What We Studied

With our foster chickens, our school time was greatly decreased. They were just too entertaining to hang out with. Plus we had to farm/nature walks and our usual science and coop classes. We’ll catch back up, I’m not concerned. Some weeks we focus less on book work and more on experiences.

Literature and Poetry

We still reading the coop book club selection. I’m interested in the overall mystery, but the pacing is very slow. We finally finished the book this week, but our club meeting isn’t for another week.

• The Strangers by Margaret Peterson Haddix

To follow up after the previous week’s Shakespeare unit, our literature selection is a retelling of Midsummer Night’s Dream. I’m very into this book and Arthur has also been enjoying it.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

• Midsummer’s Mayhem by Rajani LaRocca

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. We continued with the second book in the Heartwood Hotel series. Quentin likes the gentle nature of these books.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• Heartwood Hotel: The Greatest Gift by Kallie George

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

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). We started our financial literacy unit. Quentin has very small lessons. Arthur is going more in depth.

• Kumon Geometry and Measurement Grade 4 WB

• Lots and Lots of Coins by Margarette S. Reid (A)

• The Invention of Money by Nicolas Brasch (A)

• The History of Money: From Bartering to Banking by Martin Jenkins (A)

• Nat Geo Kids: Not-So-Common Cents by Sarah Wassner Flynn (A)

• DK Eyewitness: Money (A)

• One Proud Penny by Randy Siegel (A)

• What is Money? by Katie Marsico (A)

• Paper Money by Dana Meachen Rau (A)

• 10 Fascinating Facts About Dollar Bills by Chris Jozefowicz (A)

• Singapore 1B

• Froggy's Lemonade Stand by Jonathan London (Q)

• A Kids Book About Money by Adam Stramwasser (Q)

• Let's Explore Needs and Wants by Laura Hamilton Waxman (Q)

• Needs and Wants by Nadia Higgins (Q)

• Lemonade in Winter: A Book About Two Kids Counting Money by Emily Jenkins & G. Brian Karas (Q)

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 lives of Irish immigrants and mill workers in the early 1800s.

• 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

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• What the Eagle Sees

• A is for Abigail: F for First Ladies

• Smart About the First Ladies

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We continued our study of Africa with a focus on East African countries.

• 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

• Africa is Not a Country by Margy Burns Knight and Mark Melnicove

• Jaha and Jamil Went Down the Hill by Virginia Kroll

• Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales

• Misoso: Once Upon a Time Tales from Africa by Verna Aardema

• The Perfect Orange by Frank P. Araujo

• The Best Beekeeper in Lalibela by Cristina Kessler

• Only a Pigeon by Jane and Christopher Kurtz

• Fire on the Mountain by Jane Kurtz

• For You are a Kenyan Child by Kelly Cunnane

• Wangari's Trees of Peace by Jeanette Winter

• Mama Panya's Pancakes by Mary and Rich Chamberlin

• My Rows and Piles of Coins by Tololwa M. Mollel

• We All Went on Safari by Laurie Krebs

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. We’ll be spending the next week finishing building model engines.

• 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. We continued watching a new documentary series called Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It’s a behind the scenes look at caring for the animals at the park. Each episode is less than 30 minutes, so it’s a perfect length for Q.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

• African Acrostics: A Word in Edgeways by Avis Harley

• African Critters by Robert B. Haas

STEAM Coop

I finished teaching the oldest kids the Engineering Challenge unit. We wrapped up with creating zip line gondolas. I think the kids had fun. Now we are going to move on to Math and Art in Science for the oldest kids. Q’s group covered telescopes and microscopes. They will move on to gardening next cycle.

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

We had a visit to the Gifford Farm to see all the baby animals that have arrived. A couple of coop friends joined us for a lovely morning. We’ll be back later this month for two different guided field trips.

We had another Nature Explorers meeting. This time we traveled over to Iowa to the Hitchcock Center. We walked the ridge trail (about 1 1/2 miles) and got to see some great views. The kids really enjoyed exploring. Afterward, we had to stop at the playground there to play and eat a snack lunch.

High

• For the second year, we rented two chickens for the week. We pick up 3-day old chickens and take care of them for the week. The boys were begging to do it again. And we spent a lot of time playing with them and devising things for them to explore. We’ll be doing this again next year.

Low

• We have gotten a bit behind on our curriculum due to our multiple excursions this week and the distraction of the chicks.

Next Week

• Finishing a Midsummer Night’s Dream retelling novel and Heartwood Hotel

• Continuing a financial literacy unit (both kids)

• Finishing building engines for physics

• Moving to South Africa (our final selection)

• Fitting in animal science for Q (hopefully!)

Next up on the TBR pile: