Homeschool W10: A Wild Week

What We Studied

Another week full of fall fun. We didn’t get a ton of school work done, but did make some progress on certain things. But we had a ton of fun with friends and catching up on life. So I will say that we had a good week.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur is primarily using Hearth and Story G6 for his language arts this year. While I love H&S, there’s never enough literature in there. Thankfully we have a stack of books just waiting to be picked up and read. Beyond H&S, we are focusing on expanding vocabulary and reading comprehension this year. We started our current book club selection which is perfect for fall spooky season.

• Poetry: Hearth & Story G6
• Poetry: A Child’s Introduction to Poetry by Michael Driscoll
• The Vocabulary Workbook for 6th Grade by Kelly Anne McLellan
• The Bellwoods Game by Celia Krampien

Quentin is primarily using Blossom & Root G3 for his language arts this year. We will pull some elements from Build Your Library Level 3 and random books that we have around the house. We are also starting the Reading Explorer series to focus on reading comprehension and word choice. We took a break from our read alouds to catch up on some other language arts and math work.

• Poetry: National Geography Book of Nature Poetry
• In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World by Virginia Hamilton

Math

Arthur is using Singapore’s Math in Focus Course 2. Effectively this is Singapore’s 7th grade math text. We covered a chapter about algebraic expressions. We don’t have formal logic book this year, but are focusing on lots of critical thinking and math puzzles.

• Math in Focus Course 2 Book A

Quentin is using Singapore’s Primary Mathematics Common Core edition 3B and 4A. We finished up our logic book before moving to more complicated puzzles. We began a chapter about fractions.

• Primarily Logic
• Singapore Primary Common Core 3B

Social Studies

Arthur is using Curiosity Chronicles Modern History Vol. 1. Unfortunately CC only has volume 1 published so far. This will take us to Christmas break. If they don’t release volume 2 by then, I’m going to have to do it myself. We skipped history this week in favor of science.

• Curiosity Chronicles Modern History Vol. 1
• DK History
• DK Timelines of Everything
• DK Timelines of Everyone
• DK A Child Through Time
• A Journey Through Art

Quentin is using Build Your Library Level 5 to begin our two year exploration of American History. We skipped history this year in favor of science.

• History Quest United States History
• DK When on Earth?
• DK History
• DK Timelines of Everything
• DK Timelines of Everyone
• DK A Child Through Time
• DK American History

Science

Arthur is using RSO Earth and Environment 2 and later RSO Astronomy 2 for science. We managed to do all our prep for Academic Co-op’s Physics class. The videos and practice problems took an entire science block but it was a good lesson. We even had time to fit in our next Earth Science lesson in between.

• RSO Earth and Environment 2 (August-November; March-May)
• RSO Astronomy 2 (November-March)
• DK Eyewitness Energy

Quentin is using RSO Physics 1. We covered our next chapter about planes and wedges. We will stay with simple machines for the next month or so.

• RSO Physics 1
• The Story of Science Vol. 1 by Joy Hakim
• Physics: Investigate the Mechanics of Nature by Jane Gardner
• Physics for Curious Kids Introduction
• The Way Things Work Now
• Energy by Matt Mullins
• Energy by Nancy Dickmann
• Physics by Jane Gardner
• Life, Mix, Fling! Machines Can Do Anything by Lola M. Schaefer

Enrichment STEAM Co-op /Academic Co-op

We had our second week of Academic Co-op. Things went much better this week than the previous week. Hopefully we are getting our groove. Arthur had a good week learning about physics and prehistoric Nebraska and playing chess and mancala. Quentin learned about bats and played some games.

Art and Music

We are doing something a little different this year. Instead of trying to do music and art every week, we will be trading off. I realized last year these subjects were always the first to be cut when we had time constraints. We managed a short lesson about Ancient Asian art for this week.

• DK Music and How it Works
• DK The Arts
• Why is Art Full of Naked People? by Susie Hodge
• The Story of the Incredible Orchestra by Bruce Koscielniak

Field Trip/Activities

We had another visit to Vala’s for our weekly fun.

High

On Friday, a friend hosted a curriculum planning event. It’s a chance for us adults to body double and/or socialize while planning our homeschool journey. It’s also a chance for the kids to hang out without any agenda or activity planned. It was a short event, but a lovely event.

Low

I ended the week very tired. Still struggling with our balance of activities and school.

Next Week

• Continuing our read aloud (A) and starting a new read aloud (Q)
• Moving forward with our math chapters
• Learning about the New England and Atlantic English colonies (Q) and Colonization in Southeast Asia (A) for history
• Covering Newton’s Laws (A) and more simple machines (Q) for science
• Going to Academic Co-op for Week 3
• Visiting Vala’s, celebrating the Co-op Halloween Party, and exploring the SAC Museum for a field trip

Next up on the TBR pile: