Currently #7

Reading: I’ve been diving into A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall. I really been loving the atmosphere and the mystery of this book.

Watching: J restarted Welcome to Wrexham S1 so that I could start watching it. Obviously I’m enjoying the show.

Listening: I finished an audiobook and decided to take a break and move back to podcasts for awhile.

Making: I’ve started the process of prepping book recommendations for the retreat in June. It’s a big process and takes a bit of time. I definitely needed to get started.

Feeling: I’ve got a lot on my plate right now and feeling a bit stretched. I need to get through the next two weeks before things calm down so that I can focus on the retreat.

Planning: Part of me being stretched is switching coop from spring to summer sessions. I’ve got everyone signing up for lessons and prepping the admin side. I’ve also got the planning of activities for our summer session.

Loving: With so much on my to-do list, I’m enjoying the quiet moments here and there.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W30-31: Nearing the End...

A’s ELA and Math

What We Studied

We are nearing the end of this year’s school. Okay that’s not true. We school year round, but we are nearing the end of our big curriculum pieces. Then, we will move to some summer units before starting our next curriculum round in August.

Q’s History nit

A’s History Unit

Literature and Poetry

Arthur finished his current read aloud and started the next one. We took it a bit easy with our ELA these two weeks. We finished our poetry collection and won’t start a new one until August. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root.

• My America poem collection

• Much Ado About Baseball by Rajani LaRocca

• Hidden Figures for Young Readers by Margot Lee Shetterly

Quentin finished his read aloud. It took us a few days, but we got through it eventually. He also worked on his reading and comprehension skills.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Homer Price by Robert McCloskey

Q’s Science Unit

A’s Math and ELA

Math

Arthur moved through most a unit about angles. We slowed down a bit these past two weeks, but are still on track to finish 5B before the end of May.

• Singapore Common Core 5B

• Orbiting with Logic

Quentin has moved onto math review and will continue solidifying those skills.

Q’s ELA and Math Unit

A’s History Unit

Social Studies

Arthur continued with the 1960s with a focus on the Civil Rights Movement and then the Space Race. We’re inching our way to the present slowly, slowly.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History

• Words that Build a Nation

• Heart and Soul

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

• A Different Mirror for Young People

• This is Our Land: A History of American Immigration

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK History

• March by John Lewis

• The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist by Cynthia Levinson

• Liberty's Civil Rights Road Trip by Michael W. Waters

• Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney

• Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation by Andrea Davis Pinkney

• Malcolm X: A Fire Burning Brightly by Walter Dean Myers

• Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon by Catherine Thimmesh

• Moonbound: Apollo 11 and the Dream of Spaceflight by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm

Quentin finished his History Quest Ancient Times curriculum with a chapter about Arabia. We will be taking a break from our big history curriculum by shifting to geography.

• History Quest Early Times

• DK When on Earth?

• Human Wold

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK A Child Through Time

• A History of Western Art

• DK Science Year by Year

• DK Myths, Legends, and Sacred Stories

• Find the Journeys Around the World by David Long

• Ancient Worlds

• A Journey Through Art by Aaron Rosen

• DK Eyewitness Wonders of the World

Science

We got back into chemistry with two weeks of lessons. Only one more to go! Beyond the chemistry, we continued reading our Story of Science. Nearing the end of that book as well.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

• Story of Science Vol. 2: Newton at the Center by Joy Hakim

• DK The Elements

Quentin finished his RSO Life curriculum with a review of the plant kingdom. We’ll be doing some science pieces here and there and obviously we have coop.

• RSO Life

• DK Trees, Leaves, Flowers & Seeds

• It Starts with a Seed by Laura Knowles

• Stems and Trunks by Melanie Waldron

• Roots by Melanie Waldron

• Muse: Secrets of Trees

• We Planted a Tree by Diane Muldrow

• What on Earth? Trees by Kevin Warwick

• A Seed is Sleepy by Dianna Hutts Aston

STEAM Coop

We had one coop lesson in the rain (the radar lied to me) and one coop lesson indoors due to weather. I was teaching archaeology to the Chatty Cheetahs. Neither one of the boys are in that class, but we needed a teacher and I enjoy the topic. Arthur focused on Environmental Science and Quentin learned about paleontology.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

Another two weeks, another couple of documentaries covering topics from our history lessons. Quentin watched one about the ancient city of Petra and one about the Emperor’s Ghost Army (the Terra Cotta Warriors). Arthur watched a great Modern Marvels episode about the Space Shuttle program.

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

• DK Art and How It Works

• Modern Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw

• 13 American Artists Children Should Know

• A Child's Introduction to Art

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotofsky

• Iconic Composers by Nicholas Csicsko & Emi Ferguson

• 13 Art Movements Children Should Know

• 13 Artists Children Should Know

• 13 Modern Artists Children Should Know

• The Story of Paintings by Mick Manning & Brita Granström

• Why is Art Full of Naked People? by Susie Hodge

Field Trip

We had a great field trip to Morrill Hall in Lincoln. The museum has been closed for a few months for renovations. There wasn’t a ton of visible changes, but I know that they updated a ton of the internal systems. Still, we had a great guided field trip learning about animals of the prehistoric past. Post field trip, some of our friends and we went to Prehistoric Putt for some mini golf fun.

We also attended another great theater performance. This time, we got to see Charlotte’s Web. Quentin really enjoyed the performance.

High

Our field trip coordinator for coop set up a great guided tour of Ashfall Fossil Beds in Royal. It was absolutely amazing to be guided by one of the one-site paleontologists. We had the place completely to ourselves and it was amazing. Three families and myself decided that three and a half hours of driving to and then three and a half hours of driving back in one day was too much. We decided to book an AirBnB nearby and spent a weekend exploring north central Nebraska. (While there, tornadoes hit Omaha and caused a decent amount of damage. Thankfully none of our coop families suffered any damage.) On Saturday we explored a beautiful state park right on the Missouri River and had lots of fund social time. Sunday, one of the families joined us on a side tour to Sioux City. It was a great weekend.

Low

Weather created some interruptions and concern for our activities, families, and coop.

Next Week

• Stating a new read aloud for Quentin

• Continuing Arthur’s read aloud

• Moving through the end of the 1960s and 1970s

• Continuing learning about angles and moving to percentages

• Starting our math review

• Covering more chapters in the Story of Science

• Spending more time outdoors

Next up on the TBR pile:

Life Right Now #12

Right now I am: heading out to lead a meeting for our new homeschool academic coop. Hoping the conversation goes well.

Thinking and pondering: What science mini summer unit should I put together for Arthur? I’m kicking around a few different ideas, but want to make sure that I don’t overdo the work for myself.

On my bedside table: A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall; The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

On my tv this week: We finally finished the first season of Shogun and Dead Boy Detectives. J also convinced me to start S1 of Welcome to Wrexham.

Listening to: I finished an audiobook this week to my big surprise. I am not usually a fan of romance audiobooks, but the library only had this one on audio. So I tried it. Still don’t like romance in my ears, but I finished it and am moving on.

On the menu for this week:

• Monday - Blackberry Bacon Grilled Cheese

• Tuesday - Chicken Pad Thai Nachos

• Wednesday - Leftover

• Thursday - Lemon Chicken Thighs with Potatoes

• Friday - Crab Coconut Curry

• Saturday - Greek Pasta Salad

• Sunday - Spaghetti and Meatballs

On my to do list: I am certain that I have a ton of things to do, but I’m focusing on one day at a time.

Happening this week:

• Monday - Chemistry class (our last class of the year)

• Tuesday - Curriculum Share and Swap

• Wednesday - Sketchbook Hang; Book Club

• Thursday - Coop

• Friday - Robber’s Cave Field Trip

• Saturday - Junkstock!; Escape room for Arthur

• Sunday - Home Day

What I am creating: I’ve been working on the bookish recommendations for the retreat. And I hope that I can get to the March Memory Planner pages.

My simple pleasures: Cookies… that’s all I got this week.

Looking around the house: My house is a bit of a disaster right now. I really need to do a big pick up and put away today before Tuesday’s event.

From the camera: Despite the face, Q loved being silly and posing in the French fry cut out.

Unmasking Autism by Devon Price

Title: Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

Author: Devon Price

Publisher: Harmony 2022

Genre: Nonfiction

Pages: 304

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Nonfiction Reader

For every visibly Autistic person you meet, there are countless “masked” Autistic people who pass as neurotypical. Masking is a common coping mechanism in which Autistic people hide their identifiably Autistic traits in order to fit in with societal norms, adopting a superficial personality at the expense of their mental health. This can include suppressing harmless stims, papering over communication challenges by presenting as unassuming and mild-mannered, and forcing themselves into situations that cause severe anxiety, all so they aren’t seen as needy or “odd.”
 
In Unmasking Autism, Dr. Devon Price shares his personal experience with masking and blends history, social science research, prescriptions, and personal profiles to tell a story of neurodivergence that has thus far been dominated by those on the outside looking in. For Dr. Price and many others, Autism is a deep source of uniqueness and beauty. Unfortunately, living in a neurotypical world means it can also be a source of incredible alienation and pain. Most masked Autistic individuals struggle for decades before discovering who they truly are. They are also more likely to be marginalized in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, class, and other factors, which contributes to their suffering and invisibility. Dr. Price lays the groundwork for unmasking and offers exercises that encourage self-expression.

It’s time to honor the needs, diversity, and unique strengths of Autistic people so that they no longer have to mask—and it’s time for greater public acceptance and accommodation of difference. In embracing neurodiversity, we can all reap the rewards of nonconformity and learn to live authentically, Autistic and neurotypical people alike.

A recommendation from a friend who has been finding this book life changing. I was most intrigued to see how this book could help me understand my autistic friends. Right away, I was pulled into the many insights and learned so much in just the first chapters. I feel like this is one of those books that I should reread in a year or so. I feel like I will find many more insights and new information as I reread. While this book was written for autistic people, it was very illuminating to me.

Next up on the TBR pile:

To Beguile a Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt

Title: To Beguile a Beast (Legend of the Four Soldiers #3)

Author: Elizabeth Hoyt

Publisher: Forever 2009

Genre: Historical Romance

Pages:333

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf Project

Spice Rating: 5

CAN A WOUNDED BEAST . . .

Reclusive Sir Alistair Munroe has hidden in his castle ever since returning from the Colonies, scarred inside and out. But when a mysterious beauty arrives at his door, the passions he's kept suppressed for years begin to awaken.

TRUST A BEAUTY WITH A PAST . . .

Running from past mistakes has taken legendary beauty Helen Fitzwilliam from the luxury of the ton to a crumbling Scottish castle . . . and a job as a housekeeper. Yet Helen is determined to start a new life and she won't let dust-or a beast of a man-scare her away.

TO TAME HIS MOST SECRET DESIRES?

Beneath Helen's beautiful favßade, Alistair finds a courageous and sensual woman. A woman who doesn't back away from his surliness-or his scars. But just as he begins to believe in true love, Helen's secret past threatens to tear them apart. Now both Beast and Beauty must fight for the one thing neither believed they could ever find-a happy ever after.

Ever since the start of this series, I had wanted a book focused on Alistair. Thankfully this volume focused on his romance. I do love a dark and broody hero in my romances, and Alistair was just the ticket. We get to see a women out of options fall into a precarious position and find her strength. We get to see a man scarred (not just physically), and yet find his happiness. Hoyt really loves winding together a larger mystery with a swoon romance. I really do enjoy her series.

Legend of the Four Soldiers

• #1 To Taste Temptation

• #2 To Seduce a Sinner

• #3 To Beguile a Beast

• #4 To Desire a Devil

Next up on the TBR pile:

Odds and Ends

Here's my randomness for the week:

• So into our new television show. It’s just so much fun. No wonder as the story is originally from Neil Gaiman.

• My May TBR is intense. I have so many books that I need (want) to read this month. Not sure how I’m going to fit them all in.

• I think a recipe treasure trove revamp might be in order. Feeling a bit stale with our rotation lately.

• I need to get working of the bookish recommendations for the retreat. A very daunting task, but I’ll get them done.

Next up on the TBR pile:

May 2024 Life Goals

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

• Read 18 Books - just squeaked by with 19 books read ✓

• Pause All Library Holds (Except Book Club Selections) - Fail!

• Finish Planning Ashfall Trip ✓

• Launch Coop Summer Plan ✓

• Start Working on Retreat Crafts - And I almost have them finished! ✓

• Finish Homeschool Supply Cleanout - in progress

May Goals:

• Read 18 Books

• Pause All Library Holds (Except Book Club Selections) - I’m trying this one again…

• Solidify Coop Summer Plan

• Solidify Academic Coop Plan

• Finish Retreat Tasks

• Finish Homeschool Supply Cleanout

Next up on the TBR pile: