What We Studied

It felt like a weird week, but we did manage to get a good chunk of schooling done.

Literature and Poetry

A new read aloud was started this week. Arthur is enjoying the humor and parts about friendships. A plus is that it’s easy to read aloud. I like it when the prose flows.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

• Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling

• The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

• Behind the Mask: A Book About Prepositions by Ruth Heller

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 continued Europe and covered stories from the France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and The Netherlands. We also started reading The Children of Noisy Village by the author of Pippi Longstocking. it’s like a collection of vignettes.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• The Children of Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• Mel Fell by Corey R. Tabor (Quentin Reads)

• How to Become a Knigth by Todd Tarpley

• If You Find a Leaf by Aimee Sicuro

• The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot by Alice and Martin Provensen

• The Cat Who Walked Across France by Katy Banks

• Henri's Scissors by Jeanette Winter

• Up and Away! How Two Brothers Invented the Hot Air Balloon by Jason Henry

• Three Perfect Peaches by Cynthia DeFelice and Mary DeMarsh

• I, Crocodile by Fred Marcellino

• Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans

• Adele & Simon by Barbara McClintock

• Mornings with Monet by Barb Rosenstock

• Three Sacks of Truth by Eric A. Kimmel

• The Twelve Dancing Princesses by The Brothers Grimm

• The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Lisbeth Zwerger

• Hansel & Gretel by Holly Hobbie

• The Star Child by The Brothers Grimm

• The Bremen Town Musicians by Doris Orgel

• Mother Holly by Bernadette Watts

• Iron Hans by Stephen Mitchell

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). Arthur officially finished 4A, so we’ve been doing some review before we start 4B in December.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• 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 covered the growth of the English colonies, touched on the other European colonies, and explored the start of slavery.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• The Winter People by Joseph Bruchac

• Map Skills for Today Grade 3

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We moved onto studying France, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Austria.

• 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

• E is for Eiffel Tower by Helen L. Wilbur

• Follow Me Around France by Wiley Blevins

• Linnea in Monet’s Garden by Christina Björk and Lena Anderson

• Pedal Power: How One Community Became the Bicycle Capital of the World by Allan Drummond

• Windmill De Kat by Hyo-mi Park

• Follow Me Around Germany by Wiley Blevins

• Neuschwanstein Castle by Grace Hansen

• Out of the Shadows: How Lotte Reiniger Made the First Animated Fairy Tale Movie by Fiona Robinson

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 pulleys this week. I bought a great construction kit that builds 26 different simple machines.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

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’re back to coop after our absence week. Arthur continued with genetics. The kids learned about genotypes and phenotypes and played with Punnett squares. Quentin explored renewable energy.

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. This week’s animal was a koala and its baby.

Field Trip

We didn’t have a field trip this week at all. We did attempt to have a park afternoon, but it started raining pretty much as soon as we got there.

High

• Not school related, but we had a great playdate on Saturday with a friend that we hadn’t seen for awhile. We need to so it again soon.

Low

• There was a general feeling of apathy this week. Not great energy at all.

Next Week

• Continuing our new read aloud (A)

• Moving to the French and Indian War for US History (A)

• Taking a break from physics to explore the printing press and printmaking (A)

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

• Covering genetics, (A) and renewable energy (Q) for coop

Next up on the TBR pile: