Plans: Cycle 1 - Week 12

Ottoman/Muslim Empire

Once again, how do I teach this to a four-year-old girl? Ha! Well, we're going to try to keep it fun and light. My main goal this year is to get Mary excited about learning, whether it's the alphabet or photosynthesis. ;)

History

* Read SOTW2: Chapters 6, 27-29, 34-42 (Muslim Empire)

* Read SOTW2: Ch. 24 (Ottoman Empire)

* Read SOTW3: Ch. 8, 18, 19 (Ottoman Empire)

* Listen to Jim Weiss read The Arabian Nights:

* And watch this movie:

* A Pilgrim's Heart blog has some great hands-on activities for this week. They're a little too old for my preschooler, but maybe they'll inspire someone else out there.

Geography

* Read/listen to SOTW2: Ch. 7 (Muslim Empire)
* Look at our Geography flash cards for Week 12

Science

* Learn the photosynthesis song:

* Maybe watch this video. I love the way this material is presented, very much my style, but it may be over my kiddo's head this year. 

* And we'll probably check out this MSB book on photosynthesis:

Or watch the video below (but I always like the books better):

Timeline
* There are some good books on Marco Polo available. We may read these:

Extra
* We don't have one particular missionary to study this week. Instead, we're going to read selections from this book:

For the full schedule of Christian missionaries and heroes we're going to study this cycle, click here.

Finally, I know I've already shared this in one of my very first posts about organization, but I cannot tell you enough how HELPFUL and EASY it has been to organize and plan for future weeks by using Google Docs. Below, you can see a screenshot of the resources I found for this week and how I organized them (click on the picture to enlarge it). I have a separate page for each week (across the bottom you can see the tabs). Whenever I run across something online that I don't want to forget about, I click on my document (I always have this tab open, even if I don't add anything to it for weeks, it's always open and ready just in case), find the week, and copy/paste in the link. It's just soooo easy! Most of my resources for the first semester I found before CC started. Like everyone, I had way more free time during the summer, so after I purchased the Foundations Guide, I started looking things up and pasting them into my document. Anyway, if you'd like to make one yourself and need some help, please feel free to contact me. My email is andherewegomama at live dot com.

(click on the picture to enlarge it)


By this week, our CC year will be half-over. Unreal! What a ride this year has been so far! For more Week 12 ideas, be sure to check out the weekly link-up at Half-a-Hundred-Acre Wood.