what curriculum would you use for a 4th grader

[welovetoread]

that doesn't love to read, but will tolerate it. Likes worksheets and textbooks but not a huge amount. She likes the idea of online lessons, but i don't all that much.  

 

[PeterPan]

I wouldn't.  I'd read to her or give her audiobooks to listen to while she does hands-on things like Snap Circuits until she falls in love with books.

 

Or Sonlight, which of course tries to do the same thing.  :)

 

VP's self-paced online history is FABULOUS.  At that age my dd enjoyed Snap Circuits and the 3D/4D puzzles (anatomy, bugs, etc.) Timberdoodle sells.  You might give her kits and things for her science and not even worry about a textbook.  Hobby Lobby sells neat science kits in their ed section, and then you can use a 40% coupon... My dd enjoyed Writing Tales 2, the Beautiful Feet Geography, and Wordsmith Apprentice around that age as well.  For reading, around that age she enjoyed the Sam Campbell books, the COFAs (Childhood of Famous Americans series), and was still reading a lot of comics frankly.  Her reading level has always been good.  She just likes humor and the human side of things.  I ended up using more audiobooks with her that year, because around then my ds was born.  I remember her listening to the Witch of Blackbird Pond and maybe Johnny Tremain around that age.  If she hasn't done the Chronicles of Narnia, those would be fabulous.  Don't get the dramatized but the wonderful actor-read, unabridged versions from Harper Audio.

 

We did some of the BJU Reading, and I think we were doing the BJU math then.  The BJU math is FABULOUS now btw.  I know I keep saying that, but certain things just really are!  Anyways, my dd is not a workbooky person, which is why I was identifying with your comments.  I think you have to stop and think about whether the workbooks or whatever are necessary, or whether it's pushing her through a list without any engagement or joy.  At some point the question is what that does to them, whether it's cutting off their love of learning for the sake of a list.  You really can drop all the workbooks and be fine.  You've got so many littles, is there partly an instruction thing driving this?  Like maybe she wants xyz parameters (be more independent, work with Mom, whatever) and you're trying to keep it practical?  Some things are not very practical.  If you have limited time with each student, obviously put it into the most important things (math and LA) for doing together and make independent or on audio or online things that won't suffer that way. There's always the option of something like BJU.  It's not what I've chosen to do, but some people do really well with it.  There you have videos for everything and could chose just to teach certain subjects if you wanted.  

[Aurelia]

What's worked here:

Wordsmith Apprentice

CLE math (almost too workbooky, but it works)

Galore Park science and English

personalized literature list (mom-created)

audio books and read-alouds

Atelier Art, Meet the Masters, Mark Kistler's drawing lessons

Dance Mat Typing

Breezin' Thru Theory (music theory)

 

DD loved the trial of VP self-paced lessons, but I couldn't see spending that much on history. SOTW works fine. 

 

If I absolutely had to use curricula from only one publisher, it would probably Galore Park. You might allow your child to do subjects like art, typing, etc online, and have her use books for the core subjects.

 

[mom31257]

My ds doesn't love reading as well, but he is math and science bent. I think that makes a big difference, but I have a math degree and haven't loved reading fiction for most of my life. I decided to go through the Teaching the Classics program to help me understand and teach literature better, and I discovered that it helped me enjoy reading more. It became more of a problem to be solved and figured out. I still don't "love" it, though. I think some people never do, yet I have a degree and a good life, so don't worry too much. 

 

Reading to ds or using an audio book for us has helped a lot, but I do have him read a long with a copy of the book. I think it has helped improve his reading speed. I'm giving him historical fiction books to read independently which are slightly easy for his grade level. I lead a book club for upper elementary and middle school kids because it has kept me accountable to make sure ds is reading some classics every year. I read those aloud, and they are a variety of grade levels, but some are above. 

 

Ds is more of a textbook/worksheet kid as well. I use BJU Math (and yes, it is wonderful, OhElizabeth!), BJU Reading (only some of it now because of time for book club reading), BJU Handwriting (liked their font a lot for ds), CLE Grammar, and R&S spelling. I skip the spelling and penmanship parts of CLE because of using other things. Science is unusual this year because we are doing 2 programs. Our co-op is using Apologia's new Chemistry and Physics, but I had purchased A Beka already. Ds and I aren't loving Apologia, so I started outlining and skimming the chapters with him so he'll understand the experiments in class.  He likes A Beka much better. Our co-op also does IEW writing, which I LOVE. It is great for a textbook/worksheet kind of person because it's structured and easy to follow.

 

I hope you find some things that you can both enjoy!

 

 

 

[Elisabet1]

I would never use a reading curriculum, if that is what you are asking about. I would let my child pick whatever books he or she wants. I like to back things up, sometimes, to get things going, with bookadventure.

[My3girls]

Don't have a 4th grader, but do have a 3rd grader who is a reunctant reader.  For her, I cannot let her choose the book because she won't or she will pick something that is totally above her ability level.  We are using ETC 3, SpellWellA, FLL2, WWE2, MM2, BFSU K-2, and Usborne Encyclopedia of World History as our spine. She gives no complaint with these.  I choose a classic such as Charlotte's Web which we are wrapping up or The Little House in the Big Woods which we are doing next that we tandem read... I read a page then she reads a page.  I, also, read to her from Paddle to the Sea, Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Burgess Book of Birds, Tales from Shakespeare, and Aesop for Children.  She reads to me levelled readers that have something to do with our unit in science or history such as The Magic Schoolbus for Science or Dinosaur Cove for history while we studied Dinosaurs.  This last little bit she complains about some because she really doesn't like to read, and she does all the reading with discussion after so she has to pay attention which according to her gives her a headache.  I can see vast improvements in her reading skills and comprehension, though, and amazingly the level of complaining has reduced greatly since we first began.  I have high hopes that she may eventually at least tolerate reading if not learn to like it a little.  My goal is have her do a little independent reading next year and increase it each year.

[sbgrace]

Are you looking for all curriculum?

 

Does she like to listen to audio stories?

[Melissa B]

Memoria Press