A Unique Year – 6th Grade Curriculum Picks!

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Last week I talked all about the 11th grade curriculum picks I had for my junior. But, today it is all about my youngest, and what we will be studying for 6th grade. The 6th grade is a little bit different for us because we are required to cover Maine Studies. And since we primarily use Sonlight literature-based curriculum for our base curriculum, that throws a wrench into our flow for middle school and high school. 6th grade ends up being the best year to manage this subject, and to introduce some new resources to my kids.

History & Social Studies

As alluded to above, we will be doing Maine Studies for our primary history this year. The best resource that I have found to use is this Maine Studies workbook. It is not the most exciting material out there, but it gives us a base as to where to start. And then, using the different topics that are found within this workbook, we can check out books, go on field trips, and do other fun stuff relating to the content. We don’t necessarily sit down to fill out this entire workbook, but instead use it as a reference.

In addition to the Maine Studies workbook, we will be reading Lost on a Mountain in Maine, and The Sign of the Beaver. I am sure there will be other books that we pick up along the way, but I know for certain we will be using these two.

Then, because I really wanted to continue some of the Sonlight resources, we will hopefully be using some additional resources from Sonlight Level G which is year 1 of 2 of World History. I pulled some of my favorite books from that level as well as ordered the Lap Book that goes with Sonlight Level G. I don’t know that we will have a chance to get to this level in middle school for Lucy, so at least a few books from it will be a helpful bridge. You can see the book choices in my YouTube video below

English & Language Arts

Since we aren’t doing a Sonlight level this year, English and Language Arts are also a bit different for us in 6th grade. This is the year that we start to introduce Brave Writer resources. We will be choosing books from their list of Arrows throughout the year. Usually I come in with a big list of books, but I realized that I wanted Lucy to be more involved in the choosing of those books. So, I will be giving her a few choices each month, and she will choose which one she wants to do. We are planning to start with Book Scavenger and go from there.

In addition to the Arrows from Brave Writer, we will be doing some of the writing projects that they offer. I am planning to use some from the Partnership Writing Program, as well as what used to be called the Faltering Ownership Program. That is now called “Building Confidence,” but I will be using the old Faltering Ownership that I already own. I believe the projects are the same, and we used them with great success with both Emma and Jack. If you are interested in what the Brave Writer philosophy is, I recommend reading Julie Bogart’s book The Brave Learner.

Math

Math will be two-fold this year. The first part of math is going to be Singapore Math 6A & 6B. I have used this with both Jack and Emma, and really liked it. I love the mental math aspect and the Singapore method. However, the level 6 program is very short, and both Emma and Jack finished it in the fall when they did it. I expect it will take Lucy a little bit longer, but I knew I needed another program. So we will be partnering Teaching Textbooks 7 with it. She will work on Teaching Textbooks right alongside Singapore, and then, when she finished the 6B workbook, she will continue through the rest of Teaching Textbooks 7.

I love that the two programs work so well together. Lucy loves the fact that Teaching Textbooks is on the computer, and enjoys using all the fun stickers, and changing the backgrounds and buddies all the time. I love that it keeps all of her grades for her, and helps her when she gets an incorrect answer. If you are looking for a great math curriculum for this school year, they have an amazing free trial of 15 lessons free for every level. If you don’t know which level to put your student in, I recommend taking the placement test and go from there.

Science

Finally, for science this year we are going to be doing more of a Kitchen Chemistry type of course. There is an amazing high school Kitchen Chemistry course from Guest Hollow, and we may pull some recipes from the labs. But, my main focus is actually going to be on bettering her skills in the kitchen with her choosing a cookbook and working through it. Most likely it will be baking, which she enjoys more, but she is very excited about this subject! Along with the kitchen chemistry, we will also be using the book Home Ec for Everyone and then some of the lessons from Exploring Creation with Chemistry & Physics from Apologia. I figured that because Jack is taking Physics for high school this year, he may be able to help her out with some of the projects. But, the primary focus will be on Kitchen Chemistry!

It should be a really exciting year. Very different because Emma will be in college and I will have two very different grades to teach (6th and 11th), but we are looking forward to seeing what our new rhythm will be like when we get back to homeschool after Labor day! If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. I love to chat curriculum!