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Homeschool W5: Our Busiest Week Yet!

What We Studied

Oof. This week was a killer. We had something every single day of the week that took out of the house. It was absolutely exhausting. Consequently, we didn’t accomplish as much as I would have liked when it comes to our schoolwork.

Literature and Poetry

We continued reading The Hobbit. The story has really picked up and has gotten really good. Arthur is loving the action sequences. I’m really enjoying the spelling curriculum that I bought from The Moffatt Girls on Teachers Pay Teachers. And Arthur has taken to doing one spelling list spread out over the course of the week.

  • The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

  • In Aunt Giraffe’s Green Garden by Jack Prelutsky

Math

Moving onto the next unit in math.

  • Singapore Math Common Core Edition 3A

Social Studies

We covered Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire this week.

  • The Kingfisher Atlas of the Medieval World

  • DK Timelines of Everyone

  • DK History

  • Medieval Tales

  • The Medieval World by Rebecca Stefoff

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 some packet work and finished up his Geography of Home project..

Science and STEAM Coop

Photos were taken this week of all our fun. Unfortunately the pictures all had pictures of other people’s kids so I can’t post them on here.

This week was our first week of the mammals theme. And it was the first week that I didn’t have to teach. It was nice to sit back a bit and just jump in and help when help was needed. I hung out with the young group and we did a stuffed animal show and tell, learned about coyotes and badgers, and did some animal races.

  • DK Did You Know?

  • A Mammal is an Animal by Lizzy Rockwell

  • Why Do Mammals Have Fur? by Pat Jacobs

  • DK Mammals

  • Whose Tracks are These? A Clue Book of Families Forest Animals by Jim Nail

Art/Music

Our music study was cut this week. We just ran out of time and other things got prioritized.

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 covered the letters A through E. We covered counting and some basic addition for math. Q also demanded to do math on the computer so we completed a few unit in Khan Academy.

ELA

  • Alpha Boats by Samantha R. Vamos

  • Corky Cub’s Crazy Caps by Barbara deRubertis

  • My “c” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

  • Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers

  • My “d” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

  • Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

  • My “e” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

  • Eddie Elephant’s Exciting Egg-Sitting by Barbara deRubertis

  • Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran

Math

  • 7 Ate 9 by Tara Lazar

  • Teddy Bear Subtraction by Barbara Barbieri McGrath

  • Where’s the Baby? by Britta Teckentrup

Other

  • High Five magazine volume

  • Follow the Line Around the World by Laura Ljungkvist

  • Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni

Field Trip

We headed to the zoo specifically to see the newly renovated Gorilla Valley. It was great to see these majestic creatures up close again. The kids really enjoyed the interactive exhibits. We had some friends join us and it was a great morning at the zoo. After the gorillas, we stopped at the sea lions and the jungle building.

Documentary Selection

None this week

Misc. - Random picture books read

  • Unbeatable Beaks by Stephen R. Swinburne

  • Otto Blotter Bird Spotter by Graham Carter

  • How to Find a Bird by Jennifer Ward

Highs

  • I didn’t love all the appointments, but we did knock a ton of things off our big to do list I am loving the flexibility of homeschooling.

Lows

  • Between a dentist appointment and a super long eye appointment (Arthur’s getting glasses!), we lost a ton of time this week. This next week will hopefully be less full and busy.

  • No one showed for board games morning at the park. The boys were disappointed.

Next Week

  • Continuing The Hobbit

  • Finishing Unit 3 in math.

  • Continuing with our mammal theme for coop

  • Heading to China for history

Next up on the TBR pile: