Holden is down to the final 3 weeks of this school year. Yay! We decided to skip our 2-week spring break altogether, and we don’t plan to take our monthly week off in May, either. That gains us an extra 3 weeks to have off between school years, which will glean us a break of 4 weeks. That’s amazing! We never have big breaks like that. He will also finish math for the year on Monday, so that will free up a big block of time each day, and a week after that, he’ll finish up Wordly Wise 3000 Online. With math out of the way, we should be able to start doubling up on some of our other assignments, at least on some days, and that would allow us to take an even longer break between school years! That will be so nice. I wanted to be sure that we finished school in May like Haylee will in public school so we can all have some time off together.
I waited until the last possible minute to start making my curriculum plans for next school year, and I made no preparation of any materials, either. I was on the fence about maybe sending him to public school, as he has not been cooperating with homeschooling this year. But after some investigation into the middle school here, we thought better of it. He would go to Wedgwood 6, which is only 6th grade, but Wedgwood Middle thereafter, and it has a terrible reputation for violence and drugs. Ugh. I’ll keep suffering through is lack of cooperation at home, thank you very much.
So once that decision was made, I had to step up my game to put together a plan and start ordering and prepping materials, but I got it all done! We’re ready to go, and I’m excited about all the new things we’ll be doing for 6th grade! I decided to drop traditional language arts and handwriting in favor of doing a grammar-inclusive introductory writing program. I had saved it from a review I’d done with Haylee many years ago, and I think it will be perfect for him. He’s on the older end of the recommended age range, but since he hasn’t done any writing before this, it’s actually a good starting point. So here’s our plan!
2019-2020 CURRICULUM PLAN
6th GRADE
SUBJECT | CURRICULUM |
Math | Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra |
History/Reading | Bookshark 6 |
Language Arts | Write Shop Junior D |
Science | Apologia Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures |
Spelling | Houghton Mifflin Spelling & Vocabulary 7 |
Vocabulary | Wordly Wise 3000 Online – Level 6 |
Spanish | La Clase Divertida Level II |
Bible | Bible Study Guide for All Ages |
I even sat down and got all of our daily lesson plans programmed into Homeschool Planet and have printed out all of his schedules for the whole school year. They are tabbed by week number in a big binder. When I said we’re ready, I meant we’re completely ready!
Holden is probably most excited about returning to La Clase Divertida. He really had a lot of fun with that program, and he retained a lot of the Spanish words that were set to music. I was thrilled to find Level II for a good price on ebay. I’m probably most excited to do Apologia science again this year. We had a great time with all of the experiments in Anatomy & Physiology this year, and I’ve never done anything with the Flying Creatures program before. I was lucky enough to pick up the textbook and unused notebooking journal at a local used curriculum sale for a grand total of $10 last summer! We plan to move into Land Animals in 7th grade and Chemistry & Physics in 8th grade. We ordered the Nature’s Workshop Plus lab kit to go along with Flying Creatures, so we’ll be ready for all those great experiments.
So what’s your plan for the new school year? Will you be trying anything new? We plan to do a trial run with the first week of school starting June 17th, and then we’ll take a week off in case I discover anything I’ve forgotten to order, schedule, or prepare. That’s gives me a chance to fix it and start again the following week. I’ve always found that to be a good way to start off the year.
