What We Studied

A Flex and a normal week in this post. But, we are also heading into our busy season full of pumpkin patch and fall activities. I’m attempting to find a better balance between our activities, home chores, and curriculum work. But then I have to remember that homeschooling comes in seasons.

Finished our 14th adventure with HeroQuest

Literature and Poetry

Arthur finished The Lightning Thief. We’re very interested in watching the new Disney series when it releases in December. We then started a new read aloud. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
A Child's Introduction to Greek Mythology
Poetry for Young People: American Poetry
Poetry for Young People: African American Poetry
Reading Explorer: Intro
Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk

Quentin finished our read aloud and I think we enjoyed it. After, I let him pick our next read aloud and he chose Zoey and Sassafras. He also worked on some basic grammar. I tacked on a mini theme unit about leaves and fall to celebrate the season. And we started the official spelling curriculum this week. It felt like too much on Week 1, but I want to get it going with this cycle. I've been using The Moffatt Girls spelling curriculum for grades 1st-3rd. I love her word lists and activity pages. Makes it really easy to add-on. I just wish that she had lists for 4th and 5th grade.

Sing a Song of Seasons
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
Zoey and Sassafras 3: Merhorses and Bubbles by Asia Citro
Zoey and Sassafras 4: Caterflies and Ice by Asia Citro
Where I Live: Poems About My Home, My Street, and My Town
The Wall in the Middle of the Book by Jon Agee
The Squirrels’ Busy Year by Martin Jenkins
In the Middle of Fall by Kevin Henkes
Taking a Walk in the Country by Sue Tarsky
Pick a Circle, Gather Squares: A Fall Harvest of Shapes by Felicia Sanzari Chernesky
Leaves! by Robert Munsch
Leif and the Fall by Allison Sweet Grant and Adam Grant
Fall leaves by Doretta Holland
A Fall Ball for All by Jamie A. Swenson
One Leaf, Two Leaves, Count with Me by John Micklos Jr.
Leaves by Grace Hansen
Lilla's Sunflowers by Colleen Rowan Kosinski

Math

Arthur continued to dive into Singapore 5A. We are definitely going to slow down our math lessons a bit to make sure that Arthur achieves mastery. We also continued our next logic book.

Singapore Common Core 5A
Orbiting with Logic

Quentin continued working toward the end of Singapore 1B with a unit on math to 120. I’m still debating if we should take a small review break after finishing 1B and before beginning 2A. We also continued our logic book.

Lollipop Logic Book 3
Singapore Common Core 1B

Social Studies

Arthur jumped back into BYL 6 and History Quest: US History with Reconstruction. We covered the time period and the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. Our curriculum also had us take a step back to reconnect with Native Americans before and during the Civil War. We will be continuing with that storyline next week.

DK American History
We were There Too! Young People in US History
Words that Build a Nation
Heart and Soul
Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States
Red Cloud: A Lakota Story of War and Surrender by S.D. Nelson

Quentin moved onto the the beginnings of Civilization with the Fertile Crescent. We didn’t quite finish the unit like I was hoping and still need to cover cuneiform. History is going a little slower with Q than it did with Arthur, but I have to remember that we have much more on our plates this year. We’ll get though it.

History Quest Early Times
DK When on Earth?
Human Wold
DK History
DK Timelines of Everything
DK A Child Through Time
A History of Western Art
DK Science Year by Year
The Genius of the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages by Izzi Howell

Science

Arthur is embarking upon RSO Chemistry this year. We will be doing the experiment portions with a group of coop friends. This week’s class focused on atoms and I taught the experiments. The kids were super squirrely, but we got through it.

RSO Chemistry
DK Super Simple Chemistry
Story of Science Vol. 2: Newton at the Center by Joy Hakim

Quentin skipped science these two weeks. For Flex Week, we purposely held off. For last week, time just got away from us completely. We’ll catch up soon I know.

RSO Life
DK Oversimple Biology

STEAM Coop

Coop resumed with Arthur learning about how to make a fire and Quentin learning about photography. Moving onto his past week, Arthur started a series on art mediums. This week they learned about shading techniques and light sources. He really loved it! Quentin class was taught by me and we talked about the colors of fall. The kids made tissue paper sunflowers and pony bead colorful corn cobs.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

And I finally fell off the art and music train these past two weeks. I just could’t seem to get it to fit in our schedueles. I suspect this will be an issue until November, but hoping we can slide it in at least half of the weeks.

DK Music and How it Works
DK The Arts
Modern Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw
13 American Artists Children Should Know
A Child's Introduction to Art
Women in Art by Rachel Ignotofsky
We are Artists by Kari Herbert

Field Trip

On Tuesday two weeks ago, we played at the new Lewis and Clark Landing on the river. There’s a fun new playground tucked into the space by the new science museum (visiting soon!). The kids loved all the structures. I just wish that there was actually some shade… We had coop picture day on this past Tuesday. Our former coop member extended her usual picture taking to include a lesson on photography. The kids learned a bit about the technology she uses and she even let the older ones take a test picture. After, we hit up the nearby park for some playtime with friends.

Beautiful sights at Platte River State Park

High

We got two good nature hikes in (one on a rainy cloudy day that was just perfect) and our first trip to the pumpkin patch. I have us scheduled to go to the pumpkin patch 8 times from now until Halloween. I like to get our money’s worth out of those season passes!

Low

By Friday afternoon, I was exhausted. So much stuff! I didn’t balance my school work expectations and outings and general house chores very well. Something to work on…

Next Week -

Finishing Echo Mountain
Finishing our current Zoey and Sassafras book and possibly starting the next one
Finishing 1B for Math (Q) and taking the next lessons in 5A slowly (A)
Hosting, but not teaching, the next Chemistry Class
Getting back into our history texts
Celebrating Q’s birthday with a trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

Next up on the TBR pile: