What We Studied
I think we are officially back on track for the spring semester. We managed to balance school work, some errands, and a bit of play this week without too much stress. I’m very excited to see how far we got in our curriculum. It will make it easier when we take some days off bookwork to go on our trip at the end of February.
Apparently I was absolutely terrible at taking picture this week. Here’s to doing a better job this week!
Literature and Poetry
Arthur is primarily using Hearth and Story G5 for his language arts this year. We continued a new read aloud and it’s been much better than the last one. As an added bonus it appears in Hearth and Story G5 and as a Build Your Library Lit Bite. And it’s our co-op book selection for this month. We’ve got just a few more chapters to cover this coming week to finish off the book. We also covered more grammar and extra language arts assignments.
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat
Quentin is primarily using Blossom & Root G1 for his language arts this year. We will pull some elements from Build Your Library Level 2 and random books that we have around the house. We got deeper into The Hobbit and are really enjoying it. Q is definitely liking it more than our last one.
Poetry: Out of This World: Poems and Facts About Space by Amy E. Sklansky
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Math
Arthur is using Singapore’s Math in Focus Course 1. Effectively this is Singapore’s 6th grade math text. Arthur continued the second book of the course, exploring more about coordinate planes. This chapter has been a lot easier for him to conceptualize than the last one.
Math in Focus Course 1 Book A
Quentin is using Singapore’s Primary Mathematics Common Core edition 2B and 3A. We moved onto 3A starting slow to easy back into our lessons. Taking it slow but moving along.
Singapore Primary 3A
Primarily Logic
Social Studies
Arthur is using Curiosity Chronicles Early Modern History Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 this year. Arthur covered the French Revolution and Culture Corners on Mozart and Jacques-Louis David. I must say that those French names really throw us off, but we got through it with a little help from some videos.
Curiosity Chronicles Early Modern History Vol. 1
DK History
DK Timelines of Everything
DK Timelines of Everyone
DK A Child Through Time
Who Was Marie Antoinette? by Dana Meachen Rau
Joseph Bologne Le Chevalier de Saint-George: The First Black Classical Composer by Amelie-Mai Wright
The Magic Flute: An Opera by Mozart by Kyra Teis
Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Mike Venezia
Who Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? by Yona Zeldis McDonough
You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Aristocrat in the French Revolution!: A Horrible Time in Paris You’d Rather Avoid by Jim Pipe
Quentin is using History Quest Middle Times with Build Your Library Level 2 as his main history curriculum. This week we explored Yuan and Ming Dynasties China. He really got into the sections about the Great Wall and the Grand Canal. Plus we watched a NOVA Episode about the construction of the Forbidden City.
History Quest Middle Times
DK When on Earth?
DK History
DK Timelines of Everything
DK Timelines of Everyone
DK A Child Through Time
DK Explorers
Kublai Khan, The Emperor of Everything by Kathleen Krull
No Year of the Cat by Mary Dodson Wade
Science
Arthur is using RSO Biology 1 this year has the main science text. Our academic coop will also be using RSO Biology 1 as a basis for the fall and spring semester courses, so we will be just supplementing at home. We will also be doing some of Blossom & Root’s Book Seeds and various other small units in between. We did read some chapters from our Story of Science to keep up.
RSO Biology 1
Story of Science Vol. 3 by Joy Hakim
Amazing Evolution: The Journey of Life by Anna Claybourne
Quentin is using RSO Earth & Environment and RSO Astronomy 1 as a base. Of course, we have a ton of extra science resources laying around the house. And I will be hosting some one-off science exploration days that align with the units. We moved on to lessons about the Earth and our Moon. For documentary time, we started a series on NOVA with BBC Earth titled Universe Revealed. We watched the episodes about the Age of Stars and the Milky Way. We are also still watching the PBS Eons videos here and there.
RSO Earth and Environment
DK First Earth Encyclopedia
RSO Asttonomy 1
DK Eyewitness Astronomy
DK Space
DK First Space Encyclopedia
DK Eyewitness The Planets
13 Planets: The Latest View of the Solar System by David A. Aguilar
The Planets by Gail Gibbons
Earth: My First 4.54 Billion Years by Stacy McAnulty
Our Planet! There's No Place Like Earth by Stacy McAnulty
Professor Astro Cat's Frontiers of Space by Dominic Walliman and Ben Newman
Storybots: The Moon's Time to Shine by Scott Emmons
Moon! Earth's Best Friend by Stacy McAnulty
The Moon by Gail Gibbons
Moon's First Friends: One Giant Leap for Friendship by Susanna Leonard Hill
Academic Co-op
Another week of co-op with more changes to our line-up. I really hope that we are done with all this and can focus on the lessons. Quentin decided that he was going to pay attention during lessons and so we participated in homeroom and art and listened during biology. Um. I guess so… But it did mean that the stuff I had planned for him to do during co-op did not get done. Not terrible but definitely a chance in plans. Arthur learned about value in art, biomes in biology, and writing with voice in writer’s workshop. Overall we had a good day. And afterward, I got to solidify our travel plans with the two families joining us for the Kansas City trip.
Art and Music
Art will be very sporadic this year, but we do have some fun excursions planned. And I will incorporate art projects into a lot of other subjects and unit studies.
For music, we are using Music Lab: We Rock! as our spine. Each week we will be learning about a different rock musician and focus on a particular song. I have also created Spotify playlists so we can listen on the go. We covered our last artist in the punk chapter: Talking Heads. I love Talking Heads and the boys seemed to also enjoy them. We watched their famous concert Stop Making Sense. I’m excited that we are in the timeline when we get to watch music videos for some of these songs.
Music Lab: We Rock!
DK Music and How it Works
DK The Arts
Field Trip/Activities
Not a field trip, but we did have an open playdate at Backyard Playworld on Friday afternoon. The boys ran, jumped, and climbed for three hours. I call that a win! Plus they got to hang out with some friends.
High
Not necessarily homeschool related but we did get an estimate to fix the van (late February appointment) and the boys had their dental cleaning. I have literally been in the dentist office every week for an entire month (and I have to go in on Tuesday for my crown). Thankfully the boys had no problems. They even seem to enjoy going to the dentist (weirdos).
Low
Changes in co-op made us recalibrate once again. I am very annoyed with people who try to gaslight me. Some people apparently really want to burn bridges this January.
Next Week
Finishing our current reads; maybe pivoting to a fun non-study read aloud
Moving forward with math lessons
Traveling to Haiti and then the US (A) and all over the oceans (Q) for history
Exploring the rocky planets for Q’s science
Listening to Michael Jackson
Going to the zoo for animal watching, the Luminarium for science play, OPPD Arboretum for a hike, and a friend’s house for a playdate - a busy week ahead!
Starting Opinion Writing for Writer’s Workshop at co-op
Next up on the TBR pile:
