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Homeschool W22-23: Lots of activities, a Flex week, and a trip!

Tobe Buffenbarger

What We Studied

We had a week of a ton of activities. Seriously, we only did book work school one day between a birthday party, a parent meeting, co-op, and the Valentine’s Day party. And then the next week was technically a flex week, but we pushed in some school. So that we could leave on Friday to go on a mini trip to Kansas City and Great Wolf Lodge with friends. We’re back this week on Tuesday, but will be taking a bit of a break from school to regroup. Plus we have co-op as usual on Thursday, so we won’t be just sitting around.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur is primarily using Hearth and Story G5 for his language arts this year. Arthur started and finished the next Co-op Book Club selection. It was written in verse, so something a little different for him. We also covered more grammar and extra language arts assignments.

  • Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

  • Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

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 dove into a modern classic. Q even tried to read it himself, but said that the words were too hard. It is above his independent reading level right now, but we’ll get there.

  • Poetry: Out of This World: Star-Studded Haiu by Sally M. Walker

  • The Tale of Despeareaux by Kate DiCamillo

Math

Arthur is using Singapore’s Math in Focus Course 1. Effectively this is Singapore’s 6th grade math text. We took a short break so Arthur could catch up on some independent work, and then dove back into area of polygons and triangles.

  • 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 Industrial Revolution and the Rise of Romanticism. From there, we learned about Napoleon. We are blazing through this history curriculum this year.

  • Curiosity Chronicles Early Modern History Vol. 1

  • DK History

  • DK Timelines of Everything

  • DK Timelines of Everyone

  • DK A Child Through Time

  • Crossing on Time: Steam Engines, Fast Ships, and a Journey to the New World by David Macaulay

  • Cars, Trains, Ships, and Planes: A Visual Encyclopedia of Every Vehicle, by DK and the Smithsonian Institution

  • Train: The Definitive Visual History by DK and the Smithsonian Institution

  • Mary Who Wrote Frankenstein by Linda Bailey

  • She Made a Monster: How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein by Lynn Fulton

  • DK Eyewitness Books: Judaism by DK

  • Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers: Ludwig van Beethoven, by Mike Venezia

  • Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers: Frederic Chopin, by Mike Venezia

  • Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley and Gris Grimly

  • Beethoven’s Heroic Symphony, by Anna Harwell Celenza

  • Blades of Freedom: A Tale of Haiti, Napoleon, and the Louisiana Purchase (Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales 10), by Nathan Hale

  • Napoleon vs. the Bunnies, by J. F. Fox

  • Battles that Changed History, by DK and Smithsonian Institution

  • The Game of Hope, by Sandra Gulland

  • Who Was Napoleon?, by Jim Gigliotti

Quentin is using History Quest Middle Times with Build Your Library Level 2 as his main history curriculum. We covered the chapter about the Aztec Empire.

  • 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

  • The Aztec Empire by Sunita Apte

  • The Aztec Empire by Ellis Roxburgh

  • The Princess and the Warrior: A Tale of Two Volcanoes by Duncan Tonatiuh

  • Ancient Aztec: Archaeology Unlocks the Secrets of Mexico's Past by Time Cooke

  • Ancient Civilizations: Aztec, Maya, Incas! by Anita Yasuda

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. Added science bonus, we watched more PBS Eons videos.

  • RSO Biology 1

  • Story of Science Vol. 3 by Joy Hakim

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. Lots of science this week! We covered Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and beyond. We finished the documentary series The Planets. But we also just watched a ton of PBS Eons videos.

  • 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

  • Professor Astro Cat's Frontiers of Space by Dominic Walliman and Ben Newman

  • Goodnight, Astronaut by Scott Kelly

  • Starry Messenger by Peter Sis

Academic Co-op

Back at it with weeks 4 and 5. In biology, they covered climate change and started the unit on evolution. Art focused on perspective. And in Writer’s Workshop, we started our opinion writing project.

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 listened to Earth, Wind, and Fire and Chic. Not our favorites, but a good exploration.

  • Music Lab: We Rock!

  • DK Music and How it Works

  • DK The Arts

Field Trip/Activities

So many incredible activiites over the last few weeks. So many activities…

High

It finally snowed properly! The boys got to play outside multiple days. It was even powdery snow, perfect for sledding down to the neighbors yards. Their record was sledding four houses down.

Low

We had our co-op Valentine’s Day party at a bowling alley. A great idea, and the planners did awesome. Unfortunately, there was some logistical miscommunication and my group of boys that wanted to bowl together lost their lane and we had to split them up on other lanes. Q was especially upset that he couldn’t bowl with the kids he had originally wanted to bowl with. The planners and I chatted about how to avoid that issue next time we do a bowling party.

Next Week

  • Starting new read alouds

  • Moving forward with our math textbooks

  • Traveling to Latin America (A) and the medieval Incan Empire (Q) for history

  • Exploring the atmosphere for science

  • Moving into the last three weeks of Academic Co-op

Next up on the TBR pile: