What We Studied
We had a pretty normal week. Lots of schoolwork, a few activities, but also weather that interrupted some plans. We had a big blizzard blow through on Tuesday night that cancelled our Wednesday plans. We pivoted by covering more schoolwork and watching some more documentaries. Not a big deal.
Literature and Poetry
Arthur is primarily using Hearth and Story G5 for his language arts this year. Arthur dove into our next coop book club selection. We’re both really loving it! It’s a gentle story, but with a lot to say. We also covered more grammar and extra language arts assignments.
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Science Verse by Jon Scieszka
The Elephant in the Room by Holly Goldberg Sloan
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 started our next read aloud that aligns with our Blossom and Root curriculum. We’re both really loved it!
Poetry: Out of This World: ICE Poems About Polar Life by Douglas Florian
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
Math
Arthur is using Singapore’s Math in Focus Course 1. Effectively this is Singapore’s 6th grade math text. We ended up taking a short break from our textbook to explore more logic and algebraic expressions.
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. Because of our changes in scheduled, we ended up covering three sections of history this week. We learned about the Latin American Revolutions in South America, the revolutions in Brazil and Mexico, and the African Zulu Empire and Central African caliphates
Curiosity Chronicles Early Modern History Vol. 1
DK History
DK Timelines of Everything
DK Timelines of Everyone
DK A Child Through Time
Simon Bolivar: Latin American Liberator by Frank de Varona
A Kid’s Guide to Latino History: More than 50 Activities, by Valerie Petrillo
Latinitas: Celebrating 40 Big Dreamers, by Juliet Menendez
Where Is the Amazon?, by Sarah Fabiny
DK Eyewitness: The Amazon
Fiesta Femenina: Celebrating Women of Mexican Folklore, by Mary-Joan Gerson
Tales Our Abuelitas Told: A Hispanic Folktale Collection, by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy
Brazil: Enchantment of the World, by Ann Heinrichs
Mexico: Enchantment of the World, by Liz Sonneborn
A Kid's Guide to Latino History by Valerie Petrillo
Shaka Zulu by Richard Spilsbury
Quentin is using History Quest Middle Times with Build Your Library Level 2 as his main history curriculum. We covered two chapters, one about the Inca Empire and one about the Renaissance..
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
Ancient Civilizations: Aztecs, Maya, Incas! by Anita Yasuda
The Inca Empire by Sandra Newman
20 Fun Facts About Machu Picchu by Janey Levy
Inca by Lawrence Kovacs
Lost Treasure of the Inca by Peter Lourie
A Look at Renaissance Art by J. Jean Robertson
Raphael by Mike Venezia
Leonardo, Beautiful Dreamer by Robert Byrd
Leonardo da Vinci by Mike Venezia
The Renaissance by Enzo George
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. Other than co-op, we watched a ton of PBS Eons videos this week.
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. We jumped back into RSO Earth & Environment to cover the atmosphere. But we also just watched a ton of PBS Eons videos.
RSO Earth and Environment
DK First Earth Encyclopedia
Academic Co-op
We’re entering the home stretch of this semester of co-op. For biology, the kids learned about fish and amphibians. For art, they focused on abstract and absurdist art. And for writing, we started our unit on Fictional Narrative. Only two weeks to go!
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.
Music Lab: We Rock!
DK Music and How it Works
DK The Arts
Field Trip/Activities
No specific field trip this week.
High
We got a lot of curriculum covered…
Low
The weather brought a fun winter storm and some terrible road conditions that disrupted our week. We had to skip our nature walk due to sleet and soggy ground. And our social meetup was cancelled due to the blizzard.
Next Week
Finishing our read alouds, probably starting our next ones
Moving forward with our math textbooks
Traveling to the United States and Russia (A) and Russia (Q) for history
Exploring weather for science
Visiting the zoo
Attending a nature class
Moving into the last two weeks of Academic Co-op
Next up on the TBR pile:
