Homeschool W8: Big Changes are Happening!
What We Studied
My title sound really scary, but the big changes I am referring are actually great things. We officially started our new Academic Co-op. (More info later in the post.) Otherwise, we had a very normal week.
Literature and Poetry
Arthur is primarily using Hearth and Story G5 for his language arts this year. We finished a spooky mystery read and then started a spooky read. I really love our current read, so much that I have Funko figurines of both Coraline and the Other Mother in my office. We also covered more grammar and extra language arts assignments.
The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street by Lindsay Currie
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
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 started a new classic for us. Quentin saw a trailer for the new The Wild Robot movie and wanted to bump up the book to read before seeing the movie. I’m always up for that. We ended up finishing that book and starting a new read.
The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graeme
Poetry: Cricket in the Thicket by Carol Murray
Write Shop B
Math
Arthur is using Singapore’s Math in Focus Course 1. Effectively this is Singapore’s 6th grade math text. Arthur focused on a chapter continuing his review of ratios. I do love how the chapter tied ratios to real-life situations. It wasn’t just random problems.
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. Q continued the chapter on Money.
Primarily Logic
Singapore Primary Common Core 2B
EM Financial Literacy G2
Social Studies
Arthur is using Curiosity Chronicles Early Modern History Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 this year. We covered an entire section about art and science of the Baroque and Scientific Revolutions periods. This will work perfectly with our Josly Art Explorers this week. We are going to find the Baroque paintings and discuss the use of light and shadow.
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 stayed in Western Europe and covered the Magna Carta. It was a shorter chapter, but that worked out perfectly for us. We snuck our history in at the end of the week.
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 Magna Carta: Cornerstone of the Constitution by Roberta Baxter
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. This week we started our co-op and Arthur covered the first unit in the biology text during class. He has homework for co-op, but we will be waiting until Monday to tackle that (schedule constraints). We will also be doing some of Blossom & Root’s Book Seeds and various other small units in between. We read two chapters in the Story of Science. 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. Q covered rocks and minerals. We actually covered a bit chunk of the unit during academic co-op. We also watched an episode of One Strange Rock.
RSO Earth and Environment
DK First Earth Encyclopedia
If You Find a Rock by Peggy Christian
Let's Go Rock Collecting by Roma Gans
Rocks and Minerals by Steve Tomecek
Nat Geo Rocks and Minerals by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
All About Minerals by Cody Crane
Cave of Crystals by Martha London
Academic Co-op
We had our first week of Academic Co-op on Thursday. We meet from 10am-2pm (most weeks, a few are shifted by an hour) and cover Math, Biology, and Civics. After a few small hiccups, we settled in for the day and powered through the classes. For math, we did a project focusing on place value that I partially taught. For biology, they covered the concept of biology and what makes something alive. For civics, I taught the kids some basic definitions and the structure of our government. The kids also learned how to use their planners and act in a more formalized class setting. Afterwards, four of the seven families walked across the street for Boba. Not going o get it every week, but it was a nice treat.
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 didn’t have a Harbor + Sprout module this week.
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. We enjoyed listening to Jefferson Airplane (and Jefferson Starship, Hot Tuna, and Starship) and The Byrds.
Music Lab: We Rock!
DK Music and How it Works
DK The Arts
Field Trip/Activities
No real field trips, but we did visit Vala’s and went on a nature walk at Heron Haven.
High
We started our Academic Co-op! Strangely, I was very very nervous before the start, but we made it through. The kids did amazing! Most of the hiccups came from the adults not being present and ready. The kids only had to be gently reminded to stay on task. I am so proud of them.
Low
We were absolutely knackered after co-op on Thursday. I forgot what it was like to basically teach a full day of classes. Even though I’m only supposed to be teaching civics, I taught half of the math class and worked directly with Quentin during the other times. So tiring…
Next Week
Continuing our read alouds
Finishing our next math chapters
Completing our homework (A) from co-op
Learning about failing empires (A) and Cahokia (Q) - history
Listening to Led Zeppelin
Heading to Vala’s, once with J!
Traveling to Nebraska City for our Arbor Day Farm day (I look forward to this all summer)
Next up on the TBR pile: