Am I trying to do too much for 4th grade?

[dangermom]

My daughter is 9 and reasonably bright. Last year, in 3rd grade, we could never accomplish quite as much as I wanted to do before lunch, and it was difficult for me to enforce study time after lunch as we did chores and had quiet time and prepared to go out for the afternoon.

 

I feel that in 4th grade, she's old enough to be doing more and more serious work, and I need to commit to having study time after lunch every day. (I'm sort of wondering what the lack of quiet time will do to my sanity, but we'll see.) At the same time, though, the workload I have planned seems like a lot to me! There's just so much good stuff to do.... So help me out, hive mind: for a bright, crafty kid who reads very well indeed (and fast) and has no learning-related difficulties, how does this sound to you?

 

Math: Saxon 65 (I tend to lighten up the lessons a bit and go a little slowly)

Spelling: SW E (this is no actual effort)

Vocab (new subject, but needed): Wordly Wise 4

Grammar: R&S 4

Writing: CW Homer/Poetry for Beginners

Latin: LC II, very slowly

Greek: Elem. Greek I, even more slowly and more for fun

History: SOTW 4 + assigned reading, etc.

Art and music appreciation to go with history, nothing very formal

Science: Physics--2 experiments/week, + research 1/week and modern scientist biography 1/week.

And the odd logic puzzle or geography work.

 

On the one hand, it just seems like too much stuff. OTOH, I keep thinking of stuff I want to do and it's all so great! Argh.

[Hsmomto4]

It seems a little too much to me. We never did vocabulary on top of spelling because there is plenty of time for vocabulary after the grammar stage. and we never did more than one language at a time till Rhetoric stage. R&S 4 has a good amount of writing instruction in it so we never did another writing program on top of it, just made sure to do writing assignments through history and science. We also don't do logic till 5th grade. HOWEVER, this is just us and if you think your daughter will do fine with all of it then go for it! :-)

[HappyGrace]

For vocab I would recommend streamlining it in rather than doing it separately-just pull from CW and your history and sci, etc. Plus your Greek/Latin should cover some vocab and roots, etc. So with all this you could definitely drop the Wordly Wise!

 

You won't need the writing in R+S along with Homer. If you REALLY wanted to streamline more you could do your grammar along with your CW-whatever they're talking about in CW, just use that section from R+S to explain it-rather than using them both separately. Even your spelling could be covered through your CW, if you wanted to tighten it up even more.

 

My dd is the same age and also very bright so I am trying to streamline things more like this. For instance, I am getting GWG5 for *me* to pick topics from to use in our dictation passages, and doing spelling, etc, in our dictation passages too. (She gets IEW in co-op, otherwise we'd be doing Homer too-love it! I will be pulling ideas from there though.)

 

I like the way you have your sci planned-a nice mix. I think you have some really good curriculum choices and it looks well-rounded.

[Chris in VA]

I would pick one language (probably the Latin); take out CW and use R&S exclusively, plus narration and dictation from history; nix the vocab, since you'll be covering latin derivatives, and there's plenty of time later to focus on vocab (and make sure she's reading high quality lit to get more vocab).

 

Here's what dd is doing, if comparing helps any:

 

Art: Discovering the Great Masters and some Drawing With Children 2

days a week

Music: Church choir 1x week and piano lessons 1x week

Grammar/

Writing: Notebooking for History, Rod and Staff 3 (grammar 4-5 days)

History: SOTW 3 w/AG 3-4 times a week

Math: Saxon 6/5, pretty much how you are doing it! 5 days

Latin: Review what we did in Prima L, finish it, then go to something else

Science: Field-based biology of my own, including Jr. Ranger programs and

bird studies 2-3 days

Bible: Devotional reading, memory work (Nativity story from Luke, Jn 3:16

and some other work 5 days

Spelling: SWO or Spelling Power, not sure which, 5 days

 

 

We are also adding in memory work. I am expecting to work with her about 4 hours, with art going at her own pace, and science sometimes requiring field trips.

 

I wouldn't give up your quiet time altogether; either make it independent study time, or shave off 1/2 hour so you still can get some time to recharge.

[patchfire]

Honestly, it doesn't sound that different than what I have planned for my 4th grader. The only difference is that my dd does have some difficulty with spelling, so we're doing just spelling until at least halfway through the year, and then I hope to change over to vocabulary. So I might consider dropping spelling, in your shoes.

[elegantlion]

To me it looks like you have overlap in CW, R&S, vocabulary, and spelling. Are you planning on using Homer for writing only?

 

I agree with Chris' recommendations.

[kckamy]

I think what you have listed looks very good and very close to what my daughter will be doing next year for 4th grade. We started using Wordly Wise last year and I thought it was beneficial and will continue using it this year. I would recommend looking at samples on-line; I find the books too easy at grade level. You might want to go up a level or two.

 

Last year was the first year that my daughter had work to do after lunch. She adjusted to it quicker than I thought she would. The work she does after lunch does not involve me so I can get other things done. It has worked out smoothly.

 

Here is our schedule:

Building Thinking Skills

Daily Paragraph Editing & Easy Grammar

Wordly Wise (these are her spelling words as well)

Writing Tales 2

Saxon 6/5

Latin for Children B (and use Cambridge Latin Course level 1 for additional reading)Rosetta Stone Spanish

American History along with U.S. Presidents Unit Study and Add-A-Century Timeline

Europe & Asia Map Study & Lapbook

Science & 365 Simple Science Experiments

Artist & Composer Studies

How to Teach Art to Children & How to Draw

 

It always looks like a lot to me when I list it out like this!

 

Amy

 

 

 

[Brindee]

To me it looks like you have overlap in CW, R&S, vocabulary, and spelling. Are you planning on using Homer for writing only?

 

I agree with Chris' recommendations.

:iagree:

 

Why are you going slowly with Saxon 65? Has she been working in Saxon before this? If she did Saxon 54, then she should be well ready for 65, especially the first few chapters that are review! I'd keep her moving forward as she grasps the concepts----meaning: I'd not PLAN on moving slowly unless she NEEDS to move slowly to grasp it! Move at her pace, whether it be faster or slower. Ask me how I know! Because dd did 76 in 4th, and I made her plod through everything at Saxon's pace/a slower pace until it drove her crazy! I didn't realize what it was doing to her, until she hated the Saxon math and cried when we even talked about it. She'd done so well up 'til then, and could do the math---especially if I'd have gone at HER pace! As it was the repetition bothered her a lot....

 

We went to TT Pre-Algebra the next year, and she did much better because I learned she needed to go at her pace!

[dangermom]

The Greek is really for fun, we don't do much and the kids both like it a lot. I do plan to drop any R&S writing in favor of CW (which I adore and dd likes), and I've never bothered with spelling in CW--she's one of those kids who doesn't have to exert effort in spelling, so she does the spelling worksheet pages on Monday and we forget about it until a quiz on Friday. I will think about dropping WW, but will see how she likes it--I went and ordered some things yesterday morning that won't come for another month and that's one of them.

 

The art and music I want to be pretty casual--just to know what the main things since 1850 have been. I plan to listen to the Beatles in the car in the spring. :D

 

Well, of course I plan to ease into our schedule, as we always do--so I guess I'll see how it goes. It's a good idea to plan things after lunch that I don't have to be so actively involved in.

[Ellie]

The Greek is really for fun, we don't do much and the kids both like it a lot. I do plan to drop any R&S writing in favor of CW (which I adore and dd likes), and I've never bothered with spelling in CW--she's one of those kids who doesn't have to exert effort in spelling, so she does the spelling worksheet pages on Monday and we forget about it until a quiz on Friday.

I'd look for something else for grammar, rather than just use part of R&S. Also, if she doesn't have to exert herself in spelling, that could be dropped, as well.

[Brindee]

 

I'd look for something else for grammar, rather than just use part of R&S. Also, if she doesn't have to exert herself in spelling, that could be dropped, as well.

We didn't do much of the writing in R&S, as we did other things we wanted to do, but we loved the R&S Grammar! R&S doesn't cost much, so we just did it that way, and it worked very well for us! :D

[NancyNellen]

I would drop the spelling completely if she has no trouble at that level. Just correct her as she misses words in her writing. I am assuming you have completed CW Aesop (?) CW Homer will cover vocabulary for you. I would apply your grammar lessons to CW, as well, leaving all of the writing out.

 

Otherwise, it looks similar to what my 4th grader is doing:

 

Singapore Math 4A/B

CW Aesop

Latin for Children B

Rosetta Stone German

Typing Instructor Deluxe

SOTW 3

My World Science Green

Mind Benders

Picture study

Violin