Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

Title: Race to the Sun

Author: Rebecca Roanhorse

Publisher: Disney Hyperion 2020

Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy

Pages: 298

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Lately, seventh grader Nizhoni Begay has been able to detect monsters, like that man in the fancy suit who was in the bleachers at her basketball game. Turns out he's Mr. Charles, her dad's new boss at the oil and gas company, and he's alarmingly interested in Nizhoni and her brother, Mac, their Navajo heritage, and the legend of the Hero Twins. Nizhoni knows he's a threat, but her father won't believe her. When Dad disappears the next day, leaving behind a message that says "Run!", the siblings and Nizhoni's best friend, Davery, are thrust into a rescue mission that can only be accomplished with the help of Diné Holy People, all disguised as quirky characters. Their aid will come at a price: the kids must pass a series of trials in which it seems like nature itself is out to kill them. If Nizhoni, Mac, and Davery can reach the House of the Sun, they will be outfitted with what they need to defeat the ancient monsters Mr. Charles has unleashed. But it will take more than weapons for Nizhoni to become the hero she was destined to be . . . Timeless themes such as the importance of family and respect for the land resonate in this funny, fast-paced, and exciting quest adventure set in the American Southwest.

This was an addition to our homeschool curriculum. I thought it fit well with the theme of “Fantastic Journeys and Perilous Quests.” We get a great story weaving Navajo myths and stories with a very modern day middle school girl. The writing style is very much like Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series. I wonder if that was the direction given to these various authors. I wanted a bit more of a difference, but the characters and story definitely made up for it. We learned a lot about Navajo culture and had a lot of fun along the way.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool Fall Break: We Caught Up!

What We Studied

Originally I had scheduled our Fall Break week for this past week. I knew we would get behind on curriculum because of sickness or unexpected disruptions. Thankfully it happened because of the second reason not the first. That meant that we ended up taking this week to catch up on some subjects and do a bit of fill in. The kids had no idea that I scrapped their break week. (To be fair, we have had our share of break days throughout the fall.)

Literature and Poetry

Continuing with our reading of Race to the Sun. We are a bit behind due to lots of random things, but we’re really enjoying the story and will finish soon. We also covered a few picture book studies for our fall theme.

• Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

• Hidden City: Poems of Urban Wildlife by Sarah Grace Tuttle

• I and You and Don’t Forget Who: What is a Pronoun by Brian P. Cleary

• When I was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant

• Piggie Pie by Margie Palatini

• The Adventures of Beekle by Dan Santat

Math

We’re still working through Unit 3 about multiplication and division. We’ll be staying here for another few weeks to gain some mastery. We also read a few math related picture books, including starting the Sir Cumference series.

• Singapore Math Common Core Edition 3A

• The Wing Brothers: Carnival de Math by Ethan Long

• Sir Cumference and the First Round Table by

Social Studies

This week was all about the Magna Carta.

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• When on Earth

• DK History

• A Medieval Feast by Aliki

• A Medieval Cathedral by Fiona MacDonald

• The Magna Carta: Cornerstone of the Constitution by Roberta Baxter

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 Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian and Devonian Periods.

• Everything Awesome About Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Beasts by Mike Lowery

• 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

• Prehistoric: Before the Dinosaurs by David West

• DK Prehistoric

• Prehistoric by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

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. For ELA, we continued our big overview of the alphabet. We covered more counting and some basic math concepts as well as simple map skills. And we had some puzzles to round out the week. We also continued a big unit on transportation.

ELA

• Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers

• My “q” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

• Quentin Quokka’s by Barbara deRubertis

• My “r” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

• Rosie Raccoon’s Rock and Roll Raft by Barbara deRubertis

• The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle

• Quick as a Cricket by Dan and Audrey Woods

Math

Other

• Awesome Ambulances by Tony Mitton

• Flash the Little Fire Engine by Pam Calvert

• Emergency Vehicles by Melissa Abramovitz

• Patrolling Police Cars by Tony Mitton

• Dial 9-1-1! by Charles Ghigna

• A Fire Truck Named Red by Randall de Sève

• Emergency Monster Squad by Dave Horowitz

• Counting Cars

• All Kinds of Cars by Carl Johanson

• The Gingerbread Man Loose on the Fire Truck by Laura Murray

• Bunnies on the Bus by Philip Ardagh

• Let’s Build by Julie M. Fenner

• Diggers by Amy Johnson

• Mighty, Mighty Construction Site by Sherry Dusky Rinker

• Let’s Go on a Digger by Rosalyn Albert

• Trucks Galore by Peter Stein

• The Digger and the Flower by Joseph Kuefler

• The Mixed-Up Truck by Stephen Savage

• Truck, Truck, Goose by Tammi Sauer

Field Trip

One last trip to Vala’s for the season! We arrived right when they opened, met up with friends, and spent 6 1/2 hours there! So much fun. Each of the boys picked one thing that they could not miss (bouncy pillows for Quentin and the corn pit for Arthur). Plus, we grabbed a few pumpkins and some cookies on the way out. Another successful season at one of my favorite places.

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.

Misc. - Random picture books read

• One Leaf, Two Leaves, Count with Me by John Micklos Jr.

• Yellow Time by Lauren Stringer

• Never Ask a Dinosaur to Dinner by Gareth Edwards

• Leaves by David Ezra Stein

Highs and Low

• We loved our fist trip to Vala’s, but were so sad that it was our last one of the season. I might just buy season passes next year. I just love going and that would allow us to do a few mornings instead of three marathon days. And maybe we could go at night with J one time like on a Wednesday or something.

Next Week

• Continuing to read Race to the Sun

• Moving to Cahokia and the Ancient Puebloans for history

• Mastering multiplication and division

• Moving forward in time for the Dinosaur Unit

• Covering dinosaurs for coop! (We’re hosting!)

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W10: Dinosaurs and Trains are Our Favorites

What We Studied

We managed to cover a lot of ground in a week shortened by two field trips.

Literature and Poetry

We started another read about this week. The original language arts curriculum did not have enough read alouds for how fast we actually read in this house. So I ended up adding about 7 more to the list. This one is one of the Rick Riordan imprints for Disney and features Navajo character and myths. This will fit in nicely with our history unit on Cahokia and the Ancient Puebloans in two weeks.

• Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

• Hidden City: Poems of Urban Wildlife by Sarah Grace Tuttle

• 10 Minutes a Day Spelling

Math

We’re still working through Unit 3 about multiplication and division. We’ll be staying here for another few weeks to gain some mastery.

• Singapore Math Common Core Edition 3A

• Peg + Cat: The Big Dog Problem by Jennifer Oxley and Billy Aronson

• Peg + Cat: The Pirate Problem by Jennifer Oxley and Billy Aronson

• Peg + Cat: The Race Car Problem by Jennifer Oxley and Billy Aronson

Social Studies

We covered The Crusades for world history this week. Not the nicest of topics, but it was important for Medieval History.

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• When on Earth

• DK History

• DK Castles and Knights

• DK Eyewitness Knight

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

Science and STEAM Coop

We finally started our big dinosaur unit. I bought the Blossom and Root Prehistoric Unit to give us a basis. From there, we are accelerating a few weeks and slowing down for a few weeks.

• D is for Dinosaur: A Prehistoric Alphabet by Todd Chapman and Lita Judge

• Dinosaurs! by Gail Gibbons

• Dinosaur Tracks by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

• The Street Beneath My Feet by Charlotte Guillain

• Fossils by Ann O. Squire

• Everything Awesome About Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Beasts by Mike Lowery

• The Story of Life: Evolution by Katie Scott

• Life: The First Four Billion Years by Martin Jenkins

• Grandmother Fish: A Child’s First Book of Evolution by Jonathan Tweet

• Annabelle and Aiden in The Story of Life by J.R. Becker

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

• Prehistoric: Before the Dinosaurs by David West

• DK Prehistoric

• Prehistoric by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

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. For ELA, we continued our big overview of the alphabet. We covered more counting and some basic math concepts as well as simple map skills. And we had some puzzles to round out the week. We also started a big unit on transportation.

ELA

• Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers

• My “o” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

• Oliver Otter’s Own Office by Barbara deRubertis

• My “p” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

• Polly Porcupine’s Painting Prizes by Barbara deRubertis

Math

Other

• Let’s Go ABC! Things that Go, from A to Z by Rhonda Gowler Greene

• On the Move

• Fast and Slow by Britta Teckentrup

• Little Kids First Big Book of Things that Go by Karen de Seve

• Calling All Cars by Sue Fliess and Sarah Beise

• Two Tough Trucks Get Lost by Corey Rosen Schwartz

• Muddy, Mud, Bud by Patricia Lakin

• Toot Toot Zoom by Phyllis Root

• Trucks Roll by George Ella Lyon

• Tow Truck Joe by June Sobel

• Trucks Zooming By by Pamela Jane

• Trucks Go by Steve Light

• Go! Go! Go! Stop! by Charise Mericle Harper

• Twinkle Twinkle Little Car by Kate Dopirak

Field Trip

We had two great field trips this week. On Tuesday, we headed to Arbor Day Farm for a guided field trip about animals and the forest. After the guided portion, all the kids had a ton of fun playing and exploring. On Friday, we headed to The Durham Museum for a transportation theme tour. We learned about moving to Omaha, homes throughout the ages, and train travel. The kids loved hanging out the various train cars and learning the various parts.

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.

Misc. - Random picture books read

• Letter Town by Darren Farrell

• Leif and the Fall by Allison Sweet Grant and Adam Grant

• Nothing Fits a Dinosaur by Jonathan Fenske

• Fall Leaves Fun by Martha E.H. Rustad

• Windows by Julia Denos

• It’s So Quiet by Sherri Duskey Rinker

• Monster Hug by David Ezra Stein

• Ty the Dinosaur and the Substitute Teacher by Marcus Tallberg and Jill C. Faulkner

• There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves by Lucille Colandro

• Gus, the Dinosaur Bus by Julia Liu

• Dinosaur Roar! by Paul Strickland

• Lucky Leaf by Kevin O’Malley

• Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

• Zero is the Leaves on the Tree by Betsy Franco

• Regina is NOT a Little Dinosaur by Andrea Zulli

• In the Leaves by Huy Voun Lee

Highs

• Not exactly a high point as it’s not much fun, but we did get our flu shots taken care of this week. One big thing checked off my list.

Lows

• All of our activities made us so incredibly tired this week.

Next Week

• Continuing to read Race to the Sun

• Covering the Magna Carta and Robin Hood

• Mastering multiplication and division

• Moving forward in time for the Dinosaur Unit

• Visiting Vala’s one last time for the season

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W8-9: Two Light Weeks Create a Strange Schedule

What We Studied

Between my retreat and a lot of field trips, we ended up having two weeks of part-time homeschool. Thank goodness I built in a break week for mid-October. We aren’t going to take that break, but use it to catch up on some parts of schedule.

Literature and Poetry

We covered a variety of Arthurian Tales for week 8 and then moved on to American Trickster Tales for week 9. I really enjoyed reading multiple different versions of the same style of stories.

• Young Arthur by Robert D. San Souci

• Excalibur by Hudson Talbott

• The Kitchen Knight: A Tale of King Arthur by Margaret Hodges

• Favorite Medieval Tales by Mary Pope Osborne

• Trickster Tales by Josepha Sherman

• A Ring of Tricksters by Virginia Hamilton

• 10 Minutes a Day Spelling

Math

We’re deep into Unit 3 focused on multiplication and division. I imagine that we are going to stay on this unit for awhile. I would really like Arthur to attain some mastery of multiplication and division before we move on.

• Singapore Math Common Core Edition 3A

• Primarily Logic

Social Studies

For history we covered the British Isles during the early medieval period. This was a great connection to our Arthurian tales.

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• DK History

• The Duke and the Peasant: Life in the Middle Ages by Sister Wendy Beckett

• DK Eyewitness: Knight

• DK Castles and Knights

• The Hawk of the Castle: A Story of Medieval Falconry by Danna Smith

• Magic the Margins: A Medieval Tale of Bookmaking by W. Nikola-Lisa

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 some story writing prompts and packet work.

Science and STEAM Coop

Our theme for these two weeks was camping. We ended up canceling our first week due to a medical emergency and unpredictable weather. Our second week happened, but was a bit abbreviated. The park that we chose was infested with bees. Our lesson was cut a bit short, but we still talked about camping and made a craft project before going and playing at the playground.

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. For ELA, we continued our big overview of the alphabet with the letters K, L, M, and N. We read multiple nursery rhymes and did some math activities.

ELA

• Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers

• My “k” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

• Kylie Kangaroo’s Karate Kickers by Barbara deRubertis

• My “l” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

• Lana Llama’s Little Lamb by Barbara deRubertis

• My “m” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

• Maxwell Moose’s Mountain Monster by Barbara deRubertis

• My “n” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

• Nina Nandu’s Nervous Noggin by Barbara deRubertis

• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff

• If You Take a Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff

• If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff

Math

Other

• High Five magazine volume

• Smart Start STEM PreK

Field Trip

Multiple field trips these two weeks! We visited Vala’s twice! I love getting as much fall festival visits in that I can. We took advantage of their homeschool days to pick some apples and enjoy all the activities. We also visited Platte River State Park to walk the waterfall trail and play at the playground.

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. We didn’t end up watching anything this week.

Misc. - Random picture books read

• Nick and Nack Put on a Puppet Show by Brandon Budzi

• The Legend of King Arthur-a-tops by Mo O’Hara

• Duck and Goose: A Gift for Goose by Tad Hills

• King Arthur’s Very Great Grandson by Kenneth Kraegel

• 100 Cats by Michael Whaite

• The Little Blue Bridge by Brenda Maier

• Never Follow a Dinosaur by Alex Latimer

• How to Potty Train a Dinosaur by Alycia Pace

• Crunch, the Shy Dinosaur by Cirocco Dunlap

• Here Comes the Tooth Fairy Cat by Deborah Underwood

• The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss

• Firefighter Duckies by Frank W. Dormer

• My Leaf Book by Monica Wellington

Highs

• While it isn’t really to do with homeschooling, I did really enjoy a personal break from everything for the bookish retreat.

Lows

• Our days got a bit out of whack. I’m not loving how off schedule we are right now.

Next Week

• Starting a new chapter book

• Covering the Crusades and the Magna Carta

• Learning about transportation for preschool and coop

• Embarking on a big dinosaur unit

• Continuing multiplication and division

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W7: Lovely Weather for a Walk!

What We Studied

We’re back to a routine and easy back into homeschooling. Thankfully the weather was gorgeous this week for our field tip and for coop.

Literature and Poetry

We started reading our Trickster Tales collection with the section on Europe. The Blossom and Root Language Arts curriculum only has us reading 1-2 tales per section, but we are a big reading family. Instead of 1-2, we read the entire section over the course of the week. Really that’s only like 6 stories and less than 30 pages of reading. It was nice to cover more stories and talk about the variety. We also added in more read aloud selections to our history study.

• Trickster Tales Retold by Josepha Sherman

• 10 Minutes a Day Spelling

Math

We started Unit 3 in math with focuses on multiplication and division. Arthur already understands the concepts, so we are going to focus on mastery. I imagine that we will be in this unit of study for a few weeks. I want. to really hammer down before moving on to other topics.

• Singapore Math Common Core Edition 3A

Social Studies

We covered the Norse and the Vikings this week in medieval history. Our road trip unintentionally fit right in with. a visit to a Norse longhouse recreation and the Norwegian-American museum in Decorah. Along with the history text, we watched a few really good NOVA episodes about the Vikings and read some myths and stories from the culture. Arthur got excited to learn about the differences between the actual myths and the Marvel iterations of the characters.

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everyone: Leif Erikson

• When on Earth?

• Myths, Legends and Sacred Stories

• Kingfisher Atlas of Medieval World

• Thor Speaks! A Guide to the Realms of the Norse God of Thunder by Vicky Alvear Shecter

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. He mostly focused. on packet work and LEGO creations this week.

Science and STEAM Coop

Art/Music

Our music study was cut this week. We just ran out of time and other things got prioritized.

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. For ELA, we continued our big overview of the alphabet. We are getting through the alphabet two letters per week and have made it to the letter J. Beyond ELA, we have worked on a variety of math concepts (heavy and light, same and different, bi and small) as well as started on the next Khan Academy unit. We also did a mini science experiment unit on sink or float. Arthur acted as an assistant and record keeper. To follow-up, we watched a great Magic School Bus episode about the topic.

ELA

• Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers

• Izzy Impala’s Imaginary Illnesses by Barbara deRubertis

• My “i” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

• Jeremy Jackrabbit’s Jumpin Journey by Barbara deRubertis

• My “j” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

Math

Other

• Poetry selections from Mother Goose

• Packet about My World

Field Trip

We missed the first week our coop theme about bridges, but made it home in time for a field trip to the Bob Kerry Bridge . The kids walked all the way across it to Iowa, checked out the plaza there, and walked all the way back. They then proceeded to roll down the hills at the Nebraska plaza. Great fun was had by everyone and we got in a great walk on a beautiful day. Afterward, I treated the kids to a stop at Hollywood Candy before we headed home.

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. This week, we watched two episodes about the Vikings.

• NOVA S43 E9: Vikings Unearthed

• NOVA S46 E10: Lost Viking Army

• NOVA S46 E17: Why Bridges Collapse

Misc. - Random picture books read

• A Little Book About Colors by Leo Lionni

• Ducks Run Amok! by J.E. Morris

• Mary Wrightly, So Politely by Shirin Him Bridges

• Wordy Birdy by Tammi Sauer

• Fall Pumpkin Fun by Martha E.H. Rustad

• Iggy Iguanodon: Bath Time and Bedtime by Maryann Macdonald

Highs

• The weather was absolutely gorgeous. The temps were a bit cooler, but it was still nice and sunny. Perfect for our field trip to the river and for our coop meeting.

Lows

• Nothing really… We had a good week overall.

Next Week

• Reading Arthurian Tales

• Continuing Unit 3 in Math

• Moving on to Camping for Coop

• But following up on bridges for Science

• Learning about the British Isles and 1066 for history

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W6: We Found Our Groove!

What We Studied

I finally planned out a week and didn’t overload us or leave a ton of activities on the table! I think we have found our groove, just in time to leave for our road trip…

Literature and Poetry

We continued reading The Hobbit. We’re almost at the end of the story. We’ll finish it at the beginning of our road trip. Arthur is loving the action sequences. I’m really enjoying the spelling curriculum that I bought from The Moffatt Girls on Teachers Pay Teachers. And Arthur has taken to doing one spelling list spread out over the course of the week.

• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

• In Aunt Giraffe’s Green Garden by Jack Prelutsky

Math

The usual for Arthur. We did add in a Khan Academy day and worked on multiplication and division strategies. The next two units are on those topics and are pretty meaty. We will probably take it slow and stretch them out for September and part of October. I don’t want to push Arthur too fast. We need to focus on mastery before moving on.

• Singapore Math Common Core Edition 3A

Social Studies

This week’s unit was about Tang and Song Dynasty China. We made some good connections to our ancient times studies and did a study of the Silk Road.

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• DK History

• DK When on Earth

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 some packet work and creating LEGO creations.

Science and STEAM Coop

Photos were taken; not by me as I was teaching. Unfortunately the pictures all had pictures of other people’s kids so I can’t post them on here.

We finished our study of mammals this week at coop. I didn’t have to teach and it was lovely to just participate this week.

• DK Eyewitness: Mammal

• DK Animal

• DK Did You Know?

• Stink Fights, Earwax, and Other Marvelous Mammal Adaptations by Laura Perdew

Art/Music

Our music study was cut 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. For ELA, we covered the letters F, G and H. We covered counting and some basic addition for math. Q also demanded to do math on the computer so we completed a few unit in Khan Academy.

ELA

• My “f” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

• Frances Frog’s Forever Friend by Barbara deRubertis

• Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers

• My “g” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

• Gertie Gorilla’s Glorious Gift by Barbara deRubertis

• After the Fall by Dan Santat

• My “h” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

Math

• Where’s the Pair? by Britta Teckentrup

Other

• High Five magazine volume

• Summer Song by Kevin Henkes

• The Great Big Green by Peggy Gifford

• Summer by Ann Herriges

Field Trip

This week our field trip was a guided tour of a working farm. We had a personal tour from the farmer herself and learned a lot about the various animals she keeps. Seriously, all of the adults were very excited to learn at the farm. The kids got to feed a baby calf, help with the mama goat, switch the irrigation hoses, and petted a ton of animals. The baby goats were so adorable!

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 a documentary this week.

Misc. - Random picture books read

• Be a Friend by Salina Yoon

• Owls are Good at Keeping Secrets: An Unusual Alphabet by Sara O’Leary

• Construction Countdown by KC Olson

Highs

• We took off Friday morning for a park visit and then haircuts and bathtime. We still got our work done that day, but eased into the morning. Loved it!

Lows

• Nothing. Really, it was a good week.

Next Week

• Road trip!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W5: Our Busiest Week Yet!

What We Studied

Oof. This week was a killer. We had something every single day of the week that took out of the house. It was absolutely exhausting. Consequently, we didn’t accomplish as much as I would have liked when it comes to our schoolwork.

Literature and Poetry

We continued reading The Hobbit. The story has really picked up and has gotten really good. Arthur is loving the action sequences. I’m really enjoying the spelling curriculum that I bought from The Moffatt Girls on Teachers Pay Teachers. And Arthur has taken to doing one spelling list spread out over the course of the week.

• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

• In Aunt Giraffe’s Green Garden by Jack Prelutsky

Math

Moving onto the next unit in math.

• Singapore Math Common Core Edition 3A

Social Studies

We covered Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire this week.

• The Kingfisher Atlas of the Medieval World

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• DK History

• Medieval Tales

• The Medieval World by Rebecca Stefoff

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 some packet work and finished up his Geography of Home project..

Science and STEAM Coop

Photos were taken this week of all our fun. Unfortunately the pictures all had pictures of other people’s kids so I can’t post them on here.

This week was our first week of the mammals theme. And it was the first week that I didn’t have to teach. It was nice to sit back a bit and just jump in and help when help was needed. I hung out with the young group and we did a stuffed animal show and tell, learned about coyotes and badgers, and did some animal races.

• DK Did You Know?

• A Mammal is an Animal by Lizzy Rockwell

• Why Do Mammals Have Fur? by Pat Jacobs

• DK Mammals

• Whose Tracks are These? A Clue Book of Families Forest Animals by Jim Nail

Art/Music

Our music study was cut this week. We just ran out of time and other things got prioritized.

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. For ELA, we covered the letters A through E. We covered counting and some basic addition for math. Q also demanded to do math on the computer so we completed a few unit in Khan Academy.

ELA

• Alpha Boats by Samantha R. Vamos

• Corky Cub’s Crazy Caps by Barbara deRubertis

• My “c” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

• Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers

• My “d” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

• Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

• My “e” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

• Eddie Elephant’s Exciting Egg-Sitting by Barbara deRubertis

• Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran

Math

• 7 Ate 9 by Tara Lazar

• Teddy Bear Subtraction by Barbara Barbieri McGrath

• Where’s the Baby? by Britta Teckentrup

Other

• High Five magazine volume

• Follow the Line Around the World by Laura Ljungkvist

• Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni

Field Trip

We headed to the zoo specifically to see the newly renovated Gorilla Valley. It was great to see these majestic creatures up close again. The kids really enjoyed the interactive exhibits. We had some friends join us and it was a great morning at the zoo. After the gorillas, we stopped at the sea lions and the jungle building.

Documentary Selection

None this week

Misc. - Random picture books read

• Unbeatable Beaks by Stephen R. Swinburne

• Otto Blotter Bird Spotter by Graham Carter

• How to Find a Bird by Jennifer Ward

Highs

• I didn’t love all the appointments, but we did knock a ton of things off our big to do list I am loving the flexibility of homeschooling.

Lows

• Between a dentist appointment and a super long eye appointment (Arthur’s getting glasses!), we lost a ton of time this week. This next week will hopefully be less full and busy.

• No one showed for board games morning at the park. The boys were disappointed.

Next Week

• Continuing The Hobbit

• Finishing Unit 3 in math.

• Continuing with our mammal theme for coop

• Heading to China for history

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W4: All About Birds!

What We Studied

A much more normal week for us! We had some fun field trip adventures and focused on our studies.

Literature and Poetry

We started reading The Hobbit! I haven’t read it for years, so it was nice to revisit. We’ve moved our daily read aloud time back and forth from morning to right before bed. I am liking the flexibility. Reading before bed gives us more than 30 minutes back into our “school day,” but it’s definitely not an everyday switch.

• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

• In Aunt Giraffe’s Green Garden by Jack Prelutsky

• 10 Minutes a Day Spelling

Math

We started Singapore Math Common Core 3A this week. We’re shooting for one unit every week or so. Unit 1 is complete!

• Singapore Math Common Core Edition 3A

Social Studies

This week’s History Quest focus was on the Fall of the Byzantine Empire. Arthur actually remembered some things from last year’s study of the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the rise of the Byzantine Empire. So yeah for remembering!

• DK History

• DK When on Earth?

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 mostly packet work and did a few tasks for his creative project: Geography of Home book.

Science and STEAM Coop

Photos were taken; not by me as I was teaching. Unfortunately the pictures all had pictures of other people’s kids so I can’t post them on here.

We finished our bird theme this week. For the bigger kids, I had them complete the bird beak adaptation lab and then they made bird feeders with the little kids. Simple and easy but the lab was a lot of fun.

• Birds by Paul McEvoy

• DK Animal

• The Big Book of Birds by Yuval Zommer

• Nature All Around: Birds by Pamela Hickman

• The Egg by Britta Teckentrup

• DK Eyewitness Bird

• Bird Watch by Christie Matheson

• Bird Builds a Nest by Martin Jenkins

• Birds by Kevin Henkes

Art/Music

Our music study was cut this week again. We just ran out of time and other things got prioritized. I need to figure out how to add this back in easily.

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. For ELA, we continued our big overview of the alphabet. Q really wanted to do math on the computer, so we jumped on Khan Academy and he finished the entire first unit. (He really likes math!) For an extra science lesson, we talked about animal classifications.

ELA

• Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers

• My “b” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

• Bobby Baboon’s Banana Be-Bop by Barbara deRubertis

• Feathers for Lunch by Eric Carle

Math

• The Odd One Out by Britta Teckentrup

• Mother Goose: Numbers on the Loose by Leo and Diane Dillon

Other

• High Five magazine volume

• Our Earth by Anne Rockwell

• Many Creatures by Laura Purdie Salas

• Feathers and Hair: What Animals Wear by Jennifer Ward

Field Trip

We visited Fontenelle Forest and learned all about the birds housed at the Raptor Rescue. We arrived right at feeding time completely on accident. The worker was great about engaging the kiddos and talking about each bird as he fed them. We even got to see him give an owl eye drops for a detached retina. My favorite was seeing him interact with Charlotte the Peregrine Falcon. She is just gorgeous! We had intended to walk the trails afterward, but the kids ended just spending almost an hour and a half playing at the nature classroom. After, we and another family had a picnic lunch. It was a beautiful field trip.

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. This week, we watched an episode about birds, specifically peregrine falcons.

• NOVA S45 E16: World’s Fastest Animal

Misc. - Random picture books read

Highs

• Our one-two punch of Raptor Rescue trip and coop on Thursday really breathed some life into me this week. We are loving our group of coop friends. I’m excited that next week I don’t have to teach.

Lows

• I had a dentist appointment that messed up our Wednesday. In fact, we have dentist appointments for the next two weeks. I don’t love that they are spread out right now. Hoping next time, the boys’s appointments are together at least.

Next Week

• Continuing The Hobbit

• Moving on to Unit 2 in math.

• Starting Mammals for science

• Western Europe is up next for history

• Hoping to add in some music study (or at least listening while working)

• Board game morning with coop friends!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W3: Lots of Outdoor Fun

What We Studied

I really need to find our groove this fall. I cut back even more to allow for more flexibility. We’ll see how it goes going forward.

Literature and Poetry

We finished reading The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum in alignment the Blossom and Root 2nd Grade Language Arts curriculum. The curriculum doesn’t actual start with The Wizard of Oz, but I reordered everything to align closer to our history this year. I’m really enjoying the spelling curriculum that I bought from The Moffatt Girls on Teachers Pay Teachers. And Arthur has taken to doing one spelling list spread out over the course of the week.

• The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

• The Road to Oz: Twists, Turns, Bumps, and Triumphs int he Life of L. Frank Baum by Kathleen Krull

• I Invited a Dragon to Dinner

Math

We started Singapore Math Common Core 3A this week. We’re shooting for one unit every week or so. Unit 1 is complete!

• Singapore Math Common Core Edition 3A

• Millions, Billions, and trillions: Understanding Big Numbers by David A. Adler

• Mind-Boggling Numbers by Michael J. Rosen

Social Studies

We started History Quest Middle Times this week with Ch. 1 Islamic Innovations. I really loved this chapter. I even learned some things.

• OMAR Finds a Home

• DK Eyewitness: Islam

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• The Arab World Thought of It by Saima S. Hussain

• Looking Back: The World of Islam Before 1700 by Hazel Mary Martell

• Islamic Art & Culture by Nicola Barber

• The Arabian Nights

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 some packet work and started his next creative project: Geography of Home book.

Science and STEAM Coop

Photos were taken; not by me as I was teaching. Unfortunately the pictures all had pictures of other people’s kids so I can’t post them on here.

We started our bird theme this week and I taught the older kids. We talked about birds in general and birds of prey specifically. Then we joined the younger kids and dissected owl pellets. I was so proud of the older kids as they assisted the younger kids in their dissection. This week really solidified the idea of mixing up the age groups some weeks. Next week we are continuing the birds theme with beaks and feathers.

• Bird Count by Susan Edwards Richmond

• Robin Where are You? by Harriet Ziefert

• Animal School: What Class are You? by Michael Garland

• The Animal Book by Steve Jenkins

• Nature Files: Animal Groupings by Anita Ganeri

• Carl Linnaeus: Genius of Classification by Margaret J. Anderson

Art/Music

Our music study was cut this week. We just ran out of time and other things got prioritized.

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. For ELA, we continued our big overview of the alphabet. We covered more counting and some basic math concepts as well as simple map skills. And we had some puzzles to round out the week.

ELA

• Ten Apples Up on Top by Theo LeSieg

• Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers

• The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall

• The Wheels on the Bus

• Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman

Math

• One is Not a Pair by Britta Teckentrup

• No Two Alike by Keith Baker

• Know Your Numbers: Food by Mary Elizabeth Salzmann

• Know Your Numbers: Nature by Mary Elizabeth Salzmann

• Know Your Numbers: Animals by Mary Elizabeth Salzmann

• Know Your Numbers: Toys by Mary Elizabeth Salzmann

Other

• High Five magazine volume

Field Trip

We had a great two event day on Tuesday with our coop friends. In the morning, we visited Heron Haven and explored nature. We saw turtles, frogs, fish, birds, butterflies, and caterpillars. We loved it and will definitely go back soon. In the afternoon, we met some coop friends at the park for playground time and board games. My kids really loved playing with someone else. We’re aiming to schedule two board games days a month.

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. This week, we watched a great episode about math.

• NOVA S42 E7: The Great Math Mystery

Misc. - Random picture books read

• Vivi Loves Science by Kimberly Derting

Highs

• Tuesday was so much fun! The boys loved the nature walk and especially loved the board games afternoon.

Lows

• Some things fell by the wayside this week. I’m reconfiguring our schedule for next week to help this out.

Next Week

• Starting The Hobbit

• Moving on to Unit 2 in math.

• Continuing with our birds theme for coop

• Fall of the Byzantine Empire is up next for history.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W2: I'm So Tired...

What We Studied

Two weeks of fairly intense field trips has left me extremely tired. While we are loving the fun, we need to better structure our weeks to allow for time to recharge. I am extremely tired going into our third week. We did tackle some great lessons this week and made progress on our projects.

Working on character traits with his emerald glasses

Literature and Poetry

We continued reading The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum in alignment the Blossom and Root 2nd Grade Language Arts curriculum. The curriculum doesn’t actual start with The Wizard of Oz, but I reordered everything to align closer to our history this year. I’m really enjoying the spelling curriculum that I bought from The Moffatt Girls on Teachers Pay Teachers. And Arthur has taken to doing one spelling list spread out over the course of the week.

• The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

• I Invited a Dragon to Dinner

Math

We spent the week doing a bit of math review and math games. And we started our new logic book: Primarily Logic. I am liking the different type of logic problems from our previous series, Lollipop Logic.

• Millions, Billions, and trillions: Understanding Big Numbers by David A. Adler

• Mind-Boggling Numbers by Michael J. Rosen

Social Studies

We continued with our map skills and did a review of our last year’s study of ancient history.

• Got Geography! poems

• If Maps Could Talk by Erika L. Shores

• How I Learned Geography by Uri Shulevitz

• It’s a Round, Round World by Ellie Peterson

• Archaeologists Dig for Clues by Kate Duke

Dinosaur scene in LEGOs

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 some packet work and a creative project. He made emerald glasses with which to visit the Emerald City of Oz.

Science and STEAM Coop

No photos as I was busy teaching…

The second week of our Math in Nature theme. We had a bit of a hiccup with the older kids leader calling in sick the day before. Totally understandable! But it meant that I had to scramble for a new plan Instead of teaching the littles group, I switched to the older group and found another member to teach the littles. In the older group, we covered symmetry and tessellation. I was proud of my quick thinking and ability to be flexible.

• Nature Math by Penny Dowdy

• Math Art + Drawing Games for Kids by Karyn Tripp

• STEM Quest: Fabulous Figure and Cool Calculations by Colin Stuart

• Shapes in Math, Science, and Nature by Catherine Sheldrick Ross

• Math Lab for Kids by Rebecca Rapoprt and J.A. Yoder

• Math Everywhere Get in Shape: Two-Dimensional and Three-Dimensional Shapes by Rob Colson

Art/Music

We started our music study this year with Fanny Mendelssohn. Our actual lesson was mostly just listening to her work, but we did find a good biography video to watch.

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. For ELA, we continued our big overview of the alphabet. We covered more counting and some basic math concepts as well as simple map skills. And we had some puzzles to round out the week.

ELA

• Creature ABC by Andrew Zuckerman

• LMNO Peas by Keith Baker

• LMNO Pea-quel by Keith Baker

• Llamas with Lemonade by Ariana Koultourides

• I Spy A to Z by Jean Marzollo

Math

• 10 Little Rubber Ducks

• Animal Numbers by Christopher Silas Neal

• Chicka Chicka 123 by Bill Martin Jr.

• Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh

• Patterns by Joanna Brundle

• Shapes Around Us by Daniel Nunn

• Shapes by Joanna Brundle

• Shaping Up Summer by Lizann Flatt

Other

• High Five magazine volume

• Follow that Map: A First Book of Mapping Skills by Scot Ritchie

Field Trip

Our field trip this week was our first with the STEAM coop. It was a terribly hot day, but we did spend a bit over an hour at the OPPD Arboretum exploring nature and reminding ourselves of various shapes in nature. Wednesday was Zoo Member Appreciation Day so we had to stop in to get our ride tickets and special events. It was very hot, but we still enjoyed many animals, carousel, tram, stingray beach, and the splash pad.

Fossil hunting at the Arboretum

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. This week, we watched the second of the series about A to Z. This episode focused on book making and specifically the advent of the Guttenburg printing press.

• NOVA S47 E12: A to Z

Nature hike

Misc. - Random picture books read

• Beyond the Dinosaurs: Monsters of the Air and Sea by Charlotte Lewis Brown

• Heavy Equipment: Cranes by David Armentrout

• Infinity and Me by Kate Hosford

• Nick and Nack Float a Boat by Brandon Budzi

• N is for Nebraska: A Cornhusker State ABC Primer by Christin Farley

• Omaha ABCs by Ashlee Coffey

• Snappsy the Alligator by Julie Falatko

• Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci by Joseph D’Agnese

Highs

• Although it was very warm, I loved our visit to the OPPD Arboretum. We will definitely go back. Maybe in the fall when the colors start changing?

Lows

• I’m still figuring out the scheduling aspect. How much is too much to aim for getting done in a day. It’s different from last year in that Q is in the mix and we have weekly activities and field trips (with coop). I overestimated this week…

We spotted three wobbegong sharks at the zoo! (one is not pictured here) We thought there was only one.

Next Week

• Finishing The Wizard of Oz

• Starting birds for coop and science

• Listening to Beethoven for music

• Covering A and B for Quentin’s letter work

• Diving into the Middle Ages with the Islamic Empire

Hello Lion!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W1: A Return to Routine

What We Studied

We have officially started our second year of homeschooling. This year, I have added Quentin into the mix. We’re still trying to find a balance of together and separate subjects while adding in our STEAM coop, field trips and the usual errands.

Literature and Poetry

We started reading The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum in alignment the Blossom and Root 2nd Grade Language Arts curriculum. The curriculum doesn’t actual start with The Wizard of Oz, but I reordered everything to align closer to our history this year. We also started a new book of poems, a spelling curriculum, and some random grammar pages.

• The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

• I Invited a Dragon to Dinner

Math

We spent the week doing a bit of math review and math games. Monday was all about shapes and playing with tangrams. On Wednesday, we focused on time. Quentin joined us for part of the big math review. He especially loved playing with tangrams.

• Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh

• If You were a Quadrilateral by Molly Blaisdell

• About Time: A First Look at time and Clocks by Bruce Koscielniak

Social Studies

Instead of starting our big history curriculum, we focused on a review of map skills and talks about where we live this week. We also dove into the concept of a city and did some city planning projects.

• Got Geography! poems

• Follow that Map by Sheri Tan (Arthur read)

• Cities: Discover How They Work by Kathleen M. Reilly

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 some packet work and a creative project. He made shadow puppets for The Wizard of Oz. Hopefully we can use those next week to act out various scenes from the book.

Science and STEAM Coop

We officially started our STEAM coop this week with a theme of Math in Nature! Definitely a learning curve, but I think we had a great first meeting. The older kid group had five kids and the younger kid group had five kids. I taught the little kids and we focused on spirals and the Fibonacci sequence. We made spirals on our boards and in the grass using found objects. We used Fibonacci boxes to make an art project. The kids lasted about an hour before they were done. The older kids did a more in depth exploration of Fibonacci and his sequence. Arthur joined the big kids and loved the lesson! According to the teacher, he was a great student and asked some great questions. I think it went really well! Afterward, the kids played at the playground until it go too hot. We will be continuing the theme into next week and I will once again be teaching the younger group.

• Nature Math by Penny Dowdy

• Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature by Sarah C. Campbell

• Math Art + Drawing Games for Kids by Karyn Tripp

• STEM Quest: Fabulous Figure and Cool Calculations by Colin Stuart

• Shapes in Math, Science, and Nature by Catherine Sheldrick Ross

• Math Lab for Kids by Rebecca Rapoprt and J.A. Yoder

• Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature by Joyce Sidman

• Math Everywhere Get in Shape: Two-Dimensional and Three-Dimensional Shapes by Rob Colson

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. After giving Q a PreK assessment, I am going to have to accelerate the curriculum. He only missed a few questions and is probably closer to a Kindergarten curriculum than PreK. We are going to condense the letter work to one semester instead of one year and add in phonics. I’m debating about how to accelerate the math portion. He might start Singapore Math 1 in October or so. For this week, I focused on getting him used to the idea of school time. We review the alphabet and counting while also playing some games and working on map skills.

ELA

• R is for Rocket by Tad Hills

• Those Darn Squirrels by Adam Rubin

• Alphamals by Graham Carter

• I Spy Letters by Jean Marzollo

• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

Math

• Richard Scarry’s Best Counting Book Ever

• Counting by Joanna Brundle

• It’s About Time by Stuart J. Murphy

Other

• High Five magazine volume

• August by K.C. Kelley and Bob Ostrom

Field Trip

Our field trip this week was another visit to the zoo. We got to visit the newly opened aviary as well as stopping at the splash pad. Before leaving, we stopped into the theater and the boys got to participate in the lesson about how the zoo trains animals. Q was super excited to see the dog they used. It got really hot so we didn’t stay super late, but it was fun.

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. This week, we picked a seemingly random NOVA episode about the alphabet, but in reality, I thought it would be a good starting point as we are reviewing the alphabet with Quentin and it connects to a lot of ancient history Arthur studied last year.

• NOVA S47 E11: A to Z The First Alphabet

Misc. - Random picture books read

• 1001 Creatures by Laura Merz translated by Emily Jeremiah

• Numbers Everywhere by Linda Leopold Strauss

• Old MacDonald Had a Boat by Steve Goetz

• Pajama Pirates by Andrew Kramer

• 10 Reasons to Love an Elephant by Catherine Barr

• Iguanodon by Lucia Raatma

• Giant Pandas by Jill Anderson

• The Z was Zapped by Chris Van Allsburg

Highs

• We loved our first STEAM coop meeting! Hoping to keep up the excitement and momentum.

• We skipped out on Friday morning and did a splash pad visit. We had a friend join us and it was nice for the boys to have some socialization time.

Lows

• Both boys had a few meltdowns throughout the week. Our break (most of July) was probably a bit too long and the boys had trouble making the transition. Hopefully we get over this small hiccup.

Next Week

We’re still going to take it a bit easier next week. I’ve decided to plan for half weeks through the month of August. I want to get in as much outdoor time while the weather holds. We’re just going to keep plugging along and see where we get next week. I am hoping to take a bit more of a relaxed and flexible approach this semester.

Next up on the TBR pile:

We're Homeschooling - Year 2! Planning and Schedule

Our Schedule

So now I have the supplies, it’s time to start planning and gathering everything I want to do. I’m a Type A planner that always feels better with a good plan going in. I’m always up for flexibility and change in the spur of the moment, but I need a plan to reference when things change. I started with making a simple list of of the various curriculum we will be using.

I’m a big fan of time blocking, but we have the added complications of Quentin’s preschool curriculum, our new STEAM coop, and our weekly field trips. My first pass at scheduling our day began with these three items. From there, I came up with this basic schedule:

From there, I broke the week schedule down into days to better see if everything would fit:

My next step was to create an overview calendar with our big themes. I used index cards cut into smaller pieces laid out on my desk so I could see everything at once and move things around. Very low tech solution, but sometimes paper really is better.

I’ve been experimenting with the idea of loop scheduling to help Arthur stay on task while I work with Quentin. I made a very long and detailed week loop (on the left) for myself and a much simpler daily/weekly loop (on the right) for Arthur to check off. We’ll try this out and see how it goes for the first few weeks.

From here, I pulled out my trusty cheap paper planner and started jotting down basic plans for the week. I love to make things easy to see at a glance, so I color coded all the different subjects. in case you are wondering:

• Pink is ELA

• Purple is math

• Orange is history

• Light green is Quentin’s preschool

• Light blue is music/art (not on this spread)

• Dark blue is coop/science

• Red is field trips/games/crafts.

Because there was too much to shove onto the small lines of my paper planner, I pulled out Quentin’s curriculum onto a separate paper planner sheet. This has helped me wrap my brain around all the different activities that I’m hoping to accomplish during one-on-one time with Q.

My last big planning step is to create very detailed lesson plans including videos, books, and details. Last year, I started in August with just a simple Pages document. Sometime in the late fall, J downloaded and started using a special note talking app called Roam. He really loved it and turned me onto using the system. I’ve been actively using Roam since January to collect all my notes, lesson plans, scheduling, and other miscellaneous items. (Also, you can see from the sidebar that I use Roam for a wide range of projects, not just homeschooling.) I’m still exploring the various tools on Roam and I’m sure that my planning with get more advanced and efficient as this year goes on.

And that’s it! My planning and scheduling process seems very complicate but most of it is prep work before the year begins. Once we start, I mainly use the paper planner as reference and work inside Roam for the day-to-day planning. As usual, I tweak the process as I go along but this is my starting place.

We’re officially starting our homeschool adventure the first week of August. Starting August 9th, I’ll post a weekly wrap-up. I hope to do weekly updates highlighting our highs and lows on this journey.

Next up on the TBR pile:

We're Homeschooling - Year 2! Our Curriculum 2nd Grade and PreK

We did it! We made it through our first year of homeschooling! Right now we are taking a “break” and doing a pirate unit full of fun, games, crafts, and books. We have planned to start our next year’s curriculum the first week of August along with our STEAM coop. In the meantime, I’ve been deep into planning our this coming year. We are entering new territory as I am officially adding in Quentin to the mix. That means we will have a child in 2nd grade and a child in PreK. Quentin’s PreK curriculum will be much lighter than Arthur’s 2nd grade curriculum, but I want to make sure that I have resources for both.

As a reminder, we are a pretty eclectic household with a strong literature base. My criteria when looking for curriculum:

• secular

• rigorous

• wide world perspective

• not necessarily all-in-one

• at least some physical items, not all online

• cheap (not necessarily the cheapest, but not expensive)

Let’s take a look at what I’ve bought for curriculum for next year!

Arthur - 2nd Grade

Math

We will be continuing with Singapore Math Common Core Edition as our base curriculum. Arthur will be starting with 3A and will probably push through 3B, 4A, and 4B by the end of the school year. Beyond the basic text, we will be supplementing with Khan Academy, lots of math games, and random workbooks and packets. I’m really excited to dive into Primarily Logic and Logic Countdown.

• Singapore Math 3A and 3B

• Singapore Math 4A and 4B

• Target dollar spot workbooks

• Primarily Logic

• Logic Coundtown

• Bedtime Math

• STEM Starters for Kids: Math Activity Book

Language Arts

I bought Blossom & Root’s 2nd Grade Language Arts curriculum for our base. The theme is Fantastic Journeys and Perilous Quests. I was very excited about the read aloud list, but we did make a few substitutions. We have read a few of the selections, and I added some more to our big list.

• Trickster Tales by Josepha Sherman

• Thunder Rose by Jerdine Nolen

• American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne

• Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

• Sal & Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez

• Pushing Up the Sky by Joseph Bruchac and Teresa Flavin

• City of the Plague God by Sarwat Chadda

• Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi

• Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia

• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

• Sarah Journey’s West by Nikki Shannon Smith (this is actually a book we won from the library and will use for our U.S. History curriculum)

• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

• Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

• The Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes

• Dragon Pearl by Yoon Lee

In addition to our big read alouds and projects,

• Visual Guide to Second Guide (grabbed at Half Price Books)

• 10 Minutes a Day Spelling Grade 2 (grabbed at Half Price Books)

• Scholastic Reading Comprehension Grade 2

• Scholastic Writing Grade 2

• Scholastic Grammar Grade 2

• Tinkeractive English Grade 2

• Sightwords Grade 1-2

• Journeys Grade 2 (grabbed at Half Price Books)

• Mad Libs Grade 1 Reading

Social Studies

It’s not pictured as it’s in ebook form, but we are using Pandia Press’s History Quest Middle Times as our base. I really enjoyed their Ancient Times and thankfully the Middle Times volume was just released this summer. Hopefully, Blossom & Root’s A River of Voices Volume 2 will release soon. We’ll fit that in sometime later this fall or winter. The above books (except DK History, that’s new) were all ones that we bought last year and will continue to use.

• Curiositree’s The Human World

• When on Earth

• DK History

• Explorers

• The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia

• Myths, Legends, & Sacred Stories

I also grabbed this collection of Map Skills books to work through. Arthur will start on Grade 1 and just work through the first couple. I imagine Quentin will also get into the Grade 1 book at some point this year.

• Map Skills for Today Grade 1

• Map Skills for Today Grade 2

• Map Skills for Today Grade 3

• Map Skills for Today Grade 4

• Map Skills for Today Grade 5

Science

Our science will be a collection of unit studies correlated to our coop themes. Some of these texts are carry overs from last year. And some I ended up buying new this year.

• DK Human Body

• The LEGO Ideas Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

• STEM Starters for Kids: STEM Activity Book

• Exploring Nature by Kim Andrews

• The Nature Connection by Clare Walker Leslie

• STEM Starters for Kids: Geology Activity Book

• Smart Start STEM PreK

• Smart Start STEM K

• Smart Start STEM 1

• STEM Starters for Kids: Robotics Activity Book

• Sofia Valdez, Future Prez by Andrea Beaty

• Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty

• Geo Detectives: Volcanoes and Earthquakes

• DK Animal

• National Geographic On Safari

• Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner

• Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner

• National Parks of the U.S.A. Activity Book

• When Sue Found Sue by Toni Buzzeo

• One Small Square: Backyard by Donald Silver

• One Small Square: Woods by Donald Silver

• Heroes of the Environment by Harriet Rohmer

• Dinosaurs on My Street by David West

• United Tastes of America by Gabrielle Langholtz

• The Complete Baking Book for Young Chefs by America’s Test Kitchen

• The Julia Rothman Collection: Farm Anatomy, Nature Anatomy, Food Anatomy

• STEMQuest: Astonishing Atoms and Matter Mayehm

• STEMQuest: Tools, Robotics, and Gadgets Galore

• STEMQuest: Fantastic Forces and Incredible Machines

• STEMQuest: Fabulous Figures and Cool Calculations

• Math Art + Drawing Games for Kids by Karyn Tripp

Quentin - PreK

Primarily Quentin will be using Blossom & Root’s Early Years Vol. 2 curriculum. This includes early literacy and math, art and music exposure, and kitchen and nature explorations. We will be adding a ton of activity books I had laying around and a few new titles.

• Highlights Amazing Mazes

• I Spy Learn and Go

• My First Book of Tracing

• Busy Day Sticker Book

• Color Cut Create: Dinosaurs

• Scissor Skills

• Lots of back issues of High Five magazine

• Zany Zoo Sticker Face

• I Can Color

• 30 Minutes a Day: Preschool

• Highlights: Thinking and Reasons Grade K

• Preschool Handwriting Workbook

• Summer BrainQuest PreK and K

• Mother Goose Collection

• BrainQuest K (we are also using BrainQuest PreK but I didn’t include it in the photo)

• Big Preschool Workbook

• Tinkeractive Science K

• Tinkeractive English K

• Highlight Amazing Mazes

• Big Mazes

• Tinkeractive Math K

• Singapore Math 1A and 1B

Homeschool W38: We're Done!

What We Studied

We’re officially done with our first year of homeschooling! For next week and July, we will be taking it easy. Arthur will be working on his Highlights and BrainQuest summer bridge workbooks. We will be continuing our read alouds and picture books at night. Beyond that, we are going to focus on downtime, games, and fun excursions.

Literature and Poetry

We’re still reading Scary Stories for Young Foxes and really enjoyed it, even if it is really scary. Beyond our reading selection, Arthur completed his end of Grade 1 spelling assessment. Not too shabby! Especially considering that spelling has not really been a focus this past year. (I’m debating about adding it in for next year.) Finally, he’s been working on his Highlights and BrainQuest summer bridge workbooks. These pages are the focus of our language arts and math for the summer.

• Scary Stories for Young Foxes by Christian McKay Heidicker

Math

Highlights and BrainQuest summer bridge workbooks

Social Studies

None

Science

We covered motion and forces for our last official week of the school year. I was amazed at how quickly Arthur got the concepts of potential and kinetic motion. Definitely a science kid! We also watched two Magic School Bus episodes about energy and motion.

• Forces Make Things Move by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

• Give It a Push! Give It a Pull! A Look at Forces by Jennifer Boothroyd

• Why Do Moving Objects Slow Down? A Look at Friction by Jennifer Boothroyd

• Cece Loves Science: Push and Pull by Kimberly Derting

• Experiments with Motion by Susan H. Gray

Art

None

Music

We continued listening to the Beatles. We covered recordings from 1964 to 1966. Arthur has only been a fan of a few songs (seriously, is he even my kid?). His favorites have been “Help” and “Nowhere Man.”

Unit Theme

We did a simple unit theme based on ice cream. We read a ton of ice cream books (fiction and Nonfiction), plus watched a great Modern Marvels documentary about the making of ice cream. Of course, had to also eat some ice cream!

• Ice Cream: The Full Scoop by Gail Gibbons

• Ice Cream Soup by Ann Ingalls (Arthur Read)

• Sweet Success by Liz and Jimmy Reed

• Ice Cream Summer by Peter Sís

• The Scoop on Ice Cream by Bonnie Williams

• Ice-Cream Cones for Sale! by Elaine Greenstein

• Saffron Ice Cream by Rashin

• Should I Share My Ice Cream? by Mo Willems (Arthur read)

• Francesco Tirelli's Ice Cream Shop by Tamar Meir

• Vanilla Ice Cream by Bob Graham

• Fox Tails: The Giant Ice Cream Mess by Tina Kügler

• I Scream Ice Cream by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

• The Little Ice Cream Truck by Margery Cuyler

• Chuggington: Wilson and the Ice Cream Fair by Mara Conlon (Arthur read)

• Curious George Goes to an Ice Cream Shop by Margret Rey and Alan J. Shalleck

Misc. - Random picture books read

• Sealed with a Kiss by Beth Ferry

• Be Who You Are by Todd Parr

• Rainbow: A First Book of Pride by Michael Genhart

• Welcome Home, Whales by Christina Booth

• Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love

• Trapped! A Whale's Rescue by Robert Burleigh

• Phoenix Goes to School by Michelle and Phoenix Finch

• Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress by Christine Baldacchino

• Curious George Good Night, Zoo by Gina Gold

• Whale Trails: Before and Now by Lesa Cline-Ransome

Highs

• We took advantage of a day with below 90 degree temperatures and went to the zoo. Apparently we had the same idea as everyone else in Omaha. But it was still fun. We finally got to ride the train (it’s been closed since summer 2019)!

Lows

• The heat got to all of us and it wasn’t pretty. Lots of grouchiness and terrible attitudes.

Next Week

We’re officially on summer break. We have a stack of library books and our summer workbooks. Plus we have our summer bucket list to check off. And we have made sure to schedule lots of outings and field trips.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W37: We Finished Our U.S. History Curriculum!

What We Studied

Literature and Poetry

We finished one read aloud and started the next one. I was super excited about reading The Phantom Tollbooth and Arthur was excited about reading Scary Stories for Young Foxes. We also did some journal writing.

• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

• Scary Stories for Young Foxes by Christian McKay Heidicker

Math

Another week of math review and Khan Academy.

Social Studies

We finished our U.S. History curriculum for the year with a lesson on the Bill of Rights and one on the native groups of the Northwest and the Plateau.

• We the People: The United States Constitution Explored and Explained by Aura Lewis & Evan Sargent

• Flags Over America by Cheryl Harness

• Northwest Coast Indians by Liz Sonneborn

• The Eagle’s Song: A Tale from the Pacific Northwest by Kristina Rodanas

• Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest by Gerald McDermott

• Nez Perce by Sarah Tieck

• Plateau Indians by Christin Ditchfield

Science

We covered energy in the form of sound and light. Arthur got pretty interested and made some great connections to previous lessons. We also watched two episodes of Magic School Bus to review our information.

• Light is All Around Us by Wendy Pfeffer

• The Energy We See: A Look at Light by Jennifer Boothroyd

• Invention Hunters: Discover How Light Works by Korwin Briggs

• Light Waves by David A. Adler

• Science Experiments with Light by Alex Kiskowski

• Let's Ride a Wave! Diving Into the Science of Light and Sound Waves with Physics by Chris Ferrie

• Sounds All Around by Wendy Pfeffer

• The Sound of Silence by Katrina Goldsaito

• Science Experiments with Sight and Sound by Alex Kuskowski

• Can You Hear Sounds in Space? and Other Questions About Sound by Anna Claybourne

• All About Sound by Angela Royston

Art

Nothing formal

Music

We continued with The Beatles by listening to A Hard Day’s Night and Beatles for Sale.

Unit Theme

We spent some time learning about Juneteenth and connecting history to our current social issues. I’m amazed that Arthur really connected and make conclusions as much as he did.

• Let's Talk About Race by Julius Lester

• Juneteenth for Mazie by Floyd Cooper

• All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom by Angela Johnson

• Juneteenth Jamboree by Carole Boston Weatherford

Misc. - Random picture books read

• Squid Kid the Magnificent by Lynne Berry

• Alistair and Kip’s Great Adventure by John Segal

• Together by Emma Dodd

• The Whale in My Swimming Pool by Joyce Wan

• The Magic School Bus in the Time of the Dinosaurs by Joanna Cole

• There’s a Dolphin in the Grand Canal by John Bemelmans Marciano

• A Perfect Day by Sarah S. Brannen

• Trucks Roll by George Ella Lyon

• Lenny the Lobster Can’t Stay for Dinner by Finn Buckley with Michael Buckley

• Whale Shines by Fiona Robinson

• The Old Mermaid Who Swallowed a Shark by Lucille Colandro

• A Home for Leo by Vin Vogel

• I’m a Shark by Bob Shea

• Introducing Teddy by Jessica Walton

• The Whale the Sea and the Stars by Adrián Macho

Highs

• We had a lovely park playdate with friends on Tuesday. We are really enjoying shady parks right now due to the high temperatures.

Lows

• The temperatures were absolutely ridiculous… and we lost all motivation to go anywhere or do anything.

Next Week

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W36: It's Too Hot to School...

What We Studied

Literature and Poetry

We continued reading The Phantom Tollbooth and many other picture books. We also worked on some basic grammar review and more journal writing.

• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

• Silver Seeds by Paul Paolilli and Dan Brewer (poems)

• We Need More Nuts by Jonathan Fenske (Arthur read)

• Hello Crabby by Jonathan Fenske (Arthur read)

Math

Continuing with our big review and games. We finished Lollipop Logic Book 3. Now I need to find some other logic puzzle series for Arthur.

• Max Explains Everything: Grocery Store Expert by Stacy McAnulty

• Last to Finish: A Story About the Smartest Boy in Math Class by Barbara Esham

Social Studies

We covered three different U.S. History lessons this week. We started with a lesson on African Americans after the War featuring Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, Paul Cuffee, and Ona Judge. We moved on to a lesson on Benjamin Banneker. And finished with a lesson about John and Abigail Adams.

• Answering the Cry for Freedom by Gretchen Woelfle

• 100 African Americans Who Shaped American History by Chrisanne Beckner

• America’s Black Founders by Nancy Sanders

• The Escape of Oney Judge by Emily Arnold McCully

• Runaway: The Daring Escape of Ona Judge by Ray Anthony Shepard

• Molly Bannaky by Alice McGill

• Tick Tock Banneker’s Clock by Shana Keller

• The Revolutionary John Adams by Cheryl Harness

• A Picture Book of John and Abigail Adams by David A. Adler

• Abigail Adams by Alexandra Wallner

• Leave It to Abigail: The Revolutionary Life of Abigail Adams by Barb Rosenstock

Science

We learned all about matter and changing states of matter this week. I’m amazed at how quickly Arthur (and even Quentin) caught on to this concept.

• Matter: See It, Touch It, Taste It, Smell. It by Darlene Stille

• Change It! Solids, Liquids, Gases, and You by Adrienne Mason

• Solids, Liquids, Gases, and Plasma by David A. Adler

• Experiments with States of Matter by Trevor Cook

Art

Nothing formal

Music

We started our big unit on The Beatles. We are going to listen to all the songs from the Beatles and trace their musical growth through the years. This week we covered everything from 1962 and 1963.

• The Beatles by Mike Venezia

• The Beatles were Fab (and They were Funny) by Kathleen Krull

Unit Theme

We celebrated Pride Month this week by learning about gender identity, the rainbow flag, and the history of Pride. I found some really good basic books to introduce this topic.

• It Feels Good to Be Yourself: A Book About Gender Identity by Theresa Thorn

• The Gender Wheel: A Story About Bodies and Gender for Everybody by Maya Gonzalez

• This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman

• Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag by Rob Sanders

• Sewing the Rainbow: The Story of Gilbert Baker and the Rainbow Flag by Gayle E. Pitman

• The Rainbow Flag: Bright, Bold, and Beautiful by Michelle Millar Fisher

Misc. - Random picture books read

• Pup 681: A Sea Otter Rescue by Jean Reidy

• To the Sea by Cale Atkinson

• Ebb & Flo and the Baby Seal by Jane Simmons

• The Boy and the Whale by Mordicai Gerstein

• Beachy and Me by Bob Staake

• Inky's Amazing Escape by Sy Montgomery

• Wake Up, Crabby! by Jonathan Fenske

• Always Remember by Cece Meng

• The Storm Whale by Benji Davies

• A Whale of a Mistake by Ioana Hobai

• A Whale in the Bathtub by Kylie Westaway

• Star of the Sea by Janet Halfmann

• Peanut Butter and Jellyfish by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

• Little Whale by Jo Weaver

• The Heart of a Whale by Anna Pignataro

• Starfish, Where are You? by Barroux

• All the Water in the World by George Ella Lyon and Katherine Tillotson

Highs

• We braved the very high temperatures to go berry picking on Monday. Unlike last year, we actually came home with a ton of strawberries. J made a strawberry pie and a strawberry rhubarb pie out of them. Yum!

Lows

• The very high temperatures meant that we didn’t spend that much time outside this past week. I wanted to go to another state park, but knew we wouldn’t be able to handle the heat.

Next Week

We are going to finish The Phantom Tollbooth as well as our U.S. History Curriculum. For science we will be studying light and sound. We will continue listening to the Beatles and doing a math review. And we will cover Juneteenth for our unit theme.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool Memorial Day Break

What We Studied

For the last week in May, Memorial Day, and the first week in June, we ended up taking a semi-break. For us, that means we only did school about an hour a day and added in more outings, activities, field trips, games, and crafts. We are schooling year round which easily lends itself to these types of lighter weeks to change things up. We’ve realized that both boys really do well with routine and structure. Dropping all school for two weeks is a terrible idea. Going a bit lighter works perfectly for us!

Literature and Poetry

We read the four book Frog and Toad collection by Arnold Lobel and started reading The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster. Frog and Toad are some of my favorite childhood characters so it was nice to revisit with Arthur. I’ve never actually read The Phantom Tollbooth, but have heard so many amazing things about it as an adult. Arthur’s not completely sold on the story, but I am loving the word play and silliness. Beyond our read alouds, we read a ton of picture books, Arthur tackled some early readers, and focused on reading comprehension. We also completed a sample standardized test meant to close out First Grade. It was a nice review for Arthur and work on some test taking skills.

• Frog and Toad Collection by Arnold Lobel

• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster

• At the Beach by Alexa Andrews (Arthur read)

• Otter: Hello, Sea Friends! by Sam Garton (Arthur Read)

New playground just opened!

Math

We did a ton of review, some skill building, logic puzzles, and Khan Academy. We’re going to continue with all that throughout the rest of the summer up until we start Level 4 in August.

Social Studies

Nothing formal, but we did a ton of local exploration

Loggerhead

Science

See Unit Theme

Green Sea Turtle

Art

Nothing formal, but a lot of drawing and free expression

Mermaid’s purse and a wobbegong shark (very camouflaged against the wall of the tank)

Music

We finished our American Folk Music unit with lots of bands and songs from the 1960s and 1970s. We could keep going, but have decided to switch focus a bit for June.

Unit Theme

We finally wrapped up our giant Ocean unit. We focused on specific animals on different days along with a trip to the zoo to check out the aquarium. Arthur was super excited to spot both species of sea turtles (loggerhead and green), three species of shark, a couple mermaid purses, and a wobbegong shark! Plus Arthur watched a ton of videos from Brave Wilderness highlighting encounters with various sea creatures.

• DK Ocean

• Nat Geo Ocean Animals

• Ocean Anatomy by Julia Rothman

• Sea Turtles by Gail Gibbons

• Nat Geo Kids: Sea Turtles by Laura Marsh

• Nat Geo Kids: Mission Sea Turtle Rescue by Karen Romano Young

• Octopuses by Elizabeth R. Johnson

• Nat Geo Kids: Ink! by Stephanie Warren Drimmer

• Giant Squid and Octopuses by Ruth Owen

• Giant Squid by Mary M. Cerullo and Clyde F.E. Roper

• Giant Squid by Candace Fleming

• Here There Be Monsters: The Legendary Kraken and Giant Squid by HP Newquist

• Crabs by Ann Herriges

• Hermit Crabs by Ellen Lawrence

• Jellyfish by Grace Hansen

• A Day in the Life: Jellyfish by Louise Spilsbury

• Becoming a Jellyfish by Grace Hansen

• A Day in the Life Sea Animals: Seal by Louise Spilsbury

• Sea Lions by Colleen Sexton

• A Day in the Life Sea Animals: Leopard Seal byKatie Marsico

• Walruses by Renee C. Rebman

• Super Swimmers by Caroline Arnold

• Sea Otters by Nathan Sommer

Misc. - Random picture books read

• Abracadabra It’s Spring by Anne Sibley O’Brien

• Swashby and the Sea by Beth Ferry

• Good Thing You’re Not an Octopus by Julie Markes

• Ocean Soup by Meeg Pincus

• Shark Nate-O by Tara Luebbe and Becky Cattie

• Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle

• Nugget and Fang Go to School by Tammi Sauer

• I'm the Best Artist in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry

• Octopuses One to Ten by Ellen Jackson

• Squid and Octopus Friends For Always by Tao Nye

• I am Not a Fish by Peter Raymundo

• Inky the Octopus by Erin Guendelsberger

• Day at the Beach by Tom Booth

• Crabby Crab by Chris Raschka

• Shark Detective by Jessica Olien

• The Hermit Crab by Carter Goodrich

• You're a Crab by Jenny Whitehead

• After Squidnight by Jonathan Fenske

• The Fisherman and the Whale by Jessica Lanan

• Don't Worry Little Crab by Chris Haughton

• The Seals on the Bus by Lenny Hort

• Following Papa's Song by Gianna Marino

• Sink or Swim by Valerie Coulman

• Flip & Fin: We Rule the School by Timothy Gill

• Compost Stew by Mary McKenna Siddals

• There Might Be Lobsters by Carolyn Crimi

• Whale in a Fishbowl by Troy Howell

• Ida and the Whale by Rebecca Gugger

• Adelita: A Sea Turtle's Journey by Jenny Goebel

• Melissa's Octopus and Other Unsuitable Pets by Charlotte Voake

• A Small Blue Whale by Beth Ferry

• President Squid by Aaron Reynolds

• Mabel: A Mermaid Fable by Rowboat Watkins

Highs

So many to choose from these past two weeks!

Snapping turtle!

• We spent a lovely day at Schramm State Park hiking the 3 mile trail, checking out the education center, observing the fish hatcheries, looking for fossils, and enjoying a picnic. Now that we have a state park pass, we’ll be back!

• We watched a fun Book Blast presentation from the library highlighting some great new children’s books. Arthur made me put almost half of them on hold. At the end, they did a raffle and we won a book bundle of four of the selections. So exciting! They are doing it again July with different books and we definitely going to be attending.

Making magic wands

• The local maker space is doing a summer STEM challenge with projects and activities. We picked up our passports, watched the kick-off, and made our first project! We will be having fun completing activities all summer long and earning prizes.

• Speaking of summer challenges, we signed up for the library’s summer reading program and got our free book to kickstart our summer reading.

• We made our summer bucket list and opened our summer basket! Schooling year round doesn’t mean that we skip summer activities. We just incorporate them into the school days.

Lows

• It’s been super hot around here (in the 90s) and I really don’t want to go anywhere any afternoon. I have messed up our schedule a few days and cause us to be outside after noon. Not making that mistake again.

Next Week

We’re back to a normal-ish schedule for us. I want to get close to finishing our U.S. History curriculum (only 6 more lessons), start our new music unit (The Beatles), complete another read aloud, and continue reviewing for math and language arts. Plus we have a few extra topics for the week including Pride Month and States of Matter. Also, we have strawberry picking and a park playdate scheduled for the week as well as working on a 30 day engineering course as a family.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W35: Rays, Whales, and Dolphins, Oh My!

What We Studied

Beyond our studies, we had two park playdates this week along with a grocery store visit and a library stop. Park playdates can be tiring for me, but we’re trying to get out more and meet new friends for our fall STEAM coop. Also, I really dropped the ball on taking pictures this week. Oh well.

Literature and Poetry

We finished reading The One and Only Bob for our read aloud. I liked it a little less than The One and Only Ivan, but still a really good book. There’s a lot of serious danger in this one and lots of talk of death. Be cautious.

• The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate

• Rainbow Soup by Brian P. Cleary (poems)

Math

A mishmash of review pages, little projects, and Khan Academy. We covered graphing, fractions, and multiplication with our homemade packets. Plus, we’re almost at the end of Lollipop Logic Book 3. I need to find some harder logic puzzles for both kids.

Social Studies

We finally reached the end of the Revolutionary War. In addition to covering the end, the Articles of Confederation, and the formation of the Constitution, we did biographies on a few African Americans during the war. I loved learning more about Elizabeth Freeman and Phillis Wheatley. I read some of Wheatley’s poetry in college and enjoyed her voice.

• 100 African Americans Who Shaped American History

• Phillis Wheatley: Poet of the Revolutionary Era by Molly Aloian

• Phillis Sings Out Freedom: The Story of George Washington and Phillis Wheatley by Ann Malaspina

• Phillis's Big Test by Catherine Clinton

• America's Black Founders by Nancy Sanders

• Answering the Cry of Freedom by Gretchen Woelfle

• Mumbet's Declaration of Independence by Gretchen Woelfle

• Fight for Freedom by Benson Bobrick

Science

See Unit Theme

Art

Nothing formal, but lots of random drawing.

Music

We covered Pete Seeger on Monday. Arthur loved his songs for kids, but not so much when it came to the adult stuff. From there we did a sampling of music from the 1960s (Joan Baez, The Byrds, Dave Von Ronk, and Janis Ian). Arthur wasn’t really a fan of any of them, but I am. We’ll continue the 1960s next week.

• Stand Up and Sing: Pete Seeger, Folk Music, and the Path to Justice by Susanna Reich

Unit Theme

For Oceans, we focused on rays, dolphins, and whales. How did I not know that orcas are genetically dolphins? I love it when I get to learn something new.

• Rays by Valerie Bodden

• Thomas & Friends: Thomas and the Shark (Arthur read)

• Ocean Anatomy by Julia Rothman

• Nat Geo Ocean Animals

• DK Oceans

• DK Whales and Dolphins

• Dolphins! Strange and Wonderful by Laurence Pringle

• How Do Dolphins Sleep? by Nancy Furstinger

• Nat Geo Absolute Expert Dolphins by Jennifer Swanson

• Ranger Rick: I Wish I was an Orca by Sandra Markle (Arthur Read)

• Wild Orca: The Oldest, Wisest Whale in the World by Brenda Peterson

• Amazing Whales! by Sarah L. Thomson (Arthur read)

• Whales by Grace Hansen

• 10 Reasons to Love a Whale by Catherine Barr

• Blue Whales by Grace Hansen

• How Long is a Whale? by Alison Limentani

Misc. - Random picture books read

• Shawn Loves Sharks by Curtis Manley

• A Surprise for Mrs. Tortoise by Paula Merlan

• Violet and the Eggplant Painting Problem by Cynthia Wylie and Courtney Carbone

• Also an Octopus by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

• Inky's Great Escape: The Incredible (and Mostly True) Story of an Octopus Escape by Casey Lyall

• This is a Seahorse by Cassandra Federman

• Larry Gets Lost Under the Sea by Eric Ode and John Skewes

• Beach by Elisha Cooper

• Deep Underwater by Irene Luxbacher

• Flip & Fin: Super Sharks to the Rescue! by Timothy Gill

• Way Down Deep in the Deep Blue Sea by Jan Peck

• Jurassic World: Danger Dinosaurs

• Dario and the Whale by Cheryl Lawton Malone

• Stories in a Seashell by Alex Nogués Otero

• Dinosaur Tracks by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

Highs

• We got to listen to a few episodes of The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd on our way across the river on Tuesday. All of us really love that show. We’re almost at the end of season six. There are only eight seasons, so we should be done with the series sometime this summer.

Lows

• I’m losing all motivation for school. It’s such a weird month for our family.

Next Week

For the next two weeks, we are on a semi-break. Originally we were going to be traveling to Indiana for family stuff, but that isn’t happening. Instead, we will just be home. But I hope to include more craft projects, art, and games into the next two weeks. We’ll be reading our next selection (Frog and Toad collection by Arnold Lobel), working through various ocean animals, listening to the folk music of the 1960s and 1970s, and doing some basic math review. I might even add a few more outings beyond the already scheduled park playdates.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W34: Candy Math Makes the Day Sweeter

What We Studied

Literature and Poetry

We started reading The One and Only Bob. I really like Bob as a character, but I think The One and Only Ivan was better told. We’re halfway through the book and things have gotten very intense.

• The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate

• Rainbow Soup by Brian P. Cleary (poems)

• Clark the Shark: Tooth Trouble by Bruce Hale (Arthur Read)

Math

Another week of review and games. Arthur progressed in his Khan Academy lessons. We review some concepts. Arthur and Quentin both did some math with gummy bears and then with Skittles. They definitely enjoyed eating our manipulatives afterward.

Social Studies

We covered two more lessons about the American Revolution: Loyalists and Assistance from France and Spain. Getting close to the end of the war!

• Mary Geddy’s Day: A Colonia Girl in Williamsburg by Kate Waters

• Fight for Freedom by Benson Bobrick

• Revolutionary Friends: General George Washing and the Marquis de Lafayette by Selene Castrovilla

Science

See unit theme

Art

Nothing formal, but Arthur had some fun drawing sea creatures. I grabbed a few “how to draw” books from the library and he’s been doing that during free time.

Music

We progressed with our study of American folk music. We covered the early years 1920s-1950s including the country side. We started with The Carter Family and the Weavers; not huge fans. Arthur did not like Johnny Cash or Jack Elliott but did like Bill Monroe. Guess he falls on the bluegrass side which is fine by me. For movie night, we watched O Brother Where Art Thou? J and I love the Coen Brothers and this is one my favorites. We talked about the fact that the movie is a version of the Odyssey and enjoyed the music. I didn’t think he liked it, but afterward Arthur told me he was going to watch it again.

Unit Theme

Our ocean study focused on exploration, fish, and sharks this week! We learned about Marie Tharp, Sylvia Earle, and Jacques Cousteau. Then we moved on to all the different species of shark! Arthur’s been loving the YouTube channel Brave Wilderness for great animal encounter videos. We found some that apply to the ocean!

• Water Sings Blue: Ocean Poems by Karen Coombs

• Oceanography: The Study of Oceans by Susan H. Gray

• The Undersea World by Tamra B. Orr

• Ocean Anatomy by Julia Rothman

• Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Early by Claire A. Nivola

• Marie's Ocean: Marie Tharp Maps the Mountains Under the Sea by Josie James

• Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea by Robert Burleigh

• Ocean Speaks by Jess Keating

• DK: Fishy Tales (Arthur read)

• Goby Fish and Snapping Shrimp by Kari Schuetz

• What's It Like to be a Fish? by Wendy Pfeffer

• DK Oceans

• Nat Geo Ocean Animals

• Manfish by Jennifer Berne

• The Ocean Calls: A Haenyeo Mermaid Story by Tina Cho

• Brilliant Deep: Rebuilding the World's Coral Reefs by Kate Messner

• Nat Geo Kids: Sharks (Arthur read)

• Sharks by Valerie Bodden

• Sharks Have Six Senses by John F. Waters

• Slickety Quick: Poems About Sharks by Skila Brown

• Smart About Sharks by Owen Davey

• DK Eyewitness: Shark

• Great White Sharks by Nico Barnes

• Hammerhead Sharks by Nico Barnes

• Blacktip Reef Sharks by Grace Hansen

• Nurse Sharks by Grace Hansen

• Basking Sharks by Nico Barnes

• Whale Sharks by Nico Barnes

• Mako Sharks by Nico Barnes

• Zebra Sharks by Nico Barnes

Misc. - Random picture books read

• Norman The Slug with the Silly Shell by Sue Hendra

• There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell! by Lucille Colandro

• Iced Out by CK Smouha

• Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni

• Shark Dog by Ged Adamson

• The Ocean Story by John Seven

• Shark Dog and the School Trip Rescue by Ged Adamson

• I'm a Shark by Bob Shea

• How to Spy on a Shark by Lori Haskins Houran

• The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark by Ken Geist

• Perfect Square by Michael Hall

• Blue on Blue by Dianne White

• Follow the Moon Home by Philippe Cousteau and Deborah Hopkinson

• Misunderstood Shark by Ame Dyckman

Highs

• We had a lovely park playdate with three other coop families on Tuesday. The weather was perfect!

• On Thursday, we went to the zoo. Haven’t been there in a few weeks and it was nice to go when the weather was nice. We had to check in with Marshall the rhino. He’s getting so big! He’s about 18 months old now.

Lows

• Apparently everyone went ot the zoo on Thursday along with at least 8 buses full of school kids. it was crowded and people were not masking. I really dislike going when it’s so crowded. Hopefully next time we go it will be less people. The kids were super whiny the entire time (tired, warm weather, lots of people, probably contributed) and make me regret trying to go and do something fun. It was a long day…

Next Week

We should finish our read aloud next week. Guess I need to line out our next couple. We are going to continue covering the oceans (rays, dolphins, and whales), folk music (getting to the 1960s!), and the American Revolution (ending the war). I think we need to pull out some board games for math to supplement our review. Plus we have two park playdates scheduled.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W33: Into the Treetops Once Again

What We Studied

Literature and Poetry

We finished reading Nim’s Island and then had a movie night on Friday. The book was pretty good; a slim adventure story. And the movie actually held up. Decent! For a related art project, Arthur had to make his own island map. It’s a little hard to read in places, but he made sure to label everything.

• Nim’s Island by Wendy Orr

• Rainbow Soup by Brian P. Cleary (poems)

• Sea Sheep by Eric Seltzer (Arthur read)

Math

We are officially done with Singapore Math 2! We’re not going to move into 3 until August. Until then, we will be doing some review, catching up on Khan Academy, studying coding again, playing math games, and probably doing a unit on nature math (golden ratio; Fibonacci).

Social Studies

We are back into the American Revolution covering female patriots (Rebecca Stillwell Willets was Arthur’s favroite), spies (love the Culper Ring!), and life during the war.

• Fight for Freedom: The American Revolutionary War by Benson Bobrick

• Great Women of the American Revolution by Brianna Hall

• Founding Mothers: Remembering the Ladies by Cokie Roberts

• Patriots and Petticoats: Heroines of the American Revolution by Shirley Raye Redmond

• If You were a Kid During the American Revoluion by Wil Mara

• Life During the Revolutionary War by Bonnie Hinman

• Revolutionary Rogues: John André and Benedict Arnold by Selene Castrovilla

• A Spy Called James by Anne Rockwell

• Anna Strong by Sarah Glenn Marsh

• The Scarlet Stockings Spy by Trinka Hakes Noble

Science

See Unit Theme

Art

Nothing formal

Music

We started our big unit on American Folk Music! I’m super excited about this one. We started with a short random documentary I found from the 1970s. It’s dated, but does an amazing job of tracing a few folk songs from England to today. From there, we did a few days with Woody Guthrie (not Arthur’s favorite). On the way back from the Treetops, we listened to a Smithsonian compilation album of Children’s Folk Music. They actually really enjoyed it! There is hope!

• Passing the Music Down by Sarah Sullivan

• This Land is Your Land by Woody Guthrie

Unit Theme

Continuing with oceans! We will be in this unit for the entire month of May. This week we studied coral reefs, the open ocean, and the deep. We watched a great episode of Blue Planet about coral seas and an episode of NOVA about Reef Rescue.

• One Night in the Coral Sea by Sneed B. Collard III

• Nat Geo Kids: Coral Reefs

• Coral Reefs by Precious McKenzie

• Coral Reefs by Gail Gibbons

• Nat Geo Kids: Ocean Animals

• Ocean Anatomy by Julia Rothman (I really need to just buy this one!)

• DK Ocean

• Water Sings Blue: Ocean Poems by Karen Coombs

• W is for Waves by Marie and Roland Smith

• Seashells: More Than a Home by Melissa Stewart

• Deep in the ocean by Lucie Brunelliere

• The Deep, Deep Ocean by John Woodward

• Into the Deep by Annika Siems

• Deep Oceans by Ellen Labrecqu

• Exploring the Deep Dark Sea by Gail Gibbons

• Otis and Will Discover the Deep: The Record-setting Dive of the Bathysphere by Barb Rosenstock

• Down Down Down by Steve Jenkins

• Journey into the Deep by Rebecca L. Johnson

Misc. - Random picture books read Lots of ocean themed reading for nighttime.

• The Mermaid by Jan Brett

• Sandy Feet! Whose Feet? Footprints at the Shore by Susan Wood

• A Fish Out of Water by Helen Palmer

• Field Trip to the Ocean Deep by John Hare

• Ocean Animals from Head to Tail by Stacey Roderick

• Little Turtle and the Changing Sea by Becky Davies

• The Specific Ocean by Kyo Maclear

• Gone Fishing: Ocean Life by the Numbers by David McLimans

• Dive In: Swim with Sea Creatures at Their Actual Size by Roxie Munro

• The Nice Dream Truck by Beth Ferry

• Love is by Diane Adams

• Over int he Ocean in a Coral Reef by Marianne Berkes

• Red by Michael Hall

• Hello Ocean by Pam Muñoz Ryan

• The Little Fish that Got Away by Bernadine Cook

Highs

• Our trip to Arbor Day Farm and the Treetops Village on Friday was delightful! It wasn’t too busy even with a few school groups. The weather was cooler but sunny. And the forest was in bloom! We did all the things and wore ourselves out. I even jumped on the trampoline (and fell over a few times). Lots of fun was had!

Lows

• No one showed up to our park playdate on Tuesday. The boys had fun playing at the playground by themselves, but it would have been nice to have some friends. We cut our park trip a little short and I took them to Build-a-Bear to make a new stuffie. (I was planning on going there something this month, but hadn’t told the boys beforehand.) Arthur built a Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon and Quentin made a Chase from Paw Patrol. The day was salvaged but still a bit sad.

Next Week

We are starting a new read aloud (The One and Only Bob!), playing some math games, and doing some review. We will be continuing with the Revolution, the ocean, and folk music. Plus we have a park playdate schedule and a field trip day to find all the Bees of the Heartland down in the Auburn area.

Next up on the TBR pile: