starting out in 5th grade, trying not to stress

[Guest tryingtraditional]

Background: My dd9 and dd10 are both in 4th and currently finishing up with a virtual academy using the k12 curriculum. The state testing and restrictions has us fed up and done with public schooling at home and we are ready to move to traditional homeschooling. I read the WTM years ago, but due to some family circumstances went with the academy.

 

That said, I pulled out my 2004 WTM and am overwhelmed, but chipping away at things. My twin dd4 are easy and for K we will be doing Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (we have the Bob books and our library has many level readers), HWT (what was used for my older two, I know I can teach this), maybe some FIAR working in math, coloring, cutting, science, etc. If only 5th was so easy!

 

Plan so far for 5th:

Science we already have and have used and like :)

Math: Teaching Textbooks

History: Story of the World

Writing: ?

Logic: Mind Benders and Red Herrings

Language: ?

Spelling: ?

Latin: ?

 

I have looked a bit into the suggestions in WTM for Writing, Spelling, Language, and Latin. Nothing jumps out at me so any advice is welcome :)

 

My questions:

Are there new resources suggested in the updated WTM? I have 2004 edition.

Were I to do Language Lessons what level would I start at? We have not done sentence diagramming.

Neither of my girls are fantastic spellers, though the DD10 reads better than DD9 and I think spells better simply because she has been exposed to a greater variety of words in her reading.

 

Any and all advice is more than welcome. I am pretty set on what I typed into my plan above (I know some aren't fond of TT for math.) As I said, though, all advice welcome.

 

Thanks in advance, I think I will go take a couple deep breaths and read some books to my kids. All of the curriculum searching is getting to my head a bit, lol

Deanne

[Luckymama]

Welcome! You can do it :) I have a fifth grader and just started homeschooling this year. My other kids are older, unlike yours.

 

I can't help with your questions but I'll give this a bump up for the morning crew :D

[houseofkids&pets]

I am interested to hear how others respond to your post. Today is my dd's last day in public school. She is half way through 5th grade, but we are tired of peer issues/bullying etc. My problem is I "research" curriculum too much and can't make a choice (or I do make a choice, read something else, and change my mind for the millionth time!!).

 

Does anyone have advice regarding language arts? I have been reading about MCT, IEW, and Hake Grammar and Writing. Language Arts is an area of strength for my dd and I am terrified that I will somehow stunt her growth in this area. She loves to read and write fiction stories, but is not as strong when it comes to nonfiction/essays. I started reviewing some grammar with her and it seems that she has not had a lot of direct grammar instruction. She is a great speller, but also doesn't really know the spelling rules.

 

Also, I know that different programs are more teacher intensive. I have been homeschooling my ds8 since October as he was experiencing academic difficulties and was not "far enough behind" to meet the criteria at school for extra help. He is now reading on grade level (thank you Orton-Gillingham). He does really need me to be 1:1 with him for most tasks, so I need to figure out how to balance his needs while starting homeschooling with my dd. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!! Sorry for the lengthy post. I have been lurking for awhile and finally decided I really need guidance.

 

Michelle:lol:

[willowcreek]

Be confident! I took my oldest out of public school in fifth grade and knew nothing about homeschooling. Since I had to make a quit shift early in the year, with no planning, I chose Calvert, just to move quickly into it.

 

It is the best thing we ever did. I also found that my son, though very strong in verbal and reading skills, had had very little direct grammar instruction. For that reason we switched to Rod and Staff Grammar for 6,7,8. It is not exciting but very thorough and complete and simple to teach.

 

We used a variety of writing programs over the years--the very simple direct, composition in Calvert for 5th (thorough and adequate), IEW for two years and then Bravewriter for a breath of fresh air from the structure of IEW (which was great for a while but we needed balance).

 

So all that to say--fifth grade is a fine place to leap. There are a variety of good options, so don't feel overwhelmed that you are looking for the "perfect" curriculum option.

 

Don't be overwhelmed by WTM. Read it and take some suggestions. Don't try to do it all. School for a while and then pick it up again in three months. Then it will make more sense, and in reality, you will see how much you have already done. Then you will see how some of the many curriculum options out there have helped you accomplish it. Some things don't have to be WTM style. Everyone needs high standards, a big overview of what a smart education is (WTM provides in fabulous scope and detail), curriculum options and then the real world practicality of their child. And then it works.

 

It really does. It will be fine!:)

[johnandtinagilbert]

 

Plan so far for 5th:

Science we already have and have used and like :)

Math: Teaching Textbooks

History: Story of the World

Writing: ? Write Shop is wonderful; Writing Aids (by Tapestry of Grace); Classical Writing; The Lost Tools of Writing

Logic: Mind Benders and Red Herrings

Language: ? MCT; Growing with Grammar; CLE; Rod & Staff

Spelling: ? All About Spelling will fill any gaps and move you forward.

Latin: ? If you wait a year you could use The Latin Road and take care of both grammar and Latin.

 

I have looked a bit into the suggestions in WTM for Writing, Spelling, Language, and Latin. Nothing jumps out at me so any advice is welcome :)

 

My questions:

Are there new resources suggested in the updated WTM? I have 2004 edition. Yes, I believe there are 2 editions since then. Many libraries carry it.

Were I to do Language Lessons what level would I start at? We have not done sentence diagramming.

Neither of my girls are fantastic spellers, though the DD10 reads better than DD9 and I think spells better simply because she has been exposed to a greater variety of words in her reading.

 

Any and all advice is more than welcome. I am pretty set on what I typed into my plan above (I know some aren't fond of TT for math.) As I said, though, all advice welcome.

 

Thanks in advance, I think I will go take a couple deep breaths and read some books to my kids. All of the curriculum searching is getting to my head a bit, lol

Deanne

Best wishes on a great year!

[SwordedHip]

We are also jumping in at the deep end and homeschooling for the first time in the fall. My dd will be in 5th Gr. and my ds in 3rd Gr. Since the start of this year I have been swimming in a sea of curriculum - all giddy and elated and overwhelmed at the same time.:001_smile:

 

So for the writing curriculum I have decided to go with Classical Writing Aesop for both of them and the other program we've chosen is Phonics Road 1 & 2 accelerated. I thought that for both of them it would be great to start from the beginning and get a great foundation.

 

HTH

[Mom-ninja.]

Take a hop to the Logic stage sub forum and check out the 5th grade thread. Try not to let your head spin. :001_smile: You'll do fine and have fun researching curricula.

 

Here's what I'm using in your blank spots:

 

Writing: Writing With Ease and Writing With Skill and MCT (Michael Clay Thompson)

 

Language: Advanced Language Lessons (when it comes out) and MCT fits here too

 

Spelling: All About Spelling

 

Latin: Lively Latin

 

You haven't mentioned if you're looking for secular or not. I use secular materials so what I've listed is secular.

[SilverMoon]

Plan so far for 5th:

Science we already have and have used and like :)

Math: Teaching Textbooks

History: Story of the World

Writing: ?

Logic: Mind Benders and Red Herrings

Language: ?

Spelling: ?

Latin: ?

 

I have looked a bit into the suggestions in WTM for Writing, Spelling, Language, and Latin. Nothing jumps out at me so any advice is welcome :)

My current fifth grader is using Classical Writing, Rod and Staff's spelling, Rod and Staff's English, and Latin for Children.

 

My questions:

Are there new resources suggested in the updated WTM? I have 2004 edition. Yes, the newer editions do have updated resources.

Were I to do Language Lessons what level would I start at? We have not done sentence diagramming. First Language Lessons currently ends at a fourth grade level. The fifth grade one, Advanced Language Lessons, isn't due until early 2012. Rod and Staff's English 5 book would be a great introduction to diagramming. It starts at the very beginning as if you'd never been introduced to the concept.

Neither of my girls are fantastic spellers, though the DD10 reads better than DD9 and I think spells better simply because she has been exposed to a greater variety of words in her reading. We really like Rod and Staff's spelling. It's simply, no fuss, doesn't take much time out of our day, yet it really teaches the spelling rules. The word lists are sometimes called light, but these books aren't about memorizing an arbitrary list of words. The exercises more than make up for that.

 

My comments are in purple. Welcome! :001_smile:

[Chez J]

Finishing fifth grade this year here.

 

My very humble, devalued thoughts. :D

 

By fifth grade in language arts, my expectation was that spelling had been covered. (This is a YMMV statement.) The ability to write competent sentences has been mastered. Reading for comprehension has been covered. So, I focus on writing, literary analysis and advanced grammar. For this I love IEW and CLE LA and Reading.

 

IEW teaches how to add interest to your written work, how to stay on topic, how to paraphrase a work so as to not plagarize, parts of a story, and how to use some of the grammar you have learned, such as prepositional phrases. It also has vocabulary. I use the history modules to align with our cycle in history, so more bang for the buck.

 

CLE LA teaches grammar without it being overkill. And they have built-in review. It has spelling, but it is weak. I skip spelling entirely.

 

CLE Reading, starting in 5th grade, teaches literary analysis, poetic meter, parts of a story and more. This has vocabulary, which is useful.

[houseofkids&pets]

Thank you for the input so far.

 

I was leaning toward something like Hake Grammar & Writing since it is all-inclusive. I would only need to add in a spelling program. I am interested when I read posts that have quite a few resources listed for language arts. How do you make it all work together? I am concerned that I won't be able to create a thorough program if I am jumping around and using so many different options at once. Obviously, it can be accomplished because I see so many here are able to create a cohesive program. It is just frightening to me since my daughter loves writing and this has been her strength while in public school, yet as I mentioned previously, she isn't aware of spelling rules and hasn't really had formal grammar instruction. It just comes naturally for her (she loves to read, so I am sure this has helped!).

 

I have looked at MCT and think it sounds great, but then I have read some negatives about it too. IEW also seems very thorough, but sounds like it would be complicated (and expensive) for us just starting out. I need to look into some of the other programs mentioned in the other posts.

 

Thanks again for listening! The support on this site is wonderful.

 

Michelle:bigear:

[Guest]

My thoughts... My older two are similar to yours plus I have 3 little ones, 2 of which are Kinder age.

 

If you choose R&S for English, you do NOT need another writing program as it is integrated. We do this all orally and on the whiteboard unless there is a worksheet. They do that on their own. This takes about 20mins.

Everything else I have found (and I have tried just about all) are too Mom intensive or require me to reteach because independently they did not get it. R&S is the best use of my time and theirs. Start with the 5th grade book. If the diagramming gets to be too much or confusing, don't do it. Radical, I know.

 

We have tried CLE LA and discarded it for several reasons. It jumps around A LOT, very little writing instruction, reading stories are very religious...etc..

 

For history, we really like History Odyssey Level 2 because it doesn't jump around. It is WTM history all done for you. http://www.pandiapress.com They have a try before you buy file. SOTW is too babyish to us and jumps around a great deal. It drove my sons and I batty.

 

Spelling WorkOut works here. Go with E. I call the words out each day and then after, spell them for my sons to write correctly. Takes 5 mins. And they are FINALLY learning to spell.

 

Math- we LOVE CLE math. I have used everything else and this one works.

 

Latin- we have used Minimus for an intro. Mine love the cartoons. For 'real' instruction, I am looking for one with DVDs. I can teach French. I can teach German. I can teach Dutch. But Latin? No way.

 

I would say hold off on Latin for the year while you all adjust to the whole newness of this.

 

HTH and welcome.