What We Studied

Another week full of activities that impeded on our book work. We managed to find two mornings to focus on book work. In looking at the next week, we’re going to have the same thing happen. Oh well. Right now we’re all about the activities.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur is all in with reading Tristan Strong Destroys the World. It’s number two in the series. B&R has the first book in its curriculum for grade 4, but we’ve already read it. So I’m just adapting. We are enjoying this sequel. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root.

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Reading Explorer: Intro

• Tristan Strong Destroys the World by Kwame Mbalia

Quentin read books about bats in honor of our coop themes and the time of the year. He also worked on some basic grammar.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Fairy Tales Collection

• The Other Side of the Story

• Mr. Bat Wants a Hat by Kitty Black

• Amara and the Bats by Emma Reynolds

• I Am Bat by Morag Hood

• The Bat Book by Charlotte Milner

• Bat Colonies by Karen Latchana Kenney

• Bat Count by Anna Forrester

• Bats Biggest! Littlest! by Sandra Markle

• Bats in the Band by Brian Lies

• Bats at the Ballgame by Brian Lies

• Bats at the Library by Brian Lies

• Good Night, Bat! Good Morning, Squirrel! by Paul Meisel

• Little Bat in Night School by Brian Lies

• It's Raining Bats and Frogs by Rebecca Colby

Math

Arthur continued to dive into Singapore 5A. We are definitely going to slow down our math lessons a bit to make sure that Arthur achieves mastery. These past weeks, the units were very much a review of decimals and fractions. We also continued our next logic book.

• Singapore Common Core 5A

• Orbiting with Logic

Quentin continued with the Tinkeractive Math Book and worked through about a third of it this week. We’re all about review right now. I don’t anticipate starting Singapore 2A until January. We also continued our logic book.

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Tinkeractive Math Grade 1

Social Studies

Arthur covered the beginning of the immigration unit with a discussion of the waves before and right after the Civil War.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History

• Words that Build a Nation

• Heart and Soul

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

• This is Our Land: A History of American Immigration

• Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park

Quentin finished exploring Egypt. We focused on daily life and the myths and stories. Next week, we’ll move on to Mesoamerica. So much to learn and explore!

• History Quest Early Times

• DK When on Earth?

• Human Wold

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK A Child Through Time

• A History of Western Art

• DK Science Year by Year

• DK Myths, Legends, and Sacred Stories

• Ancient Worlds by Miranda Smith

• Nat Geo Investigates: Ancient Egypt by Jill Rubalcaba

• Egypt in Spectacular Cross Section

• Ancient Egypt by Jinny Johnson

• DK Eyewitness Ancient Egypt

• Hieroglyphs by Joyce Milton

• What Did the Ancient Egyptians Do for Me? by Patrick Catel

• Tales of Ancient Egypt by Roger Lancelyn Green

Science

Arthur learned about Periodic Groups this week. We did an experiment about the difference Sodium and Potassium.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

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

• DK The Elements

Quentin got back into RSO Life with a unit on Arthropods and specifically arachnids. Q really got into spiders!

• RSO Life

• DK Oversimple Biology

• Are You a Spider by Judy Allen

• Frank the Seven-Legged Spider by Michaele Razi

• The Spider and the Fly by Mary Howl

• Spiders! Strange and Wonderful by Laurence Pringle

• The Eeensy Weensy Spider Freaks Out by Troy Cummings

STEAM Coop

Arthur continued his exploration of board games. By the end of the six weeks, the kids will have created their own board games. We learned about the elements of games and created a rough and dirty race-to-the-end game as an example. Quentin’s class finished their theme on government.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

None this week. Maybe next week…

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

• Modern Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw

• 13 American Artists Children Should Know

• A Child's Introduction to Art

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotofsky

• We are Artists by Kari Herbert

Field Trip

We had a field trip planned for Tuesday, but it completely fell apart at the last minute. The boys and I pivoted and went to one of the new parks. We played for a few hours before continuing with our planned day.

On Wednesday, we got to participate in DoSpace’s STEM Day. The kids cycled through four different topics and projects through the morning. They learned about hydroponics, rockets, robots, and DNA. The logistics were a little messy, but we had a good time.

High

We had a successful meeting with a new coop family coupled with the boys playing a few board games with their friend. We followed that up with a board game meet-up with some coop friends.

Low

A friend started a Pokemon group. We went, but it was so draining for me. I know the boys had fun, but my goodness, I was so tired afterward. Hopefully this will get better as the kids really learned to play.

Next Week

• Finishing Tristan Strong?

• Covering more classic tales

• Reviewing multiplying and dividing fractions (A)

• Lots of math review (Q)

• Move to Meosamerica for Q’s History

• Moving into industrialization for A’s History

• Covering more of the Periodic Table

Next up on the TBR pile: