What We Studied

This post actually contains a Flex Week and a regular week. We’re definitely getting to the point in the year when our schooling rhythm changes once again. We took advantage of some outside exploration and fun with friends. We also didn’t stress about the curriculum, but made sure that we were plugging away.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur continued and then finished our current read aloud. I absolutely loved it. He was a much harsher critic. For this one, I bought a new-to-me ELA curriculum unit and tried it out. The unit focused on paragraph writing and analysis of text. I’m really liking it. It’s not fancy or colorful, but has worthwhile activities. I think I’m going to pick up a few more lit studies for other books we are going to read. We continued the first Reading Explorer book which focuses on reading comprehension. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root.

• My America poem collection

• Reading Explorer 1

• Amari and the Night Brothers by BB Alston

Quentin finished two read aloud this past two weeks. We covered a bunch of short stories with Frog and Toad. I even added on some language arts activities to expand. From there, we started and finished a short read aloud. Bonus points as it’s our next coop book club selection.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel

• Days with Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel

• Frog and Toad All Year by Arnold Lobel

• Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel

• Nim’s Island by Wendy Orr

Math

Arthur moved into looking at averages, line graphs, and plotting. We will definitely be finishing 5B by the end of this “school year.”

• Singapore Common Core 5B

• Orbiting with Logic

Quentin got back into Singapore with a unit on multiplication and division concepts. He then started on 2 and 3s.

• Singapore Common Core 2A

Social Studies

Arthur wrapped his study of World War II. We also snuck in a documentary about The Manhattan Project. I’m super excited to get into the Cold War era this 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

• A Different Mirror for Young People

• This is Our Land: A History of American Immigration

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK History

• DK Eyewitness World War II

• The US Navy in World War II by Peter Benoit

• The US Army is World War II by Peter Benoit

• Big Battles of World War II by Peter Benoit

• The Great Depression and World War II by Susan E. Hamen

• Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm

Quentin covered the African kingdoms of Aksum and Kush. He then started his two-part unit on Ancient China. We’re still moving through our Ancient Times curriculum.

• 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

• Ancient Worlds

• A Journey Through Art by Aaron Rosen

• Ancient China by Dale Anderson

Science

I taught our chemistry lesson about acids and bases. I even created my own homemade indicator paper for the experiments. And then we had a break week. Only three more Chemistry weeks to go for the year! We made sure to read more chapters in our Story of Science book.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

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

• DK The Elements

Quentin started the Plant Kingdom section of his curriculum. We talked about the basics of plant life and flowers.

• RSO Life

• An ABC of Flowers by Jutta Hilpuesch

• Flowers by Gail Gibbons

• Flowers by Grace Hansen

• Flowers by Jennifer Colby

• Fantastic Flowers by Susan Stockdale

• Have You Ever Seen a Flower by Shawn Harris

• The Flower by John Light

• Bloom Boom by April Pulley Sayre

• Flowers by Elaine Pascoe

• What are Flowers by Kelley MacAulay

• Tell Me Why Flowers Bloom by Nancy Robinson Masters

• Flowers We Eat by Katherine Rawson

STEAM Coop

We had one coop meeting inside at one of the local libraries and one outside at a park (finally!). For Arthur covered the last two weeks of Spring Growth by creating a composter and sun prints. Quentin focused on botany with a seed planting and flowers.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

We covered oil painting the Frederic Chopin this week.

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

• DK Art and How It Works

• 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

• 13 Modern Artists Children Should Know

• The Story of Paintings by Mick Manning & Brita Granström

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

Field Trip

We had a lovely field trip to Lauritzen Gardens (our local botanical garden and conservatory). I got to hang out with the littles class where we did a lot of plant observation as well as enjoyed the dinosaurs models made out of Lego. Arthur’s class got to learn about the evolution of plants from prehistoric times until now. This past Friday, we had a free explore day at Arbor Day Farm with lots of coop friends. When we go, you better believe that we spend all day there! It’s great. I even convinced the boys to do the trail around the back when their friends left.

High

We are trying to complete the Omaha Parks Challenge. They give us 10 parks to visit and take pictures. Completing a certain number gets you a goody bag and another number gets you entered into a drawing for pool passes. We have until May 12th to complete our visits. So far, we’ve hit three parks, but we have two more parks this week on our schedule. Some of these parks I didn’t even know existed! It’s a great way to explore.

Low

The wind and cold temps made coop (and then book club on Saturday) not a hugely pleasant experiences. In particular, we attempted a new-to-us park and had to leave after 15 minutes. The 30mph wind gusts on top of low 40s temps pushed us back into our cars and home. Oh well. We do live in the Midwest!

Next Week

• Starting a new read aloud for Quentin

• Beginning our yearly Shakespeare unit for Arthur

• Moving through the early Cold War years

• Continuing our math units

• Expanding upon chemical reactions and acids and bases

• Learning more Ancient China

• Exploring more parts of the plant kingdom

• Bringing back some art and music

Next up on the TBR pile: