Beginning in 5th Grade

[ajgdavis]

Hello!

 

I am new here! I will begin our homeschooling journey with 5th grade this year. My dd has been in public school since kindergarten. She is a strong student but has not been exposed to as much grammar/history/science as I would like. Help! I'm not sure what I am doing! : )

 

I have purchased MM and am pretty convinced to use SOTW Ancients with her as well. Any tips or direction anyone could give me would very much be appreciated!

[Luckymama]

No advice right at this moment-----but hello and welcome! We started homeschooling when dd13 was in fifth grade as well :)

[Murrayshire]

I pulled my two oldest from PS 3 years ago feeling just as you are now! It is overwhelming at first....especially when you get on the wonderful forum with a bunch of abbreviations that you have no idea of their meanings.....I would glance or print out the abbreviation sticky for sure. If you get on here frequently you will start to pick up on what means what! Invest in The Well Trained Mind book....this is my GO TO book for help along with this forum. Check out my blog, too, for lots of freebies, schedules, and ideas. You may want to express if you are looking for secular curriculum or christian content.....

 

I will have a 5th grader this year, too. I know what you mean when you say "not much grammar/history/science" in public school. For grammar, check out Hake Grammar & Writing 5 (very thorough but a lot of people use something different for writing), Growing with Grammar, Jr. Analytical Grammar (we are using this for 5th), MCT........just to name a few.

 

For writing: Essentials in Writing(EIW), Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW), Writing with Ease & Writing with Skill.....there are so many more that I'm sure others will suggest.

 

History: I think you will be extremely pleased with SOTW Ancients....grab an Activity Guide for it....there are reader suggestions, SOTW video blog for each chapter, and schedules on my blog that would be super helpful in planning. We love the audio b/c we can listen to it anywhere and b/c it pronounces all those Ancient names to the "T". Add a timeline and mapwork........You could add in some geography/map skills,too. Human Odyssey books are what we will supplement with SOTW this year for my 5th grader.

 

Science: For secular I would suggest Elemental Science, Real Science Odyssey, Real Science 4 Kids, Exploration Education, or using living books for science and adding in videos and experiments. There is also Science Fusion (I bought mine through Homeschool Buyers Co-op).....I'm using this for my 8th grader but it goes from K-8....You could just follow The Well Trained Mind cycle of science to go along with your history.

 

You will get a lot more advice, I'm sure of it.....this will get you started! Good luck!

[julikins]

Welcome to this exciting journey! You will learn so much about your child and yourself through this process!

First thing I'd suggest, since we are on the WTM forum afterall, is to read the Well-Trained Mind if you haven't already. It's a huge book and may overwhelm you so I'd read the introductory chapters, then go to the Logic Stage section to get a feel for classical education to begin with. See if that fits your goals. I also think that Kathy Duffy's 101 Top Picks is a very good starting point. The first few chapters tell about the different philosophies of teaching, learning styles of children and so much more. Those two books are on my Kindle and I refer to them constantly. Some other books are Trivium Pursuit and The Core. I also really enjoy Educating the Wholehearted Child. I don't know if your perspective is Christian or secular, but you'll be able to find some good sources in there that will help you determine educational philosophy. That's the place to start. If you know your philosophy, how you want to go about educating your child, then it's much easier to decide method, curriculum, etc.

 

But remember, you don't have to follow someone else's plan exactly. The joy in homeschooling comes from interacting with your child and seeing the light of joy in their eyes as they learn and want to know more. You are pouring into them and they are blossoming. But only you can determine your style of teaching and your child's style of learning. You take parts of one philosophy or method and other parts of another and make your own philosophy. It's a beautiful, unique journey that you are embarking on.

 

The WTM gives a good framework of resources and curricula to use and is especially helpful to have those resources lined up for the first year. Some people stick exactly to the WTM recommendations from start to finish and others tailor it to their needs and situations. 101 Top Picks gives a whole set of curricula reviews, with what type of learners it works best for, whether it's independent or teacher intensive and so many other things that are very helpful. Hopefully that will be helpful for you! God bless you on your journey!

[happyhome]

Hi and welcome!!! We started homeschooling a year and a half ago with a 5th, 3rd and 1st grader. I can tell you what I did and hopefully the more experienced Hivers will chime in too!

 

My kids were great students, had friends and genuinely loved learning, but they were completely bored in school and the social/competitive nonsense was really getting to them and taking up way too much time. They begged to be homeschooled that whole last year. We finally took them out in February 2012. The first thing I did was take time off! Some folks call this detox time. I just knew they needed time to decompress and breathe. We took long walks, went to great museums, made ice cream sundaes at 11am in our pajamas, read good books, had marathon movie days by theme (Bogie Day, Elizabeth Taylor day, Disney Day, Pirate Day), did tons of craft projects......and then we talked, a lot. We talked about what went right, what went wrong, how they would like to do school. During this time, I read Homeschooling 101, the WTM and every other homeschooling book on my library shelves. I would share those stories and ideas with my kids and see which ones made their eyes light up. Those months were a treasure because our family found their footing again. We learned A LOT about our kids, which was convicting because I am a stay at home, very involved mom so it surprised me how much I didn't know about them.

 

When I was ready to start planning curriculum, I ordered the Rainbow Resource catalog (rainbowresource.com). It's huge and will give you a long list of curriculum to start looking at. I used it as a research tool. I'd look at all the grammar listings, let's say, narrow it down to what seemed to fit my kids and start googling "reviews of x" to see what people had to say after using it. These boards are a great resource for honest, solid information. Rainbow Resource doesn't have everything, so I also searched here for "grammar for 5th grade" to see what came up. Once I narrowed it down to two or three choices, I brought my kids in and we made the final decision together.

 

I would tell you to take your time. I know I felt pressure to "fill the holes" left by the school but I've found that what took public school years to dig only takes a short time to fill with mom at the table. You have PLENTY of time. You could easily take six months and start in January. Remember, the school calendar is just that, the SCHOOL calendar. Look up "schedules" on this board and you'll see the different ways everyone here does "school."

 

Here are some things we used in the transition time...this didn't wind up being curriculum per se....it just got us started and helped us determine strengths, weaknesses, interests and learning styles....and it was fun!

 

Hands of a Child and Currclick....great lapbooks and unit studies on topics of interest

Critical Thinking Company......fun math games and logic books

Hobby stores...built models of a ship while we studies history of boats, for example

The Giant Science Resource Book with Usborne Science Encyclopedia to determine science interests

Documentaries on topics of interest

Games, games and more games.....rainbow resource has a ton of these

Books, books books....we spent many days at the library reading tons of books

 

What a great time for you and DD. You'll have a ton of support here. Enjoy!

 

[ajgdavis]

Thank you so much! I will check into all the suggested resources.

 

I have read WTM. I have checked it out twice now from the library. I will need to decide whether or not to buy my own copy but so far it has been there every time I've needed it!

 

I am not looking for a Christian curriculum.

 

I have ordered the Rainbow Resources catalog but have not received it yet.

 

My sense of overwhelming confusion is compounded by the fact that I also have a 5 yr old dd. She will be in a private school for 1/2 day kindergarten this year and then we will decide what to do in her case. So I have three hours for one-on-one time with my older daughter. When I see the list of hours for all the different courses in WTM I start to worry if I will have enough hours in a day to accomplish everything! Then I wonder if I need to go in the direction of more thoroughly laid out curriculum that she can be more independent with. So many decisions!

 

I'm so glad to have this forum as a resource!

[Mandy in TN]

Thank you so much! I will check into all the suggested resources.

 

I have read WTM. I have checked it out twice now from the library. I will need to decide whether or not to buy my own copy but so far it has been there every time I've needed it!

 

I am not looking for a Christian curriculum.

 

I have ordered the Rainbow Resources catalog but have not received it yet.

 

My sense of overwhelming confusion is compounded by the fact that I also have a 5 yr old dd. She will be in a private school for 1/2 day kindergarten this year and then we will decide what to do in her case. So I have three hours for one-on-one time with my older daughter. When I see the list of hours for all the different courses in WTM I start to worry if I will have enough hours in a day to accomplish everything! Then I wonder if I need to go in the direction of more thoroughly laid out curriculum that she can be more independent with. So many decisions!

 

I'm so glad to have this forum as a resource!

The Rainbow Resource catalog is a phone book. I mean it is a monstrous, old school, Atlanta Metro phone book on newsprint. While I do enjoy perusing the phone book, when I order from Rainbow, I typically go to their website and do a search for the specific item that I want to purchase. ;)

 

Mandy

[Mandy in TN]

Hello!

 

I am new here! I will begin our homeschooling journey with 5th grade this year. My dd has been in public school since kindergarten. She is a strong student but has not been exposed to as much grammar/history/science as I would like. Help! I'm not sure what I am doing! : )

 

I have purchased MM and am pretty convinced to use SOTW Ancients with her as well. Any tips or direction anyone could give me would very much be appreciated!

If you are wanting a schedule for SOTW along with coordinating literature with some comprehension questions and a couple of activity suggestions for the books, Classical House of Learning has it and it's free. My little man will be using a few of the books and student pages from CHOLL Grammar Stage Level 2 Ancients and a good chunk of the books and student pages from CHOLL Logic Stage Ancients.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[Chrysalis Academy]

Just dropping by to say welcome. I started hsing my older daughter in 4th grade, when the little one was in K, and last year hs'd 5th grade while the little was in 1st grade at a public charter school. So I know what it's like to be straddling those worlds, and trying to figure out how to do the right thing by both your children. Dd7 has decided she wants to hs this coming year, too, which I'm very excited about, but nervous too!

 

Independence will come, but it will most likely come gradually. My dd is a lot more independent now, at the end of 5th grade, than she was at the beginning of the year. Be patient with both of you while you are figuring out this new relationship!

 

MM is a great choice for coming out of ps - you will be able to isolate and identify her holes (if any) pretty easily using MM. Don't be surprised if she struggles with the mental math aspects - my dd didn't learn any of that in ps, and it was the hardest thing to get used to about MM, but the struggle was well worth it. I found that my dd's basic computation skills were in good shape, but she had holes in the area of measurement, elapsed time, geometry . . . all the end-of-book chapters they never really seemed to get to in ps. MM filled those holes in very nicely.

 

You'll find lots of great advice here, lots of nice people who will be very helpful. You will be overwhelmed by advice, in fact! Just remember that it's your school, and try and focus on your own goals and priorities and don't feel like you have to do what everyone else is doing, or take advice that doesn't resonate.

 

Welcome to the journey!

[TarynB]

When I see the list of hours for all the different courses in WTM I start to worry if I will have enough hours in a day to accomplish everything!

 

Welcome! You've received lots of great advice already. Just wanted to add, those lists of how much time to spend on each subject in WTM can indeed be overwhelming, and I've seen it posted here many times that SWB herself doesn't/didn't stick to those requirements with her own kids. They're included in the book as suggestions only, and were included at the insistence of the book's publisher, not SWB. So take them with a grain of salt and just do what feels right to you. To start, you might even want to begin with only a couple of subjects (just math and reading, or whatever DD prefers) and add in the rest one at a time, maybe every few weeks, until you find your groove. As is often stated, homeschooling is a marathon, not a sprint! : )

 

ETA: If it would be helpful, here's my example of a way to modify WTM guidelines to suit your needs. We follow the spirit of the guidelines but do not spend as much time on it in practice. My DS doesn't love history and he'd rather spend more time on science. So we streamline history, doing it just 2 days week, doing less writing and research than WTM prescribes. DS outlines a couple of paragraphs from Kingfisher History and makes an entry on a homemade timeline on one day. Then on the 2nd day, he'll read 15 or 20 pages in Human Odyssey, and we might watch a relevant documentary sometime that week during lunch. He gets plenty of writing in his writing curriculum, so we don't do much writing in history, for example.

 

Also, speaking of writing, if you're using SWB's Writing With Ease or her newer Writing With Skill, or any other rigorous writing curriculum, you may not want or need to do as much "writing across the curriculum" in history/science/literature as WTM prescribes. My DS did WWE4, then spent a year on Institute for Excellence in Writing products, and is now starting Writing With Skill. Here at the beginning, I won't ask for much writing in anything except what he does for WWS assignments. As time goes by and he gets more proficient writing skills, I'll add that extra writing across the curriculum back in, gradually.

[Walking-Iris]

Welcome! every one here said posted such nice thoughts that I don't have more to add, but I may have advice for your 3 hours of alone time with your 5th grader.

 

I will have a 5th grader and a 1st grader. I also have a soon-to-be 3 year old. One thing I have learned schooling the older child with younger ones under foot is that it's best to combine them as much as possible. Even at such age ranges.

 

If I had 3 solid hours alone with my 5th grader, with no younger sibling distractions, we would work on math first. Math by far has been the one subject that my ds needs quiet and very little distractions to finish. After math I would focus on lang arts, spelling, grammar, some writing. You could take that alone time to read the history text together, or science text.

 

Science, history, art and music appreciation are really easy to do with little ones under foot.

 

You can give your 5 year old the coloring sheet in SOTW to color while you read together. You can do nature study together as a family, you can include your 5 year old in science experiments. It would be like enrichment for your Kinder. My younger children have learned a ton because of my including them where I could in subjects.

 

I've found that instead of worrying about how to keep little ones out of the way, it's best to look at how I can include them in some way.

 

But math!!! I definitely would appreciate some completely alone, quiet math time with my ds. I would definitely use those 3 hours to focus on your child's 3 r's and anything else that needs concentration. Projects and science experiments are great things to do as a family.

 

You'll find that homeschooling happens at all times. A bedtime story is homeschooling, a project might be better done on a Sunday afternoon. You'll definitely learn to make it a lifestyle rather than a separate time set away fro school. Then you'll discover the real appeal to homeschooling--a close family who enjoys learning together.

[ajgdavis]

Thank you so much! This is just the advice I needed!

[Pen]

Welcome! A few ideas that I have not noticed already--though I have not read all that others posted either:

 

1) We did all of SOTW in less than 2 years. I would recommend this since I think it is wonderful, but might get too young seeming soon. It could be reviewed by your older dd if she were then to read it and go over it with the younger in the next few years. We got the SOTW audio and used it in car etc. as well as at home.

 

2) I would try to figure out what your dd needs your intensive help for and schedule that in the 3 hours time, leaving other things that she can do on her own, or mostly on her own for when 5yo is home, other than subjects where you can combine both children.

 

3)My son had MM, but also had Critical Thinking Co's math program. the latter was something he could easily do on his own more than MM time.

So it is not just "math" that may need you a lot or not, but the actual specific program, and you may want some that do need you a lot, and some that do not, on purpose.

 

4) My son has done better following interests based on his fiction reading rather than WTM approach of gearing it to the history. So, for example, he got into the Iliad and Odyssey when he was reading Percy Jackson, more than based on if fitting with study of ancient history.

 

5) We also take advantage of things that aid learning experiences like this summer there will be Julius Caesar as the Shakespeare in our nearest city, so we will review both the play and the history of that as part of attending the play.

 

6) one of our best educational items is our garden. And it was great back at age 5 as well as still being at age 11. Tons of hands on learning, exercise, and get some food from it too.

 

7) we also go to the library often. And this last year I got Netflix and with I had had it sooner. documentaries have been very helpful.

 

8) We work by amount of time, not by, say, pages, or lessons. So, for example, math used to be one hour, now it is one and one half hours but includes logic also. When the daily time is done for the day, it is done.

 

9) I suggest you start with just one (or a few, but very light load) subject for the summer to get used to the idea of homeschool, rather than diving in to everything all at once next fall. It could give you all an easy introduction, and show you if, say, your math curricula will be a good choice and whether of not that is an area that needs you intensively or not.

 

10) We tend to focus on a few things rather than huge numbers of things which makes schooling less overwhelming. That is, history might also include doing some art and writing a paper. Math currently includes logic. We only really have about 4 subjects per day in biggish blocks which is easier for us than 10 minutes of this and 15 minutes of the other.