Plans: Cycle 1 - Week 1

Like other CC bloggers, I'm very excited to have a place to record my plans for each week. I'm hoping to look back to my planning posts, make a note of what worked and what didn't, and then try not to laugh too hard. ;) And here we go...

Bible
* Read Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments, and memorize them using the CC memory work song (to see my post on creating a Memory Work Flip Chart, click here). I also love this Answers in Genesis book and will use it with our daily Bible reading. To see how I plan on integrating the new CC timeline cards with Bible stories everyday for the first six weeks, see this post.

English
* Read some books on prepositions:

Growing a Godly Girl has a preposition book list here that's helpful, too.

Geography
* I really like the idea of tying everything I can back to the Bible. I looked up all the Scripture references of Mesopotamia and the Euphrates River (those were the only places in our geography memory work that I found in the Bible), and we plan to read and discuss them:

Mesopotamia - Genesis 24:10, Deuteronomy 23:4, Judges 3:8, 10
Euphrates River (called The Great River in the Bible) - Gen. 2:14 and 15:18, Deut. 1:7, Revelation 9:14 and 16:12

* Listen to Story of the World 1: Fertile Crescent, chapters 1-5, while the girls color their maps.

We absolutely love SOTW, and we're planning on using this CC Cycle 1 + SOTW match-up throughout the year.

* Speaking of maps, I really like this one and the ones from MapTrek. During the week, we'll work on identifying the places in our geography memory work.

* And then we plan to read more books about this region, because my girls really enjoy books (woohoo!).

(Okay, I know the above book looks totally not-girly, but my oldest girl (she's 4) LOVES the whole series, including this book! She really likes gory things, which may or may not bother me... I haven't decided.)

* We also have the Audio Memory Geography Kit, and we'll start to listen to that in the car or while the girls are coloring.

* And we'll play with our Map Friends, which has been the biggest hit of the school year by far! The girls LOVE them, and they really do turn playing into learning (which I love!). See my Map Friends post here.

(Nemo is Anna's favorite 'friend.')

History
* Color some Ten Commandments coloring pages while I read Exodus 20. These are the pages we'll use the for the next activity. I have them printed out in their regular size, and then I also shrank them down to fit over each finger (see below). I love the connection between ten fingers and ten commandments!

* Complete this really cool handprint activity after coloring. I also have the train craft from that site ready to go, but I'm not sure yet if we'll get to it.We'll just have to see (can you tell I'm practicing my flexibility?). ;)

* Play the Ten Commandments sequencing game from another really helpful site, Biblestoryprintables.com:

* And play this file folder game, too, also from Biblestoryprintables.com:

* I really like this lapbook for the Ten Commandments:

* We also have the Wisdom and Righteousness Cycle 1 Memory Work Lapbooks, so I'm hoping to do a little of this week by week for each subject:

* Watch this great set of DVDs as reinforcement:

Science

* Read Genesis 1:20-30 and talk about classifying animals.

* Work on this Animal Classification lapbook (we'll use this for the next six weeks):

* Here's a neat little illustration that we might throw in:

Latin

* I'm planning for Mary to simply color the Song School Latin coloring pages while we listen to the corresponding song. We're only going to do this one day a week. Next year, we'll go back though and actually do the lessons.

Language Arts

* Mary is going through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and that's going well. 

* We'll start up Handwriting Without Tears Get Set for School.

Math

* Mary really needs to work on number recognition, so that's what we'll be doing for a while in math in addition to the weekly CC skip counting memory work. I do have some neat number mazes from Confessions of a Homeschooler (awesome site!) ready to go for fun practice.

Those are my plans for Week 1! How much of this will actually get done.... well, we'll see. ;) If you haven't been over to Brandy's Cycle 1 Weekly Link-Up yet, check it out! You'll see what other CC mamas have planned for the first week of school.