I am considering ordering one of the handwriting workbooks from the Getty Dubay series for my 5th grade daughter. Her handwriting is "ok," but it often ends up rather sloppy, as she tends to be lazy with it. She has gone through several Pentime books, which we really like, but I'd like her to focus more on legible printing. One thing I've noticed is that she often starts her letters from the bottom and goes up (with certain letters). She went to public school for kindergarten, and I think she was taught that way there, although she did get instruction in writing from the top down after kindergarten. Anyway, I've been looking at the Getty Dubay series, and I'm just wondering which book she should start with? I don't want her to feel that she's doing "baby" work, but I think there would be value for her in really practicing her letter formation, possibly with some tracing, before jumping into copying paragraphs.

I am planning for 5th grade History and would appreciate your thoughts regarding sourcing books for the extra reading. My daughter will be studying history with her Uncle so she will need to have all the books with her to take to his house. The plan at the moment is to have a quick look at the pages to be covered in the week ahead (we will be using Usborne EWH as the spine) and borrow books on the topics she thinks she may be interested in studying further. In addition to this I'm going to buy a second hand encyclopedia set and we have the SOTW books which she absolutely loves. This is the plan. Back in the real world, it's a realistic expectation that I just won't make it to the library every week and if we do make it, often the books we want are not available (perhaps a plan might be to look ahead the whole month rather than the week). I am working single mother and despite good intentions and the best laid plans sometimes there are just not enough hours in the day. So, I would like to know if you think the encyclopedia and SOTW would be sufficient extra reading for those weeks where we are making do with what we have? Obviously the internet has a wealth of sites etc I would just prefer extra reading to from a physical book for the most part. Are there any other resources I could purchase that would be a worthwhile to add? I don't have a huge budget, but I will invest in quality resources if it covers many topics. TIA :)

Our family has returned to Homeschooling after a one year hiatus. Based on our initial experience, we are doing things much differently - much more outsourcing, much less mom-designed work. For the most part, things are going well and this is a setup that allows us to continue homeschooling within the limitations and realities of our family dynamic ;-) DD 13 is very independent and autonomous - always has been. She is doing very well and requires little to no input from me - although I do covert monitoring daily to make sure everything stays on track. DH 10 is another story altogether. He is very bright, but has always been reluctant (to put it mildly) to do schoolwork. He has done a brilliant job of applying himself so far this year, but has some extra ground to cover and is lacking in the skills that will eventually make it possible for him to work more efficiently and quickly. Specifically: 1) he has great verbal ability, but is an extremely hesitant and slow writer. 2) he is still learning to manage his time and apply himself to tasks in a self-organized manner, and sometimes seems to struggle to understand what is being asked of him in an assignment. I should add that, while he is in 5th Grade, he is enrolled in MS content courses for Humanities and Science - he is more than capable of handling the content, but due the writing delays (and lack of formal experience with this level of studies) sometimes struggles with the output side of things. At the moment, I am spending a LOT of time working 'with' him, helping him to plan his work, decipher the assignments, complete his work and 'coach' him through the writing required. I haven't kept track of exactly how much time, but I'll jot it down over the next week to see....but it's a heavy percentage of the time - definitely more than 50% of the time he's doing active work. I have to say that he has come a long way in a short time and is honestly giving it his best effort. This is the first year that he 'wants' to do well and is taking more pride in his work. I would add that he remains a curious and lively child - loves to read and enjoys learning. But I do need to prod him along often ;-) We are both working with the understanding that the goal is for him to transition to more independence as the school year unfolds, and he is accepting and embracing that. I am very grateful as well that we enrolled him in a Leadership Course that focuses on time managements and personal responsibility. It is a huge gift for any child IMHO. There is a question in all of this.....I'm curious to know from others who have BTDT if this is typical of the age and of boys in general? He doesn't seem to be chaffing at the demands too much, but does find the workload challenging.... BTW, I am ok with this for the time being - it is where he is and I am grateful to have this opportunity to be sure he has a strong foundation before the higher grades hit. I'm pretty sure he would be at risk of seriously lagging in traditional class room setting. Just wondering if this falls within the range of normal....ish....

My 5th grader is using Mosdos Press Coral and my 7th grader will be using Jade. I've searched the forums (using Google, which seems to always work better), and I've only found a couple of threads with scheduling ideas. Have you used either of these? What did a typical week look like? I'd love a few more ideas in how to schedule and use these amazing lit resources with my kiddos! For anyone else that is trying to plan this curriculum, here's a few more threads that I found to help with scheduling: -- Mosdos Press Jade Schedule -- Mosdos Discussion for Fans and Current Users - there's a few ideas here

I'm trying to decide between Mosdos and BJU Literature/reading for my 7th grader, 5th grader, and 3rd grader. Do you think one is superior over the other? Does one do a better job of encouraging deeper critical thinking? For either curriculum, do you use the reading book, Teacher's Guide, and workbook? Are the workbooks necessary? I'd love to hear your thoughts, comparisons, and experiences with either of these curricula. FWIW, while we've always read and discussed ample amounts of great literature in our homeschool, we've never used a formal program. I'm not able to teach the elements of literature without a lot of hand-holding help and need a laid-out-for-me curriculum. I'm currently listening to the Teaching the Classics DVDs, but am also looking for something structured for these grades. One more question - Is this too much for me to take on with these separate grade levels? Am I biting off more than I can chew time-wise? What are your estimates for time commitment from mom for this type of lit analysis and discussion with each kiddo? Thank you for any and all insight! :)

Hi- I'm trying to make sense of the 5th grade logic stage and I'm hoping some pros in this can help me! This is what I'm thinking so far- am I correct? What would you add or subtract? Language Arts Writing-Writing With Skill 1 Has anyone done the Creative Writer series offered on WTM website? If so, did you do this at the same time as Writing with Skill or another writing program? Grammar ????? I was looking at AG, but it doesn't suggest to start it until 6th grade. I prefer to stay secular in our learning, so Rod and Staff are out, I guess. Any thoughts on Well Ordered Language or Voyages? We will have finished 1st Language Lessons Level 4 by the end of this year, so I'm at a bit of a loss for what my 10yr old daughter should do in 5th grade. Spelling Spelling Workout F/G Keyboard Keyboarding Without Tears History Am I correct that we are going back to reading SOTW1, but this time at a deeper level by including a resource like Kingfisher, timelines, outlines, and narrations? Math Math-U-See Life of Fred Maybe supplement with a little Singapore for additional word problems Science Please share with me your recommendations for a biology program for the logic stage. It should be stated I'm not a science minded gal, so I need all the help I can get- whatever you find to be the most complete. Languages My kids will continue with French which they speak fluently, but maybe we'll add Latin. What's your favorite Latin program? I know everyone has strong opinions, so let me hear them!! I'm feeling a little overwhelmed entering the logic stage. Oh, and I should mention that I'll be also teaching her little brother in 3rd grade next year, so he'll be doing some of the history and science with her. Thanks!

I'm planning on using this next year for my 5th-grade DD along with the Logic to the Rescue series. How have you all used it? Do you assign a certain number of pages to read and do some flashcards? Discussion? I won't have much time to do any discussion because of the number of children I'm teaching. Any suggestions?

Good morning! Has anyone used Voyages in English for 5th grade? We are currently using it and it takes foooooorrrrreeeever to complete each day to stay on track with the lesson plans provided! Any insight/advice would be so appreciated. I am not sure if we are going to stay with it or perhaps find something else. What do you all enjoy using for 5th grade language arts? Thanks!

This is my second time around with a 5th grader, but the first time, I was only homeschooling the one. This time, I've got the 5th grader plus my 9th grader, plus part time work. I'm feeling like the 5th grader needs to ramp it up a little bit, in terms of output and content, but in order to make that work she'll need to do more independent work than she has in the past. Even though I dedicate several hours a day to working directly with her, I can't really add more hours to my plate - so the ramp-up will need to come from her having some independent work to do without me right at her elbow, or directly teaching. I'm trying to figure out what's reasonable to expect from this age & stage. I'm going to re-listen to SWB's talk on the topic, but I'm also curious to hear from experienced folks: how much independent work does your 5th grader do? What does s/he do independently? In what topics? Is s/he able to do a list of things independently, or do you have to check in frequently? I know every kid is different. But I have a tendency to expect less of the 2nd child than the first, for a variety of reasons, and I'm curious to hear what others experience. Hearing about a range of experience will be helpful to me.

It must be planning season, here's my annual off the wall, bad-idea-probably-won't work planning post: I'm thinking about OM 5th grade for my younger dd. Partly for my own sake, I am working much more than I have in the past, and I'll have a 9th grader to manage as well. Having somebody else lay everything out has its appeal. I also think that in general, OM's style and content would appeal to dd9. At the same time, I'm thinking to myself - what, are you crazy??? You've done 5th grade before, you already own all the pieces to put it together yourself. And this child has never followed your plans, why do you think she will suddenly be jazzed to follow someone else's? So, I'm looking for reviews/thoughts of the OM 5th grade curriculum, if you've used it. Also, feel free to comment on whether you think I've lost my mind. ;) :D

I'd like to do some logic puzzles and critical thinking activities with my 4th and 5th graders next school year--for fun, not as a heavy academic pursuit. Sort of as prep for more formal study during middle school. Any ideas? Workbooks? Websites? Games?