Homeschool W16: We're Ready for a Break!

What We Studied

We are definitely ready for Christmas break! It’s been a hectic couple of weeks to finish this semester and I’m ready to be done for a bit. We ended up finishing this semester with a flex week that turned into a week that we used to finish up some lessons and books.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur started and finished a unit on Norse mythology. We then moved on to starting the next coop book club selection. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root.

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Reading Explorer: Intro

• Norse Mythology

• The Wild Robot Protects by Peter Brown

• A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd

Quentin got back into the Blossom & Root curriculum with two tales and their variations. I’m really enjoying the format for this year. He also worked on some basic grammar.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Fairy Tales Collection

• The Other Side of the Story

• Cinderella by Jenna Mueller

• Cinderella by Barbara McClintock

• Cinderella by Marcia Brown

• Cinderstella: A Tale of Planets not Princes by Brenda S. Miles and Susan D. Sweet

• Cinderella by Michele Marineau

• Cinderella and the Furry Slippers by Davide Cali

• Cinderella and a Mouse Called Fred by Deborah Hopkinson

• Interstellar Cinderella by Deborah Underwood

• Cinderella with Dogs by Linda Bailey

• Cinderella's Rat by Susan Meddaugh

• Rose Red & Snow White by Ruth Sanderson

• Jo Bright and the Seven Bots by Deborah Underwood

• Snow Pony and the Seven Miniature Ponies by Christian Tremmer

• Zoey and Sassafras: The Pod and the Bog by Asia Citro

• The Little Red Elf by Barbara Barbieri McGrath

• Reading Beauty by Deborah Underwood

Math

Arthur came close to finishing Singapore 5A. but not quite finished. We have one more unit. I’m going to wait until January to finish it up and move on to 5B.

• Singapore Common Core 5A

• Orbiting with Logic

• Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter by Cindy Neuscwander

Quentin’s all about review right now. I don’t anticipate starting Singapore 2A until January. We also continued our logic book.

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Tinkeractive Math Grade 1

Social Studies

Arthur covered more about immigration and urbanization.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History

• Words that Build a Nation

• Heart and Soul

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

• A Different Mirror for Young People

• This is Our Land: A History of American Immigration

• The House that Jane Built: A Story About Jane Addams by Tanya Lee Stone.

• Gittel's Journey: An Ellis Island Story by Leslea Newman

• Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom

Quentin learned about the ancient Babylonian, Assyrian, and Persian Empires.

• History Quest Early Times

• DK When on Earth?

• Human Wold

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK A Child Through Time

• A History of Western Art

• DK Science Year by Year

• DK Myths, Legends, and Sacred Stories

• Mesopotamia by Sunita Apte

• Ancient Babylon by Karen Bush Gibson

• Lost Cities by Giles Laroche

• The Assyrians by Elaine Landau

• Ancient Persia by Don Nardo

Q’s Cinderella books

ELA, Math, and Science

A’s Math and ELA; Q’s ELA

Science

Arthur continued covering specific elements with our Chemistry class. We’re still loving our little coop class.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

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

• DK The Elements

Quentin continued invertebrates and covered reptiles.

• RSO Life

• DK Oversimple Biology

• Reptiles by Ann O. Squire

• DK Eyewitness: Reptile

• Retiles Everywhere by Britta Teckentrup

STEAM Coop

Arthur completed his exploration of board games. The kids made some great games and we got to playtest on the last week. Quentin finished out the semester studying architecture. We’ll be back in January.

A’s ELA and Math

Q’s Math, ELA, and Science

A’s ELA and History

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

We got back into it covering four artists (Paul Klee, Henri Rousseau, Henri Matisse, Franz Marc) and four composers (Beethoven, Vivaldi, Handel, Tchaikovsky). We managed to have some great free art sessions while listening to various composers. I’m hoping to keep the momentum going in January.

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

• Modern Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw

• 13 American Artists Children Should Know

• A Child's Introduction to Art

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotofsky

• Iconic Composers by Nicholas Csicsko & Emi Ferguson

• 13 Art Movements Children Should Know

• 13 Artists Children Should Know

• The 39 Apartments of Ludwig van Beethoven by Jonah Winter

• Ludwig van Beethoven by Mike Venezia

• What Music! The Fifty-year Friendship Between Beethoven and Nannette Streicher, Who Built His Pianos by Laurie Lawlor

• The Story of Paintings by Mick Manning & Brita Granström Pg. 50-51

• Why is Art Full of Naked People? by Susie Hodge Pg. 82

• Henri Rousseau by Mike Venezia

• The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau by Michelle Markel

• Dreaming Pictures Paul Klee

• Vivaldi and the Invisible Orchestra by Stephan Costanza

• The Story Orchestra: Four Seasons in One Day

• Oooh! Matisse by Mil Niepold

• Henri's Scissors by Jeanette Winter

• The Iridescence of Birds by Patricia MacLachlan

• Henri Matisse by Mike Venezia

• Colorful Dreamer by Marjorie Blain Parker

• Matisse's Garden by Samantha Friedman

• Handel: Who Knew What He Liked by T Anderson

Q’s ELA and History

Art and Music

Field Trip

We had a wonderful tour of the Nebraska State Capitol with an emphasis on the art included in the building. I really loved getting more information about this beautiful building. We were even there when they were bringing in the Christmas tree and got to see them set it up.

High

• After our State Capitol tour, some friends joined the boys at Lost in Fun in Lincoln for an entire afternoon of playtime. Sometimes the boys just need unfettered play time with friends and this was the perfect day to do it. Bonus: Lost in Fun was one of our GetOut Pass items, so it was no extra money to go. The next day, we used another GetOut Pass to mini golf at Medieval Putt.

Low

• I’m feeling very tired… it’s been a semester.

Next Week - Break time until January!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W14-15: Thanksgiving Break was Needed

The Fox stories

More Fox books

What We Studied

Two weeks of activities and school. Overall, I’m amazed at how much school we actually accomplished. Only a few more weeks until Christmas break. Getting those last lessons.

Chemistry Class

A’s ELA

Fairy Tale books

Literature and Poetry

Arthur started and finished his next read aloud. He enjoyed it, but I did forget about how many weird God references are in that book. I really gloss over those things. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root.

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Reading Explorer: Intro

• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Quentin got back into the Blossom & Root curriculum with two tales and their variations. I’m really enjoying the format for this year. He also worked on some basic grammar.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Pumpkin Butterfly: Poems from the Other Side of Nature by Heidi Mordhorst

• Fairy Tales Collection

• The Other Side of the Story

• Little Red Riding Hood by Paul Galdone

• Lon Po Po by Ed Young

• Red by Jed Alexander

• Little Red Ruthie by Gloria Koster

• Little Red Riding Sheep by Linda Ravin Lodding

• The Girl and the Wolf by Katherena Vermette

• The Wolf's Story by Toby Forward

• Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion by Alec T. Smith

• Ninja Red Riding Hood by Corey Rosen Schwartz

• Werewolf? There Wolf! by Kyle Sullivan

• Tango Red Riding Hood by Rachel S. Hobbs

• Little Red Riding Hood and the Misread Wolf by Troy Wilson

• Little Red Riding Hood and the Dragon by Ying Chang Compestine

• Very Little Red Riding Hood by Heapy & Heap

• The Other Side of the Story: Little Red Riding Hood

• Yummy: Eight Favorite Fairy Tales by Lucy Cousins

• Petite Rouge: A Cajun Red Riding Hood by Mike Artell

• Yummy by Lucy Cousins

• Henny Penny by Paul Galdone

• The Sky is Falling by Mark Teague

• Henny Penny by Vivian French

• The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night by Peter Spier

• Flossie and the Fox by Patricia McKissack

• Basho and the River Stones by Tim J Myers

• Fox: A Circle of Life Story by Isabel Thomas

• Henny, Penny, Lenny, Denny, and Mike by Cynthia Rylant

• The Great Gran Plan by Elli Woollard

• Watch Out for Wolf! by Anica Mrose Rissi

• Redlocks and the Three Bears by Claudia Rueda

• Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens

• The Grasshopper and the Ants by Jerry Pinkney

• The Little Red Hen by Jerry Pinkney

• The Little Red Fort by Brenda Maier

• The Grasshopper's Song by Nikki Giovanni and Chris Raschka

• The Little Red Hen by Margot Zemach

• Rapunzel by Barbara Rogasky

• Rapunzel by Paul O. Zelinsky

• Falling for Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox

• Petrosinella: A Neapolitan Rapunzel by Diane Stanley

• Sugar Cane: A Caribbean Rapunzel by Patricia Storace

• Rapunzel by Bethan Woollvin

• Really Rapunzel Needed a Haircut by Jessica Gunderson

• Rapunzel Let Down Your Zip Wire by Jasmine Brooke

Math

Arthur continued to dive into Singapore 5A. We are definitely going to slow down our math lessons a bit to make sure that Arthur achieves mastery. We’ve moved onto new skills dealing with multiplying and dividing fractions. Time for me to relearn some math! We also continued our next logic book.

• Singapore Common Core 5A

• Orbiting with Logic

Quentin’s all about review right now. I don’t anticipate starting Singapore 2A until January. We also continued our logic book.

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Tinkeractive Math Grade 1

Social Studies

Arthur covered more about immigration, specifically Japanese immigration. We also covered the inventions and presidents of the late 1800s. We did a specific lesson on the Statue of Liberty.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History

• Words that Build a Nation

• Heart and Soul

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

• A Different Mirror for Young People

• This is Our Land: A History of American Immigration

• Her Right Foot by Dave Eggers

• Let Liberty Rise! How America's Schoolchildren Helped Save the Statue of Liberty by Chana Stiefel

• Liberty Arrives! How America's Grandest Statue Found Her Home by Robert Byrd

Quentin learned about the ancient Meosamerican cultures including the Maya.

• History Quest Early Times

• DK When on Earth?

• Human Wold

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK A Child Through Time

• A History of Western Art

• DK Science Year by Year

• DK Myths, Legends, and Sacred Stories

• The Ancient World: Ancient Maya by Barbara A. Somervill

• The Ancient Maya by Jackie Maloy

• The Genius of the Maya by Izzi Howell

• The Mystery of the Maya: Uncovering the Lost City of Palenque by Peter Lourie

A’s ELA, Math, and History

Q’s ELA and Math

Art and Music

Science

Arthur started covering the first couple of elements on the Periodic Table. We’ll be doing this for the next couple of weeks for Chemistry. We also caught back up with our Story of Science chapters.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

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

• DK The Elements

Quentin moved to invertebrates and covered fish and amphibians.

• RSO Life

• DK Oversimple Biology

• Fish by Isabel Martin

• DK Eyewitness Fish

• Fish by Christine Taylor-Butler

• Do You Know About Amphibians by Buffy Silverman

• Amphibians by Christine Taylor-Butler

Q’s History

Q’s Work and Harvest Books

A’s History, Science, ELA, and Math

STEAM Coop

Arthur continued his exploration of board games. By the end of the six weeks, the kids will have created their own board games. We started our board game construction. Quentin’s class finished their exploration of Native Americans.

A’s Monet Mash-up Art

A’s ELA and Math

Q’s The Tower Books

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

We got back into it covering three artists (Claude Monet, Mary Cassatt, and Vincent Van Gogh) and three composers (Johann Sebastian Bach, Mozart, and Brahms). I’m working these subjects in as we can, but proud of our progress so far. They are always the first on the chopping block if we run out of time during the week.

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

• Modern Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw

• 13 American Artists Children Should Know

• A Child's Introduction to Art

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotofsky

• Iconic Composers by Nicholas Csicsko & Emi Ferguson

• Johann Sebastian Bach by Mike Venezia

• The Piano by Marika Maijala and Juha Virta

• Becoming Bach by Tom Leonard

• 13 Art Movements Children Should Know

• 13 Artists Children Should Know

• Monet Paints a Day by Julie Danneberg

• Claude Monet by Mike Venezia

• Monet's Cat by Lily Murray & Becky Cameron

• The Story of Paintings by Mick Manning & Brita Granström

• Impressionism: 13 Artists Children Should Know

• Johannes Brahms by Mike Venezia

• Vincent Van Gogh by Mike Venezia

• The Yellow House by Susan Goldman Rubin

• Vincent’s Colors by The Metropolitan Museum of Art

• The Story of Paintings by Mick Manning & Brita Granström

• Katie's Starry Night

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Mike Venezia

• Mozart: Great Lives in Graphics

• Play, Mozart, Play by Peter Sis

• Mary Cassatt: Extraordinary Impressionist Painter by Barbara Herkert

• Mary Cassatt by Mike Venezia

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotofsky

Q’s Science

Doing free art

Q’s version of Van Gogh’s Starry Night

Field Trip

Not a field trip, we did have a fun playdate at Backyard Playworld with some friends.

Art with pandas

Art and Music

High

• We took a cold, but lovely walk at Heron Haven on Black Friday. It was the perfect choice for the day after Thanksgiving. Bonus, there was no one else there.

Low

• We actually didn’t really have a low point this two weeks. Taking a few days off for the Thanksgiving break really helped.

More art and music

ELA and Math

Next Week

• Starting a new read aloud

• Covering more classic tales

• Learning about area and perimeter for math (A)

• Lots of math review (Q)

• Covering specific elements on the Periodic table

• Engaging in a few fun field trips

Open play at Bounce U

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W13: Coop Problems are Taking a toll

What We Studied

We love our coop. I love the creation of a community and the opportunities we have with them. But... there have been a few hiccups lately that have really thrown me. Despite delegating and appointing others to certain roles, balls are being dropped and I have to scramble to pick them up. Hopefully a few conversations this week will fix it. On the flip side, the kids are having a ton of fun learning about a variety of topics. Arthur’s group is creating board games this cycle and I cannot wait to see what they come up with!

Arthur’s ELA, Math, and History

Literature and Poetry

Arthur finished Tristan Strong Destroys the World. It’s number two in the series. B&R has the first book in its curriculum for grade 4, but we’ve already read it. So I’m just adapting. I have the third one (last in the trilogy) coming and we might read that over Christmas break. I really want to see how the story ends. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root.

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Reading Explorer: Intro

• Tristan Strong Destroys the World by Kwame Mbalia

Quentin got back into the Blossom & Root curriculum with two tales and their variations. I’m really enjoying the format for this year. He also worked on some basic grammar.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Pumpkin Butterfly: Poems from the Other Side of Nature by Heidi Mordhorst

• Fairy Tales Collection

• The Other Side of the Story

• The Magic Fish by Freya Littledale

• Luba and the Wren by Patricia Polacco

• The Fisherman and His Wife by Rachel Isadora

• Tortoise Races Home by Jill Atkins and Beccy Blake (Q read)

• Hare and Tortoise by Alison Murray

• The Tortoise and the Hare by Jerry Pinkney

• The Fastest Tortoise in Town by Howard Calvert

• The Great Race by Kevin O'Malley

• When Turtle Grew Feathers by Tim Tangle

• The Hare and the Tortoise by Ranjit Bolt

• The Tortoise and the Jackrabbit by Susan Lowell

Quentin’s ELA and Math

Math

Arthur continued to dive into Singapore 5A. We are definitely going to slow down our math lessons a bit to make sure that Arthur achieves mastery. We’ve moved onto new skills dealing with multiplying and dividing fractions. Time for me to relearn some math! We also continued our next logic book.

• Singapore Common Core 5A

• Orbiting with Logic

Quentin finished the Tinkeractive Math Book. We’re all about review right now. I don’t anticipate starting Singapore 2A until January. We also continued our logic book.

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Tinkeractive Math Grade 1

Quentin’s Math, ELA, History, and Science

Social Studies

Arthur covered industrialization and more about immigration with an aside about the San Francisco Earthquake. He also finished reading his historical fiction read aloud, Prairie Lotus

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History

• Words that Build a Nation

• Heart and Soul

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

• A Different Mirror for Young People

• This is Our Land: A History of American Immigration

• Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park

• I Survived the San Francisco Earthquake, 1906 by Lauren Tarshis

• What was the San Francisco Earthquake by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler

Quentin learned about the Andes Mountain cultures of the Chavin, Moche, and Nazca. Short chapter, but an important one.

• History Quest Early Times

• DK When on Earth?

• Human Wold

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK A Child Through Time

• A History of Western Art

• DK Science Year by Year

• DK Myths, Legends, and Sacred Stories

Arthur’s ELA and Math

Science

Arthur review Periodic Groups this week with an experiment featuring the effects of baking powder. We also caught back up with our Story of Science chapters.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

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

• DK The Elements

Quentin covered the last of the invertebrates with crustaceans.

• RSO Life

• DK Oversimple Biology

• Hermit Crabs by Ellen Lawrence

• About Crustaceans by Cathryn Sill

• Crayfish by Deborah Coldiron

• Mantis Shrimp by Josh Plattner

• A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle

STEAM Coop

Arthur continued his exploration of board games. By the end of the six weeks, the kids will have created their own board games. We learned about the various types of games and played some as examples. Quentin’s class started their exploration of Native Americans.

Pirate Putt Time!

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

We got back into it covering two artists (Leonardo da Vinci and Jan Vermeer) and one composter (Cecile Chaminade). I’m working these subjects in as we can, but proud of our progress so far. They are always the first on the chopping block if we run out of time during the week.

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

• Modern Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw

• 13 American Artists Children Should Know

• A Child's Introduction to Art

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotofsky

• We are Artists by Kari Herbert

• Neo Leo: The Ageless Ideas of Leonardo Da Vinci by Gene Barretta

• Steal Back the Mona Lisa by Meghan McCarthy

• If da Vinci Painted a Dinosaur by Amy Newbold

• Fly, Kite, Fly: A Story of Leonardo and a Bird Catcher by John Winch

• Jan Vermeer by Mike Venezia

Quentin’s ELA

Field Trip

No field trip this week. The kids had dentist appointments and we did lots of errands.

Nature Walk

High

The boys had an old fashioned playmate on Wednesday morning. Every once in a while, it’s great to have some free play with friends. As an added bonus, I got to talk to my friend for a few hours without kids interrupting us.

Low

Coop problems…

Boys cannot take a serious photo

Next Week

• Starting a new read aloud

• Covering more classic tales

• Reviewing multiplying and dividing fractions (A)

• Lots of math review (Q)

• Move to Mesoamerica for Q’s History

• More about industrialization for A’s History

• Covering specific elements on the Periodic table

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W12: Not Much Book Work Happened...

What We Studied

Another week full of activities that impeded on our book work. We managed to find two mornings to focus on book work. In looking at the next week, we’re going to have the same thing happen. Oh well. Right now we’re all about the activities.

Quentin’s Math, ELA, and Spider Unit

Literature and Poetry

Arthur is all in with reading Tristan Strong Destroys the World. It’s number two in the series. B&R has the first book in its curriculum for grade 4, but we’ve already read it. So I’m just adapting. We are enjoying this sequel. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root.

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Reading Explorer: Intro

• Tristan Strong Destroys the World by Kwame Mbalia

Quentin read books about bats in honor of our coop themes and the time of the year. He also worked on some basic grammar.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Fairy Tales Collection

• The Other Side of the Story

• Mr. Bat Wants a Hat by Kitty Black

• Amara and the Bats by Emma Reynolds

• I Am Bat by Morag Hood

• The Bat Book by Charlotte Milner

• Bat Colonies by Karen Latchana Kenney

• Bat Count by Anna Forrester

• Bats Biggest! Littlest! by Sandra Markle

• Bats in the Band by Brian Lies

• Bats at the Ballgame by Brian Lies

• Bats at the Library by Brian Lies

• Good Night, Bat! Good Morning, Squirrel! by Paul Meisel

• Little Bat in Night School by Brian Lies

• It's Raining Bats and Frogs by Rebecca Colby

Chemistry Class

Math

Arthur continued to dive into Singapore 5A. We are definitely going to slow down our math lessons a bit to make sure that Arthur achieves mastery. These past weeks, the units were very much a review of decimals and fractions. We also continued our next logic book.

• Singapore Common Core 5A

• Orbiting with Logic

Quentin continued with the Tinkeractive Math Book and worked through about a third of it this week. We’re all about review right now. I don’t anticipate starting Singapore 2A until January. We also continued our logic book.

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Tinkeractive Math Grade 1

Social Studies

Arthur covered the beginning of the immigration unit with a discussion of the waves before and right after the Civil War.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History

• Words that Build a Nation

• Heart and Soul

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

• This is Our Land: A History of American Immigration

• Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park

Quentin finished exploring Egypt. We focused on daily life and the myths and stories. Next week, we’ll move on to Mesoamerica. So much to learn and explore!

• History Quest Early Times

• DK When on Earth?

• Human Wold

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK A Child Through Time

• A History of Western Art

• DK Science Year by Year

• DK Myths, Legends, and Sacred Stories

• Ancient Worlds by Miranda Smith

• Nat Geo Investigates: Ancient Egypt by Jill Rubalcaba

• Egypt in Spectacular Cross Section

• Ancient Egypt by Jinny Johnson

• DK Eyewitness Ancient Egypt

• Hieroglyphs by Joyce Milton

• What Did the Ancient Egyptians Do for Me? by Patrick Catel

• Tales of Ancient Egypt by Roger Lancelyn Green

Science

Arthur learned about Periodic Groups this week. We did an experiment about the difference Sodium and Potassium.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

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

• DK The Elements

Quentin got back into RSO Life with a unit on Arthropods and specifically arachnids. Q really got into spiders!

• RSO Life

• DK Oversimple Biology

• Are You a Spider by Judy Allen

• Frank the Seven-Legged Spider by Michaele Razi

• The Spider and the Fly by Mary Howl

• Spiders! Strange and Wonderful by Laurence Pringle

• The Eeensy Weensy Spider Freaks Out by Troy Cummings

Board Games at a Coffeehouse

STEAM Coop

Arthur continued his exploration of board games. By the end of the six weeks, the kids will have created their own board games. We learned about the elements of games and created a rough and dirty race-to-the-end game as an example. Quentin’s class finished their theme on government.

STEM Day

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

None this week. Maybe next week…

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

• Modern Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw

• 13 American Artists Children Should Know

• A Child's Introduction to Art

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotofsky

• We are Artists by Kari Herbert

Field Trip

We had a field trip planned for Tuesday, but it completely fell apart at the last minute. The boys and I pivoted and went to one of the new parks. We played for a few hours before continuing with our planned day.

On Wednesday, we got to participate in DoSpace’s STEM Day. The kids cycled through four different topics and projects through the morning. They learned about hydroponics, rockets, robots, and DNA. The logistics were a little messy, but we had a good time.

Making a board game at coop

High

We had a successful meeting with a new coop family coupled with the boys playing a few board games with their friend. We followed that up with a board game meet-up with some coop friends.

Quentin’s Math and Bats Unit

Low

A friend started a Pokemon group. We went, but it was so draining for me. I know the boys had fun, but my goodness, I was so tired afterward. Hopefully this will get better as the kids really learned to play.

Quentin’s Egypt

Arthur’s ELA and Math

Next Week

• Finishing Tristan Strong?

• Covering more classic tales

• Reviewing multiplying and dividing fractions (A)

• Lots of math review (Q)

• Move to Meosamerica for Q’s History

• Moving into industrialization for A’s History

• Covering more of the Periodic Table

Pokemon Club

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W11: Back to a Semblance of Normal

Art and Music Books

What We Studied

I think that I’ve accepted that this past week is going to be a new normal. We just don’t have enough hours in a week to shove everything in and I need to make some cuts. Basically, I have slowed down our book work to continue our nature hikes, extra coop activities, and errands. At some point I have to actually go to the grocery store and the library. We made time for all of that this week and I don’t feel like our school work completely disappeared. This year has really been about adjusting expectations with two kids doing full-time work.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur is all in with reading Tristan Strong Destroys the World. It’s number two in the series. B&R has the first book in its curriculum for grade 4, but we’ve already read it. So I’m just adapting. We are enjoying this sequel. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root.

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Reading Explorer: Intro

• Tristan Strong Destroys the World by Kwame Mbalia

Quentin covered the B&R theme of Tell it in Three with books on the Goldilocks and Three Little Pigs fairy tales. He loved them! We also did a mini unit on pumpkins. He also worked on some basic grammar.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Fairy Tales Collection

• The Three Bears by Paul Galdone

• Goldilocks and the Three Knocks by Gregory Barrington

• Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas by Natasha Yim

• Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems

• The Other Side of the Story

• You Choose: Goldilocks and the Three Bears

• The Three Little Pigs by Paul Galdone

• The Three Little Pigs by Barry Moser

• The Three Little Pigs by James Marshall

• The Three Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas

• The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka

• Three Three Superpigs by Claire Evans

• The Three Swingin' Pigs by Vicky Rubin

• It's Not the Three Little Pigs by Josh Funk

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

• The Three Little Javelinas by Susan Lowell

• Let's Celebrate Halloween by J. Patrick Lewis

• The Pumpkin Mystery by Carol Wallace

• Pumpkin. by Jackie Lee

• Ten Little Pumpkins by Rosie Greening

• Pumpkin Heads by Wendell Minor

• When Pumpkins Fly by Margaret Lawrence

• The Bumpy Little Pumpkin by Margery Cuyler

• The Great Zombie Pumpkin Parade by Robert Burleigh

• Flat Stanley and the Missing Pumpkins by Lori Haskins Houran

• Mystery Vine by Cathryn Falwell

• Rocket and the Perfect Pumpkin by Tad Hills

• Oh My, Pumpkin Pie by Charles Ghigna

• Duck, Duck, Dinosaur: Perfect Pumpkin by Kallie George

• Pumpkin Day by Candice Ransom

• Mr. Pumpkin's Tea Party by Erin Barker

• A Unicorn Named Sparkles and the Pumpkin Monster by Amy Young

• Pumpkin Trouble by Jan Thomas

• Let's Explore Pumpkins by Jill Colella

• The Great Pumpkin Contest by Angie Rozelaar

• Runaway Pumpkins by Teresa Bateman

• 10 Spooky Pumpkins by Cris Grimly

• The Runaway Pumpkin by Kevin Lewis

• It's a Pumpkin by Wendy McClure

Ancient Egypt

ELA/Math and Goldliocks Books

Math

Arthur continued to dive into Singapore 5A. We are definitely going to slow down our math lessons a bit to make sure that Arthur achieves mastery. These past weeks, the units were very much a review of decimals and fractions. We also continued our next logic book.

• Singapore Common Core 5A

• Orbiting with Logic

Quentin started a Tinkeractive Math Book and worked through about half of it this week. We’re all about review right now. I don’t anticipate starting Singapore 2A until January. We also continued our logic book.

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Tinkeractive Math Grade 1

Happy Halloween!

The Great Candy Sort of 2023 (complete with math lesson)

Social Studies

Arthur covered cowboys vs. farmers and the end of the west for this week’s history. Our next big unit is all about Industrialization, Immigration, and Urbanization. We’re getting to my favorite time period in U.S. History.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History

• Words that Build a Nation

• Heart and Soul

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

• Which Way to the Wild West by Steve Sheinkin

• Bill Pickett: Rodeo-Riding' Cowboy by Andrea D. Pinkney

• Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park

Quentin continued exploring Egypt. We focused on the famous pharaohs. We have one more week in Egypt before we cross an ocean to Mesoamerica. So much to learn and explore!

• History Quest Early Times

• DK When on Earth?

• Human Wold

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK A Child Through Time

• A History of Western Art

• DK Science Year by Year

• DK Myths, Legends, and Sacred Stories

• Ancient Worlds by Miranda Smith

• Tut’s Mummy Lost and Found by Judy Donnelly

• Howard's Mummy: Howard Carter and the Search for King Tut's Tomb by Tracey Fern

• Nat Geo Investigates: Ancient Egypt by Jill Rubalcaba

• Egypt in Spectacular Cross Section

• Ancient Egypt by Jinny Johnson

• DK Eyewitness Ancient Egypt

• Tutankhamun by Demi

• The Pharaoh’s Boat by David Weitzman

• Pharaohs and Dynasties of Ancient Egypt by Kristine Carlson Asselin

• Hatshepsut: His Majesty, Herself by Catherine M. Andronik

Science

Arthur covered another chapter in our Story of Science. This was our break week from Chemistry class. We’ll get back into the periodic table next week.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

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

• DK The Elements

• The Periodic Table of Elements by Jenny Karpelenia

Quentin got back into RSO Life with a unit on Arthropods and specifically insects.

• RSO Life

• DK Oversimple Biology

• Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert

• Are You a Ladybug by Judy Allen

• Are You a Butterfly by Judy Allen

• Are You a Grasshopper by Judy Allen

• Are You a Dragonfly by Judy Allen

• Are You a Bee by Judy Allen

• Becoming a Butterfly by Karen Wallace

• Nat Geo Kids: Great Migrations Butterflies by Laura Marsh

• Insects by the Numbers by Steven Jenkins

• Wild Kratts: Wild Insects and Spiders! by Martin Kratt and Christ Kratt

• Insects and Spiders by Christine Taylor Butler

• Bug Off! Creepy, Crawly Poems by Jane Yolen

• Insects Biggest! Littles! by Sandra Markle

• My Life as a Monarch Butterfly by John Sazaklis

• Insect Detective by Steve Voake

• B is for Bee y Catherine Ipcizade

• Ants Don't Wear Pants by Kevin McCloskey

• Insects by Seymour Simon

• Small Wonders: Jean-Henri Fabre & His World of Insects by Matthew Clark Smith

• Butterflies are Pretty Gross by Rosemary Mosco

• Bugs are Insects by Anne Rockwell

• How to Build an Insect by Roberta Gibson

• One Million Insects by Isabel Thomas

• DK Eyewitness Insect

A’s Math, ELA, and History

STEAM Coop

Arthur started his exploration of board games. By the end of the six weeks, the kids will have created their own board games. I taught this week and focused on “What is a game” and the History of Board Games. The kids got to play some ancient board games. Quentin’s class started their theme on government. They learned about the city council and pretended to vote on some issues.

Q’s Math and Tell It in Three (Three Little Pigs)

Q’s Insect Unit

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

I actually fit in art and music this week! I’m so excited. We actually covered two artists (Amrita Sher-Gill and Oscar Howe) and two musicians (Miles Davis and Camille Saint Saens). The boys really enjoyed heir free art time this week.

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

• Modern Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw

• 13 American Artists Children Should Know

• A Child's Introduction to Art

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotofsky

• We are Artists by Kari Herbert

• Amrita Sher-Gil: Rebel with a Paintbrush by Anita Vachharajani

• Birth of the Cool: How Jazz Great Miles Davis Found His Sound by Kathleen Cornell Berman

• Looking for Bird in the Big City by Robert Burleigh

• Welcome to Jazz: A Swing-along Celebration of America's Music by Carolyn Sloan

• The Carnival of the Animals by Jack Prelutsky

• Carnival of the Animals: Poems Inspired by Saint Saens' Music edited by Judith Chernaik

Q’s Insect Unit (Part 2)

Miss Allyson teaching Q chess

Field Trip

No proper field trip this week, but we did have the Coop Halloween Party on Halloween. The organizers secured an indoor space as it was freezing that day! The kids got to do some crafts and trick-or-treat indoors while hanging out with their friends. That night, I did take the boys trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. We also got in a nature hike on Friday. It was the perfect temperature. We definitely needed a bit of outdoor exercise time.

Playing the Royal Game of Ur

Q’s Math and Pumpkin Unit

High and Low

After coop, I took the boys to the Library Book Sale to use their Summer Reading Programs coupons for a free book. I forgot that the library does not take credit cards so we couldn’t really dig into the shelves (My Low). We took our three books up to the checkout where the ladies told us that each coupon actually gets us three kids books! So we went back and got a few more. Thank you to the library ladies for helping us out and getting more books that we were anticipating. I’m planning on getting some cash from the ATM and going back this week after coop. I saw some brand new workbooks and summer bridge books and hope they will still be there (I’m sure they will be…).

Q’s Pumpkin Unit (Part 2)

Next Week

• Continuing Tristan Strong

• Covering more classic tales

• Reviewing multiplying and diving fractions (A)

• Lots of math review (Q)

• Finishing Egypt for Q’s History

• Moving into industrialization for A’s History

• Covering more of the Periodic Table

• Learning about spiders and bats

• Hitting the Library Book Sale again!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W10: What Happened to My Weeks?

What We Studied

This is actually a recap of two weeks: one normal week and one flex week. But, I’m really asking myself, What happened to my weeks? Everything seemed to just go off the rails these past two weeks and I wanted to get back on track. School work was all over the place. Everyone was stupid exhausted. And scheduled kept changing everyday. Not a fan. Here’s hoping we can get it together for this week.

Quentin’s Owl Unit

Arthur’s Monday ELA and Math

Literature and Poetry

Arthur wrapped up the unit on Langston Hughes with lots more poetry and a new picture book. We also started reading Tristan Strong Destroys the World. It’s number two in the series. B&R has the first book in its curriculum for grade 4, but we’ve already read it. So I’m just adapting. Unfortunately, we didn’t get very far at all. Her'e’s hoping we make some progress next week. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root.

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes

• Reading Explorer: Intro

• Tristan Strong Destroys the World by Kwame Mbalia

• There was a Party for Langston: King O' Letters by Jason Reynolds

Quentin first covered a unit theme about owls for his reading. We then moved onto starting B&R Level 1 Language Arts. We introduced the concept of fairy tales and covered two different themes. He also worked on some basic grammar.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Where I Live: Poems About My Home, My Street, and My Town

• Owls by Gail Gibbons

• Berkeley’s Barn Owl Dance by Tera Johnson and Tania Howells

• Whobert, Whoever Owl Detective by Jason Gallaher

• Knight Owl by Christopher Denise

• Little Owl Lost by Chris Haughton

• Hooray for Today by Brian Won

• The Happy Owls by Celestino Piatti

• Owl Sees Owl by Laura Godwin and Rob Dunlavey

• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen

• Whoo-ku Haiku by Maria Gianferrari

• Otto the Owl Who Loved Poetry by Vern Kousky

• Good Luck Baby Owls by Giles and Alexandra Milton

• Owls are Good at Keeping Secrets by Sara O’Leary

• The Owl and Other Night Creatures

• Owls by Valerie Bodden

• Owl Babies by Martin Waddell

• Happy Owl-Oween by Laura Gehl

• Knight Owls by Eric Setlzer

• A Haunted Ghost Tour in Nebraska by Louise Martin

• The Turnip by Jan Brett

• The Gigantic Turnip by Aleksei Tolstoy

• The Giant Carrot by Jan Peck

• It Could Always Be Worse by Margot Zemach

Quentin’s ELA and Math

Arthur’s ELA and Quentin’s History

Math

Arthur continued to dive into Singapore 5A. We are definitely going to slow down our math lessons a bit to make sure that Arthur achieves mastery. These past weeks, the units were very much a review of decimals and fractions. We also continued our next logic book.

• Singapore Common Core 5A

• Orbiting with Logic

Quentin finished Singapore 1B with a unit on math to 120.We will be taking a short break between levels to do a Tinkeractive Book and finish our math packets.. We also continued our logic book.

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Singapore Common Core 1B

Social Studies

Arthur continued through the passage of time with a few weeks on the Transcontinental Railroad and conflicts with the Native Americans.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History

• Words that Build a Nation

• Heart and Soul

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

• Which Way to the Wild West by Steve Sheinkin

• In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse by Joseph M. Marshall III

• The Transcontinental Railroad by John Perritano

• Ten Mile Day and the Building of the Transcontinental Railroad by Mary Ann Fraser

Quentin dove into Egypt. We will be sticking to that civilization for the next few weeks also. So much to learn and explore!

• History Quest Early Times

• DK When on Earth?

• Human Wold

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK A Child Through Time

• A History of Western Art

• DK Science Year by Year

• DK Myths, Legends, and Sacred Stories

• Find the Journeys Around the World by David Long

• Mummies, Pyramids, and Pharaohs by Gail Gibbons

• Nat Geo Investigates: Ancient Egypt by Jill Rubalcaba

• Egypt in Spectacular Cross Section

• Ancient Worlds by Miranda Smith

• Ancient Egypt by Jinny Johnson

• DK Eyewitness Ancient Egypt

• DK Eyewitness Pyramid

• 20 Fun Facts About the Great Pyramid by Kristen Rajczak

• Pyramids of Ancient Egypt by Christopher Forest

• What Did the Ancient Egyptians Do for Me? by Patrick Catel

• Nat Geo Investigates: Ancient Egypt by Jill Rubalcaba

• Who Built the Pyramid? by Meredith Hooper

• Mummy Cat by Marcus Ewert

• The Mummy Makers of Egypt by Tamara Bower

Science

Arthur explored more of the periodic table and atom basics. We also covered another chapter in our Story of Science. At chemistry class, they built elements and learned about how changing the combination of elements changes the outcome.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

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

• DK The Elements

• The Periodic Table of Elements by Jenny Karpelenia

Quentin ended up not covering any units from RSO Life these two weeks. He did get some great clouds and weather lessons from coop, so that’s okay. We’ll catch up soon.

• RSO Life

• DK Oversimple Biology

Quentin’s Turnip Stories, Poetry, and Math

Arthur’s ELA and Math

STEAM Coop

Arthur finished art mediums with two weeks spent exploring watercolors. He really got excited by the projects. Quentin covered clouds and weather. His favorite part was making a glittery red tornado bottle. .

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

And I continued not fitting in these subjects. I just could’t seem to get it to fit in our schedueles. I suspect this will be an issue until November, but hoping we can slide it in at least half of the weeks.

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

• Modern Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw

• 13 American Artists Children Should Know

• A Child's Introduction to Art

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotofsky

• We are Artists by Kari Herbert

Arthur’s ELA and Math featuring Langston Hughes Unit

Arthur’s History

Field Trip

We did a fun free exploration day at Arbor Day Farm with coop friends. We really love it there. The kids enjoy the nature classroom and treehouses. Unfortunately, the trampoline had been taken down. I assume that it needed to be replaced. Just annoyed that the website didn’t notate that. The kids very disappointed about running full out to the treehouses and realizing that the trampoline wasn’t there.

Quentin’s Egypt Unit

Quentin’s ELA

High

We finished our season of visits at Vala’s. Our total for September and October was eight visits. Many rides were ridden and ciders were drunk. We had tons of fun. Until next year Vala’s.

Low

Constant schedule changes left me a bit of a mess. I really hate last minute changes to plans.

Next Week

• Continuing Tristran Strong

• Covering Tell It in Three as a read aloud theme

• Multiplying and diving fractions (A)

• Lots of math review (Q)

• Continuing Egypt for Q’s History

• Moving into cowboys and farmers for A’s History

• Covering more of the Periodic Table

• Learning about insects

• Having fun for Halloween!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W8-9: Two Busy Weeks Complete with a Birthday Party

Q’s Monday ELA, Math, and History

What We Studied

We had two weeks full of activities and school coming before and after the boys’ birthday party. Some day we might have a quieter week, but fall is definitely not the season for it. Maybe November… For now, we will continue with our fast speed of study.

Q’s Wednesday Math, and ELA

A’s Wednesday ELA, Math, and Science

Literature and Poetry

Arthur finished reading Echo Mountain. I really enjoyed that book, and Arthur seemed to also enjoy it. The second week, we focused on Langston Hughes including his poetry and a historical fiction book. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root.

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Poetry for Young People: African American Poetry

• Reading Explorer: Intro

• Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk

• Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome

• That is My Dream by Langston Hughes and Daniel Miya

• Langston’s Train Ride by Robert Burleigh

• Visiting Langston by Willie Perdomo

• The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes

• I, Too, Am America by Langston Hughes

• Sail Away by Langston Hughes

• Coming Home: From the Life of Langston Hughes by Floyd Cooper

Quentin spent the school days reading book tied to his fall themes. We covered apples, fall, leaves, corn, and scarecrows. He also worked on some basic grammar.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Where I Live: Poems About My Home, My Street, and My Town

• How Do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro

• Applesauce Day by Lisa J. Amstutz

• Bad Apple by Huw Lewis Jones

• Apples for Little Fox by Ekaterina Trukhan

• The Poisoned Apple by Anne Lambelet

• Corn Aplenty by Dana Meachen Rau

• A Questzalcoatl Tale of Corn by Marilyn Parke and Sharon Panik

• Gimme Cracked Corn and I Will Share by Kevin O’Malley

• Popcorn Country by Chris Peterson

• From Kernel to Corn by Robin Nelson

• The Story of Corn: It Starts with a Seed by Robin Nelson

• Of Corn Silk and Black Braids by Vincent L. Johnson

• Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington

• It's Fall! by Renee Kurilla

• The Scarecrow’s Dance by Jane Yolen

• Scarecrows by Calvin Harris

• The Scarecrow's Hat by Ken Brown

• Samurai Scarecrow b Rubin Pingk

• Hopefully the Scarecrow by Michelle Houts

• Scarecrow Magic by Ed Masessa

• Scarecrow by Cynthia Rylant

Math

Arthur continued to dive into Singapore 5A. We are definitely going to slow down our math lessons a bit to make sure that Arthur achieves mastery. We also continued our next logic book.

• Singapore Common Core 5A

• Orbiting with Logic

Quentin continued working toward the end of Singapore 1B with a unit on math to 120. I’m still debating if we should take a small review break after finishing 1B and before beginning 2A. We also continued our logic book.

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Singapore Common Core 1B

Q’s Thursday ELA, Math, and Apple Unit

A’s Thursday ELA and Math

Social Studies

Arthur continued through the passage of time with a few weeks on topics such as the Pony Express, Transcontinental Express, and conflicts with the Native Americans.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History

• Words that Build a Nation

• Heart and Soul

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

• Red Cloud: A Lakota Story of War and Surrender by S.D. Nelson

• Which Way to the Wild West by Steve Sheinkin

• They're Off: The Story of the Pony Express by Cheryl Harness

• In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse by Joseph M. Marshall III

• Coolies by Yin

Quentin continued with Mesopotamia with a focus on stories. And then we did a mini introduction unit to Egypt with a focus on deserts.

• History Quest Early Times

• DK When on Earth?

• Human Wold

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK A Child Through Time

• A History of Western Art

• DK Science Year by Year

• The Genius of the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages by Izzi Howell

• Mesopotamia by Sunita Apte

• Lugalbanda by Kathy Henderson

• Lost Cities

• DK Myths, Legends, and Sacred Stories

• Gilgamesh the King by Ludmila Zeman

• Destination Desert by Laura Perdew

• Desert Song by Tony Johnston

• The Sahara Desert: The Biggest Desert by Aileen Weintroub

• Life in a Desert by Carol K. Lindeen

• Desert Biome by Grace Hansen

• How the Sphinx Got to the Museum by Jessie Hartland

Q’s Snail Unit

A’s Monday ELA, Math, and Langston Hughes Unit

Science

Arthur explored more of the periodic table and atom basics. We also covered another chapter in our Story of Science all about Galileo.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

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

• DK The Elements

• The Periodic Table of Elements by Jenny Karpelenia

Quentin covered units on Mollusca and echinoderms. I’m loving the slow progress through our main science text.

• RSO Life

• DK Oversimple Biology

• Are You a Snail by Judy Allen

• Slimy Snails by Laura Hamilton Waxman

• Some of These are Snails by Carter Higgins

• Snail Trail by Ruth Brown

• How to Party Like a Snail by Naseem Hrab

• Snail Crossing Corey R. Tabor

• Wake Out, Snail! by Gay Hay and Margaret Tolland

• The Rainbow Snail by Karin Akesson

• Are You a Snail? by Judy Allen and Tudor Humphries

• Snails are Just My Speed! by Kevin McCloskey

• Big as a Giant Snail by Jess Keating

• The Snail with the Right Heart by Maria Popova

• Escargot by Pashka Slater

• A Book for Escargot by Pashka Slater

• Snail Mail by Samantha Berger

Q’s Monday Snail Unit, ELA, and Math

Apple Tasting

STEAM Coop

Arthur continued with his Art Mediums theme with two weeks of working with clay. He really really loved working with clay. Quentin’s class covered nocturnal animals with lots of fun games.

A’s Tuesday ELA, Math, and Langston Hughes Unit

Q’s Tuesday Math, ELA, and Corn Unit

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

And I continued not fitting in these subjects. I just could’t seem to get it to fit in our schedueles. I suspect this will be an issue until November, but hoping we can slide it in at least half of the weeks.

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

• Modern Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw

• 13 American Artists Children Should Know

• A Child's Introduction to Art

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotofsky

• We are Artists by Kari Herbert

Q’s Desert Unit

Fossil Hunting

Field Trip

No field trip this week, but we did go to Vala’s twice. We’re hoping to get in three more Vala’s visits before Halloween.

High

The birthday party was amazing! The Art Party was a huge success and the kids seemed to have fun creating.

Low

I’m definitely going to need another quiet home day soon.

Next Week

• Starting our next read alouds

• Finishing 1B for Math (Q) and taking the next lessons in 5A slowly (A)

• Beginning Egypt for Q’s History

• Completing the Transcontinental Railroad for A’s History

• Covering more of the Periodic Table

• Learning about insects

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W7: An Exhausting Week

Math & ELA Monday

What We Studied

Another week, another instance of me over-scheduling events and exhausting myself. The kids seem okay. I’m just so tired after last week…

A’s Science

ELA with Apple Until

Literature and Poetry

Arthur kept reading Echo Mountain. This is a gem of a book, but be forewarned, there are lots of big topics discussed. I’m really enjoying a book that I’ve never read before. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root.

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Poetry for Young People: African American Poetry

• Reading Explorer: Intro

• Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk

Quentin finished our current Zoey and Sassafras book. I decided to mini theme unit about fall and apples to celebrate the season. So we spent our extra time reading picture books about those topics instead of diving into a new big read aloud. He also worked on some basic grammar.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Zoey and Sassafras 4: Caterflies and Ice by Asia Citro

• Where I Live: Poems About My Home, My Street, and My Town

• Apple Picking Day by Candice Ransom

• My Autumn Book by Wong Herbert Yee

• Fall Weather Fun by Martha E.H. Rustad

• Leaf by Leaf: Autumn Poems

• Hello Autumn Shelley Rotner

• The Apple Orchard Riddle by Margaret McNamara

• A is for Autumn by Robert Maass

• Apples by Gail Gibbons

• Kit and Kaboodle Visit the Farm by Michelle Portice

• Enough Apples by Kim Kane and Lucia Masciullo

• Apples A to Z by Margaret McNamara

• Apples to Applesauce by Inez Snyder

• It's Fall by Celeste Bishop

• Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie by Herman Parish

• Apples by Jacqueline Farmer

• Fall Apple Fun by Marta E.H. Rustad

• Fall Mixed Up by Bob Raczka

• Leaves by David Ezra Stein

Zipline Fun

Math

Arthur continued to dive into Singapore 5A. We are definitely going to slow down our math lessons a bit to make sure that Arthur achieves mastery. We also continued our next logic book.

• Singapore Common Core 5A

• Orbiting with Logic

Quentin continued working toward the end of Singapore 1B with a unit on math to 120. I’m still debating if we should take a small review break after finishing 1B and before beginning 2A. We also continued our logic book.

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Singapore Common Core 1B

Apple Unit

Q ELA and Science

Social Studies

Arthur jumped back into BYL 6 and History Quest: US History with Reconstruction. We covered the time period and the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. Our curriculum also had us take a step back to reconnect with Native Americans before and during the Civil War. We will be continuing with that storyline next week.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History

• Words that Build a Nation

• Heart and Soul

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

• Red Cloud: A Lakota Story of War and Surrender by S.D. Nelson

Quentin covered the invention of writing with a focus on cuneiform. We took it easy and didn’t immediately jump into the next unit. We will get there.

• History Quest Early Times

• DK When on Earth?

• Human Wold

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK A Child Through Time

• A History of Western Art

• DK Science Year by Year

• The Genius of the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages by Izzi Howell

• Mesopotamia by Sunita Apte

A’s ELA/Math/Science

Science

Arthur is embarking upon RSO Chemistry this year. We will be doing the experiment portions with a group of coop friends. This week’s class focused on reviewing atoms and elements and taking a look at the first ten Elements on the periodic table. The experiments this week were not anything exciting, but the kids did get to play Periodic Table Battleship. We also covered two chapters in our Story of Science all about Galileo.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

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

• STEMQuest: Astonishing Atoms and Matter Mayhem

• DK The Elements

Quentin caught back up for science with mini units on cnidaria and earthworms.

• RSO Life

• DK Oversimple Biology

• Jellyfish by Kristen Rajczak

• Jellyfish by Mari Schuh

• Jellyfish by Grace Hansen

• How Old is a Whale? Animal Life Spans from the Mayfly to the Immortal Jellyfish by Lily Murray

• Wiggling Worms at Work by Wendy Pfeffer

• This is a Book to Read with a Worm by Jodi Wheeler-Toppen

• Earthworms by Lisa J. Amstutz

• Thank You, Earthworms by Emma Huddleston

• Le's Look at Earthworms by Suzanne Paul Dell'Oro

STEAM Coop

Arthur’s class finished out their 2-week dive into drawing with another great lesson on shading and shapes. He was so excited to take home the sketchbook and writing tools. Quentin’s class was taught by me and we focused on leaves and art. I had the kids make a chalk pastels silhouette of a leaf. We then scoured the park for treasures and made our own leaf men a la Lois Ehlert’s classic book. I’m very excited to not teach for the next weeks as we transition to our winter building and I prep for my board game unit starting in November.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

And I continued not fitting in these subjects. I just could’t seem to get it to fit in our schedueles. I suspect this will be an issue until November, but hoping we can slide it in at least half of the weeks.

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

• Modern Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw

• 13 American Artists Children Should Know

• A Child's Introduction to Art

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotofsky

• We are Artists by Kari Herbert

Field Trip

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent at Vala’s enjoying the pumpkin patch. It was Quentin’s birthday on Tuesday and he picked the patch. For his birthday dinner, he chose the Chinese buffet. Very yummy all around!

High

Thursday night, Arthur attended his first homeschool dance. A member of our HS community started organizing three yearly dances last school year. Thankfully she has continued it. The kids (6-18) get to have a safe space to hang out and dance the night away. As Arthur is 9, I got to drop him off for his two hour dance period. I popped down the street to the cider house to read and enjoy a spiced apple cider before having to pick him up. He loved it! And he even won one of the raffles collecting a 2 liter bottle of root beer. He was in heaven!

Low

Friday morning we were supposed to do our usual nature hike. I drove all the way before realizing that I had forgotten my wallet home. We had to turn around and drive all the way home. No nature hike for us. Pretty disappointing and threw off our whole day.

Next Week

• Finishing Echo Mountain

• Deciding on Q’s next read aloud

• Finishing 1B for Math (Q) and taking the next lessons in 5A slowly (A)

• Getting back into our history texts

• All the birthday party prep!

Homeschool W6: Heading into Our Busy Season

And lots of play areas.

What We Studied

A Flex and a normal week in this post. But, we are also heading into our busy season full of pumpkin patch and fall activities. I’m attempting to find a better balance between our activities, home chores, and curriculum work. But then I have to remember that homeschooling comes in seasons.

Finished our 14th adventure with HeroQuest

Literature and Poetry

Arthur finished The Lightning Thief. We’re very interested in watching the new Disney series when it releases in December. We then started a new read aloud. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root.

• The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

• A Child's Introduction to Greek Mythology

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Poetry for Young People: African American Poetry

• Reading Explorer: Intro

• Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk

Quentin finished our read aloud and I think we enjoyed it. After, I let him pick our next read aloud and he chose Zoey and Sassafras. He also worked on some basic grammar. I tacked on a mini theme unit about leaves and fall to celebrate the season. And we started the official spelling curriculum this week. It felt like too much on Week 1, but I want to get it going with this cycle. I've been using The Moffatt Girls spelling curriculum for grades 1st-3rd. I love her word lists and activity pages. Makes it really easy to add-on. I just wish that she had lists for 4th and 5th grade.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

• Zoey and Sassafras 3: Merhorses and Bubbles by Asia Citro

• Zoey and Sassafras 4: Caterflies and Ice by Asia Citro

• Where I Live: Poems About My Home, My Street, and My Town

• The Wall in the Middle of the Book by Jon Agee

• The Squirrels’ Busy Year by Martin Jenkins

• In the Middle of Fall by Kevin Henkes

• Taking a Walk in the Country by Sue Tarsky

• Pick a Circle, Gather Squares: A Fall Harvest of Shapes by Felicia Sanzari Chernesky

• Leaves! by Robert Munsch

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

• Fall leaves by Doretta Holland

• A Fall Ball for All by Jamie A. Swenson

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

• Leaves by Grace Hansen

• Lilla's Sunflowers by Colleen Rowan Kosinski

Books of Fall

Q History and ELA

Math

Arthur continued to dive into Singapore 5A. We are definitely going to slow down our math lessons a bit to make sure that Arthur achieves mastery. We also continued our next logic book.

• Singapore Common Core 5A

• Orbiting with Logic

Quentin continued working toward the end of Singapore 1B with a unit on math to 120. I’m still debating if we should take a small review break after finishing 1B and before beginning 2A. We also continued our logic book.

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Singapore Common Core 1B

Exploring photography

Park time after pictures

Social Studies

Arthur jumped back into BYL 6 and History Quest: US History with Reconstruction. We covered the time period and the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. Our curriculum also had us take a step back to reconnect with Native Americans before and during the Civil War. We will be continuing with that storyline next week.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History

• Words that Build a Nation

• Heart and Soul

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

• Red Cloud: A Lakota Story of War and Surrender by S.D. Nelson

Quentin moved onto the the beginnings of Civilization with the Fertile Crescent. We didn’t quite finish the unit like I was hoping and still need to cover cuneiform. History is going a little slower with Q than it did with Arthur, but I have to remember that we have much more on our plates this year. We’ll get though it.

• History Quest Early Times

• DK When on Earth?

• Human Wold

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK A Child Through Time

• A History of Western Art

• DK Science Year by Year

• The Genius of the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages by Izzi Howell

Glacier Creek Prairie Preserve

Science

Arthur is embarking upon RSO Chemistry this year. We will be doing the experiment portions with a group of coop friends. This week’s class focused on atoms and I taught the experiments. The kids were super squirrely, but we got through it.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

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

Quentin skipped science these two weeks. For Flex Week, we purposely held off. For last week, time just got away from us completely. We’ll catch up soon I know.

• RSO Life

• DK Oversimple Biology

STEAM Coop

Coop resumed with Arthur learning about how to make a fire and Quentin learning about photography. Moving onto his past week, Arthur started a series on art mediums. This week they learned about shading techniques and light sources. He really loved it! Quentin class was taught by me and we talked about the colors of fall. The kids made tissue paper sunflowers and pony bead colorful corn cobs.

ELA and Math

A’s History Books

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

And I finally fell off the art and music train these past two weeks. I just could’t seem to get it to fit in our schedueles. I suspect this will be an issue until November, but hoping we can slide it in at least half of the weeks.

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

• Modern Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw

• 13 American Artists Children Should Know

• A Child's Introduction to Art

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotofsky

• We are Artists by Kari Herbert

ELA and Math

ELA and Math

Field Trip

On Tuesday two weeks ago, we played at the new Lewis and Clark Landing on the river. There’s a fun new playground tucked into the space by the new science museum (visiting soon!). The kids loved all the structures. I just wish that there was actually some shade… We had coop picture day on this past Tuesday. Our former coop member extended her usual picture taking to include a lesson on photography. The kids learned a bit about the technology she uses and she even let the older ones take a test picture. After, we hit up the nearby park for some playtime with friends.

Beautiful sights at Platte River State Park

High

We got two good nature hikes in (one on a rainy cloudy day that was just perfect) and our first trip to the pumpkin patch. I have us scheduled to go to the pumpkin patch 8 times from now until Halloween. I like to get our money’s worth out of those season passes!

Low

By Friday afternoon, I was exhausted. So much stuff! I didn’t balance my school work expectations and outings and general house chores very well. Something to work on…

Next Week -

• Finishing Echo Mountain

• Finishing our current Zoey and Sassafras book and possibly starting the next one

• Finishing 1B for Math (Q) and taking the next lessons in 5A slowly (A)

• Hosting, but not teaching, the next Chemistry Class

• Getting back into our history texts

• Celebrating Q’s birthday with a trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W5: Ready for a Calm Week

What We Studied

A strange week. I had everything planned out and then our plans on Thursday and Friday drastically changed. It really threw me off a bit.

Quentin’s history books

Literature and Poetry

Arthur continued reading the Percy Jackson series with The Lightning Thief. We kept reading and have really gotten into the story. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root. And finally, we finished the next coop book club selection.

• The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

• A Child's Introduction to Greek Mythology

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Reading Explorer: Intro

• The Last Human by Lee Bacon

Quentin continued reading a new selection. I think that he finally got into the story more. His reading comprehension answers have gotten more correct. He also worked on some basic grammar.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Quentin’s ELA and Math books

Math

Arthur started Singapore 5A. The book starts with some basic place value review but very quickly moves to multiples, factors, and primes. We are definitely going to slow down our math lessons a bit to make sure that Arthur achieves mastery. We also continued our next logic book.

• Singapore Common Core 5A

• Orbiting with Logic

Quentin continued working toward the end of Singapore 1B with a review on time. I’m still debating if we should take a small review break after finishing 1B and before beginning 2A. We also continued our logic book.

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Singapore Common Core 1B

Learning about monarch butterflies

Social Studies

Arthur jumped back into BYL 6 and History Quest: US History starting at the beginning of the Civil War. He finished the war. We’ll be taking a break for our Flex Week before moving on Reconstruction. We’ll be sprinkling in various historical fiction readers to reinforce the time periods.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History

• Two Miserable Presidents by Steve Sheinkin

• Words that Build a Nation

• Heart and Soul

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

Quentin moved onto the Neolithic time period and focused on the agricultural revolution. We even watched a great NOVA documentary about Stonehenge.

• History Quest Early Times

• DK When on Earth?

• Human Wold

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK A Child Through Time

• A History of Western Art

• DK Science Year by Year

• Peter Kent’s City Across Time

• The Secrets of Stonehenge by Mick Manning and Britt Granstrom

View from Hitchcock Nature Center

Science

Arthur is embarking upon RSO Chemistry this year. We will be doing the experiment portions with a group of coop friends. That portion starts today. This week we covered Unit 1 with a basic focus on chemistry. The text was super boring, but thankfully I found some good short videos to reenforce the ideas and spark some interest. I found a really good one detailing the chemistry involved in baking cookies. For the Story of Science, we learned about Tycho Brahe.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

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

Quentin continued RSO Life with a lesson about classification systems focusing on the animal kingdom. I actually found the sorting mat pieces I had made for Arthur years ago. Good on me for keeping them and actually knowing where I put them!

• RSO Life

• DK Oversimple Biology

After dinner gelato taste testing. We all agreed that the Limoncello was the best.

STEAM Coop

Coop was cancelled this week due to terrible air quality. We have too many families with medical issues. Unfortunately that means that out of the first five week of coop, we have cancelled twice. Not excited about this turn of events. On a better note, we might have found an indoor location for the winter.

Art books featuring Alma Thomas

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

Another week that I actually fit in art and music! I am on a roll! We covered the music of Erik Satie, a very eccentric composer, but one we have heard a lot as background music. We also covered the colorful art of Alma Thomas. Both of the boys really got into her pieces more than previous weeks.

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

• Modern Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw

• 13 American Artists Children Should Know

• A Child's Introduction to Art

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotofsky

• We are Artists by Kari Herbert

• Ablaze with Color: A Story of Painter Alma Thomas by Jeanne Walker Harvey

Free expression art time

Field Trip

On Tuesday, we traveled over to Iowa for a guided field trip at the Hitchcock Center. The kids learned about monarch butterflies and specifically Monarch Watch. Then we attempted to find some monarchs for tagging. We found a few, but were unable to actually catch any. Still it was great day out in nature.

Shapes and colors inspired by Alma Thomas

High

(Reluctant high) Because coop was cancelled on Thursday, we had more time in our week. We ended up spending the entirety of Thursday morning shopping for birthday party supplies, coop supplies, chemistry class supplies, and fall service project donation items. I had been stressing a bit about how to fit all this in and not do the shopping on the weekend (I hate shopping on the weekends). Our impromptu cancelling gave us the opportunity to get it all done (well mostly) in one outing.

Imitating the blocky pieces style of Alma Thomas

Low

I kind of ran out of steam by the end of the week. Because our nature hike was cancelled, we ended up schooling Friday morning and then for the afternoon, I just took the kids to the park. They had been begging for some outside scootering time, so it worked out. I was just very tired by that point.

Arthur’s ELA, math, and science

Q’s history books

Next Week - Will be a Flex Week. It’s our chance to catchup on things we delayed and take a breath from big planning.

• Finishing Percy Jackson and Starting Echo Mountain

• Finishing The One and Only Ivan and Starting a Zoey and Sassafras book

• Reviewing for Math

• Watching a Documentary or two

• Playing a board game or two

• Hosting the first Chemistry Class

• Lots of coop related activities

Sorting animals

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W4: We Went Somewhere Every Day This Week!

What We Studied

We ended up leaving the house every day this week and I very much disliked it. We did managed to cover most of our planned curriculum for the week including a documentary.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur started reading the Percy Jackson series with The Lightning Thief. We kept reading and have really gotten into the story. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root. And finally, we started the next coop book club selection.

• The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

• A Child's Introduction to Greek Mythology: Intro through Gods Galore

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Reading Explorer: Intro

• The Last Human by Lee Bacon

Quentin started reading a new selection. I’m not sure how engaged he really is right now. It is a big chapter book and he hasn’t listened to many of them. He also worked on some basic grammar.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Be the Bus: The Lost and Profound Wisdom of The Pigeon

• The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

• My Body is a Rainbow: The Color of My Feelings by Mallika Chopra

Math

Arthur continued his math year with some review packets. We will start his next Singapore book next week. We’ll see how that goes. We also continued our next logic book.

• Orbiting with Logic

Quentin continued working toward the end of Singapore 1B with a unit on time. I’m still debating if we should take a small review break after finishing 1B and before beginning 2A. I’m still deciding. We also continued our logic book.

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Singapore Common Core 1B

Social Studies

Arthur jumped back into BYL 6 and History Quest: US History starting at the beginning of the Civil War. He covered the rest of 1864 this week. We’ll be sprinkling in various historical fiction readers to reinforce the time periods.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History

• Two Miserable Presidents by Steve Sheinkin

• Words that Build a Nation

• Heart and Soul

Quentin continued a journey through the Ice Age focusing on how animals and humans lived together. We even watched a great NOVA documentary about the time period.

• History Quest Early Times

• DK When on Earth?

• Human Wold

• A Child's Introduction to Natural History by Heather Alexander

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK A Child Through Time

• A History of Western Art

• DK Science Year by Year

Science

Arthur is embarking upon RSO Chemistry this year. But before we officially start the curriculum, we are covering some basic Chemistry and Science lessons. Once we start the actual book, we will be doing the experiment portions with a group of coop friends. This week we did a bit of review. We also attended an informational meeting about a mousetrap race car project. A close friend organized this large project for our homeschool aquaintances. We chatted about specs and ideas and set some dates. Arthur task for the next few weeks is to brainstorm and make a supply list.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

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

Quentin continued RSO Life with a lesson about cells. He will also be engaging in various nature science lessons and explorations throughout the year. We did a fun little experiment looking at a chicken egg and labeling the parts.

• RSO Life

• DK Oversimple Biology

• Many Creatures: A Song About Animal Classifications by Laura Purdie Salas

• A Mammal is an Animal by Lizzy Rockwell

• Animal School: What Class are You? by Michelle Lord

• Animal Classification by Jenny Fretland VanVoorst

STEAM Coop

Quentin covered insects even making his own creative insect and going on a bug hunt. The bug hunt was his favorite part of coop. Arthur’s group learned about water filtration and even made their own systems. It was nice to get back into the groove with all our coop friends.

We had a meeting to discuss renting the Volunteer Firefighter’s Hall during the winter months. They are (probably) willing to rent us the space for $100 per week. It’s a chunk of month, but we can handle it. On Thursday, a coop member brought us another potential rental for half the price. We need to get confirmation, but we might just have a space for the winter months.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

Another week that I actually fit in art and music! I am on a roll! We covered the music of Gabriela Lena Frank, a modern composer, and the art of Jason Lawrence.

• The Science of Song: How and Why We Make Music by Alan Cross, Emme Cross, and Nicole Mortillaro

• A Child's Introduction to the Orchestra by Robert Levine

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

• Modern Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw

• The Great Migration: A Children's Story by Jacob Lawrence

• Harriet and the Promised Land by Jacob Lawrence

• Jacob Makes a World: Jacob Lawrence, a Young Artist in Harlem by Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts

• Jacob Lawrence in the City by Susan Goldman Rubin

• 13 American Artists Children Should Know

• A Child's Introduction to Art

Field Trip

We didn’t do a big field trip this week, but we did make it out for a few events. On Friday, we had a nature hike at Heron Haven. Lots and lots of frogs were spotted in the pond. A’s friends even caught multiple to check out.

High

On Thursday, the boys made a plan with some friends to get boba tea at the mall. The adults agreed and we had a good old-fashioned social time at the mall food court. We grabbed lunch and boba tea. After social hour, I even snuck in about an hour of schoolwork before we headed home.

Low

Leaving the house every single day this week was not my favorite. I was completely drained by Friday, but had to go to coop book club on Saturday morning.

Next Week

• Continuing Percy Jackson

• Continuing The One and Only Ivan

• Getting close to finishing Singapore 1B (Q)

• Starting Singapore 5A (A)

• Moving into the last stages of the Civil War

• Covering the Neolithic Period

• Admiring Alma Thomas’s art

• Listening to Erik Satie’s music

• Exploring survival skills (A) and photography (Q) for coop

Friday’s book

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W3: A Week Indoors

What We Studied

The temperatures soared past 100 degrees almost every single day this past week. We even had to cancel coop because of the high heat. And so, we ended up spending basically the entire week indoors at home. We did get out for a few hours on Friday morning, but it soon got too hot and we cut it short. Silver lining: We caught up on all our curriculum.

Q’s color books

Q’s Monday History Books

Literature and Poetry

Arthur started reading the Percy Jackson series with The Lightning Thief. We finished the first section and Arthur called Percy’s parentage very early on in the story. Love that he’s starting to really get foreshadowing and clues dropped by authors. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root. And finally, we finished reading the coop book club selection.

• The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

• A Child's Introduction to Greek Mythology: Intro through Gods Galore

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Reading Explorer: Intro

• Wildoak by CC Harrington

Quentin explored all the books of Doreen Cronin this week. He especially liked the books featuring duck and read a majority of them outloud to me. His reading skills are really coming along. He also worked on some basic grammar.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Doreen Cronin books

• Bears Sees Colors by Karma Wilson

• The Crayon Man: The True Story of the Invention of Crayola Crayons by Natascha Biebow

• True Colors: The Story of Crayola by Jesse Burton

• How the Crayons Saved the Unicorn by Monica Sweeney

• Blue Chameleon by Emily Gravett

• Every Color of Light by Hiroshi Osada

• Hidden Animal Colors by Jane Park

• Colors in Nature by Magdalena Konecna

• Every Color by Erin Eitter Kono

• Color the Sky by David Elliott

• The Color Monster by Anna Llenas

• Monsters Love Colors by Mike Austin

• Color Blocked by Ashley Sorenson

Monday’s ELA, History, and Science books

Q’s Tuesday History Books

Math

Arthur continued his math year with some review packets. We will start his next Singapore book next week or the week after. We’ll see how that goes. We also started our next logic book.

• Orbiting with Logic

Quentin jumped back into Singapore 1B to covering the basics of fractions. I’m still debating if we should take a small review break after finishing 1B and before beginning 2A. I’m still deciding. We also continued our logic book.

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Singapore Common Core 1B

Social Studies

Arthur jumped back into BYL 6 and History Quest: US History starting at the beginning of the Civil War. He covered the Battle of Gettysburg this week. We’ll be sprinkling in various historical fiction readers to reinforce the time periods.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History

• Two Miserable Presidents by Steve Sheinkin

• Words that Build a Nation

• The Not So Boring Letters of Private Nobody by Matthew Landis

• What was the Battle of Gettysburg? by Jim O'Connor

• Heart and Soul

• If You were a Kid During the Civil War by Wil Mara

Quentin moved onto the origins of life on earth into the Paleolithic Period. We also listened to a few podcasts about the beginnings of life and evolution. On Thursday, we snuck in a documentary about the ice age. We also covered cave art as a side lesson to our main history lessons.

• History Quest Early Times

• DK When on Earth?

• It Started with a Big Bang by Floor Bar

• How Did I Get Here? By Philip Bunting

• Life by Martin Jenkins and Grahame Baker-Smith

• Continental Drift by Martin Ince

• Grandmother Fish by Jonathan Tweet

• I Used to be a Fish by Tom Sullivan

• Archaeologists Dig for Clues by Kate Duke

• We Dug Up the World by Alexandra Stewart

• DK Archaeology

• Amazing Archaeologists

• Human Wold

• Our Family Tree by Lisa Westberg Peters

• Evolution Revolution

• A Child's Introduction to Natural History by Heather Alexander

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK A Child Through Time

• The Secret Cave by Emily Arnold McCully

• A History of Western Art

• DK Science Year by Year

• Painters of the Caves by Patricia Lauber

Q’s Tuesday ELA and Math

A’s Tuesday History, ELA, and Science books

Science

We covered a small nature science lesson on Monday with a focus on trees and reviewing nocturnal animals. Our visit to the Platte River State Park last Friday for their Nightfall Celebration really highlighted our nature science lessons.

• Nature Connection by Clare Walker Leslie

• Hike by Peter Oswald

• One World: 24 Hours on Planet Earth by Nicola Davies

• Can You Hear the Trees Talking? Discovering the Hidden Life of the Forest by Peter Wohlleben

Arthur is embarking upon RSO Chemistry this year. But before we officially start the curriculum, we are covering some basic Chemistry and Science lessons. Once we start the actual book, we will be doing the experiment portions with a group of coop friends. This week we focused on microscopes and the very small.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

• Usborne Internet-linked Complete Book of the Microscope

• Out of Sight: Pictures of Hidden Worlds by Seymour Simon

• Cells Up Close by Maria Nelson

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

Quentin continued RSO Life with a lesson about cells. He will also be engaging in various nature science lessons and explorations throughout the year. We did a fun little experiment looking at a chicken egg and labeling the parts.

• RSO Life

• DK Oversimple Biology

STEAM Coop

Coop was cancelled due to the high heat.

A’s Wednesday books

Q’s Wednesday books

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

Another week that I actually fit in art and music! I am on a roll! We covered the music of Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier Saint-George, and the art of Tyree Guyton.

• Swatch by Julia Kenos

• The Science of Song: How and Why We Make Music by Alan Cross, Emme Cross, and Nicole Mortillaro

• A Child's Introduction to the Orchestra by Robert Levine

• DK Music and How it Works

• Before There was Mozart: The Story of Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-George by Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome

• DK The Arts

• Why is Art Full of Naked People by Susie Hodge

• 13 Art Movements Chldren Should Know

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotogsky

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• 13 Women Artists Children Should Know

• 13 Artists Children Should Know

• Modern Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw

Q’s Wednesday History Books

Q’s Thursday ELA Books

Field Trip

No field trips this week due to the heat

High

On Friday, we had finished all of our curriculum, so we had a board game afternoon. We played a variety of games and sneakily worked on our math skills and strategy. I need to keep this one tap for random afternoons.

Art and Music Books, A’s ELA Books

Low

The heat made everyone a bit tired and cranky.

Next Week

• Continuing Percy Jackson

• Starting a big chapter book for Q

• Getting close to finishing Singapore 1B (Q)

• Starting Singapore 5A (A)

• Moving into the last stages of the Civil War

• Covering the Neolithic Period

• Admiring colorful art

• Listening to ???

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W2: Another Over Scheduled Week

What We Studied

Our second week and I, once again, over scheduled our curriculum. It’s going to take me a few weeks to settle into a good sustainable routine, but we will get there! We did fit in multiple outings and nature walks this week. And we tried to school outside a few times, once at the Gene Leahy Mall and once at the zoo. It went okay. Unfortunately, it started raining at the Gene Leahy Mall, so that cut our school work short that day. We did manage to fit in a bit of school work. I want to try to do this every few weeks, especially as the weather changes. I don’t want to be a house hermit this winter.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur finished reading Mrs. Frisby. It was a good first book to start discussing The Hero’s Journey. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also started his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root. And finally, we continued reading the coop book club selection.

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

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Reading Explorer: Intro

• Wildoak by CC Harrington

Quentin explored all the books of Mo Willems this week. We all really love his books so much. I read the Piggie sections and Q read the Gerald sections in the Elephant and Piggy collection. We didn’t get to all the theme week books on color, but covered a few throughout the week. (Guess we’ll be continuing that theme into next week.) He also worked on some basic grammar.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Silver Seeds by Paul Paolilli and Dan Brewer

• Vivid: Poems and Notes About Color by Julie Paschkis

• Color Me a Rhyme by Jane Yolen

• All the Mo Willems books

• Harold and Hog Pretend for Real! by Dan Santat

• My World of Science: Color by Angela Royston

• Colors by Shelley Rotner and Anne Woodhull

• Summer Color! by Diana Murray

• I Spy Colors in Art by Lucy Micklethwait

Math

Arthur continued his math year with some review packets. We will start his next Singapore book next week or the week after. We’ll see how that goes. We also started our next logic book.

• Orbiting with Logic

A’s Monday books

Q’s Monday books

Q’s Monday Mo Willems books

Quentin jumped back into Singapore 1B to tackle multiplication and then division before we move on. Based on his work this week, we might take a small review break after finishing 1B and before beginning 2A. I’m still deciding. We also continued our logic book. While at the zoo, Q and I played a Pirate Place Value game.

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Singapore Common Core 1B

A and Q’s Tuesday books

A and Q’s Wednesday books

A’s science books

Social Studies

Arthur jumped back into BYL 6 and History Quest: US History starting at the beginning of the Civil War. We’ll be sprinkling in various historical fiction readers to reinforce the time periods.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History

• Two Miserable Presidents by Steve Sheinkin

• Abraham Lincoln: Lawyer, President, Emancipator by Pamela Hill Nettleton

• Abe Lincoln's Dream by Lane Smith

• The Not So Boring Letters of Private Nobody by Matthew Landis

We started Quentin’s formal history curriculum with a basic discussion of the beginnings of the universe and speeding through up to the point that life starts to populate the Earth.

• History Quest Introduction

• DK When on Earth?

• Annabelle and Aiden: Worlds Within Us by JR Becker

• Older Than the Stars by Karen C. Fox

• Annabelle and Aiden: The Story of Life by JR Becker

• Annabelle and Aiden: Sapiens Our Human Evolution by JR Becker

Science

We managed to sneak in a joint nature science lesson while at the zoo on Tuesday. We talked about living and nonliving entities and used the zoo as our plot study.

• Nature Connection by Clare Walker Leslie

• Backyard by Donald Silver

• Let’s Investigate with Nate: The Life Cycle by Nate Ball

• Nature is an Artist by Jennifer Lavallee

• A Year with Mama Earth by Rebecca Grabill

• The Prairie That Nature Built by Marybeth Lorkiecki

Arthur is embarking upon RSO Chemistry this year. But before we officially start the curriculum, we are covering some basic Chemistry and Science lessons. Once we start the actual book, we will be doing the experiment portions with a group of coop friends. This week we focused on the idea of the very small to set up our chemistry study.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

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

• Nano: The Spectacular Science of the Very (Very) Small by Dr. Jess Wade

• What’s Smaller Than a Pygmy Shrew? by Robert E. Wells

Quentin started RSO Life with a basic lesson defining life and thinking about science in a larger sense. He will also be engaging in various nature science lessons and explorations throughout the year.

• RSO Life

• DK Oversimple Biology

Art books

STEAM Coop

Arthur’s class covered more foraging and plant identification. They focused on poisonous plants this week. Q’s class explored leaves and trees and explored the different types. They also made a cute leaf rubbing wreath. I ended up helping Q’s group as a floater.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

Another week that I actually fit in art and music! I am on a roll! We covered the music of Ali Farka Toure and the art of Frida Kahlo.

• The Science of Song: How and Why We Make Music by Alan Cross, Emme Cross, and Nicole Mortillaro

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

• Why is Art Full of Naked People by Susie Hodge

• 13 Art Movements Chldren Should Know

• The Two Fridas: Memories Written by Frida Kahlo

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotogsky

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• 13 Women Artists Children Should Know

• 13 Artists Children Should Know

• Frida Kahlo: The Artist Who Painted Herself by Margaret Frith

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

• Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos by Monica Brown

• Modern art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw

• Portrait of an Artist: Frida Kahlo by Lucy Brownbridge

Field Trip

Beyond our out-school attempts at the Gene Leahy Mall and the zoo on Monday and Tuesday, we did get in a short nature hike on Friday morning. In addition, as a family, we attended a nightfall celebration at the Platte River State Park on Friday night. The kids ate s’mores, learned about fire (the science of), played at the playground, and went on a night hike. The night hike portion was a ton of fun and the boys loved using the small flashlights to spot interesting animals and plants. They even found some glow-in-the-dark moss under the waterfall. We’ll be talking more about this night hike next week during our nature science.

Music books

A and Q’s history books

A and Q’s Thursday books

High

Schooling at the zoo actually went really well. Part of our success was not inviting a ton of friends. We explored part of the zoo and then had two school sessions in sparsely populated areas.

A’s Friday books

Q’s Friday Mo Willems Books

Q’s Friday books

Low

(Just repeating what I said last week) I over scheduled our curriculum for the week. Definitely need to reevaluate my plan of next week…

Next Week

• Continuing our forest skills unit for coop (A) and starting insects (Q)

• Starting a new read aloud for A

• Moving forward with our study of the Civil War

• Starting Singapore 5A?

• Reading a lot Doreen Cronin books

• Covering the basics of fractions

• Admiring Tyree Guyton’s art

• Listening to Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier Saint-Georges’s music

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W1: Full Force into Another Year!

What We Studied

Arthur started 4th grade and Quentin started 1st grade this Monday. Of course, I over scheduled us and overestimated how much curriculum we would actually get through. But the first week is always a time to learn our limits and our rhythms. We’ll get to a better schedule soon.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur began his literature and language arts journey by reading Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. We should finish next week. So far, we are really enjoying this story. And it’s amazingly easy to read out loud. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also started his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root. And finally, we started reading the coop book club selection.

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

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Reading Explorer: Intro

• Wildoak by CC Harrington

Quentin started with a week of nursery rhymes and poetry. I didn’t want to dump him into a big chapter book, so we started easy. He also worked on some basic grammar.

• Mother Goose Collection

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Our Big Home by Linda Glaser

Quentin’s Monday Books

Arthur’s Monday Books

Math

Arthur began his math year with some review packets. We will start his next Singapore book next week or the week after. We’ll see how that goes. We also started our next logic book.

• Orbiting with Logic

Quentin jumped back into Singapore 1B to tackle multiplication and then division before we move on. Based on his work this week, we might take a small review break after finishing 1B and before beginning 2A. I’m still deciding. We also did start the next logic book. And we even put in a math game, Picnic Party.

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Singapore Common Core 1B

Social Studies

Arthur jumped back into BYL 6 and History Quest: US History starting at the beginning of the Civil War. We’ll be sprinkling in various historical fiction readers to reinforce the time periods.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History by Phillip Hoose

• Two Miserable Presidents by Steve Sheinkin

• Bull Run by Paul Fleischman

I held off Quentin’s formal history lessons for an introduction to the world and map skills.

• Follow that Map by Scot Ritchie

• A Child’s Introduction to the World by Heather Alexander

Quentin’s Tuesday Books

Arthur’s Tuesday Books

Science

Arthur is embarking upon RSO Chemistry this year. But before we officially start the curriculum, we are covering some basic Chemistry and Science lessons. Once we start the actual book, we will be doing the experiment portions with a group of coop friends. We also started the next Story of Science

• RSO Chemistry

• How to Think Like a Scientist by Stephen Kramer

• Notable Notebooks: Scientists and Their Writings by Jessica Fries-Gaither

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

Quentin started RSO Life with a basic lesson defining life and thinking about science in a larger sense. He will also be engaging in various nature science lessons and explorations throughout the year.

• RSO Life

• Many: The Diversity of Life on Earth by Nicola Davies

• A Child’s Introduction to Natural History by Heather Alexander

• DK Supersimple Biology

STEAM Coop

We started with a great nature based lesson at Schramm State Recreation Area. We now have four different levels that we teach each week. Quentin is now in the young class, now known as the Running Rhinos. They learned about trees. Arthur is in the oldest class. They learned about foraging and edible plants.

Arthur’s Wednesday Books

Quentin’s Wednesday Books

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

We actually started a joint art and music study. Our first week was all about introducing art in a general sense and the orchestra for music. Moving on, we will be choosing one artist and one composter/musician per week to learn a bit about.

• The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola

• Why is Art Full of Naked People by

• A Child’s Introduction to Art by Heather Alexander

• DK Music and How it Works

• The Story of the Incredible Orchestra by Bruce Koscielniak

• DK The Arts

• A Child’s Introduction to the Orchestra by Robert Levine

Field Trip

We had multiple nature excursions and a playground session this week. Two more nature hikes was just what we needed to get our year start right! One was at a favorite, Fontenelle Forest, and another was at the related nature area, Neale Woods. Our playground time was at a favorite close-by park. We’ll be back soon I imagine.

Arthur’s Thursday and Friday Books

Quentin’s Thursday and Friday Books

High

Our high was definitely the first week of coop! Except for a few direction hiccups for a few families, we had a very successful and smooth meeting. All the kids seemed to enjoy themselves.

Music and Art Study W1

Low

I over scheduled our curriculum for the week. Definitely need to reevaluate my plan of next week…

Next Week

• Continuing our plant study for coop

• Finishing Mrs. Frisby

• Moving forward with our study of the Civil War

• Starting Singapore 5A?

• Reading a lot Mo Willems books

• Covering the basics of division

• Admiring Frida Kahlo’s art

• Listening to Ali Farka Toure’s music

Next up on the TBR pile:

We're Homeschooling - Year 4! Planning and Schedule

Our Schedule

So now I have the supplies, it’s time to start planning and gathering everything I want to do. I’m a Type A planner that always feels better with a good plan going in. I’m always up for flexibility and change in the spur of the moment, but I need a plan to reference when things change. Last year, I made a large scale scope and sequence for reference. This should help me keep Arthur and Quentin straight as I dive in each year.

Back around April, I started with making a simple list of of the various curriculum we will be using. I definitely watch the sales to grab curriculum I know we want at the best price. And we are now recycling curriculum from Arthur’s previous years for Quentin’s current year. That definitely helps for our bottom line.

I’m a big fan of time blocking, but we have multiple events outside of our house to account for. This coming year, we have our STEAM coop, chemistry class, and weekly nature explorers/nature hikes. My first pass at scheduling our day began with the outside items. From there, I came up with this basic schedule. Note that I built in Flex Time for our coop related field trips. None are scheduled yet, but I know the committee is working on three trips a month. Our tentative date is Tuesday so I built in some open time. We can shift Tuesday’s plan to Wednesday if we have a field trip that week.

Next, I broke the week schedule down into days to better see if everything would fit. Arthur’s schedule is set and I am still tweaking Quentin’s schedule. I primarily use Roam to accomplish my day to day planning. This is our basic weekly template of blocks. I can easily copy and paste this into each week’s page for easy planning. I only need to modify as special events pop onto our calendar (e.g. dentist appointments, special activity).

I then broke down each day’s blocks. I don’t go back to these pages very often, but I do like to write everything out to make sure.

My next step was to create an overview calendar with our big themes. I used index cards cut into smaller pieces laid out on my desk so I could see everything at once and move things around. Very low tech solution, but sometimes paper really is better. I always end up shifting some weeks to take advantage of the calendar and/or align with the other kid’s schedule. For example, I moved Arthur’s reading of Ramayana to coincide with Quentin’s week that includes covering ancient India and the Ramayana story.

I usually buy a paper planner as my brain really likes the act of writing things down to commit to memory. I grabbed this new planner to try out after hearing about it from many homeschool bloggers. I like the amount of space available and the fact that it’s undated. My biggest complaint right now is that the month pages and weekly pages are completely separated from each other. We’ll see how this one goes for basic planning and reference. On second thought, I also do not like the binding. I would prefer spiral bound for each of opening and laying flat. I could cut off the binding and make it a spiral bound, but that might be too much work for any benefit.

My last big planning step is to create very detailed lesson plans including videos, books, and details. This will be my third year using a special note talking app called Roam. I’ve been actively using Roam to collect all my notes, lesson plans, scheduling, and other miscellaneous items. (Also, you can see from the sidebar that I use Roam for a wide range of projects, not just homeschooling.) I’m still exploring the various tools on Roam and I’m sure that my planning with get more advanced and efficient as this year goes on. This screenshot is the start of our first week.

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

We’re officially starting our homeschool adventure the second week of August. Starting August 14th, I’ll post a weekly wrap-up. I hope to do weekly updates highlighting our highs and lows on this journey.

Next up on the TBR pile:

We're Homeschooling - Year 4! Our Curriculum First Grade

We’re ready for another year of homeschooling! In fact, it’s our fourth year of homeschooling and we’ve found our groove. We’re continuing with most of the curriculum choices from last year, just changing the level. This year Arthur will be in 4th grade and Quentin will be in 1st grade. My big challenge this year is to make less work for me while giving each child individual time.

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

• secular

• rigorous

• wide world perspective

• not necessarily all-in-one

• at least some physical items, not all online

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

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

Primarily Quentin will be using Blossom & Root’s Grade 1 Language Arts curriculum and Build Your Library Level 1. BYL 1 is a dive into Ancient History. Hopefully by combining these two curriculums, we will get to the amount of reading the we accomplish normally.

Language Arts

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

• Highlights First Grade Activity Book

• Summer Bridge 1-2

• Summer Fit 1-2

• BrainQuest Grade 1

• Second Grade

• Sylvan Jumbo Language Arts Success G1

• Spelling and Writing Grade 1

• Mad Libs Grade 1 Reading

More language arts books and some fun activity books.

• Highlights Amazing Mazes

• Highlight Amazing Mazes

• How to Draw Cars and Trucks

• Big stack of Highlights mgazaines

• Tinkeractive English Grade 1

• Scholastic Writing G2

• Cricket: Click magazine

• The Big Book of Reading Comprehension Activities Grade 1

• Evan Moor Daily Higher Order Thinking Grade 1

• Evan Moor Smart Start Read and Write G1

• Beginning Phonics G1-2

• Phonics G1-2

• Phonics for First Grade

Literature

Quentin will have a variety of picture books and chapter books plus poetry of course!

• A World Full of Spooky Stories by Angela McAllister

• The Littlest Mummy by Brandi Dougherty

• The Littlest Witch by Brandi Dougherty

• Ten Timid Ghosts by Jennifer O’Connell

• Nat Geo Kids Halloween

• Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn by Kenard Pak (actually the whole series)

• Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson

• The Little Old Lady Who was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda D. Williams

• Bonaparte Falls Apart by Margery Cuyler

• Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola

• A Child’s Introduction to Poetry by Michael Driscoll

• The Random House Book of Poetry

• Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

• How to Catch the Easter Bunny by Adam Wallace

• The Littlest Easter Bunny by Brandi Dougherty

• The Littlest Leprechaun by Brandi Dougherty

• The Littlest Valentine by Brandi Dougherty

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

• Frog and Toad All Year by Arnold Lobel

• Days with Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel

• Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel

• Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel

• The Tale of Troy by Roger Lancelyn Green

• Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown

• The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

• Grimms’ Fairy Tales

• The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary

• Matilda by Roald Dahl

• Homer Price by Robert McCloskey

• Encyclopedia Brown Cracks the Case by Donald Sobol

• Tales of Ancient Egypt by Roger Lancelyn Green

• Half Magic by Edward Eager

• Tales from the Odyssey Part 1 by Mary Pope Osborne

• Tales from the Odyssey Part 2 by Mary Pope Osborne

• Sideways Stores from Wayside School by Louis Sachar

This picture includes more of our literature this year. These are some of the picture book style choices for the year.

• Dragons Live Tacos 2 by Adam Rubin

• Dragons Live Tacos by Adam Rubin

• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett

• Aesop’s Fables

• Fairy Tales

• The Random House Book of Fairy Tales

• Ralph’s Secret Weapon by Steven Kellogg

• Johnny Appleseed by Steven Kellogg

Social Studies

Social studies is coming straight from the Build Your Library Level 1 curriculum. As such, we will be exploring the ancient world. We will be using History Quest has our main spine, but we have a variety of other reference texts to add.

• DK When on Earth?

• DK A Child Through Time

• Human World

• DK Children Just Like Me: Celebrations

• Kingfisher History Encyclopedia

• DK Explorers

• DK Myths, Legends, and Sacred Stories

• A Journey Through Art by Aaron Rosen

• Map Skills for Today Grade 2

Science

Primarily we will be using RSO Life as our spine, but we have a variety of animal related references to add.

• DK Where on Earth? Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet The Animal Book

• Nat Geo Kids Wild Vet Adventures by Gabby Wild

• The World’s Most Dangerous Animals Sticker Book

• Stack of Nat Geo Kids magazines

• Nat Geo Kids Ferocious Animals Sticker Book

• Target Animals of the World workbook

And we have a ton of nature science related books for supplements.

• DK Ocean Encyclopedia

• Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner

• DK Trees, Leaves, Flowers, and Seeds

• Nat Geo Kids On Safari

• Many Biomes, One Earth by Sneed B. Collard

• Ocean Anatomy by Julia Rothman

• Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring by Kenard Pak (actually the whole series)

• Over and Under the Rainforest by Kate Messner

• Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau by Jennifer Berne

• We Planted a Tree by Diane Muldrow

• The Magic School Bus: On the Ocean Floor by Joanna Cole

• Cricket: Click magazines

Even more nature related reference books and human anatomy books.

• DK Human Body

• Let’s Investigate with Nate: The Life Cycle by Nate Bell

• Ant Cities by Arthur Dorros

• Cricket: Click magazines

• Human Body Activity Book

• Food Anatomy by Amber K. Stott

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

• Tinkeractive Science Grade 1

• On the Nature Trail

• Nature Anatomy by Kristine Brown

• Exploring Nature by Kim Andrews

• DK First Earth Encyclopedia

• The Nature Connection by Clare Walker Leslie

• One Small Square: Woods by Donald Silver

• One Small Square: Backyard by Donald Silver

Math

Math is definitely an issue in this house as both boys are at least one grade advanced in math. I am always trying to scramble to find the best choices for them. Quentin is going to be finishing the Grade 1 books before moving on to Grade 2. We will also be adding in some math board games.

• Tinkeractive Math Grade 2

• Evan Moor Daily Word Problems Grade 1

• Singapore Common Core 2A and 2B

• Money and Time Workbook

• The School of Numbers by Emily Hawkins

• Growing Patterns by Sarah C. Campbell

• Evan Moor Financial Literacy Grade 1

• Time, Money and Fractions Grade 1-2

• Sylvan Basic Math Success Grade 1

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Tinkeractive Math Grade 1

• Singapore Math 1B (not pictured)

Art

This is actually all the art books for Quentin and Arthur. I took just one picture. Each one of their Build Your Library levels has a related art book to dip in and out of. We are just going to pick a variety of composers and artists to study over the course of the year.

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

• Great American Artists for Kids by MaryAnn F. Kohl

• The Story of Paintings by Mick Manning

• 13 Art Movements Children Should Know

• 13 Art Techniques Children Should Know

• The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola

• Frida Kahlo: The Artist Painted Herself by Margaret Frith

• DK The Arts

• 13 Art Materials Children Should Know

• 13 Artists Children Should Know

We're Homeschooling - Year 4! Our Curriculum 4th Grade

We’re ready for another year of homeschooling! In fact, it’s our fourth year of homeschooling and we’ve found our groove. We’re continuing with most of the curriculum choices from last year, just changing the level. This year Arthur will be in 4th grade and Quentin will be in 1st grade. My big challenge this year is to make less work for me while giving each child individual time.

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

• secular

• rigorous

• wide world perspective

• not necessarily all-in-one

• at least some physical items, not all online

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

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

Math

We will be continuing with Singapore Math Common Core Edition as our base curriculum. Arthur will be starting with 5A and push through 5B. Beyond the basic text, we will be supplementing with lots of math games, random workbooks, and packets. New this year, we’re continuing with some Financial Literacy using the Evan Moor workbooks and a money management workbook. We will also be continuing with our logic puzzles.

• Evan Moor Financial Literacy Grade 4

• Orbiting with Logic

• Singapore 5A and 5B

• Math Skills Grade 5

• Scholastic Math Tests Grade 5

• Managing My Money

• Bedtime Math: The Truth Comes Out

Language Arts

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

• BrainQuest Grade 4

• Grade 4 Workbook

• 21st Century Communication

• Reading Comprehension Grade 3 (from Five Below)

• Evan Moor Grammar and Punctuation Grade 4

• Sylvan Super Reading Success Grade 4 (similar title)

• Writing Skills Grade 4

• Evan Moor Daily Fundamentals Grade 4

• Evan Moor Poetry Patterns

• The Highlights Book of Things to Write

• Writing Down the Days by Lorraine Dahlstrom

• Evan Moor Read World Writing

• Pathways

Arthur’s readers will be a mix of Blossom and Root’s Grade 4 Language Arts, Build Your Library 6, and our home library selections.

• Tales from Shakespeare by Marcia Williams

• More Tales from Shakespeare by Marcia Williams

• A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories by Angela McAllister

• Coming Home from the Life of Langston Hughes by Floyd Cooper

• Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes

• Poetry for Young People: Edgar Allan Poe (not pictured)

• Redwall by Brian Jacques

• Tristan Strong Destroys the World by Kwame Mbalia

• Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume

• The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

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

• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

• The Water Horse by Dick King-Smith

• From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

• Amari and the Night Brothers by BB Alston

Social Studies

As our history base, Arthur is using Build Your Library Level 6 (U.S. History) combined with History Quest’s new U.S. History release. We are actually covering the second half of US History starting at the Civil War.

• DK American History

• DK History

• DK Timeline of Everything

• We Were There Too by Phillip Hoose

• Two Miserable Presidents by Steve Sheinkin

• Which Way to the Wild West by Steve Sheinkin

• A Different Mirror for Young People by Ronald Takaki

• The First Ladies

• Words that Build a Nation by Marilyn Miller

• Cricket: Cobblestone magazine

We always have a bit of geography going for each level of history.

• The 50 States by Gabrielle Balkin

• The 50 States Workbook by Gabrielle Balkin

• License Plates Across the America

• My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States

• Nat Geo Kids U.S. Road Trip Atlas

• Target US Workbook

• The Geography Book by Caroline Arnold

• Nat Geo Kids United States Atlas

• Evan Moor Geography Skill Sharpeners Grade 5

• Scholastic Map Skills for Today Grade 4

• Scholastic Map Skills for Today Grade 5

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

• A is for Abigail by Lynne Cheney

• Remember the Ladies by Cheryl Harness

• National Parks of the USA Activity Book by Kate Siber

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• Don’t Know Much About the Presidents by Kenneth Davis

• US President Workbook

• Immigrant Kids by Russell Freedman

• Heart and Soul by Kadir Nelson

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

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

• Bomb by Steve Sheinkin

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

Science

Our science is going to be a combination of Build Your Library Level 8 (history of science), Level 3 (Chemistry), and RSO Chemistry. Lots of interesting combinations. We will actually be doing the chemistry experiments with some of the other families in coop.

• Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia

• DK Science Year by Year

• DK Elements

• The Story of Science Volume 2 by Joy Hakim

• Cricket: Muse magazine

• Notable Notebooks by Jessica Fries-Gaither

• How to Think Like a Scientist by Stephen P. Kramer

• The Book of Ingeniously Daring Chemistry by Sean Connolly

• Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman

• Hidden Figures: Young Readers’ Edition by Margot Lee Shetterly

• Nick and Tesla’s High-Voltage Danger Lab by Steve Hockensmith

• What’s Smaller Than a Pygmy Shrew? by Robert E. Wells

Here’s just a smattering of our random science texts that we pull little items from:

• In Space

• Map Your Way

• Science Art + Drawing Games for Kids by Karyn Tripp

• Math Art + Drawing Games for Kids by Karyn Tripp

• Geek Dad by Ken Denmead

• Geek Dad: Mad Scientists by Ken Denmead

• Awesome Science Experiments for Kids

• Awesome Engineering Activities for Kids

• Awesome Physics Experiments for Kids

And even more random science resources…

• United Tastes of America

• Cooking Class: Global Feast

• Measure and Cook Workbook

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

• Eat Your Way Around the World by Jamie Aramini

• STEMQuest Atonishing Atoms and Matter Mayhem

• STEMQuest Fantastic Forces and Incredible Machines

• STEMQuest Fabulous Figures and Cool Calculators

• STEMQuest Tools, Robotics, and Gadgets Galore

Art

This is actually all the art books for Quentin and Arthur. I took just one picture. Each one of their Build Your Library levels has a related art book to dip in and out of. We are just going to pick a variety of composers and artists to study over the course of the year.

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

• Great American Artists for Kids by MaryAnn F. Kohl

• The Story of Paintings by Mick Manning

• 13 Art Movements Children Should Know

• 13 Art Techniques Children Should Know

• The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola

• Frida Kahlo: The Artist Painted Herself by Margaret Frith

• DK The Arts

• 13 Art Materials Children Should Know

• 13 Artists Children Should Know

Homeschool W34-35: And We're Done!

What We Studied

As we hit May, our school curriculum plan starts to wind down a bit. We wrapped up a ton of curriculum pieces and transitioned to our summer plans.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur and I finished our last official read aloud for the year. We took it easy, but enjoyed sinking into the story. We also finished our Emily Dickinson collection of poetry and sprinkled in a few more Nature Poetry selections.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Quentin started and finished our read aloud. He picked up the second in a series on his own and requested that we read it next. Of course, I’m always going to say yes when he requests we read any book. He even found the third one on the sign-up prize shelf for the local library’s reading program. I imagine that he will be requesting the rest of the series soon.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• Zoey and Sassafras: Monsters and Mold by Asia Citro

• Evan Moor Smart Start Read and Write K

• Evan Moor Spell and Write K

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 finished our financial literacy unit. We’ve been doing a ton of review and leftover lessons this past week.

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’ll be taking a history break until August.

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. Quentin wrapped up his study of the world this week with a little review.

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.

Free books for signing up for the Library Summer Reading Program

Science

Arthur is focusing on Physics this year. We finished our curriculum and have been just enjoying time with friends.

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We’ve done some review of concepts from this year and focused on our science workbook pages.

• On the Same Day in March: A Tour of the World’s Weather by Marilyn Singer

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

STEAM Coop

We are on break until August.

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 an amazing field trip at Gifford Farm focusing on local history. Our guide was a former school teacher and administrator and was absolutely amazing! We led the kids through a variety of activities keeping their attention the entire time. We even made homemade butter to take home. I think this was the best field trip of the year!

High

• We’ve slotted in a few great hikes lately. We’ve even dealt with high temps and bugs. Conquered them all! We’re hoping to keep hiking on Fridays when in town.

Low

• Nothing really. We have transitioned to our fun summer flow.

Next Week

• Heading out on our mini road trip

• Continuing our summer packets

• Starting a few new read alouds for the summer break

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W33: Sliding Into Summer

What We Studied

As we hit May, our school curriculum plan starts to wind down a bit. We are schooling through the summer, but I ease up our big curriculum and focus on smaller units and special activities. This helps us stay on top of a school mindset without the summer slump. But it always allows me to catchup a bit and relax during the summer. Only two one more real week of curriculum to go.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur and I started our next read aloud, actually a childhood favorite of mine. We’ll be finishing out our school year with this selection.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Quentin finished our Antarctic selection and will be moving on to a book that Quentin picked up at the library last week.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

• Evan Moor Smart Start Read and Write K

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 finished our financial literacy unit. We’ve been doing a ton of review and leftover lessons this past week.

• 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 finished our year with the start of the Civil War and secession. We’ll be taking a history break until August.

• 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

• Two Miserable Presidents by Steve Sheinkin

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. Quentin wrapped up his study of the world this week with a little review.

• 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 covered quantum weirdness with some thought experiments.

• 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. Our last official science lesson of the year, we focused on climate change.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• Why are the Ice Caps Melting? The Dangers of Global Warming by Anne Rockwell

STEAM Coop

Our last meeting of the year. The oldest kids did a lesson on organic molecules and play with paint. The littles and middles wrapped up their unit on domesticated animals. Quentin was very excited to use his new animal movement cards. And he learned to play gag ball.

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

Tuesday we visited the Wildlife Safari for exploration and a picnic. The park has a special exhibit with life-size dinosaurs that moved and made noise. We met up with some coop friends and even had a picnic. It was a great day seeing animals and playing.

High

• We had a lovely, albeit windy and chilly, morning at the playground with a few friends. We ended dup staying for 4 hours, much longer than I had anticipated. Still, it was nice to be outside with no real agenda.

• We also had a splashed playdate on Wednesday afternoon. We decided that science class is finished for the year (we did finish the textbook), so we just met up at a splash pad. The city turned some of them on early this year.

Low

• Nothing really. It was good day.

Next Week

• Continuing our current read aloud (A)

• Starting a new read aloud (Q)

• Continuing with some math review

• 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 W32: Our Year is Winding Down!

What We Studied

As we hit May, our school curriculum plan starts to wind down a bit. We are schooling through the summer, but I ease up our big curriculum and focus on smaller units and special activities. This helps us stay on top of a school mindset without the summer slump. But it always allows me to catchup a bit and relax during the summer.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur and I finished our coop book selection. We really enjoyed the book, but didn’t quite realize that this was going to be a series. Hopefully the second book will get realized soon.

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

• The Last Shadow Warrior by Sam Subity

Quentin finished our Australia read aloud selection and started on our Antarctica read aloud selection. He’s not sure about how he feels about Mr. Popper’s Penguins, but has gotten better about listening to our read 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

• Audrey of the Outback by Christine Harris

• Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

• Evan Moor Smart Start Read and Write K

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 finished our financial literacy unit. We’ve been doing a ton of review and leftover lessons this past week.

• 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’re so close to the Civil War! One more week of US History before we take a break for the summer. I decided to run us up all the way to secession before stopping.

• 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

• Two Miserable Presidents by Steve Sheinkin

Quentin continued his study of the world with Build Your Library Level 0. Quentin finished with the last continent, Antarctica this week. We’ll be doing a week of review and wrap-up to officially finish BYL Level 0.

• 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

• Sophie Scott Goes South by Alison Lester

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 quantum weirdness with some thought experiments.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

• My First Book of Quantum Physics by Sheddad Kaid Salah Ferron and Eduard Altarriba

Quentin will be focusing on animal science with BYL Level 0. We finished out our animal science-lite curriculum with the Great Barrier Reef and the ocean around Antarctica.

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

• Keepers of the Reef by Sharon Wismer

• Getting to Know Our Planet: Great Barrier Reef by Vicky Franchino

• Great Barrier Reef by Martha London

STEAM Coop

The oldest group has moved on to their last theme of the year: Math + Art in Science. The kids played with color and focused on a few projects based on Mondrian’s works. The littles focused on domesticated animals. I actually stepped in to teach the middle kids about the species of animals that we domesticated through history.

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

Tuesday we visited the farm to learn about the animals. We learned a ton of facts about the animals that Gifford has on its farm. Our favorite part was getting to pet all the animals. I definitely wanted to take home the baby goats.

High and Low

• A cascading failure happened at coop this week. The middles teacher went out sick, then the assistant/substitute, and then the oldest teacher. So we were down two teachers in one week. A friend took over the oldest group and pulled out a great lesson on Mondrian. I stepped in and taught the middles about domestication of animals. All of this happened within 15 hours before coop. It was a few nerve-wracking hours for me trying to make sure that everyone and everything was in place. We pulled it out and the kids had great lessons for the week. But I definitely have some ideas of how we (really me) can avoid the stress next year.

Next Week

• Continuing our current read alouds

• Finally getting to the Civil War (before stopping)

• Wrapping up physics

• Review the world 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: