Sixth Grade Plans

Sunshine and River were looking at half eaten walnuts left by the squirrels

We're easing into school this year, and unlike in previous years I don't have all our curriculum purchased, and am still deciding on what I want to do with a couple subjects. Mr M's schedule allows him to be much more involved in things, but I am still split so many ways with family, church, and business obligations. I'm working on finding a schedule that will allow me to get everything accomplished while still getting a good night's sleep :) In the meantime, we're muddling along as best we can, as usual. And I'm in denial that Sunshine is in middle school. How did that happen?!

Sixth Grade Subjects

History and Geography
We're continuing with Year 2 of The Good and the Beautiful's curriculum, mixed with some Story of the World. We'll continue attending history club, which uses Story of the World as the backbone of the activities we do.

We're also completing more junior ranger programs and visiting historical sites (we got a good start over the summer, but will do more in the upcoming months).

Math & Logic
Sunshine was becoming more and more vocal in her dislike of math, so I decided to back off this year and try a different approach. Instead of workbooks and websites we'll be using living math books. She loves reading, so I've been busy finding books about math, and we'll see if she can find a love, or at least a tolerance of, math through reading them. I've also committed to being better at incorporating board games and card games into our schoolwork. This post was instrumental in my decision not to push things and to focus on making it more enjoyable. That site contains a lot of other useful information as well. Sunshine will also be taking a real world math class at a co-op fall semester, which should tie-in very nicely with the books we'll be reading.

We'll continue using Mind Benders logic puzzles, moving up to level 5 this year.

Greek
Sunshine finished Song School Latin 1 and 2, and rather than find a different curriculum to try, she wants to do Greek this year. Song School Greek is only a one year course, so we'll either switch languages again next year, or find another curriculum to use if she decides she wants to delve in deeper.

Handwriting
We'll continue using The Good and the Beautiful's handwriting curriculum, moving up to level 6 this year.

Spelling & Grammar
We won't be using a stand-alone curriculum again this year, but will allow Greek and Handwriting to cover these subjects. Well Trained Mind has come out with a new grammar curriculum, which I've been debating using, but I think we'll hold off until next year before we add it in.

Science
Sunshine has been interested in astronomy for awhile now, so we're using this astronomy course this year. If she likes it, she can do the high school level course in a year or two.

Reading
I've had some success encouraging Sunshine to read a wider variety of books (she'd be fine endlessly re-reading Percy Jackson and Harry Potter), and I'll continue to search out new series for her to read.

Writing
I'm thinking about the creative writing course from Well Trained Mind, but I haven't decided yet. We may keep things informal for another year.

Typing
The Good and the Beautiful has come out with a typing course that I think we'll use this year. If we don't do it this year, we'll use it next year for sure. Typing is one of those skills everyone needs.

Art/Cooking/Sewing
Sunshine is taking an art class at the coop alongside the math class. We're continuing to teach her to cook, and hopefully I can finally teach her to use a sewing machine. If not, she can continue to work on her handsewing, and maybe I'll teach her to cross-stitch.

Coding
I don't really understand coding, so it hasn't been at the top of my list of things to work on with Sunshine. Now that Mr M's schedule is much more flexible, he can work with Sunshine using this book.

Phys Ed
Sunshine didn't want to continue with gymnastics, so we're going to focus on hiking for now. We've already racked up quite a list of hikes since the beginning of summer, and we'll continue with our weekly hikes. We didn't have time for swimming lessons this summer, so I also want to fit some in somewhere.

Extra Curriculars
Weekly fiddle lessons
Weekly Irish music class/performing group
Weekly hikes
We've been going on weekly hikes for about a year and a half now and we don't plan on stopping anytime soon.
Weekly park day
We struggled with this last year, but since Mr M's able to pick Sunshine up from her class in the evening, it should be a lot more manageable this year. I won't have to worry about how tired, cranky, and hungry the boys are as we hang around town and wait for her.
Monthly history club
We will continue meeting with them and already have a couple field trips planned.
Summer day camps
Irish music day camp and nature camp. This summer she'll also be old enough to go to girls' camp (church sleep away camp).


Field trips
We had our big road trip this summer, which was quite the field trip. We've got a couple more field trips planned for this fall, and more will happen in the spring.

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We will continue to use a notebook to track each day's assignments and record information for later reference. It worked out well last year, so no need to change it.