Homeschool W31: We had a Spring Walk in the Rain

What We Studied

A smallish week in terms of school work, but a full week full of activities and errands.

Literature and Poetry

J continued reading the Bromeliad trilogy to the boys at bedtime. They are very near finishing the third book.

We knocked out a chunk of our current read aloud (the coop book club selection). We will finish that one sometime last week.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

• The Last Shadow Warrior by Sam Subity

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. He’s gotten more into Audrey, but it’s definitely not his favorite (or mine).

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• Audrey of the Outback by Christine Harris

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 continued our financial literacy unit. Quentin has very small lessons. Arthur is going more in depth. We’re taking it slow, but continuing with the unit.

• Financial Literacy Grade 3

• Singapore 1B

• A Penny's Worth by Kimberly Wilson

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’re inching closer to the Civil War, but won’t cover the actual war this school year..

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• Smart About the First Ladies

• Which Way to the Wild West by Steve Sheinkin

• The Oregon Trail: The Road to Oregon City by Jesse Wiley

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. Moved on to our last inhabited by humans continent of Australia and Oceania. We covered Oceania this week. That means that we are finished with 6 of the 7 continents. We will move on to Antarctica next week and then do a wrap-up week to finish the curriculum.

• 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. 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 met to do optics, but the boys decided to create an entire fort in my living room instead. Oh well. We’ll get to the experiments next week.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We continued watching a new documentary series called Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It’s a behind the scenes look at caring for the animals at the park. Each episode is less than 30 minutes, so it’s a perfect length for Q. We also covered animals from Australia.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

STEAM Coop

The oldest group has moved on to their last theme of the year: Math + Art in Science. This week, I taught them how to figure out the approximate age and height of the tree using math. Lots of fun! From there, they received a notebook and we explored nature drawing for awhile. The littles did some printmaking crafts. Only two more weeks of coop left for the year!

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

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. We started watched Into the West, the mini series from early 2000s. I really like how it follows two main families from the 1820s all the way to the 1870s. We get to see how the west changes in that 50 years hitting all the big events. We’ll be continuing for the next few weeks.

Field Trip

No coop field trip this week, but we did have a great Nature Explorers meeting on Friday. We completed the 3 mile hike at Schramm in between lots of rain. We were cold and wet by the end, but everyone was in good spirits after the hike. The kids found a trove of snails and basically adopted one for the rest of the hike. The boys convinced me to look into getting a snail as a pet. I could actually do a snail…

High

• Tuesday was a fun free playdate at the park. We stayed for hours! It was windy and chilly, but the kids had so much fun playing. We spent the rest of that afternoon doing all the errands, but it was worth it.

Low

• We got a little behind on our bookwork. Not a big deal, but I’m slightly annoyed by this. I’m sure we can catchup soon.

Next Week

• Finishing our current read alouds

• Finishing a financial literacy unit (both kids)

• Covering light and optics for physics

• Moving on to Antarctica for social studies

• Watching another episode or two of Into the West

• Catching up with our math and language arts packets and random pages

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W30: Pain Flares Disrupt the Schedule

What We Studied

This wrap up is another one with a Flex Week and a regular week all wrapped into one. Unfortunately, I had a massive pain flare during the regular week that disrupted our schedule and put me out of commission for a few days. We missed a few events we were looking forward to.

Literature and Poetry

J continued reading the Bromeliad trilogy to the boys at bedtime. They finished the second book and immediately had to read the third one. Nearing the end of that one already.

So, I switched around our read alouds and had Arthur start on the next coop book club book during the day. We’re liking this modern day Viking story.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

• The Last Shadow Warrior by Sam Subity

• How to Write a Poem by Kwame Alexander

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 took a side trip to read the start of a new series. I thought he didn’t really like it, but last library visit he independently found the second one. He was disappointed when I said we were reading something else. But we’ll be done soon and then we can read his chosen series.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• Zooey and Sassafras: Dragons and Marshmallows by Asia Citro

• Audrey of the Outback by Christine Harris

• This is the Planet Where I Live by KL Going

• The Pirates are Coming by John Condon

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 continued our financial literacy unit. Quentin has very small lessons. Arthur is going more in depth. We’re taking it slow, but continuing with the unit.

• Financial Literacy Grade 3

• Singapore 1B

• Lots and Lots of Coins by Margarette S. Reid

• Give Save Spend with the Three Little Pigs by Clint Greenleaf

• One Proud Penny by Randy Siegel

• 10 Fascinating About Dollar Bills by Chris Jozefowicz

• What is Money? by Rebecca Rissman

• Paper Money by Dana Meachen Rau

• Counting Money by Julie Dalton

• Making Change at the Fair by Julie Dalton

• What Can You Do with Money? by Jennifer S. Larson

• Save It! by Cinders McLeod

• Spend It! by Cinders McLeod

• How Many Pennies Make a Dollar? by Rebecca Wingard-Nelson

• I Can Count Money by Rebecca Wingard-Nelson

• I Can Name Bills and Coins by Rebecca Wingard-Nelson

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 are on to the Oregon Trail and the Gold Rush.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• Smart About the First Ladies

• Which Way to the Wild West by Steve Sheinkin

• The Oregon Trail by Mel Friedman

• The Oregon Trail: Danger at the Haunted Gate by Jesse Wiley

• The Oregon Trail: The Search for Snake River by Jesse Wiley

• The Oregon Trail: The Road to Oregon City by Jesse Wiley

• Hazardous Tales: Donner Dinner Party

• What Was the Gold Rush? By Joan Holub

• Gold! Gold from the American River! by Don Brown

• Life During the California Gold Rush by Bethany Onsgard

• John Sutter and The California Gold Rush (Graphic History) by Matt Doeden and Charles Barnett III

• The California Gold Rush by Mel Friedman

• Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi by Cheryl Harness

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. Moved on to our last inhabited by humans continent of Australia and Oceania. We covered Australia and New Zealand this past week.

• 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

• D is for Down Under by Devin Scillian

• Living In Australia by Chloe Perkins

• Australia by Madeline Donaldson

• Australia ABCs by Sarah Heiman

• Wombat Walkabout by Carol Diggory Shields

• Birrarung Wilam by Aunty Joy Murphy

• Under the Southern Cross by Frané Lessac

• Wombat Said Come In by Carmen Agra Deedy

• Sun Mother Wakes the World by Diane Wolkstein

• Magic Beach by Alison Lester

• Possum Magic by Mem Fox

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. The boys finished their model engines. I have to admit, they look pretty neat. We did the textbook readings about light, but my pain flare canceled our experiment class. We’ll get to it next week.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

• A Ray of Light by Walter Wick

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We continued watching a new documentary series called Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It’s a behind the scenes look at caring for the animals at the park. Each episode is less than 30 minutes, so it’s a perfect length for Q. We also covered animals from Australia.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

• Watching Kangaroos in Australia by Louise and Richard Spilsbury

• Do You Really Want to Meet a Kangaroo? by Cari Meister

• Bilby: Secrets of an Australian Marsupial by Edel Wignell

STEAM Coop

The oldest group has moved on to their last theme of the year: Math + Art in Science. During Flex Week, they worked on tessellation and repeating patterns. The littles focused on planting their own bean plants. The next week, the bigs learned about orienteering by using a compass to hid and then find an object at the park. They are all terrible cartographers, but we’re trying. The littles made paper.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

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. We started watched Into the West, the mini series from early 2000s. I really like how it follows two main families from the 1820s all the way to the 1870s. We get to see how the west changes in that 50 years hitting all the big events. We’ll be continuing for the next few weeks.

We also had our coop Earth Day party at a park on the perfect day. Along with lots of playground playtime, the kids played bingo and made painted pots, sun catchers, and moss balls. They had a blast. We are definitely continuing these holiday parties next year.

Field Trip

Our field trip was a guided lesson at Arbor Day Farm. The farm is one of our favorite places to visit. It was created on the site of J. Sterling Morton’s original orchard. He was the creator of Arbor Day. After a lesson about bees and pollination, the kids spent hours exploring and playing. The tree house and trampolines are amazing. We always plan on spending the entire day there when we visit.

Dentist appointments - they did amazingly!

High

• Besides our Arbor Day Farm trip, we had a lovely walk with friends at Heron Haven. We’ve loved to see how the seasons change the landscape. We spotted birds, but no frogs this time. I bet they are out now. We’ll definitely be back soon.

Low

• My brain bees got very angry after having coop in my house during Flex Week (it was raining all day). I just wanted to throw everything in the house out the windows and start over. Instead. I focused on the playroom and breakfast nook. We sorted everything and reorganized our bookcases and cubbies. I got rid of a ton of stuff (mostly early education aids that we gave to friends) and threw away a bag of trash. We also took down the Baker’s Rack and I must say that the breakfast nook is so much nicer. No cluttered corner distracting my focus. Now to need to work on my office…

Doing the bee dance

Next Week

• Finishing our current read alouds

• Continuing a financial literacy unit (both kids)

• Covering light and optics for physics

• Moving on to Oceania for social studies

• Watching another episode or two of Into the West

• Catching up with our math and language arts packets and random pages

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W29: So Much Outside Time!

What We Studied

On the schoolwork front, we had a normal week. Outside of the table work, we spent a lot of time outside. It was great to take advantage of the great weather especially as this week’s forecast is calling for a ton of wind, rain, and lower temps.

Literature and Poetry

Instead of starting the next coop book club selection, J continued reading the Bromeliad trilogy to the boys.

We finished Midsummer’s Mayhem and it was utterly delightful. We loved how it puts a new spin on the classic Shakespeare story.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

• On the Wings of Words: The Extraordinary Life of Emily Dickinson by Jennifer Berne

• Midsummer’s Mayhem by Rajani LaRocca

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 finished the second book in the Heartwood Hotel series. I imagine that we will read the third book soon.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• Heartwood Hotel: The Greatest Gift by Kallie George

• 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). We continued our financial literacy unit. Quentin has very small lessons. Arthur is going more in depth. I had him quickly work through the Financial Literacy books for grade 1 and 2. We didn’t do the big activities, instead we just worked through the concepts and questions.

• Evan Moor Financial Literacy Grade 1

• Evan Moor Financial Literacy Grade 2

• A Penny's Worth by Kimberly Wilson

• Follow the Money by Loreen Leedy

• What is Money? by Kate Marsico

• Nat Geo Kids: Not-So-Common Cents by Sarah Wassner Flynn

• Singapore 1B

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 covered the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark, and the independence of Texas.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• Smart About the First Ladies

• Which Way to the Wild West by Steve Sheinkin

• Lewis and Clark: A Prairie Dog for the President by Shirley Raye Redmond

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We finished our study of Africa with a focus on South African countries.

• 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

• Africa is Not a Country by Margy Burns Knight and Mark Melnicove

• Jaha and Jamil Went Down the Hill by Virginia Kroll

• Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales

• Misoso: Once Upon a Time Tales from Africa by Verna Aardema

• Nubiah’s Well by Donna W. Guthrie

• Honey Honey Lion by Jan Brett

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. The boys didn’t quite finish their model engines this week, so we are going to take one more week to finish those before moving on to optics.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We continued watching a new documentary series called Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It’s a behind the scenes look at caring for the animals at the park. Each episode is less than 30 minutes, so it’s a perfect length for Q. We also covered more animals from Africa.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

• African Acrostics: A Word in Edgeways by Avis Harley

• African Critters by Robert B. Haas

• Life-Size Anaimals by Rita Mabel Schiavo

• Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema

• Grasslands by Laura Purdie Salas

• Over in the Grasslands by Marianne Berkes

• Here is the African Savanna by Madeleine Dunphy

• Hippopotamuses by Kari Schuetz

• Meerkats, Moles, and Voles: Animals of the Underground by Jody Sullivan Rake

• Meerkats by Jody Sullivan Rake

• Zebras by Amelie von Zumbusch

• Lake of the Big Snake by Isaac Olaleye

• Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae

• Draw by Raul Colon

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

STEAM Coop

The oldest group has moved on to their last theme of the year: Math + Art in Science. This week, there was a bit of a mix-up, but they ended up making art from found nature objects and a shelter with tree branches. Q’s group started on a gardening theme focusing on how bean plants grow.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

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.

Field Trip

On Tuesday, we had a guided field trip to Lauritzen Gardens. The older group walked the entire gardens observing signs of spring along the way. We then identified trees and learned about various species. Thankfully the weather was perfect for our visit to the gardens. We even got to have a picnic on the patio afterwards.

We also had book club on Saturday morning. I didn’t actually have to lead the meeting this month. A friend brought a great cipher activity to add to our discussion.

High

Friday’s spring hike at Fontenelle Forest was just delightful. We got out into the woods, saw some turkeys, and generally enjoyed the perfect weather. After our hike, we visited Raptor Rescue to check out all the birds. While there, I spied a garter snake. A worked caught it and gave us an impromptu lesson about snakes in the area. Turns out that snakes were this particular guy’s specialty. I love it when we get unexpected lessons while out and about.

Low

Nothing really. We had a good week.

Next Week

• Starting two new read alouds

• Continuing a financial literacy unit (both kids)

• Finishing building engines for physics

• Taking a break from social studies (Q)

• Catching up with our math and language arts packets and random pages

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W28: Distracted By Our Foster Chicks

What We Studied

With our foster chickens, our school time was greatly decreased. They were just too entertaining to hang out with. Plus we had to farm/nature walks and our usual science and coop classes. We’ll catch back up, I’m not concerned. Some weeks we focus less on book work and more on experiences.

Literature and Poetry

We still reading the coop book club selection. I’m interested in the overall mystery, but the pacing is very slow. We finally finished the book this week, but our club meeting isn’t for another week.

• The Strangers by Margaret Peterson Haddix

To follow up after the previous week’s Shakespeare unit, our literature selection is a retelling of Midsummer Night’s Dream. I’m very into this book and Arthur has also been enjoying it.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

• Midsummer’s Mayhem by Rajani LaRocca

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 continued with the second book in the Heartwood Hotel series. Quentin likes the gentle nature of these books.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• Heartwood Hotel: The Greatest Gift by Kallie George

• 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). We started our financial literacy unit. Quentin has very small lessons. Arthur is going more in depth.

• Kumon Geometry and Measurement Grade 4 WB

• Lots and Lots of Coins by Margarette S. Reid (A)

• The Invention of Money by Nicolas Brasch (A)

• The History of Money: From Bartering to Banking by Martin Jenkins (A)

• Nat Geo Kids: Not-So-Common Cents by Sarah Wassner Flynn (A)

• DK Eyewitness: Money (A)

• One Proud Penny by Randy Siegel (A)

• What is Money? by Katie Marsico (A)

• Paper Money by Dana Meachen Rau (A)

• 10 Fascinating Facts About Dollar Bills by Chris Jozefowicz (A)

• Singapore 1B

• Froggy's Lemonade Stand by Jonathan London (Q)

• A Kids Book About Money by Adam Stramwasser (Q)

• Let's Explore Needs and Wants by Laura Hamilton Waxman (Q)

• Needs and Wants by Nadia Higgins (Q)

• Lemonade in Winter: A Book About Two Kids Counting Money by Emily Jenkins & G. Brian Karas (Q)

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 covered the lives of Irish immigrants and mill workers in the early 1800s.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• What the Eagle Sees

• A is for Abigail: F for First Ladies

• Smart About the First Ladies

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We continued our study of Africa with a focus on East African countries.

• 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

• Africa is Not a Country by Margy Burns Knight and Mark Melnicove

• Jaha and Jamil Went Down the Hill by Virginia Kroll

• Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales

• Misoso: Once Upon a Time Tales from Africa by Verna Aardema

• The Perfect Orange by Frank P. Araujo

• The Best Beekeeper in Lalibela by Cristina Kessler

• Only a Pigeon by Jane and Christopher Kurtz

• Fire on the Mountain by Jane Kurtz

• For You are a Kenyan Child by Kelly Cunnane

• Wangari's Trees of Peace by Jeanette Winter

• Mama Panya's Pancakes by Mary and Rich Chamberlin

• My Rows and Piles of Coins by Tololwa M. Mollel

• We All Went on Safari by Laurie Krebs

Making model engines

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.

A took the zip line gondola and made an entire station with a queue

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’ll be spending the next week finishing building model engines.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We continued watching a new documentary series called Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It’s a behind the scenes look at caring for the animals at the park. Each episode is less than 30 minutes, so it’s a perfect length for Q.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

• African Acrostics: A Word in Edgeways by Avis Harley

• African Critters by Robert B. Haas

STEAM Coop

I finished teaching the oldest kids the Engineering Challenge unit. We wrapped up with creating zip line gondolas. I think the kids had fun. Now we are going to move on to Math and Art in Science for the oldest kids. Q’s group covered telescopes and microscopes. They will move on to gardening next cycle.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

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.

Field Trip

We had a visit to the Gifford Farm to see all the baby animals that have arrived. A couple of coop friends joined us for a lovely morning. We’ll be back later this month for two different guided field trips.

We had another Nature Explorers meeting. This time we traveled over to Iowa to the Hitchcock Center. We walked the ridge trail (about 1 1/2 miles) and got to see some great views. The kids really enjoyed exploring. Afterward, we had to stop at the playground there to play and eat a snack lunch.

High

• For the second year, we rented two chickens for the week. We pick up 3-day old chickens and take care of them for the week. The boys were begging to do it again. And we spent a lot of time playing with them and devising things for them to explore. We’ll be doing this again next year.

Low

• We have gotten a bit behind on our curriculum due to our multiple excursions this week and the distraction of the chicks.

Next Week

• Finishing a Midsummer Night’s Dream retelling novel and Heartwood Hotel

• Continuing a financial literacy unit (both kids)

• Finishing building engines for physics

• Moving to South Africa (our final selection)

• Fitting in animal science for Q (hopefully!)

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W27: Finally Spring has Come!

What We Studied

The temperature finally went above 60 degrees for a great day out and about. We took off the rest of Thursday in favor of joining friends at the park. As such, the school bookwork was lighter this week. And I apparently didn’t take many photos at all…

Literature and Poetry

We still reading the coop book club selection. I’m interested in the overall mystery, but the pacing is very slow.

• The Strangers by Margaret Peterson Haddix

To follow up after the previous week’s Shakespeare unit, our literature selection is a retelling of Midsummer Night’s Dream. I’m very into this book and Arthur has also been enjoying it.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

• Emily Writes: Emily Dickinson and Her Poetic Beginnings by Jane Yolen

• Midsummer’s Mayhem by Rajani LaRocca

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 started the second book in the Heartwood Hotel series. Quentin likes the gentle nature of these books.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• Heartwood Hotel: The Greatest Gift by Kallie George

• 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). Arthur‘s been working on a review workbook before we move onto a Personal Finance unit. Quentin is moving through 1B now.

• Kumon Geometry and Measurement Grade 4 WB

• Singapore 1B

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 covered the harsh reality of slavery in America and learned more about Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• What the Eagle Sees

• A is for Abigail: F for First Ladies

• Smart About the First Ladies

• Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson

• An Apple for Harriet Tubman by Glennette Tilley Turner

• Follow the Drinking Gourd by Cari Meister

• Two Friends by Dean Robbins

• Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass by Lesa Cline-Ransome

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We continued our study of Africa with a focus on Central African nations.

• 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

• Africa is Not a Country by Margy Burns Knight and Mark Melnicove

• Jaha and Jamil Went Down the Hill by Virginia Kroll

• Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales

• Misoso: Once Upon a Time Tales from Africa by Verna Aardema

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 finally got back together of science and the boys make a force field engine. We’ll be spending the next week (or two) building model engines. On the other side, we finished reading The Story of Science Vol. 1. Arthur wants us to immediately continue to volume two. I’m still thinking on. it.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We continued watching a new documentary series called Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It’s a behind the scenes look at caring for the animals at the park. Each episode is less than 30 minutes, so it’s a perfect length for Q.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

• African Acrostics: A Word in Edgeways by Avis Harley

• African Critters by Robert B. Haas

STEAM Coop

The little kids focused on telescopes this week, making their own simple telescope. The big kids had to create crash test dummy cars. Each pair of students had to ram their car into the wall with a raw egg passenger. Amazingly, all six eggs survived their ordeal! The kids really got into this project.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

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.

Field Trip

No field trip this week

High

• We spent many hours outside this week. Thursday afternoon was all about a park playdate with lots of friends. Friday, we walked the trail around Walnut Creek Lake (about 3 miles) with lots of friends. I’m so proud of all of the kids for making it all the way around the lake. They even had energy for the island play area and the playground.

Low

• Little school work - I don’t regret spending the time outside, but had hoped to get to school work Friday afternoon. It just didn’t happen. Oh well. I’m not too upset, but it does add more for next week.

We are renting chicks again this year.

Next Week

• Continuing a Midsummer Night’s Dream retelling novel, the coop book club selection, and Heartwood Hotel

• Starting a financial literacy unit (both kids)

• Building engines for physics

• Moving to East Africa

• Fitting in animal science for Q

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W26: The Wind Chill Killed Our Winter Hike

What We Studied

We had a Flex Week (so needed this time around) and a normal week in the past two weeks. Beyond the actual teaching, I’ve been thinking about and planning for next year. Things are not going to radically change. I think we’ve hit onto a good system. Just needs some tweaks here and there.

Literature and Poetry

We picked up the next selection and thankfully it is so much better right away.

• The Strangers by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Arthur tackled his first Shakespeare with A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We covered some about Shakespeare himself the time period he lived in before reading a few version of Midsummer. We worked up to the actual Shakespeare at the end of the week and capped off our study with a movie version. We also found some great videos including three episodes from Crash Course Theater specifically about Shakespeare’s plays. The plan is to cover one Shakespeare play a year from now on. Next year I’m planning on having him read a complete scene. Not sure which play yet though.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

• Shakespeare’s Seasons by Miriam Weiner

• William Shakespeare and the Globe by Aliki

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

• Will's Words: How William Shakespeare Changed the Way You Talk by Jane Sutcliffe

• William Shakespeare: Scenes from the Life of the World's Greatest Writer by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom

• A Midsummer Night's Dream retold by Georghia Ellinas

• A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories by Angela McAllister

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 started the next in the Pooh series and will be sprinkling in the stories when we don’t have a country specific book. He also read me the entire Little Bear book. Getting much better as reading aloud!

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

• Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik

• Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring by Kenard Pak

• Penny and Her Marble by Kevin Henkes

• Penny and Her Sled by Kevin Hanks

Pasta Bridge - Their bridge collapsed almost immediately, but good try!

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). Arthur ‘s been working on a review workbook before we move onto a Personal Finance unit. Quentin is moving through 1B now. Both boys finished their logic books this past week. We might take a break and pull out a games book instead of the next logic books.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Kumon Geometry and Measurement Grade 4 WB

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Singapore 1B

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 covered Martin Van Buren, indigenous lives, and the Trail of Tears. Hard week to discuss, but so important.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• What the Eagle Sees

• A is for Abigail: F for First Ladies

• Smart About the First Ladies

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We continued our study of Africa with a focus on West African nations.

• 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

• Africa is Not a Country by Margy Burns Knight and Mark Melnicove

• Jaha and Jamil Went Down the Hill by Virginia Kroll

• Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales

• Ananse and the Lizard by Pat Cummings

• The Hatseller and the Monkeys by Baba Wagué Diakité

• Emmanuel's Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah by Laurie Ann Thompson & Sean Qualls

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. Our joint science class was cancelled due to sickness with the other family. We’ll hopefully get back at it this week. We did read about engines and watch a great Modern Marvels episode about Engines.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We continued watching a new documentary series called Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It’s a behind the scenes look at caring for the animals at the park. Each episode is less than 30 minutes, so it’s a perfect length for Q.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

• A Zeal of Zebras: Animal Groups on an African Safari by Alex Kuskowski

• Safari, So Good! All About African Wildlife by Bonnie Worth

• African Acrostics: A Word in Edgeways by Avis Harley

• African Critters by Robert B. Haas

• Elephants of Africa by Gail Gibbons

• Nat Geo Kids Elephants by Avery Elizabeth Hurt

Rare sighting of the bobcat

STEAM Coop

The big kids have continued their engineering challenge making land sailboats and pasta bridges. Quentin did a study of time and seasons with a few fun little projects.

Land sail boats

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

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.

Field Trip

We took a coop trip to see The Stink Cheese Man at The Rose Theater. Very fun production! We had lots of laughs watching the show. And the school rate tickets are only $5 a piece!

High

• We had a lovely Nature Explorers meeting at Chalco this past Friday. The kids got to explore the beach area by the water and the woods. We even walked the southwest portion around the lake. Not a great lake to walk in summer as there’s no shade, but it was great in March.

Low

• We tried to do a winter hike at Neale Woods two Fridays ago, but it was a terrible idea. It was a cold day, but that usually doesn’t stop us. I didn’t realize just how high up Neale Woods is on the bluffs. The wind chill was terrible! We bailed about 15 minutes in and went to the zoo instead. Unfortunately many of the districts had spring break so the zoo was packed. We still managed to see the desert, aquarium, giraffes, and elephants. In fact, the giraffes had a new baby and the elephants had a new baby just a few days after we were there. Can't wait to the see the babies next time we go.

Next Week

• Starting a Midsummer Night’s Dream retelling novel

• Playing some logic games

• Hopefully covering engines for physics

• Moving to Central Africa

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W25: Mad Scramble Disrupted My Life

What We Studied

(See my Low later on to explain the title of this post.) In general, we flew through a ton of curriculum. In fact, I’m getting a little concern that we are going to run out of our current curriculum choices soon. I may need to pull some unit studies and extra stuff to throw in soon.

Literature and Poetry

We ended up only getting about 60% of the way through the coop book club selection before we gave up. It just did not work for us at all! In fact, it didn’t work for any of our book club families, so we were in good company. We picked up the next selection and thankfully it is so much better right away.

• Argos by Ralph Hardy

• The Strangers by Margaret Peterson Haddix

We finished with our read aloud. As next week is a Flex Week, we are actually going to take a break before tackling Shakespeare.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

• The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis

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 started the next in the Pooh series and will be sprinkling in the stories when we don’t have a country specific book.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

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). Arthur finished 4B last week. We will be taking a break and doing a review course before moving onto 5A. Quentin is close to finishing 1A and we are planning on jumping right into 1B afterwards.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Singapore 1A

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.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• What the Eagle Sees

• A is for Abigail: F for First Ladies

• Smart About the First Ladies

• Race to Chimney Rock by Jesse Wiley

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We started Africa and covered North Africa.

• 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

• Africa by Mel Friedman

• Africa is Not a Country by Margy Burns Knight and Mark Melnicove

• A Visit to Grandad: An African ABC by Sade Fadipe & Shedrach Ayalomeh

• Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales

• Jaha and Jamil Went Down the Hill: An African Mother Goose by Virginia Kroll

• The Storyteller by Evan Turk

• Follow Me Around Egypt by Wiley Blevins

• Living in Egypt by Chloe Perkins

• The Arabic Quilt by Aya Khalil

Straw Tower Time!

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. Our joint science class was cancelled due to sickness with the other family. We covered electromagnetism at home and watched a few episodes of Bill Nye: The Science Guy.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We continued watching a new documentary series called Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It’s a behind the scenes look at caring for the animals at the park. Each episode is less than 30 minutes, so it’s a perfect length for Q.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

• The Amazing African Alphabet by Kristina Jones

Arthur made a game

STEAM Coop

Both groups continued the Engineering Challenge. The big kids made straw towers. It was a heated competition right until the end. The oldest group will be doing a different challenge each week. The youngest kiddos made a marble run with toilet paper rolls.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

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.

Field Trip

No field trip this week.

Can you find Quentin?

High

• We had our first Nature Explorers meeting at Hummel Park this week. It was super cold, but the kids had fun exploring with friends.

Low

• Construction began on our nearby main street and caused some massive issues. No big deal, but then random no parking signs appeared all up and down my street. No parking 24/7 until October 30th. Um what!?!?! I was supposed to host coop on Thursday, but people would have to park on street. I had to scramble and we switched to another’s house, but I was very upset. Thankfully by the end of this week, they clarified the signs. There is now no parking on the north side of my street, but we can still park on the south side. So coop is now back at our house for next week.

Next Week

• Flex Week! We are catching up on some units and adding more games, outings, and documentaries.

Arthur contemplating going down the slide…

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W24: Quite a Normal Week

What We Studied

It was a simple normal week. Nothing too out of the ordinary or special. But sometimes, that’s exactly what we need. We need the routine and the ordinary.

Literature and Poetry

We finally started the coop book club selection. It’s not exactly a favorite, but we’ll keep plugging along.

• Argos by Ralph Hardy

We continued with our read aloud and will finish early next week. This has not been my favorite of our read aloud, but it has been an interesting read. I need to decide on our next one before we move on to Shakespeare.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• One World, Many Religions by Mary Pope Osborne

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

• Emily Dickinson: Letters to the World by Jeanette Winter

• The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis

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 started the next in the Pooh series and will be sprinkling in the stories when we don’t have a country specific book.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

• Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban

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). Arthur finished 4B this week. We will be taking a break and doing a review course before moving onto 5A.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4B

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Singapore 1A

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 moved onto James Monroe and John Quincy Adams. We’ll be moving onto Andrew Jackson and Indian Removal.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• What the Eagle Sees

• A is for Abigail: F for First Ladies

• Smart About the First Ladies

• James Monroe by Mike Venezia

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We’re continuing with our Asian country study. We covered more of Asia and moved into the Middle East. We wrapped up Asia with this week.

• 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

• Riding a Donkey Backwards: Wise and Foolish Tales of Mulla Nasruddin retold by Sean Taylor

• What About Me? by Ed Young

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. Continuing our physic study with lessons on atoms and sensors. We talked electrical circuits this week.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We started watching a new documentary series called Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It’s a behind the scenes look at caring for the animals at the park. Each episode is less than 30 minutes, so it’s a perfect length for Q.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

STEAM Coop

Both groups started the Engineering Challenge. The big kids made houses out of various materials while the littles made bridges out of straws. The oldest group will be doing a different challenge each week.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

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.

Field Trip

We had a zoo day with a few friends. We hit our favorite places and even got to see the baby elephants. The third elephant calf was born two days after our visit.

High

• Friday we had lovely 3 mile hike at Schramm with some friends. It was strenuous, but it felt nice to get outside for a few hours.

Low

• We attempted a mini golfing and things were very difficult. The boys were not interested in listening to my instructions or advance but kept getting frustrated by not making their shots. It was a trying afternoon.

Next Week

• Finishing a new read aloud (A)

• Starting a math review workbook (A)

• Covering our next unit for physics

• Moving to Jackson and Indian Removal for US History

• Maybe planning a random outing

• Joining the first Nature Explorers meeting

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W23: A Super Cold Week Caused Some Cancellations...

What We Studied

We were excited to start our week off with a bowling date and wanted to continue the fun with other activities. Unfortunately, we got hit with an ice storm (minor) and below zero temperatures (major). Our outside activities were all cancelled for the week. Here’s hoping next week is a bit more mild and offers opportunities to get outside.

Literature and Poetry

For the coop book club, we received the book (from the library), but have been reading a Terry Prachett book instead of starting it.

Another read aloud was started. This time, I started the book, but have been Arthur read it independently during his work time. We’re attempting to do more retelling and comprehension.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• One World, Many Religions by Mary Pope Osborne

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

• Emily Dickinson: Letters to the World by Jeanette Winter

• The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis

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 finished our read aloud. He didn’t seem super sad that it was over, but we did a conversation about the characters and the plot. So win!

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• Heartwood Hotel: A True Home by Kallie 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).

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4B

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Singapore 1A

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 covered the Presidency of James Madison and the War of 1812. I’m not going super in-depth with a lot of these topics, but we are hitting the high points.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• What the Eagle Sees

• The White House is Burning by Jane Sutcliffe

• Long May She Wave: The True Story of Caroline Pickersgill and Her Star-Spangled Creation by Kristen Fulton

• Our Flag was Still There: The True Story of Mary Pickersgill and the Star-Spangled Banner by Jessie Hartland

• Words that Built a Nation Pg. 66–69 – The Star-Spangled Banner and Francis Scott Key

• The Star-Spangled Banner by Peter Spier

• The National Anthem by Elaine Landau

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We’re continuing with our Asian country study. We covered more of Asia and moved into the Middle East.

• 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

• Everybody Says Shalom by Leslie Kimmelman

• Snow in Jerusalem by Deborah Da Costa

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. Continuing our physic study with lessons on atoms and sensors. We moved to studying atoms and molecules (very briefly) and then moved onto static electricity.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We started watching a new documentary series called Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It’s a behind the scenes look at caring for the animals at the park. Each episode is less than 30 minutes, so it’s a perfect length for Q. We also talked a lot about what animals do in winter.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

• A Drop Around the World by Barbara McKinney

STEAM Coop

Arthur’s group finished their stop-motion animation project with finished videos. So exciting! Quentin’s group covered the moon and planets this week and then played some board games. Next week, all the groups are moving to Engineering Challenges.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

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.

Field Trip

We didn’t have a coop field trip and our first Nature Explorers meeting was cancelled due to weather.

High

• I took the boys bowling for the first time on Monday! We met ups with two friends and their kids to have two hours of bowling. The alley was packed as it was Presidents’ Day. Thankfully I prepid for a lane so we slid right in. The boys really enjoyed it. We will have to take advantage of our Get Out Pass that includes a free monthly game at a local bowling alley.

Low

• Super sad that our first Nature Explorers meeting was cancelled. I didn’t particularly want to be outside for a few hours in below zero temperatures, but still we were sad to cancel.

Next Week

• Continuing a new read aloud (A)

• Finishing Singapore 4B for math (A)

• Covering electrical circuits for physics

• Moving to J. Monroe for US History

• Watching a few more animal documentaries

• Hoping to get outside for a hike

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W22: We Caught Up with Our Week!

What We Studied

We had a Flex Week and a regular week encompassing the last two weeks. Adding Flex Weeks into our yearly schedule has been a game changer! They allow us to take breaks that make sense to us and then use the Flex Weeks to catch up on the units.

Literature and Poetry

For the coop book club, we finished our selection and had a great book club meeting.

• Winterhouse by Ben Guterson

We started and finished our read aloud. Arthur really got into it and we hd some great discussion about homelessness and financial difficulties. It’s a fairly gentle story that really touches on some serious topics. Great pick!

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• One World, Many Religions by Mary Pope Osborne

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

• Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate

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 also started a new read aloud. He’s been slow to warm up to it, but I think we’re really going to enjoy this one.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

• Heartwood Hotel: A True Home by Kallie George

• The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss (Q reads)

• The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

• FriendBots: Blink and Block Make a Wish by Vicky Fang (Q Reads)

Sequence with Arthur does science

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 4B

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Singapore 1A

He made the Big Dipper

Working on lighting his animation project

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 took a week off from history (Flex Week) and then covered Thomas Jefferson’s Presidency minus the Lewis and Clark expedition. That portion will be covered with a larger unit about exploring the west. I also found a great documentary about Monticello (The History of Home: History’s Greatest Homes).

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• What the Eagle Sees

• Thomas Jefferson and the Mammoth Hunt: The True Story of the Quest for America's Biggest Bones by Carrie Clickard

• Thomas Jefferson Builds a Library by Barb Rosenstock

• Thomas Jefferson: A Day at Monticello by Elizabeth V. Chew

• Jefferson Measures a Moose by Mara Rockliff

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We’re continuing with our Asian country study. We covered more of Asia and moved into the Middle East.

• 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

• Nasreen's Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan by Jeanette Winter

• A Sky-Blue Bench by Bahram Rahman

• The Sky of Afghanistan by Ana Eulate & Sonja Wimmer

• Count Your Way Through Afghanistan by Jim Haskins & Kathleen Benson

• I am Malala Yousafzai by Brad Meltzer

• Malala’s Magic Pencil by Malala Yousafzai

• I See the Sun in Turkey by Dedie King

• Silent Music: A Story of Baghdad by James Rumford

• The Librarian of Basra by Jeanette Winter

• Joha Makes a Wish by Eric A. Kimmel

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. Continuing our physic study with lessons on atoms and sensors. We were going to watch a Modern Marvels episode about radar but our copy was very wrong. Instead, I found a Mythbusters episode of them trying to beat a speed radar. Adjacent, but good addition to our science. And we watched a classic episode of Bill Nye: The Science Guy about atoms and molecules.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We started watching a new documentary series called Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It’s a behind the scenes look at caring for the animals at the park. Each episode is less than 30 minutes, so it’s a perfect length for Q. We also talked a lot about what animals do in winter.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

• Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner

STEAM Coop

Arthur’s group is continuing its big stop-motion animation project. They were supposed to finish filming this past week, but coop was cancelled due to weather. We made the decision to shift the next three weeks so the kids could finish out their project. The littles started their unit on stars and astronomy. They are also going to finish next week.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

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.

Science - They made a refrigerator

Field Trip

We took a trip to the SAC Museum. The lesson they provided wasn’t that exciting, but we had lots of free exploration time. The museum has updated the kids exploration area adding in lots of new games. All the kids were very excited to design their own jet and then fly it on the flight simulator. They each did it about three times. Lots of fun!

We also got back on our 52 Hike plan with a lovely (and cold) morning at Heron Haven. Glad we wore our snow boots as the drifts were about 5 inches deep.

High

• We had our coop Valentine’s Day Party. It was a great time and the kids got lots of time to hang out with their friends.

Low

• A snowstorm put a wrench into our coop plans. Oh well, it happens living in the Midwest.

Next Week

• Starting a new read aloud (A)

• Getting close to finishing Singapore 4B for math (A)

• Covering static electricity for physics

• Moving to Madison and the War of 1812 for US History

• Continuing our current read aloud (Q)

• Watching a few more animal documentaries

• Joining a friend’s new Nature Explorers group on Friday morning.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W21: And Now I Have a Cold!

What We Studied

Another week with basically no photos. I think I need to set a few reminders.

The start of 2023 has not been going well for us school wise. Between my surgery, the kids getting a cold, and then then giving me their cold, we’ve had more half weeks than I care to think bout. We’re still trying to keep up with our read aloud and our math, but lots of the other subjects have slowed down to accommodate lots of rest for everyone. We’ve also had to cancel a ton of activities. I know that we will make up for it laster this semester, but it’s a bit discouraging to deal with all the delays and setbacks.

Literature and Poetry

For the coop book club, w'e’re continuing our current selection. I’m really really enjoying this book and I know that Arthur is also. We’re also at the end, but it’s been pretty slow going this past week.

• Winterhouse by Ben Guterson

Arthur and I started our next read aloud. Instead of a literature selection from our language arts curriculum, I chose a historical fiction selection from our history curriculum. It’s an intense story, but I thought it would be interesting read about a plague in our country’s history. And it fits nicely with the time period we are studying in U.S. History this month. We finished that read aloud, although Arthur still needs to do some of his wrap-up work for it.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

• One World, Many Religions by Mary Pope Osborne

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

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

• Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

New haircuts!

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 4B

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Singapore 1A

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 covered the Presidencies of George Washington and John Adams. We also learned a bit more about the conflicts with the Indigenous peoples west of the Appalachian Mountains.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• What the Eagle Sees

• Brick by Brick by Charles R. Smith Jr.

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We’re continuing with our Asian country study. This week we covered Southeast Asia. Along with our study of the geography and people, we went to the Asian Market and bought a ton of foods from Asia. We did multiple tasting nights. The boys really enjoyed the steamed custard buns.

• 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

• Mela and the Elephant by Dow Phumiruk

• I See the Sun in Myanmar by Dedie King

• A Different Pond by Bao Phi  B&R 14 (Vietnam)

• My Night in the Planetarium by Innosanto Nagara (Indonesia)

• Nana, Nanek, and Nina by Liza Ferneyhough (Malaysia)

• Wishes by Muon Thi Van

• The Umbrella Queen by Shirin Yim Bridges (Thailand)

• The Floating Field: How a Group pf Thai Boys Built Their Own Soccer Field by Scott Riley (Thailand)

• Peek! by Minfong Ho (Thailand)

• I am a Little Monk by Mi-hwa Joo (Thailand)

• My First Book of Tagalog Words by Liana Romuto (Philippines)

• Judge Rabbit and the Tree Spirit by Lina Mao Wall (Cambodia)

• My First Book of Indonesian Words by Linda Hibbs (Indonesia)

• When Lola Visits by Michelle Sterling (Philippines)

• Hush! by Minfong Ho (Thailand)

• Cora Cooks Pancit by Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore (Philippines)

• Mango Trees by Tae-yeon Kim (Philippines)

• Ten Mice for Tet by Peggy Deitz Shea (Vietnam)

• Grandfather's Dream by Holly Keller

• An Elephant in the Backyard by Richard Sobol

• Fly Free! by Roseanne Thong

• Nine-in-One by Blia Xiong

• Mali Under the Night Sky by YOUME

• Where are You, Sun Bear? by Eun-mi Choi

• Mommy Sayang by Rosana Sullivan

• Brother Rabbit by Minfong Ho & Saphan Ros

Part of our Asian Market haul

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 ended up skipping out shared science lesson (sickness), but did cover another chapter in The Story of Science and watched another episode of the BBC documentary series: How the Earth

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

One of our tasting nights

STEAM Coop

Arthur’s group is continuing its big stop-motion animation project. The kids are continuing their planning and prep for actual filming next week. Quentin’s group focused on learning about nutrition. There was a sorting game that he really liked.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

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.

After dinner game of Guess in 10: Dinosaurs

Field Trip

No field trip this week.

High

• . We managed to sneak in a few family game times this week.

Low

• Because of being sick, we had to cancel a board game day and a winter hike.

Next Week

• We’ll be using our Flex Week to catch up on some subjects and start our new read alouds.

Finished this incredible read aloud

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W20: Getting Back into Our Routine

What We Studied

Another week with basically no photos.

I’m finally mostly recovered from surgery, so we started to get back into our regular routine this week. We managed to have a bit of school every day along with a few activities and outings. Plus, I managed to squeeze in a dentist appointment and trip to the grocery story.

Literature and Poetry

For the coop book club, w'e’re continuing our current selection. I’m really really enjoying this book and I know that Arthur is also.

• Winterhouse by Ben Guterson

Arthur and I started our next read aloud. Instead of a literature selection from our language arts curriculum, I chose a historical fiction selection from our history curriculum. It’s an intense story, but I thought it would be interesting read about a plague in our country’s history. And it fits nicely with the time period we are studying in U.S. History this month.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

• One World, Many Religions by Mary Pope Osborne

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

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

• The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dagliesh

• Pig and Pug by Laura Marchesani (Quentin Reads)

• I Can Read with My Eyes Shut! by Dr. Seuss (Quentin Reads)

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 4B

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Singapore 1A

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 covered the Articles of Confederation era as well as the creation of the U.S. Constitution.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson

• Shhh! We’re Writing the Constitution by Jean Fritz

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We’re continuing with our Asian country study. This week we covered the rest of East Asia then hopped on over to the Indian subcontinent.

• 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

• Follow Me Around Japan by Wiley Blevins

• Living in South Korea by Chloe Perkins

• Follow Me Around South Korea by Wiley Blevins

• The Korean Cinderella by Shirley Climo

• The Discovery of Ramen by Phil Amara and Oliver Chin

• Grass Sandals: The Travels of Basho by Dawnine Spivak

• One Leaf Rides the Wind by Celeste Davidson Mannis

• The Origami Master by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer

• I, Doko by Ed Young

• Chibi Samurai Wants a Pet by Sanae Ishida

• Ba-chan The Ninja Grandma by Sanae Ishida

• A Pair of Red Clogs by Masako Matsuno

• Gigi and Ojiji: What's in a Name? by Melissa Iwai

• Living In India by Chloe Perkins

• Leila in Saffron by Rukhsanna Guidroz

• Mama's Saris by Pooja Makhijani

• I See the Sun in India by Dedie King

• I See the Sun in Nepal by Dedie King

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. This week was all about magnets! We did some simple magnet experiments. Next week, we will play some games with magnets and make a compass.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

• A Little Round Panda on the Big Blue Earth by Troy Christie

STEAM Coop

Arthur’s group is continuing its big stop-motion animation project. The kids are planning and storyboarding before they get to actually film the movies. Quentin’s group focused on learning about nutrition. There was lots of sorting different foods and even trying a few.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

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.

Field Trip

No field trip this week.

High

• Another great winter walk this week! We joined some friends at the OPPD Arboretum and tromped through the snow and the woods.

Low

• The cold temperatures kept us inside more than I would have liked this week.

Next Week

• Continuing our historical fiction read aloud

• Keeping on with our math curriculum

• Covering Southeast Asia for SS (Q)

• Learning about our first two presidents (A)

• Playing with magnets for physics

• Going on another winter hike

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W18-19: It's Been a Strange Two Weeks...

What We Studied

We started off the spring semester with a normal week. And then, I had a minor outpatient surgery that knocked me back an entire week. So it was more like a 1 1/4 weeks of actual curriculum. At least we got outside and got to see our friends before I had to stay home. I tried to keep our read alouds going, but really let everything else go.

Family game night

Literature and Poetry

For the coop book club, we finished reading our current book, Samantha Spinner. We had a fun club discussion with multiple friends. We then started our next selection. I’m really looking forward to that one.

• Samantha Spinner and the Super Secret Plans by Russell Ginns

• Winterhouse by Ben Guterson

Arthur and I read a survival story over the last two weeks. I didn’t know if he would really get into it, but turns out that he loved it. He even wants to read the two sequels. I told him that we could get them from the library and he could read them during independent reading. He also started learning how to write in cursive. We’re working on it! And Arthur started his study of the world religions.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

• El Deafo by Cece Bell

• One World, Many Religions by Mary Pope Osborne

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

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. For starting the study of Asia, Q and read a book focused on a Taiwanese-American family celebrating Chinese New Year and going about their year.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin

• Pete the Cat's Groovy Bake Sale (Quentin Read)

• The Mighty Avengers: These are the Avengers (Quentin Read)

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). During one of my off days, I pulled out the winter tangrams for the boys to enjoy. They are always a good distraction.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4B

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Singapore 1A

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’ve finished our study of the Revolutionary War. We’ve also continued reading the beginning of Laurie Halse Anderston’s trilogy about slavery in America.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• King George: What was His Problem? How to Start a Revolution

• Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

• George Vs. George by Rosalyn Schanzer

• Forgotten Founders by Mifflin Lowe

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We’ve moved into Asia started with the central asian countries of the former Soviet Union.

• 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

• Follow Me Around China by Wiley Blevins

• Living in China by Chloe Perkins

• Z is for Zodiac by Elizabeth Rush

• The Empty Pot by Demi

• Daisy Comes Home by Jan Brett

• Lost and Found: Adèle and Simon in China by Barbara McClintock

• The Discovery of Fireworks and Gunpowder by Phil Amara and Oliver Chin

• Lon Po Po by Ed Young

• Liang and the Magic Paintbrush by Demi

• Hot Pot Night by Vincent Chen

Family trivia - we lost, but it was fun

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 sound waves. Our friends led the boys to some great experiments. We skipped science the second week due to my recovery.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

STEAM Coop

We had our first meeting of the year. Arthur started learning how to create stop-motion animation. Quentin learned about marine layers and ocean animals. The second week, we wouldn’t have gone to coop because of my recovery. That was going to be okay with us, but coop was cancelled due to the weather.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

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. We managed to watch the first episode of How the Earth Changed History. The episode was all about how water has changed the course of civilizations.

Field Trip

We headed to the zoo to focus on ocean animals. We visited the aquarium, sea lions, and stingray beach. It was lovely winter visit.

High

• We managed two winter hikes before my surgery. We walked the 3 mile loop at Schramm with some our close friends. We also visited Heron Haven with some other friends. It was lovely to see the nature ares in the height of winter. The iced-over wetlands were very neat to see.

Low

• Recovery from surgery has been rough. I could not do much and definitely could not get out of a bed multiple times a day.

Next Week

• Starting two new read alouds for literature

• Keeping on with our math curriculum

• Moving farther east in Asia for SS (Q)

• Creating a Constitution for history (A)

• Covering magnets for physics

• Watching another episode of our documentary series

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W17: It's Christmas Break!

What We Studied

We’ve officially finished the fall semester! It had its ups and downs, just like every semester, but I feel really good about what we accomplished. We’re on to three full weeks of break. We’ll be traveling, so that will definitely occupy our time.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur and I continued our read aloud. We have just a few chapters left to finish early next week. We have to see how the story ends.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

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

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 continued Europe and covered stories from Eastern Europe and Russia.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• Milo's Christmas Parade by Jennie Palmer

• Pete the Cat Saves Christmas by James Dean

• The Christmas Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood

• The Christmas Book Flood by Emily Kilgore

• Merry Christmas from The Very Hungry Caterpillar

• How to Catch a Turkey by Adam Wallace and Andy Elkerton

• Werewolf? There Wolf? by Kyle Sullivan

• Where Does a Pirate Go Potty? by Dawn Babb Prochovnic

• Storybots: The Best Christmas Gift

• Winter, Winter, Cold and Snow by Sharon Gibson Palermo

• Merry Christmas, Gus by Chris Chatterton

• The Christmas Extravaganza Hotel by Tracey Corderoy

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). Arthur’s plugging along learning about decimals currently.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4B

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Smart Start Math Grade 1 - Finished!

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’ve continued the section covering the Revolutionary War. I’m loving one of our read aloud resources.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• King George: What was His Problem? How to Start a Revolution

• Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We moved onto studying the Balkans and the rest of southeast 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

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. Science with a friend got canceled due to a dental emergency (not mine), so we just covered flight and planes on our own this week.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

STEAM Coop

None

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. Hopefully we can pick up the animal drawing class in January.

Field Trip

On Monday, we did a winter hike at Fontenelle Forest. It ended up just being us, but it was a lovely morning out in nature. Afterwards, we stopped at Mulhall’s to meet the reindeer. I even picked up a few gifts for my mom.

Tuesday night we visit Lauritzen Botanical Gardens (with J!) for their Bright Nights color and lights display. The gardens were all lit up and included some fun surprises.

Thursday night we finally made it to Werner Park for the Santa Rock n Lights. We now go every year. It’s the perfect cozy way to enjoy a big light display.

On Friday, we snuck in a visit to The Durham Museum. We got to see Santa and search for the elves hidden throughout the museum. I got to see the Downtown Abbey costume exhibit (totally forgot it was there, a pleasant surprise). And we even read some informational signs that we have never read. We learn a little something everything we go.

High

• Thursday we had our Coop Christmas Party! Almost the entire coop came for games, treats, and play fun. I even found a local baker who makes GF and Vegan cut-out sugar cookies to decorate. The kids had a blast decorating. For those that couldn’t make it, we delivered goody bags on Friday.

Low

• Nothing. We had a great and very busy week!

Next Week

• Break Time and Travel!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W16: Winding Down the Semester

What We Studied

We only have one more official week for the fall semester and we’re definitely ready for a break. This week was full of random appointments with less schooling worked in. We did cover some reading and math and had our final coop meeting of the fall.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur and I continued our read aloud. The story is really getting good. I’m loving that Arthur has recognized a lot of the folklore and mythological characters. Sometimes he really does pay attention.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

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

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 continued Europe and covered stories from Eastern Europe and Russia.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• Pete the Cat's 12 Groovy Days of Christmas by Kimberly and James Dean

• One Wild Christmas by Nicholas Oldland

• Merry Christmas, Dear Dragon by Margaret Hillert

• The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship by Arthur Ransome

• Rechenka's Eggs by Patricia Polacco

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). Arthur’s plugging along learning about decimals currently.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4B

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Smart Start Math Grade 1

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’ve continued the section covering the Revolutionary War. I’m loving one of our read aloud resources.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• King George: What was His Problem? How to Start a Revolution

• Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

• Map Skills for Today Grade 3

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We moved onto studying Eastern Europe and Russia.

• 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. 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’re back to our RSO with a unit on air and air pressure. The boys really enjoyed trying to prove that air takes up space and has matter. Great experiments this week!

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

STEAM Coop

One last week for the fall semester. Arthur finished the genetics unit learning a little bit about CRISPR. I had to emergency teach mental health to the middle class. I led the kids on some mindfulness exercises before we made emotional regulation charts and did some animal themed yoga. I pulled out that lesson in 15 minutes and felt really good about the results. Sometimes we just have to quickly pivot and get the job done.

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. Hopefully we can pick up the animal drawing class in January.

Field Trip

No field trip, but we did host board game morning on Tuesday. Lots of kids came and played board games. They even did it fairly independently!

On Sunday, we had our book club discussion for The Girl Who Drank the Moon. While discussing, the kids drew their own versions of Glerk and Fyrian and all the rest of the characters. Not all of the kids liked the book, but we had a great discussion of why. They are really starting to get how to talk about books. I’m so excited for spring!

High

• I hosted coop happy hour for the coop parents on Tuesday. We had a lovely evening chatting without kid interruptions. Will definitely have to do it again in the spring.

Low

• All the doctor appointments! The boys had their well-check visits on Monday so school was a wash. And then I had an appointment on Wednesday morning and one on Friday morning. Lots of poking prodding this week.

Next Week

• Finishing our read aloud and maybe starting the coop book club selection (A)

• Learning more about the Revolutionary War for US History (A)

• Moving forward with 4B for Math (A)

• Wrapping up air and air pressure for physics (A)

• Finishing Europe for social studies and science (Q)

• Celebrating the season with all our coop friends at the Christmas party!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W15: Turkey Day and the Start of Christmas

What We Studied

We had a break week for Thanksgiving and a normal week. But with the start of December, our activities increased dramatically. The amount of actual schoolwork that we will get done this month will be small.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur and I started our next read aloud. This will take us toward the end of the year. Even a third of the way in, we are really enjoying this one.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

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

• The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

• Many Lucious Lollipops by Ruth Heller

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 continued Europe and covered stories from Poland, ___. We also read a ton of random picture books to supplement.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• Four Good Friends by Margaret Hillert (Quentin Reads)

• Beatrice Likes the Dark by April Genevieve Tucholke

• How to Catch a Witch by Alice Walstead and Megan Joyce

• How to Catch a Monster by Adam Wallace and Andy Elkerton

• A Spoonful of Frogs by Casey Lyall

• Sir Ladybug and the Queen Bee by Corey R. Tabor

• Fall Leaves by Loretta Holland

• Babushka Baba Yaga by Patricia Polacco

• Sir Ladybug and the Bookworms by Corey R. Tabor

• Wonder Walkers by Micha Archer

• Creepy Crayon by Aaron Reynolds

• Shape Shift by Joyce Hesselberth

• The Cookie House by Margaret Hillert (Quentin Reads)

• The Glass Mountain: Tales from Poland by David Walser

• The Little, Little House by Jessica Souhami

• Luba and the Wren by Patricia Polacco

• The Cats in Krasinski Square by Karen Hesse

• The Mitten by Jan Brett

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). Arthur started 4B this section. I don’t imagine that it’s going to take us all that long to finish.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4B

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Smart Start Math Grade 1

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’ve started the section covering the Revolutionary War. I’m loving one of our read aloud resources.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• Cobblestone: North American Beaver Fur Trade

• Struggle for a Continent: The French and Indian Wars by Betsy Maestro

• King George: What was His Problem? How to Start a Revolution

• Map Skills for Today Grade 3

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We moved onto studying Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, .

• 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

• P is for Poland by Agnieszka Mrówcyzńska & Prodeepta Das

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 took a bit of a break from Physics to explore paper making and print making. The boys even got to make their own homemade paper. After thinking about it, we’re going to recycle (heehee) that idea for coop for spring.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

STEAM Coop

We are running right up tot he end of the semester Arthur is continuing the genetics unit while Quentin is learning about mental health.

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’s animal was a fox and flamingo together. We actually had our last class until probably January Life is just a little hectic right now.

Field Trip

During Thanksgiving week we joined some coop friends at the zoo. We haven’t been the zoo since August. It was nice to get out and the weather was perfect for our excursion.

High

• We had a small get together to work on our service project. The coop chose to make no-tie fleece blankets for the local animal shelter. I only finished two blankets, but we had a great chat while cutting and tying.

Low

• Not much actual schoolwork was finished this past two weeks. That’s okay, but I had hoped to get a little further in our curriculum.

Next Week

• Continuing our new read aloud (A)

• Learning more about the Revolutionary War for US History (A)

• Moving forward with 4B for Math (A)

• Coming back to physics air and air pressure (A)

• Covering more of Eastern Europe for social studies and science (Q)

• Covering genetics, (A) and mental health (Q) for coop - it’s the last coop meeting of the semester!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W14: Airplanes, Bingo, and DNA

What We Studied

J left for a work trip from Wednesday to Friday, which always makes our week feel a bit strange. The theme of the week was lazy schooling. We get our usual outings (science and coop), but also spent a ton of time schooling on the couch. Works for me!

Literature and Poetry

Arthur and I finished our current read aloud. He really liked the humor and the friendship bits. I might pick up the sequel for him to read independently.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

• Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling

• The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

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 continued Europe and covered stories from Portugal, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and Greece. We also finished reading The Children of Noisy Village by the author of Pippi Longstocking. it’s like a collection of vignettes. I don’t think I was a big fan of the book. I don’t think Q really liked it either. The stories were a bit too old-fashioned for us, which makes sense as it was written in 1946.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• The Children of Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• Fox and the Bike Ride by Corey R. Tabor

• Snail Crossing by Corey R. Tabor (Quentin Read)

• Three Golden Oranges by Alma Flora Ada

• The Key from Spain by Debbie Levy

• Princess Florecita and the Iron Shoes by John Warren Stewing

• The Beautiful Butterfly by Judy Sierra

• Gabriella's Song by Candace Fleming

• Caterina: The Clever Farm Girl by Julienne Peterson

• Priceless Gifts by Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss

• Count Silvernose by Eric A. Kimmel

• The Music of Life: Bartolomeo Cristofori and the Invention of the Piano by Elizabeth Rusch

• Tony's Bread by Tomie dePaola

• Papa Gatto by Ruth Sanderson

• Night Circus by Etienne Delessert

• Two Brothers, Four Hands: The Artists Alberto and Diego Giacometti by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan

• A Tale of Two Brothers by Eveline Hasler

• The Orphan: A Cinderella Story from Greece by Anthony L. Manna and Soula Mitakidou

• The Librarian Who measured the Earth by Kathryn Lasky

• Greek Myths: Three Heroic Tales by Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden

Bingo Time!

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). Arthur officially finished 4A, so we’ve been doing some review before we start 4B in December.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Smart Start Math Grade 1

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 ended up not getting to history this past week, which it totally okay. We will catch up next week.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• Map Skills for Today Grade 3

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We moved onto studying Portugal, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and Greece.

• 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

• All Around the World: Spain by Kristine Spanier

• Alcazar Castle by Grace Hansen

• Barcelona City Trails by Moira Butterfield

• Gaudi: Architect of Imagination by Susan B. Katz

• Just Being Dali: The Story of Artist Salvador Dali by Amy Guglielmo

• C is for Ciao: An Italy Alphabet by Elissa D. Grodin and Mario M. Cuomo

• Living in Italy by Chloe Perkins

• Cool Italian Cooking by Lisa Wagner

• Follow Me Around Italy by Wiley Blevins

• Follow Me Around Greece by Anna T. Tabachnik

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 took a bit of a break from Physics to explore paper making and print making. The boys even got to make their own homemade paper. After thinking about it, we’re going to recycle (heehee) that idea for coop for spring.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We did a study of the animals of the Alps.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

STEAM Coop

We’re back to coop after our absence week. Arthur continued with genetics. The kids explored mitosis and extracted DNA from strawberries. Quentin explored renewable energy and made a solar lantern.

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’s animal was a dog.

Field Trip

On Monday, we visited the SAC Museum. The kids got a private tour and two lessons (planes and rockets) before free play. Quentin’s paper plane flew the farthest so he won a prize. He was very excited to win something. The kids enjoyed the day the museum with their friends.

High

• I somehow took the kids by myself to Music Bingo on Wednesday night. Except for one little meltdown from Q, we had fun. I won and Arthur won. Q didn’t win, but some random guy gave Q his prize (it was a Mulan coloring set). Overall, we had a good evening at the cafe enjoying 2000s Punk.

Low

• Q and I did not finish the ELA and Math packet. The papers are starting to pile up a bit. Hoping we can catch up a bit next week, before we hit December 1st.

Next Week (and the week after)

• Starting our new read aloud (A)

• Moving to the run-up to the Revolutionary War for US History (A)

• Beginning 4B for Math (A)

• Taking a break from physics to explore bridges(A)

• Covering more of Eastern Europe for social studies and science (Q)

• Covering genetics, (A) and renewable energy (Q) for coop - it’s the last coop meeting of the semester!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W13: Ummm... It was an uneventful week.

What We Studied

It felt like a weird week, but we did manage to get a good chunk of schooling done.

Literature and Poetry

A new read aloud was started this week. Arthur is enjoying the humor and parts about friendships. A plus is that it’s easy to read aloud. I like it when the prose flows.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

• Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling

• The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

• Behind the Mask: A Book About Prepositions by Ruth Heller

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 continued Europe and covered stories from the France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and The Netherlands. We also started reading The Children of Noisy Village by the author of Pippi Longstocking. it’s like a collection of vignettes.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• The Children of Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• Mel Fell by Corey R. Tabor (Quentin Reads)

• How to Become a Knigth by Todd Tarpley

• If You Find a Leaf by Aimee Sicuro

• The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot by Alice and Martin Provensen

• The Cat Who Walked Across France by Katy Banks

• Henri's Scissors by Jeanette Winter

• Up and Away! How Two Brothers Invented the Hot Air Balloon by Jason Henry

• Three Perfect Peaches by Cynthia DeFelice and Mary DeMarsh

• I, Crocodile by Fred Marcellino

• Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans

• Adele & Simon by Barbara McClintock

• Mornings with Monet by Barb Rosenstock

• Three Sacks of Truth by Eric A. Kimmel

• The Twelve Dancing Princesses by The Brothers Grimm

• The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Lisbeth Zwerger

• Hansel & Gretel by Holly Hobbie

• The Star Child by The Brothers Grimm

• The Bremen Town Musicians by Doris Orgel

• Mother Holly by Bernadette Watts

• Iron Hans by Stephen Mitchell

German night dinner: bratwurst, sauerkraut, German potato salad, apple strudel

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). Arthur officially finished 4A, so we’ve been doing some review before we start 4B in December.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Smart Start Math Grade 1

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 covered the growth of the English colonies, touched on the other European colonies, and explored the start of slavery.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• The Winter People by Joseph Bruchac

• Map Skills for Today Grade 3

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We moved onto studying France, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Austria.

• 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

• E is for Eiffel Tower by Helen L. Wilbur

• Follow Me Around France by Wiley Blevins

• Linnea in Monet’s Garden by Christina Björk and Lena Anderson

• Pedal Power: How One Community Became the Bicycle Capital of the World by Allan Drummond

• Windmill De Kat by Hyo-mi Park

• Follow Me Around Germany by Wiley Blevins

• Neuschwanstein Castle by Grace Hansen

• Out of the Shadows: How Lotte Reiniger Made the First Animated Fairy Tale Movie by Fiona Robinson

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 pulleys this week. I bought a great construction kit that builds 26 different simple machines.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We did just a little overview of the animals of Europe.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

STEAM Coop

We’re back to coop after our absence week. Arthur continued with genetics. The kids learned about genotypes and phenotypes and played with Punnett squares. Quentin explored renewable energy.

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’s animal was a koala and its baby.

Field Trip

We didn’t have a field trip this week at all. We did attempt to have a park afternoon, but it started raining pretty much as soon as we got there.

High

• Not school related, but we had a great playdate on Saturday with a friend that we hadn’t seen for awhile. We need to so it again soon.

Low

• There was a general feeling of apathy this week. Not great energy at all.

Next Week

• Continuing our new read aloud (A)

• Moving to the French and Indian War for US History (A)

• Taking a break from physics to explore the printing press and printmaking (A)

• Covering more of Western Europe for social studies and science (Q)

• Covering genetics, (A) and renewable energy (Q) for coop

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W12: Halloween is My Favorite Holiday!

What We Studied

We settled into a calm and relaxed week of school. We didn’t run around everywhere, but focused on a few activities with our coop friends

Literature and Poetry

We finished Howl’s Moving Castle as our main read aloud. We even watched the movie version for family movie night on Friday. Arthur really enjoyed the book and the movie. We finished our current book club book just in time to join in the meeting. The kids had a lovely evening chatting about the book. We also started the next book club selection.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

• Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

• The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

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 continued Europe and covered stories from the United Kingdom and Ireland.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• Fox the Tiger by Corey R. Tabor (Quentin Reads)

• Fox Versus Winter by Corey R. Tabor (Quentin reads)

• Nat Geo Kids Halloween by Laura Marsh

• The Littlest Mummy by Brandi Dougherty

• The Littlest Witch by Brandi Dougherty

• The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams

• Ten Timid Ghosts by Jennifer O'Connell

• Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson

• Trick or Treat Crankenstein by Samantha Berger

• Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola

• Bonaparte Falls Apart by Margery Cuyler

• Miss Turie's Magic Creatures by Joy Keller

• Frankenslime by Joy Keller

• Back to School with Bigfoot by Samantha Berger

• Jamie O'Rourke and the Pooka by Tomie dePaola

• Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie dePaola

• Fiona's Lace by Patricia Polacco

• Finn McCoul by Brian Gleeson

• The Irish Cinderlad by Shirley Climo

• Ronan and the Mermaid by Marianne McShane

• An Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Mythical Creatures

• Katie in London by James Mayhew

• The Teeny-Tiny Woman by Paul Galdone

• Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow by Robert D. San Souci

• The Great Smelly, Slobbery, Small-Tooth Dog by Margaret Read MacDonald

• The Woman Who Flummoxed the Fairies by Heather Forest

• The Black Bull of Norroway by Charlotte Huck

• An Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Mythical Creatures by Theresa Breslin

• An Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Fairy Tales by Theresa Breslin

• An Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Castle Legends by Theresa Breslin

Arthur’s Candy

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). Arthur officially finished 4A. We we probably take a small break before starting in on 4B. To celebrate Halloween, we graphed out our category into a variety of categories. The boys had fun.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4A

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Smart Start Math Grade 1

Quentin’s Candy

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 covered the founding of the rest of the English colonies.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We moved onto studying England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

• 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

• S is for Shamrock: An Ireland Alphabet by Eve Bunting

• Follow Me Around: Ireland by Wiley Blevins

• Whole Wide World: Big Ben by Kristine Spanier

• Follow Me Around: United Kingdom by Wiley Blevins

• Edinburgh Castle by Grace Hansen

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.

Q’s messy hands at coop

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 rest of wheels and axles.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We did just a little overview of the animals of Europe.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

Work in progress

STEAM Coop

We’re back to coop after our absence week. Arthur caught up with genetics and Quentin studied anatomy. We had our last 70 degree day of the year (probably), so we had a great meeting at the park. We probably won’t be back out until late spring.

Trick-or-treating

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’s animal was a panther.

Field Trip

We didn’t have a field trip this week Instead, we had other activities to occupy our time. On Monday, we had the Coop Halloween Party at the park. The kids got to trick or treat and make some crafts. On Tuesday evening, we had coop book club. Many of the families had not finished the book, but we still ha da good discussion. We also picked our selections for the next six months.

High

• The Halloween party was such a great time. I really love that coop has decided to do these quarterly holiday parties.

Low

• We didn’t get through as much curriculum as I had hoped that we would. I might need to retool our schedule a bit.

Next Week

• Starting a new read aloud (A)

• Moving to the conflicts with Native Americans for US History (A)

• Moving to pulleys for Physics (A)

• Covering Western Europe for social studies and science (Q)

• Covering genetics, (A) and renewable energy (Q) for coop

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W11: All the Fall Fun!

What We Studied

Another combo post of a Flex Week and the regular week. These Flex Weeks are really working out well for my compulsion to schedule and check off boxes. We fit in a few activities but also a lot of relaxing time at time following a few appointments.

Dentist appointment!

Literature and Poetry

We started Howl’s Moving Castle as our next main read aloud. Of course, we are still continuing our creation stories and our Nature Poetry. We have been reading a collection of scary stories before bed each night. Arthur and I started The Westing Game, our coop book club selection. We need to read it quickly as the meeting is on Tuesday night.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

• Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

• The Cabinet of Curiosities

• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

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 started Europe and covered stories from Scandinavia. We also started and finished the My Father’s Dragon collection. Q really liked it, so I call is a success.

• 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 and the Jumping Contest by Corey R. Tabor (Quentin reads)

• The Mystery of the Dragon Eggs by Maggie Testa (Quentin reads)

• Sir Ladybug by Corey R. Tabor (Quentin Read)

• FriendBots: Blink and Block Bug Each Other by Vicky Fang (Quentin Read)

• Fox is Late by Corey R. Tabor (Quentin Read)

• Ola by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire

• The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Jerry Pinkney

• Agnes's Place by Marit Larsen

• The Troll with No Heart in His Body and Other Tales of Trolls, from Norway by Lise Lunge-Larsen

• D'Aulaires' Book of Norwegian Folktales

• The Pancake Boy by Lorinda Byran Cauley

• The Dragon's Hoard by Lari Don

• Master Maid: A Tale of Norway by Aaron Shepard

• Nat Geo Treasury of Norse Mythology

• The Most Beautiful Story by Brynjulf June Tjønn and Øyvind Torseter

• Boots and His Brothers by Eric A. Kimmel

• The Kalevala: Tales of Magic and Adventure

• The Princess Mouse by Aaron Shepard

• A Little Bitty Man and Other Poems for the Very Young by Halfdan Rasmussen

• Fat Cat by Margaret Read MacDonald

• The Whispering Town by Jennifer Elvgren

• Coffee Rabbit Snowdrop Lost by Betina Birkjær

• Hans Christian Andersen: The Journey of His Life by Heinz Janisch

• The Mouse Bride by Linda Allen

• The Sinking of the Vasa by Russell Freedman

• Now that Night is Near by Astrid Lindgren

• The Little Old Woman and the Hungry Cat by Nancy Polette

Weekly LEGO creation - a Star Wars speeder that crashed

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. I also pulled out the Autumn tangrams to play with on a rainy day. The boys always love when I pull those out and it helps them work on their spatial relations.

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4A

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Smart Start Math Grade 1

Proof we did do some bookwork

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 moved onto the Plymouth colony and the settlement of New England. We’re slowing moving through the timeline, but it’s a good pace for us.

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

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

• 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. We did an overview of Europe and moved into the Scandinavian countries. We even had an Atlas Crate for Sweden, so extra fun was had.

• Skill Sharpeners Geography Grade K

• 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

• D is for Dala Horse: A Nordic Countries Alphabet by Kathy-jo Wargin

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 wheels and axles.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

• Wheels and Cranks by David Glover

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We did just a little overview of the animals of Europe.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

Honey Brown Butter, Chocolate Fudge, Cherry, and Salted Caramel Apple

S’mores and Bourbon Pecan

STEAM Coop

We had a very strange two weeks of coop. The first week, Arthur finished up the Telecommunications unit. Unfortunately things conspired against the middles and littles and so we pivoted to show and tell and board games. The kids still got some time to socialize and see their friends. The second week, I had a dentist appointment and the kids weren’t feeling great, so we skipped coop that 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 music just didn’t happen. But that’s okay. Arthur’s continued with the Outschool drawing class. He made a great picture of a dolphin and sea turtle and one of a sparrow. He is really loving this class and it’s really keeping up his skills.

Field Trip

We ventured out on the coldest day of the year so far (25 degrees!) to Arbor Day Farm. We spent all day there exploring nature and hanging out with some friends. it was very chilly, but we did have a good day.

We also had a virtual park ranger program where a Park Ranger from Petrified Forest talked to the kids about the National Parks and specifically her park. It was a good hour discussion. And we got to stay home and enjoy the program from our couch. Extra win!

High

• We hit Vala’s three times to get the most out of our season passes. Monday was rough as it was raining the entire time, but we redeemed ourselves with Friday’s visit. We hit all our favorite places and enjoyed lots of treats. Loved it!

• On the general life front: The kids finally got access to the bivalent COVID booster. A small worry taken off my plate for this season. And the boys had their regular dentist appointment with no issues. They’ll be back in 6 months.

Low

• Rainy and cold on our field trip days messed up our flow. And the kids had a touch of a cold, so that wasn’t fun.

Next Week

• Finishing Howl’s Moving Castle (A)

• Moving to the French, Dutch, and Spanish settlements for US History (A)

• Moving to pulleys for Physics (A)

• Covering Western Europe for social studies and science (Q)

• Reading some Halloween themed books (Q)

• Covering genetics, (A) and anatomy (Q) for coop

Next up on the TBR pile: