What We Studied

This wrap up is another one with a Flex Week and a regular week all wrapped into one. Unfortunately, I had a massive pain flare during the regular week that disrupted our schedule and put me out of commission for a few days. We missed a few events we were looking forward to.

Literature and Poetry

J continued reading the Bromeliad trilogy to the boys at bedtime. They finished the second book and immediately had to read the third one. Nearing the end of that one already.

So, I switched around our read alouds and had Arthur start on the next coop book club book during the day. We’re liking this modern day Viking story.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

• The Last Shadow Warrior by Sam Subity

• How to Write a Poem by Kwame Alexander

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 took a side trip to read the start of a new series. I thought he didn’t really like it, but last library visit he independently found the second one. He was disappointed when I said we were reading something else. But we’ll be done soon and then we can read his chosen series.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• Zooey and Sassafras: Dragons and Marshmallows by Asia Citro

• Audrey of the Outback by Christine Harris

• This is the Planet Where I Live by KL Going

• The Pirates are Coming by John Condon

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 continued our financial literacy unit. Quentin has very small lessons. Arthur is going more in depth. We’re taking it slow, but continuing with the unit.

• Financial Literacy Grade 3

• Singapore 1B

• Lots and Lots of Coins by Margarette S. Reid

• Give Save Spend with the Three Little Pigs by Clint Greenleaf

• One Proud Penny by Randy Siegel

• 10 Fascinating About Dollar Bills by Chris Jozefowicz

• What is Money? by Rebecca Rissman

• Paper Money by Dana Meachen Rau

• Counting Money by Julie Dalton

• Making Change at the Fair by Julie Dalton

• What Can You Do with Money? by Jennifer S. Larson

• Save It! by Cinders McLeod

• Spend It! by Cinders McLeod

• How Many Pennies Make a Dollar? by Rebecca Wingard-Nelson

• I Can Count Money by Rebecca Wingard-Nelson

• I Can Name Bills and Coins by Rebecca Wingard-Nelson

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 are on to the Oregon Trail and the Gold Rush.

• 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

• Smart About the First Ladies

• Which Way to the Wild West by Steve Sheinkin

• The Oregon Trail by Mel Friedman

• The Oregon Trail: Danger at the Haunted Gate by Jesse Wiley

• The Oregon Trail: The Search for Snake River by Jesse Wiley

• The Oregon Trail: The Road to Oregon City by Jesse Wiley

• Hazardous Tales: Donner Dinner Party

• What Was the Gold Rush? By Joan Holub

• Gold! Gold from the American River! by Don Brown

• Life During the California Gold Rush by Bethany Onsgard

• John Sutter and The California Gold Rush (Graphic History) by Matt Doeden and Charles Barnett III

• The California Gold Rush by Mel Friedman

• Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi by Cheryl Harness

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. Moved on to our last inhabited by humans continent of Australia and Oceania. We covered Australia and New Zealand this past week.

• 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

• D is for Down Under by Devin Scillian

• Living In Australia by Chloe Perkins

• Australia by Madeline Donaldson

• Australia ABCs by Sarah Heiman

• Wombat Walkabout by Carol Diggory Shields

• Birrarung Wilam by Aunty Joy Murphy

• Under the Southern Cross by Frané Lessac

• Wombat Said Come In by Carmen Agra Deedy

• Sun Mother Wakes the World by Diane Wolkstein

• Magic Beach by Alison Lester

• Possum Magic by Mem Fox

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. The boys finished their model engines. I have to admit, they look pretty neat. We did the textbook readings about light, but my pain flare canceled our experiment class. We’ll get to it next week.

• RSO Physics

• The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way by Joy Hakim

• The Way Things Work Now

• A Ray of Light by Walter Wick

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. We also covered animals from Australia.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

• Watching Kangaroos in Australia by Louise and Richard Spilsbury

• Do You Really Want to Meet a Kangaroo? by Cari Meister

• Bilby: Secrets of an Australian Marsupial by Edel Wignell

STEAM Coop

The oldest group has moved on to their last theme of the year: Math + Art in Science. During Flex Week, they worked on tessellation and repeating patterns. The littles focused on planting their own bean plants. The next week, the bigs learned about orienteering by using a compass to hid and then find an object at the park. They are all terrible cartographers, but we’re trying. The littles made paper.

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. We started watched Into the West, the mini series from early 2000s. I really like how it follows two main families from the 1820s all the way to the 1870s. We get to see how the west changes in that 50 years hitting all the big events. We’ll be continuing for the next few weeks.

We also had our coop Earth Day party at a park on the perfect day. Along with lots of playground playtime, the kids played bingo and made painted pots, sun catchers, and moss balls. They had a blast. We are definitely continuing these holiday parties next year.

Field Trip

Our field trip was a guided lesson at Arbor Day Farm. The farm is one of our favorite places to visit. It was created on the site of J. Sterling Morton’s original orchard. He was the creator of Arbor Day. After a lesson about bees and pollination, the kids spent hours exploring and playing. The tree house and trampolines are amazing. We always plan on spending the entire day there when we visit.

High

• Besides our Arbor Day Farm trip, we had a lovely walk with friends at Heron Haven. We’ve loved to see how the seasons change the landscape. We spotted birds, but no frogs this time. I bet they are out now. We’ll definitely be back soon.

Low

• My brain bees got very angry after having coop in my house during Flex Week (it was raining all day). I just wanted to throw everything in the house out the windows and start over. Instead. I focused on the playroom and breakfast nook. We sorted everything and reorganized our bookcases and cubbies. I got rid of a ton of stuff (mostly early education aids that we gave to friends) and threw away a bag of trash. We also took down the Baker’s Rack and I must say that the breakfast nook is so much nicer. No cluttered corner distracting my focus. Now to need to work on my office…

Next Week

• Finishing our current read alouds

• Continuing a financial literacy unit (both kids)

• Covering light and optics for physics

• Moving on to Oceania for social studies

• Watching another episode or two of Into the West

• Catching up with our math and language arts packets and random pages

Next up on the TBR pile: