Museum tomorrow for a homeschool day focused on civil rights in St. Louis.
Ladybug finished her science chapter on echinoderms this week…she couldn’t believe how short it was! Once you get past sea stars, there’s not too much else to cover…pretty must just sand dollars, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers. Turkey and Bunny have started a three-chapter arc on the forces in nature. So far, they’ve only covered the gravitational force…the electromagnetic force is up next.
We’ve read through half of the second act in As You Like It. Although Turkey, in particular, claims not to understand the manner of speaking in that play, both he and Bunny are following the plot just fine. I’m also really enjoying it, because it’s something new to me. Ladybug is getting closer to the end of her Greek Myths book, but she’s not quite done yet. That is definitely one of my favorite literature selections we’ve done over the years!
Since Moose had the day off, we also took the afternoon on Tuesday to visit Forest Park and the Missouri Botanical Garden before the children had their big choir exam late that afternoon. It’s amazing how quickly everything blooms once spring is really here…we really enjoyed all of the beauty around us!
We have the field trip on Monday, and we’ll probably take the day off on Good Friday, but we’ll be working extra hard the rest of the week, to make sure we don’t fall too far behind. I’m still hoping to be done with school about the same time Moose is!