By the grace of God this will be our sixth year of homeschooling. The first three years we exclusively used Abeka and the structured approach worked well for us. Last year I switched our oldest daughter to Rod & Staff in order to cut down on our costs, yet maintain a similar teaching method. It was a great fit for us and we will stay with R & S for both of our girls in Math, English, Reading, and Spelling. We are going to branch out a bit this year though in Science & History.
Here is a list of what we will do together for 4th and 5th grade.
Bible
Grapevine Studies- New Testament Overview, Stick Figuring through the BibleWe did the Old Testament version a couple years ago and our girls loved it.They love to draw, color, and create. What better way to learn God's Word than to draw their way through it!
Health
We didn't use this last year, so we will make use of it together this year.
Science
We are very excited to be doing this together and have heard so many great things about Apologia. I am also looking forward to just having to teach from one book. We will be covering two of their topics this year to stay on track in completing all of them by 7th grade.
Astronomy Notebooking Journal
What a great addition these notebooking journals are! We will do Astronomy in Semester One.
Exploring Creation with Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day
This will begin in Semester Two.
Zoology 2 Notebooking Journal
History
Students I
This is brand new to us this year. This is getting me out of my comfort zone as far as structure goes. Although visiting the library will be a welcome change in routine. Reading aloud with more discussion is what lead me to this choice. The reviews were outstanding too. We will be doing this first one during Semester One.
Students II
This will be the material we cover in the second semester. I would love feedback from anyone who has already used this program. Any pointers that you can share on planning it out?
5th Grade
I love the simplicity of this teaching method. Last year it helped our daughter become more of an independent learner too. It is very well laid out, easy to understand, and it is a hardcover book.
Again, the simple layout of this and the way it flows is such a blessing. There is plenty of review and just enough oral and written practice on the new concepts that are covered each day.
A much more thorough approach than Abeka. We were used to just memorization for the first three years. This covers so much more than that.
Our fifth grader loves to read and flies through the pages. In fourth grade
R & S uses the Bible readers and does a great job with the paired workbooks that aid in comprehension and vocabulary. Beginning in fifth grade they transition into the upper- grade reading series containing 40 prose works, 15 poems, and 5 composition themes. There is also a workbook that goes with it.
We never used this so I couldn't spend the money on anything else. Most of what you need for supplies is already in this book.
4th Grade
I am believing this will be a good transition for our youngest daughter from Abeka. Another thing that I adore about Rod and Staff are the old fashioned pictures throughout the book of classrooms, simple moments of old time fun, etc.
Another great tool is that you only have one book for the teachers manual. Each page has a reduced snapshot of the students text in your book and has the points to cover in teaching, as well as, the answers to the worksheets and tests all in one book.
The instructions for what will be taught are very clear and easy to follow.
This really challenged our fifth grader last year. I am hoping it will do the same for our fourth grader this year coming from Abeka.
The biblical content of the reading material is what sets this program apart. The workbooks are great to strengthen their comprehension and vocabulary.
Again, these were not used so we will save the money and make use of them this year. Most of what you need for supplies is already in this book.
Extra Curricular
Our church offers our girls amazing opportunities in the Arts. They have been in several plays with a church wide cast at Christmas and Easter. They have also been a part of the annual children's play where they have sung solos and had speaking parts.
This year they are going to be taking a dance class with Ballet, Jazz, and Lyrical.
On Valentine's Day we plan to host a craft & cookie exchange.
Field Trips
Our family really enjoys learning through field trips. We started off the year in 2010- 2011 by going to Kennedy Space Center. That was one of the neatest ever and we all had such a great time. It was an awesome value on Homeschool Day and they even gave you a ticket to come back a second day. You will need it- there is so much to see and do there. This year we already have a big science center and aquarium on the calendar to visit this fall.
We will begin schooling the day after Labor Day this year.
Hope you all have a wonderful year teaching, learning, and pouring into your kids. What a blessing it is for us all to have this opportunity to spend such precious time with our children! May the Lord bless and guide us throughout the year!
Come and join us in the Hop...
19 comments:
We did Truthquest history last year and I really enjoyed it. we are doing Zoology 2 this year too. Loved reading your list!
p.s. I sent you an email about Grapevine :-)
I just remembered something that I used last year! There is a Truthquest Yahoo group. There are several different schedules in the Files section that group members have created, along with other goodies like notebook pages.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HIStoryQuesters/
Thanks so much, Amy! That will be so helpful in navigating through Truthquest. :)
Looks like a good year! And your extracurriculars sound fun too! I need to do more of that...
Great reminder too about the OPPORTUNITY to spend PRECIOUS time with our kids!!! It's so easy to lose sight of that and start to get bogged down and want to complain!
Thanks for visiting... :)
Welcome to your first blog hop. I didn't have much to say about homeschooling yet, seeing as my oldest is four and we haven't really started..., but I can never resist a good blog hop! Have a great year.
Thanks for stopping by and encouraging me! I considered doing 2 Apologia sciences this year too. I wanted my 5th grader to get to do more of the elementary sciences before 7th grade, but thought that 2 would be too much for my 6 year old. I think that I'll just let him choose next year's science. :)
Amy,
Thanks for stopping by... have a great year with your littles!
Tracy,
I understand. Since this is our first year with Apologia I was hesitant to do two of them, as well.
Blessings to you both,
Denise
Thanks for stopping by my blog and the wonderful comment of me looking young :) I love Rod and Staff and my boys have really enjoyed the simpleness of it for Math the past couple years. I look forward to reading more of your blog..
We did TruthQuest American History I last year and loved it! I'm doing TQ American History II this year with my 5th grader and my Kindergartener can listen in on the read-alouds as he has interest. They also have lapbooks, timelines, mapwork, etc. on the TruthQuest site now!
Thanks for stopping by my blog! Looks like you have a great year ahead teaching your kiddos. And thanks for the great reminder...it's so easy to get stressed out about the daily grind and lose focus. Take care!
~Laine
Thanks for stopping by! Your girls have a wonderful lineup! You are blessed to have your co-op at church - sounds like a lot of great opportunities. We live in a European country where it is actually not legal for their citizens to homeschool, but we are military so we slip through the cracks. BUT, one great thing are the field trip opportunities, they are plentiful and go great with MFW! Blessings! Carlie K.
Thanks for visiting our website for the hop! Its great to learn a little more about the other subjects that Rod and Staff offers.
Looks like you are all going to have a wonderful year! Have fun creating learning moments and wonderful family memories!
Blessings!
Mrs Mary Joy Pershing
Sounds like a great line up. Definitely going to have to look into truthquest for the coming years. I LOVE history and this sounds like a great curriculum! Blessings on the coming school year.
Have a great year! :)
You have a great year planned. I try to use things that I bought in years past and didn't get to also. I think that you will really enjoy the Apologia science and the notebooks. Especially since you have girls. My son did not really like the cutting/glueing part of the notebook, but I can see how girls would really enjoy it. I loved the crossword puzzles at the end of each chapter. I considered that the "test". It was a super review.
I am not familiar with the history you are using, but I know that reading aloud to your children is fabulous! They (and you) will love it!
Have a fantastic school year!
Roan
Doing American History??? PLEASE join us on our Study America Saturday Linky! We will be starting August 20th, but you can join in any time! I hope that others will do a separate post of their American History books, projects, writing, etc., and Link up with us so we can all help each other out!!! I have a button there you can grab, as well. Hope to see you at the Linky!
I'll have to look into Truthquest--it's so fun to check everyone's posts out! Have a great year!!
I have TruthQuest, and love it, but it is so hard for me to schedule that I didn't continue with it. I will probably go back though, because I really enjoyed the living books!
I hope to back to Truthquest, I love the living books, but like more laid out plans than they have. I am not good with that many options!
Post a Comment