Sixth Grade, the first assessment
It's been about two weeks of sixth grade, so I thought I'd say how it's going.
Bible - we are using allinonehomeschool.com's old testament curriculum. It starts with reading the book of Matthew, then goes back to Genesis. She reads a whole chapter each morning, then answers questions about what she read. So far there is a good amount she knows and a good amount she doesn't know. I feel like that means we are in the right place.
Spelling - we are continuing on with Abeka spelling. She is doing fifth grade spelling because that is where she is! I have been doing this long enough that I'm so over worrying about what level we are on and am just happy that we are having fun and moving forward. Out of 30 spelling words, she knows more than 20, so she has less than 10 to work on through the week. It is working, so if it ain't broke....you know the rest.
Vocabulary - we are doing this differently this year. We have always done vocabulary with spelling, but just a list of words with their definitions wasn't super fun for Kara. This year we are using the vocabulary words in her Reading curriculum. They are HARD and we have regular quizzes on them. But, even though they are harder, my little reader learns better/faster this way and is doing great.
Reading - Kara always loves reading. We are using BJU's reading this year. I assign a lesson for the day, which consists of 5+ vocabulary words, reading 5-10 pages in a story, then answering questions about the story and vocabulary words. Once a week or so we take a break from that and work on glossary skills, thesaurus skills, analogies, that sort of thing. She ALWAYS wants to do more. Because she loves reading so much, we always do it after her least favorite subject - Grammar.
Grammar - we are using BJU's Grammar/Writing this year too. We always hate grammar. But BJU is using sentences with interesting facts about animals and scientific things to find prepositions, subjects and predicates, and diagramming sentences. Kara even went so far as to say she kind of likes grammar this year because of the way BJU presents the material. Um, that's huge. We haven't done any tests yet or started writing yet.
Math - we skipped a year and went straight to pre-algebra. She is liking it so far. We are using Teaching Textbooks because we have loved them for the past two years. And since it ain't broke, we aren't fixing it. ;-) So far, only two weeks in, the thing we missed last year that we are spending time on is dividing double digits into a four digit number. She is getting through it and still likes math. Now we're on fractions, and who doesn't love fractions? Okay, most people don't like them, but all three Days in this household love them.
Science - we are continuing on with BJU Science, which we have used for the past two years. We absolutely LOVE science. We save it for toward the end of the day because it's so much fun. Right now we are doing earth science, which is my favorite - earthquakes, volcanoes, rocks, etc. We watched a volcano movie for fun to reinforce what she learned and they used the key words we learned in school, which was exciting. She aced that test. (Minecraft taught her A LOT about earth science. She knows way more than I did at her age because of that game.)
History - at the beginning of this new year, we are still reading historical fiction about a native american girl so Kara can learn about that in a fun way. When she is done with those books, we will move on and get back to the mid to late 1600s. She knows a little over half of the state capitals and aced that test too.
Spanish - all three grandparents dropped out of Spanish - mostly because when the reality of skyping every single day at the time I said we needed them to be ready was too impractical. That's okay, Kara and I are doing our own thing. Kara is taking to the language incredibly quickly. We are using high school books (because that's all I could find) and she not only is very good at it, she really enjoys it. What a blessing that I used to be fluent and I actually know what I'm talking about when I teach it! I have the added benefit of doing that thing where I say, "no, that's not it, it doesn't sound right." Trust me, that takes a while and I'm SO glad I have that bonus for this new subject.
Art - Kara is taking an art class once a week now. She has gone twice and mastered shading already. Even though her class is once a week, she comes right home and spends all week working on what she learned on a zillion other drawings without me even asking her to.
Bible - we are using allinonehomeschool.com's old testament curriculum. It starts with reading the book of Matthew, then goes back to Genesis. She reads a whole chapter each morning, then answers questions about what she read. So far there is a good amount she knows and a good amount she doesn't know. I feel like that means we are in the right place.
Spelling - we are continuing on with Abeka spelling. She is doing fifth grade spelling because that is where she is! I have been doing this long enough that I'm so over worrying about what level we are on and am just happy that we are having fun and moving forward. Out of 30 spelling words, she knows more than 20, so she has less than 10 to work on through the week. It is working, so if it ain't broke....you know the rest.
Vocabulary - we are doing this differently this year. We have always done vocabulary with spelling, but just a list of words with their definitions wasn't super fun for Kara. This year we are using the vocabulary words in her Reading curriculum. They are HARD and we have regular quizzes on them. But, even though they are harder, my little reader learns better/faster this way and is doing great.
Reading - Kara always loves reading. We are using BJU's reading this year. I assign a lesson for the day, which consists of 5+ vocabulary words, reading 5-10 pages in a story, then answering questions about the story and vocabulary words. Once a week or so we take a break from that and work on glossary skills, thesaurus skills, analogies, that sort of thing. She ALWAYS wants to do more. Because she loves reading so much, we always do it after her least favorite subject - Grammar.
Grammar - we are using BJU's Grammar/Writing this year too. We always hate grammar. But BJU is using sentences with interesting facts about animals and scientific things to find prepositions, subjects and predicates, and diagramming sentences. Kara even went so far as to say she kind of likes grammar this year because of the way BJU presents the material. Um, that's huge. We haven't done any tests yet or started writing yet.
Math - we skipped a year and went straight to pre-algebra. She is liking it so far. We are using Teaching Textbooks because we have loved them for the past two years. And since it ain't broke, we aren't fixing it. ;-) So far, only two weeks in, the thing we missed last year that we are spending time on is dividing double digits into a four digit number. She is getting through it and still likes math. Now we're on fractions, and who doesn't love fractions? Okay, most people don't like them, but all three Days in this household love them.
Science - we are continuing on with BJU Science, which we have used for the past two years. We absolutely LOVE science. We save it for toward the end of the day because it's so much fun. Right now we are doing earth science, which is my favorite - earthquakes, volcanoes, rocks, etc. We watched a volcano movie for fun to reinforce what she learned and they used the key words we learned in school, which was exciting. She aced that test. (Minecraft taught her A LOT about earth science. She knows way more than I did at her age because of that game.)
History - at the beginning of this new year, we are still reading historical fiction about a native american girl so Kara can learn about that in a fun way. When she is done with those books, we will move on and get back to the mid to late 1600s. She knows a little over half of the state capitals and aced that test too.
Spanish - all three grandparents dropped out of Spanish - mostly because when the reality of skyping every single day at the time I said we needed them to be ready was too impractical. That's okay, Kara and I are doing our own thing. Kara is taking to the language incredibly quickly. We are using high school books (because that's all I could find) and she not only is very good at it, she really enjoys it. What a blessing that I used to be fluent and I actually know what I'm talking about when I teach it! I have the added benefit of doing that thing where I say, "no, that's not it, it doesn't sound right." Trust me, that takes a while and I'm SO glad I have that bonus for this new subject.
Art - Kara is taking an art class once a week now. She has gone twice and mastered shading already. Even though her class is once a week, she comes right home and spends all week working on what she learned on a zillion other drawings without me even asking her to.
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| Week 1 - think about where your light is and shade appropriately. |
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| Week 2 - bring a picture of something and draw it. |
She blows me away. Next week she is bringing a harder picture.
P.E. - Kara is doing extremely well with her horse lessons. All her scooting in her free time has really helped her balance. Between horse lessons, scooting, playing with friends, and being a normal kid, we have our bases covered in P.E.
Health - we aren't doing a formal health curriculum, but there is a lot of health built into her science this year.
Music - Kara sings at church and we still do the basics with reading music. We haven't brought learning about composers or other instruments back into school yet. She also is very into country music and loves to play the game where she listens to the first three seconds of a song and has to guess the name and singer. She is very good.
Whew! When we go down the list of subjects, Kara officially says she likes every subject. That's amazing! She has a lot more tests, which she is fine with. She has homework now: so far it's just reading for history and math problems. She is also fine with homework. I tried to jump right into 4 hour days instead of 2.5 - 3 hours days and it was too much for her. So she requested 4 hour Mondays, 3.5 hour Tuesdays, 3 hour Wednesdays, 2.5 hour Thursdays, and 2 hour Fridays. Then we will work our way up to 4 hours every day. Fair enough! (When I say 2.5 hour school days - I mean just the core subjects - that doesn't count art class, horse lessons, homework, etc.)
She has gotten A's and B's on her tests. Math tests are overwhelming for her and I decided to give her two days to do them from now on. It's all the writing! Her brain does the math just fine, she just hates the writing. She always ends up in tears. Not cool. So, we'll split it up in two days. Also, I let her re-do the math problems she got wrong for half a point back. My goal in testing her is not to "test" her and move on, it's to assess how much she just learned and not move on until she's learned it.
Overall, sixth grade is working! There have been some tears, some hormones, and some yelling. I'm not going to lie. That is the reality of mother/pre-teen daughter relationship. We're staying flexible and respecting each other.
We will put our heads down and get a lot done for 3-5 weeks, then take a week off. We will continue with that schedule all year round.
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