What We Studied

Another week with basically no photos.

I’m finally mostly recovered from surgery, so we started to get back into our regular routine this week. We managed to have a bit of school every day along with a few activities and outings. Plus, I managed to squeeze in a dentist appointment and trip to the grocery story.

Literature and Poetry

For the coop book club, w'e’re continuing our current selection. I’m really really enjoying this book and I know that Arthur is also.

• Winterhouse by Ben Guterson

Arthur and I started our next read aloud. Instead of a literature selection from our language arts curriculum, I chose a historical fiction selection from our history curriculum. It’s an intense story, but I thought it would be interesting read about a plague in our country’s history. And it fits nicely with the time period we are studying in U.S. History this month.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

• One World, Many Religions by Mary Pope Osborne

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

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.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dagliesh

• Pig and Pug by Laura Marchesani (Quentin Reads)

• I Can Read with My Eyes Shut! by Dr. Seuss (Quentin Reads)

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).

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4B

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Singapore 1A

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 Articles of Confederation era as well as the creation of the U.S. Constitution.

• 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

• Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson

• Shhh! We’re Writing the Constitution by Jean Fritz

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We’re continuing with our Asian country study. This week we covered the rest of East Asia then hopped on over to the Indian subcontinent.

• 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

• Follow Me Around Japan by Wiley Blevins

• Living in South Korea by Chloe Perkins

• Follow Me Around South Korea by Wiley Blevins

• The Korean Cinderella by Shirley Climo

• The Discovery of Ramen by Phil Amara and Oliver Chin

• Grass Sandals: The Travels of Basho by Dawnine Spivak

• One Leaf Rides the Wind by Celeste Davidson Mannis

• The Origami Master by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer

• I, Doko by Ed Young

• Chibi Samurai Wants a Pet by Sanae Ishida

• Ba-chan The Ninja Grandma by Sanae Ishida

• A Pair of Red Clogs by Masako Matsuno

• Gigi and Ojiji: What's in a Name? by Melissa Iwai

• Living In India by Chloe Perkins

• Leila in Saffron by Rukhsanna Guidroz

• Mama's Saris by Pooja Makhijani

• I See the Sun in India by Dedie King

• I See the Sun in Nepal by Dedie King

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. This week was all about magnets! We did some simple magnet experiments. Next week, we will play some games with magnets and make a compass.

• 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.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

• A Little Round Panda on the Big Blue Earth by Troy Christie

STEAM Coop

Arthur’s group is continuing its big stop-motion animation project. The kids are planning and storyboarding before they get to actually film the movies. Quentin’s group focused on learning about nutrition. There was lots of sorting different foods and even trying a few.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

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.

Field Trip

No field trip this week.

High

• Another great winter walk this week! We joined some friends at the OPPD Arboretum and tromped through the snow and the woods.

Low

• The cold temperatures kept us inside more than I would have liked this week.

Next Week

• Continuing our historical fiction read aloud

• Keeping on with our math curriculum

• Covering Southeast Asia for SS (Q)

• Learning about our first two presidents (A)

• Playing with magnets for physics

• Going on another winter hike

Next up on the TBR pile: