What We Studied

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

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

Literature and Poetry

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

• Winterhouse by Ben Guterson

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

• Nat Geo Book of Nature Poetry

• Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

• One World, Many Religions by Mary Pope Osborne

• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson

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

• Nat Geo Book of Animal Poetry

• A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

• Around the World in 80 Days by Saviour Pirotta

• Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

Math

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

• Logic Liftoff (Arthur)

• Singapore 4B

• Lollipop Logic Book 2 (Quentin)

• Singapore 1A

Social Studies

Arthur continued his large study of United States history using a combination of Build Your Library Level 5 and History Quest United States History. We covered the Presidencies of George Washington and John Adams. We also learned a bit more about the conflicts with the Indigenous peoples west of the Appalachian Mountains.

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

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

• We were There Too by Philip Hoose

• Words that Built a Nation

• History Quest: U.S. History

• A Different Mirror

• DK American History Visual Encyclopedia

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

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• What the Eagle Sees

• Brick by Brick by Charles R. Smith Jr.

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

• Nat Geo Beginner’s World Atlas

• DK Countries of the World

• DK Children Just Like Me

• DK Children Just Like Me: A School Like Mine

• Mela and the Elephant by Dow Phumiruk

• I See the Sun in Myanmar by Dedie King

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

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

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

• Wishes by Muon Thi Van

• The Umbrella Queen by Shirin Yim Bridges (Thailand)

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

• Peek! by Minfong Ho (Thailand)

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

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

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

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

• When Lola Visits by Michelle Sterling (Philippines)

• Hush! by Minfong Ho (Thailand)

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

• Mango Trees by Tae-yeon Kim (Philippines)

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

• Grandfather's Dream by Holly Keller

• An Elephant in the Backyard by Richard Sobol

• Fly Free! by Roseanne Thong

• Nine-in-One by Blia Xiong

• Mali Under the Night Sky by YOUME

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

• Mommy Sayang by Rosana Sullivan

• Brother Rabbit by Minfong Ho & Saphan Ros

Arthur Independent Time

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

Science

Arthur is focusing on Physics this year. We are covering the text and related videos at home and then joining friends for experiments and extra projects. We ended up skipping out shared science lesson (sickness), but did cover another chapter in The Story of Science and watched another episode of the BBC documentary series: How the Earth

• RSO Physics

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

• The Way Things Work Now

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

• Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet: The Animal Book

• The Tarantula in My Purse by Jean Craighead George

STEAM Coop

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

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

We’re planning one doing on art project and one cooking project each week as well as picking a composer or musician to listen to and enjoy.

Field Trip

No field trip this week.

High

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

Low

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

Next Week

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

Next up on the TBR pile: