Homeschool W10: A Very Chill Week

What We Studied

After the epic birthday party weekend, we decided to have a very chill week. We went minimal places and didn’t go so heavy on the schoolwork. It was nice to have a bit of a break from everything. We still managed to get some work and lots of reading done.

Literature and Poetry

We finished The Wild Robot Escapes (oh so good) and paused before our next read aloud choice. We have been reading a collection of scary stories before bed each night.

• The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

• Poetry for Young People: Robert Frost

• The Cabinet of Curiosities

Quentin focused on reading animal stories from around the world. I’m trying to line them up with our continents as we move across the world. We wrapped up South America. We also started and finished the first book in the My Father’s Dragon series. Q really liked it, so we plan on reading the next two volumes over the next two weeks.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett

• Fox at Night by Corey R. Tabor (Q reads)

• Captain Cat Goes to Mars by Emma J. Virján (Q reads)

• Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss (Q reads)

• Bunny Will Not Jump! by Jason Tharp (Q Reads)

• Bunny Will Not Smile by Jason Tharp (Q Reads)

Math

For both boys, we have scheduled math for three days a week. One day is focused on logic, games, puzzles, and special projects. The two other days are focused on covering the main math curriculum (Singapore 4A and 4B for Arthur and Singapore 1A and 1B for Quentin). We played a lot of math packet catch-up this week. We had been pushing hard and it was nice to slow down a bit and work on mastery of skills.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4A

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

Social Studies

Arthur continued his large study of United States history using a combination of Build Your Library Level 5 and History Quest United States History. We paused on the larger history timeline to finish reading a historical fiction book about the founding of James Town.

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

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

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• History Quest: U.S. History

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• Blood on the Water: James Town 1607 by Elisa Carbone

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We finished our study of South America. Next up is Europe.

• Nat Geo Beginner’s World Atlas

• DK Countries of the World

• DK Children Just Like Me

• DK Children Just Like Me; A School Like Mine

• Mia’s Story by Michael Foreman

• Ada's Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay by Susan Hood

• The Magic Bean Tree: A Legend from Argentina by Nancy Van Laan

• Abuelo by Arthur Dorros

Arthur Independent Time

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

Science

Arthur is focusing on Physics this year. We are covering the text and related videos at home and then joining friends for experiments and extra projects. We covered the sections about levers and made a few levers.

• RSO Physics

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

• Levers by Sally M. Walker

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We talked a lot about the southern part of South America and the animals who live there. We also continued reading our true book about wild animals.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

STEAM Coop

The older class continued their telecommunications theme. They finally learned about the internet and wireless communication. Quentin’s class focused on the structure of our government. They got to vote on some issues and see democracy in action.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking

We’re planning one doing on art project and one cooking project each week as well as picking a composer or musician to listen to and enjoy. This week music just didn’t happen. But that’s okay. Arthur’s continued with the Outschool drawing class. This week they made a picture of a gazelle. He even decided to trace over the lines in marker and then color it a bit afterward. Love it!

Field Trip

None this week for us

High

• The quiet time was nice

Low

• Sad to miss out on the homeschool fall dance on Thursday, but the boys really were not feeling it. Hopefully the organizer does it again in spring. We would definitely attend!

Next Week

• Starting Howl’s Moving Castle (A)

• Moving to the Pilgrims for US History (A)

• Finishing levers for Physics (A)

• Introducing Europe for social studies and science (Q)

• Continuing to read the My Father’s Dragon series (Q)

• Traveling to Nebraska City for Arbor Day Farm field trip

• Getting out to Vala’s (with J) at least once this week

• Covering telecommunications, one last class, (A) and government (Q) for coop

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W8-9: Lots of Pumpkin Patch Time!

What We Studied

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

Literature and Poetry

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

• The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

• Poetry for Young People: Robert Frost

• A Wolf Called Wander by Rosanne Parry

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

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

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

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

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

• Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia by Jeanette Winter

• Love and Roast Chicken by Barbara Knutson

• Miro in the Kingdom of the Sun by Jane Kurtz

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

Math

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

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4A

• Tinkeractive Math Kindergarten

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

Social Studies

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

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

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

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

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

• History Quest: U.S. History

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• 1607: A New Look at Jamestown

• Blood on the Water by Elisa Carbone

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

• Nat Geo Beginner’s World Atlas

• DK Countries of the World

• DK Children Just Like Me

• DK Children Just Like Me; A School Like Mine

• Along the Tapajos by Fernando Vilela

• Living in Brazil by Chloe Perkins

Arthur Independent Time

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

Science

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

• RSO Physics

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

• Screws by Sally M. Walker and Roseann Feldmann

• The Math Book

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

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Rainforest Grew All Around by Susan K. Mitchell

• Rainforest by Julia Groves

• In the Rainforest by Kate Duke

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

• Rainforests by Andrea Silen

• Over and Under the Rainforest by Kate Messner

• The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry

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

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

STEAM Coop

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

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking

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

Field Trip

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

High

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

Low

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

Next Week

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

• Moving to the Pilgrims for US History (A)

• Covering levers for Physics (A)

• Reading some animal stories from South America (Q)

• Finishing the South American countries (Q)

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

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W7: Our First Flex Week!

What We Studied

As part of my planning process, I have inserted Flex Weeks into our regular schedule. In essence, Flex Weeks help me account for random days off and delays in our schedule. (Except for the first section) I schedule 4 weeks of lessons and then insert a Flex Week. If we get behind during those 4 weeks, we can make up our lessons and time during the Flex Week. I originally called them Break Weeks, but that’s not what they are. We don’t have schedule week breaks after every session. Instead, we often take a day off during a random week. Sometimes it’s due to sickness or general attitudes and sometimes it’s due to a fun opportunity to go somewhere or see something special. Homeschool is all about flexibility and this is how I remain flexible.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur finished The Wild Robot and loved it. We are planning on starting the sequel next week. We must see how Roz’s journey ends. We also started a new poetry book of Robert Frost’s creations. Beyond the selections tied to curriculum, we started reading A Wolf Called Wander by Rosanne Parry for a bedtime selection. It took a very serious turn the other night and I am very sad for the characters (who are wolves).

• The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

• Poetry for Young People: Robert Frost

• A Wolf Called Wander by Rosanne Parry

Quentin focused on reading animal stories from around the world. I’m trying to line them up with our continents as we move across the world. We moved into South American tales and stories to round out our reading.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip Stead

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

• Abuelita and Me by Leonarda Carranza

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

Creations at The Durham Museum

Math

For both boys, we have scheduled math for three days a week. One day is focused on logic, games, puzzles, and special projects. The two other days are focused on covering the main math curriculum (Singapore 4A and 4B for Arthur and Singapore 1A and 1B for Quentin).

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4A

• Tinkeractive Math Kindergarten

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

Another Durham creation

Social Studies

Arthur continued his large study of United States history using a combination of Build Your Library Level 5 and History Quest United States History. We wrapped up our exploration of the various groups of Native Americans pre-1492. We also finished two history read alouds. Arthur also took another Outschool class from Kelly Tudor, this time about Indigenous People's’ Day. I really love her classes. I’ll have to check to see if she has any other good upcoming ones.

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

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

• Between Earth and Sky: Legends of Native American Sacred Places by Jospeh Bruchac and James Bruchac

• The Earth Under Sky Bear’s Feet by Joseph Bruchac

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

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

• Trickster: Native American Tales by Matt Dembicki

• History Quest: U.S. History

• Sees Behind Trees by Michael Dorris

• Morning Girl by Michael Dorris

• The Girl Who Helped Thunder retold by James Bruchac and Joseph Bruchac

Quentin began his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We did a study of Central America, the Caribbean, and started on South America.

• Nat Geo Beginner’s World Atlas

• DK Countries of the World

• DK Children Just Like Me

• DK Children Just Like Me; A School Like Mine

• Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin by Duncan Tonatiuh

• Parrots Over Puerto Rico by Susan L. Roth and Cindy Trumbore

• The Golden Flower: A Taino Myth from Puerto Rico by Nina Jaffe

• How Music Came to the World by Hal Ober

• Dalia's Wondrous Hair by Laura Lacamara

• Alfredito Flies Home by Jorge Argueta and Luis Garay

• Rainbow Weaver by Tejedora Del Arcoiris

• Islandborn by Junot Diaz

• South America by Libby Koponen

• South America by Alexis Roumanis

• Introducing South America by Anita Ganeri

• Spotlight on South America by Karen Bush Gibson

Arthur Independent Time

We are working on following a checklist in a planner for weekly independent work. There’s usually some math workbook pages, an ELA packet, weekly writing prompts (1-2 times a week), independent reading time, and a special creative project. I finally downloaded Flipaclip for Arthur to work on his drawing skills. A good friend of his has it and was showing him the cool creations. We has been really enjoying the drawing time.

Science

Arthur is focusing on Physics this year. We are covering the text and related videos at home and then joining friends for experiments and extra projects. The one week, our friends were sick, so we held the experiment for the next week. We did cover work, energy, and planes and wedges.

• RSO Physics

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

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We talked about animals of Central America and the Caribbean nations. We also threw in a little discussion about the Autumnal Equinox.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

• A is for Anaconda by Anthony Frederick

• We're Roaming in the Rainforest: An Amazon Adventure by Laurie Krebs and Anne Wilson

• Llamas by Mary R. Dunn

• Howler Monkeys by Chadwick Gillenwater

• Poison Dart Frogs by Julie Murray

• Amazon River by Sangma Francis

• Toucans by Julie Murray

• Sloths by Julie Murray

• Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn by Kenard Park

STEAM Coop

The older class started their telecommunications unit. Which means that I get to sit back a bit and just assist the various classes. The younger two classes learned about maps and geography. Quentin really got into make a sample landform map in a Tupperware.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking

We’re planning one doing on art project and one cooking project each week as well as picking a composer or musician to listen to and enjoy. This week music just didn’t happen. But that’s okay. Arthur participated in an Outschool drawing class and really enjoyed it. They drew a falcon. Currently, he is signed up for this weekly class. We might not make it to every week, but it should be a fun class to continue with. Each week they will draw a different animal.

For our cooking projects, we had a Jamaica Night and a Cuba Night. For Jamaica, we made jerk chicken, beans and coconut rice, banana punch, and ting. For Cuba, we made pork Cubano, baked plantains, and coconut rum cake. All so good! Quentin even tried everything and liked some of it.

Jamaican Night

Cuban Night

Field Trip

We went to the Durham with coop for a very interesting look at the founding and Omaha and the International Exposition. I enjoyed our time at the museum.

Family Game Night

Result from Arthur’s first drawing class

High

• Our coop meetings were a blast these past two weeks. I don’t have to teach (yeah!) and can spend some time observing and help all of the students. And the weather held out last Thursday making it a bit chilly but no rain for our meeting time. I really resist moving into houses with the changing weather.

Low

• My body has been hurting lately which makes me less likely to take the kids places. I need to get into a better routine there.

Marshmallow catapults for science

Next Week

• Starting The Wild Robot Escapes (A)

• Finishing A Wolf Called Wander

• Moving past 1492 for US History (A)

• Covering more simple machines for Physics (A)

• Reading some animal stories from South America (Q)

• Covering various South American countries (Q)

• Covering telecommunications (A) and life skills Q) for coop

• Fall Picture Day!

• Quentin’s Birthday and a trip to Vala’s!

Excited about our random Aldi find this week

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W6: Busy as Bees

What We Studied

It was a very busy week for us. We had a field trip, our regular activities, a trip to the airport (drop off for J), and the start of a weekend trip. Being so busy and attempting to stay on top of the house meant that we cut back a bit on schoolwork to accommodate. That’s okay. This week (like starting today) is a flex week where we get to take some time to catch up on units and rearrange things for the next block of weeks.

Doing logic with Hootie the owl

Literature and Poetry

Arthur finished reading Word of Mouse as our coop book club selection. We finished in time to take to coop so another family to borrow our book. As for our actual big ELA read aloud, we started reading The Wild Robot and Arthur is very into the story. I loved how the chapter give us little vignettes that connect with Roz’s longer storyline. Loving it! Hopefully we finished next week and then can dive right into the sequel. Arthur officially started his spelling curriculum this year. I hadn’t planned on doing a formal spelling curriculum, but one of my favorite resources, The Moffatt Girls, released a 3rd grade version and offered a discount for the first week. I snapped it up we will continue with spelling for another year.

• The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

• Word of Mouse by James Patterson

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

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

Math

For both boys, we have scheduled math for three days a week. One day is focused on logic, games, puzzles, and special projects. The two other days are focused on covering the main math curriculum (Singapore 4A and 4B for Arthur and Singapore 1A and 1B for Quentin). I also found a fun packet of logic puzzles based on Alice in Wonderland. We will be spreading these out over our reading of the text.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4A

• Tinkeractive Math Kindergarten

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

Social Studies

Arthur continued his large study of United States history using a combination of Build Your Library Level 5 and History Quest United States History. We did a bit more exploration of the various groups of Native Americans. Turtle Island is my current favorite resource. I love how the chapters are divided. We get a little snapshot of many different cultures and areas. Arthur also continued reading a graphic novel collections of Native American tales as part of his independent work. We also started a history read aloud for our Native American study.

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

• Native Americans: A Visual Exploration by SN Paella

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

• The Earth Under Sky Bear’s Feet: Native American Poems of the Land by Joseph Bruchac

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

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

• Trickster: Native American Tales by Matt Dembicki

• History Quest: U.S. History

• Sees Behind Trees by Michael Dorris

Quentin began his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We did a study of the United States. We covered Mexico this week with a lot of stories and books.

• Nat Geo Beginner’s World Atlas

• DK Countries of the World

• DK Children Just Like Me

• DK Children Just Like Me; A School Like Mine

• Mexican Art and Architecture by Anna Carew-Miller

• Mexico by Elaine Landau

• Living In Mexico by Chloe Perkins

• Follow Me Around Mexico by Wiley Blevins

• P is for Pinata by Tony Johnston

• Let's Explore Mexico by Walt K. Moon

• Mexico ABCs

• Cinco de Mouse-O! by Judy Cox

• Just a Minute by Yuyi Morales

• Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto

• The First Tortilla by Rudolfo Anaya

• My Family Celebrates Day of the Dead

• Danza! by Duncan Tonatiuh

• Holy Mole by Caroline McAllister

Arthur Independent Time

We are working on following a checklist in a planner for weekly independent work. There’s usually some math workbook pages, an ELA packet, weekly writing prompts (1-2 times a week), independent reading time, and a special creative project. Beyond the paperwork, Arthur focused on his game he’s been making (Lord of the Book) and some random side creative projects. This week he also had an Outschool class on creative writing. It was a big brainstorming session with tips and tricks to write better stories. Afterward, he dove right into making up some new stories.

Science

Arthur is focusing on Physics this year. We are covering the text and related videos at home and then joining friends for experiments and extra projects. This week the boys learned about friction and had fun with some race cars

• RSO Physics

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

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We talked about animals of North America. Specially we learned a bit about the American Bison this week. Lots of fun as we have seen bison up close on a number of occasions.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

STEAM Coop

The older class finished their geology unit with a study of volcanoes and earthquakes. After some good discussion, we made lava flows with puffy paint and flower pots. With the conclusion of this week, I am done teaching for the semester. Now I get to just participate and fix problems as they arise. The younger two classes learned about fungi. Quentin learned about yeast and took home some to make bread net week..

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking

We’re planning one doing on art project and one cooking project each week as well as picking a composer or musician to listen to and enjoy. This week, art and music just didn’t happen. But that’s okay. This is why I have built in flex weeks to catch up on some of the things that get pushed aside during a normal week. We also didn’t do much cooking this week due to the busy schedule.

Field Trip

Tuesday we did a guided tour of Lauritzen Gardens with a special emphasis on spotting mushrooms through the gardens. We did some interesting specimens on our walk. Afterward, we went into the classroom to learn a bit more about mushrooms and make our own out of rocks, felt, and yarn. It was a big, busy field trip, but I enjoyed our walk.

Friday was took off on a weekend trip to Des Moines. Specifically we were going to visit the Living History Farms for their homeschool day, but I didn’t want to drive over 4 hours in one day. So, we added two more days and explored the area. After the Living History Farms, we spent the afternoon at a local arcade and stayed for pizza dinner. Saturday it rained all day so we ended up visiting the Science Center of Iowa. We will definitely be back there soon! It was full of interactive exhibits and shows. We snuck in a bookstore browsing session after the Science Center. On Sunday, we traveled northwest to Boone to take a ride on the Fraser Excursion Train. The trip is an 11 mile round trip through the Des Moines River Valley area. We saw some beautiful countryside and even a few eagles. As an added bonus, it was Day Out with Thomas this weekend, so we got to enjoy those exhibits as well.

High

• Coop was lots of fun and low pressure this week. I think all the kids are finally settling in and getting comfortable.

Low

• A hectic schedule meant that we had to skip art class this week. Oh well, maybe next week.

Next Week

• Continuing an ELA read aloud and a History read aloud (A)

• Catching up on history (A)

• Moving on to Energy for Physics (A)

• Reading some animal stories (Q)

• Covering Central America and the Caribbean (Q)

• Covering telecommunications (A) and maps and geography (Q) for coop

• Introducing the art of John Singleton Copley?

• Listening to Bach

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W5: Spontaneous Trips are Fun, but Also Tiring

What We Studied

We left the house every single day this week (again). This wee was the Nebraska State Fair and I randomly decided on Saturday to take the kids on Monday. The fair location in Grand Island is about a 2 hour drive from home. So we left the house early on Monday morning to spend the day at the fair. Fun, but my goodness, it was exhausting when you add on a lake trip on Tuesday, science on Wednesday, coop on Thursday, and a Fontenelle Forest trip on Friday. A full week of activities!

We had the lake to ourselves

Literature and Poetry

Arthur finished reading Through the Looking-glass this week. He didn’t like the sequel as much as the first book, but we wanted to cover the two volumes before watching a movie version. He also has a weekly poetry selection. We continued our Myths and Maps extra curriculum from B&R. We began covering creation stories from around the world. I’m liking these short retellings of myths. Eventually we will add our squares to a world map and see where all the civilizations are. We continued our next book club selection, Word of Mouse. Trying to finish this coming week.

• Through the Looking-glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

• Word of Mouse by James Patterson

Quentin covered some interesting books focused on Native American cultures. We also started sprinkling in animal stories from around the world. I’m trying to line them up with our continents as we move across the world.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• We are Grateful / Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell

• A Boy Called Slow: The True Story of Sitting Bull by Jospeh Bruchac

• Fry Bread by Kevin Noble Maillard

Math

For both boys, we have scheduled math for three days a week. One day is focused on logic, games, puzzles, and special projects. The two other days are focused on covering the main math curriculum (Singapore 4A and 4B for Arthur and Singapore 1A and 1B for Quentin). I also found a fun packet of logic puzzles based on Alice in Wonderland. We will be spreading these out over our reading of the text.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4A

• Tinkeractive Math Kindergarten

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

Social Studies

Arthur skipped history this week in favor of science. No problem, we’ll pick up where we left off next week.

Quentin began his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We did a study of the United States. To celebrate, we made s’mores.

• Nat Geo Beginner’s World Atlas

• DK Countries of the World

• DK Children Just Like Me

• DK Children Just Like Me; A School Like Mine

Arthur Independent Time

We are working on following a checklist in a planner for weekly independent work. There’s usually some math workbook pages, an ELA packet, weekly writing prompts (1-2 times a week), independent reading time, and a special creative project. Beyond the paperwork, Arthur focused on his game he’s been making (Lord of the Book) and some random side creative projects.

Science

Arthur is focusing on Physics this year. We are covering the text and related videos at home and then joining friends for experiments and extra projects. This week the boys learned about Newton’s Third Law of Motion and conversation of momentum. They had fun making balloon rockets for their challenge level.

• RSO Physics

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

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We talked about animals of North America.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

STEAM Coop

This was our first week post-closing registration. We have 21 families that have joined coop with a total of 38 students participating. We are just about at capacity! But I’m very excited about creating deeper bonds with everyone in coop. The older class continued their geology lessons this week with a focus on weathering and erosion. The younger two classes learned about fungi. Quentin was super excited to paint with mushrooms.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking

We’re planning one doing on art project and one cooking project each week as well as picking a composer or musician to listen to and enjoy. This week, art and music just didn’t happen. But that’s okay. This is why I have built in flex weeks to catch up on some of the things that get pushed aside during a normal week.

For our cooking, Quentin made s’mores. Pretty basic for the U.S., but it was tasty. Next week’s Mexico menu will be better.

Field Trip

Our actual field trip was Friday’s visit to Fontenelle Forest. All the kids were tasked with spotting mushrooms along our hike. We found many different kinds and took tons of pictures. Of course the kids had to play at the playground after our walk and have a picnic before seeing the birds at Raptor Rescue.

High

• The State Fair was an experience! The boys are already asking if we can go next year. Only 360 days to wait…

Low

• So many activities meant that we are a bit behind on our book work. We’ll catch up (that’s why I build in flex weeks), but I’m not a fan of feeling behind.

Next Week

• Starting an ELA read aloud and a History read aloud (A)

• Learning about Native American cultures of the West Coast (A)

• Moving on to Friction for Physics (A)

• Reading some animal stories (Q)

• Covering Mexico (Q)

• Covering geology (A) and fungi (Q) for coop - last week for geology (and me teaching!)

• Introducing the art of John Singleton Copley?

