Homeschool - Finishing 5th grade

Before we jump into the school stuff, here's the adorable little old man, Jolsie, enjoying his penis-cleaning soak. Though he's been neutered, it kind of falls out sometimes (it's hard to hold things in when you're old) and gets stuff stuck to it, so the easiest way to clean it is a five minute soak in warm water--it wipes right off. He is pretty content in the water, though we provide a carrot for distraction. He nibbles and sits and thinks, then nibbles some more, then thinks some more. He doesn't seem to mind the soaking at all (seems to even like it), though he does HATE the wiping it clean part.

We are finishing up our fifth grade year of homeschooling. She has a couple of weeks left of history and language and will continue her maths throughout the summer, so we don’t lose ground on that. Here’s a synopsis of what we used/tried this year.

MATHS – Singapore Math
This has served us well, and we will continue using it. Some topics seem to have few samples which sometimes causes her difficulty in getting started. I would like to see one or more example for each type of problem that they complete in the Textbook, Workbook, Intensive Practice, and Word Problems books.

SCIENCE – Eclectic Mix
We used several different textbooks and workbooks for science. Of those we used, I liked the Spectrum books but they didn’t go as deeply as I would have liked and contained no hands-on work. I supplemented with experiments from several science textbooks I have accumulated. We spent about half the year on evolution, and the books we had (DK Eyewitness – Evolution and DK Evolution Revolution) were fantastic! She really enjoyed that unit and is very interested in it, mainly because of the focus on animals.

We also continued our study of the periodic table, using How Not To Teach Science materials, along with the book, The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Element in the Universe.

We continued to work with the scientific method. Science is SO important to me, that we have used a huge array of resources along with a great deal of informal lessons (very easy with our nature girl who loves to be outside in any weather and lives in a veritable lab with all of the animals and plants in our world). She also completed some studies on the human body/anatomy. I am in the process of researching a few very promising middle school science curriculums, as I would like a more coherent flow with strong hands-on exploration for the next couple of years.

HISTORY – Story of the World Book Three: Early Modern Times
Though I like this series and will continue next year with the fourth and final book, she has not enjoyed this period of history and will definitely not enjoy next year’s. She prefers natural history to ‘human’ history, and is pretty routinely bored and irritated with one story after another of males trying to acquire power at all costs (war). I share her sentiments, but this is nonetheless important information that she needs to master and understand. I disliked history in school and college, until I went about it from a literary approach rather than going from one war/pissing contest to another. Once she completes the final book of this series, we will revisit history in chronological order from a literary and philosophical perspective. We will both find that more interesting and enjoyable, I’m sure.

ECONOMICS – Uncle Eric books
We finished the third book of four at the first semester end. Initially my plan was to continue on with the last book in semester two. I held off on it, though. I found as we went through these books that despite liking the IDEA of the books, the implementation left much to be desired. I liked the straight forward, easy-to-understand explanations of fairly complex, difficult topics. I did not like that the author inserted his sometimes wrong, sometimes antiquated, often conservative Christian, and always unnecessary OPINIONS throughout the book without clearly distinguishing fact from opinion. It is very easy for me to see the difference, but was forced to read through each book, underlining and notating what was strictly the author’s opinion. Frankly, I couldn’t give a shit less what a random author’s opinion is on political and economic topics, and find that it really degraded an otherwise good resource. I am working on trying to find something better, still at a level she can understand. If I am unable to find something over the summer, I will be reduced to reading and notating the final book for next year.

LATIN – Lively Latin
We finished the Lively Latin course. It’s not bad, though there are some gaps between the information presented to the student and the questions asked of the student. She found this somewhat frustrating at times. She really disliked Latin and didn’t want to continue. I would like her to continue and am hoping to convince her at a later date to try it again.

SPANISH – Rosetta Stone
Instead of continuing with Latin, I gave her a choice of Spanish or French. She chose to start with Spanish (and after I spent lots of $$ on it, decided she wants to learn Hindi, too—maybe next year) and that seems to be going well.

LANGUAGE ARTS
Spelling & Vocabulary – She finished the Wise Guide for Spelling, which goes through high school level, this year. This book wasn’t bad as far as the word lists, which I used and appreciated. The majority of the rest of the book was unusable due to ridiculous, unnecessary religious content. My research did not indicate any of this in this program, so I was taken by surprise. Since I had already purchased it, I went ahead and used the word lists and made my own supplementary work to go along with it. Spelling is quite easy for her, and she does very well with it. I am actually trying to decide if I want to continue with a formal spelling unit or just let her to continue to pick it up as she goes. She reads so very much and is exposed to such rich language, that I don’t think she will ever have a problem with spelling or vocabulary.

Grammar – First Language Lessons: We are just wrapping up the last in the series of four. This series has done a fantastic job at presenting the parts of speech, diagramming sentences, and the rest of the grammar world. It is not her favorite, but she doesn’t hate it. I’ve been very happy with the series and wish they had a middle school level, but there isn’t one (at least at this point). That leaves me searching for a new curriculum for next year.

Writing – Writing is another skill that comes very easy to her. Both of my girls were natural and prolific writers (as I tend to be). We’ve been using her own stories and proofing and editing them, working on grammar, coherence, etc. We will continue to dig deeper in perfecting her own writing. Additionally, she has started working on a research paper. At this point, she is just researching and compiling information, based on her outline. Because this is a very easy topic for both of us, I have not sought out or needed a curriculum. I think I would like one for next year, though, because I want to get into the various types and styles of writing and would like an organized approach rather than our informal one.

Literature & Poetry – We’ve been using my own eclectic curriculum so far, which is easy for me. I had a Lit minor (undergrad) and am an avid reader and lover of books and poetry of all genres. L is also a bibliophile and reads a vast array of books both on her own and with me. We have so many interesting discussions on our reading! She has memorized several large pieces of classic poetry and will continue to do so. I also have a girlfriend who has just retired from teaching lit at UWW. She has volunteered to cover Shakespeare and poetry with L, so that will be fun for her to work with someone else. I was a student of Julie’s, way back in my undergrad, and she is quite brilliant! I’m sure L will enjoy working with her.

GEOGRAPHY – Spectrum
This wasn’t bad at all, but it wasn’t fantastic. I wish it had gone more in depth. I am shopping around for a new middle school geography curriculum.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Her Bharatanatyam classes and practice has covered an element of PE as well as served as a great cultural study. I also have her doing fairly intensive yoga workouts now. She’s a bit on the lazy side with this, and it takes constant motivation to keep her moving. She does dog walks as the weather permits and has access to the treadmill, which she seems to go through streaks with. Because she still spends so much active time playing outside, I think she gets enough activity. She has experimented with many sports through the years, but hasn’t really liked any enough to stick with. She did gymnastics for the longest but chose not to take those classes this year. Maybe she will go back next year?? She keeps saying she wants to do track, but there aren’t any age appropriate venues for that here.

MUSIC
This has been a big disappointment for me. I have been teaching her piano, which became like pulling teeth every single day to get her to practice or make any effort at all. She made a good case for taking violin lessons instead of piano, so I acquiesced. I have been searching for months for a recommendation for a good violin teacher but have not yet been able to find one. She needs to get back into some kind of music lessons by fall at the latest, so I’m afraid if I can’t track down a good violin teacher, it will be back to the piano wars.

ART HISTORY – The Usborne Book of Art
My focus is teaching her art history, rather than the mechanics of art. This book is a pretty good overview of the various periods of art. It is chronological, so it’s easy to tie into the time period we are studying in history and look at the various historical and political environment in which the art occurred.

Since both of the girls are amazing artists and I’m not, I really have nothing to offer here. She is very self-motivated, so as long as we provide the resources (unlimited art supplies, books she selects, classes, tolerating the endless messes, and hanging space) she is running with this on her own. I can help her with some things, but not many. Fortunately, she has her sister and my artist friend that she can use for resources and any help/advice she needs.

PHILOSOPHY – on hold
An author friend of ours wrote L a nice little philosophy guide. I also have several very good books on the topic. We scratched the surface of it the last couple of years, but I left off there. I just didn’t feel that her brain had developed to the point of really getting into the interesting, in-depth philosophical studies that I am looking forward to. Despite being very smart and quite mature, the areas of the brain that allow her to fully explore this topic just haven’t fully developed yet. I am seeing signs that she is ready, and will try to delve into this subject in the fall and see how it goes.

I have a fairly long list of various curriculums that I am currently evaluating. I have about a month to make a decision and acquire the materials. It will take me the rest of the summer to prepare everything and plan out the year. I will post back when I make some choices or at least get it narrowed down to two or three.