What We Studied

Our second week and I, once again, over scheduled our curriculum. It’s going to take me a few weeks to settle into a good sustainable routine, but we will get there! We did fit in multiple outings and nature walks this week. And we tried to school outside a few times, once at the Gene Leahy Mall and once at the zoo. It went okay. Unfortunately, it started raining at the Gene Leahy Mall, so that cut our school work short that day. We did manage to fit in a bit of school work. I want to try to do this every few weeks, especially as the weather changes. I don’t want to be a house hermit this winter.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur finished reading Mrs. Frisby. It was a good first book to start discussing The Hero’s Journey. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also started his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root. And finally, we continued reading the coop book club selection.

• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert O’Brien

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Reading Explorer: Intro

• Wildoak by CC Harrington

Quentin explored all the books of Mo Willems this week. We all really love his books so much. I read the Piggie sections and Q read the Gerald sections in the Elephant and Piggy collection. We didn’t get to all the theme week books on color, but covered a few throughout the week. (Guess we’ll be continuing that theme into next week.) He also worked on some basic grammar.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Silver Seeds by Paul Paolilli and Dan Brewer

• Vivid: Poems and Notes About Color by Julie Paschkis

• Color Me a Rhyme by Jane Yolen

• All the Mo Willems books

• Harold and Hog Pretend for Real! by Dan Santat

• My World of Science: Color by Angela Royston

• Colors by Shelley Rotner and Anne Woodhull

• Summer Color! by Diana Murray

• I Spy Colors in Art by Lucy Micklethwait

Math

Arthur continued his math year with some review packets. We will start his next Singapore book next week or the week after. We’ll see how that goes. We also started our next logic book.

• Orbiting with Logic

Quentin jumped back into Singapore 1B to tackle multiplication and then division before we move on. Based on his work this week, we might take a small review break after finishing 1B and before beginning 2A. I’m still deciding. We also continued our logic book. While at the zoo, Q and I played a Pirate Place Value game.

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Singapore Common Core 1B

Social Studies

Arthur jumped back into BYL 6 and History Quest: US History starting at the beginning of the Civil War. We’ll be sprinkling in various historical fiction readers to reinforce the time periods.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History

• Two Miserable Presidents by Steve Sheinkin

• Abraham Lincoln: Lawyer, President, Emancipator by Pamela Hill Nettleton

• Abe Lincoln's Dream by Lane Smith

• The Not So Boring Letters of Private Nobody by Matthew Landis

We started Quentin’s formal history curriculum with a basic discussion of the beginnings of the universe and speeding through up to the point that life starts to populate the Earth.

• History Quest Introduction

• DK When on Earth?

• Annabelle and Aiden: Worlds Within Us by JR Becker

• Older Than the Stars by Karen C. Fox

• Annabelle and Aiden: The Story of Life by JR Becker

• Annabelle and Aiden: Sapiens Our Human Evolution by JR Becker

Science

We managed to sneak in a joint nature science lesson while at the zoo on Tuesday. We talked about living and nonliving entities and used the zoo as our plot study.

• Nature Connection by Clare Walker Leslie

• Backyard by Donald Silver

• Let’s Investigate with Nate: The Life Cycle by Nate Ball

• Nature is an Artist by Jennifer Lavallee

• A Year with Mama Earth by Rebecca Grabill

• The Prairie That Nature Built by Marybeth Lorkiecki

Arthur is embarking upon RSO Chemistry this year. But before we officially start the curriculum, we are covering some basic Chemistry and Science lessons. Once we start the actual book, we will be doing the experiment portions with a group of coop friends. This week we focused on the idea of the very small to set up our chemistry study.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

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

• Nano: The Spectacular Science of the Very (Very) Small by Dr. Jess Wade

• What’s Smaller Than a Pygmy Shrew? by Robert E. Wells

Quentin started RSO Life with a basic lesson defining life and thinking about science in a larger sense. He will also be engaging in various nature science lessons and explorations throughout the year.

• RSO Life

• DK Oversimple Biology

STEAM Coop

Arthur’s class covered more foraging and plant identification. They focused on poisonous plants this week. Q’s class explored leaves and trees and explored the different types. They also made a cute leaf rubbing wreath. I ended up helping Q’s group as a floater.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

Another week that I actually fit in art and music! I am on a roll! We covered the music of Ali Farka Toure and the art of Frida Kahlo.

• The Science of Song: How and Why We Make Music by Alan Cross, Emme Cross, and Nicole Mortillaro

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

• Why is Art Full of Naked People by Susie Hodge

• 13 Art Movements Chldren Should Know

• The Two Fridas: Memories Written by Frida Kahlo

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotogsky

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• 13 Women Artists Children Should Know

• 13 Artists Children Should Know

• Frida Kahlo: The Artist Who Painted Herself by Margaret Frith

• The Story of Paintings: A History of Art for Children by Mick Manning and Brita Granstorm

• Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos by Monica Brown

• Modern art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw

• Portrait of an Artist: Frida Kahlo by Lucy Brownbridge

Field Trip

Beyond our out-school attempts at the Gene Leahy Mall and the zoo on Monday and Tuesday, we did get in a short nature hike on Friday morning. In addition, as a family, we attended a nightfall celebration at the Platte River State Park on Friday night. The kids ate s’mores, learned about fire (the science of), played at the playground, and went on a night hike. The night hike portion was a ton of fun and the boys loved using the small flashlights to spot interesting animals and plants. They even found some glow-in-the-dark moss under the waterfall. We’ll be talking more about this night hike next week during our nature science.

High

Schooling at the zoo actually went really well. Part of our success was not inviting a ton of friends. We explored part of the zoo and then had two school sessions in sparsely populated areas.

Low

(Just repeating what I said last week) I over scheduled our curriculum for the week. Definitely need to reevaluate my plan of next week…

Next Week

• Continuing our forest skills unit for coop (A) and starting insects (Q)

• Starting a new read aloud for A

• Moving forward with our study of the Civil War

• Starting Singapore 5A?

• Reading a lot Doreen Cronin books

• Covering the basics of fractions

• Admiring Tyree Guyton’s art

• Listening to Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier Saint-Georges’s music

Next up on the TBR pile: