This year it's March. I'm not really sure what happened.
But as I begin to think ahead to next year, I wanted to make sure to record what we did this year. So, here's what Hannah has been working on. I'll post Will and Peter's curricula choices separately.
Hannah : 5th Grade
Bible/Theology
- The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study: A Survey of the Bible by Starr Meade. A very good study! Hannah will complete Volume One this year; there are four volumes to take her through the whole Bible in middle school.
- Daily family Bible reading and discussion that follows along with the scripture texts for the Sunday sermons
- Scripture Memory
- Heidelberg Catechism - selected questions
- Veritas Press History Timeline
- Saxon Math 7/6
- Life of Fred - Fractions (A chapter each Friday to mix things up - she loves it!)
Mind Benders books A1, A2, A3, A4
Hannah really enjoyed these daily puzzles and has already finished them all. Next year, we will begin a more formal study of logic.
English/Writing
- Rod and Staff English 5 "Following the Plan"
I settled on this mostly based on the recommendation of The Well-Trained Mind. It has been fine. If only there was a First Language Lessons Level 5! - Writing With Skill, Level 1 by Susan Wise Bauer. Very pleased with this rigorous program!
- The Creative Writer: Level 1, Five Finger Exercises by Boris Fishman. We are just about to take a short break from Writing With Skill to focus on the this program.
- And lots of reading, narration, and discussion.
Visual Latin
This has been a big hit! Video lessons taught by homeschooling dad Dwane Thomas with corresponding worksheets.
Spelling
Spelling Workout F.
Vocabulary
Wordly Wise 6
History (with Will and Peter)
- Story of the World: The Middle Ages
- With Activity Book, map work, and corresponding historical literature. I often turn to All Through the Ages to find wonderful living books for Hannah.
- We are hoping to spend the last weeks of the school year building a timeline in our school room.
- In addition to the maps we study with history, Hannah loves to challenge herself with online geography games. Tonight at dinner I mentioned that a friend was traveling in Mali and asked her to tell us exactly where it was. She rattled off all the surrounding countries and drew an a quick outline of Mali's shape with her finger. Love that website.
- Oh, and because she can't get enough she also works through a supplemental workbook.
Science (with Will and Peter)
We have skipped around a bit this year. My kids like to approach science in units... so do I.
- The first several weeks we spent enjoying Exploring Creation's Human Anatomy and Physiology - primarily the skeletal and muscular systems.
- Late fall was spent learning all about pastured farm animals at Rocklands Farm.
- January, February, and March we are doing a physics unit (using Real Science 4 Kids) with another homeschool family.
- April and May might take us back to the farm... or back to anatomy... still working on those details.
Our house is filled with art supplies and my children are always working on something creative, but this year it has been less directed by me. They will often sketch and create while I read to them. Every couple of weeks we will do a project together. Art Projects for Kids and Deep Space Sparkle are my favorite sites for inspiration. We all crave more time for art in our days... this year it's been hard... I hope it's just a season.
Music
We continue to enjoy learning about the history of music and reading books about composers' lives (we love the Zeezok books). I had planned on using Bright Idea's Press Composer Studies this year, but decided to wait until next year. Hannah and Will both have weekly piano lessons, and Hannah sings in our church choir.
PE
For fun, the kids are all taking a weekly homeschool tennis class with a bunch of friends. We call it PE. : )
That's very cool, thanks for sharing. Since she seems to be ahead in math and likes logic, you could throw some computer code learning her way:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.codecademy.com/
It's a lot of fun to build stuff, and a great skill to have.
JoshB
Hi! I am wondering in hindsight if you were please with Rod and Staff 5th grade English? We did Essentials of the English Language thru a Classical Campus here this year. I am pregnant and it wont be feasible for next year. I didnt realize Well Trained Mind suggested it for 5th grade. Anyway, did yall like it?
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