Term 2 Ends...Finally

Well, we are done with Term 2 for the school year. Here are some things that were accomplished:

1. Study of Ancient Greece- using Story of the World. We also read many myths and Aesop's fables, acted them  out and drew comics of them. 
2. We watched Drive Thru History: Greece and found some interesting videos on the three battles that the Greeks fought with the Persians: Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis.
3. Ethan and Adam made an Ancient Greece ABC Book using Blurb.
4. Read Alouds: Treasures of the Snow, Redwall  and The Children's Homer
5. Caleb wrote a research paper entitled The Legacy of the Greeks.
6. We wrapped up our study of birds and the kids each picked a bird to do a report on (Ethan: eagles, Adam: Orioles, Abigail: hummingbirds)
7. We also studied bats!
8. We are continuing to read through the Old Testament. I really enjoyed the story of Gideon (reliance on God) and Samson (redemption).
9. Working on memorizing a list of scriptures every believer should know.
10. Devotionals- The Family Altar and also A Family Treasury of Faith by Patricia St. John. (Love this!)
11. Poetry- we read the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe using the series Poetry for Young People. The boys memorized El Dorado. Poe's poems were a bit too gothic (duh) so we moved on to the poetry of Langston Hughes during Black History Month. 
12. We were able to visit the Underground Railroad Museum in Cincinnati.
    
13. Caleb read: Hamilton's Mythology by Edith Hamilton, The Once and Future King by T.H. White (a partial read as we changed directions on his research paper) , The Maze Runner by James Dashner which he compared to The Lord of the Flies by William Golding (I was torn about whether this was appropriate but he was in the doldrums and he did get excited about reading this). He is finishing up The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis and has started The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens. He also been doing literary analysis and read a short story by James Hurst called The Scarlet Ibis and some poetry by Tennyson, namely The Lotus Eaters. He finished his personal study of Proverbs and has moved on to one of the gospels. He is also working through a list of scriptures as well as writing character sketches of heroes of the Old Testament and working on a survey of the Old Testament. 
14. Ethan read: Boyhood and Beyond, Herodotus and the Road to History, Hittite Warrior , Victory on the Walls and The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. He is also conducting his own geography study using a really cool visual encyclopedia I found at the library. 
15. Adam read: Soup, Sign of the Beaver and is now reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
16. Abigail is reading through The Magic Treehouse series.
17. Still working on word/spelling skills using Wordly Wise (Ethan and Adam) and Explode the Code (Abigail). Also, working on Greek and Latin roots flashcards. Using Daily Oral Language for grammar and a combination of copywork/dictation/writing projects to increase writing skills.
18. Everyone working through their math texts: Teaching Textbooks (Ethan and Adam) and Rightstart (Abigail)
19. Didn't do much art (Mimi needed time off to paint) but we looked at some art by Alexander Calder:)
20. Everyone is continuing with piano and we didn't do much with our supposed composer of the term- Robert Schumann.