At a Glance: April Subjects & Reading List

Daily

Bible

Beginner's Bible + narration

Memory Work

Children's Catechism (finished! & now over the summer we'll keep reviewing, asking random questions etc. to make sure every question and answer clearly go together)

Verse Memorization -- review & added Colossians 3:17

Psalm/hymn/songs of the week: 

Adam & Eve (Jamie Soles)

Patriarchs

Twelve Apostles

Poem: Spring Rain by Marchette Chute (not every day)

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

Phonics / Reading

Alpha-Phonics by Samuel L. Blumenfeld

Math

Saxon Math 1

Picture Books (English/Lit), alphabetically

A Fine Mouse Band by Cyndy Szekeres

A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle

All Things Bright and Beautiful illustrated by Jean Claude

Anytime Mapleson and the Hungry Bears by Mordicai Gerstein

Cozy by Jan Brett

Don't Forget to Remember by Ellie Holcomb

Fritz and the Beautiful Horses by Jan Brett

Goodnight Mr. Darcy by Kate Coombs

Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah Guarino

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen

Pancakes, Pancakes! by Eric Carle

Richard Scarry's Funniest Storybook Ever

Cherry blossoms in town

Rotating Subjects

Mondays (Art)

(Did have a lot going on this month, between dentist appointments and all sorts of other suchlike fun stuff, so a few of the weeks we didn't do water coloring and drawing practice, but we did get some in toward the end of the month; and what we did get in was very profitable from a character development perspective. We both learned a lot about pushing through hard things even when the picture isn't turning out as we envisaged -- which is something she talks about in the Drawing with Kids book. So those tips were really helpful.)

Katie and the Impressionists by James Mayhew

Katie and the Starry Night by James Mayhew

Katie's Sunday Afternoon by James Mayhew

Metropolitan Museum of Art: ABC

Classical listening:

Love this particular album. Slightly cumbersome on YT but worth it. It covers such a fascinating and particular sweep of time (very interesting to see which composers overlapped).

We broke it down over the month, so see individual weeks for all the time stamps, etc.: 

Tuesdays (Nature walk/study)

Picking a handful of dandelions and gleefully enjoying white petals blowing down on us like snow in the pet store parking lot

Driving up to town in a winter wonderland

Snow again(!), settling in a new parakeet

Picking and identifying yellow star tulips (Calochortus monophyllus)

Identified Scolopendra polymorpha blue and yellow centipede, drew a picture

Observed a hawk with a light front and dark back on the way to the airport

Took pictures under our white, cascading rosa banksiae

Found a fascinating wasp in bedroom

Watched black and yellow swallowtails (+ two others we weren't able to identify) on blooming yerba santa, drew pictures

Found a giant and memorable mushroom with Daddy (on a Sat adventure)

Wednesdays (Nature Book / Geography)

Slow Down by Rachel Williams (pg. 34-39: A Tadpole Becomes a Frog, Bluebells Transform a Woodland, A Mole Tops Up His Store of Earthworms)

Atlas of Ocean Adventures (pg. 18-19: Hammerheads, Cocos Islands)

Cocos Island documentary

Slow Down by Rachel Williams (pg. 40-45: A Sunflower Tracks the Sun, A Game of Cat and Mouse, A Shooting Star Lights Up the Night Sky)

Atlas of Ocean Adventures (pg. 20-21: Dancing with the Blue-Footed Boobies, Galapagos Islands)

Slow Down by Rachel Williams (pg. 46-49: A Snake Sheds Its Skin, Mushrooms Grow in a Forest)

Tales of the Mushroom Folk by Signe Aspelin

Atlas of Ocean Adventures (pg. 22-23: Sheltering with the Clownfish, Australia)

A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle (a favorite)

The following isn't narrated, but still recommend PG: 

(Thursday) Created an account on inaturalist and worked on identifying our wasp

Did a whole bunch of play with the continent maps / identifying flags and countries

Thursdays (Further English / Language / Myth)

Rhyme / Poetry

A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa (2 weeks)

All that is gold does not glitter by Tolkien

Favorite Nursery Rhymes from Mother Goose illustrated by Scott Gustafson (2 weeks)

Fairy tales:

Classic Fairy Tales by Gustafson: Rumplestiltskin, Cinderella, Three Little Pigs

Classic Bedtime Stories by Gustafson: Billy Goats Gruff, The Country Mouse and the City Mouse

Also 2015 Cinderella film & lots of Rescue Riders and How to Train Your Dragon (PG)

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.)