Homeschool Year in Review: 2019-20 (4th grade)

Evie's style is to get a lot of help but also work independently. She thrived this year and enjoyed her work.

Here is what we used for resources:

Math- I thought of switching math curriculum for her this year and she wouldn't have it. So we continued with Horizons. The 4th grade curriculum is probably my least favorite; it feels redundant. But it covers the topic using a spiral method (which worked well with all of my kids who would each get bored from doing too much of one thing in math for too long).

History and Reading-We used Story of the World Vol. 2: The Middle Ages with Evie and Kyrie covering the same content. Evie is a fast reader and in addition to a lot of related art projects from the activity guide, she read a lot of the suggested book titles for geography, literature, and history.

Earth Science and Astronomy-Ben and Kyrie were studying this course at their levels and I was able to take the curriculum guide by the same company (Elemental Science) and rearrange the order of the lessons so Evie was studying the same topics they were. We didn't do the experiments in her book and instead she participated in the labs for older students. But the reading assignments and books (additional purchase or library) and the writing component were more on her level. She made a gorgeous model universe and this along with identifying stars and planets while eating smores around the fire pit were probably her favorite part of science.

Grammar-I tried something new for Grammar and while Evie enjoyed the story of the family with their pets, I found Well Ordered Language to be really time-consuming and confusing. It relied on songs and Evie dismissed this as unnecessary and we skipped a lot of the material that was just not necessary. By January, we had finished and went back to First Language Lessons, Level 4 which covers grammar so well with no prep required for the teacher.

Writing & Rhetoric-I continue to love Classical Academic Press's Writing & Rhetoric series. Evie completed Narrative I and Narrative II and focused on learning about the different kinds of stories as well as the elements of narratives.

Spelling & Handwriting-Evie worked her way through Spelling Workout D and Zaner Bloser. I have liked Zaner Bloser for fundamentals; but about 4th grade it seems completely boring to me. But I appreciate the way the different letters are taught by strokes that tie in together. Spelling Workout books group spelling by similarities (i.e. Latin roots, prefixes, suffixes), and have the perfect amount of practice without feeling like busy work.

Bible- Kyrie and Evie used God's Great Covenant: Old Testament 2 from 1 Samuel through Malachi this year. In addition to Scripture reading and memorization, Evie had worksheet pages and a quiz each week. I love the way this curriculum tells the story of God's redeeming work in the world.

Art-Art was a Friday subject for Evie that incorporated projects from the Story of the World Activity guide, and then projects I came up with using art lessons from The Metropolitan Museum. Most of the lessons plans just included learning objectives and talking points; but I used the art itself to come up with ideas for projects.

Typing and Logic: Once a week, every practiced typing with Typing Instructor and did fun online logic puzzles with Mind benders.