What We Studied

We celebrated the last fun bits of autumn before the weather turned. Two last visits to Vala’s, a fun Halloween night, and more outdoor activities. We even managed to cover a ton of schoolwork in between the events.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur is primarily using Hearth and Story G5 for his language arts this year. We finished our Edgar Allan Poe collection. We also covered more grammar and extra language arts assignments.

• The Complete Stories of Edgar Allan Poe

• Poetry for Young People: Edgar Allan Poe

• Poetry for Young People: Carl Sandburg

Quentin is primarily using Blossom & Root G1 for his language arts this year. We will pull some elements from Build Your Library Level 2 and random books that we have around the house. We continued reading spooky stories and one-off Halloween themed books we have laying around the house.

• Poetry: Spectacular Science

• Poetry: The Alligator's Smile and Other Poems by Jane Yolen

• The Littlest Witch by Brandi Dougherty

• The Littlest Mummy by Brandi Dougherty

• Bonaparte Falls Apart by Margery Cuyler

• Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds

• A World Full of Spooky Stories by Angela McAllister

• The Little Old Lady Who was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams

• Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson

• In a Dark, Dark Room retold by Alvin Schwartz

• Write Shop B

Math

Arthur is using Singapore’s Math in Focus Course 1. Effectively this is Singapore’s 6th grade math text. Arthur focused on a chapter continuing his review of ratios. I do love how the chapter tied ratios to real-life situations. It wasn’t just random problems.

• Math in Focus Court 1 Book A

• EM Financial Literacy G5

Quentin is using Singapore’s Primary Mathematics Common Core edition 2B and 3A. He started with the lessons in 2B. I imagine that we will be slowing working through that this semester. Q continued sped through the chapter on data, getting close to finishing the entire textbook.

• Primarily Logic

• Singapore Primary Common Core 2B

• EM Financial Literacy G2

Social Studies

Arthur is using Curiosity Chronicles Early Modern History Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 this year. We covered the section on East Africa covering Ethiopia and Mutapa and N’dongo.

• Curiosity Chronicles Early Modern History Vol. 1

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• DK A Child Through Time

• Kings and Queens by Fiona Macdonald

Quentin is using History Quest Middle Times with Build Your Library Level 2 supporting. We moved onto a chapter covering Japan.

• History Quest Middle Times

• DK When on Earth?

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• DK A Child Through Time

• Kingfisher Atlas of the Medieval World

Science

Arthur is using RSO Biology 1 this year has the main science text. Our academic coop will also be using RSO Biology 1 as a basis for the fall semester course, so we will be just supplementing at home. We will also be doing some of Blossom & Root’s Book Seeds and various other small units in between. Arthur covered inheritance during co-op. We supplemented with some extra materials at home. We continued watching the documentary series One Strange Rock. We will continue watching sporadically throughout the fall. I’m counting this as science for kids.

• RSO Biology 1

• Genetics by Chrstine Petersen

• DNA and Heredity by Casey Rand

• The Secret Code Inside You: All About Your DNA by Rajani LaRocca

• The Code of Life: All About Genes, DNA, Genetic Engineering, and Why You are the Way You Are by Carla Hafner

• Story of Science Vol. 3 by Joy Hakim

Quentin is using RSO Earth & Environment and RSO Astronomy 1 as a base. Of course, we have a ton of extra science resources laying around the house. And I will be hosting some one-off science exploration days that align with the units. Q covered plate tectonics and changing earth. We watched an episode of One Strange Rock.

• RSO Earth and Environment

• DK First Earth Encyclopedia

• Earth by Quinn M. Arnold

• How Mountains are Made by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

• Fault Lines and Tectonic Plates by Kathleen M. Reilly

Academic Co-op

For math, Arthur did a Halloween project. Really math is all a review of him, but it’s good practice. In biology, they covered inheritance. In civics, we covered voting. And the kids started their election project.

Art and Music

Art will be very sporadic this year, but we do have some fun excursions planned. And I will incorporate art projects into a lot of other subjects and unit studies. We didn’t have a Harbor + Sprout module this week.

For music, we are using Music Lab: We Rock! as our spine. Each week we will be learning about a different rock musician and focus on a particular song. I have also created Spotify playlists so we can listen on the go. We got back to music covering Led Zeppelin. The boys really loved them.

• Music Lab: We Rock!

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

Field Trip/Activities

I hosted a rock and fossil exploration day at Schramm. I taught a little lesson about rocks and fossils. The kids then got to uncover gems, sort fossils, and explored at the Geologic Site. I think it was a big success! It is a lot to plan, but thankfully I don’t have another until January.

High

We got two more Vala’s visits in before the month ended. The last one was supposed to be our big campfire night. Unfortunately, the burn ban was still in effect so the campfire had to be canceled. We still met up with a group of homeschool friends and spent many hours having fun. It was tiring, but oh so much fun.

Low

Um… Halloween is over?

Next Week

• Slowing down to regroup

• Starting our new read alouds

• Finishing our next math chapters

• Completing our homework (A) from co-op

• Learning about North America (A) and Khmer Empire (Q) - history

• Listening to Jimi Hendrix, and more for music

Next up on the TBR pile: