What We Studied

This week is our current normal: a few activities, some days of schoolwork. We got to visit Vala’s for the first time this season and it was amazing. The boys even got to bring two of their friends. A weekly visit to Vala’s will be our new normal through October.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur is primarily using Hearth and Story G5 for his language arts this year. We finished reading our current read aloud about space. Overall, we really enjoyed this journey story featuring a normal American teenager. It definitely sparked some interesting discussions. 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 finished a space-themed read aloud to align with Arthur’s selection. We moved onto Arthurian stories and Beowulf to align with our history.

• Lucy and the Rocket Dog by Will Buckingham

• Excalibur by Hudson Talbott

• King Arthur and the Round Table by Hudson Talbott

• The Hero Beowulf by Eric A. Kimmel

• 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 dove back into our textbook to cover most of the chapter about Multiplying and Dividing Fractions and Decimals.

• 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. We finished our Financial Literacy book and dove back into our main textbook. Q started covering the chapter about Multiplication and Division.

• 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 about the Dutch trading empire and England’s first colonies in North America. For our culture corner, we learned about Johannes Vermeer and his art.

• Curiosity Chronicles Early Modern History Vol. 1

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• DK A Child Through Time

• Johannes Vermeer by Alix Wood

• The Vermeer Interviews by Bob Raczka

• Corpse Talk by Adam & Lisa Murphy (chapter about Guy Fawkes)

Quentin is using History Quest Middle Times with Build Your Library Level 2 supporting. We continued history with a chapter about the Norse. We explored some books and videos about the Vikings and their influences on history. We also watched a NOVA documentary about a lost Viking army.

• 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

• What Did the Vikings Do for Me? by Elizabeth Raum

• DK Eyewitness: Viking

• Myths, Legends, & Sacred Stories

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 read a chapter in the Story of Science, learning about Max Planck and the discovery of quanta. 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 have a formal lesson, but did watch an episode of One Strange Rock. We also covered the Blossom and Root Book Seed Young Water Protectors. We learned about why water is so important and how some people are helping to protect access to water.

• RSO Earth and Environment

• Earth by the Numbers by Steve Jenkins

• DK First Earth Encyclopedia

• Young Water Protectors: A Story About Standing Rock by Aslan Tudor

Enrichment STEAM Co-op

We started our last mini session for coop focusing on art and mathematics. Quentin’s class learned about shapes and art. I taught Arthur’s class all about probability.

Art and Music

Art will be very sporadic this year, but we do have some fun excursions planned. And I will incorporate art projects into a lot of other subjects and unit studies. We had our fist visit to the Joslyn Museum. Along with a few friends, we explored part of the modern art wing and a few historical art galleries to focus on space and perspective. The boys lasted about two hours before being done. I’m excited by the possibilities for future visits. We are going to love going monthly.

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 Rolling Stones. I fully admit that they are not my favorite, but I do enjoy their early work.

• Music Lab: We Rock!

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

Field Trip/Activities

We skipped the field trips that were planned in the social co-op for more school time at home. We did end up visiting the Joslyn on Wednesday, so I’m counting it.

High

Tuesday was our first visit to Vala’s for 2024. The boys got to invite two friends and we ended up spending 5 1/2 hours exploring. The boys rode the new roller coaster and found the newly refurbished attractions. We each grabbed a slice of pie as our treat. I tried the strawberry rhubarb (the special this week) and it was great. The boys got salted caramel apple.

Low

By Friday, I was slightly burned out. We decided to skip the apple orchard excursion to relax at home. We ended up covering more schoolwork and watching some documentaries. I think it was a good call.

Next Week

• Starting a new spooky read aloud (A)

• Starting a new read aloud featuring a lovable robot Q)

• Learning about the British Isles (Q)

• Taking a dive into the makeup of the Earth (Q)

• Listening to The Supremes and James Brown

• Heading to Vala’s again and out for a nature walk

Next up on the TBR pile: