Grade 4 Studies

[Trez]

First posting from a long time lurker.

 

This is my first year homeschooling. I have a ds-12s(hs),ds-9(ps) and dd-14(ps) . The neighborhood ps is extremely overcrowded and after many years of frustration trying to get the acceleration required for my oldest, we gave up. Now, due to the same situation, we are considering bring home our ds-9.

 

I have been doing some research with regards to curriculum. I believe that I have math and science figured out. His brother is using Singapore for both of these subjects and my youngest did some Singapore Math over the summer.

 

My areas of concern are with respect to Language Arts and History. My oldest uses MCT(Town) for Language Arts and we are doing an independent study on a few books (Anne Frank, Animal Farm) before heading into LL7. My youngest has a great vocabulary and is a great reader (but still prefers to be read to). I could start him in MCT but I'm concerned about whether this may be too much/move to fast considering he hasn't had much teaching in the way of grammar at school (his ps is french immersion).

 

As far as the history goes, he is at the grade here (Ontario Canada) where he would be learning about Medieval Times. Is there any homeschool curriculum out there that I could use as a guide for this? I notice a few which appear to be aimed at higher grade levels but nothing for his level.

 

I would really appreciate any advice that you could give me. :001_smile:

 

Thank you all for the great resource you provide here on these boards!

[ChrissySC]

Have you looked at SOTW or Biblioplan?

[anneofalamo]

oh my, we seemed to be of similar situations, I have just one year in this journey of home school. DS14, DS12, and twin girls 11.

 

I really last year got math and english figured out.

I tried to do history for each grade as to what they would each be doing and it was such a strain on ME!

 

This year, I have the youngest 3, doing story of the world with heavy help from others that have gone before me

Satori Smiles and Chronicles of the Earth(both blogs from mom's that have completed and in their kindness, blogged how they did it) YOU will need to purchase the SotW books.

We also got Evan-Moor Ancient Civilization Pockets to do with it! My kids love history right now.

 

and a quick shout out for Easy-Grammar, my kids and I both were not the best English students. We love it!

 

Good luck to you, please pop over to my blog,(linked in siggy) and read some of the older posts, lots of tears, but we made it, and so far so good!

[Trez]

Although we are Christian and attend the local baptist church, I am trying to remain secular in our learning at home. I would like to find curriculum which, although may make a few references to Christian views, is primarily secular in the lessons.

 

Thank you for the replies so far, I will definitely be looking into the suggestions.

[abbeyej]

For basic grammar, I'd go over the parts of speech with him, then use Calvert's grade 5 grammar course. It's one of the few materials they sell separately from their whole program. It's a nice coverage of basic grammar concepts, but it moves along at a fairly quick rate. There are sixty-something lessons, so you can do two a week and finish in a year, or do more (one lesson per day is quite doable) and finish more quickly, if you would like to use it and then move on to MCT.

 

For history, consider SWB's The Story of the World volume 2. It covers the middle ages. For a more advanced student, I require that they read the assigned pages from Kingfisher that are listed in the SOTW Activity Guide for each chapter as well, write a brief summary for each SOTW chapter, and read some additional history or literature sources for each book. (The AG has a range of book suggestions for each chapter -- some of which will be beneath your child's level, but there should be plenty to keep you going anyway.) I would also do the map work and answer the comprehension questions for each chapter as listed in the AG. It would be up to you to decide whether to include some of the coloring pages or activities and projects -- they're certainly optional.

 

Alternately, you could look at History Odyssey level 2 Middle Ages from Pandia Press. I think it's less engaging than SOTW, and I find the amount of writing required ... unbalanced. It worked adequately for us, but it would be a second choice for me, for a 9yo. You will likely need to make more adjustments there if you use it.

[kristavws]

 

My areas of concern are with respect to Language Arts and History. My oldest uses MCT(Town) for Language Arts and we are doing an independent study on a few books (Anne Frank, Animal Farm) before heading into LL7. My youngest has a great vocabulary and is a great reader (but still prefers to be read to). I could start him in MCT but I'm concerned about whether this may be too much/move to fast considering he hasn't had much teaching in the way of grammar at school (his ps is french immersion).

 

Have you considered using the Island Level with him? It would provide him with a good grammar foundation, and then he could move right into the Town level.

As far as the history goes, he is at the grade here (Ontario Canada) where he would be learning about Medieval Times. Is there any homeschool curriculum out there that I could use as a guide for this? I notice a few which appear to be aimed at higher grade levels but nothing for his level.

 

I really like SOTW for this age - SOTW 2 covers The Middle Ages.

 

I would really appreciate any advice that you could give me. :001_smile:

 

Thank you all for the great resource you provide here on these boards!

 

HTH!

 

Krista