What We Studied

Another combo post of a Flex Week and the regular week. These Flex Weeks are really working out well for my compulsion to schedule and check off boxes. We fit in a few activities but also a lot of relaxing time at time following a few appointments.

Literature and Poetry

We started Howl’s Moving Castle as our next main read aloud. Of course, we are still continuing our creation stories and our Nature Poetry. We have been reading a collection of scary stories before bed each night. Arthur and I started The Westing Game, our coop book club selection. We need to read it quickly as the meeting is on Tuesday night.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

• Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

• The Cabinet of Curiosities

• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

Quentin focused on reading animal stories from around the world. I’m trying to line them up with our continents as we move across the world. We started Europe and covered stories from Scandinavia. We also started and finished the My Father’s Dragon collection. Q really liked it, so I call is a success.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett

• Fox and the Jumping Contest by Corey R. Tabor (Quentin reads)

• The Mystery of the Dragon Eggs by Maggie Testa (Quentin reads)

• Sir Ladybug by Corey R. Tabor (Quentin Read)

• FriendBots: Blink and Block Bug Each Other by Vicky Fang (Quentin Read)

• Fox is Late by Corey R. Tabor (Quentin Read)

• Ola by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire

• The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Jerry Pinkney

• Agnes's Place by Marit Larsen

• The Troll with No Heart in His Body and Other Tales of Trolls, from Norway by Lise Lunge-Larsen

• D'Aulaires' Book of Norwegian Folktales

• The Pancake Boy by Lorinda Byran Cauley

• The Dragon's Hoard by Lari Don

• Master Maid: A Tale of Norway by Aaron Shepard

• Nat Geo Treasury of Norse Mythology

• The Most Beautiful Story by Brynjulf June Tjønn and Øyvind Torseter

• Boots and His Brothers by Eric A. Kimmel

• The Kalevala: Tales of Magic and Adventure

• The Princess Mouse by Aaron Shepard

• A Little Bitty Man and Other Poems for the Very Young by Halfdan Rasmussen

• Fat Cat by Margaret Read MacDonald

• The Whispering Town by Jennifer Elvgren

• Coffee Rabbit Snowdrop Lost by Betina Birkjær

• Hans Christian Andersen: The Journey of His Life by Heinz Janisch

• The Mouse Bride by Linda Allen

• The Sinking of the Vasa by Russell Freedman

• Now that Night is Near by Astrid Lindgren

• The Little Old Woman and the Hungry Cat by Nancy Polette

Math

For both boys, we have scheduled math for three days a week. One day is focused on logic, games, puzzles, and special projects. The two other days are focused on covering the main math curriculum (Singapore 4A and 4B for Arthur and Singapore 1A and 1B for Quentin). We played a lot of math packet catch-up this week. We had been pushing hard and it was nice to slow down a bit and work on mastery of skills. I also pulled out the Autumn tangrams to play with on a rainy day. The boys always love when I pull those out and it helps them work on their spatial relations.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4A

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Smart Start Math Grade 1

Social Studies

Arthur continued his large study of United States history using a combination of Build Your Library Level 5 and History Quest United States History. We moved onto the Plymouth colony and the settlement of New England. We’re slowing moving through the timeline, but it’s a good pace for us.

• A Kid’s Guide to Native American History by Yvonne Wakim Dennis

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

• What the Eagle Sees: Indigenous Stories of Rebellion and Renewal by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We did an overview of Europe and moved into the Scandinavian countries. We even had an Atlas Crate for Sweden, so extra fun was had.

• Skill Sharpeners Geography Grade K

• Nat Geo Beginner’s World Atlas

• DK Countries of the World

• DK Children Just Like Me

• DK Children Just Like Me; A School Like Mine

• D is for Dala Horse: A Nordic Countries Alphabet by Kathy-jo Wargin

Arthur Independent Time

We are working on following a checklist in a planner for weekly independent work. There’s usually some math workbook pages, an ELA packet, weekly writing prompts (1-2 times a week), independent reading time, and a special creative project. There has been many drawing projects lately.

Science

Arthur is focusing on Physics this year. We are covering the text and related videos at home and then joining friends for experiments and extra projects. We covered wheels and axles.

• RSO Physics

• The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way by Joy Hakim

• The Way Things Work Now

• Wheels and Cranks by David Glover

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We did just a little overview of the animals of Europe.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

STEAM Coop

We had a very strange two weeks of coop. The first week, Arthur finished up the Telecommunications unit. Unfortunately things conspired against the middles and littles and so we pivoted to show and tell and board games. The kids still got some time to socialize and see their friends. The second week, I had a dentist appointment and the kids weren’t feeling great, so we skipped coop that week.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking

We’re planning one doing on art project and one cooking project each week as well as picking a composer or musician to listen to and enjoy. This week music just didn’t happen. But that’s okay. Arthur’s continued with the Outschool drawing class. He made a great picture of a dolphin and sea turtle and one of a sparrow. He is really loving this class and it’s really keeping up his skills.

Field Trip

We ventured out on the coldest day of the year so far (25 degrees!) to Arbor Day Farm. We spent all day there exploring nature and hanging out with some friends. it was very chilly, but we did have a good day.

We also had a virtual park ranger program where a Park Ranger from Petrified Forest talked to the kids about the National Parks and specifically her park. It was a good hour discussion. And we got to stay home and enjoy the program from our couch. Extra win!

High

• We hit Vala’s three times to get the most out of our season passes. Monday was rough as it was raining the entire time, but we redeemed ourselves with Friday’s visit. We hit all our favorite places and enjoyed lots of treats. Loved it!

• On the general life front: The kids finally got access to the bivalent COVID booster. A small worry taken off my plate for this season. And the boys had their regular dentist appointment with no issues. They’ll be back in 6 months.

Low

• Rainy and cold on our field trip days messed up our flow. And the kids had a touch of a cold, so that wasn’t fun.

Next Week

• Finishing Howl’s Moving Castle (A)

• Moving to the French, Dutch, and Spanish settlements for US History (A)

• Moving to pulleys for Physics (A)

• Covering Western Europe for social studies and science (Q)

• Reading some Halloween themed books (Q)

• Covering genetics, (A) and anatomy (Q) for coop

Next up on the TBR pile: