At a Glance: March Subjects & Reading List

Peach blossoms

Note: this turned into a really long post (what with all the links, etc.), but I DON'T mean it to look intimidating or overwhelming. (In case anyone's looking for ideas and having that reaction; which, if you could see my list of yet undone projects -- including spring cleaning etc. etc. -- would be very hilarious. Just trust me on that. xD) Bear in mind this is an entire month's study, so poetry (to take one category as a for instance) is about 5-10 minutes every Thursday. The picture book list is broken down to one or two a day. Hopefully that all makes sense! In the future, I may find it makes more sense to post weekly. We shall see. ;)

Daily

Bible

Found The Children's Bible from Golden Press still pretty challenging to start narration, so going super simple by revisiting The Beginner's Bible (which we've already read through in the past). Anyway, MUCH better and narration has been going excellently. Plan to revisit The Children's Bible later in the year.

Memory Work

Children's Catechism

Verse Memorization -- I John 1:9

Psalm/hymn/song of the week: 

Rejoice in the Lord Always (slowed down the tempo)

I'm in the Lord's Army

Onward Christian Soldiers 

Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted (for Good Friday; not memory work)

He was cut off out of the land of the living

But Thou Didst Not Leave His Soul in Hell (for Resurrection Day; not memory work)

I know that my Redeemer liveth

Poem: Spring Rain by Marchette Chute

Other memory work: name, age, address, parents names, where Daddy works

Phonics / Reading

Alpha-Phonics by Samuel L. Blumenfeld

Math

Saxon Math 1

Picture Books (English/Lit), alphabetically

A is for Annabelle: A Doll's Alphabet by Tasha Tudor

A Farmer Boy Birthday adapted from Laura Ingalls Wilder

Angus and the Ducks by Marjorie Flack

Annie and the Wild Animals by Jan Brett

Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina

Cozy by Jan Brett

Dahlia by Barbara McClintock

Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and the Three Kittens by Maj Lindman

Flicka, Ricka, Dicka Bake a Cake by Maj Lindman

Freight Train by Donald Crews

If Once You Have Slept on an Island by Rachel Field

Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

Mr. Gumpy's Motorcar by John Burningham

Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran

The Big Alfie and Annie Rose Storybook by Shirley Hughes

The Brave Cowboy by Joan Walsh Anglund

The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper

The Nursery Collection (Bathwater's Hot, When We Went to the Park, Colors, All Shapes and Sizes, Noisy) by Shirley Hughes

Tuesday by David Wiesner

Ten Ways to Hear Snow by Cathy Camper

Plum blossoms on our Anne of Green Gables tree

Rotating Subjects

Mondays (Art)

Katie and the Sunflowers by James Mayhew

Katie's Picture Show by James Mayhew

Meet the Orchestra by Ann Hayes

You Can't Take a Balloon Into the Museum of Fine Arts

(Water coloring and Drawing with Kids exercises, etc.)

Classical-ish listening:

The Four Seasons: Winter by Vivaldi

O Sole Mio (The Three Tenors)

1812 Overture (Full with Cannons) by Tchaikovsky

How to Train Your Dragon Theme (Krakow Film Festival)

Hungarian Dances No. 5 & 6 by Brahms, conducted by Maciej Tomasiewicz

(also an excellent video for introducing the different orchestra instruments)

Swan Lake Suite, conducted by Sylwia Anna Janiak-Kobylinska

Tuesdays (Nature walk/study)

Vet visit / park adventure / Pooh sticks

Gathered flowers and clover leaves

Observed and looked up cumulous clouds, then discussed and practiced drawing them

Examined and compared peach and plum blossoms / watched a tiny fly sucking plum sap with its proboscis

Nature foraging walks: picked out flowers to watercolor, identifying poison oak, saw wild yellow clematis buds

Wednesdays (Nature Book / Geography)

Sunrises & Sunsets dvd

Slow Down by Rachel Williams (pg. 10-17: A Spider Weaves a Web, The Dawn Chorus Performs, A Thunderstorm on a Summer's Day, A Squirrel Buries an Acorn in Autumn and Digs It Up Again in Winter)

Atlas of Ocean Adventures (pg. 8-11: Pacific Ocean; Spinner Dolphins, Hawaii)

Spinner dolphin videos on YT

(ran across another longer one that's probably great, too, but saving it to check out later...)

Slow Down by Rachel Williams (pg. 18-21: A Bat Goes Hunting at Night, A Rainbow Appears)

Atlas of Ocean Adventures (pg. 12-13: Leatherback Sea Turtles)

Studied continent placemats

Slow Down by Rachel Williams (pg. 22-27: A Fox Eats Berries from a Bush, A Snowflake Falls, Mama and Papa Birds Feed Their Babies)

Atlas of Ocean Adventures (pg. 14-15: Otters)

Slow Down by Rachel Williams (pg. 28-33: A Honeybee Hive Gets to Work, The Moon Waxes... and Wanes, An Ocean Wave Forms)

Atlas of Ocean Adventures (pg. 16-17: Lanternfish)

Ticket to Ride: USA

Thursdays (Further English / Language / Myth)

Cursive handwriting

Lower and uppercase B's

Lower and uppercase C's

Rhyme / Poetry

Absolutely love this first one. <3 (Including in its entirety because it's so hard to find.)

A March Glee by John Burroughs

"I hear the wild geese honking

From out the misty night,—

A sound of moving armies

On-sweeping in their might;

The river ice is drifting

Beneath their northward flight.

I hear the bluebird plaintive

From out the morning sky,

Or see his wings a-twinkle

That with the azure vie;

No other bird more welcome,

No more prophetic cry.

I hear the sparrow's ditty

Anear my study door;

A simple song of gladness

That winter days are o'er

My heart is singing with him,

I love him more and more.

I hear the starling fluting

His liquid "O-ka-lee;"

I hear the downy drumming,

His vernal reveillé;

From out the maple orchard

The nuthatch calls to me.

Oh, spring is surely coming.

Her couriers fill the air;

Each morn are new arrivals,

Each night her ways prepare;

I scent her fragrant garments,

Her foot is on the stair."

A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa

A Small Child's Book of Cozy Poems illustrated by Cyndy Szekeres

Fairy tales:

Classic Fairy Tales by Scott Gustafson: Tom Thumb, Hansel and Gretel, The Frog Prince

Walt Disney's Cinderella (vintage from Random House)

Note: in general, we're currently tracking along with the curricula outline from Veritas Press (swapping out a few of the resources) + trying to consistently add in Charlotte Mason inspired material/subjects (narration, nature study, poetry...) plus, of course, some additional important-to-our-family subjects (creation science, etc.)