I ended up combining two different weeks into one post after we had to take an emergency trip over to Indiana. My father died a few weeks back and we traveled over to attend the funeral. My carefully set schedule went out the window for a few weeks as we traveled and came home. I made sure we took some curriculum just to keep busy, but mostly let our plans go for the time. We’re back home and getting back into schedule for the coming weeks.

What We Studied

Literature and Poetry

• Egyptian Diary by Richard Platt

• Hey You! Poems to Skyscrapers, Mosquitos, and Other Fun Things

• Half Magic by Edward Eager

• Sharing the Seasons

Math

We started 1B Unit 11, which was basically a review of two digit addition and subtraction. And we covered Unit 12 about an introduction to multiplication. Arthur quickly grasped the concept. We will be circling back to it in a few weeks after introducing division next week.

Social Studies

It was Ancient Egypt week(s)!

• Mummies, Pyramids, and Pharaohs by Gail Gibbons

• Egypt in Spectacular Cross-Section by Stephen Biesty

• The Egyptian Pyramid by Elizabeth Longley

• People Who Made History

• Tut’s Mummy Lost and Found by Judy Donnelly

• Temple Cat by Andrew Clements

• The Mummy Makers of Egypt by Tamara Bower

• The Egyptian Cinderella by Shirley Climo

• Ancient Worlds

Science

We finished out Mary Anning Book Seed once returning to Nebraska.

• Stone Girl, Bone Girl by Laurence Anholt

We also continued out ongoing study of biodiversity, biomes, ecosystems, and habitats. We watched a Bill Nye episode on biodiversity, an oldie but a goodie!

Art

We didn’t do any dedicated art lessons, but did make crafts for ancient Egypt. Arthur loved decorating a sarcophagus.

• Jackson Pollock Splashed Paint and Wasn’t Sorry by Fausto Gilberti

Music

None these two weeks

Nature Play Day

None these two weeks due to travel

Unit Theme

Week 6’s unit theme was deserts to go along with Africa from W5 and Egypt from W6. We learned about the various animals in desert habitats along with some plants and general facts. We visited the zoo before leaving Omaha specifically to go to the desert dome. Arthur was excited to connect the Namib and Sonoran deserts to the two sections in the desert dome. Magic School Bus had a great episode about deserts: All Dried Up!

• The Dry Desert by Philip Johansson

• Desert by Cassie Mayer

• Desert Baths by Darcy Pattison

• Desert Song by Tony Johnston

• The Desert is Theirs by Byrd Baylor

• A Day and Night in the Desert by Caroline Arnold

• D is for Desert by Barbara Gowan

• Desert by Elizabeth Haldane

• Animal Camouflage in the Desert by Martha E.H. Rustad

• Let’s Visit the Desert by Buffy Silverman

• Desert by Fleur Star

Week 7’s unit theme was Fall and Leaves to celebrate the Autumnal Equinox. We ended up just reading a ton of books.

• Talking a Walk: Fall in the Country by Sue Tarsky

• Oak Leaf by John Sandford

• Come Next Season by Kim Norman

• Signs of Autumn by Colleen Dolphin

• Counting on Fall by Lizann Flatt

• My Autumn Book by Wong Herbert Yee

• Fall leaves Fun by Martha E.H. Rustad

• Fall Harvest Fun by Martha E.H. Rustad

• The Squirrel’s Busy Year by Martin Jenkins

• Hello Fall by Deborah Diesen

• Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn by Kenard Pak

• I Love Fall by Alison Inches

• Mouse’s First Fall by Lauren Thompson

• In the Middle of Fall by Kevin Henkes

• Fall Weather Fun by Martha E.H. Rustad

• Hello Autumn by Shelley Rotner

• The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri

• Autumn by Gerda Muller

• Leaves by David Ezra Stein

• Four Friends in Autumn by Tomie DePaola

Misc. - Random picture books read

• Pretty Salma by Niki Daly

• Counting on Letters by Lizann Flatt

• The Leopard’s Drum by Jessica Souhami

• Koi and the Kola Nuts by Verna Aardema

• Mama Miti by Donna Jo Napoli

• Chicka, Chicka, 1, 2, 3 by Bill Martin Jr.

Highs

• More great podcasts this week! We found a Storynory spin-off about the writings of Herodotus. We listened to the Egypt related episodes. We also found some good 60 Second Science episodes about archaeology.

• We managed to fit in two zoo visits with focuses on the desert and African animals. And we made it to Vala’s for their special homeschooling day.

Lows

• All the travel…

Next Week

Maybe we will get back into a normal schedule this week. We focusing on Ancient India along with scarecrows and corn.

Next up on the TBR pile: