What We Studied

Another week of winter 2025, another sickness impacting our scheduled activities. I really hope that we can get back to some activities this next week. As a less of an impact, co-op was cancelled due to multiple families being sick.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur is primarily using Hearth and Story G5 for his language arts this year. We finished our read aloud and doc into a short unit involving the stories of Hans Christian Andersen. We also covered more grammar and extra language arts assignments.

• Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

• The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat

• Hans Christian Andersen storie collection

Quentin is primarily using Blossom & Root G1 for his language arts this year. We will pull some elements from Build Your Library Level 2 and random books that we have around the house. We finished The Hobbit. Q is definitely liking it more than our last one. For Friday movie night, we watched the 1977 animated version of the book.

• Poetry: Out of This World: Poems and Facts About Space by Amy E. Sklansky

• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

• The Tale of Despeareaux by Kate DiCamillo

Math

Arthur is using Singapore’s Math in Focus Course 1. Effectively this is Singapore’s 6th grade math text. Arthur continued the second book of the course, exploring more about coordinate planes. We finished the chapter and took a short break so Arthur could catch up on some independent work.

• Math in Focus Course 1 Book A

Quentin is using Singapore’s Primary Mathematics Common Core edition 2B and 3A. We moved onto 3A starting slow to easy back into our lessons. Taking it slow but moving along.

• Singapore Primary 3A

• Primarily Logic

Social Studies

Arthur is using Curiosity Chronicles Early Modern History Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 this year. Arthur covered the slave revolts in Haiti and other colonies. We then fit in a chapter about the United States expanding.

• Curiosity Chronicles Early Modern History Vol. 1

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• DK A Child Through Time

• Blades of Freedom: A Tale of Haiti, Napoleon, and the Louisiana Purchase (Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales 10) by Nathan Hale

• Toussaint L’ouvertrue: The Fight for Haiti’s Freedom by Walter Dean Myers

• Haiti: Enchantment of the World by Liz Sonneborn

• Freedom Soup by Tami Charles

• Olaudah Equiano: A Voice for Africa; Nigeria Heritage Series by John Adoga

• No More!: Stories and Songs of Slave Resistance by Doreen Rappaport

• The Kidnapped Prince: The Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano and Ann Cameron

• A New Nation: The United States: 1783–1815, by Betsy Maestro

• Blades of Freedom: A Tale of Haiti, Napoleon, and the Louisiana Purchase (Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales 10), by Nathan Hale

• Brick by Brick, by Charles R. Smith Jr.

• Thomas Jefferson Builds a Library, by Barb Rosenstock

• Worst of Friends: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and the True Story of an American Feud, by Suzanne Tripp Jurmain

• Where Is the White House?, by Megan Stine

• Who Was Alexander Hamilton?, by Pam Pollack

• Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story, by S. D. Nelson

• Gift Horse: A Lakota Story, by S.D. Nelson

• Sacagawea: Journey into the West, by Jessica Gunderson

• Star People: A Lakota Story, by S.D. Nelson

• The Lewis and Clark Expedition, by Jessica Gunderson

• Thomas Jefferson and the Mammoth Hunt: The True Story of the Quest for America’s Biggest Bones, by Carrie Clickard

• 50 Fearless Women Who Made American History: An American History Book for Kids, by Jenifer Bazzit

• Lewis and Clark for Kids: Their Journey of Discovery with 21 Activities, by Janis Herbert

• You Wouldn’t Want to Explore with Lewis and Clark!, by Jacqueline Morley

• Sacajawea, by Joseph Bruchac

• What Was the Lewis and Clark Expedition?, by Judith St. George

• Who Was Sacagawea?, by Judith Bloom Fradin

Quentin is using History Quest Middle Times with Build Your Library Level 2 as his main history curriculum. We covered the chapter about the Age of Exploration.

• History Quest Middle Times

• DK When on Earth?

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• DK A Child Through Time

• DK Explorers

Science

Arthur is using RSO Biology 1 this year has the main science text. Our academic coop will also be using RSO Biology 1 as a basis for the fall and spring semester courses, so we will be just supplementing at home. We will also be doing some of Blossom & Root’s Book Seeds and various other small units in between. We did read some chapters from our Story of Science to keep up. Added science bonus, we watched more PBS Eons videos.

• RSO Biology 1

• Story of Science Vol. 3 by Joy Hakim

Quentin is using RSO Earth & Environment and RSO Astronomy 1 as a base. Of course, we have a ton of extra science resources laying around the house. And I will be hosting some one-off science exploration days that align with the units. Lots of science this week! We covered Mercury, Venus, Mars, and the Asteroid Belt. And we started watching the NOVA/BBC series The Planets.

• RSO Earth and Environment

• DK First Earth Encyclopedia

• RSO Asttonomy 1

• DK Eyewitness Astronomy

• DK Space

• DK First Space Encyclopedia

• DK Eyewitness The Planets

• 13 Planets: The Latest View of the Solar System by David A. Aguilar

• Professor Astro Cat's Frontiers of Space by Dominic Walliman and Ben Newman

• Mars: Earthlings Welcome by Stacy McAnulty

• Mousetronaut by Mark Kelly

• Mousetronaut Goes to Mars by Mary Kelly

• Comets by Kristen Rajczak

• Shooting Stars by Kristen Rajczak

• Caroline's Comets by Emily Arnold McCully

• Comet Chaser: The True Cinderella Story of Caroline Herschel, The First Professional Woman Astronomer by Pamela S. Turner

Academic Co-op

Multiple families were sick, so we canceled this week’s meeting. I’m so glad that the remaining families are understanding and flexible while still communicating with each other.

Art and Music

Art will be very sporadic this year, but we do have some fun excursions planned. And I will incorporate art projects into a lot of other subjects and unit studies.

For music, we are using Music Lab: We Rock! as our spine. Each week we will be learning about a different rock musician and focus on a particular song. I have also created Spotify playlists so we can listen on the go. The chapter covered the music of Michael Jackson. We listened to some early songs and then dove into the best of the music videos.

• Music Lab: We Rock!

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

Field Trip/Activities

Nothing…

High

It wasn’t the week that I wanted to have, but we managed to finish a ton of school work and get ahead on our lessons. This should mean that the week after our Kansas City trip, we can take a break. The boys are looking forward to that.

Low

Sickness. I really hate having to cancel activities.

Next Week

• Continuing our read alouds

• Moving forward with math lessons

• Traveling to Europe from the Industrial Revolution (A) for history

• Exploring Saturn and Jupiter for Q’s science

• Listening to Earth, Wind, and Fire and Chic

• Hopefully getting back to our activities including a friend’s birthday party

• Starting Opinion Writing for Writer’s Workshop at co-op

Next up on the TBR pile: