What We Studied

Arthur started 4th grade and Quentin started 1st grade this Monday. Of course, I over scheduled us and overestimated how much curriculum we would actually get through. But the first week is always a time to learn our limits and our rhythms. We’ll get to a better schedule soon.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur began his literature and language arts journey by reading Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. We should finish next week. So far, we are really enjoying this story. And it’s amazingly easy to read out loud. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also started his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root. And finally, we started reading the coop book club selection.

• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Richard O’Brien

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Reading Explorer: Intro

• Wildoak by CC Harrington

Quentin started with a week of nursery rhymes and poetry. I didn’t want to dump him into a big chapter book, so we started easy. He also worked on some basic grammar.

• Mother Goose Collection

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Our Big Home by Linda Glaser

Math

Arthur began his math year with some review packets. We will start his next Singapore book next week or the week after. We’ll see how that goes. We also started our next logic book.

• Orbiting with Logic

Quentin jumped back into Singapore 1B to tackle multiplication and then division before we move on. Based on his work this week, we might take a small review break after finishing 1B and before beginning 2A. I’m still deciding. We also did start the next logic book. And we even put in a math game, Picnic Party.

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Singapore Common Core 1B

Social Studies

Arthur jumped back into BYL 6 and History Quest: US History starting at the beginning of the Civil War. We’ll be sprinkling in various historical fiction readers to reinforce the time periods.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History by Phillip Hoose

• Two Miserable Presidents by Steve Sheinkin

• Bull Run by Paul Fleischman

I held off Quentin’s formal history lessons for an introduction to the world and map skills.

• Follow that Map by Scot Ritchie

• A Child’s Introduction to the World by Heather Alexander

Science

Arthur is embarking upon RSO Chemistry this year. But before we officially start the curriculum, we are covering some basic Chemistry and Science lessons. Once we start the actual book, we will be doing the experiment portions with a group of coop friends. We also started the next Story of Science

• RSO Chemistry

• How to Think Like a Scientist by Stephen Kramer

• Notable Notebooks: Scientists and Their Writings by Jessica Fries-Gaither

• Story of Science Vol. 2: Newton at the Center by Joy Hakim

Quentin started RSO Life with a basic lesson defining life and thinking about science in a larger sense. He will also be engaging in various nature science lessons and explorations throughout the year.

• RSO Life

• Many: The Diversity of Life on Earth by Nicola Davies

• A Child’s Introduction to Natural History by Heather Alexander

• DK Supersimple Biology

STEAM Coop

We started with a great nature based lesson at Schramm State Recreation Area. We now have four different levels that we teach each week. Quentin is now in the young class, now known as the Running Rhinos. They learned about trees. Arthur is in the oldest class. They learned about foraging and edible plants.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

We actually started a joint art and music study. Our first week was all about introducing art in a general sense and the orchestra for music. Moving on, we will be choosing one artist and one composter/musician per week to learn a bit about.

• The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola

• Why is Art Full of Naked People by

• A Child’s Introduction to Art by Heather Alexander

• DK Music and How it Works

• The Story of the Incredible Orchestra by Bruce Koscielniak

• DK The Arts

• A Child’s Introduction to the Orchestra by Robert Levine

Field Trip

We had multiple nature excursions and a playground session this week. Two more nature hikes was just what we needed to get our year start right! One was at a favorite, Fontenelle Forest, and another was at the related nature area, Neale Woods. Our playground time was at a favorite close-by park. We’ll be back soon I imagine.

High

Our high was definitely the first week of coop! Except for a few direction hiccups for a few families, we had a very successful and smooth meeting. All the kids seemed to enjoy themselves.

Low

I over scheduled our curriculum for the week. Definitely need to reevaluate my plan of next week…

Next Week

• Continuing our plant study for coop

• Finishing Mrs. Frisby

• Moving forward with our study of the Civil War

• Starting Singapore 5A?

• Reading a lot Mo Willems books

• Covering the basics of division

• Admiring Frida Kahlo’s art

• Listening to Ali Farka Toure’s music

Next up on the TBR pile: