What We Studied

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

Literature and Poetry

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

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton

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

Quentin focused on reading animal stories from around the world. I’m trying to line them up with our continents as we move across the world. We continued Europe and covered stories from Eastern Europe and Russia.

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• Milo's Christmas Parade by Jennie Palmer

• Pete the Cat Saves Christmas by James Dean

• The Christmas Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood

• The Christmas Book Flood by Emily Kilgore

• Merry Christmas from The Very Hungry Caterpillar

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

• Werewolf? There Wolf? by Kyle Sullivan

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

• Storybots: The Best Christmas Gift

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

• Merry Christmas, Gus by Chris Chatterton

• The Christmas Extravaganza Hotel by Tracey Corderoy

Math

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

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4B

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Smart Start Math Grade 1 - Finished!

Social Studies

Arthur continued his large study of United States history using a combination of Build Your Library Level 5 and History Quest United States History. We’ve continued the section covering the Revolutionary War. I’m loving one of our read aloud resources.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

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

• Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

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

• Nat Geo Beginner’s World Atlas

• DK Countries of the World

• DK Children Just Like Me

• DK Children Just Like Me: A School Like Mine

Arthur Independent Time

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

Science

Arthur is focusing on Physics this year. We are covering the text and related videos at home and then joining friends for experiments and extra projects. Science with a friend got canceled due to a dental emergency (not mine), so we just covered flight and planes on our own this week.

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

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

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

STEAM Coop

None

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking

We’re planning one doing on art project and one cooking project each week as well as picking a composer or musician to listen to and enjoy. This week music just didn’t happen. But that’s okay. Hopefully we can pick up the animal drawing class in January.

Field Trip

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

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

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

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

High

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

Low

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

Next Week

• Break Time and Travel!

Next up on the TBR pile: