Pilgrim's Progress

Seventh graders begin reading The Pilgrim's Progress today. Those students who were here in the fourth grade were privileged to read a children's version, but today, we start Pilgrim's Progress in Today's English. The length is about the same, though some of the more archaic language is updated.

"Why We should read The Pilgrim's Progress" is an interesting article about how Pilgrim's journey is our journey.

Homonyms

Homonyms are words that sound the same but have different meanings.

haul--hall---------pale--pail-----------rain--rein--reign

This week's spelling words for grades 6, 7, and 8 are all homonyms.

For some fun games, see these sites:

FunBrain

Concentration at Quia

Self-Study Homonym Quizzes

To help you with your study, a list of short definitions of many homonyms is found here.

GeoBee, anyone?

Check out the new link under Geography in the sidebar.

See how many questions you can complete!

Memorization

For any parents reading (kids, go get you parent and have them read this!), you will be interested to know the selections your child has memorized as a group during our classes this year.

Memorization is an important tool in a student's life. Memorization causes students of begin to appreciate language and the sound it makes when it is carefully constructed. Also, students have young minds which can make memorization especially easy andthe ability to recall memorized material decades later. The article, "In Defense of Memorization," is particularly helpful and interesting to read.

All three grades (6th, 7th, and 8th) learned "Ideas have Consequences" which is found in the sidebar. Since we are reading The Hobbit in the sixth grade, they worked on ten stanzas from "Over the Misty Mountains Cold" as the seventh grade memorized "A Mighty Fortress is our God" and a small part of Martin Luther's famous speech before the Diet of Worms. Both sixth and seventh grades learned "The Night has a Thousand Eyes" and "The Vulture." The next memorization selection for both grades is "The Quality of Mercy" from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.

The eighth graders memorized "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and has begun to work on "The Gettyburg Address."

More selections are ready and waiting for the rest of the year!

The Hobbit, Chapter 8: Flies and Spiders

Do these pictures make you think of the "Flies and Spiders" chapter?

These are incredible webs!

Abraham Lincoln's World: pages 143-222

Question 2. Read about the Opium Wars here, here, here, or here to answer question 2 in the section "When Abe Lincoln Kept Store in Illinois."

Enjoying life in our world

Often school and all its work, sports practice and games, and requirements at home all seem to merge together and demand our attention at the same time. Frustration usually results. Tempers flare. We are happy with ourselves or anyone else.

Times like those keep us from seeing the forests for the trees. When things get too frustrating, take a few minutes and enjoy the wonderful world God has made. When I do this, I realize how minor my frustrations are in comparison to the grandeur of the universe.

Look at some of the links in the sidebar under "The Heavens Declare the Glory of God." The Astronomy Sight of the Day is always fascinating. Once at that site, you can click on the archives and find lots of interesting pictures of our universe.

The World Sunlight Map is a current picture of how sunlight is distributed throughout the world. It is current. If you check back an hour or so later, you will see how the sunlight has moved.

The Moon Phase link is to the current phase of the moon. The moon is always interesting to me.

A new link, Night Lights on Earth, shows the lights on Earth from space.

The more we know about and see this wonderful world, the more we will appreciate this creation and the more gratitude we owe to the Creator God.

Also, notice the new text in the sidebar, Children's Beatitudes. Recently, I heard a minister from Barbados share this during his sermon. I remembered enough of it to find the entire text online later. It seems that these thoughtful statements originated in Zimbabwe. Good thoughts to ponder.

Abraham Lincoln's World: Garibaldi

Use these links to answer "When Abraham Lincoln was a Boy in Indiana," question 22 about Garibaldi:

• Garibaldi 1
• Garibaldi 2

The World of Christopher Columbus (7th grade)

For each link, hold cursor over the link, right click mouse, click on Open in a New Tab. Having both tabs open enables you to move back and forth without losing the first page.

Use the dictionary! Look up any words you do not know. Be sure to write the word and a short definition down in your answers. For example, if you do not know what the word monastery means, then look it up in this online dictionary.

• Again, hold cursor over the link "online dictionary" in the last sentence. It is bold-faced and stands out to show you it is a link.
• Right click mouse, then click Open in a New Tab.
• Once the dictionary page opens, you can type in the word to look up OR you can cut-and-paste the word into the search box. Leave the dictionary tab open so you can use it again.
• When you look up the word monastery, you find that it means "a house or place of residence occupied by a community of persons, esp. monks, living in seclusion under religious vows." When you use the word monastery in your answer, put a simple definition beside it in parenthesis like this: "...lived in a monastery (place where monks live)....".

...........................................................................................................................................

Links for The World of Christopher Columbus:


Pages 24-64

1. Printable map of Africa, map of the Gambia, another map of the Gambia, map of Cape Verde.

5. Use these Fra Mauro links to answer the questions on your reading sheet:

• Read the information in the first paragraph.

• Fra Mauro link 2

Choose one of these two activities:

Activity 1:

• Print a copy of this Fra Mauro outline map. (Remember to open this in a new tab!)

• Keep the printed map in front of you and open up this link. Look carefully. Can you see the land and the water? With a light brown or green colored pencil, shade in the land areas. With a light blue colored pencil, shade in the water areas. The map still looks strange, doesn't it? Try this: turn it upside down. Does it look more familiar now? Compare it with this image (remember to open in a new tab!). The difference is explained in the last nine lines of this link. Isn't that interesting?!

Activity 2:

• This is named Fra Mauro. What is it?

• Here is a look from a little farther away. Notice the white arrow?

• Find Fra Mauro here. Look for number 14. It is located in one of the darker areas called mare, which means "sea" in Latin. Additional help in finding #14: from in the center, look west (to the left) until you find "Copernicus," then look south. You will see #12 and to its right will be #14.

• Why do you think it is named Fra Mauro? Go here, scroll down about halfway to "The Moon." Read the description beside the "crater" column. Compose a good written answer.

• Use the dictionary link above and look up "fra." What does it mean?

9. Italian Renaissance artists: Gozzoli, Botticelli, Donatello, Fra Angelico, Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, and Verrochio.


Pages 90-114

2. Read this link about Ptolemy. Record your findings on your answer pages.


Pages 360-400

4. Find Albrecht Durer information here. Find the two painting which he did of Emperor Maximilian here and here.

Bilbo, Gandalf, Thorin and company

The long-awaited day has arrived.

Several sixth graders have waited for the big green books to be pulled from the shelves.

The Hobbit is now in their eager hands. The first assignment is to take Tolkein's description of a hobbit and illustrate their visual image of a hobbit.

The students are about to embark on an expedition that will remain in their memories for years to come.

Find out your Hobbit Name or make some Hobbit runes.

And don't miss a modern day hobbit house.

Words and Rice

Challenge yourself! And send some rice to needy people at the same time. Grain by grain.

The link to Free Rice is in the sidebar under Vocabulary Practice .


As you begin, first go to the OPTIONS tab. Once there, choose the level below that corresponds to your grade level. If it is too easy, choose a higher level; if too hard, choose a lower level.

6th graders: Start at Level 10
7th graders: Start at Level 15
8th graders: Start at Level 20

After choosing your option, click on the HOME tab and begin.

Have fun and learn!

What we will read....

Click on the picture for a closeup look of our new books!

Grammar

Find grammar help in the following links:

Interactive grammar quizzes

How to diagram

Grammar songs

Catechism

Print the Westminster Shorter Catechism here.

Holly Dutton's CDs of catechism songs that we sing in class.

Westminster Shorter Catechism with Scripture proofs.

Parent Helps

As parents, we often want to help our children succeed in every area of their lives. Helping them succeed academically is often difficult because we sometimes don't know exactly what to do or how to do it. Below are some articles that I have found helpful. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them here.

Encouraging Your Child to Work

Why Do Copywork and Dictation?

A Classical Approach to History