What We Studied

Oddly this past week just feels very meh for me. We covered a decent amount of schoolwork and had a few activities. But we also had a big car appointment and had to change our Tuesday plans after an unexpected hours change. I ended the week with a big feeling of meh. I think the boys are very much with me on that feeling.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur is primarily using Hearth and Story G5 for his language arts this year. We continued reading our current read aloud about space. We continued with our spelling and completed our week 4 list. We also covered more grammar and extra language arts assignments.

• 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. We dove into a space-themed read aloud to align with Arthur’s selection. We should finish it early next week.

• Lucy and the Rocket Dog by Will Buckingham

• Poetry: Firefly July

• Write Shop B

Math

Arthur is using Singapore’s Math in Focus Course 1. Effectively this is Singapore’s 6th grade math text. We paused our lessons from the textbook in favor of 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. This week was really about math practice and financial literacy.

• Primarily Logic

• Singapore Primary Common Core 2B

• EM Financial Literacy G1

Social Studies

Arthur is using Curiosity Chronicles Early Modern History Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 this year. We covered an entire section learning about Korea and Japan.

• 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 continued history with a chapter about the Tang and Song Dynasties of China.

• History Quest Middle Times

• DK When on Earth?

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• DK A Child Through Time

• Kingfisher Atlas of the Medieval World

• The Explosive Story of Fireworks by Kama Einhorn

• Fireworks and Gunpowder by Phil Amara and Oliver Chin

• Liang and the Magic Paintbrush by Demi

• Hildegard of Bingen: Scientist, Composer, Healer and Saint by Demi

• We're Riding on a Caravan by Laurie Krebs

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 two chapters in the Story of Science, learning about Marie Curie and her discoveries. We continued watching the documentary series One Strange Rock. We will continue watching sporadically throughout the fall. I’m counting this as science for kids.

• 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 didn’t manage to fit science in this past week. At least we watched one episode of our science documentary.

• RSO Earth and Environment

• Earth by the Numbers by Steve Jenkins

• DK First Earth Encyclopedia

Enrichment STEAM Co-op

We started our last mini session for coop focusing on art and mathematics. I taught Quentin’s class about tangrams and geometry. Arthur’s class explored origami.

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. We did cover the second module in our visual arts curriculum. We covered a quick history of art styles and choose a few favorites.

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 The Beatles. Always a favorite in our house. We focused a lot on how The Beatles influenced so many other artists. We also did some comparison of original Beatles songs and covers.

• Music Lab: We Rock!

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

Field Trip/Activities

Our planned visit to the Luminarium was scrapped as they unexpectedly changed their hours. Unfortunately we couldn’t fit back into the schedule this week. We will have to wait until our October scheduled visit to go.

High

On Monday, we had our annual school photo session. A former homeschool parent has a side business doing photography and has offered her services every year. She takes great pictures and they are a highlight of the fall season. I can’t wait to see the pics soon.

Low

I absolutely hate taking the car into the dealership for oil changes and work. We had to get that oil change, fluids, tire rotation, and transmission flush. I packed a ton of school stuff to settle into the long haul. It wasn’t fun hanging out in their waiting room. But thankfully the dealership finished quickly.

Next Week

• Continuing our read aloud (A)

• Finishing our read aloud and Starting a new one (Q)

• Learning about the Dutch and the English (A) and the Vikings (Q)

• Listening to The Rolling Stones

• Heading to Vala’s for our first visit of the season

Next up on the TBR pile: