Wednesday Hodgepodge: Springing Up

Why not join the Wednesday Hodgepodge? Answer the questions on your own blog, then hop back to From This Side of the Pond (click on the graphic) to share answers with the universe. See you there!

1. Has spring sprung in your part of the world? How can you tell? Did March come in like a lion where you live? Going out like a lamb or something more ferocious?

It took awhile to warm up, but things are starting to turn green now.

2. The last thing that caused you to spring to your feet?

Probably the stove timer reminding me that the banana bread was done. I could not live without a timer, I'd burn everything

3. Do you have a spring clean to-do list? What's one chore on the list you've already managed to accomplish? What spring clean chore do you most dread?

Short answer: we just clean as we go.

4. Tell us something you've learned about yourself or the wider world as a result of social distancing/the virus crisis.

In the worst crisis scenario I could think of, I never thought I'd have to include "No thrift stores."

5. Something you love that's the color pink?

The pink things in my Shopping My Closet post yesterday.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

I included this quote in a recent post, but it also seems appropriate for this week's theme.

"We do not stir. It is a hard lesson...Of course YOU know how to keep still, for you are children. And so perhaps you do not need to take lessons of teacher Toad. But I do, for I am grown up...with a world of things to do, a great many of which I do not need to do at all--if only I would let the toad teach me all he knows." Dallas Lore Sharp, The Spring of the Year

Linked from the Wednesday Hodgepodge: Springing Back Into the Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

Nature Walk by the Pond

The last month has seen a great change in the weather and the foliage.  Spring is still dragging itself a bit, but at least all the leaves are coming out.  We revisited the pond today, and Mr. Fixit took some photos to compare with those he and Dollygirl took early in April.  (I don't have photos of the birds we saw today: mainly red-winged blackbirds, ducks and geese.)

Dollygirl's holly bush photo taken in April (at least that's what we think it is):

Holly bush taken today:

Tamarack in early April:

Tamarack taken today:

And this is the coolest thing: I think we've found our blossoming shad bush! (Also called serviceberry: Dallas Lore Sharp's favourite sign of spring.  And if it isn't serviceberry, it''s something pretty close.)

All photos by Mr. Fixit and Dollygirl.  Copyright 2014 Dewey's Treehouse.

Wednesday School Plans (Dollygirl's Grade Seven)

In the workboxes today:

1.  Old Testament:  finish the chapter of the Book of Numbers.

2.  Key to Geometry:  work several pages on your own.

3.  Ivanhoe.  Written narration.

4.  Architecture Shown to the Children:  continue the term's chapter (Gothic Architecture), reading about gargoyles and flying buttresses.  Make a drawing in your Book of Centuries.

5.  Apologia General Science.  The first of several lessons on macro- and micro-nutrients, beginning with carbohydrates.  (Coming up in another post.)

6.  Balance Benders Level 3.

7.  Shakespeare's King John: continue Act III.

8.  Handwriting practice from Fix It...Write.

9.  Map drills:  10 minutes with Seterra Online.

Dollygirl's Grade Seven: Term 2, Week Five

Plans for this week's school:

Christian Studies
Basic Bible Studies #12: "Salvation—How?"

Optional: The Accidental Voyage, finish chapter 9.

Citizenship

Ourselves Book II:  "We are not Free to give Ourselves without Reserve"; the bad example of Edward II and his close friend Gaveston. "If we choose to yield ourselves to the domination of another, so that our will is paralysed and we are unable to think or act except upon that other's initiative, are incapable of being happy and at ease except in his presence, then we too have sown disorder..."

Plutarch's Life of Demosthenes

Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?--continue

Math

Algebra, Lesson 6: Some Rules of Algebra

Geography

Heidi's Alp: finish "Of Tivoli and Travellers". Map work. (" With 4.033 million visitors in 2012, Tivoli is the second most popular seasonal theme park in the world, the most visited theme park in Scandanavia and the fourth most visited in Europe... " -- Wikipedia)

Literature

Watership Down--continue
Sigurd the Volsung--continue

Return of the King--continue

Poetry Reading and Memory Work
Grammar of Poetry: Dactyls

History

English History: Chapter X, The Norman Conquerors 1066

If we have time:  French History: 1098 Siege of Antioch; 1099 Capture of Jerusalem

Natural History
The Lay of the Land: finish "A Cure for Winter"

Keeping a Nature Journal

Science

Apologia Science: Finish Module 7 (features of the fossil record; differing viewpoints on the origin of the Grand Canyon). Start Module 8 (further discussion of Uniformitarianism and Catastrophism)

Read Dinosaur Ghosts: The Mystery of Coelophysis, by Douglas Henderson.

Grammar and Composition
Grammar—Verb tenses

Copywork

Dictation

Composition

Fine Arts
Artist Study: contiue Oscar Kokoschka and Expressionism

Composer Study: Go hear the Madawaska String Quartet on Tuesday.

Dollygirl's First Term Exam Questions

December 2013 Grade 7 Examination Questions (adapted from original PNEU term exams, available on the Ambleside Online website)

Christian Studies.  Choose two of these:
1. Describe one of the journeys of St. Paul. What was the result of his preaching?

2. Describe Annie and Drew's visit to either the Catacombs, or the Duomo in Milan (the third-largest church in the world).

3.  Describe the portrayal of Jesus  in The Bronze Bow.  Do you think it is accurate?  Use examples from the book to support your argument. (question from Learning Language Arts Through Literature, Tan Book)

Writing.
Write ten lines of poetry from memory.

Dictation.

From The Sword and the Circle.

English Grammar.

The chess club served pop and chips at the end of the meeting.

On the way out, many members stopped to read the posters about the upcoming tournament.

We cleaned the room after the club members left.

Several of the members had stuck gum under the desks.

In the sentences above, cross out any prepositional phrases. Underline the subject once and the verb or verb phrase twice. Place any infinitive in parentheses. Mark any direct objects with the initials "D.O."

Literature.
 1. Write the script for a scene from Coriolanus in which his mother Volumnia appears. (This could be for Sock Puppet Theatre.)
2. Explain and give examples of simile, metaphor, pun, iambic meter.

3. Tell what you know of the life of either Bede or Caedmon.

English History.

      1. What impact did the Roman occupation have on Great Britain (good and bad)?

      2. Why are English people described as Anglo-Saxons? Give some account of the history contained in this term. What traces of it have we still? (from a PNEU exam)
      3. Describe the conversion of King Ethelbert (you may wish to mention Queen Bertha, St. Augustine, Coifi).

French History.
      1. Write an account of (a), Clovis, (b),Charlemagne. (from a PNEU exam)
      2. Describe the coming of the Northmen. (from a PNEU exam)

Citizenship and Economics.
   1. What do you understand by humility? What is false humility? In what various ways should humility be shown?
   2. You are an economic advisor to the Queen. The Queen proposes to end poverty in her kingdom by ordering the royal coin-makers to create extra money. What problems might this cause? What do you advise?

Geography. Choose two of these three questions:
1. "There is nothing in Ely but the cathedral; and the cathedral is a lady." Explain.

2. "In a cosy vale is the village of Stiffkey.  It is a curious little village noted for its cockle women." Tell about the rest of H.V. Morton's visit here.

3. "Do you really? We had another song on the Wall: 'Old soldiers never die, never die, never die; old soldiers never die, they only sneeze awayee.'" Explain where this imaginary conversation took place and what it was about.

General Science

1. What are the three types of rock? Give one specific example of each.

         2. Explain and give examples of physical weathering, chemical weathering, erosion.

         3.  (question about dishwasher additives taken from Apologia General Science test booklet)

Architecture.
1. How would you recognize a Romanesque building? Can you describe or draw one?

Natural History.
1. Explain the differences and similarities between the amanita ("destroying angel") and the puffball; OR tell how you would identify poison ivy.

Picture Study.
   Describe Corot's "The Bridge at Mantes," OR another of his paintings that you like.

Arithmetic and Algebra.
    1. In the following expression, how many terms are there? And each term has how many factors? 2a + 4ab + 5a(b+c)
    2. How far would a train go in 15 hours at the rate of 48 km an hour? How many metres a minute does this train travel?
    3. Add according to the rules for adding terms. -6 + (-2) =

French.

(see attached page)

Drawing.
      1. A new book cover for Sigurd the Volsung or Lord of the Rings.
      2. Something you have observed on a nature walk.

Musical Appreciation.
      1. What do you know of madrigals?
      2. Describe a concert you have attended, including the instruments used and the type of music played.

Recitations.
      A hymn, a poem, or a scene from Shakespeare, and a passage from the Book of Romans.

Reading.
      Father to choose an unseen passsage, giving marks for enunciation. (PNEU exam)

In which we finish the fall term (Dollygirl's Grade Seven)

So how's it gong, Dollygirl?  Highs and lows?  Favourite subjects or books?  "Lord of the Rings, Balance Benders, handicrafts, and The Bronze Bow, most of it.  Geography is okay."

Not as good?  "Grammar, French, math except for Balance Benders."

What would you like to do more of?  "Algebra.  Arithmecode puzzles. Writing stories."

Today's school plans:

Poems (each one choose one)

Music history: "The Beginnings of Opera and the Rise of Instrumental Music."  "The time had come to link up music a good deal more closely with human affairs--human characters, moods, stories, situations--and to cause music to be an expression rather than merely a design.  Music moved towards plays and stories, and the result was the 'new music': the twin forms of opera and oratorio." (John Russell, A History of Music for Young People)

Play nature card game

Algebra: continue lesson on signed numbers, using TheMathPage.com

The Sword and the Circle (Rosemary Sutcliff)

Apologia General Science:  review physical and chemical weathering, read about erosion

Exam practice (written narrations)

Return of the King (continuing into next term)