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What goals do you want your 4th grader to reach by the end of the year?


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My oldest DS turned 10 a few weeks ago. Up till now we have had a pretty relaxed homeschool experience, but I think we need to begin setting and working towards some goals. I want to make sure he is prepared to step into logic stage work, with its increase in expectations, when the time comes. I don't want to just flip a switch and get crazy rigorous on him all at once either! I am not sure what goals to set. I have been reading through the logic stage section TWTM and am beginning to form some ideas, but I am still feeling pretty lost to be honest. I am mostly thinking about academic, time management/organization and level of independence goals. The academic goals are really stumping me, I have kind of just done what the curricula we have used has asked for with no specific goals. We have mostly followed the general plan in TWTM and he has found most of the work fairly easy. The only area that he really seems to have trouble with are narrations, we are using WWE 3 and he sometimes has a hard time answering the questions and picking out the important parts to form a narration. I am worried that he won't be ready next year to do what TWTM recommends for 5th grade. And I know that we don't HAVE to follow it, but I really like it and so far, so do my kids. So tell me, what are some goals you want your kids to reach by the end of 4th grade? Maybe by reading some of them it will jump start my brain for me! Thanks!

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I'd say we're more eclectic than real WTM-ers, but I tend to think of what I want my eldest to accomplish by the end of fifth grade, as that's when elementary school ends for the local public schools. This is my ambitious list for what I'm hoping my now third grader has accomplished by the end of fifth grade:

*to be able to narrate back to me after a single reading a passage

*some basic ability to draw accurately

*some skill in a handicraft TBD (this is her first year of 4-H and I'm really hoping one of the projects she picks will be this)

*have finished pre-algebra (but she's my mathy kid)

*understand some spoken Spanish; be able to speak a little; be able to read and understand very simple picture books in Spanish (we've been working on Spanish since before second grade: we do this instead of Latin)

*have finished a cycle of world history

*be able to draw a rough map of the world (continents, oceans, great circles) and the US (states and capitals)

*know some basic facts from biology, chemistry, and physics (as we spent a year studying each!)

*know basic English grammar, spelling, and mechanics

*be able to retell some tales from mythology, the Bible, and Shakespeare

*be able to recite some poetry

*be able to play multiple piano pieces from memory (she's a Suzuki kid)

*be able to read music

*be able to recognize and name several classical pieces

*be able to recognize several famous art works

*have read a lot of good books (hoping maybe have finished the Mensa book list)

 

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My current 4th grader is working on written narrations with a bit of discussion / coaching first.  Maybe by the end of the year that will be more automatic.  He already shows a lot of self-discipline and focus regarding his independent work, so I think we're good there.  I'm happy with his reading, though I'd like a mix of easy and stretching books this year to encourage both longer periods of reading and slightly harder books. 

 

More importantly than my goals (just so happens my current 4th grader is one of my easiest students), have you seen the different recommendations for what to do after WWE 3?  You have several different options if you don't want to use WWE 4 or he's not ready for WWS.  Link:  http://downloads.peacehillpress.com/samples/pdf/WWEandWWSexplanation.pdf?utm_source=Catalog&utm_medium=Print&utm_content=Page%2B9&utm_campaign=2014%2BCatalog&page=10

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