Homeschool Curriculum Choices for Grade 6, Grade 4, and Grade 1

They have made more and more friends who’s families have different homeschool methods and kids talk. My kids love learning and saw their friends learning certain things and getting new binders for the school year (love that my kids got excited about office supplies!) filled with activities and projects.

So I sat down with my older three and asked what kinds of things they are interested in. Between their requests (largely science, history, and Reading Eggs), and them agreeing to some additions of my own (like typing and All About Spelling) I made up a simple schedule and checklist for them and added them to our household rhythm.

I made these cards to be largely independent with the high hopes of doing 4 days a week. After about 6 months of using these “learning cards,” I can confidently say I over estimated the level of cooperation I would receive. But the kids still mostly enjoy them so we keep trudging along in an attempt to make them part of our daily rhythm.

How It Works

Each boy has Day A and Day B. We alternate them as we mostly complete them which means some weeks start with A and others start with B. Each boy also doesn’t complete theirs on the same day as his brothers so he may miss out on a subject, which I try not to stress about because they are still learning, regardless of completed cards.

We don’t technically stick to grade levels as my boys’ interests lead to their skill levels being all over the map. I also don’t tell them exactly what page or lesson they need to do as it is pretty simple to just do the next one.

Let’s Dive In.
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Homeschool Curriculum Choices for Family Learning Time

Morning Time

We are not very fancy here and just flip through a binder with a few Bible memory verses, a song that we are working on memorizing, the Lord’s prayer, a piece of memory work (currently working on “In Flanders Fields”), listening to a song or two on YouTube, and I finish off with reading a page from The Answers Books for Kids or another apologetics book. (We just finished Cold Case Christianity for Kids and it was a huge hit!) It takes us between 15-45 minutes, depending on how cooperative the littlest ones are.

For many families, morning time is a time of communal learning but I decided to make it more a time of Scripture and character study, apologetics, and a family devotion time. Character before academics is a belief that I have always held to and I was glad to see Kathie from the Character Corner, a mom with far more homeschooling and parenting experience than me, affirm that as her number one homeschooling tip in her post listing 10 things that helped her through 31 years of homeschooling.

History

We are currently going through Story of the World: The Ancient World. I’ll say upfront that this is not my ideal history book but I had been given a copy a while back and a friend had the activity book she wasn’t using so I thought I’d give it a try. We haven’t been doing the big activities and projects. I read a chapter and we do some of the review questions (mostly with the the 8 and 5yo as my 11yo has read the book several times on his own so he knows all the answers) and the older two do the map activity and coloring pages while the 5yo just gets the coloring page. I may need to start copying an extra coloring page as the 2yo often wants to copy his big brothers and I’m not sure how long a blank scrap piece of paper is going to be good enough for him.

Science

Apologia Young Explorers Botany text. I adore these books! The hard covers, bright pictures and diagrams, easy to read text, and tying it all back to God as the Creator. Maybe I’ll even invest in their actual notebooking journals one day!

But, for now, I printed off the free notebooking pages from their website and we read a chunk out of the book then the older 2 do the notebooking page or, if it’s really simple, the activity.

Sometimes, once I’m done reading, I print off an applicable picture for the 6yo to color and put in his science duotang. My boys love the nature walk activities and are always amazed at the variety of plants we have growing on our own lawn.

(The original plan was to start with the Astronomy book but it was spring so botany seemed more fitting. We might put that on pause now that days are getting shorter so stars are easier to study and plants are going to be covered in snow soon.)

  

Homeschool Curriculum Choices for Individual Learning

11 year old

Bible: He had been following a Bible reading plan but always read ahead so now he just reads at least one chapter of whichever book he is going through. Soon I’ll expand his Bible time to include a journal of some sort but we’re just starting with reading.

Math: He is a big-time reader so Life of Fred has been a great fit. He is “behind” for his age group but is cruising through the lessons. Understanding mathematical concepts is not something that come easily to him so both he and I love having the option to choose something that falls more in line with his learning style.

Copywork: He is working through some free stuff I found online but is nearly finished. I think what I’ll do next is give him some lined paper and ask him to write a Bible passage from his daily reading. He does this in cursive, which comes a lot easier to him than printing.

All About Spelling: While he is an avid reader, his spelling hasn’t caught up. Just not the way his mind works I guess. I found the books for All About Spelling level 1 and 2 at a local curriculum exchange last winter and it has been a great fit for him. He appreciates all the rules and explanations as to why words are spelled the way they are. I have to be honest and say that I’ve enjoyed it too! I’ve always been a pretty intuitive speller but knowing why words are spelled a certain way has been enlightening.

Typing: He does about half a lesson at Typing.com I like this site because you just need a login name and don’t need to sign up with an email address or anything. It’s pretty simple and straighforward and gets the job done. Plus it’s FREE. Always a nice perk.

Spanish: We use the Duolingo app for this. He decided he wanted to learn Spanish a couple years ago and was just picking away at it sporadically. So I put it on his learning card and he’s making decent progress.

Read to Asher: This is my sneaky way of getting him to practice reading out loud as well as taking the toddler off my hands for a while so I can focus on something else (usually helping the 8yo do his AAS lesson without little fingers swiping magnets).

Sidenote: You can see I’m not a perfectionist with these cards. He really wasn’t enjoying piano (and is kind of rhythm challenged) so I removed it. He also felt copywork each day was too much so he negotiated that off too by saying he makes cards with writing and does his All About Spelling writing regularly so that should count as writing practice.

8 Year Old:

All About Spelling: He and his brother started level 1 at the same time but he skipped several days and his brother doubled up on some of the early lessons so now they’re in different books. He is a much more intuitive speller (he can remember complicated words because he read them a couple times) so he doesn’t think he needs this. We often skip building the words with magnets and he goes straight to writing them down. He can do more of the building in his head so, when he actually does his lesson, he flies through it.

Math: He’s a weirdo and actually asked for a workbook in math. We just use a Canadian Curriculum book we got at Costco and alternate with workbook one day then a Mathseed lesson the next day. (I’m not an affiliate there but I’m thinking I should be and you really should check them out because everyone I have recommended it to loves it!)

Copywork: He or I choose a Bible verse for him to copy and he (sometimes) draws a picture. (Don’t tell him but I don’t really care about the picture but he thinks he’s rebelling by not drawing it. He likes to have that control and I’m willing to make sure he feels it.) He does not do cursive yet but, now that I think about it, he has asked if he could learn so maybe I’ll get a workbook for him for Christmas or something.

Reading Eggs: He does a Reading Eggs

lesson on the off day from copywork. He is reading beyond the skill level of this but we’ve paid for the subscription and he really enjoys it. It’s kind of a reward for him after he has done some stuff he’s not as fond of.

Typing: He also uses Typing.com

Piano: I play piano so he asks me for advice but mostly he does this by reading the blurb in the Alfred’s Basic Piano Book and winging it. This will work for a while but I have a feeling I’ll need to assist more as he progresses. He really enjoys it and seems to understand music a bit more than his older brother.

Read to Asher: Same as before: reading aloud practice and a way to keep the toddler occupied for a while.

5 Year Old

 

 

I hope you can see that our learning cards are not intense and we have a very relaxed homeschool. Our homeschool curriculum choices are simple and mostly independent. The stuff that is more parent intensive requires time but requires minimal prep work. I don’t make a big fuss if we only do 1 or two days per week. (Though I have a feeling it will be a bit easier when the snow flies and kids can’t escape to play outdoors.)

 

We are slowly working back into all of this after taking time off for my final stages of pregnancy and our newborn survival phase. My primary goal is to get the boys to do their High 5 and then we will begin to work on Morning Time. Do you have a bare minimum that you and/or your kids can do to make it feel like your day is a success?