5th Grade AL Planning

[sportsmom]

I'm currently trying to pick a science curriculum for my PG rising 5th grader (age 10).  He was in PS K-2nd, and the past 2 years we have done Abeka 3rd and 4th science.  It's a fine curriculum, but not challenging at all for him.  We did some Apologia last year, but neither of us were thrilled with it.  He's highly perfectionistic and to him the 100% is everything.  We both would like a curriculum that has some quantifiable measure of mastery (i.e. tests/quizzes) and I'd really like a teacher guide to keep us on track.

 

So far, I haven't found anything that I've fallen in love with.  Right now I am looking at the College of William and Mary curriculums for gifted learners and am interested in Acid, Acid Everywhere as well as Electricity City, but I'm having a hard time coming across user reviews of them.  Does anyone have experience with these programs?

 

The past 2 years we have mostly stuck with Abeka for everything, but finished the whole programs by mid-year and then moved on to supplemental programs.  Except this year we did Abeka 4 Math and then completed Saxon 54 (he has completed Saxon 54 in 9 weeks, and has requested never to go back to Abeka math).  My current plan for 5th does not include any Abeka, which is as follows:

 

Math:  Saxon 65 (probably will finish by December) and Saxon 76

 

History:  Story of the World Volume 3, looking into Mysteries of History, but would like a higher level course as history is his favorite subject

 

Music Theory:  Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory (complete bundle with cds)

 

Language:  MCT Grammar Town (Honestly, I'm not sure where to put him in an MCT course.  He's excellent at grammar and sentence diagramming, but is so literal that he has severe reading comprehension problems and can't "read between the lines" or see inferred meanings.  He also excels at spelling and vocab, it's just reading comprehension that gets him every time.)

 

Foreign Language:  Spanish 2 (once a week class, HS credit)

 

Sports:  Football and Lacrosse

[EndOfOrdinary]

Depending on which you looked at Apologia's high school programs (Exploring Creation Series) are quite meaty for low high school/high middle school.  Those are what we used with my son (Exploring Creation with Chemistry, 2nd Edition, for 4th and 5th grade).  They have tests.  They have a math component.  They are a step past just conceptual, but not really into crazy problem solving.  The younger series is quite fluffy.  We really disliked them.

[sportsmom]

Depending on which you looked at Apologia's high school programs (Exploring Creation Series) are quite meaty for low high school/high middle school.  Those are what we used with my son (Exploring Creation with Chemistry, 2nd Edition, for 4th and 5th grade).  They have tests.  They have a math component.  They are a step past just conceptual, but not really into crazy problem solving.  The younger series is quite fluffy.  We really disliked them.

 

Oh, that sounds like a much better option!  Thank you so much!  I will definitely look into their higher level books.  He would love Chemistry.  I'm also exploring an option for a Lego Robotics course in November/December, which is taught by gifted education department professors at a prestigious university nearby. 

 

We tried the Astronomy book last year, and it was just a disaster for us.  Lots of the "projects" were drawings and taking the time to build his astronomy notebook.  He's not creative at ALL and was annoyed by my constant requests to take his time on illustrations.  In his mind, it didn't matter if he illustrated all in pencil and never colored it in.  For me, the labs were mostly fluffy and not worth the time of my pulling out all the materials.  We abandoned it several weeks in.  He did love the actual text though...I think he ended up reading it on his own time.

 

In the next year or so, I know I will have to put him somewhere where he can get some lab time.  He just wants to complete his stack of work for the day, and I will readily admit that I'm awful at follow-through on the lab portion of work.

[SilverMoon]

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Edited May 23, 2023 by SilverMoon

[sportsmom]

I'm planning on a mash of Guesthollow's chemistry for my rising 5th grader this year. She'll turn ten later this summer. If you include the Christian Kids Explore book you'll have worksheets and tests.

 

Before DD firmly decided she wanted to study chemistry next year we were going to use Oak Meadow life science. Their 7th grade earth science would probably be doable too. Here are the samples.

 

For history, Mystery of History is also a narrative history written to a somewhat higher level. The K12 Human Odyssey texts are pretty popular here too. Look for the latter on used book sites like Amazon. (Mine will be doing American Girl based American history; boys probably wouldn't approve.)

 

I don't know much about MCT. Mine will use either Rod and Staff's English 6 or Analytical Grammar.

 

Thanks for the feedback.  I might look into the chemistry one.  DS would do well in a chemistry course, I think.