Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Schole' in Practice - SGCA Week 3

This week in our Schole' Community we continued our focus on the virtue of Love, explored through building on concepts already introduced and introduced some new ones, heard an incredibly talented violinist with piano accompaniment for our Schole' lunch, and even had a beautiful surprise from God on our nature study class, that thrilled the kids... 
 Morning Time

Today the kids continued to learn various aspects of the virtue Love.  They were introduced to the idea of how Love often involves obedience.  We talked about some of the misconceptions of obedience in today's world and it's negative connotation versus God's idea of obedience and how it's inextricably related to His love of us and us of Him.  Our Missionary Story focus was on Samuel Leigh, the Pioneer Missionary to Australia, who demonstrated obedience from a heart of Love, even when obeying didn't make sense to Him.  
Great Books
Today's focus was on rhythm and rhyme.  The kids spent a few minutes in their class, getting instruction, and then the remainder of their time was spent outside.  They continued to create their own poetry pieces after hearing some great examples and being given a rhyming words template to help them in creating their own.  It's been surprising to see how much the kids love poetry (boys as much as the girls!)     
Fine Arts
After beginning with the five elements of drawing, the kids began pulling objects from various separate graphics to build unique compositions.  Art appreciation was on Henri Rousseau's last work, which was a jungle scene, to uncover the science of composition and pattern.
Schole' Lunch
We were very blessed to have Dr. Cortney Combs Baker of Cary Strings and her friend Mrs. Anne, accompanying her on piano.  We were indoors today in order to have access to the beautiful baby grand piano the Church has graciously allowed us to use.  The children ate their lunch and listened to the music, fully engaged in the beautiful classic tunes emerging.  Once completed, they spent the remainder of their lunch hour playing Chinese jumprope and cat's cradle, along with some free play on the playground.
Latin
The kids continue to work through the Song School Latin 2 books and watch the DVD's.  The first half of their class was held indoors and the second half outdoors.  Their favorite part of the Classical Academic Press' Song School Latin 2 DVD is the cleverly crafted My Pet Monkey 2: The Sequel - often chanting that introduction along with the video and laughing.  One fun activity their Academic Mentor had them do as they learned their numbers 1-10 in Latin, was to do some math problems in Latin!  This is a fun class with chanting, singing, cleverly done videos, games and more.  
Science - Nature Study Week
This week was our Nature Study week.  The kids were building on the concepts they learned previously relating to observation and classification.  Today they were introduced to their first Ancient Scientist named Aristotle (we are starting in the Ancient's this year).  They learned about his biological classification system and how it worked.  They learned where he got it right, and where he got it wrong, too.  This year most of the Ancient Scientist's they will discover, will have a piece of something right and some pieces wrong.  This is helpful discussion for the advancement of science, even in today's world.  Once they learned about Aristotle and his discovery, then they were given a sheet with 6 difference creatures on it.  They were told to come up with a way to classify them.  Then they headed off with their nature journals, magnifying glasses, and bags for collecting, to the nature trail.  The kids were told to collect whatever they wanted to later classify, as they walked along the path.  Once the destination of the pond was reached, the kids were then told to sort all their items they collected and classify them into their nature journals.  
So what was our beautiful surprise from God on our nature walk?  This wonderful swan!  It came right up to the edge of the shore for the kids (both classes on two different walks!).  The kids marveled at the friendly swan, and then it continued to follow the kids as they walked from the pond down the creek, which paralleled the path back to campus.  We also were blessed to see turtles, Canadian geese, frogs, a blue heron and even a cat (probably hoping to catch one of these birds)!  
As the kids waited for those of us cleaning up, they played Ninja together and had great fun!  
So thankful to God for these kiddo's.  



6 comments:

  1. What a wonderful day you all had! The swan, Aristotle, the virtue of love, beautiful scholĂ©-time music…those are the things that memorable school days are made of!

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  2. Looks like another beautiful day! Do you have a certain resource that you are using for the ancient scientists? I think the idea of pointing out something they got right and something they got wrong is really neat.

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    1. Hi Amy - I do love the science curriculum we are using. It is Berean Builders - here is a review I did on it if you want more information. http://www.solagratiamom.com/2015/06/berean-builders-review.html Blessings - Colleen

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    2. I was wondering if that was it! Thanks =)

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