Objective: The student can restate the relationship between freedom, virtue, and grace, and pray for the grace to use freedom well.
A short review of Day 1's catechism. We learned that virtue is a good habit built with practice, that grace is God's free help, and that true freedom is the power to do the good — not merely to do whatever we want. Pray together a simple prayer: ask the Holy Spirit for the grace to grow in one virtue this week and to use your freedom responsibly. Recall the memory line: 'Freedom is not the power to do whatever we want, but the power to do the good we ought.'
1Which virtue do you most want to grow in this Eastertide, and why?
Activity
Pray briefly for the grace to grow in one chosen virtue; write that virtue at the top of today's page.
Freedom is the power to do the good we ought.
Memory Work
Keep to 5 minutes; this is review and prayer.
Grammar20 min
Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers
Objective: The student can identify and correct misplaced and dangling modifiers so that descriptions clearly attach to the right word.
A modifier is a word or phrase that describes another part of a sentence. The rule is simple but easily broken: a modifier should sit right next to the word it modifies. When it doesn't, you get confusion — or comedy.
MISPLACED MODIFIER: the modifier is in the sentence but in the wrong spot, so it seems to describe the wrong thing. 'She almost drove the children to school every day' (did she ALMOST drive them — meaning she didn't?) vs. 'She drove the children to school almost every day.' Fix it by moving the modifier next to what it describes.
DANGLING MODIFIER: the word the modifier is supposed to describe is missing entirely, so the modifier 'dangles' with nothing to attach to. 'Walking into the convention hall, the heat was overwhelming.' (The heat wasn't walking!) Fix it by naming the right subject: 'Walking into the convention hall, the delegates found the heat overwhelming.'
The cure for both is the same: make sure the thing being described is actually present in the sentence AND sits next to its modifier. Read your sentences asking, 'Who or what is doing this? Is that word right beside the description?'
1Why are dangling modifiers often accidentally funny?
2What single question can you ask to catch most modifier errors?
Activity
Rewrite the five sentences below to fix the misplaced or dangling modifier.
Vocabulary
misplaced modifier
A modifier positioned so it seems to describe the wrong word.
dangling modifier
A modifier whose intended subject is missing from the sentence.
Keep the modifier next to the word it modifies — and make sure that word is actually there.
Memory Work
PRACTICE ITEMS (fix the modifier): (1) 'Signing the Constitution, the room was tense.' (2) 'The delegate argued for the amendment wearing a powdered wig.' (3) 'Rushing to finish, the document was full of compromises.' (4) 'Madison only wrote about the new government, nothing else.' (5) 'Covered in dust, the historian found the old draft.'
ANSWER KEY (one good fix each): (1) 'Signing the Constitution, the delegates felt the room grow tense.' (OR 'As the delegates signed the Constitution, the room was tense.') (2) 'Wearing a powdered wig, the delegate argued for the amendment.' (3) 'Rushing to finish, the delegates produced a document full of compromises.' (4) 'Madison wrote ONLY about the new government, nothing else.' (5) 'The historian found the old draft covered in dust.' Accept any rewrite that places the modifier beside the correct, present subject.
Geography30 min
The New United States and Revolutionary France
Objective: The student can draw the early United States (the original states plus the Northwest Territory) and locate revolutionary France with its new departments.
Two maps tell this week's story of two revolutions. First, the new United States in the 1780s-90s. The thirteen states ran down the Atlantic coast, but the young nation also claimed a vast wilderness beyond the Appalachian Mountains, stretching to the Mississippi River. The Northwest Ordinance (1787) organized the land north of the Ohio River — the 'Northwest Territory,' which would become Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin — and set the rule that new lands would enter the Union as equal states, not colonies. This was a quiet but profound decision: America would GROW by adding self-governing states, not by ruling subject provinces.
Second, revolutionary France. The old France was a patchwork of provinces with ancient names, tangled boundaries, and local privileges. The Revolution, in its passion for reason and equality, swept this away and redrew the whole country into roughly equal 'departments' (départements), named after rivers and mountains rather than feudal lords, each governed the same way from Paris. It was the Revolution's tidy, rational map-making — the same impulse that renamed the months. The two maps reveal the two revolutions' spirits: America added balanced new states to a federal union; France erased the past and imposed uniform order from the center.
1Why was it so important that new western lands would become equal STATES, not subject colonies?
2What does France's redrawing of provinces into uniform 'departments' tell you about the Revolution's mindset?
Activity
On a blank US outline, label the original thirteen states and shade the Northwest Territory (the land north of the Ohio River to the Great Lakes). Add the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. Then, on a small sketch of France beside it, write one note explaining how the Revolution reorganized France into 'departments.'
Vocabulary
Northwest Territory
The US land north of the Ohio River, organized by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.
department (département)
One of the uniform administrative districts into which revolutionary France was divided.
America grew by adding equal states (Northwest Ordinance, 1787); France erased its provinces and imposed uniform departments.
Memory Work
Prep: print a blank US outline. The France sketch can be rough — the point is the contrast in approach, not cartographic precision. Help locate the Ohio River and the Great Lakes for the Northwest Territory.
Wrap-Up5 min
Notebook Wrap
Objective: The student consolidates the skills day.
Finish your corrected modifier sentences and your two maps. Write one sentence: how do the two maps (America's growing union vs. France's redrawn departments) reflect the two revolutions' different spirits?
Activity
Complete the maps and grammar work; write the reflection.