What We Studied

Our week 8 ended being a bit abbreviated because of lots of different activities, so I’m combining it with our week 9 for the recap. We ended our week 9 with the boys’ epic Knights of the Round Table Party, so we had another slightly abbreviated week. Still got a lot of school done and time outside, but we will be playing catch-up a bit on our next flex week (after week 10).

Literature and Poetry

As our extra read aloud, we finished A Wolf Called Wander in the middle of the two weeks. For our actual curriculum, we started and almost finished The Wild Robot Escapes. I really loved the entire duology of Roz’s adventures. I loved every part of those books. We’ll be wrapping that book up this week and diving into our next read aloud (and the coop book club selection for October).

• The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

• Poetry for Young People: Robert Frost

• A Wolf Called Wander by Rosanne Parry

Quentin focused on reading animal stories from around the world. I’m trying to line them up with our continents as we move across the world. We stayed in South American for our stories.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• Looking for Jaguar and Other Rain Forest Poems by Susan Katz

• Tales Our Abuelitas Told: A Hispanic Folktale Collection by Alma Flor Ada

• Jabuti The Tortoise: A Trickster Tale from the Amazon by Gerald McDermott

• Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia by Jeanette Winter

• Love and Roast Chicken by Barbara Knutson

• Miro in the Kingdom of the Sun by Jane Kurtz

• One Day in the Tropical Rain Forest by Jean Craighead George

Math

For both boys, we have scheduled math for three days a week. One day is focused on logic, games, puzzles, and special projects. The two other days are focused on covering the main math curriculum (Singapore 4A and 4B for Arthur and Singapore 1A and 1B for Quentin). Quentin finished his Tinkeractive text so we are ready to move onto Singapore and Smart Start Math.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4A

• Tinkeractive Math Kindergarten

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

Social Studies

Arthur continued his large study of United States history using a combination of Build Your Library Level 5 and History Quest United States History. We wrapped up our exploration of the various groups of Native Americans pre-1492 and dove into the European colonization of the continent. We ended up covering Jamestown and beginnings of what would be Virginia.

• A Kid’s Guide to Native American History by Yvonne Wakim Dennis

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

• Turtle Island: The Story of North America’s First People by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger

• What the Eagle Sees: Indigenous Stories of Rebellion and Renewal by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger

• History Quest: U.S. History

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• 1607: A New Look at Jamestown

• Blood on the Water by Elisa Carbone

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We did a study of South America covering multiple regions. We also had a Sunnie Press maps for Rio de Janeiro and a Atlas Crate box for Brazil.

• Nat Geo Beginner’s World Atlas

• DK Countries of the World

• DK Children Just Like Me

• DK Children Just Like Me; A School Like Mine

• Along the Tapajos by Fernando Vilela

• Living in Brazil by Chloe Perkins

Arthur Independent Time

We are working on following a checklist in a planner for weekly independent work. There’s usually some math workbook pages, an ELA packet, weekly writing prompts (1-2 times a week), independent reading time, and a special creative project. There has been many drawing projects lately.

Science

Arthur is focusing on Physics this year. We are covering the text and related videos at home and then joining friends for experiments and extra projects. We covered more simple machines. and more from our Story of Science.

• RSO Physics

• The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way by Joy Hakim

• Screws by Sally M. Walker and Roseann Feldmann

• The Math Book

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We talked a lot about the Amazonia rainforest and the animals that live there.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Rainforest Grew All Around by Susan K. Mitchell

• Rainforest by Julia Groves

• In the Rainforest by Kate Duke

• Anteaters, Bats, and Boas: The Amazon Rainforest from the Forest Floor to the Treetops by Roxie Munro

• Rainforests by Andrea Silen

• Over and Under the Rainforest by Kate Messner

• The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry

• The Leaf Detective: How Margaret Lowman Uncovered Secrets in the Rainforest by Heather Lang

• Tree of Wonder: The Many Marvelous Lives of a Rainforest Tree by Kate Messner

STEAM Coop

The older class continued their telecommunications theme. Arthur got really into making a transmitter tower and a crystal radio. Quentin’s class focused on life skills.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking

We’re planning one doing on art project and one cooking project each week as well as picking a composer or musician to listen to and enjoy. This week music just didn’t happen. But that’s okay. Arthur’s continued with the Outschool drawing class. He has really gotten into the idea of a new animal each week. He drew an elephant and a red panda.

Field Trip

We had a Zoom tour of a radio station to align with our telecommunications unit. It was fun too see a working radio station even if it was virtual. We also had coop school pictures which led to a park playdate practically next-door to the studio. We also went to the pumpkin patch multiple times these past two weeks. Good thing we have season passes.

High

• Quentin’s 6th birthday was right at the end of September. We had a fun day at the pumpkin patch even if I did just about expire afterward.

Low

• My body has been hurting lately. It got much worse these past two weeks. Not a fan at all.

Next Week

• Finishing The Wild Robot Escapes and staring Howl’s Moving Castle (A)

• Moving to the Pilgrims for US History (A)

• Covering levers for Physics (A)

• Reading some animal stories from South America (Q)

• Finishing the South American countries (Q)

• Covering telecommunications (A) and government (Q) for coop

Next up on the TBR pile: