Classical Conversations: Cycle 2, Weeks 1-6

We had a great start to our Classical Conversations (CC) homeschool year!

We continue to enjoy History and Timeline the most, probably because of the songs that go along with the History sentences and the Timeline cards. We spend time reading the back of any Timeline cards that interest Samuel. This quarter we read about Roman Dictator Julius Caesar and Jesus the Messiah. I like when we can tie in History, Timeline, and Geography together.

I still like talking about Science the most with Samuel. (And my class on Community Days!) When we go outside to play, I try to answer his questions about nature with CC grammar. Sometimes I can do this easily, and sometimes not so easily. This quarter, we noticed that we live in a deciduous forest and observed the migration pattern of birds and butterflies.

Brian built this amazing chalkboard for us to use for homeschooling! The chalkboard takes up almost an entire wall in our basement. I write the new grammar on the chalkboard each week, our phonograms (from Spell to Write and Read) for the week, and numbers to count and practice identifying. I put the Timeline cards for the week on top until I realized (the hard way) that the cards could fall behind the chalkboard and get stuck. Now, I put them along the vent near the floor. What I like the most about using a chalkboard is that we can stand while we do all of our homeschooling work except Geography and some math. We do big, elaborate hand motions to help remember the grammar and we jump around while we sing and recite. Samuel and I accomplish more schoolwork with less frustration when we move around instead of sit.

I tutor on Community Days, and we had a great start this year as well. My class definitely benefits from sitting together at one round table. They ask a lot of questions, so sitting in a group means we can all see and hear each other much better. The moms sit around the outside of the circle, participate with the students, and assist me by collecting maps, white boards, and markers, and filing artwork. I thank God for these helpful, faithful moms and their thoughtful, creative kids!

A few common themes emerged as I taught during Community Days this quarter. Here they are, in no particular order. And please remember as you read that I teach the oldest Foundations class, the Masters, including some old enough to participate in the Challenge program!

Gravity, Centripetal Force, Inertia: Over the course of this last quarter, we studied the orbits of satellites and planets around the sun. We discussed how gravity and inertia both act on orbiting satellites and planets, gravity pulling the orbiting object in and inertia (force) pushing the orbiting object forward, resulting in a curved orbit around the earth or the sun. I showed the class a diagram similar to the one from this website a few times during the quarter. We visited the idea of gravity again and again as we talked about how planets form, why we stay on the surface of the earth, and the definition of the word ‘force’ (gravity acting as the weakest force).

Newton’s First and Third Laws of Motion: We didn’t discuss either of these laws in detail, but I did bring both of them up as we talked about gravity, inertia, and friction. I think I talked about Newton’s First Law of Motion when we rolled a marble around a cake pan on different surfaces (sandpaper, construction paper, and no paper). If friction weren’t involved, the marble would continue to roll without help. This explains why orbiting satellites and planets continue to move forward through outer space. We touched on the idea of force many times during this quarter. I actually don’t remember which week we talked about Newton’s Third Law of Motion, but we somehow got on the subject of equal and opposite forces. We’ll memorize Newton’s Laws of Motions later this year, but I don’t like to miss an opportunity to explain something extra in Science!

Math Relay: This ended the quarter as my class’s favorite activity. Last year, I wrote all of the multiplication facts from 1s to 15s on 3X5 note cards. We divide the class into two teams (my class generally likes the boys-against-girls approach) and we declare the first team to correctly answer all of their multiplication facts the winner. If a team answers a multiplication fact incorrectly, that fact goes on the bottom of the pile. I don’t give any hints or clues, but I do remind them throughout the relay to sing the skip counting songs to themselves if they need to. I ask a mom to flip cards for one team, and I flip cards for the other. The first time we played, we discovered that I tend to flip through the cards slower than the other moms! I flipped faster during the next round, and my team did much better. We had a few Math Relays this quarter, and will continue to do them next quarter as we review.

Last, I like to bring caramel corn for my class a few times during the year. I look forward to eating the caramel corn as much as my class does, and also enjoy making a yummy snack like this in large quantities. I like this recipe the best (without the peanuts). Yum!