History/Literature: We continue to be fans of Story of the World, especially the methodology that the activity book brings to the curriculum. We check out 90+% of the recommended supplemental history and literature suggestions at our local library, incorporate the geography piece, and do about 20-25% of the recommended activities that involve cooking, crafts, art, sewing, science and math. This year, Kyrie is doing Vol 1. Ancient History in 2nd grade. She wasn't quite ready to start history in 1st and so I delayed. (More on that in my 2nd grade reviews.) It has worked well because Ben was ready in 5th to start on Ancient History again. I found these great printable resources from a homeschool mom blog that allowed us to have much nicer timeline cards (something that SOTW introduces in later volumes but were not included in this one). It also has lined journal pages, complete with a timeline at the top and pictures. Instead of verbally summarizing each lesson, he wrote a summary and kept a notebook. He also did more extra reading and added in internet research.
Grammar & Spelling:We tried something new this year and used Grammar Voyage by Michael Clay Thompson. To be fair, we did not want to do the complete package that was prescribed by the author. We LOVE our writing curriculum and so I wanted the strictly grammar portion. I had heard about how "lovely" and "artistic" this curriculum is.... I struggled through trying to decide which level Ben would be at, despite no real placement exam or grade level match. Grammar Voyage was probably about right. Despite that, both Ben and I think Grammar may not be where you want "lovely" and "artistic." It was very poetic, very hard to follow. It isn't even left-justified. It drove me crazy. At the end of the day, Ben asked if we could do something different next year. We agree. We have continued to be pleased with Spelling Workout and Ben did Level E this year. This is great for practice, theory, and reading, as well as handwriting.
Writing & Rhetoric: Last year we started with Classical Academic Press's brand new Writing & Rhetoric curriculum. We loved it then and continued with it this year. We love it even more. Great at developing writing skills, interesting, diversified enough to keep Ben's interest but uniform enough to keep us sane, he completed Narrative II and is completing Chreia and Proverb. The books are short enough to do two a year, they don't require a lot of prep and the Teacher's Manual is very helpful. Ben LOVES writing after a rocky start with a different curriculum in 3rd grade. I also really value the rhetoric component that develops not just written communication, but spoken, as well.
Math: We continued with Horizons Math. I don't LOVE it and I'm intrigued by Singapore Math. But Ben likes it and asked to continue with it. I still think that homeschooling math curricula needs to be stronger. However, Horizons does a good job with providing additional resources in its teacher guide (even though they could do a lot better at correlating the teacher's guide and student books). It continues with a concept enough for it to be learned and then integrates learned concepts into later lessons for practice and to prevent boredom. It is colorful and interesting. He struggled with multiplying and dividing fractions; so we went through the Khan Academy unit on this topic. I highly recommend that approach as there is a video to watch and then computer-graded problems to work through.
Science/Biology: Science is a real struggle for me. I hate the mess, length, prep and cost of experiments, but believe they are the best way to learn science. I love the idea of co-op classes but the strident tone of many with strong beliefs on origins has kept me from participating. This also ruled out many curriculum options. After a long search I found Real Science-4-Kids written/created by a scientist/homeschooling mom. This curriculum is colorful, interesting, and has varying levels of helps. If you are completely confident in what you are doing, go for the text, teacher's manual and lab book. If like me, you want more guidance, buy the bigger package with downloadable lesson plans, quizzes, and study folders. My one mistake is that I started with Biology. I should have started 5th with Building Blocks in the fall and done that and then Biology in the spring. Biology is best taught in the spring because of the experiments involved. Biology has 10 lessons and the material could easily be done in 20 weeks (2 weeks per lesson). The thing that takes more time is the lab work which means a variety of experiments (tadpoles, butterflies, plants, etc....) may be ongoing. We will be continuing with this wonderful curriculum and may go back and do Building Blocks along with Astronomy and Geology this year. He also continues classes at a nearby nature reserve which gets him outside in all seasons and offers quality instruction in everything from Michigan fur trapping to insects and birds. He also took an online Minecraft Science course but more on that later.
Bible: We love Classical Academic Press's God's Great Covenant Series. It involves Scripture reading, some text that emphasizes God's story of redemption throughout all of Scripture, worksheets and quizzes. Younger students can participate in part of it; the worksheets and quizzes are best for grades 3 and older. We finished Old Testament II this year and will do New Testament 1 next. I appreciate that it looks for agreement in doctrine and focuses on God's redeeming work.
Handwriting: I find no reason to teach a handwriting course in 5th grade, unless, of course, you have a reluctant cursive writer like I do, who refuses to write cursive on any of his other assignments. We had no plan to have a specific handwriting book this year, but after an ongoing battle, I purchased Zaner-Bloser's 5th grade book, and he was happy to do that. It has good instruction and I was able to find a used copy with a just pages written in for a few dollars.
Latin: Ben is now beyond my ability to really help in Latin. He enjoyed it less last year as a result of having unanswered questions and the fact that Latin is HARD. We loved Classical Academic Press's methodology and knew he wanted to continue with Latin for Children, Primer C. He is a grade ahead in Latin; initially it was recommended to begin the series in 3rd or 4th grade. We started in 3rd and Ben is a strong student, so it worked. However, by the time he was in 3rd year, there was a lot more work involved. We made the decision to enroll him in Classical Academic Press's online course, which is a real-time computer-based course in which he interacts visually with classmates and a knowledgeable instructor. It is costly. It was worth every penny for the instructor quality and social encouragement he received from twice-weekly interaction with other Latin students. At the beginning of the year, he had agreed to one more year of Latin. Now he wants to continue with the study. Shannon Walker was his instructor. She had re pore with students from the first moment and was great to work with. It was also good for Ben to have another opportunity to work with an outside authority.
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| "Beethoven Lives Upstairs" at the Detroit Symphony |
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| Ben on violin |
Art: We love art history. This year we added to our art theory and practice by using Feed My Sheep. Art is typically a Friday-only class, and often bumped by field trips or makeup work. We will continue with this in the summer because it is enjoyable and good for summer learning.
Logic: We sprinkle in some Logic for fun on a rather irregular schedule. We used Red Herring Mysteries which is an apparently contradictory scenario that the student thinks on and asks yes or no questions about in order to try to discover what is really going on. We have used Mind Benders
for years. This year, Ben is using the software and solving the puzzles on the computer. Buying the software also made it easy for his sisters to use it when they are ready for it.
Minecraft: Ben is obsessed with all things Minecraft. He lacks life balance so he occasionally has to take mandatory "breaks." However, Minecraft does teach some valuable skills and we were able to mine some of these through Minecraft Homeschool. Online courses are available across different genres at different levels. Graded and ungraded versions are available and courses are very inexpensive. He took a science course and learned about Nikola Tesla, Alexander Graham Bell, Louis Pasteur, and others and their scientific discoveries.
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