• Finishing Word of Mouse for coop book club

• Listening to Bach

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W4: A Week of Daily Activities!

What We Studied

We left the house every single day this week. Exhausting! But we had a great time exploring some places.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur started reading Through the Looking-glass this week. We hope to finish next week so we can watch one (or two) movie versions of Alice. He also has a weekly poetry selection. We continued our Myths and Maps extra curriculum from B&R. We began covering creation stories from around the world. I’m liking these short retellings of myths. Eventually we will add our squares to a world map and see where all the civilizations are. We started our next book club selection, Word of Mouse, and will probably finish late next week.

• Through the Looking-glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

• Word of Mouse by James Patterson

Quentin finished reading The Very Very Far North for his read aloud. We are to going to take a break from a long read aloud book in favor of some picture books for the next few weeks.. We also started sprinkling in animal stories from around the world. I’m trying to line them up with our continents as we move across the world.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• The Very Very Far North by Dan Bar-El

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• Biscuit and the Great Fall Day by Alyssa Satin Capucilli (Q reads)

• You are a Beautiful Beginning by Nina Laden

Math

For both boys, we have scheduled math for three days a week. One day is focused on logic, games, puzzles, and special projects. The two other days are focused on covering the main math curriculum (Singapore 4A and 4B for Arthur and Singapore 1A and 1B for Quentin). I also found a fun packet of logic puzzles based on Alice in Wonderland. We will be spreading these out over our reading of the text.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4A

• Alice in Pastaland: A Math Adventure by Alexandra Wright

• Tinkeractive Math Kindergarten

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

Social Studies

Arthur continued his large study of United States history using a combination of Build Your Library Level 5 and History Quest United States History. We did a bit more exploration of the various groups of Native Americans. Arthur also continued reading a graphic novel collections of Native American tales as part of his independent work.

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

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

• The Earth Under Sky Bear’s Feet: Native American Poems of the Land by Joseph Bruchac

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

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

• Trickster: Native American Tales by Matt Dembicki

• History Quest: U.S. History

Quentin began his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We did a study of Canada complete with a Canada food night. We had Maple Chicken, Wild Rice, Bannock Bread, and Blueberry Crisp. I had saved a Sunnie Press map featuring Banff, Alberta, Canada that was perfect for the week.

• Nat Geo Beginner’s World Atlas

• DK Countries of the World

• DK First Earth Encyclopedia

• DK Children Just Like Me

• DK Children Just Like Me; A School Like Mine

• Carson Crosses Canada by Linda Bailey Kass Reich

• Canada ABCs by Brenda Haugen

• Follow Me Around Canada by Wiley Blevins

• Canada through Time: Canada Today

Must stop for Ted & Wally’s if downtown anywhere… Cookie Monster, Lemon, and Sour Apple choices.

Arthur Independent Time

We are working on following a checklist in a planner for weekly independent work. There’s usually some math workbook pages, an ELA packet, weekly writing prompts (1-2 times a week), independent reading time, and a special creative project. Beyond the paperwork, Arthur focused on his game he’s been making (Lord of the Book) and some random side creative projects.

Science

Arthur is focusing on Physics this year. We are covering the text and related videos at home and then joining friends for experiments and extra projects. This week the boys learned about Newton’s Second Law of Motion. Their engineering project was to make a solar powered windmill. For our history of science, we read a chapter more about the Greeks and the three “A”s.

• RSO Physics

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

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We talked about animals of North America.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

I promise that they had fun. Just ridiculous facial expressions.

STEAM Coop

Coop continued with a slightly smaller group (thank goodness). We had a great week where the older kids learned about minerals and gems. They got to dig for their own gems. Simple, and yet, loads of fun. The younger groups finished their theme of reptiles and amphibians. Quentin make a frog and frog life cycle.

Dancing to 311 at trivia night.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking

We’re planning one doing on art project and one cooking project each week as well as picking a composer or musician to listen to and enjoy. This week, art and music just didn’t happen. But that’s okay. This is why I have built in flex weeks to catch up on some of the things that get pushed aside during a normal week.

Thursday as a bit of a slog and we didn’t make it to art class. But I put it as a definite for next week.

Field Trip

On Monday, I grabbed a library pass for The Durham Museum so we could check out the dinosaur exhibit before it closes on Sept. 4th. We had to go through that particular section three times before we moved on to the rest of the museum. This visit, the boys really got interested in checking out the 1898 Exposition models.

On Tuesday, we had a coop field trip to Heron Haven to spy animals (specifically reptiles and amphibians). We ended up seeing a heron, lots of ducks, turtles, and some frogs. I loved spying the frogs in the algae on the pond.

High

• Tween Gaming - On Friday, we met some other homeschoolers at a local game shop and played some games. I was impressed by the variety of games they stock (that I’ve never heard of). We ended up buying Pokemon: Battle Academy. The shop has open Pokemon play on Sunday afternoons. We will have to check it out soon.

• Family Trivia Night - Tuesday night, we headed over to the cafe/bar for General Trivia night. We had fun, but ultimately came in second. It was still fun.

Low

• Um… there was a bit of bickering between the boys this week and we had to separate often.

Next Week

• Finishing the sequel to Alice in Wonderland (A)

• Learning about Native American cultures of the West Coast (A)

• Moving on to Newton’s Third Law for Physics (A)

• Reading some animal stories (Q)

• Covering United States and Mexico (Q)

• Covering geology (A) and fungi (Q) for coop

• Introducing the art of John Singleton Copley?

• Finishing Word of Mouse for coop book club

• Listening to Bach

• Going to the Nebraska State Fair!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W3: Finding Our Groove

What We Studied

I think we are finding our groove this month. I cut back on some subjects, beefed up some others, and made sure to balance our weekly activities. It was such a good week that I apparently did not take very many photos. So enjoy all our adventures at the zoo!

Literature and Poetry

Arthur finished Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll for his ELA read aloud. After finishing, we were going to watch a movie version, but my favorites all include parts of the sequel. So I changed up our schedule a bit (the one I see not the one Arthur sees) and we are going to start reading Through the Looking-glass and What Alice Saw There next week. He also has a weekly poetry selection. We continued our Myths and Maps extra curriculum from B&R. We began covering creation stories from around the world. I’m liking these short retellings of myths. Eventually we will add our squares to a world map and see where all the civilizations are. We continued reading The Beast of Buckingham Palace for our next coop book club selection. Only ~40 pages more to go!

• Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

• The Beast of Buckingham Palace by David Walliam

Quentin continued reading The Very Very Far North for his read aloud. He finally settled in and started thinking about the book more. We also started sprinkling in animal stories from around the world. I’m trying to line them up with our continents as we move across the world.

• High Five Intro Issue

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• The Very Very Far North by Dan Bar-El

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

Math

For both boys, we have scheduled math for three days a week. One day is focused on logic, games, puzzles, and special projects. The two other days are focused on covering the main math curriculum (Singapore 4A and 4B for Arthur and Singapore 1A and 1B for Quentin). I also found a fun packet of logic puzzles based on Alice in Wonderland. We will be spreading these out over our reading of the text.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4A

• Tinkeractive Math Kindergarten

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

Lionesses taking a nap

Social Studies

Arthur started his large study of United States history using a combination of Build Your Library Level 5 and History Quest United States History. We did a bit more exploration of the various groups of Native Americans. Last minute, I found a great Outschool class called “What are Native Americans?” This is a two week class focusing on introducing students to Native Americans and doing a bit of geography and history. It’s being taught by Kelly Tudor, who is Lipan Apache. (I’ve tagged her other classes for future reference. She has one about Indigenous Peoples’ Day that I hope works out for us time-wise.) Arthur also started reading a graphic novel collections of Native American tales as part of his independent work.

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

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

• The Earth Under Sky Bear’s Feet: Native American Poems of the Land by Joseph Bruchac

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

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

• Trickster: Native American Tales by Matt Dembicki

• History Quest: U.S. History

Quentin began his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We did an overview of the Arctic and general North American overview this week.

• Nat Geo Beginner’s World Atlas

• DK Countries of the World

• DK First Earth Encyclopedia

• DK Children Just Like Me

• DK Children Just Like Me; A School Like Mine

• What We Wear: Dressing Up Around the World by Maja Ajmera

• Kumak's Fish: A Tall Tale from the Far North by Michael Bania

• Arctic Communities Past and Present by Cindy Jenson-Elliott

• Arctic Tundra by Ellen Labrecque

Arthur Independent Time

We are working on following a checklist in a planner for weekly independent work. There’s usually some math workbook pages, an ELA packet, weekly writing prompts (1-2 times a week), independent reading time, and a special creative project. Beyond the paperwork, Arthur focused on his game he’s been making (Lord of the Book) and some random side creative projects.

Science

Arthur is focusing on Physics this year. We are covering the text and related videos at home and then joining friends for experiments and extra projects. This week the boys learned Newton and his First Law of Motion. Their engineering challenge was to build an egg carrier that protected an egg from a fall. Both boys’ designs ended up failing, but we talked about the hows and whys and reviewed the concept of forces. For our history of science, we read a chapter about Ionia and Thales. I found a great clip of Cosmos with Carl Sagan that talked about Thales and the importance of the early Greek scientists.

• RSO Physics

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

• Forces Make Things Move by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

• Let’s Get Moving by Chris Ferrie

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We talked about ecosystems and sorted some animals into their ecosystems.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• My Home on the Ice by J. Patrick Lewis

• Animal Camouflage in the Snow by Martha E.H. Rustad

• The Arctic Fox's Journey by Wendy Pfeffer

• Arctic Fox by Dee Philips

• North: The Amazing Story of Arctic Migration by Nick Dowson

STEAM Coop

Coop continued with a slightly smaller group (thank goodness). We had a great week where the older kids learned about rocks and the rock cycle. The older kids made a sedimentary rock to take home. The younger groups started their theme of reptiles and amphibians. Quentin got to make a snake from a paper plate. He loves to paint at coop!. Afterwards, we had two more families officially join the coop. We are growing, but hopefully not too much more so we can fit in peoples’ houses for winter.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking

We’re planning one doing on art project and one cooking project each week as well as picking a composer or musician to listen to and enjoy. This week, art and music just didn’t happen. But that’s okay. This is why I have built in flex weeks to catch up on some of the things that get pushed aside during a normal week.

Thursday as a bit of a slog and we didn’t make it to art class. But I put it as a definite for next week.

Field Trip

No coop field trip this week, but we did get to the zoo for Tuesday. We had free ride tickets that expired on August 31st, so I definitely wanted to use those. The weather was very rainy and overcast in the morning which made it perfect to keep the crowds away and the animals active for our visit. We stayed five hours. The crowds started to coming after lunch so we only stayed until about 1:30pm. Still it was a good day and we got so many steps in!

High

• The zoo was so lovely! I definitely like it cooler and less busy.

Low

• Kid attitudes meant that we missed art class this week. I was really hoping to work this into our schedule weekly, but now I’m thinking biweekly.

Next Week

• Starting the sequel to Alice in Wonderland (A)

• Figuring out more logic puzzles (A)

• Learning about Native American cultures of the Southeast and Plains (A)

• Moving on to Newton’s Second Law for Physics (A)

• Reading some animal stories (Q)

• Finishing The Very Very Far North (Q)

• Covering Canada and the United States (maybe) (Q)

• Covering geology (A) and amphibians and retiles (Q) for coop

• Introducing the art of John Singleton Copley?

• Finishing The Beast of Buckingham Palace for coop book club

• Listening to Bach

• Going to the Durham, Heron Haven, Trivia Night, and Gaming Afternoon

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W2: Goodness, I am Tired!

What We Studied

We reached the end of our second week of regular homeschooling routine and I am exhausted. Seriously, by Friday afternoon, I could barely keep my eyes open. And we didn’t do that much! I think it’s a combination of the heat and the mental load of keeping all the plates in the air that has me so tired. The kids are fairing better, but they also get a lot more breaks and free time…

Literature and Poetry

Arthur continued Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll for his ELA read aloud. To go along with the text itself, Blossom and Root Grade 3 Language Arts gives us a ton of activities and creative projects to go along with the text. We will be reading this for one more week. He also has a weekly poetry selection. We also started our Myths and Maps extra curriculum from B&R. We began covering creation stories from around the world. One last item, we started reading The Beast of Buckingham Palace for our next coop book club selection.

• Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

• The Beast of Buckingham Palace by David Walliam

Quentin started a big read aloud as his main focus. I timed the read aloud to coincide with the area of the world that we are studying. The Very Very Far North seemed perfect for starting with the Arctic. He also did a day study of the Stone Soup story. We read a traditional European telling and then grabbed multiple others for variety. We did a bit of compare and contrast with the stories. I enjoyed it!

• High Five Intro Issue

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• The Very Very Far North by Dan Bar-El

• Stone Soup by Marcia Brown

• Quill Soup by Alan Durant

• Fandango Stew by David Davis

• Bone Soup by Alissa Satin Capucilli

• Some Friends to Feed: The Story of Stone Soup by Pete Seeger and Paul DeBois Jacobs

• The Real Story of Stone Soup by Ying Chang Compestine

• We All Play by Julie Flett

Playing Arthur’s homemade game, Lord of the Book

Math

For both boys, we have scheduled math for three days a week. One day is focused on logic, games, puzzles, and special projects. The two other days are focused on covering the main math curriculum (Singapore 4A and 4B for Arthur and Singapore 1A and 1B for Quentin). This week Arthur and I played a monster themed multiplication game. I also found a fun packet of logic puzzles based on Alice in Wonderland. We will be spreading these out over our reading of the text.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4A

• Tinkeractive Math Kindergarten

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Numbers Everywhere by Linda Leopold Strauss

• Everyone Counts by Judy Sierra

Social Studies

Arthur started his large study of United States history using a combination of Build Your Library Level 5 and History Quest United States History. We did a bit more introduction and then started learning about the native nations of the northeast. Last minute, I found a great Outschool class called “What are Native Americans?” This is a two week class focusing on introducing students to Native Americans and doing a bit of geography and history. It’s being taught by Kelly Tudor, who is Lipan Apache. (I’ve tagged her other classes for future reference. She has one about Indigenous Peoples’ Day that I hope works out for us time-wise.)

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

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

• The Earth Under Sky Bear’s Feet: Native American Poems of the Land by Joseph Bruchac

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

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

• What was the Ice Age? by Nico Medina

• Prehistorical Animals: Prehistoric Mammals by David West

Quentin began his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We covered the basics of the world with a close look at maps the globe. We took this week to do some more big overview of the world and talk about the different types of climates and geography throughout the world.

• Nat Geo Beginner’s World Atlas

• DK Countries of the World

• DK First Earth Encyclopedia

• DK Children Just Like Me

• DK Children Just Like Me; A School Like Mine

• On Earth by G. Brian Karas

Finding fossils at Schramm

Arthur Independent Time

We are working on following a checklist in a planner for weekly independent work. There’s usually some math workbook pages, an ELA packet, weekly writing prompts (1-2 times a week), independent reading time, and a special creative project. Beyond the paperwork, Arthur focused on his game he’s been making (Lord of the Book) and some random side creative projects.

Q missed his friend

Science

Arthur is focusing on Physics this year. We are covering the text and related videos at home and then joining friends for experiments and extra projects. This week the boys learned about water displacement and density. They had a long experiment session that culminated in a challenge to construct a boat that would hold 30 pennies. Lots of fun there! For our history section, Arthur learned about various cultures keeping time throughout history. Talks about calendars and time-keeping.

• RSO Physics

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

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We talked about ecosystems and sorted some animals into their ecosystems.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• Many Biomes, One Earth by Sneed B. Collard III

• Earth: Extreme Facts by Steffi Cavell-Clarke

STEAM Coop

Coop continued with a slightly smaller group (thank goodness). We had a great week where the older kids learned about plate tectonics and the younger groups learned about rocks and minerals. The older kids really enjoyed demonstrating the different types of plate boundaries using frosting and graham crackers. Probably helps that they got to it their creations afterward. Lots of fun there! Afterwards, we had three more families official join the coop. We are growing, but hopefully not too much more so we can fit in peoples’ houses for winter.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking

We’re planning one doing on art project and one cooking project each week as well as picking a composer or musician to listen to and enjoy. This week, art and music just didn’t happen. But that’s okay. This is why I have built in flex weeks to catch up on some of the things that get pushed aside during a normal week.

Coop art class was canceled due to illness.

Field Trip

We had a great field trip to Schramm with a guided tour of the geologic site. The kids got to dig for fossils and some free play at the rocks. We had a lovely picnic by the fish hatcheries and ended our visit back at the nature center. The boys were excited that all the imaginary play items were back out.

High

• Science on Wednesday was delightful. While Arthur worked with his friend on some experiments, I sat in the other room with Quentin and did some of his packet work. I think we used our time wisely this week.

Waddling like a duck

Low

• So tired!

Next Week

• Finishing Alice in Wonderland (A)

• Figuring out more logic puzzles (A)

• Learning about Native American cultures of the East Coast (A)

• Moving on to Newton’s Laws for Physics (A)

• Reading some animal stories (Q)

• Continuing The Very Very Far North (Q)

• Covering the Arctic and Canada (Q)

• Covering geology (A) and amphibians and retiles (Q) for coop

• Introducing the art of John Singleton Copley?

• Moving through The Beast of Buckingham Palace for coop book club

• Listening to Bach

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W1: We're Back at It!

What We Studied

We dove into our third year of homeschooling with Arthur entering 3rd grade and Quentin entire kindergarten. This first week was all about attempting to figure out our weekly schedule. We have to work in coop on Thursday morning, art class on Thursday afternoon, physics with friends on Wednesday afternoon, and a weekly field trip. I’m attempting to decide if we will be doing art class and field trips weekly or on a different schedule. I’m still thinking about that. As for the curriculum itself, we dove right in and accomplished a ton this week.

Attempting to make a paper hole to step through a la Alice

Literature and Poetry

Arthur started Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll for his ELA read aloud. To go along with the text itself, Blossom and Root Grade 3 Language Arts gives us a ton of activities and creative projects to go along with the text. We will be reading this for two more weeks. He also has a weekly poetry selection. We also started our Myths and Maps extra curriculum from B&R. We began covering creation stories from around the world. One last item, we finished reading The Penderwicks in time for coop book club on Thursday evening. Only one other family joined us, but we chatted about the book for awhile before the kids scampered off to the playground.

• Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

• The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

Quentin has a mixed week. We started with a few books related to traveling the world (preview of our social studies curriculum). He also covered the Blossom and Root Kindergarten Language Arts week dealing with names and the importance of identity.

• How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman

• Johnny Appleseed: A Tall Tall retold by Stephen Kellogg

• Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal

• Your Name is a Song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow

• The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi

• Me and My Family Tree by Joan Sweeney

• High Five Intro Issue

• Rocket Finds an Egg by Tad Hills (Quentin read)

• Rocket’s Very Fine Day by Tad Hills (Quentin read)

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

Math

For both boys, we have scheduled math for three days a week. One day is focused on logic, games, puzzles, and special projects. The two other days are focused on covering the main math curriculum (Singapore 4A and 4B for Arthur and Singapore 1A and 1B for Quentin). This week Arthur and I played a Pirate themed place value game. I also found a fun packet of logic puzzles based on Alice in Wonderland. We will be spreading these out over our reading of the text.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4A

• Tyrannosaurus Math by Michelle Markel

• Tinkeractive Math Kindergarten

Social Studies

Arthur started his large study of United States history using a combination of Build Your Library Level 5 and History Quest United States History. We covered an introduction to Native American history and a general geography review. We also started some great resources for stories from Native American societies. Arthur did a short research project about the Omaha and Ponca tribes as we live on their ancestral land.

• If America were a Village by David J. Smith

• The Scrambled States of America by Laurie Keller

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

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

• The Earth Under Sky Bear’s Feet: Native American Poems of the Land by Joseph Bruchac

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

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

Quentin began his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We covered the basics of the world with a close look at maps the globe. He worked through some activities and completed most of the introduction box from Atlas Crate. He also prepped his world passport for our studies.

• The World is Waiting for You by Barbara Kerley

• Our Earth by Anne rockwell

• Exploring by Alain Gree

• Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney

• Nat Geo Beginner’s World Atlas

• DK Countries of the World

• DK First Earth Encyclopedia

• DK Children Just Like Me

• DK Children Just Like Me; A School Like Mine

• My Bed: Enchanting Ways to Fall Asleep Around the World by Rebecca Bond

Arthur Independent Time

We are working on following a checklist in a planner for weekly independent work. There’s usually some math workbook pages, an ELA packet, weekly writing prompts (1-2 times a week), independent reading time, and a special creative project. Beyond the paperwork, Arthur made an Alice puppet and worked on his board game. .

Science

Arthur is focusing on Physics this year. We are covering the text and related videos at home and then joining friends for experiments and extra projects. The first week was an introduction to the realm of physics and a review of the scientific method. We also started The Study of Science, which we will be slowing moving through the first book over the entire year. We wrapped up the week with a documentary about our human ancestors (NOVA S36 E15 Becoming Human Episode 3: Last Human Standing).

• Where Did We Come From by Chris Ferrie

• RSO Physics

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

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We did a small introduction of animals across the world. Next week we will dive in more.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

STEAM Coop

Coop started with a crowd! Seriously,, we had about 43 kids come to the first meeting of the semester. The oldest group (4th-8th grade) had 20 kids by itself! All three groups learned a bit about the layers of the Earth (more in-depth for the oldest kids obviously) and then make models of the layers of the Earth using Model Magic Clay. Some of the kids really got into adding their green continents as accurately as possible. I loved the attention to detail! Of the 8 new families that came, 2 have already officially joined us! Next week, we will be continuing with the geology theme.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking

We’re planning one doing on art project and one cooking project each week as well as picking a composer or musician to listen to and enjoy. This first week we scrapped the intended craft project of making a carved apple doll for an apple taste test and scientific observation. I just knew that I would end be be the one doing the entire apple doll and wanted to give the kids something hands on. While doing our apple taste test, we enjoyed listening to a variety of composition from Beethoven. We even went on a Fifth Symphony deep dive and listened to about 20 different variations of the piece. I really liked the Bossa Nova version. Arthur liked the organ version, and Quentin like the marching band version. Lots of fun with that one! My goal is definitely to keep this light and fun.

At coop art class, the boys learned about landscapes featuring a background, middle ground, and foreground. They then created their own versions. A nice low-key art class was just what we needed.

Field Trip

None this week due to my Monday afternoon to Tuesday morning migraine.

High

• We loved getting back with our coop friends for a fun session (and art class and book club). We missed them so much on our mini summer break.

Low

• I overloaded the curriculum a bit this week. I knew the first week would be a bit rough in terms of the schedule. Hopefully next week will be better balanced.

Next Week

• Continuing to read Alice in Wonderland (A)

• Figuring out more logic puzzles (A)

• Learning about Native American cultures (A)

• Moving on to Density and Water Displacement for Physics (A)

• Reading some animal stories (Q)

• Starting The Very Very Far North (Q)

• Covering Biomes and Ecosystems of the World (Q)

• Covering geology for coop

• Introducing the art of John Singleton Copley

• Starting The Beast of Buckingham Palace for coop book club

• Listening to Bach or Mozart - haven’t decided which exactly

Ice cream to wrap up the week: Blue Moon for Quentin, Blood Orange sorbet for me, German Chocolate for Arthur

Next up on the TBR pile:

We're Homeschooling - Year 3! 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 multiple events outside of our house to account for. This coming year, we have our STEAM coop, coop art class, and science with a friend family.. My first pass at scheduling our day began with the outside items. From there, I came up with this basic schedule:

Next, I broke the week schedule down into days to better see if everything would fit. Arthur’s schedule is set and I am still tweaking Quentin’s schedule. I primarily use Roam to accomplish my day to day planning.

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 was having trouble remembering if I was including all the pieces, so I created this weekly checklist to make sure. I’m certain that I will be tweaking this as the semester progressed. Right now this is what I have… (after taking this picture, I added Cooking and Q STEM to the checklist).

My last big planning step is to create very detailed lesson plans including videos, books, and details. This will be my second year using a special note talking app called Roam. I’ve been actively using Roam 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. This screenshot is the start of our first week.

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 8th, 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 3! Our Curriculum 3rd Grade

Two years of homeschooling under my belt, and I feel like I’ve really found my groove. It wasn’t hard to pick curriculum for this coming year. I knew that we wanted to be literature heavy so Build Your Library and Blossom and Root were obviously choices for us overall. Once I started looking into things, I went on a shopping spree and got my ducks in order. The hard part this coming year will be to balance each child’s individual needs and levels. Arthur will be in 3rd grade and Quentin will be in Kindergarten. I am working on creating a schedule that works for everyone while allowing for flexibility.

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 have for curriculum for next year!

Arthur - 3rd Grade

Math

We will be continuing with Singapore Math Common Core Edition as our base curriculum. Arthur will be starting with 4A and push through 4B. Beyond the basic text, we will be supplementing with Khan Academy, lots of math games, and random workbooks and packets. We will also be continuing with our logic puzzles.

• Singapore Math 4A and 4B

• Multiplication and Division G3-4

• Random Target Workbook

• Scholastic Math Tests G4

• Scholastic Math G4

• Sylvan Super Math Success G4

• Kumon Geometry and Measurement G4

• Logic Liftoff

• 50 Logic Puzzles

• The Math Book by Clifford A. Pickover

• Five Below Random Workbooks

Language Arts

This is Arthur’s grammar workbook selections for this year. We don’t do every page and question, but bounce around between some of them.

• Evan Moor Daily Summer Activities 3rd to 4th Grade

• Brainquest Summer 3&4

• Brainiest 3rd Grade

• Grade 3 Complete Curriculum

• Evan Moor Daily Language Review 3rd Grade

• Scholastic Grammar 3rd Grade

• Scholastic Writing 3rd Grade

• Scholastic Reading Comprehension 3rd Grade

• Scholastic Grammar 4th Grade

• Scholastic Writing 4th Grade

• Scholastic Reading Comprehension 4th Grade

• Five Below Workbooks

• Grade 3 Readiness

Arthur’s readers will be a mix of Blossom and Root’s Grade 3 Language Arts, Build Your Library 5, and our home library selections.

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

• The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

• The Beast of Buckingham Palace by David Walliams (coop book club selection)

• The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill (coop book club selection)

• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert O’Brien

• Tristan Strong Destroys the World by Kwame Mbalia

• Wildwood by Colin Meloy

• Winterhouse by Ben Guterson

• The Secrets of Winterhouse by Ben Guterson

• The Winterhouse Mysteries by Ben Guterson

• Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate

• The Secret Garden by France Hodgson Burnett

• Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan

• Insignificant Events int he Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling

• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Readers continued…

• El Deafo by Cece Bell

• Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

• The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

• Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

• Hollowpox: The Hunt of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

• The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

• The Penderwicks at Last by Jeanne Birdsall

• Midsummer Mayhem by Rajani LaRocca

• My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

• The Strangers by Margaret Peterson Haddix

• Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland

• Iggy Peck and the Mysterious Mansion by Andrea Beaty

• Word of Mouse by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein (coop book club selection)

Our language arts selections also include a mini unit on Native America stories and one on Shakespeare. I found some interesting resources for those.

• In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World by Virginia Hamilton

• One World, Many Religions by Mary Pope Osborne

• Bravo Mr. William Shakespeare by Marcia Williams

• Tales from Shakespeare by Marica Williams

• Shakespeare for Kids by Colleen Aagesen

• A Child’s Introduction to Poetry by Michael Driscoll

• Between Earth and Sky: Legends of Native American Sacred Places by Joseph Bruchac

• The Earth Under Sky Bear’s Feet: Native American Poems of the Land by Joseph Bruchac

• They Dance in the Sky: Native American Star Myths by Jean Guard Monroe

• Pushing Up the Sky: Seven Native American Plays for Children by Joseph Bruchac

And of course we have a stack of poetry selections.

• My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States by Lee Bennett Hopkins

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Poetry for Young People: Carl Sandburg

• Writing Down the Days by Lorraine Dahlstrom

• Poetry for Young People: Walt Whitman

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

• Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes

• Poetry for Young People: Edgar Allan Poe

Social Studies

Arthur’s social studies will focus on the United States to coincide with our history selection.

• Map Skills for Today Grade 3

• License Plates Across the America

• Nat Geo Kids U.S. Road Trip Atlas

• The Geography Book

• Map Skills for Today Grade 4

• Evan Moor Geography Skill Sharpeners Grade 5

• Target U.S. Workbook

• Nat Geo Kids United States Atlas

• The 50 States Activity Book

As our history base, Arthur is using Build Your Library Level 5 (U.S. History) combined with History Quest’s new U.S. History release.

• DK American History

• DK When on Earth?

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• DK History

• Don’t Know Much About The Presidents by Kenneth C. Davis

• DK Timeline of Everything

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• Words that Build a Nation by Marilyn Miller

• What Color is My World? The Lost History of African American Investors by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

• The Declaration of Independence by Rod Gragg

• Inventing America: The Life of Benjamin Franklin by Mark Regan Essig

• Remember the Ladies: 100 Great American Women by Cheryl Harness

• Evan Moor Native Americans History Pockets

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

• Lewis and Clark for Kids by

• Target U.S. Presidents Workbook

• The American Revolution for Kids

• A Kid’s Guide to African American History by Nancy I. Sanders

• Heart and Soul by Kadir Nelson

• The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales by Virginia Hamilton

• Trickster: Native American Tales by Matt Dembicki

Our history curriculum has a ton of extra readers. I’m very excited to get to all of these.

• King George: What was His Problem? by Steve Sheinkin

• Which Way to the Wild West by Steve Sheinkin

• Two Miserable Presidents by Steve Sheinkin

• Day of Tears by Julius Lester

• Sarah Journey’s West by Nikki Shannon Smith

• Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

• Chains by Laurie Halse Andreson

• Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson

• Ashes by Laurie Halse Anderson

• In the Shadow of Liberty by Kenneth C. Davis

• Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

• A Different Mirror for Young People by Ronald Takaki

• Pocahontas by Josephy Bruchac

• The Winter People by Joseph Bruchac

• Morning Girl by Michael Dorris

• A Young People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

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

• Sunnie Press Maps

Science

Our science is going to be a combination of Build Your Library Level 8 (history of science), Level 4 (Physics), and RSO Physics. Lots of interesting combinations.

• Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia

• DK Science Year by Year

• The Way Things Work Now by David Macaulay

• Build This Book by David Eckhold

• Astronomy for All Ages by Philip Harrington

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

• The Handy Science Answer Guide

• A History of Earth in 100 Groundbreaking Discoveries by Douglas Palmer

• Six Easy Pieces by Richard P. Feynman

• The Annotated Flatland by Ian Stewart

• Five Equations that Changed the World by Michael Guillen

• Introducing Quantum Theory

• Nick and Tesla’s High Voltage Danger Lab by Bob Pfluffelder

• Flatterland by Ian Stewart

In addition to our formal science curriculum, we will be doing a variety of nature science lessons. We still have a ton of leftover lessons and resources from last year.

Art

This is actually all the art books for Quentin and Arthur. I took just one picture. Each one of their Build Your Library levels has a related art book to dip in and out of. Arthur’s selection is Great American Artists for Kids book to go along with U.S. History. Beyond that book, I imagine that we will occasionally do a art lesson on other people and styles. Plus, coop is supposed to be starting an art class. Very excited about this possibility.

• A Journey Through Art: A Global History by Aaron Rosen

• Storybook Art by MaryAnn F. Kohl

• The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola

• The Story of Paintings by Mick Manning

• Great American Artists for Kids by MaryAnn F. Kohl

• Global Art by MaryAnn F. Kohl

• Frida Kahlo: The Artist Painted Herself by Margaret Frith

We're Homeschooling - Year 3! Our Curriculum Kindergarten

Two years of homeschooling under my belt, and I feel like I’ve really found my groove. It wasn’t hard to pick curriculum for this coming year. I knew that we wanted to be literature heavy so Build Your Library and Blossom and Root were obviously choices for us overall. Once I started looking into things, I went on a shopping spree and got my ducks in order. The hard part this coming year will be to balance each child’s individual needs and levels. Arthur will be in 3rd grade and Quentin will be in Kindergarten. I am working on creating a schedule that works for everyone while allowing for flexibility.

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 have for curriculum for next year!

Quentin - Kindergarten

Primarily Quentin will be using Blossom & Root’s Kindergarten Language Arts curriculum and Build Your Library Level 0. B&R is focused on expanding literacy through lots of picture book studies and literature activities. I ultimately decided against using the entire B&R Kindergarten curriculum and just focus on the Language Arts. BYL 0 is a tour of the world including lots of literature, animal science, art, and poetry. Hopefully by combining these two curriculums, we will get to the amount of reading the we accomplish normally.

Language Arts

Blossom and Root and Build Your Library has some basic language lessons and activities, but my kids both seem to love workbook style for grammar lessons and such. We will be starting with the Kindergarten tagged workbooks and then move into the G1 books eventually. We use these as supplemental material. I create little weekly packets that I help the kids work through. Quentin is not good at working independently yet, but we will get there.

• Super Smart Kindergarten (we also have Super Smart First Grade if we need to crack it open)

• Beginning Phonics G1-2

• Phonics G1-2

• Preschool Handwriting Workbook

• Phonics for First Grade

• Smart Start Read and Write G1

• Scholastic Writing G1

• Sylvan Jumbo Language Arts Success G1

• BrainQuest K

• Smart Start Read and Write Kindergarten

• Tinkeractive English PreK (we didn’t get to this last year mostly because of the handwriting components; we will be starting with this book in August)

• Tinkeractive English K

Literature

This will be Quentin’s first year where we are going to try to read longer chapter books. I curated this collection from the Build Your Library and Blossom & Root curriculums and our own bookshelves.

• My Father’s Dragon Collection by Ruth Stiles Gannett

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

• James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

• The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dagliesh

• Audrey of the Outback by Christine Harris

• The Very Very Far North by Dan Bar-el

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

• Heartwood Hotel Trilogy by Kallie George

• Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne

• Now We are Six by AA Milne

• The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin

• The Witches by Roald Dahl (accidentally included this one in Q’s picture; this is actually for Arthur)

• The Children of Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren

• Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard Atwater

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

This picture includes more of our literature this year. BYL includes a great collection of animal tales from around the world to go with our country study. It also has a giant list of picture books to read with specific countries. Most of those picture books will be checked out from the library, but I did end up buying a few the library doesn’t have and a few that were included in a big curriculum box.

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Tales by Saviour Pirotta

• A Boy Called Slow by Joseph Bruchac

• Nat Geo Animal Poetry

• Katie in London by James Mayhew

• The Random House Book of Poetry for Children

• The Random House Book of Fairy Tales

• Linnea in Monet’s Garden by Christina Bjork

• Snow in Jerusalem by Deborah Da Costa

• The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka

Social Studies

Social studies is coming straight from the Build Your Library Level 0 curriculum. I love the idea of doing a tour of the world. We are going to focus on the larger picture while zooming in to specific countries.

• Nat Geo Kids Beginner’s World Atlas

• Nat Geo Kids World Atlas

• Atlas of the World Sticker Book

• Map Skills for Today G1

• Skill Sharpeners Geography K

• Nat Geo Kids Little Kids First Big Book of the World

• DK Flags Around the World Sticker Book

• Around the World Sticker Book

• Maps Activity Book

• Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney

• DK Children Just Like Me

• DK Children Just Like Me: A School Like Mine

• Carson Crosses Canada by Linda Bailey

• Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema

• Africa is Not a Country by Margy Burns Knight

• Cooking Class: Global Feast by Deanna F. Cook

• How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman

• Scranimals by Jack Pretutsky

• Johnny Appleseed by Steven Kellogg

• Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales

Science

The Build Your Library science for Kindergarten is all about animals! We’re pairing animal studies with our tour of the world. The main bulk of the curriculum is animals.

• DK Animal

• Nat Geo Wild Vet Adventures

• Lonely Planet The Animal Book

• Nat Geo Kids Wild Animal Atlas

• African Critters by Robert B. Haas

• Nat Geo On Safari Sticker Book

• Nat Geo Ferocious Animals Sticker Book

• Random Target workbook

• Usborne Animal World

The curriculum also has some selected topics in Earth Science sprinkled throughout the year. And we will be doing nature science when the weather is nice. The coop topics will also be in the mix.

• Tree of Life: The World of the African Boabab by Barbara Bash

• On the Same Day in March by Marilyn Singer

• A Drop Around the World by Barbara Shaw McKinney

• DK First Earth Encyclopedia

• Archaeologists Dig for Clues by Kate Duke

• Tinkeractive Science K

• DK First Space Encyclopedia

Math

Math is definitely an issue in this house as both boys are at least one grade advanced in math. I am always trying to scramble to find the best choices for them. Quentin is going to be starting out with actual Kindergarten leveled books and quickly moving to G1 books. We will also be adding in some math board games and Khan academy. Looks like a lot, but Quentin loves math, so this looks just about right to me.

• Singapore Math 1A and 1B

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 and Book 3

• Highlights Thinking and Reasoning K

• Sylvan Basic Math Success G1

• Sylvan Page a Day Math G1 (this is basically the same as a portion of the other Sylvan book, so we are going to pass it along to a friend)

• Random Target workbook finds

• Time, Money and Fractions G1-2

• Tinkeractive Math K

• Smart Start Math G1

• Growing Patterns by Sarah C. Campbell

• Money Play Set (Target Dollar Spot find)

Art

This is actually all the art books for Quentin and Arthur. I took just one picture. Each one of their Build Your Library levels has a related art book to dip in and out of. Q’s is the Global Art book to go along with the tour of the world. Beyond that book, I imagine that we will occasionally do a art lesson on other people and styles. Plus, coop is supposed to be starting an art class. Very excited about this possibility.

• A Journey Through Art: A Global History by Aaron Rosen

• Storybook Art by MaryAnn F. Kohl

• The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola

• The Story of Paintings by Mick Manning

• Great American Artists for Kids by MaryAnn F. Kohl

• Global Art by MaryAnn F. Kohl

• Frida Kahlo: The Artist Painted Herself by Margaret Frith

Misc.

• Back issues of High Five magazine - We read through a ton of these last year, but still have a few to go.

• Highlights Magazine

• Highlights Amazing Mazes

• Highlight Amazing Mazes

• I Can Draw Book

• Sunnie Press Maps - I’ve been collecting these for awhile now. Each one details a location that will pair perfectly with our Around the World tour for social studies.

Homeschool W36: Two Abbreviated and One Full Week. We're Done!

What We Studied

Arthur was supposed to have camp through Metro, but unfortunately he and Quentin both caught a cold. So we took it pretty easy for that week. The second week was very abbreviated as I left on Thursday for my weekend retreat. Only this past week was the only full week and it ended up as our last week of the academic year.

Literature and Poetry

We started and finished a read aloud and started a new one. For these two read aloud, we just enjoyed reading them. I didn’t make any worksheets to go along with them. Beyond the read aloud, the boys have been completing their ELA and Math packets for the summer. We’ll be continuing these through July.

• Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman

• Wishtree by Katherine Applegate

• Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems selected by Paul Janeczko

Math

We’ve been doing math review through our BrainQuest summer bridge.

Social Studies

Nothing formal

Arthur Independent Time

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

Science and STEAM Coop

Nothing formal

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.

ELA

• Rocket Loves Hide-and-Seek by Tad Hills

• Rocket the Brave by Tad Hills

• R is for Rocket by Tad Hills

• How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills

• Rocket’s Christmas Surprise by Tad Hills

• Where is the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s First Spring

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s First Summer

• The Bill Martin Jr. Big Book of Poetry

• Ick and Crud: Ick’s Bleh Day by Wiley Blevins

• Doozers have Green Thumbs

• Pigs are Prepared by Hans Wilhelm

Math

• Using Math Outdoors

Other

Field Trip

We didn’t have formal field trips, but we had a ton of outings. We visited multiple splash parks (Cimarron, Eagle Ridge, and The Grove). I took the kids to see the new Jurassic World movie and then to a Pirate Orienteering class at the library. We also went to the lake for a day of swimming.

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies.

Misc. Picture Books Read

• Lift, Mix, Fling! Machines Can Do Anything by Lola M. Schaefer

• Bird Watch by Christie Matheson

• All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon

• Maiasaura by Susan H. Gray

• Leonard’s Beard by Nancy Cote

High

• We had a great day swimming at the lake. I was hesitant to take both boys by myself, but it ended up being a great experience. We’re planning on going back very soon.

Low

• A week of sickness really derailed our plans. It was terrible timing.

Next Week

Nothing! We are officially done with this year’s curriculum.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W35: 14 Hours Outside Before It Gets Too Hot

What We Studied

We took advantage of the decent temps this week and spent 14 hours outside exploring. June is my month to enjoy the outdoors before I retreat back into the air conditioning. Unfortunately, next week we are getting a heat wave. At least we spent this week soaking up the sun.

Literature and Poetry

We finally finished reading through the entirety of The Chronicles of Narnia. I am glad to have read it, but man does Lewis get very heavy-handed toward the end of the series. Also, I’m still a bit confused as to the finer points of his theology.

• The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis

Math

Another week of math games, puzzles, and review. Arthur finished his logic book last week and I didn’t want to start the next one until August. So it’s review and games for the summer.

Social Studies

Arthur’s slowing working through an introduction to economics packet I saved. it’s very light and breezy taking about 5 minutes a day to complete.

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.

Q loves his BrainQuest pages

Science and STEAM Coop

No formal science, but our activities have all been about exploring nature this week so I’m counting it.

Impromptu science lesson about hail

Art/Music

None this week

Quentin “Look mom, I’m being a lion”

Quentin

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

ELA

• The Bill Martin Jr. Big Book of Poetry

• Rocket and the Perfect Pumpkin by Tad Hills (Q reads)

• Drop It, Rocket by Tad Hills (Q reads)

• Corduroy by Don Freeman

• A Pocket for Corduroy by Don Freeman

• Corduroy Lost and Found by Don Freeman

• Corduroy Takes a Bow by Don Freeman

• A Christmas Wish for Corduroy by Don Freeman

Math

Other

Chilling in the spotlight

Field Trip

We started the week off with a field trip to pick strawberries with all our coop friends. This activity was definitely better with friends and cooler temps than usual. We picked over 4 pounds of strawberries to take home and make into goodies!

Wednesday we spent 6 1/2 hours at the zoo. We walked around the entire outside portion, visited the desert dome, rode the train, splashed in the splash pad, and played at the playground. We got to see one of the baby elephants outside and visits Arthur the baby giraffe inside the barn. It was a good zoo day.

Thursday was park playdate morning. We didn’t spend a really long time at the park, but a bit of running around was needed.

Baby Giraffe Arthur

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies.

We think baby elephant Sonny (could have been Eugenia)

Misc. Picture Books Read

• Just Right Cat by Lori Haskins Houran

• Storybots: The Best Christmas Gift

High

• Berry picking! I look forward to it every year, but struggle through the heat. This year it was much cooler and we had all our friends to chat and play with. The boys loved getting away from me and picking near their friends instead. Such a good day!

Low

• Friday we all hit a wall and needed to take a bit of quiet time individually.

Q’s finally tall enough for this slide

Q “That was awesome!”

Next Week

• Arthur is taking three camp class through Metro Community College. He will be learning about LEGO creations, roller coasters and robots, and food around the world.

• Quentin and I will be spending some time together doing errands and going to the park before the temps hit 100 degrees.

• Starting and finishing our next read aloud (it’s a short one)

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W34: That Summer Feeling Has Hit

What We Studied

Memorial Day has passed and we are in high summer mode here. The temperatures have been cooperating and so we have spent a ton of time outside. We racked up a decent number of hours playing outside and exploring nature. The friends that we have made through coop have played right alongside us. We are definitely taking it easy with regards to book work. And July will be our month off for the most part.

Literature and Poetry

We started the last Chronicles of Narnia book with a a good reading guide I found online.

• The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis

Math

Another week of math games, puzzles, and review. We finished both our logic book and The School of Numbers this week. One a related project, the boys help me make gazpacho. They practiced reading a recipe and measuring ingredients.

• Logic Countdown

• The School of Numbers

Social Studies

As we have finished our history curriculum, Arthur did finish a few geography scavenger hunt. He has gotten really into exploring Google Earth. Arthur also started a simple packet introducing economics.

Arthur Independent Time

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

Science and STEAM Coop

Nothing specific this week

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.

ELA

• Eric Carle’s Dragons Dragons

• Eric Carle’s Book of Many Things

• Wonderful You with The Grouchy Ladybuy

• The Saggy Baggy Elephant by Tennant Redbank

• High Five April 2021

• High Five May 2021

Math

• Lollipop Logic Book 1

Other

• Tinkeractive PreK Science

Field Trip

Along with a park playdate and splash pad time, we explored Fontenelle Forest and the connected Raptor Rescue. Spending five hours out in nature was just what we needed on Wednesday.

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies.

Misc. Picture Books Read

High

• Fontenelle Forest was an amazing day spent in nature.

Low

• Thursday was just a bit of cluster when it came to attitudes from the kids. We had to have a bit of a readjustment.

Next Week

• Spending multiple days outside at parks and a zoo visit

• Finishing The Last Battle

• Watching a documentary or two

• Continuing on independent and review packets

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W33: Road Trip Madness!

What We Studied

After only one day of school for the week, we prepped to leave on a 5-day road trip to Kansas. After getting back on Sunday, we were supposed to have a normal school week. It didn’t quite work out that way. We got some school work in, but also spent two days at the park (coop field day and a regular park day), plus errands and unpacking. Good thing we have already finished our history, math, and science curriculum for the year. We’re slowing down a bit, making plans for next year, and enjoying lots of time with friends.

Day 1: Former airfield where atomic bomb pilots trained

Day 1: National Orphan Train Memorial

Literature and Poetry

We finished our current read aloud and started the next one. Arthur continued with his spelling curriculum and we read a ton of picture books and such.

• Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein

• The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis

Day 1: Former German POW Camp

Day 1: Old dugout house

Math

Another week of math games, puzzles, and review

• Logic Countdown

• The School of Numbers

Day 1: Sculpted Brick Wall

Day 1: Rock City Geologic Formation

Social Studies

Arthur did some map work and a few scavenger hunts. He really got into playing around on Google Earth and finding different places. I love when a small assignment leads to more independent research and fun. He even spotted a good restaurant in Wichita for us that wasn’t on my list. We had dinner there and it was great (Wichita Pizza and Brewing Company, if you wanted to know).

Informally we learned a lot from the various museums and attractions that we saw in Kansas. I loved learning more about the Cosmonaut program in the 1950s and 1960s from the exhibits the Cosmosphere. Arthur really got into the exhibits at the World of Treasures Museum.

Day 1: Coronado Heights Castle

Day 2: Strataca Salt Mine

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.

Day 2: Liberty Bell 7 at the Cosmosphere

Science and STEAM Coop

Nothing formal but we did go to a lot of science-related spots on our road trip. We learned a ton about salt and mining at Strataca in Hutchinson.

Day 1: Daal Horses

Day 2: Keeper of the Plain Statue in Wichita

Art/Music

None this week

Day 3: Mini Stonehenge

Day 3: Glass Mosaic Mural

Quentin

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

ELA

• Eric Carle's Animals Animals

• Eric Carle’s Dragons Dragons

• The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle

• The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle

• Hugs & Kisses for The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle

• Pancakes, Pancakes by Eric Carle

• Do You Want to be My Friend? by Eric Carle

• Today is Monday by Eric Carle

• Eric Carle and Friends: What's Your Favorite Bug?

• A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle

• The Greedy Python by Eric Carle

• The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

• Happy Halloween from the Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

• Eric Carle and Friends: What's Your Favorite Animal?

• The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle

• Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

• Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?

• Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?

Math

• Lollipop Logic Book 1

• Tinkeractive PreK Math

Other

• Crayola Our Colorful Earth: Celebrating the Natural Work

• Tinkeractive PreK Science

• Ten Pigs by Derek Anderson

Day 3: Old Cowtown Museum

Day 3: Museum of World Treasures

Field Trip

There wasn’t a field trip this week.

Day 3: Original Pizza Hut

Day 3: Nifty Nut House

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. We watched a great NOVA episode about searching for Life on Mars. It detailed the various Mars rovers and focused heavily on the Perseverance mission.

Day 4: Great Plains Transportation Museum

Day 4: Field Station Dinosaur

Misc. Picture Books Read

• The Fantastic Fishsitter by Mo O’Hara

Day 4: The Arcade

Day 5: Sedgwick County Zoo

High

• Kansas Road Trip! What started as a weekend trip to Hutchinson to see the Cosmosphere turned into a 5 day trip to Hutchinson and Wichita filled with many stops. One of my favorites was getting a private tour of the Great Plains Transportation Museum from a former rail worker. Bob gave us so much more information than was listed on the signs and handouts.

Low

• The transition back home after road trip is always a bit rough. We ended up with a lighter school week than I intended.

Next Week

• Continuing our read aloud

• Playing some math games

• Watching a documentary or two

• Making a craft?

• Exploring outside with friends.

Day 5; OZ Museum

Only pic I took at the park…

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W32: Apparently It's Summer Already...

What We Studied

This post actually documents one break week and one regular week. As we get to May, we find ourselves doing less book work and more outside excursions and field trips. This month has followed that tradition to a tee. To be fair, Arthur has finished his history and science curriculum for the year. We are concentrating on reading everyday, some math review, and various random nature-related activities and craft projects. Quentin has his own stuff, but it’s still fairly limited.

Literature and Poetry

We finished the next-to-last Chronicles of Narnia book. Definitely not my favorite at all. Instead of moving right onto the last book, we have taken a bit of a detour with a fun adventure book featuring a library lock-in.

• The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis

• Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein

• Too Many Carrots by Katy Hudson

Math

Another week of math games, puzzles, and review. Arthur also did a few projects from the Math and Art book we have.

• Logic Countdown

• The School of Numbers

• Math Art + Drawing Games

Social Studies

We finished our curriculum a few weeks back, but we did work on a map work workbook. We fly through the Grade 2 book.

Arthur Independent Time

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

Science and STEAM Coop

For coop, we covered a week of rainbows and prisms and a week of coding.

Art/Music

We did a few free drawing projects based on the Eric Carle books.

• Eric Carle and Friends: What's Your Favorite Color?

Quentin

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

ELA

• Biscuit's Snow Day Race by Alyssa Satin Capucilli (Q reads)

• Biscuit and Friends Visit the Community Garden by Alyssa Satin Capucilli (Q reads)

• Biscuit and the Big Parade by Alyssa Satin Capucilli (Q reads)

• Bitsy Bee Goes to School by David A. Carter (q reads)

• Little Cloud by Eric Carle

• Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle

• The Nonsense Show by Eric Carle

• Eric Carle's Animals Animals

• The Lamb and the Butterfly by Arnold Sundgaard Illustrated by Eric Carle

• Friends by Eric Carle

• Have You Seen My Cat? by Eric Carle (Q Reads)

• Walter the Baker by Eric Carle

• 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo by Eric Carle (Q Fave; Arthur Fave)

• 10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle (Q Fave)

• Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle

• Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too? by Eric Carle

• The Very Clumsy Click Beetle by Eric Carle

• Can a Cat Do That? by Eric Carle (Q reads)

• The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle

• Eric Carle and Friends: What's Your Favorite Food?

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar's Garden Picnic

• Can You Guess Animals with the Very Hungry Caterpillar

• Can You Guess Food with the Very Hungry Caterpillar

• Sleep Tight with The Very Hungry Caterpillar

• Can You Guess Animal Sounds with The Very Hungry Caterpillar

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar Eats Breakfast

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar Eats Lunch

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar's Snowy Hide and Seek

• A Day on the Farm with the Very Hungry Caterpillar

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar's First Winter

• How Does an Egg Hatch? Life Cycles with the Very Hungry Caterpillar

• Happy Birthday from The Very Hungry Caterpillar

• Calm with the Very Hungry Caterpillar

• Caterpillar Days of the Week Reader

• LOVE with The Very Hungry Caterpillar

• Thanks from The Very Hungry Caterpillar

• The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle

• The Foolish Tortoise by Eric Carle

• Rooster is Off to See the World by Eric Carle

• Hello, Red Fox by Eric Carle

• High Five August 2020

Math

• Lollipop Logic Book 1

• Tinkeractive PreK Math

Other

• Tinkeractive PreK Science

• Busy Day Sticker Book

Field Trip

We got to see a glass blowing demonstration at the local artist collective. The kids were really into watching the demo and they even got a scrap piece of glass to take home. Afterward we toured the rest of the building and looked at the art on display.

On Wednesday, we explored the Wildlife Safari. We haven’t been in two years and last time we went, we couldn’t get out of the car. This time we visited the Wildlife Education Center and even got to spy the wolves in their habitat. We will definitely have to go back soon.

On Friday, we traveled to Lincoln for a full adventure day. We started at the Nebraska History Museum (never been there before) and saw the Bison exhibit before it closed. After a quick lunch, we headed over to the Lincoln Zoo for a fun afternoon. Thankfully the field trip kids were leaving right as we arrived and the crowds became very sparse.

On Monday, we went to the zoo on probably the worst day of the season. It was incredibly hot and the kids complained the entire time. At least we got to see some animals.

On Friday, we hit the park for some free playground time. A friend joined us for a few hours. At least the temperatures had gone back down.

Documentary Selection

We finished Terry Jones’s Medieval Lives series

Misc. Picture Books Read

• If You Ever Want to Bring a Pirate to Meet Santa, DON'T by Elise Parsley

• Odd Dog Out by Rob Biddulph

• Inky's Great Escape by Casey Lyall

• How Do Dinosaurs Stay Friends? by Jane Yolen

• Worm Weather by Jean Taft

• Spring Parade by Camelia Kay

• The Curious Garden by Peter Brown

• Rabbit's Spring Gift by Anita Loughrey

• Animals in Spring by Jenny Fretland VanVoorst

• Party Pigs by Eric Seltzer

• Abracadabra It's Spring! by Anne Sibley O'Brien

• Westward Ho, Charlie Brown! by Charles M. Schulz

• Pterosaur by Jennifer Zeiger

• The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf by Mark Teague

High

• I loved our trip to Hot Shops to see the glass blowing demonstration. I might have had more fun than the kids but it was a good day. And we definitely need to check out some of the other events at the collective.

Low

• The heat this week has really gotten to us.

Next Week

We are only around for Monday and Tuesday before heading south for our mini family road trip. Once we get back, we will have another normal week.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W31: Slowing Down Inside at We Get Outside More

What We Studied

We school year round which makes it so much easier to take smaller breaks and easier weeks when the weather is amazing and we want to be outside. This was one of those weeks. We have already finished our history curriculum and math textbooks, so we focused our shortened in house hours to English and lots of reading.

Literature and Poetry

Moving along with our complete read of the Chronicles of Narnia. We started the second to last book and I’m not super impressed, but we will continue and move on next week.

• The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis

• Hello Earth! Poems to Our Planet by Joyce Sidman

• The Green Mother Goose: Saving the World One Rhyme at a Time by Jan Peck and David Davis

Math

Another week of math games, puzzles, and review

• Ten Hungry Pigs by Derek Anderson

• Logic Countdown

• The School of Numbers

Social Studies

We officially finished History Quest Middle Times last week, but wanted to do some review and wrap-up this week. We started watching Terry Jones’s documentary series Medieval Lives. We’re about 1/3 of the way through. We plan on watching a few more episodes next week and the next to finish out our history study for the years.

Making letters out of grasses

Arthur Independent Time

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

Science and STEAM Coop

For coop, we studied rainbows and prisms. Quentin’s younger group learned about rainbows and made rainbow jars using water beads. Arthur’s older group learned about rainbows and focused on the light refraction side.

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.

ELA

• Biscuit by Alyssia Satin Capucilli (Q reads)

• Biscuit Finds a Friend by Alyssia Satin Capucilli (Q reads)

• The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse by Beatrix Potter

• The Tale of Pigling Bland by Beatrix Potter

• The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse by Beatrix Potter

• High Five July 2020

• Once Upon a Unicorn's Horn by Beatrice Blue

Math

• Lollipop Logic Book 1

• Tinkeractive PreK Math

Other

• Tinkeractive PreK Science

• Mazes Book

• Busy Day Sticker Book

Field Trip

We had three! Yes three! field trips this week.

On Monday, we did an easy hike around Standing Bear Lake. It was a bit chilly and at times, very windy, but I loved it. We don’t do that lake in high summer as there is no shade at all. Doing a hike in April was perfect.

On Tuesday, we went to the Rose Theater to see Giraffes Can’t Dance. Our coop field trip coordinator got us group tickets that were very cheap. The show was lots of fun and the kids enjoyed it.

On Wednesday, we went to the Joslyn Art Museum one last time before they close for two years (renovations and building a whole new wing). J even took off work to join us. My favorite galleries were already shut down, but we will got to see some great art. And the kids got to play in ArtWorks (kid’s play space) for awhile.

At the theater

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. As mentioned above, we are watching Terry Jones’s Medieval Lives series.

Misc. Picture Books Read

• A Spring Stroll in the City by Cathy Goldberg Fishman

• Just Help! by Sonia Sotomayor

• Mr. Pig's Big Wall by Glenn Hernandez

• Spring for Sophie by Yael Weber

• It's Spring! by Samantha Berger and Pamela Chanko

• How to Be on the Moon by Viviane Schwarz

• Dinosaur vs. Santa by Bob Shea

• Pigs to the Rescue by John Himmelman

High

• Taking off most of Wednesday to visit the Joslyn Art Museum was just the break that we needed. And I’m so excited that J got to join us that day.

Low

• Friday I woke up with a terrible migraine (due to massive weather changes). That made for a not great day, but we muddled through somehow.

Next Two Weeks

• Taking a curriculum break with multiple outings

• Finishing the current and starting the next Chronicles of Narnia book

• More math games, puzzles, and review

• Doing an Eric Carle deep dive for reading and art

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W30: Recovered and Back to Work!

What We Studied

Thankfully everyone got better from their cold and we had a normal week. I took one picture of us doing school that didn’t involve the chicks. Oh well. Enjoy some baby chickens pictures.

Literature and Poetry

We started and finished a read aloud that I had never actually read before. It’s a delightful little adventure book that we knocked out in a few days.

• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming

• I’ve Lost My Hippopotamus by Jack Prelutsky

• Hello Earth! Poems to Our Planet by Joyce Sidman

Math

Another week of math games, puzzles, and review

• Logic Countdown

• The School of Numbers

Social Studies

We covered the last chapter of History Quest Middle Times about Elizabethan Times.

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• When on Earth

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare by Diane Stanley

• Shakespeare's Theatre by Andrew Langley

• The Tudors: Kings, Queen, Scribes, and Ferrets by Marcia Williams

• Good Queen Bess: The Story of Elizabeth I of England by Diane Stanley

Arthur Independent Time

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

Science and STEAM Coop

For coop and our mini science unit, we’re focusing on plants and gardening.

• DK Trees, Leaves, Flowers, and Seeds

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.

ELA

• Biscuit and the Lost Teddy Bear by Alyssia Satin Capucilli (Q reads)

• Biscuit Loves the Park by Alyssia Satin Capucilli (Q reads)

• Biscuit and the Garden by Alyssia Satin Capucilli (Q reads)

• The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle by Beatrix Potter

• The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher by Beatrix Potter

• The Tale of Tom Kitten by Beatrix Potter

• High Five May 2020

• High Five June 2020

• Our Universe: Earth by Marion Bane Bauer

Math

• Lollipop Logic Book 1

• Tinkeractive PreK Math

Other

• Smart Start Beginning Coding Grade 1

• Tinkeractive PreK Science

Field Trip

There wasn’t a field trip this week.

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies.

Misc. Picture Books Read

• My Little Pony, Pony Life: Royal Bake-Off by Katie Chilson

• Over in the Meadow by Ezra Jack Keats

• There's a Tiger in the Garden by Lizzy Stewart

• There's a Hole in the Bucket by John M. Feierabend

High

• For Earth Day, we had a little coop party at a member’s house. Mostly it turned into free kids’ play, but sometimes that’s what we really need.

Low

• The chicks had to be returned on Saturday. The kids really wanted to keep them…

Next Week

• Taking a curriculum break with multiple outings

• Starting the next Chronicles of Narnia book

• More math games, puzzles, and review

• Wrapping up the Middle Times for history

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W29: Blergh! We All Caught a Cold.

What We Studied

After such a long time not getting sick (and avoiding COVID), the boys and I all caught a cold and had some not-so-great days. We managed to finish some school work, but had to skip coop and the coop fiend trip the gardens. Not fun being stuck inside for days on end.

Literature and Poetry

We did manage to finis our current read aloud and work through more poems.

• The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis

• I’ve Lost My Hippopotamus

Math

Arthur is finished with the textbook, so we are exploring more math problems and puzzles until August. We pulled out the spring tangrams packet for Tuesday’s lesson.

• Logic Countdown

• The School of Numbers

Social Studies

We covered the Scientific Revolution (focusing on Gutenburg, Copernicus, and Galileo) and the Reformation this week. Arthur got really interested in Copernicus’s journal and wanted to create his own scientific journal.

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• When on Earth

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• Marguerite Makes a Book by Bruce Robertson

• Nicolaus Copernicus: The Earth is a Planet by Dennis Brindell Fradin

• Martin Luther: Here I Stand by Geraldine Elschner

• The Life and Times of Martin Luther by Meike Roth-Beck

• I, Galileo by Bonnie Christensen

• Starry Messenger by Peter Sis

• Recentering the Universe: The Radical Theories of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton by Rob Miller

Arthur Independent Time

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

Science and STEAM Coop

We had a light week for science. I had planned on focusing on spring and growing to align with coop and our trip to the botanical gardens. But as we had to skip those, part of our science went with it. We did do a mini spring unit with a ton of books. And we wrapped up what we learned from coop last week about bees with some more books and videos.

• The Thing About Bees by Shabazz Larkin

• Give Bees a Chance by Bethany Barton

• Bee and Me by Alison Jay

• The Bee Tree by Stephen Buchmann

• The Secret Life of Bees by Moira Butterfield

• What on Earth? Bees by Andrea Quigley

• Finding Spring by Carin Berger

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

• Mouse Loves Spring by Lauren Thompson

• Hail to Spring by Charles Ghigna

• Weather in Spring by Jenny Fretland VanVoorst

• Trees in Spring by Jenny Fretland VanVoorst

• Birds in Spring by Jenny Fretland VanVoorst

• Spring by Amy Culliford

• Crinkle, Crackle, Crack It's Spring! by Marion Dane Bauer

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.

ELA

• Biscuit Takes a Walk by Alyssa Satin Capucilli (Q Reads)

• Biscuit Loves the Library by Alyssa Satin Capucilli (Q Reads)

• Biscuit and the Little Llamas by Alyssa Satin Capucilli (Q Reads)

• Biscuit Feeds the Pets by Alyssa Satin Capucilli (Q reads)

• The Tale of Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter

• The Tale of Benjamin Bunny by Beatrix Potter

• The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter

• High Five April 2020

Math

• Lollipop Logic Book 1

• Tinkeractive Math PreK

Other

• Smart Start Beginning Coding Grade 1

• I Spy on the Farm

• Tinkeractive Science PreK

Field Trip

On Monday we met friends at the park for some playtime. It was chilly, but the sun came out and the kids had fun. I enjoyed chatting with some friends.

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies.

Misc. Picture Books Read

• Nerdy Birdy by Aaron Reynolds

• Big Choo by Stephen Shaskan

High

• Getting our chicks on Saturday was so much fun! We are renting two chicks from a family farm program. We are interacting with them and caring for them. We named ours Shadow and Sunshine. The boys are loving this program!

Low

• Getting sick obviously. I had a headache all week and it really affected everyone’s mood and motivation.

Next Week

• Starting a new read aloud (even I haven’t read this one)

• Covering Elizabethan Times for history

• Continuing our math review

• Taking care of our chicks for hands-on science

Next up on the TBR pile: