What We Studied
While we didn’t completely stop all schooling, we did take it pretty easy this Christmas break. We did a lot of holiday related activities. Plus, we traveled to and from Indiana to visit a few family members. We are getting back at it today, but easing back in.
Literature and Poetry
We kept reading Scary Stories for Young Foxes: The City, but ultimately didn’t get very far. We were distracted by lots of picture books and the ones the boys got for Christmas. So lots of random reading, but not organized.
Scary Stories for Young Foxes: The City by Christian McKay Heidicker
Math
We mostly played some math games. Arthur also did some math in his independent packet.
Social Studies
No big unit, but Arthur did complete an entire Map Skills book (Grade 1). It was mostly review, but good practice.
Arthur Independent Time
To allow for one-on-one time with Quentin, I have added an hour of independent work time for Arthur. Each week, he will have a mix of packet work (mostly grammar and math review), independent reading time, and special projects. Many of his projects will be aligned with our literature selections (some taken from B&R Language Arts curriculum) and history. This week, he focused on packet work and some random building projects.
Science and STEAM Coop
No coop obviously. We did continue watching random PBS Eons videos, picking up some of the ones we missed and those set during the last Ice Age.
Art/Music
Nothing this week
Quentin
I have scheduled at least four 1-hour time blocks for one-on-one time with Quentin. I bought Blossom and Root’s Early Years Volume 2 curriculum to use as our base. I love the variety of activities and some of the bigger projects included.
ELA
High Five issues
Math
Other
Dinosaur Puzzle Book
Field Trip
Other than just traveling to Indiana, we didn’t really have any field trips. We’ve been laying fairly low due to the pandemic.
Documentary Selection
I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. We didn’t actually watch anything this week, but made up for it by all the PBS Eons videos for our dinosaur unit.
24 Days of Christmas Books - It’s become a tradition. I wrap packages of holiday books for each day of December until Christmas. We have a great group of books this year!
Christmas is Awesome by Sabrina Moyle
The Last Christmas Tree by Stephen Krensky
The Crayon's’ Christmas by Drew Daywalt
Christmas City by Michael Garland
Goodby Autumn, Hello Winter by Kenard Pak
Picture Books Read
Freedom Soup by Tami Charles
Can I Be Your Dog? by Troy Cummings
Beware of the Crocodile by Martin Jenkins
No by Claudia Rueda
No more Cuddles by Jane Chapman
The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers
Give Your Cat a Bath in Five Easy Steps by Nicola Winstanley
Bear Came Along by Richard T. Morris
Chez Bob by Bob Shea
Inside Cat by Brendan Wenzel
High
Beyond the usual Christmas Eve and Day fun, we loved hosting a Christmas party for the coop before we left. The kids did some art, decorated cookies, played bingo and pin the nose on the reindeer, and did hot chocolate tasting. it was chaotic fun!
Low
I anticipated that this would happen, but was still thrown off when the boys’ attitudes really fell off a cliff right after Christmas. We had a few really rough days and needed to get back into our school routine.
Next Week
Traveling to Polynesia for History
Reading more trickster tales and continuing our read aloud
Starting 3B for math
Covering famous Nebraskans and Iowans for coop
Exploring emotions for health
Beginning concentrated reading lessons for Quentin
Discovering Hokusai’s paintings and woodcuts
Next up on the TBR pile:
