Morning Basket 2015-2016 :: Term 2

First, a note: I use the term "Morning Basket" to refer to all the work we do together as a family, even with the littles. Even though I call it Morning Basket for organizational purposes, it is really broken up into two parts: one done over breakfast, and the rest done at the end of our Naptime School block.  Our Morning Basket is still very much the same as we have done it for the past few years, so if you'd like to read more specifics about how it works for us, you can read about how we structure it and prior selections.

A look at our Morning Basket plans for Term 2 of this year...

Over Breakfast

Calendar Work - in English and Italian (daily)

Poetry - a poem from our poets for the term, Emily Dickinson for Year 4 and A.A. Milne for Year 1 (daily)

Short Reading - from one or more of the following:
:: Hillyer's A Child's Geography of the World (two chapters per week)
:: Hillyer's A Child's History of Art (section on Corot)
:: Flos Sanctorum (verses for the week based on the liturgical year)
:: The New St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism No. 1 (one section per week)
:: Amy Steedman's Legends of Italy (one chapter per week)
:: Amy Steedman's Read-Aloud Book of Bible Stories (New Testament chapters)
:: The Epistle of St. James from the Douay-Rheims Bible (bit by bit)

Read-Aloud - with any breakfast time I have left before the babies start fussing, I read from one of our scheduled read-alouds: Speare's The Sign of the Beaver and Moody's Little Britches.

In the Afternoon

Memory Work (daily) - includes review of that day's items from our memory "notebook" as well as time spent on our current selections:
:: Hymns - Dona Nobis Pacem (finishing up); St. Michael Prayer in chant; Veni Veni Emmanuel; Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
:: Folk Songs - The Ballad of Davy Crockett (finishing up); Red River Valley; Lavender's Blue
:: Bible - ongoing memorization of The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17), continuation of the infancy narrative from Luke 2 from last year
:: Prayers - O St. Joseph (finishing up); Apostles' Creed in Latin (just reviewing)
:: Poetry - For Cate, Stevenson's "The Cow" and poems of choice from Milne; For the Big Kids, "Evening, "The Book," "Summer Shower," and poems of choice from Dickinson
:: Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream 2.1 (Oberon's "I know a bank" speech)

We move on to a new selection once we have the previous selection memorized rather than on a regular schedule, so our plans are just that--plans.  I update our Memory Work index with the ones we cover as we go along.

Italian Memory Work (daily) - The older three and I cover new concepts, games, and conversation during naptime, but we usually do our Italian memory work with the littles around:
:: Rhymes - "I dodici mesi" from Filastrocche Italiane
:: Songs - "Silent Night" and "Jingle Bells" from Teach Me Everyday Italian
:: Series - "I am an active boy/girl!"

Picture Study on Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (once weekly) - two weeks for each piece, alternating between observation/narration and a picture sketch
:: Chartres Cathedral, 1830
:: A View Near Volterra, 1838
:: The Eel Gatherers, 1860-5
:: Orpheus Leading Eurydice, 1861
:: Man in Armour, 1868-1870 and The Letter, 1865
:: The Bridge at Nantes, 1868-1870
(very similar to AO's Corot selections)

Music Study on Franz Schubert (once weekly) - including attentive listening and discussion
:: Piano Quintet in A
:: Symphony No. 8
:: Ave Maria
:: Der Erlkoning and Heidenroslein
:: Die schone Mullerin
:: Symphony No. 9
(very similar to AO's Schubert selections)