February 2022 Life Goals

Let’s check in on January’s goals and my progress.

• Read 15 Books ✓

• Map Out My Year ✓

• Work on a Craft Project ✓ - I’ve almost finished with my 2021 Memory Planner.

• Get a Jump on Our 1000 Hours Outside ✓

• Plan a Few Trips - Nope. Not yet.

• Plan Out Homeschooling for January - March - Working on it.

• Pull Down Christmas Decorations ✓

February Goals:

• Read 15 Books

• Finish my 2021 Memory Planner

• Log 10 Hours Outside

• Finish Coop Tasks for Winter

• Have a Movie Month

• Have a Valentine’s Day Party

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W20: Getting Used to Winter Walks

What We Studied

We ended up with a light week, but covered some ground.

We found a visitor at Heron Haven

Literature and Poetry

We started our new read aloud. There’s a dragon, a journey, and a collection of folklore stories. I’m digging it. Not sure how much Arthur is, but we’ll keep going.

• The New Kid on the Block by Jack Prelutsky

• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

Math

Arthur worked through 3B Unit 7 about capacity. We discussed milliliters and liters. We’ll be finishing the unit this coming week.

• Logic Liftoff

Social Studies

We covered two Indian Empires for our middle times. Specifically, we learned about Razia Sultana.

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• When on Earth

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

Arthur Independent Time

To allow for one-on-one time with Quentin, I have added an hour of independent work time for Arthur. Each week, he will have a mix of packet work (mostly grammar and math review), independent reading time, and special projects. Many of his projects will be aligned with our literature selections (some taken from B&R Language Arts curriculum) and history.

Science and STEAM Coop

For science, we did a mini unit on weather to coincide with our coop theme. At home we learned about the weather and various weather states. We tracked the weather and working on some activities. In coop, I taught the older kids and we discussed what makes the weather and made a weather station.

• Snow is Falling by Franklyn M. Branley

• One Snowy Morning by Kevin Tseng

• First Snow by Nancy Vlau

• Some Snow Is... by Ellen Yeoman

• Snow Day! by Candice Ransom

• The Snow Day by Komako Sakai

• Sizing Up Winter by Lizann Flatt

• What Will the Weather Be? by Lynda Dewitt

• Watching the Weather by Lisa J. Amstutz

• Weather Words and What They Mean by Gail Gibbons

• What Makes a Blizzard? by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

• Kate, Who Tamed the Wind by Liz Garton Scanlon

• Come On, Rain! by Karen Hesse

• The Fog by Kyo Maclear

Art/Music

None this week

Quentin

I have scheduled at least four 1-hour time blocks for one-on-one time with Quentin. I bought Blossom and Root’s Early Years Volume 2 curriculum to use as our base. I love the variety of activities and some of the bigger projects included. We covered a variety of snow activities, shapes, colors, and math.

ELA

• Biscuit Phonics Books

• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

Math

• Lollipop Logic Book 1

Other

Field Trip

On Monday we had a nice walk at Heron Haven. It was a bit icy, but it was lovely to get outside for an hour. This wasn’t a big coop field trip, but a more spontaneous outing to take advantage of the weather.

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. We ended not watching anything particular.

Misc. Picture Books Read

• The Koala Who Could by Rachel Bright

• Let's Pop, Pop, Popcorn! by Cynthia Schumerth

• Jackrabbit McCabe and the Electric Telegraph by Lucy Margaret Rozier

• Interrupting Cow and the Chicken Crossing the Road by Jane Yolen

• Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein

• Max and Marla are Going on a Trip by Alexandra Boiger

• Snow Falls by Kate Gardner

• Interrupting Chicken: Cookies for Breakast by David Ezra Stein

• Interrupting Chicken and the Elephant of Surprise by David Ezra Stein

• In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek

• I am by Human: A Book of Empathy Susan Vrede

• I am Love: A Book of Compassion by Susan Vrede

• I am Courage: A Book of Resilience by Susan Verde

• I am One: A Book of Action by Susan Verde

• I am Peace: A Book of Mindfulness by Susan Verde

• When the Snow Falls by Linda Booth Sweeney

• Tidy by Emily Gravett

High

• Tuesday morning we had a lovely relaxing playdate with a friend. The friend had to leave the coop, but it’s nice to continue the friendship.

Low

• We lost a whole afternoon of school because I decided that we needed to clean up the playroom. It needed to be done, but involving the kids meant that it took almost four hours.

Next Week

• Finishing 3B Unit 7 for math

• Continuing reading Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

• Concluding weather and climate change for coop

• Covering China for history

• Getting acquainted with Renoir for art

• Working on phonics for Quentin

• Spending more hours outside

Next up on the TBR pile:

Winter Bucket List Update #1

After taking a bit of a break from bucket lists in 2021 (seriously, that year was a trash fire), I’m back this year. We have a variety of projects that we want to accomplish this coming year and I want to make some intentions for each season. For winter:

1. Check off 150 hours of our 1000 hours outside project - We officially have 4 hours posted. Not a great start, but the weather has really been hindering us.

2. Have a birthday day out for my 40th!

3. Weekend trip to Chicago

4. Read 50 books (16/50)

5. Day trip to Des Moines

6. At least 6 zoo visits (1/6)

7. Trip to see the frozen waterfall at Platte

8. Movie Month February .

9. Weekly Game Day/Night with Arthur — We started this, although terrible attitudes caused us to miss a week.

10. Make winter crafts

11. Design board for future kitchen renovation

12. Make Valentine’s

13. Have a monthly (indoor) picnic

14. Finish one craft project - I’m currently 70% of the way finished with my 2021 Memory Planner. Hoping to finish soon!

15. Monthly bingo/trivia nights - Our last one got canceled, but I’m making up for it with a trivia and a bingo night in February.

16. Go sledding

17. Buy a new Nebraska State Park permit ✓ And we’ve even used it once already.

18. Do a donation drop - I’ve done a toy cleanup, just need to gather some more things before doing the drop.

19. Take the kids bowling

20. Dye my hair purple

21. Log 50 miles on the treadmill

22. Learn to knit

23. Replace 50% of my socks ✓

24. Make homemade cinnamon rolls

25. Complete 3 television series - We finished The Witcher S2 and It’s Always Sunny S15, but no big series yet. I really want to finish Hustle something this season.

Up Next on the TBR:

Homeschool W19: Winter Hikes can be Refreshing

What We Studied

We ended up having a few outings this week, but also

Literature and Poetry

This week’s theme was trickster tales of Africa. It went along nicely with our history unit covering Mali. We also did a mini lesson on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to honor his legacy.

• Martin Luther King Jr.: Preacher, Freedom Fighter, Peacemaker by Pamela Hill Nettleton

• Be a King: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Dream and You by Carole Boston Weatherford

• Poetry: The New Kid on the Block by Jack Prelutsky

• Trickster Tales of Africa

• A Ring of Tricksters by Virginia Hamilton

• Stegothesaurus by Bridget He’s

Math

We continued with our Logic Liftoff book and the various logic puzzles that I’ve found. Arthur finished Unit 6 from 3B and is ready to move on.

Social Studies

We covered the middle times chapter on the Mali Empire. We learned about Mansa Muse the famous city of Timbuktu.

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• When on Earth

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• The Magic Guard by Baba Wague Diakite

• The Fire Children: A West African Creation Tale by Eric Maddern

• The Hatseller and the Monkeys by Baba Wague Diakite

Arthur Independent Time

To allow for one-on-one time with Quentin, I have added an hour of independent work time for Arthur. Each week, he will have a mix of packet work (mostly grammar and math review), independent reading time, and special projects. Many of his projects will be aligned with our literature selections (some taken from B&R Language Arts curriculum) and history.

Science and STEAM Coop

For science, we are covering emotions and socio-emotional traits. Quentin has really taken to discussing the various books.

• DK My Mixed Emotions: Anger

• Millie Fierce by Jane Manning

• Be Positive! by Cheri J. Meiners

• The Way I Act by Steve Metzger

• Do Unto Otters by Laurie Keller

• Wiggles, Stomps, and Squeezes Calm My Jitters Down by Lindsey Rowe Parker

• Don't Be Afraid to Drop by Julia Cook

• I Can Handle It! by Laurie Wright

In coop, we had our second week about Famous Nebraskans and Iowans open house. The boys had fun and we met some new friends.

Art/Music

Nothing this week

Quentin

I have scheduled at least four 1-hour time blocks for one-on-one time with Quentin. I bought Blossom and Root’s Early Years Volume 2 curriculum to use as our base. I love the variety of activities and some of the bigger projects included. We covered some simple phonics lessons featuring the digraph Th. We did more alphabet review. We also covered the months of the year, opposites, and shapes.

ELA

• The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf

• My Papi has a Motorcycle by Isabel Quintero

Math

• Lollipop Logic Book 1

• Fish, Swish! Splash, Dash! by Sure MacDonald

Other

• A Little Book About Opposites

Field Trip

We met our coop friends at the SAC Museum to learn about air travel. The boys had extra fun the play areas. And I had got to chat with some of my friends.

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. We watched more PBS Eons videos. Eventually we will finish watching all of the published videos.

Misc. Picture Books Read -

• 365 Penguins by Jean-Luc Fromental

• Unicorn is Maybe Not So Great After All by Bob Shea

• Unplugged by Steve Antony

• That's My Carrot! by Il Sung Na

• I Feel Teal by Lauren Rille

• When Sadness is at Your Door by Eva Eland

• Girl Versus Squirrel by Hayley Barrett

High

• We went on a winter hike at Schramm State Recreational Area. The temps were hovering around 35 degrees and the skies were clear. We were careful to walk on the edges of the path avoiding the ice. We also stopped at the fish hatchery ponds and the geologic formation. It was a good couple of hours outside enjoying nature.

Low

• Night time reading didn’t really happen this week due to bad attitudes (and books falling on my head). Here’s hoping next week goes better.

Next Week

• Starting a new read aloud

• Learning about Indian Empires

• Covering Unit 7: Capacity

• Exploring weather and climate change for coop

• Continuing emotions for science

• Hoping to cover Renoir for art

Next up on the TBR pile:

Life Right Now #2

As I look outside my window: It’s clear and bright, but probably very cold. I haven’t decided if I’m leaving the house today.

Right now I am: Getting ready to dive into my reading hour. I’ve got a graphic novel and a nonfiction business book sitting here ready for me to pick up.

On my bedside table: Enjoy the View by Sarah Morgenthaler; Far Sector by NK Jemisin

On my tv this week: Wr continued with The Witcher S2 and The Great S1. And we finally started watching The Righteous Gemstones.

Listening to: Lots of hard rock playlists. I’ve been mixing it up. Somehow the hard rock has been calming me done while I’ve been making dinner and doing house chores.

On the menu for this week:

• Monday - Sausage, Potato, Spinach Soup

• Tuesday - Chicken Shawarma Fries

• Wednesday - Leftovers

• Thursday - Jalapeño Popper and Bean Soup

• Friday - Peanut Sauce Chicken and Broccoli Bowls

• Saturday - Maafe

• Sunday - Italian Noodle Soup

On my to do list: Laundry, put away laundry, vacuum, make a cake, make dinner, prep dinner for tomorrow (chicken needs to marinate), print some photos, organize some photos, maybe do a library run

Happening this week:

• Monday - Winter walk at Heron Haven

• Tuesday - Playdate at Friend’s House; Book Club

• Wednesday - Regular Home Day

• Thursday - Coop

• Friday - Regular Home Day

• Saturday - Regular Home Day

• Sunday - Currently Reading Zoom

What I am creating: I’m still working through my 2021 Memory Planner. I’ve completed up through July and I just started at the new year. I’m hoping to be done by mid-February. I did hit an obstacle in that I didn’t clean out all the photos from our road trip in September. That’s going to take a minute.

My simple pleasures: Time with friends (even all masked up and cautious), continuing to be healthy, less headaches this week, reliving our road trip by cleaning out the pictures.

Looking around the house: J has been tackling some random projects including getting a bookcase for his books, removing some random old things (like the radio in the bathroom), and buying garage door insulating kits. Here’s hoping he can finish something today.

From the camera: We visited SAC Museum this week during a very cold day. We haven’t been in almost two years and it was nice to visit again.

Odds and Ends

Here's my randomness for the week:

• We’ve been out and about multiple days this week. I am thoroughly peopled out.

• Took the opportunity to replace most of my socks this week. Funny how the little things make me happy.

• Caramel lava cakes are delightful. That’s all.

• Thinking about dyeing my hair for my birthday. Maybe?

Next up on the TBR pile:

Currently #1

Reading: Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse - I don’t know why I put this off for so long. I finally started it and it’s very intriguing.

Watching: We’ve been slowly working through The Great S1. It is at times hilarious and heartbreaking.

Listening: We haven’t been going out that often, so no music stretches for us. But I have been catching up on my podcasts.

Making: I started my 2021 Memory Planner pages and am now up to May’s spreads. I’m hoping to get all of these months finished by the end of February. Then I can move onto 2022’s pages.

Feeling: Temperatures have been all over the place. It is fairly warm outside, but I am very chilly right now.

Planning: I wasn’t planning on it, but I am going to be teaching our next coop theme for the older kids. I need to get moving on our lessons.

Loving: Even with weird random days, I am getting stuff done around here and it’s great.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W18: A Rough Transition, But We Made It!

What We Studied

Getting back into a homeschool routine was very difficult this week, but we did it! We managed to finish a majority of my planned curriculum and worked in a impromptu field trip;

Literature and Poetry

This week’s main literature selection was Trickster Tales from Asia and Polynesia. The collection coincided nicely with our history chapter. The boys made a ton of connections to the movie Moana and really loved some of the stories. We also read a ton of picture books and some poetry. The boys are digging the silliness of our current poetry collection from Jack Prelutsky.

• Voices on the Wind: Poems for All Seasons selected by David Booth

• Trickster Tales

• Hooray for Hat by Brian Won

• The Cow Loves Cookies by Karma Wilson

• The New Kid on the Block by Jack Prelutsky

• Kit Flying by Grace Lin

Math

We fell into a routine of taking Monday to focus on logic puzzles and I’m really love the change. We will keep this in our regular routine. Beyond those, Arthur started Singapore Math 3B with a unit on mass and weight. We’ll be finishing that particularly chapter next week.

