It looks like our 2016-2017 Morning Time will have a strong American flavor, which should be fun! Here’s what I’ve chosen for Term 1.
Daily (aiming for 4x a week)
Hymns: September: Amazing Grace; October: A Mighty Fortress is Our God; November: Come, Ye Thankful People Come; December: Christmas carols!
Bible and Catechism: We will continue with Starr Meade’s Comforting Hearts, Teaching Minds: Family Devotions Based on the Heidelberg Catechism.
Memorization: We will try my friend Dawn’s practice of spending the first six weeks or so of the school year reviewing past memory work. We haven’t done much review for a while, and we need it! Then we’ll start some new memory work:
- Scripture: Isaiah 9:1-7
- Poetry: “Gathering Leaves” by Robert Frost
- Shakespeare: “All the world’s a stage…” from As You Like It
Folksongs: We’ll listen to a different song each week from Wee Sing America.
Grammar: Inspired by Dawn once again, I’m going to try English Grammar Recitation from Memoria Press. Both Mr. D and Mr. E need more grammar (I’ve ordered the workbooks for them), but I think Miss A will also benefit from memorizing some grammar rules. We may also try diagramming a sentence each day, or at least a few times a week. And the kids would rebel if we gave up Mad Libs, although we’ll probably do them less frequently than we have been.
Geography: The kids will do Charlotte Mason-style map drills to become familiar with the names and locations of the U.S. states.
Weekly
Missionary Biography: We’ll read The Story of David Livingstone by Vautier Golding and follow his journeys on a map.
Artist Study: Henry Ossawa Tanner – I’ve ordered the lovely prints from Riverbend Press. I think this term we will do six weeks of composer study, followed by six weeks of artist study. This will simplify the schedule, and three of the Tanner paintings illustrate events surrounding the birth of Christ, so I want to study them closer to Christmas. 🙂
Composer Study: We’ll familiarize ourselves with some of the music of Edward MacDowell this term (I only really know his “To a Wild Rose”). I’ve had the Opal Wheeler bio sitting around for a while, so now will be a good time to actually read it!
Music Appreciation: We are going to start watching Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts as a way to cultivate a deeper understanding of the classical music we listen to. I studied for several music history and theory exams during my high school years, and I’m looking forward to a “refresher course.” This may be an every-other-week thing, depending on how our schedule turns out.
Shakespeare: This term we’ll read/listen to As You Like It, starting with Tina Packer’s rendition. This is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays – of the ones I’ve read so far. 😉
Plutarch: Mr. E will be joining us for Plutarch this year, and we’ll be using The Plutarch Primer: Publicola by Anne White. We haven’t been reading Plutarch for a while, so I’m looking at this as a kind of fresh start. 🙂
Looks fantastic!