What We Studied

We reached the end of our second week of regular homeschooling routine and I am exhausted. Seriously, by Friday afternoon, I could barely keep my eyes open. And we didn’t do that much! I think it’s a combination of the heat and the mental load of keeping all the plates in the air that has me so tired. The kids are fairing better, but they also get a lot more breaks and free time…

Literature and Poetry

Arthur continued Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll for his ELA read aloud. To go along with the text itself, Blossom and Root Grade 3 Language Arts gives us a ton of activities and creative projects to go along with the text. We will be reading this for one more week. He also has a weekly poetry selection. We also started our Myths and Maps extra curriculum from B&R. We began covering creation stories from around the world. One last item, we started reading The Beast of Buckingham Palace for our next coop book club selection.

• Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

• The Beast of Buckingham Palace by David Walliam

Quentin started a big read aloud as his main focus. I timed the read aloud to coincide with the area of the world that we are studying. The Very Very Far North seemed perfect for starting with the Arctic. He also did a day study of the Stone Soup story. We read a traditional European telling and then grabbed multiple others for variety. We did a bit of compare and contrast with the stories. I enjoyed it!

• High Five Intro Issue

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• The Very Very Far North by Dan Bar-El

• Stone Soup by Marcia Brown

• Quill Soup by Alan Durant

• Fandango Stew by David Davis

• Bone Soup by Alissa Satin Capucilli

• Some Friends to Feed: The Story of Stone Soup by Pete Seeger and Paul DeBois Jacobs

• The Real Story of Stone Soup by Ying Chang Compestine

• We All Play by Julie Flett

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). This week Arthur and I played a monster themed multiplication game. I also found a fun packet of logic puzzles based on Alice in Wonderland. We will be spreading these out over our reading of the text.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4A

• Tinkeractive Math Kindergarten

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Numbers Everywhere by Linda Leopold Strauss

• Everyone Counts by Judy Sierra

Social Studies

Arthur started his large study of United States history using a combination of Build Your Library Level 5 and History Quest United States History. We did a bit more introduction and then started learning about the native nations of the northeast. Last minute, I found a great Outschool class called “What are Native Americans?” This is a two week class focusing on introducing students to Native Americans and doing a bit of geography and history. It’s being taught by Kelly Tudor, who is Lipan Apache. (I’ve tagged her other classes for future reference. She has one about Indigenous Peoples’ Day that I hope works out for us time-wise.)

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

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

• The Earth Under Sky Bear’s Feet: Native American Poems of the Land by Joseph Bruchac

• Turtle Island: The Story of North America’s First People by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger

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

• What was the Ice Age? by Nico Medina

• Prehistorical Animals: Prehistoric Mammals by David West

Quentin began his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We covered the basics of the world with a close look at maps the globe. We took this week to do some more big overview of the world and talk about the different types of climates and geography throughout the world.

• Nat Geo Beginner’s World Atlas

• DK Countries of the World

• DK First Earth Encyclopedia

• DK Children Just Like Me

• DK Children Just Like Me; A School Like Mine

• On Earth by G. Brian Karas

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. Beyond the paperwork, Arthur focused on his game he’s been making (Lord of the Book) and some random side creative projects.

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. This week the boys learned about water displacement and density. They had a long experiment session that culminated in a challenge to construct a boat that would hold 30 pennies. Lots of fun there! For our history section, Arthur learned about various cultures keeping time throughout history. Talks about calendars and time-keeping.

• RSO Physics

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

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We talked about ecosystems and sorted some animals into their ecosystems.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• Many Biomes, One Earth by Sneed B. Collard III

• Earth: Extreme Facts by Steffi Cavell-Clarke

STEAM Coop

Coop continued with a slightly smaller group (thank goodness). We had a great week where the older kids learned about plate tectonics and the younger groups learned about rocks and minerals. The older kids really enjoyed demonstrating the different types of plate boundaries using frosting and graham crackers. Probably helps that they got to it their creations afterward. Lots of fun there! Afterwards, we had three more families official join the coop. We are growing, but hopefully not too much more so we can fit in peoples’ houses for winter.

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, art and music just didn’t happen. But that’s okay. This is why I have built in flex weeks to catch up on some of the things that get pushed aside during a normal week.

Coop art class was canceled due to illness.

Field Trip

We had a great field trip to Schramm with a guided tour of the geologic site. The kids got to dig for fossils and some free play at the rocks. We had a lovely picnic by the fish hatcheries and ended our visit back at the nature center. The boys were excited that all the imaginary play items were back out.

High

• Science on Wednesday was delightful. While Arthur worked with his friend on some experiments, I sat in the other room with Quentin and did some of his packet work. I think we used our time wisely this week.

Low

• So tired!

Next Week

• Finishing Alice in Wonderland (A)

• Figuring out more logic puzzles (A)

• Learning about Native American cultures of the East Coast (A)

• Moving on to Newton’s Laws for Physics (A)

• Reading some animal stories (Q)

• Continuing The Very Very Far North (Q)

• Covering the Arctic and Canada (Q)

• Covering geology (A) and amphibians and retiles (Q) for coop

• Introducing the art of John Singleton Copley?

• Moving through The Beast of Buckingham Palace for coop book club

• Listening to Bach

Next up on the TBR pile: