If you needed a boxed curriculum for 5th grade....

[indigomama]

I am struggling with my upcoming 5th grader. We have seriously entertained the idea of putting him in a small private school, but he is not wanting to go. I was thinking having a boxed curriculum might work. I need suggestions for a secular(or easily made secular), every day planned out, fairly independent curriculum. I don't need History as I'd like to keep him with the other kids for that. 

 

I was looking at Timberdoodle with some modifications. Anything else?

 

 

ETA: Up till know we've used TOG, MM, FLL, W&R, and AAS.  

 

Edited June 23, 2016 by indigomama

[frugalmamatx]

I'm in the same boat, 5th grader as well.

 

Lifepac & Ace Pacs fit what you are looking for, but aren't secular. Ace Paces math can be made kinda secular if you mark out the comics. Spectrum Workbooks are pretty good too and are secular. They are also pretty cheap - about $10 a subject at Barnes & Noble. 

[Guest]

K12 as an independant

 

Laural Springs School (might have spelled that wrong)

 

Calvert School

[indigomama]

I'm in the same boat, 5th grader as well.

 

Lifepac & Ace Pacs fit what you are looking for, but aren't secular. Ace Paces math can be made kinda secular if you mark out the comics. Spectrum Workbooks are pretty good too and are secular. They are also pretty cheap - about $10 a subject at Barnes & Noble. 

 

I need secular for our charter to cover the purchase. And we have never done a lot of workbooks, so I don't want to do too many. 

 

I don't know. 

In the past he's used TOG, AAS, MM, W&R, FLL, and pieced together science. But, I think he'd benefit from having a clear checklist of requirements and maybe not MM or AAS.

[SilverMoon]

If I had to go all boxed with that age, I would probably go with Oak Meadow anymore. And it's secular.

 

eta: I'd add more reading. We read a lot.

Edited June 23, 2016 by SilverMoon

[OneStepAtATime]

Time for Learning coupled with a lot of reading?

[SilverMoon]

I'm in the same boat, 5th grader as well.

 

Lifepac & Ace Pacs fit what you are looking for, but aren't secular. Ace Paces math can be made kinda secular if you mark out the comics. Spectrum Workbooks are pretty good too and are secular. They are also pretty cheap - about $10 a subject at Barnes & Noble. 

 

Every ACE pace requires a Scripture verse to be memorized. It's repeated many times throughout and is on the final test. I used all ACE for many years myself as a kid; ACE is not worth the time to secularize.

 

FWIW, those Spectrum workbooks are supplements. Not full year long courses.

[freelylearned]

Book Shark? I haven't used but I know it's a secular boxed curriculum that isn't too worksheety, has a lot of reading, and is scheduled out.

[TKDmom]

Book Shark requires a lot of reading out loud (some of which is too heavy for that age). And Grade 5 uses a digital World Book encyclopedia for a lot of the history. I didn't make it very far into it with a 5th and 6th grader.

 

I was strongly considering Oak Meadow 5 for my upcoming 6th grader. It's supposed to be independent. And if I had a charter school to pay for it... I'd have clicked purchase already ;)

 

I think the one thing against it for us is that it seems to require a lot of writing without explicit instruction on how to write. It would be hard for my kid who hasn't had a lot of formal writing yet.

[SarahW]

I am struggling with my upcoming 5th grader. We have seriously entertained the idea of putting him in a small private school, but he is not wanting to go. I was thinking having a boxed curriculum might work. I need suggestions for a secular(or easily made secular), every day planned out, fairly independent curriculum. I don't need History as I'd like to keep him with the other kids for that. 

 

I was looking at Timberdoodle with some modifications. Anything else?

 

 

ETA: Up till know we've used TOG, MM, FLL, W&R, and AAS.  

 

 Considering what you've done already, I'd suggest you look at MP. For a fifth grader it could be more independent than not.

[FawnsFunnyFarm]

I'm also going to suggest Oak Meadow.

 

Moving Beyond the Page would also fit the bill possibly.

[nannyaunt]

I would also recommend Memoria Press. I think you can secularize it fairly easily.

[SilverMoon]

I need secular for our charter to cover the purchase. And we have never done a lot of workbooks, so I don't want to do too many.

It seems like this information would rule out MP? A charter wouldn't care if it's easy to secularize and there are lots of workbooks.

[indigomama]

It seems like this information would rule out MP? A charter wouldn't care if it's easy to secularize and there are lots of workbooks.

 

No, a charter doesn't care if it's easy to secularize. But I could purchase the non-secular items of a program myself, and then use charter finds to purchase those that are secular, for example the readers, read alouds, latin, math (obviously not Rod and Staff), etc. 

 

And they don't care about lots of workbooks, but I do. I'm trying to find a balance between giving this particular DS the education I want him to have (classical, heavy lit, discussion based, non soul crushing), and the one he needs: easy to implement, more independent, check-boxable. 

 

I'm not seeing any one boxed set that is what I want/he needs. I might piece together, but not the same teacher-intensive curriculum we've been using. That also means I might need to make up his own daily/weekly schedule. Any good schedulers/planners?

[Syllieann]

No, a charter doesn't care if it's easy to secularize. But I could purchase the non-secular items of a program myself, and then use charter finds to purchase those that are secular, for example the readers, read alouds, latin, math (obviously not Rod and Staff), etc.

 

And they don't care about lots of workbooks, but I do. I'm trying to find a balance between giving this particular DS the education I want him to have (classical, heavy lit, discussion based, non soul crushing), and the one he needs: easy to implement, more independent, check-boxable.

 

I'm not seeing any one boxed set that is what I want/he needs. I might piece together, but not the same teacher-intensive curriculum we've been using. That also means I might need to make up his own daily/weekly schedule. Any good schedulers/planners?

I think you need to call mp. They have secular versions of the Latin. It's difficult to find on the site though. I think rod and staff would really be the only no-go.

[indigomama]

I think you need to call mp. They have secular versions of the Latin. It's difficult to find on the site though. I think rod and staff would really be the only no-go.

 

Thanks, I will. I need to ask them about 5th grade and K. 

[mamakelly]

How about getting a grade level box set from Timberdoodle? I think they are fairly well laid out, include hands on science and some fun stuff too.

 

http://www.timberdoodle.com/Complete_Homeschool_Curriculum_Packages_s/363.htm

[TKDmom]

That also means I might need to make up his own daily/weekly schedule. Any good schedulers/planners?

 

I'm really liking Plan Your Year by Pam Barnhill. It's helping me with the big-picture planning. It's flexible, and the templates are so pretty. I like that I can print as many pages as I need, and only the pages I need. Pre-printed planners never work for me. With this I can have exactly the right amount of space for each kid, I can  add pages to the reading list for a dd who is trying to read every book in the house in one month, or I can tear out and re-print a page that needs to be totally re-worked.

 

So far, I've calendared our year, created a long-term vision for our homeschool, set goals with each of the kids, and decided on most of my resources. I have broken the school year into six 6-week terms with a week between each term. Right now, I'm dividing up the resources between terms (for example, in term 1 we will cover ch 1-3 in math)

 

I will be making detailed plans one week at a time (to allow for the fact that things never go as planned), but that will be easy once I've finished my big-picture plans. Also my plans for the terms have a little bit of wriggle-room. We can do only 3 lessons one week  if ds need more time on a concept, without ruining everything for the whole year and feeling pressured to double up on lessons later.

[EmseB]

No, a charter doesn't care if it's easy to secularize. But I could purchase the non-secular items of a program myself, and then use charter finds to purchase those that are secular, for example the readers, read alouds, latin, math (obviously not Rod and Staff), etc.

 

And they don't care about lots of workbooks, but I do. I'm trying to find a balance between giving this particular DS the education I want him to have (classical, heavy lit, discussion based, non soul crushing), and the one he needs: easy to implement, more independent, check-boxable.

 

I'm not seeing any one boxed set that is what I want/he needs. I might piece together, but not the same teacher-intensive curriculum we've been using. That also means I might need to make up his own daily/weekly schedule. Any good schedulers/planners?

FWIW, I have found MP to be a perfect blend of the bolded. We have good discussions and go deeply with a few books, but he worked towards independence in many of his subjects and the check boxes helped that. We have not done 5th, though.

[Ewe Mama]

For independent and easy to schedule, I would lean towards Timberdoodle's secular, too. I think Rainbow Resource is also making a secular bundle now as well.

[Jackie]

Build Your Library or Oak Meadow is where I would lean.

[Bay Lake Mom]

Geography Matters has a an excellent series called Trail Guide to Learning.  You can actually choose to purchase either the Regular package or the Government Funded Package.  They're used to this requirement apparently.

[indigomama]

Thank you everyone who has responded. I am looking into everything shared. It's so great to have this community to see what other's have done or experienced!!

 

 

 

I'm really liking Plan Your Year by Pam Barnhill. It's helping me with the big-picture planning. It's flexible, and the templates are so pretty. I like that I can print as many pages as I need, and only the pages I need. Pre-printed planners never work for me. With this I can have exactly the right amount of space for each kid, I can  add pages to the reading list for a dd who is trying to read every book in the house in one month, or I can tear out and re-print a page that needs to be totally re-worked.

 

So far, I've calendared our year, created a long-term vision for our homeschool, set goals with each of the kids, and decided on most of my resources. I have broken the school year into six 6-week terms with a week between each term. Right now, I'm dividing up the resources between terms (for example, in term 1 we will cover ch 1-3 in math)

 

I will be making detailed plans one week at a time (to allow for the fact that things never go as planned), but that will be easy once I've finished my big-picture plans. Also my plans for the terms have a little bit of wriggle-room. We can do only 3 lessons one week  if ds need more time on a concept, without ruining everything for the whole year and feeling pressured to double up on lessons later.

 

This looks like a great planner!

 

FWIW, I have found MP to be a perfect blend of the bolded. We have good discussions and go deeply with a few books, but he worked towards independence in many of his subjects and the check boxes helped that. We have not done 5th, though.

 

I'm glad to hear the MP leads to independence in study. I called MP and they are able to make their sets secular. I guess they get the request a lot for homeschoolers using public charter funds.

 

Geography Matters has a an excellent series called Trail Guide to Learning.  You can actually choose to purchase either the Regular package or the Government Funded Package.  They're used to this requirement apparently.

 

I'll look into this, I hadn't heard of them before, thanks!

[Syllieann]

So I'm curious. What does mp use for its secular sets to replace rod and staff English?

[indigomama]

So I'm curious. What does mp use for its secular sets to replace rod and staff English?

 

I called yesterday, the guy I spoke with was very nice, but he didn't know exactly what all the replacements were, I was asking about multiple grades. He was going to transfer me to someone who knew more, but they were on another call. He said I could always email and they can tell me. 

 

He also mentioned that for K they were rewriting the Teacher's manual so that it would be considered secular, too. 

[SevenDaisies]

So I'm curious. What does mp use for its secular sets to replace rod and staff English?

 

I believe R&S English is only used in the 8th grade package. It has been replaced with English Grammar Recitation I-IV, with V on the way for 8th grade.

[EmseB]

So I'm curious. What does mp use for its secular sets to replace rod and staff English?

MP cores don't use R&S English, but rather English Grammar & Recitation. They do use R&S math, but it's easy enough to just not order math from them and get what you want (that's what we do).