• Logic Liftoff

Social Studies

Still plugging along with our History Quest Middle Times. Chapter 16 was all about Polynesia. We learned about how and when various island groups were settled. The text focused then on three different cultures: New Zealand, Hawaii, and Rapa Nui. Arthur really got into the few travel videos I found detailing the Maori culture.

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• When on Earth

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• Oceania by Martha London

• Myths, Legends, and Sacred Stories

• DK Explorers

Arthur Independent Time

To allow for one-on-one time with Quentin, I have added an hour of independent work time for Arthur. Each week, he will have a mix of packet work (mostly grammar and math review), independent reading time, and special projects. Many of his projects will be aligned with our literature selections (some taken from B&R Language Arts curriculum) and history.

Science and STEAM Coop

For science, I decided to start our health unit this week. We are starting with a week long study of emotions and then moving onto other aspects of social emotional learning. I’m sure we will also through in some basic anatomy and probably hygiene afterwards. And I we started to do some simple yoga to tide us over during these super cold months.

• DK How Do I Feel? A Little Guide to My Emotions

• The Crayons' Book of Feelings by Drew Daywalt

• Big Feelings by Alexandra Penfold

• Visiting Feelings by Lauren Rubenstein

• Exploring Emotions: A Mindfulness Guide to Understanding Feelings by Paul Christelis

• This Makes Me Happy by Courtney Carbone

• This Makes Me Sad by Courtney Carbone

• This Makes Me Angry by Courtney Carbone

• This Makes Jealous by Courtney Carbone

• This Makes Me Scared by Courtney Carbone

• This Makes Me Silly by Courtney Carbone

We kicked off the spring semester of coop with the theme of Famous Nebraskans and Iowans. As the first two weeks will act as our open house meetings, I made stations instead of our usual structure. Each station featured a person with biography and a related activity. Everyone who came seemed to really enjoy the activities. Next week we are continuing the theme with six new people. For this week, we covered:

• Shawn Johnson East - gymnast, learned to do a summersault

• Malcolm X - Civil rights activist, made protest signs

• J. Sterling Morton - founder of Arbor Day, planted herb plants to take home

• Norman Borlaug - agronomist, learned about what kids eat around the world

• Evelyn Sharp - WWII pilot, made paper airplanes

• Hartley Burr Alexander - iconographer, drew our own versions of the Nebraska State Capitol building.

• Basic geography and maps of Nebraska and Iowa

Art/Music

I am determined to bring back art and music this semester. Our science will be slightly lighter in the spring and I think we can find some time. This week we studied the woodcuts of Hokusai. (Arthur covered him last year, but this year Quentin is joining in.) We did a big overview of his life and them focused on three pieces to study and appreciate. I chose one piece for each day that we did art. We studied the piece for a few minutes and then made our own drawings. They could be copies or something inspired by the piece. While drawing (I set a 20 minute timer to help my routine and schedule focused kids), we listened to nature sounds (ocean and forest) to keep us in the mood. I really enjoyed this technique and will be carrying it through to the next weeks.

• The Story of Paintings: A History of Art for Children by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom

• Hokusai: Genius of the Japanese Ukiyo-e by Seiki Nagata

Quentin

I have scheduled at least four 1-hour time blocks for one-on-one time with Quentin. I bought Blossom and Root’s Early Years Volume 2 curriculum to use as our base. I love the variety of activities and some of the bigger projects included. I gave Quentin the same pre-test from August to see progress. He has made a ton of progress, but it doesn’t necessarily show on the test. I did notate the progress I have seen and changed a few of the tests to make them more challenging for him. His biggest stumbling block is fine motor control. Writing is still a mountain that we are working to climb. Now that we have covered all the letters, we are focusing on sounds and moving into beginning reading. Q already knows so many words, so we are going to focus a bit more on phonics so he can figure out ones he doesn’t know. For math, we did a lot of puzzles, games, and practice sheets. We also covered a mini unit on diversity and the hijab and the months of the year.

ELA

• The Magic of Letters by Tony Johnston and Wendell Minor

• The Alphabet Tree by Leo Lionni

Math

• Lollipop Logic Book 1

Other

• The Proudest Blue by Ibtihaj Muhammad with S.K. Ali

• What Color is My Hijab? by Hudda Ibrahim

• Under My Hijab by Hena Khan

• Please Try to Remember the First of Octember! by Theo LeSieg

• The Months: by Sara Coleridge

• A Year with Friends by John Seven

• Jump into January: A Journey Around the Year by Stella Blackstone

Field Trip

We didn’t have a field trip on the schedule, but a friend suggested a trip to the zoo on Wednesday. The temperature high was going to be 50 degrees, so perfect for walking around. We ended up visiting the desert dome, aquarium, gorilla house, and butterfly house (plus a pit stop at the okapis who were outside). It was a fun day reconnecting with a friend and her son. The boys had a ton of fun. I want to incorporate more mini impromptu activities with them this semester.

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. We didn’t watch one big documentary, but we did watch some more PBS Eons videos while I was doing a workout. Eventually we will finish them all. Arthur requested them instead of a NOVA episode. My work here is done!

Misc. Picture Books Read

• The Artists by Canles Porta

• There’s an Alien in Your Book by Tom Fletcher

• The Dinosaur that Pooped the Past by Tom Fletcher

• If I Had a Little Dream by Nina Laden

• Max and Marla are Flying Together by Alexander Boiger

• Just in Case You Want to Fly by Julie Fogliano

• Memoirs of a Goldfish by Devin Scillian

• Let's Go to the Hardware Store by Anne Rockwell

• Letter for Leo by Sergio Ruzzier

• The Tickle Test by Kathryn White

• Hungry Bunny by Claudia Rueda

• Ellie in Concert by Mike Wu

• I'm My Own Dog by David Ezra Stein

• First Snow by Bomi Park

• Pinduli by Janeell Cannon

• Ducks Overboard! A True Story of Plastic in Our Oceans by Markus Motum

• The Love Letter by Anika Aldamuy Denise

High

• Restarting coop was a treat. We missed our friends and it was nice to get some social interaction again. Can’t wait for next week!

Low

• I had a big dentist appointment on Tuesday morning (2 1/2 hours!) and ended up punting on school after that. My entire mouth was sore and I was grumpy. We ended up making up the time, but I still feel like we wasted an entire afternoon.

Next Week

• Covering Mali Empire for History

• Reading Trickster Tales from Africa and the Near East

• Finishing 3B Unit 6 for math

• Focusing on reading for Quentin

• Choosing a new artist to study for art time

• Completing W2 of Famous Nebraskans and Iowans for coop

• Visiting the SAC Museum for coop field trip

• Maybe taking a hike at Platter River State Park?

Next up on the TBR pile:

Life Right Now #1

As I look outside my window: Clear and bright. After the snowstorm on Friday afternoon/evening, the sun has come out. Yesterday was still very cold, but it’s going to warm up today. I’ll miss the snow, it has been very pretty.

Right now I am: Getting ready to dive back into curriculum planning for the week. I finished 80% of it yesterday but still need to tackle Quentin’s preschool and our health unit.

