*Inna* Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 Also, what was a hit and what was a miss? :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphin Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 Ahhhh.... you are looking at 5th grade. It is now time to go up to the top of the k-8 board and click on the logic and middle grade sub forum. Come and join us. My oldest is in 5th this year. We are pretty happy with what we are doing. TT and LOF WWS PZ IEW Poetry Memorization R&S grammar Latin Prep Hey Andrew Galore Park So you really want to learn Science Mapping the world by heart History is what we have really been changing this year. After Christmas we came up with a new plan. He is re reading all 4 SOTW book (he is just finishing the middle ages) He is picking at least 2 events in each book. Then, next year we are going to start a 2 year cycle of going in depth in his favorite areas of history (6th and 7th) Then 8th grade will be US history. He reads tons of books, and we do lit analysis the SWB way. I think that is it in a nutshell. He does a bunch of activities and we are active with our church, but that is the structure of our academics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hen Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 we used MFW exploration to 1850 with both my 5th and 7th grader, but we didn't make it very far- it's more me than the curriculum, which is very nice. I switched to Oak Meadow 5 History/Science/English which seems to work better for me, the teacher. I am also using A History of Us vol 2 with it. Horizons for math, Spelling workout, Shurley English (OM has some English too, but it is kind of light/gentle) and then test prep workbooks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamakelly Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 Bob Jones English 5 Bob Jones Spelling 5, spelling city and weekly journal writing Critical and Creative Thinking 5 Horizons math 5 and Your Business Math Pet Shop (haven't started it yet, LOL) Apologia Human Anatomy Notgrass America the Beautiful Veritas Press Literature Guides- Box Car Children and Baby Island book basket- stocked with books I wanted her to read there may be a few more things, I just can't think of them...LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ondreeuh Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 Hits: -Ready Readers 2 from Center for Lit (follows Teaching the Classics). -Mr. Q Physical Science with extra kits and videos -Complete Book of United States History as a spine - with lots of videos and extras added. -Hands On Equations. -Practice, Practice word problems from Scholastic -Saxon Phonics Intervention for phonics remediation. After multiple phonics and spelling programs, this one fit where he is now. OK: -CLE 500. I think all the incremental spiraling makes it hard for my son to see the big picture, and the mathematical reasoning is weak. I will be switching to another program for 6th (either Holt or Math in Focus Course 1). -Growing with Grammar 5: I can't say that this is actually improving his writing at all. We keep plugging away, though, in hopes that it will help him organize better sentences down the road. We'll focus more on usage and mechanics next year. -Winning with Writing 4. The daily assignments are so short that we typically do a week's worth of writing in a couple of days. It gets the job done though, as he is able to follow the assignments and is definitely more comfortable writing paragraphs. Misses: -All Things Fun & Fascinating. I never got off the ground with this. It just wasn't the right time for us. Maybe next year? -ARTistic Pursuits. I can't see it as anything but a bunch of random "assignments". -Composers and Artists lapbooks from Homeschool in the Woods. After printing out a billion things, cutting them carefully and gluing them in place - what, that's it? No lesson? It's just a cool thing to look at? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K&Rs Mom Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 My current 5th grader is doing: Second Form Latin - SFL seems to move much faster than FFL, she's having more trouble but sticking with it LOF PreAlg 1 & 2 - total hit, she loves this series and it's a good fit for her IEW All Things Fun & Fascinating - she doesn't enjoy it, but I can see that it's good for her - she likes to write anyway, just doesn't like to be told how, but IEW is making her look at some things she otherwise wouldn't notice SOTW1 - I'm expecting her to take notes as I read the text, timeline that we didn't do the first time around, and using Kingfisher Encyc with almost every chapter - fewer craft projects this time, more written output (like the 5-question paper) Teaching Critical Thinking Through Science (book 2, the green one) - we've done a few different things for science this year, starting out with biology again, I got this book cheap at Goodwill and I'm actually pretty impressed with it - making her keep a science notebook and expecting more output than in earlier years ArtPac 6 - she's enjoying this much more than one of the earlier years we tried Daily Grammar Practice 5 from Scholastic - she doesn't enjoy it at all, but it's only 5 questions a day and I know there are some things in there we never covered (like analogies) so I want her to finish it anyway just to find gaps Introduction To Logic - free course that I printed from the internet somewhere, so far she's liking it - I like that it has one day a week where you look for that week's fallacy in newspapers or wherever, because it makes it more real Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyfaithe Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 CLE Reading, LA & Math SOTW Vol. 2 Sonlight readers from level H plus loads of library books. CLE 5th grade science book ( which I can't remember the name of because it is just so forgettable...but he likes it, so que cera. WWE level 3...hoping to finish and begin 4.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
historically accurate Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 My dd is finishing 5th grade. Math: ditched TT about halfway through. She only uses it for backup now when LOF confuses her. Writing: WWE 4 -- flop (too long dictations, same ol' same ol' for narrations); tried Writing Strands, nope; now doing The Paragraph Book, which is working Science: child led, which works for us since science is her love History: History Odyssey, ok, but seems like a lot of busy work Latin: Lively Latin, love it! Logic: Balance Benders, love it!, Orbiting with Logic, boring, but gets the job done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Inna* Posted March 24, 2013 Author Share Posted March 24, 2013 -Winning with Writing 4. The daily assignments are so short that we typically do a week's worth of writing in a couple of days. It gets the job done though, as he is able to follow the assignments and is definitely more comfortable writing paragraphs. Misses: -All Things Fun & Fascinating. I never got off the ground with this. It just wasn't the right time for us. Maybe next year? -ARTistic Pursuits. I can't see it as anything but a bunch of random "assignments". -Composers and Artists lapbooks from Homeschool in the Woods. After printing out a billion things, cutting them carefully and gluing them in place - what, that's it? No lesson? It's just a cool thing to look at? I'll have to take a look again at Winning with Writing. re ARTistic Pursuits - I had the same reaction. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spetzi Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 Life of Fred --- she still loves this Challenge Math & Real World Algebra by Edward Zaccarro ---excellent books. Some sections are much more difficult than others so make sure you aren't expecting your student to leap. The Creative Writer ----enjoys Giggly Guide to Grammar ---she chose this and hates it, but we carry on. I think it's a very good book. Cesar's English & From the Roots Up for vocab Sonlight H---she really enjoys this. I did have to omit some readers/read alouds for her (I'm using this w/her older brother) because she is sensitive. It might not bother another 10 yr old at all. The Rainbow Science---eh, don't buy it. It's too expensive for what it is, imo. Story of Science, by Joy Hakim ---- good, a bit anti-faith but we just discuss it if it comes up, the Quest (student guide) for the second book is much better than the Quest for the first one. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 math: Rod and Staff 6 logic: Mind Benders spelling: Rod and Staff 6 English/writing: Rod and Staff 5 writing: outlining history weekly for history, weekly summaries from history and lit, contd pen pal letters, dictation, etc. literature: Classical House of Learning **** A big hit for my big reader! A good reading lists to go along w/logic history history: Well Trained Mind style logic stage ancients using Kingfisher History Ency. as spine, outlining, timelining, writing, w/occasional SOTW project, memorywork **** I think this is a hit. I like to see what she picks for further study and writing about***** geography: The Geography Coloring book weekly along w/history, occasional mapwork from MP Christian Studies I and the Complete Book of Maps and Geography and other sources Latin: First Form Spanish: Spanish for Children Bible: Memoria Press Christian Studies I Science: A biology year using a mix of: Memoria Press 5th grade science and Prentice Hall's 6th grade Science Explorers, lots of extra reading and hands on projects. Plus had a 6 wk. Robotics course out of the house this year. *** MP's bird unit was a big hit**** Art: formal instruction has been mostly outsourced this year. She has taken a couple of longer term classes, and continues work at home on projects of her own. Music was dropped this year :( P.E. was dance classes and swim lessons and a track and field day event and prep for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 I used a lot of the things in the pp but what hasn't been mentioned that my ds has been really excited about is The Word Snoop. We took a break from FLL4 and did that, and when we finished, I ordered the sequel. He is excited and has told me many times that *this* is how one should study grammar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Another Lynn Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 Current 5th grader: Bible - MP Christian Studies 1 with younger siblings, plus daily Bible reading on his own History - Ancients - read alouds with younger silbings - CHOW plus Diana Waring CDs, Literature - Ancient related literature - myths and retellings, w/ a couple historical fiction (not his favorite) - a few read alouds and more on his own. Writing and Grammar - CC's Essentials w/ IEW's Ancient History theme based writing Spelling - Megawords 1 and SWO E. (probably switch him to Phonetic Zoo next year) Math - Finished CLE 500 and started CLE 600 Memory work/Oral presentations/drawing/art/music/science/geography, etc. - CC Foundations Latin - we dabbled in a few things trying to follow up after completing GSWL and then dropped it around Christmas Activities this year included Piano, Chess, Basketball (and summer swim) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 Hits: SCM's history (Bible/geography/history) and scripture memory system MUS Write On McGuffey reader for coypwork, dication, narration, and vocabulary Prima Latina Apologia's Swimming Creatures Grammar Land Mavis Beacon typing Misses: Writing Strands piano (according to her...she's doing very well with it) Overall, it's been a really good year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeteranMom Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 **Math- Saxon (7/6 for one kid and 6/5 for the other) English/Writing- bounced around with this, but settled on Essentials in Writing Grade 5 History- Famous Men of the Middle Ages and Story of the Middle Ages Copywork/Editing- Take 5 Minutes History Fact a Day **Spelling- Spelling Workout Level E and F and Spelling City on the computer **Vocabulary- Wordly Wise Grade 5 Bible- BJU **Literature- Progeny Press Lit Guides and various other lit guides Science- Finally settled on a science book/day from the library All of the above seems to be working well for us. The items with stars in front of them are things we've used for multiple years. Things we abandoned/didn't care for after a while- IEW, Science Fusion, Easy Grammar, and BJU English. I really like Essentials in Writing and will use it again next year. This was my first year having to teach grammar and writing, so I struggled to figure out what we all liked. Science is an ongoing problem for us. I'll be trying Sonlight Science next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyhomemaker Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Things we liked: SWR Biblioplan yr 3 Apologia Swimming Creatures Building Thinking Skills 2 LFC B WWS KISS Things we didn't like: The Complete Book of Maps and Geography Horizons 5- dd has done well with Horizons until this year. The fractions section went too fast and confused her. We took a timeout and went through multiplying and dividing fractions with MM. I think we will switch to MM as our spine for next year and use Horizons possibly for review. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Not there yet but this is our 5th grade plan: Saxon Math 6/5 Tables, Squares, Cubes (drill) Multiplication Flashcards (new from CC this summer) Megafun Card Game Math Building Thinking Skills 2 Latin's Not So Tough 5 Hey Andrew 5 Spelling Plus 5th and 6th grade lists Essentials of the English Language IEW History Theme-based PreScripts Sentences and Passages McCall Book D McGuffey Fifth Eclectic Reader VP/WRTR 5th grade literature lists w/ Teaching the Classics VP Bible hymns manners Training Hearts, Teaching Minds VP Self-paced history Memory Work and enrichment: CC Foundations (including tutor books, CC Connected, A&F cards, notebooking, living books, etc.), Character First, WMS Catechism, AWANA, IEW Poetry Memorization Summer: Science Unit Studies (homemade) SOTW and VP History Draw Your World Discovering Great Artists Ray's Arithmetic? Read alouds from : A Thomas Jefferson Education and Teaching the Classics lists plus poetry anthologies from IEW Poetry Memorization and biographies from Vision Forum and YWAM publishing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Inna* Posted March 25, 2013 Author Share Posted March 25, 2013 I used a lot of the things in the pp but what hasn't been mentioned that my ds has been really excited about is The Word Snoop. We took a break from FLL4 and did that, and when we finished, I ordered the sequel. He is excited and has told me many times that *this* is how one should study grammar. Never heard of it. Off to Google! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happymomofboys Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Hits: Tapestry of Grace Year 1 Upper Grammar Singapore Primary Mathematics 5 Life of Fred Fractions Sonlight Science F Duolingo Spanish Hackety Hack KidCoder Windows Programming Mark Kistler's Online Drawing Lessons Family Time Fitness Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool (I refer to this curriculum a lot for supplement ideas and also for electives) Does the job: Bridge to the Latin Road Wordly Wise 3000 Building Thinking Skills Latina Christiana I Misses: Sequential Spelling (I have tried for 3 years to get this off the ground and we're still only halfway through book 1. I just don't have the time to drill 25 words every day. I've recently purchased the DVD-Rom and I'm hoping that having my son do it independently will make it a hit next year.) IEW Ancient History-Based Writing Lessons (My son is a reluctant writer. He really likes this book compared to TOG writing, and I enjoy it as well, but he isn't on track to finish it this year and now the assignments don't line up even closely to what we're studying. I probably would have been better off creating my own assignments based on what we are reading and using TWSS to teach him the IEW Units as he is ready for them.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TarynB Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Here's our list: Math Mammoth + Math Minutes daily, Life of Fred once per week, sometimes Rocket Math app for fun facts practice (tried lots of math facts apps but Rocket Math is the winner for us) IEW's SWI-B followed by their Ancient History theme book, continuing narrations and just added outlining in history (instead of just the "list of facts"), just added Paragraph Writing Made Easy (covers paragraphing and outlining explicitly step-by-step, I'm *loving* it as prep for WWS1 in 6th grade) DS learned to type in 4th grade using Dance Mat Typing, and now, in 5th, his speed and accuracy has greatly improved through simple daily practice. I'm so glad he learned to type early on. Typing, along with IEW's program, completely turned around his previous reluctance about writing. Hake Grammar Wordly Wise 3000 workbook reading from various lists like Sonlight, WTM, Kolbe - we alternate book selections, some align with history lessons, others are just his choice, we discuss some via SWB's method, the rest I just let him read and he tells me the funny or interesting parts Human Odyssey 1 and (white cover) Kingfisher's Illustrated History of the World with timeline and writing skills practice as noted above - plus documentaries and Prof. Thompson's World History DVDs (The Great Courses) World Geography & You (used textbook I got for 25 cents at the library sale and he loves to read it for fun!) Elemental Science logic stage biology alternating with ES logic earth/astronomy in blocks of several weeks each, TOPS kits, previously finished Galore Park's So You Really Want to Learn Science 1, Ellen McHenry's The Elements and just purchased Carbon Chemistry, Harcourt Health & Fitness (another used textbook he wanted as an add-in) - this looks like a lot, but we do science every day at his request, LOL Visual Link Spanish daily - he chose this after trying a couple of other programs, and he LOVES it! - I'll also see if he'd like to add DuoLingo, thanks to a recent thread here about it Various electives: Brain Pop app, CNN Student News app, Cave Paintings to Picasso, Perplexors, Scratch programming, The Story of the Orchestra, Mark Kistler online drawing lessons With the exception of starting WWS1 next year in 6th grade (took a year-long break after WWE4 in 4th grade to do IEW), we'll be continuing with everything listed above for next year, just moving up a level as appropriate. I think we've (hopefully) finally found our groove! ETA - A few things we started this year but weren't a good fit for us: - Getting Started with Spanish (OK but Visual Link seems to fit DS's learning style better) - Evan-Moor Daily Science 6 (frustrating to have questions asked about certain topics before the lessons on those topics were presented, due to insufficient editing/poor organization) - Builders of the Old World (great vintage book but too simplistic for 5th grade) - Zaccaro Elementary & Middle School Challenge Math (mostly too difficult for DS just now and he ended up feeling defeated, so I'll save it for later, but the Primary Grade book was too easy) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Never heard of it. Off to Google! :D I stink! Why would I not include a link? The Word Snoop It is an Australian book I think; our library had that one. Then as a bonus for finishing FLL4 (for both of us, lol) I ordered the sequel and the activity book from here b/c they have free shipping. I would not say it is a full grammar program. The Word Snoop didn't even mention grammar but it was fun with language and we learned a lot. We just got into the 2nd one and it promises to discuss parts of speech least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julikins Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 My current 5th grade DD has some LA issues with spelling and writing reluctance. So we've been working on that. Bible: Reading through Old Testament with Victor Journey and/or Guerber's Ancient World History: MFW Creation to Greeks Science: MFW Creation to Greeks and my husband does extra science with them (LIke right now they're doing a weather unit), science reading on days that we don't do science. LA: Megawords 1, Writing Strands 3, and R&S English 4 Math: MUS Epsilon (Fractions) and MM Fractions Foreign Language: Private tutor Brazilian Portuguese Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy2BeautifulGirls Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 History is what we have really been changing this year. After Christmas we came up with a new plan. He is re reading all 4 SOTW book (he is just finishing the middle ages) He is picking at least 2 events in each book. Then, next year we are going to start a 2 year cycle of going in depth in his favorite areas of history (6th and 7th) Then 8th grade will be US history. Let me make sure I got this straight. He will pick 2 events from each SOTW book, which will be the topics for in-depth study for the next two years? If that's right, can I get more info of how this looks? Do you plan on finding all of your own materials? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 This year 9/10 yo 5th grader is doing/has done: Perplexors A, B, and almost done with C Saxon 6/5 Quarter Mile Math MP World Geography (finished today!) and States and Capitals FMOGreece and Rome (finished both). We'll start FMOMA today Memorizing Horatius at the Bridge RS German 3 art classes and music at co-op Science- Tiner's biology and other living science books, watching Physics for your life (GC) with older bros Adventus piano Supercharged Science with oldest bro Astronomy and Knights and Castles lapbook/notebook UNIQUE leadership program Daily read-aloud. Keyboarding with Schoolhouse teachers HITS All of the art- has been working through Draw Right Now on her own. Supercharged science Perplexors Famous Men and MP geography- Horatius Perplexors- she is loving Saxon- my only kid to date who really liked it. Adventus is super cool but it's taken us a while to find where she's at. RS is amazing when the headphones pick up her small voice. She LOVES making up sentences! Misses- the lapbooks were time fillers but she knew the info already We tried to do Sequential Spelling and it reduced her to tears. I think Spelling Workout might be a better fit for her, but waiting to purchase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsbeth Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 This year we used: Language Arts: Megawords 2 (spelling) Wordly Wise 5 (vocab) IEW level B via an outside class Winning with Writing (half pace at home) ALL sample year typing practice historical fiction tied to our history (ancients) Math: Singapore 5B/LOF Decimals and Percents/Start LOF Pre-Alg Vol1 History: BP Ancients using MOH as main spine Geography:Europe study (co-op) Science: A Reason for Science level E (lab done at co-op) Art: Meet the Masters (co-op) Latin: Latin for Children B Hits: Math, IEW class, everything done at co-op. Okay: megawords, wordly wise, latin Misses:Winning with Writing, grammar, history (mostly my fault) We did BP ancients when dd was in first using SOTW as her spine and MOH with her older sister. We loved it! I was really looking forward to doing it again with the other spine and different readers. It just isn't getting done. Kids whine about history, I can't get my act together to order readers in from the library. Most weeks we just don't finish it all. :( Also, dd 5th struggles with written expression (significantly below grade level) and a bit with reading/spelling. That's why we're so heavy in the area of language arts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphin Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Let me make sure I got this straight. He will pick 2 events from each SOTW book, which will be the topics for in-depth study for the next two years? If that's right, can I get more info of how this looks? Do you plan on finding all of your own materials? Basically. He has to pick at least 2 events from each period in history. Nothing from US history. So far he wants to do Ancient Egypt and Greece from book 1. He is leaning toward Robin hood and the Crusades and something from Japan in book 2. He has also already picked WW2 from his last year studies. I am working on Ancient Egypt right now. We are going to use the Dorothy Mills book from Memoria Press. We have the Jim Weiss myths. We are going to raid the library and just find everything we can on Egypt. There are some cool documentaries on netflix. So we will do that for 6th and 7th. I am really going to follow his lead and see where his interest takes us. Then 8th grade we will do state and American history. This is brand new to me, so we will be making it up as we go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wee Pip Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 I let dd pick most of her school materials for 5th this year: Math: Horizons finished gr 4 and started gr 5 Grammar: Easy Grammar 5 Spelling: used Spellingcity.com making my own lists from Sequential Spelling adult and Natural Speller gr 5 Lit: she chose poetic version of the Odyssey (slow going but she enjoys it) Science: her choice from the library (animals, dinosaurs, and now inventions) History: SOTW 1 and self interest library books Writing: weekly essays from science and history reading memory work: Classical Conversations cycle 1 at home Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy2BeautifulGirls Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 Basically. He has to pick at least 2 events from each period in history. Nothing from US history. So far he wants to do Ancient Egypt and Greece from book 1. He is leaning toward Robin hood and the Crusades and something from Japan in book 2. He has also already picked WW2 from his last year studies. I am working on Ancient Egypt right now. We are going to use the Dorothy Mills book from Memoria Press. We have the Jim Weiss myths. We are going to raid the library and just find everything we can on Egypt. There are some cool documentaries on netflix. So we will do that for 6th and 7th. I am really going to follow his lead and see where his interest takes us. Then 8th grade we will do state and American history. This is brand new to me, so we will be making it up as we go. That sounds awesome! Maybe I'll do something like that. I was going to get History Odyssey for her, but maybe I'll have her read the SOTW books over the summer and see where her interests lie. Just today for her summary she wrote that she learned "that history and kings (especially King James) are boring, and King James made a version of the Bible." Of course, she was being really difficult throughout most of the school day today, too! :D Thanks for sharing this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy2BeautifulGirls Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 I let dd pick most of her school materials for 5th this year: Science: her choice from the library (animals, dinosaurs, and now inventions) History: SOTW 1 and self interest library books Writing: weekly essays from science and history reading Did this work well for you? Did you have guidelines for the essays? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redheadmom Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 We are almost finished with 5th. I make changes and adjustments throughout the year if I see things not working well. Writing - We started the year with WWS but her writing wasn't where I wanted it so we changed to Killgallon middle school sentence composing (the green one). Hopefully we can pick up WWS again after Killgallon English/Grammar - Using English an older probably out of print English textbook set I picked up used World History - SOTW along with a Little History of the World. We also do a lot of documentaries Ancient History - Life in the Ancient World, Famous Men of Greece, Famous Men of Rome Math - Khan Academy, LOF, MEP plus other worksheets Vocab - Growing Your Vocabulary Science - We started the year with RSO Chemistry 1. We soon discovered it was too easy so we quit and started Middle School Chemistry in January Art - Mark Kistler Language - German using learning software Literature - Classic House of Learning Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Targhee Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 Hits: Singapore 5A/5B Life of Fred Junior Great Books Sequential Spelling DvDs Neutral (gets the job done): Wordly Wise Misses: WordSmith Apprentice (dd likes it but it isn't substantial enough IMO) RS4K middle level Chemistry US History through Children's Literature Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coralloyd Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 MUS Zeta, LOF, MM Fractions R&S English 5 IEW SWI A 6,000 most common words list and spellingcity.com SOTW 3 We do our own thing for Science. It all was a hit. I have not changed her Math (except I did add LOF, & MM this year), or English since she was in 1st grade. I can tell we will be sticking with IEW too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 My fifth grader has been using.... Teaching Textbooks 5 Growing with Grammar 5 R&S Spelling 5 IEW SWI A Pentime 5 Sonlight Core D & Science D I really love everything he has used this year. My favorites are Sonlight, Teaching Textbooks, and IEW. We might switch from GWG to Easy Grammar next year, but I am not 100% for sure. My ds likes GWG, but my dd is going Easy Grammar and I am prefering it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hen Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 KWG - curious about how you use word snoop - did you read it together or assign it a chapter at a time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ariana01 Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 My fifth grader for ... has been using: History/Reading/Bible: Sonlight core D Math: Saxon 6/5 Language arts: BJU writing and grammar 5 Science: both sonlight core f and apologia astronomy/human body Art: Art lab for kids And just a bunch of other books :laugh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 My dd has been using: Hake Grammar IEW SL G SL Science F CLE Math/RS Geometry Lingua Latina Online Spanish Class Various Critical Thinking Co. Workbooks Typing Instructor Megawords Everything has been great. If I was going to cut something, it would be the CTC workbooks. I don't know that they really benefit a kid that is good at those types of exercises, which she is. She finds them fun, though. Oh, and I wouldn't attempt Lingua Latina without a teacher unless you know Latin. We take a class at a coop. One thing that has been awesome in our Spanish studies, is discovering that the Magic Treehouse books are available in Spanish. So we have been reading a couple of pages a day from one of those and that seems to really be helping her. Oh, and I forgot about Megawords (just added it to the list). I'm tempted to drop it because I'm feeling like it is a lot of busywork. I'm also considering dropping grammar at least for next year (even though I love Hake) because of all the grammar we are getting in Latin. We are supposed to be doing Atelier Art, but I feel guilty because our schedule is so full we never get to it anymore We did do a lesson this week since we're on break and I hope to do a lesson a week over the summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwickimom Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 Math- CLE5 Writing- EIW and Killgallon Reading- CLE reading grammar- R&S 5 History- History Odyssey Ancients with SOTW1 Science- Elemental Science Biology Spelling Power L'Art de LIre They are pretty much all hits. We don't love History Odyseey but its getting the job done and after 3 years of R&S grammar we are ready for a break from it :-) maps and geography Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clear Creek Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 Everything is is listed in my signature. The hits are MP Lit and FMoR & FMoMA with MP guides. The history reading is interesting, the questions in the guide are often thought-provoking and more than just read and regurgitate, and the writing in the Famous Men series lends itself extremely well to outlining. The lit this year has been awesome, and easily my daughter's favorite subject - the books have been just plain fun to read (Adam of the Road, Robin Hood, and King Arthur). I loved seeing her get stretched in her ability to comprehend harder works of literature, and the discussions have been fantastic - even more so as she is moving into the logic stage and beginning to make connections between things, analyze things, and form an opinion that can be supported. The only miss is R&S music 6/7, and that is my own fault - the teacher's guide assumes a fair amount of musical knowledge on the teacher's part, which I don't have (reading key signatures almost did me in, transposing music to a different key pushed me over the top). I think my daughter would have best been served to go through R&S 4/5 a second time instead of moving on to the next book, if only to cement the theory concepts presented in it (both books are extremely theory-heavy). Everything else we used got the job done and will be kept in mind for my next child. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 KWG - curious about how you use word snoop - did you read it together or assign it a chapter at a time? We read it together. Sometimes the author had videos we could look up on youtube ( this one when she talked about the history of puntuation for example) or activity ideas to try. Plus it was kind of fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphin Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 That sounds awesome! Maybe I'll do something like that. I was going to get History Odyssey for her, but maybe I'll have her read the SOTW books over the summer and see where her interests lie. Just today for her summary she wrote that she learned "that history and kings (especially King James) are boring, and King James made a version of the Bible." Of course, she was being really difficult throughout most of the school day today, too! :D Thanks for sharing this! That is what started me on this. There are definitely parts of history he does not like, but also parts that he is fascinated by. I figure as long as I make sure that every 4 years he reads through history he is picking things up and he knows the "story" of World History. I have been thinking about Classical Education, and one thing about it is that we are teaching them how to learn. How to become independent learners. History seems the best place to let them start to specialize and have some say and direction in their own education. I am having ds plan this with me, and he is really excited. It has spilled over into other work to. He is taking much more ownership of his education and when he complains about something, it is usually more constructive. I was planning something the other day and he said to me "remember mom, I am independent. I would like to read it on my own and then come tell you about it, I really don't want to do an art project together." I was a little bummed as I thought I had a clever idea about reading a book and putting the themes on leaves and putting those on a tree, but I was proud that he stated a constructive opinion. He is still reading the book and thinking about it, so I will save that idea for my artsy dd :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hen Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 We read it together. Sometimes the author had videos we could look up on youtube ( this one when she talked about the history of puntuation for example) or activity ideas to try. Plus it was kind of fun. thanks KWG! I didn't know there were videos! :) and thank you for linking the sequel book and wb, they weren't listed over at amazon, I wouldn't have found them. looks like a fun study. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wee Pip Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Did this work well for you? Did you have guidelines for the essays? Yes, it worked well for *this* child:) I will probably do something similar for 6th, but with a little more of my direction. My mistake was in just saying "pick a book and read it", lol. She raced thru and finished school in 2hrs each day. I had trouble making her do more for "school" though, because then she'd read an Usborne history book at bedtime "for fun". (Note: my 1st child is NOT like this, so don't think I did something miraculous, here). Next year, I'll plan ahead more and I'll actually assign pages to be read - thereby stretching her school day and attention span. Also, I'm enrolling her in a Classical Conversation campus, which will do more for her writing (IEW) then my methods. Currently, I tell her to write 2-3 paragraphs for her essays, but she tends to just ramble on without organizing her topics and does not put them into paragraphs. Between her sensitivities and trying to balance my time with 2 other kids, I do not instruct writing as well as I should. I'm hoping to do more over the summer with her writing. If it doesnt happen, though, I know that CC will help give her some writing structure. BTW, I did the same thing with my learning-resistant 12yo this year. It had some benefits (she didnt totally hate everything, as she was picking her own books). I think she may have (secretly) liked some of the things she was learning. But with the 12yo, I learned that she must not pick her own literature from a list (I need to pick it for her from now on), and I need to assign actual pages. Also, I've learned that "I'll just read it at bedtime" is NOT acceptable and needs to be read during the school day. I'm hoping to enroll this child in Classical Conversations' Challenge program because I really think this child needs more structure. It was an experiment this year and I learned a lot about the needs of two totally different kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy2BeautifulGirls Posted March 31, 2013 Share Posted March 31, 2013 Thanks for sharing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Random Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 My 5th grader this year is using: Math: Saxon 7/6 with Art Reed's DVD Grammar, Spelling, Writing: CLE 400 level Vocabulary: Wordly Wise Science: BJU 6 History: VP Self-Paced New Testament, Greece & Rome Mom-made Spanish class I fizzled with art. Nothing has really been a 'miss.' We needed a break from each other, so I intentionally switched over to products he could do independent of me. VP isn't my favorite history, but it gets done and the kids like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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