I hope everyone had a great weekend and that you all fared well in the storms and flooding this past week. Thankfully God has blessed us with beautiful weather to start this new week. Here are the updates for this week.
6th Religion
The last couple of weeks we have been focusing on Abraham, but now we are moving on to the next generation, his son Isaac. We will look at Isaac meeting his wife Rebekah, and the fiasco that ensued many years later when it was time to bless his sons. The main theme of these lessons is the importance of trusting in God’s plans and the fact that He will always forgive us when we repent. The memory verse for this week is Psalm 121:8.
6th Social Studies
In social studies we are moving on from prehistory to the first civilization, Mesopotamia, which happens to be the homeland of Abraham. We will look at the characteristics of this civilization, the first fictional story, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the world’s first writing system, cuneiform. On Friday, the students will get to try writing in cuneiform on clay tablets, just like the Mesopotamian scribes.
7th Religion
On Monday, the students will present their projects comparing and contrasting Christianity to some of the world’s other religions. Then, we will look at how God’s Word is preserved through the story of creation. The memory verse this week is John 20:31.
7th Social Studies
To start this week, the students will complete and present their holiday projects. On Wednesday, we will begin Topic 2, which will focus on the various European countries exploring and colonizing the Americas. We will start with the Spanish explorers and the move on to the French, Dutch, and early English explorers.
8th Religion
This week we will begin learning about Isaac, Abraham’s son. We will look at how his almost sacrifice foreshadows Jesus’ sacrifice, and then we will study how faith in God’s plans was essential in Isaac meeting his wife Rebekah. The memory verse for this week is Galatians 3:26, 29.
8th Social Studies
The students will be reviewing for their Civil War test on Wednesday, and then we will begin the early days of Reconstruction, which unfortunately derailed due to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. While we can’t change the past, it is interesting to speculate what might have been different had Lincoln lived and provided the leadership the nation needed.