Morning Meeting
I hold a morning meeting for between 30-40 minutes per day with both girls. I read the following curriculum out-loud:
Who Is God? – Chapter Six – How Will You Run the Race? Instructions on how to make sensible and wise decisions about your life.
Mystery of History Vol 2: The Early Church and the Middle Ages. We completed the following lessons: Eric the Red and the Settlement of Greenland;Leif Ericsson Discovers America; Macbeth, King of Scotland; El Cid, a Spanish Hero; William the Conqueror and the Battle of Hastings; Pope Gregory VII, Henry IV and the Investiture Controversy; The Early Crusades; The Petrobrusians and the Waldensians; Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Queen of Two Nations; The Jews of the Middle Ages; Richard the Lionheart, Saladin and the Third Crusade; The Classic Tale of Robin Hood; The Shoguns and Samurai of Japan.
The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way. We completed Chapter Twelve: Does it Change? – No way, Says A, including Why Mars is a Little Loopy; Chapter Thirteen: Aristarchus Got it Right – Well, Almost! which looked at the changing seasons and how far away the moon is from the earth; Chapter Fourteen: Alexander’s City which covers the library of Alexandria and the lighthouse at Alexandria’s harbour; Chapter Fifteen: What’s a Hero? learning about Hero of Alexandria and all his simple machines and the gadgets he invented; Chapter Sixteen: Euclid in his Elements including sightline and airlines and the geometry surrounding cones. We also looked at prime numbers and learnt how to use Eratosthenes’ Sieve
Vincent’s Starry Night and Other Stories. We finished this book this month, which Becca is very sad about. The girls have learnt about Frederic Edwin Church; Berthe Morisot; Claude Monet; Eadweard Muybridge; Georges Seurat; Vincent Van Gogh; Camille Claudel; Paul Cezanne; Georges Braque; Marc Chagall; Marcel Duchamp; Varvara Stepanova
Abigail (age 13-14). Year Nine
Maths
Abs is so close to finishing her key stage three! She is a plodder and just slowly makes her way through everything and generally scores well. She will need to finish all her key stage 3 stuff before she breaks for the summer:
Abigail read the following books this month:
The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hardgrave
Geek Girl by Holly Smale
Cruel Prince by Holly Black
Wicked King by Holly Black
Wonder by R J Palacio
Percy Jackson and the Lightening Theif by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the the Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
Sociology and Psychology GCSE
We are on the last legs of this year’s academic year and as such are focusing on finishing everything before the end of July. The goal for Abigail has been to complete the unit she is on in both Psychology and Sociology. We had to change this goal somewhat because she wasn’t getting through the work at the pace we’d hoped. Abigail is intelligent and hardworking but has always always struggled with concentration. It has seemed particularly bad lately.
This month she completed the sociology unit on Crime. She has completed all the course work, exam questions and practice questions and sent them off to her tutor. She is still working on her Psychology unit which is on perception.
Time wise, Abigail works independently on her Sociology GCSE for 60 minutes per day and on her Psychology GCSE for 60 minutes per day using resources provided by online homeschool providers ‘Homemade Education’ (5 hours spent per week on each subject).
Rebecca (Age 11-12 Year 7)
Maths
Becca is a strong maths student but this month’s maths has thrown her for a loop! It has been like pulling teeth! Anyway, with much help she has done jolly well 🤣
Books she has read this month:
Percy Jackson and the Lightening Theif by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the the Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
Textiles Level 1 Certificate
The big goal this month was finishing the jellyfish dress. I can honestly say it has been a nightmare and should not have taken us this long! I think we bit off more than we could chew, and neither of us had the skill (for doing or for teaching it!) to bring to fruition the design she had laboured over. It was a great design though!
I’m not even sure Becca learned any new skills. She says she is much more confident using a sewing machine now, so I guess that’s something. It was frustrating for both of us to have such a lovely design (at least it looked lovely on paper) but to not be able to make the final piece look anything like the design.
This is only level 1 (GCSE level grade 5-1) and I think in retrospect I should have guided her to do something which was simpler and would have taught her a particular skill. Lesson learnt going forward!
Ellis’ Worldventures in Art and Design
Becca continues to work through this program at her own pace. She really enjoys it! This month she has learnt about racing car design, how to make chocolate packaging both aesthetic, practical and environmentally friendly and she learnt about the advertising giants who work for Nike, one of the most recognisable brands in the world.
Extra-Curricular Activities
As always, the girls are busy, busy, busy with extra-curricular stuff. Each Sunday morning, they have both been volunteering at church by working in the creche. They are learning a lot, serving the church and thoroughly enjoying themselves in the process! Sunday evening they have their church youth group after the church service.
Monday afternoons are spent doing some physical activities with other homeschoolers, which they both love. Monday evenings is another youth group which meets in a church nearby.
Tuesday evenings both girls attend children’s choir, after which Becca spends the rest of the evening with a precious homeschooled friend whilst Abigail attends Army Cadets. Every couple of weeks, she has a physical training session, where the goal is to improve on her own performance from week to week. This month she has earned three badges, is now a one star and was awarded ‘Cadet of the Month’ for June.
On Wednesday, Abigail goes to Explorers with one of her friends from church. This month she has done lots of fun activities including a weekend camp out and canoeing at a local lake.
Thursday, Abigail attends Army Cadets again. She has found the social time hard but is finding it a little easier since she has moved up to a one star as she is now with people more her own age rather than 11 and 12 year old boys!
Friday’s are spent with friends or with their sisters.
Becca also goes on a morning walk with one of her friends, jogs daily and plays football each day at the park with Gary and anyone else up there. She has joined a local girls’ football team which starts up at the end of August.