Elementary Curriculum Choices 2015-2016

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Elementary Curriculum Choices 2015-2016

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Joshua is our last elementary student and he’s a 5th grader, so this is our last year teaching elementary school. Wow- will our homeschool look different next year considering we have a senior this year as well! We’ve made some fun selections for our Elementary Curriculum Choices 2015-2016.

5th Grade Curriculum Choices

  • MathLife of Fred Fractions and Decimals & Percents. Along with games, practice, and math adventures using Math on the Level.
  • BiologyChristian Kids Explore Biology from Bright Ideas Press along with other resources based on my professional background. CKE will keep me moving forward!
  • Social StudiesAround New York in 80 Days. I’m pretty excited about this one. It’ll be fun to do local and state history and take some field trips.
  • Language Arts– with The Writer’s Jungle. Lots of fun writing is in store for Joshua and I think this is just his speed. I also have tons of resources for writing to use if he needs a boost or a change up.
  • Latin– with Prima Latina. He’s so interested in learning Latin names especially in science. The spark for learning Latin was lit by The Penderwicks. Mr. Penderwick is always speaking Latin.
  • Unit Studies– literature or topically based with BYFIAR, scientists, Lion Preparatory Academy, and the Prairie Primer.
  • FIRST LEGO League– This will be his second year on our FLL team. He loves to program the robot for missions.

Elementary Curriculum Choices 2015-2016

Implementing Our Elementary Curriculum

I wouldn’t want anyone to start panicking over this robust plan! Joshua and I read together aloud every day and I know he will enjoy doing unit studies along the way. We’ve been very successful working together. He’s a unique learner with some strong gifted characteristics. Some general thoughts on his formal and informal learning experiences:

  • He’s an intense learner– I’m certain we won’t do all of these things at once, but a few at a time for a length of time or until he runs out the learning on a particular topic.
  • Bible Time– While the next two older kids are working on ancient studies, he will be listening in to the Bible readings from the Archeological Bible.
  • Read Aloud Time– Those of you who have younger and older students probably run into the fact that you haven’t read books to your youngest that you read to your older kids! Joshua and I are going back to read together the things our older kids enjoyed with us before he has memory of hearing the stories.
  • Local History– NY State history and geography is on the docket this year and our older kids will enjoy revisiting some of it.
  • Writing– Lots of dictation and free writing are on tap.
  • Unit Studies– We may not do these one after the other, but I expect a few each quarter will do the trick based on his interest.
  • Audio Books– Joshua listens to stories as he falls to sleep. His mind is always working on a problem and this has been a successful way to get him to relax.
  • Project Based Learning– One of the ways Joshua is intense is with his work. He loves to solve problems, engineer, and program. He reads whole manuals on programming languages and is tenacious enough to figure things out on his own. He will spend many hours at work and this is actually one of his biggest gifted behaviors. He does not like his work to be interrupted! Part of his curriculum is the time, space, and materials to accomplish his work goals.
  • Mindstorms EV3– He has his own EV3 kit and Dan gives him programming challenges. He also likes to use his Arduino shield to program the brick with software other than the EV3 code. Right now he’s using Lejos to program the EV3 using Java which runs off an SD card. EV3 runs a stripped down version of Linux and he enjoys customizing the programming use a different language.
  • Entomology– Joshua is preparing to turn in his second year collection to the 4-H Fair. He will continue to collect and pin insects this next year.

Related Posts at Blog, She Wrote

How to Teach Science through the Lives of Scientists

Here are a few posts relating to elementary instruction or planning.

How to Teach Science through the Lives of Scientists– Our kids have always loved learning about people who do extraordinary things and our youngest especially enjoys learning about scientists. This has been a great fit for him and we’ll continue to approach biographies in this way.

Math Planning– How I put together math plans based on concepts my kids need to accomplish before Algebra.

Beyond Five in a Row– This page has all things Beyond on it including ways to plan, how to use the curriculum, and sample work from the books we’ve studies.

How to Keep up with Your Accelerated Reader– Do you have a child who read well above grade level? How do you keep up with pre-reading?

Ultimate Guide to Establishing a Reading Culture in Your Home– All of our kids are readers and this has always been a priority in our home. Though our kids all came to read fluently at different times and enjoy some different tastes in reading material, our home is still a haven for reading. It’s well worth the time to build this in during the elementary years.

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