Thursday, June 30, 2011

Weekly Wrap-Up: What's in Store for Fifth Grade

Not Back to School Blog Hop

Since my darling Mackenzie is at camp this week, I decided to share what our fifth grade year looks like.  Unless it doesn't work out and I totally change my mind. LOL

Our spine for our homeschool has always been Sonlight. We love, love, love, love books and Sonlight's picks have never let us down.


That being said, we're taking a break from Sonlight for one year.  We're about to hit Core 5 (or whatever they're calling it today LOL) and I decided to hold off on it.  "Rumor" has it that Core 5 is the biggest workload of all the cores and I've decided to save that for middle school and let her last year in elementary school be lighter.

In all honesty, I'm second guessing that decision a bit.  The curriculum I've chosen for the year isn't all that I'd hoped.  Among other issues,  I ordered in March and my order still hasn't been completed.

I'm still going to give it a try with the mindset that it's not fair to compare any other company to Sonlight.  LOL Who could compete?  I am, however, reserving the right to kick the new curriculum to the curb if it's not providing the education that I'd envisioned for my daughter.  In that case, we will start Core 5 and spread it out over a greater  period of time.


Social Studies/Readers/Read Alouds

Children Around the World, Winter Promise.  A study of world cultures, religions, and celebrations.

Bible:

The Discover's Bible for Young Readers
Bible Study Guide for All Ages
Personal Prayer & Involvement Journal, Winter Promise.  Not exactly what I'd expected so we're going to attempt bits and pieces.


Cultural Resources:

Make Your Own World Travels Diary, Winter Promise
Children of Many Lands, Winter Promise
Material World
Working Children, Winter Promise
Fun & Traditions from Many Lands, Winter Promise
Italy: Ah, the Sweet Life (Faces: Places, People & Culture Magazine)
Amazon Adventures (AppleSeeds Magazine)
Australia: G'day from Down Under (Faces: Places, People & Culture Magazine)












Geography Resources:

Draw Your World, Winter Promise    It seems like it could be very confusing and might wind up being tedious busy work.  I'm hoping it only seems confusing because I'm old and losing my mind.

Travel With Me Maps and geography sheets, Winter Promise.  The maps are cute.  Although they came in a tube and I've been trying to flatten them since March.  So far no luck. LOL

Readers:






Read Alouds:



That hardly seems like enough reading for our family. LOL


Language Arts:

Advanced Language Lessons
Writing With Skill
Wordsmith Apprentice
Spelling Power, Fourth Edition
Handwriting Without Tears: Can-do Cursive


Mathematics:

Math-U-See Epsilon
Mind Benders


Science:

Exploring Creation with Anatomy and Physiology

Arts:

Piano and Art Lessons at the Young Muscians of Virginia
I Can Do All Things art program~ As a non-artsy person, I cannot praise this program enough. The bundle comes with the book, all the supplies needed, and a dvd instructor. I'm learning right along with my daughter.
How to Teach Art to Children
Artist Study (Details are in the Works): Edgar Degas, Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet
Composer Study (Details are in the Works): Mozart, Beethovan, Vivaldi,

Current Art/Music Book/CD List:

Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery
Mozart's Magic Fantasy
Beethoven Lives Upstairs
Mr. Bach Comes to Call
Song of the Unicorn
Bernstein Favorites: Children's Classics
Come Look With Me: Animals in Art
Come Look with Me: Enjoying Art with Children
Come Look With Me: Exploring Landscape Art With Children (Come Look With Me Series)
Come Look With Me: World of Play
A Child's Book of Art
How Artists See Feelings: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Love
How Artists See The Elements: Earth Air Fire Water
Edgar Degas Paintings
Linnea in Monet's Garden
Baby Loves by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Mary Cassat
Boyhood's of Great Composers 1
Mozart Young Musical Genius
Story of the Orchestra : Listen While You Learn About the Instruments, the Music and the Composers Who Wrote the Music!
Who Was Claude Monet? (Who Was...?)


Spanish:

Rosetta Stone Spanish (Latin America) Level 1 & 2 Set with Audio Companion


Physical Education:

Soccer, Field Hockey, Basketball, and Cheerleading via Beach Junior Athletics

20 comments:

Unknown said...

Looks great to me! What the Around the World diary? I didn't see it in your widget. (LOVE those widgets!) And we're trying out How to Teach Art to Children too! I hope it works better than the other things we've tried! ;)

Rebecca said...

Wow! I have never thought about designing my songs list...that is a great idea! Stopping by and following as a newbiew on the Crew

Julie said...

How discouraging to have ordered so long ago and still not complete! At least 3 months for shipping? Yikes. That scares me from ordering things from WP.

I like your widgets too. I keep trying to figure that out, and have not mastered it yet.

Nanette said...

Hi from a fellow crew mate :)
I'm now following you.
http://thejoysofhomeschooling.blogspot.com/

~ Nanette

danielle @ RLR said...

I have a going into 5th Grader too...I may have to steal some of your ideas!

Crewbie too...

...danielle

Mama Bird said...

Looks great. W just finished 5 th grade, may look into that art program you mentioned though. Art is not my strong subject.

Catherine said...

I hope it works out for you, because it all looks good to me! It's always nice to know you have a plan B. I love your super detailed list, and those great widgets1

Christina said...

I'm sorry to hear that you are getting such poor service from WP, but I have heard other comments that are much the same. I am hoping that your order shows up soon!

Rodna Allman said...

I have a friend who uses WP, and she really likes it, so hopefully you will too.

Thanks for linking up with me. This has been fun.

Unknown said...

You STILL haven't gotten your complete order?! How frustrating! I know I've been over here before! LOL

Alicia K said...

Your curriculum sounds great for this year!! We did Winter Promise two years ago but, I was so frustrated with customer service we decided not to do it again. I am so sorry you are having problems!

MamaGames - Alexa C. said...

Looks like so much fun! We're doing cultures/around the world this year too. I have also been curious about Draw Your World... would love to hear if it actually works for you! :)

Sally said...

I hope that you are able to find that "happy place" in WP this year! I have heard many good things about it, but the best thing about homeschooling is that you can tweak or toss, or anything in between!
I hopped over here from HOTM's NOT Back to School Blog Hop and it's so exciting to me to see other moms list their aspirations for their homeschool! I do hope you'll head over to see what's going on at our homeschool!
Thank you for sharing, and have a great year!

Amy said...

Fifth grade seems like such a long way away for us. My oldest is in 1st! Good luck to you this year on your school adventure.

MissMOE said...

Thanks for your art and music list--looks great. My oldest daughter completed Core 5 several years ago, and I think you are wise to hold off on it for a bit. It was a large work load, but she did enjoy it very much! Hope you get all your materials from WP--I had the same problem, but the programs I used were great and it was worth the wait.

jess_hak said...

We are using WP too (Animals and Their Worlds). I must say that I was disappointed on their shipping time too. I called them every week until I had a completed curriculum (took about 1.5 months). I disliked having to contact them so much. However, I am absolutely thrilled with their curriculum. I told my hubs that I would put up with their crappy shipping times just because I like their product so much.

Sorry that you aren't pleased with yours. :/ Hopefully you will still have a fantastic year.

We have 8 years worth of Sonlight Cores that were just given to us and I really would like to use them too. I'm hoping that I can somehow integrate both of them as our family really loves the hands on activities that WP gives us.

Theresa said...

Sounds like a great year!

Eclectic Education said...

I hope you enjoy your new program! :)

~Lynn

Sharla said...

It will be really interesting to hear how things go this year with the new curriculums. Keep us updated. Hope you have a great year!

Beloved's Redheaded Bride said...

I hope you enjoy your new program. I haven't hear of WP. Thanks for introducing it to me. I will have to check it out.

We like Sonlights books too!

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