Homeschool W13: First Snow of the Season!

What We Studied

We had a good week full of lessons, a few outings, and a COVID vaccine!

Literature and Poetry

We continued reading Japanese folktales to coincide with this week’s history curriculum. We also covered a few picture book studies for our fall theme.

• Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds
• How I Met My Monster by Amanda Noll
• Are You My Monster by Amanda Noll
• Lily and the Wooden Bowl by Alan Schroeder
• The Crane Girl by Curtis Manley
• Japan ABCs by Sarah Helman
• Yoshi’s Feast by Kimiko Kajikawa
• The Beckoning Cat by Koko Nishizuka
• Bokuden and the Bully by Stephen Krensky
• Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White
• Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper
• The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig

Math

We’re still working through Unit 3 about multiplication and division. We’ll be staying here for another few weeks to gain some mastery.

• Singapore Math Common Core Edition 3A
• Primarily Logic

Social Studies

This week was all about the medieval Japan. I really enjoyed learning about women’s lives in the time period.

• DK Timelines of Everyone
• DK Timelines of Everything
• When on Earth
• Myths, Legends, and Sacred Stories
• Traditional Crafts from Japan by Florence Temko
• Japanese Gods, Heroes, and Mythology by Tammy Gagne

Arthur Independent Time

To allow for one-on-one time with Quentin, I have added an hour of independent work time for Arthur. Each week, he will have a mix of packet work (mostly grammar and math review), independent reading time, and special projects. Many of his projects will be aligned with our literature selections (some taken from B&R Language Arts curriculum) and history. This week, he focused on packet work and some random building projects.

Science and STEAM Coop

Continuing with our Dinosaur unit from Blossom and Root! We covered the Jurassic Period this week. Finally we’re into the more recognizable dinosaurs.

• Everything Awesome About Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Beasts by Mike Lowery

• The Story of Life: Evolution by Katie Scott

• Life: The First Four Billion Years by Martin Jenkins

• Prehistoric by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

• DK Where on Earth? Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Life

• Dinosaurium by Chris Wormell and Lily Murray

• In Search of Dinosaurs by Dougal Dixon

• Dinothesaurus by Douglas Florian

• National Geographic Kids: Dinosaurs

• DK Dinosaur

• DK Eyewitness Dinosaur

• Sink Your Teeth

• Dinosaur Mountain: Digging into the Jurassic Age by Deborah Kogan

Art/Music

Nothing this week

Quentin

I have scheduled at least four 1-hour time blocks for one-on-one time with Quentin. I bought Blossom and Root’s Early Years Volume 2 curriculum to use as our base. I love the variety of activities and some of the bigger projects included. For ELA, we continued our big overview of the alphabet. (Only two more letters to go!) We covered more counting and some basic math concepts as well as simple map skills. And we had some puzzles to round out the week.

ELA

• Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers
• My “w” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
• Walter Warthog’s Wonderful Wagon by Barbara deRubertis
• My “x” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
• Xavier Ox’s Xylophone Experiment by Barbara deRubertis

Math

Other

• Fall Leaves by Loretta Holland
• Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington
• Why Do Leaves Change Color by Betsy Maestro

Field Trip

After a bit of uncertainty, we did get to tour the Omaha Fire Station #1 on Tuesday. The kids were super excited to see the trucks and watch the firefighters demonstrate fire safety skills. The kids even got to climb through the cab of a real fire truck!

Documentary Selection

I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. We didn’t actually watch anything this week, but made up for it by all the PBS Eons videos for our dinosaur unit.

Misc. - Random picture books read

• The Little Fire Truck by Margery Cuyler
• Fire Truck Dreams by Sharon Chriscoe
• Harbor by Donal Crews
• It’s a Field Trip, Busy Bus by Jody Jesen Shaffer
• Planes Fly by George Ella Lyon
• Airport by Byron Barton
• The Littlest Train by Chris Gall
• Under the Umbrella by Catherine Buquet
• Little Monster Trucks by Doug Cenko
• Jonathan and the Big Blue Boat by Philip C. Stead
• Tiny Little Rockets by Richard Collingridge
• Little Lunch Truck by Charles Beyl
• All Aboard by Bill Mayer

High

• The boys got their first vaccine! One step down! I am so relieved.

Low

• The weather was all over the place. It was fairly warm at the beginning and then it got super cold and rainy and then snowy. Weather in the Midwest is so varied.

Next Week

• Reading African folktales
• Moving to the Khmer Empire for history
• Mastering measurements and conversions
• Moving forward in time for the Dinosaur Unit to the Cretaceous Period!
• Attending coop for our second health themed meeting
• Taking a break day on Tuesday (shh the kids don’t know yet)

Next up on the TBR pile: