What We Studied

We had another week that was full of activities. In fact, we ended up taking a break on Friday due my health issues. Even with all the activities, we managed to mostly catch up on our work.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur is primarily using Hearth and Story G5 for his language arts this year. We finished our first read aloud and even started on the second read aloud for the year. We caught up with our spelling and completed our week 2 list. We also covered more grammar and extra language arts assignments.

• Over the Moon by Natalie Lloyd

• Mars One by Jonathan Maberry

• Poetry for Young People: Carl Sandburg

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. This week, we took a bit of a departure to start reading a book that aligns with our history.

• The Long-Lost Secret Diary of the World’s Worst Knight by Tim Collins

• Poetry: Mites to Mastodons by Maxine Kumin

• Write Shop B

Math

Arthur is using Singapore’s Math in Focus Course 1. Effectively this is Singapore’s 6th grade math text. We covered the another lesson and did some practice. We will also be working through Evan Moor’s Financial Literacy G5 book and random math packets.

• Math in Focus Court 1 Book A

• EM Financial Literacy G5

Quentin is using Singapore’s Primary Mathematics Common Core edition 2B and 3A. He started with the lessons in 2B. I imagine that we will be slowing working through that this semester. He also started his next logic book and did some math packets for practice and review.

• Primarily Logic

• Singapore Primary Common Core 2B

Social Studies

Arthur is using Curiosity Chronicles Early Modern History Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 this year. We got back on track with our history with the next section about Spain. We also learned about Miguel de Cervantes.

• Curiosity Chronicles Early Modern History Vol. 1

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• DK A Child Through Time

Quentin is using History Quest Middle Times with Build Your Library Level 2 supporting. We got back into history with a chapter about the Byzantine Empire.

• History Quest Middle Times

• DK When on Earth?

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• DK A Child Through Time

Science

Arthur is using RSO Biology 1 this year has the main science text. Our coverage will be spotty until October. Our academic coop will also be using RSO Biology 1 as a basis for the fall semester course, 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 another chapter in the Story of Science. Right now, the book is setting the stage for Einstein’s Miracle Year.

• 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 covered the first lesson and pivoted to B&R’s Book Seed: Over and the Under the Pond. I rearranged some of the RSO units to make sense for our weather. We are starting with water. We ended up skipping science this week to accommodate activities.

• RSO Earth and Environment

• Earth by the Numbers by Steve Jenkins

• DK First Earth Encyclopedia

Enrichment STEAM Co-op

Enrichment co-op has shifted from warm months only (April to October). We are in the middle of our transitionary “Summer Session.” This week both Arthur and Quentin’s class covered engineering. Q’s class focused on making a machine to save a toy and A’s class made balloon rockets.

Art and Music

Art will be very sporadic this year, but we do have some fun excursions planned. (The Joslyn Art Museum is reopening in September after being closed for two years!) 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. This week was all about Johnny Cash. The boys weren’t sold on his music.

• Music Lab: We Rock!

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

Field Trip/Activities

We had an excursion day downtown at the Lewis and Clark Landing and the Luminarium. It was a very warm day which made everyone a bit cranky. We did have some fun at the playground. Our time in the museum was cut a bit short due to attitudes. We plan on going to the Luminarium once a month until our membership expires in February.

High

On Friday night, J took off work early to join us at the Luminarium for their last late Friday for the summer. It was the first time that he was able to join us. We had fun even with my health issues this week.

Low

The boys had Pokemon club on Wednesday that was seemingly a waste of time. They don’t really play Pokemon like we had envisioned. Add in the fact that I drove basically an hour and a half to the locale, and I’m just about done with this. I think we need to reevaluate.

Next Week

• Continuing our read aloud (A)

• Finished our read aloud (Q)

• Learning about Eastern Europe (A) and Western Europe (Q) - pretty funny that I’m covering both sides of Europe next week

• Listening to The Shirelles and Frankie Lymon

• Exploring the zoo

Next up on the TBR pile: