What We Studied

A much more normal week for us! We had some fun field trip adventures and focused on our studies.

Literature and Poetry

We started reading The Hobbit! I haven’t read it for years, so it was nice to revisit. We’ve moved our daily read aloud time back and forth from morning to right before bed. I am liking the flexibility. Reading before bed gives us more than 30 minutes back into our “school day,” but it’s definitely not an everyday switch.

• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

• In Aunt Giraffe’s Green Garden by Jack Prelutsky

• 10 Minutes a Day Spelling

Math

We started Singapore Math Common Core 3A this week. We’re shooting for one unit every week or so. Unit 1 is complete!

• Singapore Math Common Core Edition 3A

Social Studies

This week’s History Quest focus was on the Fall of the Byzantine Empire. Arthur actually remembered some things from last year’s study of the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the rise of the Byzantine Empire. So yeah for remembering!

• DK History

• DK When on Earth?

Arthur Independent Time

To allow for one-on-one time with Quentin, I have added an hour of independent work time for Arthur. Each week, he will have a mix of packet work (mostly grammar and math review), independent reading time, and special projects. Many of his projects will be aligned with our literature selections (some taken from B&R Language Arts curriculum) and history. This week, he focused on mostly packet work and did a few tasks for his creative project: Geography of Home book.

Science and STEAM Coop

Photos were taken; not by me as I was teaching. Unfortunately the pictures all had pictures of other people’s kids so I can’t post them on here.

We finished our bird theme this week. For the bigger kids, I had them complete the bird beak adaptation lab and then they made bird feeders with the little kids. Simple and easy but the lab was a lot of fun.

• Birds by Paul McEvoy

• DK Animal

• The Big Book of Birds by Yuval Zommer

• Nature All Around: Birds by Pamela Hickman

• The Egg by Britta Teckentrup

• DK Eyewitness Bird

• Bird Watch by Christie Matheson

• Bird Builds a Nest by Martin Jenkins

• Birds by Kevin Henkes

Art/Music

Our music study was cut this week again. We just ran out of time and other things got prioritized. I need to figure out how to add this back in easily.

Quentin

I have scheduled at least four 1-hour time blocks for one-on-one time with Quentin. I bought Blossom and Root’s Early Years Volume 2 curriculum to use as our base. I love the variety of activities and some of the bigger projects included. For ELA, we continued our big overview of the alphabet. Q really wanted to do math on the computer, so we jumped on Khan Academy and he finished the entire first unit. (He really likes math!) For an extra science lesson, we talked about animal classifications.

ELA

• Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers

• My “b” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

• Bobby Baboon’s Banana Be-Bop by Barbara deRubertis

• Feathers for Lunch by Eric Carle

Math

• The Odd One Out by Britta Teckentrup

• Mother Goose: Numbers on the Loose by Leo and Diane Dillon

Other

• High Five magazine volume

• Our Earth by Anne Rockwell

• Many Creatures by Laura Purdie Salas

• Feathers and Hair: What Animals Wear by Jennifer Ward

Field Trip

We visited Fontenelle Forest and learned all about the birds housed at the Raptor Rescue. We arrived right at feeding time completely on accident. The worker was great about engaging the kiddos and talking about each bird as he fed them. We even got to see him give an owl eye drops for a detached retina. My favorite was seeing him interact with Charlotte the Peregrine Falcon. She is just gorgeous! We had intended to walk the trails afterward, but the kids ended just spending almost an hour and a half playing at the nature classroom. After, we and another family had a picnic lunch. It was a beautiful field trip.

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. This week, we watched an episode about birds, specifically peregrine falcons.

• NOVA S45 E16: World’s Fastest Animal

Misc. - Random picture books read

Highs

• Our one-two punch of Raptor Rescue trip and coop on Thursday really breathed some life into me this week. We are loving our group of coop friends. I’m excited that next week I don’t have to teach.

Lows

• I had a dentist appointment that messed up our Wednesday. In fact, we have dentist appointments for the next two weeks. I don’t love that they are spread out right now. Hoping next time, the boys’s appointments are together at least.

Next Week

• Continuing The Hobbit

• Moving on to Unit 2 in math.

• Starting Mammals for science

• Western Europe is up next for history

• Hoping to add in some music study (or at least listening while working)

• Board game morning with coop friends!

Next up on the TBR pile: