What We Studied

J left for a work trip from Wednesday to Friday, which always makes our week feel a bit strange. The theme of the week was lazy schooling. We get our usual outings (science and coop), but also spent a ton of time schooling on the couch. Works for me!

Literature and Poetry

Arthur and I finished our current read aloud. He really liked the humor and the friendship bits. I might pick up the sequel for him to read independently.

• 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

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 Portugal, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and Greece. We also finished reading The Children of Noisy Village by the author of Pippi Longstocking. it’s like a collection of vignettes. I don’t think I was a big fan of the book. I don’t think Q really liked it either. The stories were a bit too old-fashioned for us, which makes sense as it was written in 1946.

• 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

• Fox and the Bike Ride by Corey R. Tabor

• Snail Crossing by Corey R. Tabor (Quentin Read)

• Three Golden Oranges by Alma Flora Ada

• The Key from Spain by Debbie Levy

• Princess Florecita and the Iron Shoes by John Warren Stewing

• The Beautiful Butterfly by Judy Sierra

• Gabriella's Song by Candace Fleming

• Caterina: The Clever Farm Girl by Julienne Peterson

• Priceless Gifts by Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss

• Count Silvernose by Eric A. Kimmel

• The Music of Life: Bartolomeo Cristofori and the Invention of the Piano by Elizabeth Rusch

• Tony's Bread by Tomie dePaola

• Papa Gatto by Ruth Sanderson

• Night Circus by Etienne Delessert

• Two Brothers, Four Hands: The Artists Alberto and Diego Giacometti by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan

• A Tale of Two Brothers by Eveline Hasler

• The Orphan: A Cinderella Story from Greece by Anthony L. Manna and Soula Mitakidou

• The Librarian Who measured the Earth by Kathryn Lasky

• Greek Myths: Three Heroic Tales by Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden

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 ended up not getting to history this past week, which it totally okay. We will catch up next week.

• 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

• Map Skills for Today Grade 3

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We moved onto studying Portugal, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and Greece.

• 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

• All Around the World: Spain by Kristine Spanier

• Alcazar Castle by Grace Hansen

• Barcelona City Trails by Moira Butterfield

• Gaudi: Architect of Imagination by Susan B. Katz

• Just Being Dali: The Story of Artist Salvador Dali by Amy Guglielmo

• C is for Ciao: An Italy Alphabet by Elissa D. Grodin and Mario M. Cuomo

• Living in Italy by Chloe Perkins

• Cool Italian Cooking by Lisa Wagner

• Follow Me Around Italy by Wiley Blevins

• Follow Me Around Greece by Anna T. Tabachnik

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 took a bit of a break from Physics to explore paper making and print making. The boys even got to make their own homemade paper. After thinking about it, we’re going to recycle (heehee) that idea for coop for spring.

• 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 a study of the animals of the Alps.

• 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 explored mitosis and extracted DNA from strawberries. Quentin explored renewable energy and made a solar lantern.

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 dog.

Field Trip

On Monday, we visited the SAC Museum. The kids got a private tour and two lessons (planes and rockets) before free play. Quentin’s paper plane flew the farthest so he won a prize. He was very excited to win something. The kids enjoyed the day the museum with their friends.

High

• I somehow took the kids by myself to Music Bingo on Wednesday night. Except for one little meltdown from Q, we had fun. I won and Arthur won. Q didn’t win, but some random guy gave Q his prize (it was a Mulan coloring set). Overall, we had a good evening at the cafe enjoying 2000s Punk.

Low

• Q and I did not finish the ELA and Math packet. The papers are starting to pile up a bit. Hoping we can catch up a bit next week, before we hit December 1st.

Next Week (and the week after)

• Starting our new read aloud (A)

• Moving to the run-up to the Revolutionary War for US History (A)

• Beginning 4B for Math (A)

• Taking a break from physics to explore bridges(A)

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

• Covering genetics, (A) and renewable energy (Q) for coop - it’s the last coop meeting of the semester!

Next up on the TBR pile: