Hi friends! This time of year is the perfect time to review our curriculum choices for the year and make any necessary changes. I always find the start of the new semester to be the perfect time to get rid of anything not working for us and try something new!
So today I’m reviewing our 6th-grade curriculum choices and letting you all know how it’s going.
For the most part, I’m super happy with what we’ve chosen to focus on this year, however, I did drop a few things at the start of the 2nd semester.
Katie has been doing my Daily Learning Notebook for a while and they’re just not necessary for her at this point. She’s got all of her calendar info down pat and it was honestly just busy work for her at this point so we dropped it about a month into this school year.
We also dropped typing for her. She’s been doing typing for several years as well and I feel like she’s got it down. She still types all of her writing assignments, and she is writing a book on the side in her free time, so she’s getting daily practice that way. And of course, she plays video games that require typing skills, etc. So we’re pretty covered and we won’t be having typing as a “subject” going forward.
Aside from those two changes, we’ve stuck with everything else we chose this year. She’s loving her literature units! I let her pick the books this year and she’s actually ahead of my schedule, so we’ll probably add in a few more at the end of the year. But that’s a good thing right!
Overall she’s doing well with all of our choices, and I feel confident in our choices. One of the nice things about homeschooling over the years is that we have grown into our groove so to speak. We typically know what works well for us, and we don’t usually have to do too many alterations to our year. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not open to changes. It just means that we’re fairly comfortable with what we’ve chosen and it is working well for our family.
Of course, that might be totally different for your kids and your family. But that’s the beauty of homeschooling, isn’t it! We can choose what we use and make sure that our curriculum is working for us and not the other way around!
If you need a refresher, here’s what we are using for our 2020-2021 6th Grade Curriculum:
- Optional: Daily Learning Notebook (Elementary level cursive version)
- Art: Deep Space Sparkle Free Art Lessons
- Bible: Word of Life Challenger Quiet Time
- English/Grammar: IEW Fix It Grammar The Little Mermaid Book 4
- History: Abeka 6th Grade New World History & Geography
- Literature: COAH 6th Grade Reading Selection
- Reading Comprehension: Abeka 6 Read & Comprehend Skill Sheets
- Math: Teaching Textbooks 6
- Science/Health: Abeka 6th Grade Observing God’s World
- Spelling: Spelling You See Level G
- Typing: Typing Web
- Writing: Institute for Excellence in Writing Theme Based Writing Unit All Things Fun & Fascinating
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How lovely! Just shared this with in a mom in our co-op who is embarking on her first year homeschooling her twin boys in sixth grade. Thank you!
This is going to be our last year with the literature units. I’m going to miss them so much! We will have done all but 2 by the end of the year. What a blessing they have been. It’s so hard to believe the tiny tot is in 6th grade. My youngest and she have grown up together.
I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed them!
Hello! My kids (currently 5th and 7th) did the old writing intensive program/structure and style program plus the last couple years and then this year they each did a themed unit (5th grader did Fables and 7th grader Modern History). (In addition, they have also done three years of Fix It Grammar.) I was going to order them another themed unit for next year, but then I saw this new Style and Structure program. After watching an additional review of the new style and structure program on YouTube, I’m thinking this curriculum sounds kind of repetitive from what they already learned, but I really don’t know enough about it to compare. Which program would you recommend for kids with this previous IEW experience for next year? Thanks so much! 🙂
Hi Angie,
The new Structure and Style is the same as the old writing-intensive just updated and streaming, so I wouldn’t re-do the curriculum unless you feel that they need more help in that area. Then you can choose to do the next level or the continuation of the one you previously used. Otherwise, I would probably stick with the themed-based units.