Holy Protection Homeschool Co-op

Have a blessed New Year, everyone!

The end of summer is a time of new beginnings--the new school year begins, the agricultural world takes a deep breath as the harvest is over, and Friday, September 1st, is the first day of the liturgical year for the Orthodox Church.

As we head into shorter days, may our hearts be filled with gratitude, as in these lines from the Akathist of Thanksgiving:

“Glory to You for calling me into being; glory to You, showing me the beauty of the universe.

Glory to You, spreading out before me heaven and earth, like the pages in a book of eternal wisdom.

Glory to You for Your eternity in this fleeting world; glory to Your for Your mercies, seen and unseen.

Glory to You through every sigh of my sorrow; glory to You for every step of my life’s journey, for every moment of glory.

Glory to Thee, O God, from age to age!”

(Image taken from our Beautiful Days coloring book, available in the Ancient Faith Store here: https://store.ancientfaith.com/beautiful-days-an-orthodox-coloring-book-for-children/ )

Starting the year off right, with a liturgy for the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist and the hope in the new liturgical year and having our first classes in Greek, literature, history and Byzantine music.

Do you know what King Arthur’s legend, a short story by George Youannou, Romeo and Juliet, O Heavely King, and Acts of the Apostles have in common? With the Pentecost approaching, as an end of year activity, the kids explored an Escape Room activity that led to discussions around biblical allusions in literature across genres, the centrality of the Liturgical year across Christendom in generations past, as well as our continued communion with our ancestors and ancestral legacy.

If you are interested in our program, please let us know and fill out the following form: https://form.jotform.com/231428506497159

Today, we learned three more Byzantine notation marks, we cooked with our own vegetables, talked about author’s purpose and made theatrical choices, matched vocabulary in French and took care of the garden and church grounds. As always we started and ended the day in prayer ❤️

At the beginning of spring, the kids helped father Iulian plant the garden. Now they get to see the fruits of their labor. Not just that, but they get to use what they grew to cook their breakfast and lunch, and beyond the garden they help take care of the grounds of the church.

Because sometimes working on the floor makes more sense❣️

Trip to the museum and trying our hand at crafts.

The globe is in French... No problem! We can practice our cognates!

April 5th, 2023:

Thank you for participating yesterday. We explored the master mason myth by reading excerpts of the ballad of Master Mason Manole. We discussed rime, the theme of sacrifice for creation, parallels with martyrdom and relics and the building of churches. In French we reviewed elements of French culture, greetings, the alphabet and learned vocabulary related to gardening. In the garden, we made discussed the relationship between humans and a garden and read the life of st Phocas. In Byzantine chant we practiced the scale and reading ison and apostrophos.

In Greek we worked on practicing reading and explored familiar scriptural text to give us confidence in our reading, learned about articles and pronouns.

April 25th, 2023:

Today we read a folk tale from Lebanon called the Tail of St George’s Dragon, we talked about st George, the hero archetype vs. the saints, we analyzed tall tales and the two characters in our story. In French and Greek we practiced what we learned already and learned new vocabulary. In Gardening we talked about the Sisters from Noah’s time olive trees and started a nature journal the kids will complete with reflection on the plants they are harvesting in our garden and a proleptic view 100 years from now, how they see the garden for their children’s children.