Is there a 6th grade planning thread

[Mukmuk]

Mulling some changes/additions:

 

Math. Outsourced. Abstract Algebra and Algebra 1 revision (Dolciani). AOPS.

 

Science. Physics, Derek Owens. Interest led astrophysics with tutor.

 

History. Big History.

 

Language Arts. CAP W & R Narrative I. Killgallon Paragraphs for Middle School. Jacobs Ladder for comprehension.

 

Literature. Tolkien LoTR

 

Logic. AoA, Tynker

 

Foreign Language. Outsourced to a very excellent language tutor.

 

Music. Violin

 

PE. Swimming, tennis, rock climbing, maybe roller blading

[Violet Crown]

We've started the academic year, so I suppose we're committed. Middle Girl is using:

 

English:

Galore Park, So You Really Want To Learn English

Warriner's Composition: Models and Exercises

Prentice-Hall Handbook for Writers

Word Wealth, Junior

 

Math:

AoPS Intermediate Algebra

AoPS Intermediate Counting and Probability

 

Programming: Python for Kids

 

Latin: Artes Latinae

 

French: Tutor + Rosetta Stone

 

Greek: Tutor, when dh gets around to hiring one

 

Science:

Various TOPS units

Fun With Chemistry (1956 Gilbert chemistry set)

 

History: reading through the rest of her Landmark histories

 

Music: Piano lessons

 

Art: Drawing lessons - haven't quite figured this one out yet

 

Religion: Baltimore Catechism + My Catholic Faith

 

Exercise: Running, swimming, biking

[Mrs Twain]

We've started the academic year, so I suppose we're committed. Middle Girl is using:

 

English:

Galore Park, So You Really Want To Learn English

Warriner's Composition: Models and Exercises

Prentice-Hall Handbook for Writers

Word Wealth, Junior

 

Math:

AoPS Intermediate Algebra

AoPS Intermediate Counting and Probability

 

Programming: Python for Kids

 

Latin: Artes Latinae

 

French: Tutor + Rosetta Stone

 

Greek: Tutor, when dh gets around to hiring one

 

Science:

Various TOPS units

Fun With Chemistry (1956 Gilbert chemistry set)

 

History: reading through the rest of her Landmark histories

 

Music: Piano lessons

 

Art: Drawing lessons - haven't quite figured this one out yet

 

Religion: Baltimore Catechism + My Catholic Faith

 

Exercise: Running, swimming, biking

Violet Crown,

How are you using Word Wealth Junior? I bought a copy to use with my 6th grader this year, and I am strategizing about how to get the most out of it. I was looking for a TM, but I can't find one for sale in the entire cyberspace world. Any advice is much appreciated.

[Violet Crown]

Violet Crown,

How are you using Word Wealth Junior? I bought a copy to use with my 6th grader this year, and I am strategizing about how to get the most out of it. I was looking for a TM, but I can't find one for sale in the entire cyberspace world. Any advice is much appreciated.

Yes, I've never seen any reason to think there's a TM. I've been treating it as a multiyear book for pre-high school (Word Wealth seems to be the high school version). For a typical unit, the child tries out the little "pre-test" and tries to match the words correctly. Then we go over the Study guide together, with special attention to words she didn't know or wasn't sure of, making sure she can spell and pronounce them. Often we break the Study Guide into two lessons. The Practice Set and final exercise are also often done on separate days. We use the final tests only occasionally.

 

It's been key to go over the Study Guide together with the child, as this is when you have the useful discussions and discoveries. The child needs to hear and say the words out loud, not just passively read about them. Likewise, we go over the exercises orally when she's completed them.

 

I skipped the Word Building units with Great Girl, who had excellent spelling and word construction understanding, and didn't need them; with Middle girl, we spend a lot of time on them. They cured her of her terrible spelling, because she finally understood the underlying patterns.

 

I found that a week per unit, with daily attention to the words, leads to good retention. Also to more fun. But you do have to go over the units yourself ahead of time, or have a dictionary at hand and admit when you're unsure of a meaning or pronunciation. And sometimes we will both get stuck on a "quest," but discussing what we think the answer might be has led to even better retention.

 

Did that help?

[Mrs Twain]

Yes, I've never seen any reason to think there's a TM. I've been treating it as a multiyear book for pre-high school (Word Wealth seems to be the high school version). For a typical unit, the child tries out the little "pre-test" and tries to match the words correctly. Then we go over the Study guide together, with special attention to words she didn't know or wasn't sure of, making sure she can spell and pronounce them. Often we break the Study Guide into two lessons. The Practice Set and final exercise are also often done on separate days. We use the final tests only occasionally.

 

It's been key to go over the Study Guide together with the child, as this is when you have the useful discussions and discoveries. The child needs to hear and say the words out loud, not just passively read about them. Likewise, we go over the exercises orally when she's completed them.

 

I skipped the Word Building units with Great Girl, who had excellent spelling and word construction understanding, and didn't need them; with Middle girl, we spend a lot of time on them. They cured her of her terrible spelling, because she finally understood the underlying patterns.

 

I found that a week per unit, with daily attention to the words, leads to good retention. Also to more fun. But you do have to go over the units yourself ahead of time, or have a dictionary at hand and admit when you're unsure of a meaning or pronunciation. And sometimes we will both get stuck on a "quest," but discussing what we think the answer might be has led to even better retention.

 

Did that help?

Thank you very much. That is exactly what I need to know.

[momtolgd]

Here is the list so far for my rising 6th grader:

 

Math: Finish TT6, then TT7 and continue fun with Beast Academy

 

History/Literature: BookShark 5 history package (Eastern Hemisphere) (with 8th grade brother), with extra videos and stuff!

Current Events: CNN Student News

 

Science: Finish RSO Biology 2, and then  ???

 

Grammar: Second half of Hake 5

 

Writing: Jump In; possibly The Creative Writer, Level 1 also

 

Music: Clarinet

 

 

 

At our Enrichment Day (Co-Op):

 

Choir

Ohio History

Karate

Art

Possibly a writing class if they find a teacher for it.

 

Extras through the year:

Homeschool Basketball (October through March)

Homeschool 4H Group (February through June)

 

 

And I am looking at the possibility of a foreign language...of interest is either Mandarin Chinese, or Spanish.  We'll see how that fits in!

[mom31257]

As I've been making lesson plans for the year, I really don't think I have time to do Latin. It's dd's Senior year, and I want to savor it. I will look at doing it ds' 7th grade year instead. 

 

 

[Mandylubug]

Our plans so far:

 

Math R&S 5&6

 

Grammar: quick read through of Grammar Land and then R&S 6

 

Spelling: R&S6 and spelling city

 

Reading: R&S6 and personal choices

 

Science: R&S6

 

History: SOTW, KHE, youtube vids

 

Co-op classes (unsure of classes yet) archery and gymnastics

[Ummto4]

6th grade for my daughter:

 

- Math: Dolciani PreAlgebra, followed by Algebra (not sure which yet).

- English:

a. Reading: following the schedule from Easy Peasy Homeschool (www.alinonehomeschool.com) with reading comprehension questions from the same website.

b. Vocab: Evan-Moore 6th grade daily vocab book.

c. Writing: 30 week of IEW online class (from one of the provider, not from IEW) with Daily Trait of Writing (Evan Moore)

d. Grammar: Evan-Moore Paragraph Editing + Singapore Grammar Book (found it in a Singapore bookstore while visiting Singapore).

 

- Geography: Evan-Moore Daily Geography

- History: reading through Hakim's History of US (the concise version)

- Science: Brain by Ellen McHenry, Evan Moore Geology, and finishing off Singapore MPH.

- Logic: Building Thinking Skills.

 

 

[LanaTron]

This will be the first year I only have ONE homeschool child.  My eldest just graduated and will be in college, and my middle two will be in public high school (11th and 9th).  Due to a variety of life issues, including the special insanity that is having a homeschooled 12th grader, my rising 6th grade dd has been left to her own devices more than I like over the past couple of years.  So, this coming year I am hoping to get her back on track BUT I am hoping to do some of the "fun" homeschool things I haven't been able to do with my kids in a while.  I am planning curricula that are (I hope) efficient, good quality, and get the job done, so that dd and I can spend some much needed quality time together.  ALSO, I think she needs a change in the materials I've been using with her, so we'll be trying some curricula that are new to us.  Here's what I'm planning/considering:

 

Math:  Math U See Epsilon

English composition:  CAP Fable & Narrative 1, plus possibly Killgallon Sentence Composing for Middle School, and if we like it, possibly start Paragraphs for Middle School if we have time in our school year.

Grammar:  Growing With Grammar 6

Spelling:  Logic of English  Going to see how she does without spelling instruction this year.  We do a lot of outside activities, so something had to give.

Literature:  Progeny Press and Novel Units guides to complement Geography studies ??? Not sure about doing lit guides, or just completing a reading list.  She asked for lit guides, but I prefer the simplicity of just a reading list.  FINAL CHOICE:  reading list w/ discussion/writing using WEM

Latin:  Latin Prep 1

Memory:  Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization

Logic:  Orbiting with Logic

Geography:  Trail Guide to World Geography; Geography through Art

Science:  Milestones in Science kit, along with library books (although I just saw the Elemental Science website for the first time, so this may change)  Elemental Science:  Earth and Astronomy for Logic Stage

Bible:  Explorer's Bible Study

Arts:  Music co-op:  choir, music theory, band (flute)

Other:  Enrichment co-op:  acting, digital video editing

Girl Scouts

 

I hope to have time to bake, go to the museum, take walks, etc.  But I tend to be over-ambitious, so who knows how things will really shake out.

 

I quoted myself  :tongue_smilie: with my final final choices above. 

 

And FWIW, I've attached a copy of her weekly schedule.  6th grade schedule.pdf

 

Y'all have a great 6th grade year!

6th grade schedule.pdf

[Mrs Twain]

EDITED--This version is my masterpiece for 6th grade.  

I already bought the books, so don't make any suggestions.  (Just kidding...ha ha)

 

 

Math--Horizons 6, CWP 5, then start into Dolciani Pre-Algebra (1988)

English--R&S 6 English

Writing--IEW-SICC-B (second half), interspersed with School Composition lessons (Maxwell, 1902),

    Also work through 2 chapters of A Workbook of Arguments 

Spelling--R&S Spelling 6, occasional practice of Spelling Power word lists

Literature--Pick books from VP and CK K-8 lists for individual reading, read aloud from Journeys Through Bookland, audio CDs for the car, Figuratively Speaking

Vocabulary--Word Wealth Junior (1/3 of book), Vocabulary Cartoons

Science--BJU Science 6, Studies Weekly Health 6

World History--OUP's World in Ancient Times + Study Guides (Ancient Near Eastern World, Greek, Roman), plus reading books on Middle Ages (Medieval Days and Ways, etc.) 

American History--Studies Weekly Social Studies (New Hampshire's 5th grade = US history), plus read Why America Is Free

Geography--Discovering the World of Geography workbook (5th/6th grade), CC geography (USA)

Civics--iCivics.org  :001_wub:

Logic--Fallacy Detective

Test Prep/Cursive Practice/Dictionary Practice/Editing Practice--IEW Fix-It, Evan Moor Daily Reading Comprehension

German--Geni@l A1

 

Plus we do CC memory work, oral presentations

Speech Club for 6th

 

[mamachanse]

I'm pretty excited for a bit more independent work this year!

 

Language Arts:

WWS1

Paragraphs for Middle School by Killgallon

Analytical Grammar

Vocabulary from Classical Roots A

Getty Dubay Handwriting D-E

 

Math:

Singapore 5B, 6A, and 6B

 

Science:

Aristotle Leads the Way

 

History:

History Odyssey Middle Ages Level 2 (hoping to cover geography and literature here)

 

Latin:

Getting Started with Latin?

 

Fine Arts:

Atelier

Guitar lessons

 

Logic:

Mind Benders

Red Herring Mysteries

[sagira]

I'm strongly considering replacing Intermediate Language Lessons with Writing & Rhetoric Narrative Book 2. I know it's not a replacement persé, but when we tried the samples he was engaged, and he asked for it when it was done. This is the child who doesn't like writing and dreads English. Sooo.. I'm going with the sample again, then transferring to the actual book. Anyone know if there's a pdf for this?

[sagira]

In answer to my own question, I guess not. I printed out the samples. Apparently hard copies are hard to come by right now. Thanks goodness for generous samples!  :hurray:

 

Now off to look for our Art book I've misplaced  :glare:

[Aurelia]

Updated list. Final, I think.

I hope.

 

Math: Khan Academy Pre-Algebra, Key to Percents, maybe Zaccaro's Challenge Math

English: OM 6, Treasured Conversations, Phonetic Zoo

History: OM Ancient Civilizations

Science: Ellen McHenry Elements, Carbon Chem, and the Brain

Latin: Latin Prep 1A or Visual Latin 

Music: guitar, possibly voice lessons

PE: competitive tumbling, horseback riding

 

Latin is still kind of up in the air because we haven't finished GSWL yet, but I've bought nearly everything else. 

[chiguirre]

I think I have Trinqueta's 6th grade year pretty much planned out:

 

We'll continue with Singapore Math, probably doing 6A and 6B quickly and starting Discovering Mathematics 7.

She'll enroll in Landry Academy's English 3 or 4. It depends on how far we are in MCT and the ages of the other participants.

She'll be doing Jenney's First Year Latin with the Landry Latin 1 class. She's done FFL 1 and wants to move a bit quicker so I think this will work out well.

I'm leaning toward Landry Academy's Spanish 2. I would rather find a secular class with a live teacher at a competitive price, but if not this is my fall back.

I'm leaning toward enrolling her in Rolling Acres' 1st year Great Books Intermediate class.

I'm planning on either having her do Athena's Online biology class or the Joy of Science TTC course with me.

 

She'll stay with her homeschool choir, theater program and orchestra for at least one more year, then we'll see if we need to pare it down. I think she'll stick with TKD and Tennis and ditch volleyball and track. She'll also be joining a council wide backpacking group when she moves up to Cadettes, but her troop commitment will be less until the rest of the Juniors move up too.

We are doing DM 7 now and it's worked well. PM 6 went by very quickly because there was a lot of review.

 

T is doing Landry's English 4. I like having outside accountability and they do a good job of weaving the strands of MCT LA together and adding in LL 8. It's well worth the money, especially if you buy their generics a year in advance at a steep discount.

 

Landry's Latin and Spanish classes are also going smoothly so far.

 

Rolling Acres didn't work out for us. It turned out to be a nice teaser for the classics, but we both needed more meat. I found myself having to pull in more resources on the fly. Bummer!

 

Instead, T is doing G3 Online's American History class. She's enjoying it so far and I like the checklists and accountability to post her thoughts in the forums. T won't write unless she has to and it's hard to get her to write for me (since she could just say what she thinks).

 

She is doing biology at Athena's. It's quite rigorous. I'm very pleasantly surprised at the level of the class. She's also doing Physical Science at Elemental Science. It's too early to tell how that will work out.

 

She's also enrolled in the WTM Academy's Expository Writing 1 class. It starts next week.

 

I thought I might have gone overboard, but the workload's not at all unmanageable. We get it done and still have a full roster of extracurriculars and (IMO, not T's) plenty of time for Minecraft.

[BusyMom5]

This is our first year, so just trying to figure out what the right balance is.  So far we are doing:

 

Saxon 8/7, LOF Pre-Al w/ Biology (half-way thru LOF right now, should finish it next week, I don't know if I will do the Economics or just do the Saxon?  ANd still looking at Zaccarro books)

 

Science:  Aristotle Leads the Way (LOVE THIS!)

 

History:  HO Level 2 Ancients, with K12 HO as a reader instead of SOMK- *does anyone have a list of these matched up???*

 

Vocab from Classical Roots

Wordly Wise

 

Hake Grammar

 

CAP W&R Fable and Narr. 1 (this is another LOVE!  It's their favorite LA)

 

Literature- haven't gotten anything yet, but I do have plans ;) 

[rrldaniel]

This is my first time posting - I think it will help me get everything straight in my head!  We live overseas and school year round starting in January.  Next year mine will be in 6th, 4th, 3rd, 1st, and PreK.

 

Bible - Family Worship, Westminster Shorter Catechism (memorizing), Picture Smart Bible

Character - at least 1 missionary bio, gratitude journal, lots of Adventures in Odyssey, maybe CM's Laying Down the Rails?

Math - TT 7, occasional LoF

Science - Apologia Anatomy w/siblings and when we finish that she'll start General Science

Grammar - Analytical Grammar

Spelling - AAS 6 and then 7 if I still feel like she needs it

Writing - Finish IEW Ancients, then do...?, Story Starters

Copywork - variety of famous quotes, poems, and selections from literature - she loves copywork.

Literature - a few VP or Progeny Press Lit guides (not more than 4) and lots of extra reading (her favorite), bi-monthly bookclub

Poetry - MP Horatius at the Bridge, Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization

History - MOH 2 with lots of extra books

Foreign Language - we live in a spanish speaking country = immersion:)

Typing - she learned it last year but I think needs another turn through...

Lifeskills - I outsource this to dh - he does a little class with them once a week with topics ranging from using a credit card to changing a tire to gun safety.  I also have high hopes to use Girls' Guide to Home Skills but it's been sitting on my shelf all year:(  I have the one for boys too - I'd like to pick which chapters to cover and do it with all of them.  About time my boys start detailing the bathrooms!

PE - tennis + life with 3 brothers:)

 

Everything else get thrown into Morning Time - Classical Composers Monthly, Vocabulary Cartoons, Philosophy for Kids, finish Fallacy Detective, some living math projects (flipping through How Math Works), CNN Student News, sometimes articles from God's World News, This Day in History, lots of games spanning the subjects, youtube videos, and we're going to TRY to start a commonplace book - if I give her pretty pens she'll probably like it:)

 

 

 

[RootAnn]

We're three weeks in ...  and I think I'm going to let her out of Rainbow Science and just have her draw/write from science books this year. She is having trouble keeping up, got a 73% on her first quiz, and is suffering from anxiety during the lab experiments.

Other changes....

Technically, dd#2 will be in 6th next year, but her skills are in non-academic areas. I'll continue to keep her with 'the youngers', I think, for everything except Science. Here's my tentative plan:

 

Math:  Abeka 5

Language Arts:  Spell to Write & Read, Treasured Conversations (with dd#3) Writing Tales 2? (depends on how WT1 goes this summer) or GWG5, Sentence Family

History:  Story of the World 3

Science:  Rainbow Science Yr 1 w/dd#1 Draw/write from science books

Logic:  Fallacy Detective

Latin: LC1

Religion: Baltimore Catechism (section 3) w/Child's Bible History St Patrick's Summer

Map Skills D

 

Continue karate, horseback riding, & art lessons locally. Loop scheduling our enrichments -- art, blobbing (The Core / McHenry's Mapping The World), art history, etc.

 

[Mukmuk]

Great idea to do a review. We have changes.

 

Mulling some changes/additions:

 

Math. Outsourced. Abstract Algebra and Algebra 1 revision (Dolciani). AOPS. He's signed up for an AOPS class instead. Loves.

 

Science. Physics, Derek Owens. Interest led astrophysics with tutor. Derek Owens is tough enough. What was I thinking. He's doing well so far. These are early days yet, but he's off to a good tempo.

 

History. Big History. I.must.ressurrect.this.

 

Language Arts. CAP W & R Narrative I. Killgallon Paragraphs for Middle School. Jacobs Ladder for comprehension. Okay. But we need to step this up.

 

Literature. Tolkien LoTR. Getting a tutor.

 

Logic. AoA, Tynker. Bah.

 

Foreign Language. Outsourced to a very excellent language tutor. Whew.

 

Music. Violin. Chugging along

 

PE. Swimming, tennis, rock climbing, maybe roller blading

[KeriJ]

We started this week.  So far, so good.

It looks long to me, but it's spread out pretty evenly and doesn't take her that long.

 

Math: CLE 6

 

Grammar: R&S 5 (2nd 1/2)

 

Spelling: Dictation Day by Day, R&S 6 Dropped dictation.  Every year I feel guilty about the fact that we never seem to get to it.

 

Writing: Written narrations and Igniting Your Writing

 

Vocab. EftRU

 

History: HOD CTC

 

Geography: Map Trek Ancient  We switched to map drawing Leigh Bortins style.

 

Science: Science in the Beginning

 

Art: Line Upon Line (CLP) and SCM Picture Portfolios

 

Rosetta Stone French

 

Mavis Beacon Typing drills

 

Bible: Awana Truth and Training

 

Literature: various lists for independent reading, family read-alouds

 

Piano, Ballet, Band

 

Updated.  We only made 2 changes so far.  The rest is going well.  thankfully.

[FloridaLisa]

Keri, 

 

 

 

We switched to map drawing Leigh Bortins style.

 

 

Can you elaborate on this? I'm intrigued. 

 

Lisa

[KeriJ]

Keri, 

 

 

 

Can you elaborate on this? I'm intrigued. 

 

Lisa

 

Sure!  While I'm not a Classical Conversations fan in general, I wanted to read Leigh Bortins' book, The Core, especially the geography portion.  She gives great instructions for learning to draw the world by heart over the course of time.  In general, you start with map tracing, then drawing from a grid, coupled with "blobbing".  We have loved it so far!  If you google map blobbing, you can find youtube's etc.

[RootAnn]

Here's the "first step" to the process (roughly) -- Beware of the Blob

 

My dd#2 & dd#3 restarted this & we only do it once per week. They are comfy with the circles & the steps shown on the video (above) and are working on getting the blobs in the right place for all seven continents. Our next step (probably in a couple of weeks) will be to work on Africa in detail. We're going to use Ellen McHenry's Mapping the World with Art for the detail work stuff (and do it out-of-order).

[dauphin]

Hi, I never logged my original plans, but we just got started last month, and here's what we are currently working with. I worry sometimes that I've tried to pack too much in, but I also think that we need to work on DD being more self-directed/independent.

 

Math: Finishing up pre-pre-algebra with a variety (Khan, LOF, RS Fractions, Alcumus, RS Geometry), and just started Tabletclass Pre-Algebra (which she loves so far)

Spelling: Finish Spelling Workout G and then start on Scripps Spelling Bee lists

Vocab: Word Build Elements 1

Writing: WWE 2 3x/week and CAP 2x/week.

     Both are double-time; This is our second full year homeschooling and we did IEW through CC last year

     When we finish both of those, I'm thinking about Kilgallon and Beyond the Book Report. Then continuing with WWE 3 and CAP Narrative.

Grammar: Analytical Grammar Season 1

Literature: TOG UG/Dialectic

History: TOG Year 2 Units 3-4 and Year 3 Units 1-2

Geography: Fifty States Under God/Geography of the Fifty States

Science: Supercharged Science

Logic: Prufrock Press books and Fallacy Detective

Latin: Latin Alive 1

Bible: God's Great Covenant

Memory Work: Westminster Shorter Catechism

Art/Music: Meet the Masters and eMedia Piano

Character/Etiquette: George Washington's Rules of Civility (copy work) and Etiquette Factory: http://www.theetiquettefactory.com

PE: Volleyball

 

[momto2Cs]

Updates in red....

 

Language Arts:

Writing: Writing With Ease   Homemade Language Arts program, which includes the resources listed below

Grammar, etc.: Figuratively Speaking, The Giggly Guide to Grammar, and The Word Snoop (these are all once-a-week subjects)

Reading Work: Reading Horizons, daily practice with various books

 

Math:

Saxon Math 6/5     Math Mammoth Blue series

 

Science:

Homemade Zoology plan, with Science Explorer: Animals (fleshed out with supplemental reading/hands-on)

 

Everything Else "Schooly":

I use the "Afternoon Basket" for everything else: interest led history with Landmark, World Landmark, etc., books; geography enriched with National geographic printable blackline maps; nature reading; mathematical reading; literature (to be decided); etc.

 

Other/Independent Studies:

Roller derby

Maybe French with Duolingo

Various projects she chooses herself, including knitting, sewing, sculpture, etc.

[Chloe]

Writing/Grammar:  Essentials in Writing

Spelling:  Apples and Pears

Math:  MUS Zeta (after a month or so of solidifying fractions)

History:  Personal book list concentrating on US history from the civil war to present

Science:  Apologia Zoology:  Swimming Creatures

 

Basket Time:  Bible, Memorization, Poetry, Art, Music, Geography, Vocabulary, Shakespeare, Literature, History Discussion

 

 

 

 

[Space station]

I know that it won't all get done, but here is what I will have available for her:  Changes are in orange - this is my slightly more realistic list.

 

Math:  Continue AoPS Intro to Algebra, continue LoF Beginning Algebra, LoF Advanced Algebra, AoPs Intro to Number Theory, AoPS Counting & Probability, ALEKS (because it is assessment tool required by charter school)

 

Language Arts:

Grammar – Finish MCT Practice Voyage 45-100, Start Magic Lens 1 & 4Practice1  (Going to take a Grammar break when finished with PV- she is pretty solid.)

Vocabulary – Finish CE2 Lessons 11-20, Start WWW1 or MP Book of Roots  (Going to do McHenry Excavating English instead & save WWW1 for next year)

Poetry – Finish World of Poetry, poetry in WWS, and poetry in MP lessons

Writing – Finish WWS1 Weeks 30-36, Start WWS2  (Going to do MCT Essay Voyage instead & save WWS2 for next year.)

Speech – Fables & Folktales A Writing Workshop for Young Storytellers, IEW Speech Boot camp, 50 Debate Prompts For Kids (not likely to happen!)

Literature – Figuratively Speaking, Ready Readers 3 and Ready Readers Narnia, Classics Club Wind in the Willows

Read Alouds – MP 6^th grade list

Handwriting – Teach Yourself Cursive &/or Latin Cursive Copybook (Just not going to get to it.)

 

Science:

Engineering – Building Math Stranded!

Planetary Science (Earth Science) – AstroVenture online NASA curriculum; Lyrical Earth Science

 

Social Studies: US History – The Story of US w/ Hewitt guide, SoTW 3 & 4 as audiobooks or read alouds, Current Events - CNN Student News, Artner’s Reader’s Guide to American History for reading suggestions or BF Western Expansion, Geography - BF Geography or NatGeo Geography

 

Classical Studies:  MP 6^th Grade Sets - Famous Men of Greece, Horatius at the Bridge, The Trojan War Prep for NME

 

Latin:  MP First Form Latin, Lingua Angelica

 

Greek:  From Alpha to Omega text, ancillary exercises, reader and publisher’s online resources, first half only Elementary Greek

 

Logic: Critical Thinking 1

 

Programming:  Kid coder WebDesign, FortHunt CSS online class

 

Christian Studies: MP Book IV;  The Screwtape Letters with Study Guide from CS Lewis Study Program; Read alouds from The Book of Virtues for Young People 

 

Music: Piano, Violin, Homeschool Choir & Bells, Chamber Music group

 

Art: 1 semester Homeschool art class

 

PE: Homeschool Gym class, Ballet and Jazz dance classes

 

(I know, I know - I said it won't all get done!) (Now most of it might get done!)

 

[mom31257]

I've made a couple of slight changes or delays.

 

Bible: I'm not having ds read in the Action Bible. I found a plan that gives a good overview of the bible, reading several chapters per book. This way he's reading the actual Bible.

 

Math: I haven't had time to begin the Geometry extra or LOF. 

 

Literature:  I'm so impressed with CLE Reading that I'm going to increase the amount we are doing. I was originally going to try and cover 6th and 7th grades during all of middle school. Now I think I'll try to get in all 3 grade levels. I'm holding off on starting MP American Literature as well. It looks very challenging, so I want to make sure he's ready. 

 

 

[mc26]

Here is what I have so far:

 

11 y.o. DS, this is kind of a 6th/7th mash-up.  This will be our first year fully at home, after doing K-5 at a small, private elementary school.  He is so excited to begin homeschooling and has really enjoyed selecting his curriculum.  He likes a variety, and is pretty motivated when it comes to something he wants to do :)

 

Math:     TT PreAlgebra supplemented with LOF Pre A, and then fun math (Balance Benders, Zaccarro and Understanding Geometry)

 

History:  Finish up HO Ancients with Human Odyssey and begin HO Middle Ages,

 

Geography:  Discovering the World of Geography workbooks

 

Science:  McHenry's The Elements, Story of Science and maybe a textbook or 2, which he enjoys reading for fun.  If we finish those things, I have Mr. Q Advanced Bio (the Anatomy one), otherwise I will save that for the next year.

 

Writing:  Writing Tales 2 (with DS2)

 

LA:     Caesar's English 1, Grammar Voyage, various EM things (daily paragraph editing, daily language review, daily reading comp, spelling) for morning work.

 

Foreign Language:  Continue with Spanish via Duo Lingo and maybe the Practice Makes Perfect book, I also have Greek Code Cracker

 

Misc:  Meet the Great Composers, Mindbenders, Venn Perplexors, Let's Make Some Great Art

 

Lit:   We will work on reading comprehension with the short passage stuff, and I am working on a book list for him.  We will most likely just read and discuss this year and start a formal lit program the next year.

 

Extracurricular stuff--hopefully some kind of theater program, and he plays tennis a few days a week

 

So, I did pretty well planning for our first year.  We started in July so we were able to add, subtract and tweak as needed before we really got going in August.  

 

He liked the looks of his brother's Moving Beyond the Page units(he does 9-11), so we picked a few to do on his level and they are working out really well so far. 

 

Changes I made:  

Science:  Still reading Story of Science as a read -aloud in the evenings, but added in some MBTP 11-13 science units. Put Elements aside for a while, but will get back to it.  He watches loads of Mythbusters, How It's Made, and has discovered Crash Course on YouTube.  

 

LA:  Ditched the Evan Moor stuff, added Hake 7 for grammar (he really likes it), and Reading Detective for comprehension (perfect for what we needed).  Will be adding Megawords 6 , the Remedia Outlining book, and possibly Essentials in Writing.  We have been doing CAP Narrative 1, which we like, but we are going to save the second half of the book for when he has a little more writing stamina.  We will use Grammar Voyage in the second semester.

I also got the MBTP Lit unit for The Hobbit, if that goes well, we will order some others.

 

Latin:  Lively Latin, he does this completely independently and seems to be enjoying it.  

 

We are so happy with our decision to homeschool!

[warneral]

Here is where we are with 6th grade. We are at week 5.

 

Spelling - R&S 7

Grammar - R&S 6

Math mammoth 6 and then into MM pre algebra

Writing - WWS1 (probably won't finish it all this year but staying on schedule for as long as possible)

Science - BJU 6 without the videos

History - mystery of History vol 3 just reading, doing ipad timeline summaries and some mapping

Bible - old story new devotions and scripture reading

Literature - some assigned reading, lit guides and read alouds to go with his age and the history cycle

Co-OP does (light) Spanish, music, art & phy ed.

Boy Scouts & tennis

 

Plus some logic liftoff and vocabulit it we have time.

 

For some reason, this feels like a very full schedule

[sagira]

Starting Week 5 next week. Here we are in 6th Grade after some schedule-tweaking:

 

English

Spelling: Natural Speller lists, copied in notebooks by moi, copywork, letter tiles activities, plus Spelling City games throughout the week, Spelling City quiz. This is working well. DS11 is a good speller now.

Grammar: VIE 6 on Mon

Writing: Paragraph Book 2 on Tue, Sentence Composing on Wed, CAP's W&R Narrative II on Thu, Wordsmith Apprentice on Fri. He also writes across the curriculum: one paragraph weekly, one outline weekly, one note-taking session weekly

Literature: Reading as well as read-alouds, literary classics and historical fiction (ancients this year), discussions with or without lit prompts from Classical Conditioning

 

Math: Math Mammoth 5B, then moving into 6A

 

Spanish: Galore Park's SYRWTL Spanish Book 1 3X weekly

Duolingo Spanish daily

 

Science

BFSU 2 and 3, Behold and See 5 and 6, independent science readings, NeoK12 and Bill Nye videos, 12-week unit of taking notes from a high school text, and science project at the end of the year

Usborne Science Encyclopedia with Internet Links

 

History: Dorothy Mills' Book of the Ancient World, Book of the Greeks, and Book of the Romans and Kfamily's Book Notes

K12 Human Odyssey supplementary reading

 

Geography:  A Child's Geography: The Holy Land and The Classical World, correlating with our studies of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans.

 

Art: What Life Was Like in: Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome - Time Life books

Usborne Introduction to Art

 

Music: Usborne Introduction to Music and Internet links

 

Poetry: Poetry for Young People Series: Emily Dickinson and Edward Lear

 

Latin:  Big Book of Lively Latin 1 Online (both of us are learning together)

 

Bible: Sundays before or after Religious Education at church

 

Extracurriculars: Piano, Swimming, Taekwondo, Boy Scouts (in the Winter, Basketball instead of Swimming)

[Laurel-in-CA]

And us:

 

Language Arts: R&S 6 (orally), Spelling Workout G (tests only), Best Short Stories book, to be followed by Best Nonfiction and Best Plays; we're also reading Little Women aloud together.

History: Human Odyssey, Vol. 2 with Student Pages and chapter outlining; focusing on learning to outline and write short answers to Q.

Science: Rainbow Science, Year 1 (physics & chemistry) plus Tiner books on those topics with Memoria study guides. The SG's are a challenge here, especially applying the math

Math: MUS Pre-Algebra + Singapore 6A/B. We're really starting to see the value of the way these two loop review each other. MUS has covered fractions, decimals, % and Singapore is now going over in more detail with deeper word problem while MUS introduces negative numbers and exponents. DD is no longer complaining about doing both.

Logic: Art of Argument with group discussion and maybe a project or two

Latin: Latin Alive 1 - We're on ch. 5 and so far it's easy for dd, who's had LFC A, B, C; harder for the other two kids, who haven't had latin but do speak spanish. We're spicing it up with readings from Latin via Ovid, a first-year college text that I picked up at a library book sale for 50 cents. Gives us extra practice with reading and pronunciation.

Bible: Memoria Press Christian Studies III - This is a once/week thing, which is not as intense as the Explorers series we used last year but covers the NT. We're also reading a Bob Schulz book as a devotional.

 

Other: Sadly, we dropped 4-H this year; it was just too much. We are continuing with American Heritage Girls and enjoying it. PE is mostly working on our Hiking and Outdoor Skills badges. And dd goes to youth group @ our little chuch twice/month and sits in our home bible study twice/month, where we're covering Acts. Oh, and Friday Park Day, which is for me as much as for dd, LOL.

[LanaTron]

My dd and I have been working through Killgallon's Sentence Composing for Middle School. I say that she and I are working through it together because it is hard. Sometimes, I cannot figure out what to do, and have to look at the answer key, and she is frustrated with it. I figured out that part of her frustration is that the sentence structures are way more complex than her reading level.  :sad: But I really like the Killgallon approach, so today I ordered Sentence Composing for Elementary School. I think it will be a better fit for her. And we are working on her reading skills, too. 

 

Also, we have been on a super-tight budget, so I haven't gotten all the components for Elemental Science just yet. In lieu of that, I have been having her read a one- or two-page spread in Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia. I have been making up worksheets with fill-in-the-blank, short answer, "describe XX" and "sketch XX" type questions for her. I am trying to tie the pages into things we hear in the news or whatever is going on, e.g. the eclipse was last week, and she did the page on eclipses the day before it happened.

 

So far, though, she is digging MUS, SYRWTLL, and Trail Guide to World Geography, which are all new for her this year. She also likes GWG, Orbiting with Logic, and Explorer's Bible Study, but I knew that she liked those from previous books in the series. I am pretty sure she'll like the lower-level Killgallon book, and once we get going for real with science, and she gets used to reading more...

 

It's shaping up to be the best homeschool year we've had in a LONG time.  :hurray:  :hurray:

[...................]

Well in 6 th grade my son did the correspondence course through Calvert and it was VERY challenging.  HE did a great job and did it almost independently too, and ended with A or B average.  He learned how to use flashcards, takes notes, study, outline, study for many different types of tests, wrote a huge 17 page report (it only had to be 6 but he went way above)...and it was great.  
 

My original plan was to take my dd thorugh the same course in 6th grade to get her up to speed with "textbook" style schooling and all the expectations therein.

 

BUT I don't know if she will be up to it.  She is a COMPLETELY different person in every single way. And we have slightly different goals for her because she desires to be a 4-5 year old preschool teacher...so she can probably wait a year or two before getting into books/flashcards/tests,etc.

 

So if we go the lighter route for her:

Math : Up in the air...maybe Horizons and Zaccaro's Challenge or maybe Key To and Zaccarro's.

English: BJU Writing/Grammar 6

Apples and Pears Spelling (C and D)

History/Lit/Art/Science: What your 6th Grader Needs to Know supplemented with library books and a few experiment kits.  

Piano 

So, assuming we decide to take the lighter approach, a LOT of it will stay the same from this year becuase things are going very smoothly other than the amount of time per day.  

[Aloha2U]

Yes, I've never seen any reason to think there's a TM. I've been treating it as a multiyear book for pre-high school (Word Wealth seems to be the high school version). For a typical unit, the child tries out the little "pre-test" and tries to match the words correctly. Then we go over the Study guide together, with special attention to words she didn't know or wasn't sure of, making sure she can spell and pronounce them. Often we break the Study Guide into two lessons. The Practice Set and final exercise are also often done on separate days. We use the final tests only occasionally.

 

It's been key to go over the Study Guide together with the child, as this is when you have the useful discussions and discoveries. The child needs to hear and say the words out loud, not just passively read about them. Likewise, we go over the exercises orally when she's completed them.

 

I skipped the Word Building units with Great Girl, who had excellent spelling and word construction understanding, and didn't need them; with Middle girl, we spend a lot of time on them. They cured her of her terrible spelling, because she finally understood the underlying patterns.

 

I found that a week per unit, with daily attention to the words, leads to good retention. Also to more fun. But you do have to go over the units yourself ahead of time, or have a dictionary at hand and admit when you're unsure of a meaning or pronunciation. And sometimes we will both get stuck on a "quest," but discussing what we think the answer might be has led to even better retention.

 

Did that help?

 

Though two years after this thread, we'll be using WWJ next year for our 6th grade studies. LOL! Thanks to Mrs Twain for asking about WWJ and to Violet Crown for responding!