Thinking and pondering: Should I go to the library today? I’m comfy in the house, but I should at least drop off books and grab our holds. But then I would have to finish cleaning off the van. And if I’m out, I should probably stop at the grocery which means that I need to make a list. So many things!

On my bedside table: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (it’s been years since I reread her novels); Far Sector by NK Jemisin

On my tv this week: We finished watching Around the World in 80 Days (with David Tennant!) and continued with The Great S1, It’s Always Sunny S15, and The Witcher S2.

Listening to: I caught up with a ton of politics podcasts. I also spent some time listening to Octane and Alt Nation.

On the menu for this week:

• Monday - Chicken Pad Thai Nachos

• Tuesday - Lemon Butter Fish

• Wednesday - Leftovers

• Thursday - Fettuccini Alfredo with Chicken, Broccoli, and Bacon

• Friday - Blackened Salmon

• Saturday - Sausage, Potato, Spinach Soup

• Sunday - Chicken Shawarma Fries

On my to do list: Randomly the student loan was locked again. I swear they just do it every few months. I need to call and get it unlocked so we can pull tax information for this year. I really really hate dealing with them. Beyond that, I have all the usual house stuff on my list.

Happening this week:

• Monday - Normal school day

• Tuesday - Possible hike at Platte River State Park

• Wednesday - Normal school day

• Thursday - Coop

• Friday - SAC Museum Field Trip

• Saturday - Home day

• Sunday - Home day

What I am creating: I dove back into my 2021 Memory Planner (hadn’t started at all), and have managed to complete January through March’s spreads. I’ve got some momentum going and really want to keep it up. I have April’s photos printed (except one annoyingly), but I need to get May’s around.

My simple pleasures: A good book, a decent night’s sleep, watching the falling snow and not having to be anywhere.

Looking around the house: Nothing has really changed from last week. I did finish taking down all the Christmas decorations, but I need to put those tubs away in the garage later.

From the camera: Current state of my desk. Messy, but I’m actually doing a project!

2022 Goals and Resolution

Checking in with my 2021 Goals and Resolutions -

House Goals/Resolutions

• Tackle at least one big renovation project - Fail. The cost of supplies prohibited us from doing much

• Lay out a kitchen renovation plan - Fail. We talked a lot about it, but didn’t actually do anything.

Life Goals/Resolutions

• Set a treadmill goal for every month ✓ - I made decent progress, but fell off at the end of the year.

• Complete our 52 Weeks of Desserts and Snack - Fail. We only made 26 recipes. We’re going to continue this into next year.

• Plan and Complete a fun summer road trip ✓ - So much fun! We are doing this every year right after Labor Day.

• Plan and complete a reading retreat ✓ - Finally! We went at the end of September.

Reading Goals/Resolutions

• Set up a book buying budget ✓ - I spent a bit more than I planned to, but still didn’t spend that much.

• Read 200 books / 50,000 pages ✓ - I ended up reading 223 books and 67,000 pages.

• Decrease my physical UnRead Shelves by 50 books - Fail. I really want to get on this in 2022.

• Decrease my ebook UnRead Shelves by 30 books ✓ - I did knock off some duds and some good ones.

Craft Goals/Resolutions

• Complete at least 60% of my currently in-progress projects - Fail. I just didn’t craft at all this year.

• Finish organizing my craft space ✓ - My office is really looking good!

• Organize and use my supplies! (limited buying) ✓ - Defacto success as not crafting meant that I didn’t buy much of anything.

And now on to 2022…

House Goals/Resolutions

• Finish One Home Renovation Project - So many things to do. I just want to finish one project.

• Finish Organizing My Craft Room/Library - Now that we’ve shifted some things around, I really want get everything off my floor and in it’s place.

Life Goals/Resolutions

• Get Back into My Treadmill Goals - I’m aiming for 20 miles a month.

• 1000 Hours Outside - This is a challenge for the kids and I. It’s a national movement, and we want to attempt it this year. It might be tricky during the winter and high heat of later summer, but we are going to try to do our best.

Reading Goals/Resolutions

• Read 200 Books / 60,000 Pages

• Decrease my UnRead Shelf by 50 Books - Going to try to do this again. I’m sitting at 305 physical books at the beginning of this year.

Craft Goals/Resolutions

• Get Back into Crafting!

• Finish 2021 Memory Planner

• Keep Up with 2022 Memory Planner

Next up on the TBR pile:

January 2022 Life Goals

Let’s check in on December’s goals and my progress.

• Read 15 Holiday Romances! - I didn’t read 15 holiday romances, but at least 50% of my 23 reads were those.

• Prep blog for 2022. ✓

• Lay out my reading plan for 2022 ✓

• Clean my craft room before leaving for Indiana ✓

• Get library book down to basically 0 ✓

• Have a fun Christmas holiday! ✓

January Goals:

• Read 15 Books

• Map Out My Year

• Work on a Craft Project

• Get a Jump on Our 1000 Hours Outside

• Plan a Few Trips

• Plan Out Homeschooling for January - March

• Pull Down Christmas Decorations

Next up on the TBR pile:

2021 Desserts and Snacks Wrap and 2022's Plan

Week 21: Cake Batter Blondies

The kids loved these treats on the Fourth of July. And I thought they were pretty good too.

Recipe used from Sally’s Baking Addiction

Week 22: Mini Apple-Raspberry Cobblers

I also made these on the Fourth of July for the adults. They were good little pies and even better with ice cream.

Recipe used from Food Network

Week 23: Blueberry Muffins

These are the best blueberry muffins that I’ve ever had or made. They are absolutely amazing! These need to go into our regular rotation.

Recipe used from Alton Brown

Week 24: Oatmeal Banana Bread

This turned off very dry and dense. I’m not sure if it was an issue with our oven or the rising agents, but it did not work well at all.

Recipe used from Simply Whisked

Week 25: Blueberry Lemon Upside Down Cake

This was a very yummy breakfast cake. Will make again.

Recipe used from Delish

Week 26: Cranberry Orange Cake

Another good breakfast cake. I best this would be better with fresh cranberries.

Recipe used from The View from Great Island

2022 Plan

2021 did not work out for our plan of making 52 Desserts and Snacks. So I’m breaking all my rules and extending this challenge into 2022. We are going to continue with last year’s plan and just add on.

Winter Bucket List

After taking a bit of a break from bucket lists in 2021 (seriously, that year was a trash fire), I’m back this year. We have a variety of projects that we want to accomplish this coming year and I want to make some intentions for each season. For winter:

1. Check off 150 hours of our 1000 hours outside project - We’re doing this informally with a whole group of friends in town. Which reminds me to go and buy our Nebraska state park pass for 2022.

2. Have a birthday day out for my 40th! - I didn’t get to do my birthday day out last year due to the pandemic. I’m hoping that I can restart this tradition in early March. I’m thinking antiques, bookstores, and a good lunch.

3. Weekend trip to Chicago - We been talking about going to the Field Museum for a few years now. I’m going to try to swing this before school lets out for the summer.

4. Read 50 books - Always have to have a reading goal.

5. Day trip to Des Moines - I’ve been wanting to take the boys for a exploration trip for awhile.

6. At least 6 zoo visits - We love the zoo in the winter!

7. Trip to see the frozen waterfall at Platte - Since hearing about it, I’ve wanted to check it out. We’ve seen the waterfall in spring, summer, and fall; it’s time to see it in winter.

8. Movie Month February - We used to do this in January, but that month is just too hectic. Here’s to February and a month of new-to-us movies.

9. Weekly Game Day/Night with Arthur — We have a ton of card and board games at the house. I want to start playing more regularly with Arthur.

10. Make winter crafts — We can’t really spend a lot of time outside, so it’s prime time for crafting. I need to peruse Pinterest for some ideas.

11. Design board for future kitchen renovation - I really want to start thinking about styles and finishes for our future kitchen renovation. It won’t happen for another few years, but I like getting the general ideas down.

12. Make Valentine’s — I love crafting of course, but want to make some cute Valentine’s for this year.

13. Have a monthly (indoor) picnic — Weather doesn’t allow for outside ones of course, but I want to start this as a monthly tradition.

14. Finish one craft project - Seriously, last year as a desert of crafting. I would love to get back into it in 2022.

15. Monthly bingo/trivia nights - We found a fun little bar that hosts trivia and bingo nights. Definitely need to do this monthly!

16. Go sledding - No real snowfall yet, but I’m sure we will have at least one big one this winter.

17. Buy a new Nebraska State Park permit - We loved exploring last year, but the permits run from January to December. Time for a new one.

18. Do a donation drop - We have clothes, books, and random housewares that I would really love to get out of the house soon.

19. Take the kids bowling - Haven’t done it for years, maybe we should try it!

20. Dye my hair purple - I’ve put it off for years due to the pandemic. I would love to get it done professionally for this year.

21. Log 50 miles on the treadmill - Need to get using it again.

22. Learn to knit - A homeschool friend has offered to teach us. I’m so down for this!

23. Replace 50% of my socks - Silly little goal, but a lot of my socks are old and some have holes. I want new cozy socks!

24. Make homemade cinnamon rolls - Been on my random list for years, maybe 2022 is the year!

25. Complete 3 television series - We’ve been working on a few for awhile now. Time to knock them out!

Christmas Bucket List Final

Instead of a separate bucket list, I’m just going to highlight our advent activities for December.

Decorate Mini Tree ✓ (This pic was pre-decoration, but they got it down and started their advent calendars.)

Letter to Santa ✓

Christmas Movies with the Kids x3 ✓

• 8 Bit Christmas - Lovely 80s nostalgia for the parents. Heartwarming for the kids.

• Dr. Sesuss’ The Grinch - Marcus Theaters was having $5 retro Christmas movies.

• The Muppet Christmas Carol - Family favorite!

Make Paper Snowflakes ✓ - Arthur ripped a few, but we managed to make about 6 for the breakfast nook window.

Get New Christmas PJs and Socks ✓

Go See Santa at Cabela’s ✓ - We always have to check out the taxidermy animals and see the aquarium while there. And this year the boys got me to buy them those giant stuffed reindeer. We also ended up visiting Santa at The Durham Museum.

Go See Werner Park Lights ✓

Hot Chocolate bar ✓ - We tried Mint, French Vanilla, and Amaretto. Arthur and Quentin loved the Amaretto best and I really enjoyed the French Vanilla.

Meet the reindeer - We never made it to this activity.

Go for a hike and get pine cones - Ditto

Puzzle Day ✓ - This year’s selection was Christmas cats!

Make Gingerbread Cookies ✓ - Quentin was a big helper coating the cookies with sugar.

Visit Lauritzen Gardens - We never went.

Coop Christmas Party ✓ - No pictures as they feature other kids, but we had a great party right before we left for Indiana.

Decorate Gingerbread Houses ✓ - Always a disaster, but we love it.

Drive around and see the lights ✓

Fantasy of Lights ✓

Botanical Gardens Christmas Display ✓

Cookie Decorating ✓ - We ended up doing this during the coop Christmas Party.

Dinner at Coney Island and Visit to Santa Lights - Line was crazy long so we skipped.

Christmas music dance party ✓ - Always a favorite!

Watch The Grinch ✓ - Always a favorite!

24 Days of Christmas Books

• Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett

• Gingerbread Christmas by Jan Brett

• Catch that Cookie by Hallie Durand

• Five Little Monkeys by Eileen Christelow

• The Wheels on the Bus at Christmas

• The Library Gingerbread Man by Dotti Enderle

• Who Will Pull Santa's Sleigh by Russ Willms

• The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup

• Dream Snow by Eric Carle

• Snow Globe Wishes by Erin Dealey

• The Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas by Anne Muecke

• Olive, the Other Reindeer by J. Otto Seibold

• Santa in the City by Tiffany D. Jackson

• Santa's Secrets Revealed by James Solheim

• Comet, the Unstoppable Reindeer by Jim Benton

• A Polar Story in the Snow by Mac Barnett

• Snow by Sam Usher

• The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett

• Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett

• Snow is Fun by Steve Henry

• Little Fox in the Snow by Jonathan London

• Good Night, Reindeer by Denise Brennan-Nelson

• How Santa Really Works by Alan Snow

• Snow Friends by Margery Cuyler

• A Chick n Pug Christmas by Jennifer Sattler

• Mouse's Night Before Christmas by Tracey Corderoy

• The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst

• The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers by Lisa Campbell Ernst

• Last Stop on the Reindeer Express by Maudie Powell-Tuck

• The Christmas Eve Tree by Delia Huddy

• Martin MacGregor's Snowman by Lisa Broadie Cook

• What the Dinosaurs Did the Night Before Christmas by Refe and Susan Tuma

• Hurry, Santa! by Tomie dePaola

• One Wild Christmas by Nicholas Oldland

• Vegetables in Holiday Underwear by Jared Chapman

• T. rex at Swan Lake by Lisa Carrier and Lenore Hart

• The Nutcracker's Night Before Christmas by Keith Brockett

• Five Busy Elves by Patricia Hegarty

• Snow by Roy McKie

• The Christmas Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood

• Ten Ways to Heart Snow by Cathy Camper

• Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell

• The Littlest Elf by Brandi Dougherty

• The Littlest Reindeer by Brandi Dougherty

• Merry Christmas, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt

• Peppa Pig and the Christmas Party

• Russell's Christmas Magic by Rob Scotton

• The Great Reindeer Rebellion by Lisa Trumbauer

• 12 Days of Christmas by Kate Toms

• Jingle Bells by Rosie Greening

• The Story of the Nutcracker Ballet by Deborah Hautzig

• There's an Elf in Your Book by Tom Fletcher

• Snow Bunny's Christmas Gift by Rebecca Harry

• If Snowflakes Tasted Like Fruitcake by Stacey Previn

• Winter is for Snow by Robert Neubecker

• The Great Santa Stakeout by Betsy Bird

Other Holiday Movies Watched

• The Man Who Invented Christmas

• A Christmas Wish

• Single All the Way

• Love Hard

• Encanto - We went to the movie theater for this one!

• One Royal Holiday

• The Knight Before Christmas

• A Castle for Christmas

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool Christmas Break 2021

What We Studied

While we didn’t completely stop all schooling, we did take it pretty easy this Christmas break. We did a lot of holiday related activities. Plus, we traveled to and from Indiana to visit a few family members. We are getting back at it today, but easing back in.

Literature and Poetry

We kept reading Scary Stories for Young Foxes: The City, but ultimately didn’t get very far. We were distracted by lots of picture books and the ones the boys got for Christmas. So lots of random reading, but not organized.

• Scary Stories for Young Foxes: The City by Christian McKay Heidicker

Math

We mostly played some math games. Arthur also did some math in his independent packet.

Social Studies

No big unit, but Arthur did complete an entire Map Skills book (Grade 1). It was mostly review, but good practice.

Arthur Independent Time

To allow for one-on-one time with Quentin, I have added an hour of independent work time for Arthur. Each week, he will have a mix of packet work (mostly grammar and math review), independent reading time, and special projects. Many of his projects will be aligned with our literature selections (some taken from B&R Language Arts curriculum) and history. This week, he focused on packet work and some random building projects.

Science and STEAM Coop

No coop obviously. We did continue watching random PBS Eons videos, picking up some of the ones we missed and those set during the last Ice Age.

Art/Music

Nothing this week

Quentin

I have scheduled at least four 1-hour time blocks for one-on-one time with Quentin. I bought Blossom and Root’s Early Years Volume 2 curriculum to use as our base. I love the variety of activities and some of the bigger projects included.

ELA

• High Five issues

Math

Other

• Dinosaur Puzzle Book

Field Trip

Other than just traveling to Indiana, we didn’t really have any field trips. We’ve been laying fairly low due to the pandemic.

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. We didn’t actually watch anything this week, but made up for it by all the PBS Eons videos for our dinosaur unit.

24 Days of Christmas Books - It’s become a tradition. I wrap packages of holiday books for each day of December until Christmas. We have a great group of books this year!

• Christmas is Awesome by Sabrina Moyle

• The Last Christmas Tree by Stephen Krensky

• The Crayon's’ Christmas by Drew Daywalt

• Christmas City by Michael Garland

• Goodby Autumn, Hello Winter by Kenard Pak

Picture Books Read

• Freedom Soup by Tami Charles

• Can I Be Your Dog? by Troy Cummings

• Beware of the Crocodile by Martin Jenkins

• No by Claudia Rueda

• No more Cuddles by Jane Chapman

• The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers

• Give Your Cat a Bath in Five Easy Steps by Nicola Winstanley

• Bear Came Along by Richard T. Morris

• Chez Bob by Bob Shea

• Inside Cat by Brendan Wenzel

High

• Beyond the usual Christmas Eve and Day fun, we loved hosting a Christmas party for the coop before we left. The kids did some art, decorated cookies, played bingo and pin the nose on the reindeer, and did hot chocolate tasting. it was chaotic fun!

Low

• I anticipated that this would happen, but was still thrown off when the boys’ attitudes really fell off a cliff right after Christmas. We had a few really rough days and needed to get back into our school routine.

Next Week

• Traveling to Polynesia for History

• Reading more trickster tales and continuing our read aloud

• Starting 3B for math

• Covering famous Nebraskans and Iowans for coop

• Exploring emotions for health

• Beginning concentrated reading lessons for Quentin

• Discovering Hokusai’s paintings and woodcuts

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W17: Last Week of the Semester!

What We Studied

We took it a bit easy for our last week of the fall semester. We wrapped up a few units, had our last coop meeting, and then took Friday off to go to the zoo.

Literature and Poetry

We finished reading The Wind in the Willows. I ended up really enjoying it and reading it out loud is definitely the way to go. We started on our next read aloud selection. It wasn’t on my original list, but we saw it at the library and had to grab it.

• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

• A Snowflake Fell: Poems About Winter by Laura Whipple

• Scary Stories for Young Foxes: The City by Christian McKay Heidicker

• How Santa Got His Job by Stephen Krensky

• How Santa Lost His Job by Stephen Krensky

Math

We mostly wrapped up some math packets and did some extra scale reading practice. Plus, there was lots of play with tangrams this week! And Arthur finished his Primarily Logic book.

• Primarily Logic

Social Studies

History Quest wrapped up our semester with a chapter about the Hundred Years’ War. We learned all about the conflict and focused on Henry V and Joan of Arc for our biographies.

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• When on Earth

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• Joan of Arc by Demi

Arthur Independent Time

To allow for one-on-one time with Quentin, I have added an hour of independent work time for Arthur. Each week, he will have a mix of packet work (mostly grammar and math review), independent reading time, and special projects. Many of his projects will be aligned with our literature selections (some taken from B&R Language Arts curriculum) and history. This week, he focused on packet work and some random building projects.

Science and STEAM Coop

We finished our dinosaur unit with more PBS Eons videos. I taught coop this week and we made simple circuits. The kids were very excited to play with the Snap Circuits board I bought. It was a good meeting to end on.

Art/Music

Nothing this week

Quentin

I have scheduled at least four 1-hour time blocks for one-on-one time with Quentin. I bought Blossom and Root’s Early Years Volume 2 curriculum to use as our base. I love the variety of activities and some of the bigger projects included. Quentin and I read a lot of books, did some alphabet review, and completed a few math packets. We also played a decent number of dice games and board games.

ELA

Math

Other

Field Trip

We had a park playdate planned for Wednesday but that was canceled when a very dangerous storm blew in. Tornados touched down about 10 miles from our house, but didn’t cause too much damage. To make up for our lost trip, I called school off on Friday and we went to the zoo. I love going in the winter when there are no crowds and you can really linger over the animals. We got to see the penguin feeding. It was a nice morning.

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. We didn’t actually watch anything this week, but made up for it by all the PBS Eons videos for our dinosaur unit.

24 Days of Christmas Books - It’s become a tradition. I wrap packages of holiday books for each day of December until Christmas. We have a great group of books this year!

• The Nutcracker's Night Before Christmas by Keith Brockett

• Five Busy Elves by Patricia Hegarty

• Snow by Roy McKie

• The Christmas Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood

• Ten Ways to Heart Snow by Cathy Camper

• Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell

• The Littlest Elf by Brandi Dougherty

• The Littlest Reindeer by Brandi Dougherty

• Merry Christmas, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt

• Peppa Pug and the Christmas Party

• Russell's Christmas Magic by Rob Scotton

• The Great Reindeer Rebellion by Lisa Trumbauer

• 12 Days of Christmas by Kate Toms

• Jingle Bells by Rosie Greening

• The Story of the Nutcracker Ballet by Deborah Hautzig

• There's an Elf in Your Book by Tom Fletcher

• Snow Bunny's Christmas Gift by Rebecca Harry

• If Snowflakes Tasted Like Fruitcake by Stacey Previn

High

• Taking Friday morning off to go to the zoo was the right call. We wandered around and got to interact with lots of animals without the crowds. The mongoose was being playful and the baby gorilla was so adorable.

Low

• Wednesday’s bad weather cancelled all our fun plans! We were supposed to have a park playdate with coop friends and then that evening I was supposed to go to Musicals Bingo with some friends. It was to be my one night out before traveling with the kids. Darn midwest weather!

Next Week

• Nothing! It’s Christmas Break! Although we are going to be doing more holiday activities, puzzles, and games. We will officially start the spring semester on January 10th.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Odds and Ends

Here's my randomness for the week:

• A scary storm rolled through yesterday. There was a tornado that touched down about 10 miles from here, but it was pretty incomplete and didn’t do any major damage.

• Our last coop meeting is this morning. We’re going to miss our friends over the Christmas break.

• Squeezing in a few more holiday activities before Christmas.

• Packing for our travel next week… So many things to remember and I need to make a master list.

• Tried some whiskey cheddar cheese from Aldi’s and it was terrible. Oh well, at least it was cheap. We try some and we lose some, but it’s always an adventure with picks from Aldi’s.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Christmas Bucket List Update

Instead of a separate bucket list, I’m just going to highlight our advent activities for December.

Decorate Mini Tree ✓ (This pic was pre-decoration, but they got it down and started their advent calendars.)

Letter to Santa ✓

Christmas Movies x3

• 8 Bit Christmas - Lovely 80s nostalgia for the parents. Heartwarming for the kids.

• Dr. Sesuss’ The Grinch - Marcus Theaters was having $5 retro Christmas movies.

Make Paper Snowflakes ✓ - Arthur ripped a few, but we managed to make about 6 for the breakfast nook window.

Get New Christmas PJs and Socks ✓

Go See Santa at Cabela’s ✓ - We always have to check out the taxidermy animals and see the aquarium while there. And this year the boys got me to buy them those giant stuffed reindeer. We also ended up visiting Santa at The Durham Museum.

Go See Werner Park Lights ✓

Hot Chocolate bar ✓ - We tried Mint, French Vanilla, and Amaretto. Arthur and Quentin loved the Amaretto best and I really enjoyed the French Vanilla.

Meet the reindeer

Go for a hike and get pine cones

Puzzle Day ✓ - This year’s selection was Christmas cats!

Make Gingerbread Cookies ✓ - Quentin was a big helper coating the cookies with sugar.

Visit Lauritzen Gardens

Coop Christmas Party

Decorate Gingerbread Houses ✓ - Always a disaster, but we love it.

Drive around and see the lights

Fantasy of Lights

Botanical Gardens Christmas Display

Cookie Decorating

Dinner at Coney Island and Visit to Santa Lights

Christmas music dance party

Watch The Grinch

24 Days of Christmas Books

• Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett

• Gingerbread Christmas by Jan Brett

• Catch that Cookie by Hallie Durand

• Five Little Monkeys by Eileen Christelow

• The Wheels on the Bus at Christmas

• The Library Gingerbread Man by Dotti Enderle

• Who Will Pull Santa's Sleigh by Russ Willms

• The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup

• Dream Snow by Eric Carle

• Snow Globe Wishes by Erin Dealey

• The Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas by Anne Muecke

• Olive, the Other Reindeer by J. Otto Seibold

• Santa in the City by Tiffany D. Jackson

• Santa's Secrets Revealed by James Solheim

• Comet, the Unstoppable Reindeer by Jim Benton

• A Polar Story in the Snow by Mac Barnett

• Snow by Sam Usher

• The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett

• Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett

• Snow is Fun by Steve Henry

• Little Fox in the Snow by Jonathan London

• Good Night, Reindeer by Denise Brennan-Nelson

• How Santa Really Works by Alan Snow

• Snow Friends by Margery Cuyler

• A Chick n Pug Christmas by Jennifer Sattler

• Mouse's Night Before Christmas by Tracey Corderoy

• The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst

• The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers by Lisa Campbell Ernst

• Last Stop on the Reindeer Express by Maudie Powell-Tuck

• The Christmas Eve Tree by Delia Huddy

• Martin MacGregor's Snowman by Lisa Broadie Cook

• What the Dinosaurs Did the Night Before Christmas by Refe and Susan Tuma

• Hurry, Santa! by Tomie dePaola

• One Wild Christmas by Nicholas Oldland

• Vegetables in Holiday Underwear by Jared Chapman

• T. rex at Swan Lake by Lisa Carrier and Lenore Hart

• The Nutcracker's Night Before Christmas by Keith Brockett

• Five Busy Elves by Patricia Hegarty

• Snow by Roy McKie

• The Christmas Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood

• Ten Ways to Heart Snow by Cathy Camper

• Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell

Other Holiday Movies Watched

• The Man Who Invented Christmas

• A Christmas Wish

• Single All the Way

• Love Hard

• Encanto - We went to the movie theater for this one!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W16: All the Holiday Fun and Field Trips!

What We Studied

Another week of lots of holiday fun and changes to our schedule. But it’s okay. I love December and want to soak in all the fun while we still can!

Literature and Poetry

We kept at reading The Wind in the Willows. I’m not sure Arthur really loves it, but I’m enjoying his writing style. It sounds lovely when read out loud. We’ve only got one chapter left to read (reading today) and then we’re on to our next selection.

• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

• A Snowflake Fell: Poems About Winter by Laura Whipple

• Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet (Picture Book Study)

• The Secret History of Hot Chocolate by Stephen Krensky

Math

More review, puzzles, and wrap-up. I decided to hold off starting 3B until January. Until then, we are continuing our logic puzzle book and lots of math games.

• Singapore Math Common Core Edition 3A

• Primarily Logic

Social Studies

This week was all about Medieval Plague and Cathedrals! I do love infectious diseases, but we kept it light for Arthur.

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• When on Earth

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• The Plague by Lawrence Andrews

• History Smashers: Plagues and Pandemics by Kate Messner

• Chanticleer and the Fox by Barbara Cooney

• The Canterbury Tales adapted by Barbara Cohen

Arthur Independent Time

To allow for one-on-one time with Quentin, I have added an hour of independent work time for Arthur. Each week, he will have a mix of packet work (mostly grammar and math review), independent reading time, and special projects. Many of his projects will be aligned with our literature selections (some taken from B&R Language Arts curriculum) and history. This week, he focused on packet work and some random building projects.

Science and STEAM Coop

Continuing with our Dinosaur unit from Blossom and Root! We ended up watching a lot of Eons to cover most of the Cenozoic.

• The Story of Life: Evolution by Katie Scott

• Life: The First Four Billion Years by Martin Jenkins

• When the Whales Walked and Other Incredibly Evolutionary Journeys by Dougal Dixon

• DK Dinsoaur

• DK Where on Earth? Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Creatures

• Prehistoric by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

• Dinosaurium by Chris Wormell and Lily Murray

For Coop, we had our Robots and Engineering second week. The big kids finished their hydraulic crane builds and Arthur got to take one home! The little kids made scribble bots and played around with some other robots Ms. Heather had. Next week, is our last coop meeting of the semester and I’m teaching circuits to the little kids. We did a bit of wrap-up Robots packet at home to end the week.

• Rosie Revere Engineer by Andrea Beaty

• Robots, Robots, Everywhere! by Sue Fliess

• Nat Geo Kids: Robots by Melissa Stewart - Read and Packet

Art/Music

Nothing this week

Quentin

I have scheduled at least four 1-hour time blocks for one-on-one time with Quentin. I bought Blossom and Root’s Early Years Volume 2 curriculum to use as our base. I love the variety of activities and some of the bigger projects included. Quentin and I read a lot of books, did some alphabet review, and completed a few math packets. We also played a decent number of dice games and board games.

ELA

Math

Other

Field Trip

On Wednesday, I randomly grabbed the library pass for The Durham Museum to check out the exhibits. We also got see Santa while we were there and did a scavenger hunt to find all the elves hidden in the museum.

Friday was our official coop field trip at DoSpace. We got a great tour of the facility and then the kids explored two different robots. Our tour guide and teacher was great with the kids and really engaged them throughout. Now that we have a membership card, we definitely need to go back and check out some of the games and programs. Maybe January we can put some class on our calendar.

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. We actually did watch a NOVA episode about the great cathedrals of Europe. I learned a lot about various engineering obstacles and our modern exploration of them. Really fascinating episode. We also watched some more PBS Eons videos about the Cenozoic.

24 Days of Christmas Books - It’s become a tradition. I wrap packages of holiday books for each day of December until Christmas. We have a great group of books this year!

• Comet, the Unstoppable Reindeer by Jim Benton

• A Polar Story in the Snow by Mac Barnett

• Snow by Sam Usher

• The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett

• Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett

• Snow is Fun by Steve Henry

• Little Fox in the Snow by Jonathan London

• Good Night, Reindeer by Denise Brennan-Nelson

• How Santa Really Works by Alan Snow

• Snow Friends by Margery Cuyler

• A Chick n Pug Christmas by Jennifer Sattler

• Mouse's Night Before Christmas by Tracey Corderoy

• The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst

• The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers by Lisa Campbell Ernst

• Last Stop on the Reindeer Express by Maudie Powell-Tuck

• The Christmas Eve Tree by Delia Huddy

• Martin MacGregor's Snowman by Lisa Broadie Cook

• What the Dinosaurs Did the Night Before Christmas by Refe and Susan Tuma

• Hurry, Santa! by Tomie dePaola

• One Wild Christmas by Nicholas Oldland

• Vegetables in Holiday Underwear by Jared Chapman

• T. rex at Swan Lake by Lisa Carrier and Lenore Hart

High

• On Tuesday, we hosted three coop families for a board game day. The kids split into groups and played a variety of board games for about an hour before abandoning them for free play. it was a lovely morning.

• We also went to see the Werner Park Lights on Wednesday night. It was lovely!

Low

• Nothing really. We had a good week!

Next Week

• Finishing The Wind in the Willows and Starting Scary Stories for Young Foxes: In the City

• Covering the Hundred Years’ War for history

• Reviewing our math concepts

• Finishing our Dinosaur videos

• Covering circuits for coop

• Having a park playdate, going to see a movie, and potentially going on a small hike through the bare woods

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W15: We Enjoyed the Warm Weather!

What We Studied

The temperatures this past week were unseasonably warm, in the 50s and 60s for most of the week. We took advantage and had two long afternoons at the park with friends. I doubt we are going to get any more mild days until spring, so we took time out of our homeschooling schedule to play. It was nice to get out and about. As such, our lessons were shortened. Thankfully, I planned for shortened lessons in December to have time to soak in all the holiday magic.

Literature and Poetry

We kept at reading The Wind in the Willows. I’m not sure Arthur really loves it, but I’m enjoying his writing style. It sounds lovely when read out loud. We’ll be finishing that book next week.

• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

• A Snowflake Fell: Poems About Winter by Laura Whipple

Math

More review, puzzles, and wrap-up. I decided to hold off starting 3B until January. Until then, we are continuing our logic puzzle book and lots of math games.

• Singapore Math Common Core Edition 3A

• Primarily Logic

Social Studies

This week was all about the East African kingdoms of Ethiopia and Great Zimbabwe. We made lots of connections to empires from the ancient world. Plus, we got to check out two very interesting archaeological sites.

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• When on Earth

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• Great African Kingdoms by Sean Sheehan

• Ancient West African Kingdoms by Mary Quigley

• Great Zimbabwe by Mark Bessire

Arthur Independent Time

To allow for one-on-one time with Quentin, I have added an hour of independent work time for Arthur. Each week, he will have a mix of packet work (mostly grammar and math review), independent reading time, and special projects. Many of his projects will be aligned with our literature selections (some taken from B&R Language Arts curriculum) and history. This week, he focused on packet work and some random building projects.

Science and STEAM Coop

Continuing with our Dinosaur unit from Blossom and Root! We covered the Paleocene and Neogene Eras. We ended up watching a lot of Eons to cover most of the Cenozoic. We’ll be wrapping up this giant unit next week.

• The Story of Life: Evolution by Katie Scott

• Life: The First Four Billion Years by Martin Jenkins

• When the Whales Walked and Other Incredibly Evolutionary Journeys by Dougal Dixon

• DK Dinsoaur

• DK Where on Earth? Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Creatures

• Prehistoric by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

• Dinosaurium by Chris Wormell and Lily Murray

For Coop, we had our Robots and Engineering first week. Quentin and the littles made a simple dog robot and talked about the concept of robots. Arthur got to start building a large hydraulic robot. Next week, the big kids get to learn a bit of programming to set up the rest of their robot.

Art/Music

Nothing this week

Quentin

I have scheduled at least four 1-hour time blocks for one-on-one time with Quentin. I bought Blossom and Root’s Early Years Volume 2 curriculum to use as our base. I love the variety of activities and some of the bigger projects included. Quentin and I read a lot of books, did some alphabet review, and completed a few math packets and units on Khan Academy.

ELA

Math

Other

Field Trip

We didn’t have an official field trip this week, but we ended up running all around town with other tasks. Plus we had two long park playdate afternoons.

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. We didn’t actually watch anything this week, but made up for it by all the PBS Eons videos for our dinosaur unit.

Picture books read

• All Right Already! A Snowy Story by Jory John

• Little Owl’s Snow by Divya Srinivasan

24 Days of Christmas Books - It’s become a tradition. I wrap packages of holiday books for each day of December until Christmas. We have a great group of books this year!

• Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett

• Gingerbread Christmas by Jan Brett

• Catch that Cookie by Hallie Durand

• Five Little Monkeys by Eileen Christelow

• The Wheels on the Bus at Christmas

• The Library Gingerbread Man by Dotti Enderle

• Who Will Pull Santa's Sleigh by Russ Willms

• The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup

• Dream Snow by Eric Carle

• Snow Globe Wishes by Erin Dealey

• The Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas by Anne Muecke

• Olive, the Other Reindeer by J. Otto Seibold

• Santa in the City by Tiffany D. Jackson

• Santa's Secrets Revealed by James Solheim

High

• The boys received their second COVID vaccine on Wednesday! Even with Omicron now circulating, I’m feeling so much better knowing that the boys have at least a baseline protection against the virus. They were amazing at the pharmacy and once again the pharmacist was very impressed. Of course, they got a small toy afterward (Arthur got a Baryonyx and Quentin got a Bluey figure).

Low

• Our lessons are all out of whack this week, but I should expect this during December. I definitely need to remember this for next year and just do half lessons during the month.

Next Week

• Finishing The Wind in the Willows

• Covering the Black Death (and Cathedrals) for history

• Reviewing our math concepts

• Finishing the Dinosaur Unit

• Covering robots and engineering for coop

• Going on our last coop field trip of the year (to DoSpace for robotics theme)

Next up on the TBR pile: