Finishing Our School Year 2026

 We're at the end of our school year for 2026.  We have one more week to wrap up Bible, Story of the World 2 and one of our literature selections.  My son and I have discussed taking the rest of the year off for a break or just continuing with our 2027 plans.  We decided to try to continue with 2027's plans, but it really would be ok if we took a break.

This is an 11 year-old boy who would've been in 5th grade the first half of 2026 and in 6th grade for the second half of 2026 (if he went to public school).

Here are some of the things we've accomplished in 2026:

California Achievement Test - this was a good experience

Bible

• The Action Bible
• The Action Bible Anytime Devotions
• My First Hymnal (Concordia) 

English

• Voyages in English 6 (January to May)
• Grammar Island (summer)
• Building Language (summer)
• Practice Island (summer)
• Spelling Workout D and F
• The Good and the Beautiful LA 6 (fall)

Literature

• My Side of the Mountain
• Dungeon Runners 3: Ocean Chase
• Bridge to Terabithia
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
• The Wild Robot
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• Where the Red Fern Grows
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Stories of Beowulf Told to Children
• The Usborne Illustrated Tales of King Arthur
• Saint George and the Dragon
• The Whipping Boy
• The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn

History

• Story of the World 2
• Famous Figures from the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Math

• BJU Math 5 (1st half of the year)
• Saxon Math 6/5
• Life of Fred Fractions

Science

• Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronomy
• Apologia Exploring Creation with Earth Science
• Planet Earth III series
• Co-op Science for January-May semester was Physics and Technology w/ Labs
• Co-op Science for August-December is BJU Life Science w/ Labs

Health

• Guy Stuff: The Body Book for Boys
• Are You What You Eat
• Co-op Physical Fitness class for August-December

Foreign Language 

• DuoLingo German
• Minimus Latin I

Art & Music

• Composer Studies
• John Dunstable
• Guillaume Dufay
• Thomas Tallis
• de Palestrina
• Private violin lessons
• Artist Studies
• Cimabue
• Bosch
• Duerer
• Michelangelo
• The Stone Giant: Michelangelo's David and How It Came to Be
• The One Hundred Greatest Paintings
• The Good and the Beautiful Drawing I

Field Trips Included:

• Multiple camping trips with Boy Scouts
• Engineering merit badge at a local university
• Attended a professional ballet production
• Art museum
• Aviation museum
• Aquarium
• Zoo
• Island historical tour
• Beachcombing on an island
• Dolphin tour
• Airport observation area
• Botanical gardens
• Nature center
• Plumbing merit badge workshop at a local trade school

Review of The Action Bible Anytime Devotions

 We just finished The Action Bible Anytime Devotions.  Here's the link through Rainbow Resource.

In the description, it says this devotional is for grades 4-8.  I would say it's great for about ages 8-13.  Each devotional is two pages and touches on a certain topic.  These topics include things like kindness, courage, trust, hope, love, bullying, sharing the Gospel, loneliness, serving others, anger, compassion and faith.  Each devotional begins with a fictional story, followed by an explanation from a Biblical standpoint, a prayer and an exercise for further understanding.  The book includes 90 individual devotions.  We spend maybe ten minutes a day on the devotional.

This book was excellent.  We're also reading through The Action Bible and the two books definitely complement each other.  I think this has been one of our favorite books this year.

Our Weekly Schedule of Subjects

 This weekly schedule has been working out well for us for quite a while.

Monday

• Literature
• Science
• Math
• Language Arts/Reading
• Ancient History
• Latin

Tuesday

• Bible
• Language Arts/Reading
• African Geography
• Music

Wednesday

• Literature
• Science
• Math
• Language Arts/Reading
• Ancient History
• Latin

Thursday

• Literature
• Shakespeare
• Bible
• Math
• Language Arts/Reading
• American Geography
• Art

Friday Co-op

• Physics
• Texas History

Crunch Labs: Vortex Cannon

 Today, we did Mark Rober's Crunch Lab project Vortex Cannon.

https://www.crunchlabs.com/products/vortex-cannon

We are in the middle of Year 2 of Crunch Labs (our last year).  It's a subscription box that comes each month with a new engineering project.  The kit is very good quality and there is a video for each box explaining the physics concepts behind the project and instructions on how to build it.

Here's the vortex cannon.

Crunch Labs Year 2: Bell Curve/Soccer Goalie

 We have now started Year 2 of Crunch Labs.  This is the last year of subscription boxes, unless we subscribe to the Hack Pack, which is more for high school.  So we will need to wait on that, since my student is only ten years old.

Here's a link:

www.crunchlabs.com

We love Crunch Labs and I count it as Physics in my son's school records.  This lab was the Bell Curve/Soccer Goalie.   

Here's a video of our project:

First Day of 5th Grade! 5/26

Today was our first day of school after taking two months off.  5th grade, Logic Stage and all new subjects.  

He did great and told me how much he liked it.  He said his favorite subject today was Latin, followed by Math.

I timed it to get an idea of how long his school day will take with just him and it was three hours.  We took a "recess" after every two subjects.  

Here's what we did for school.

Book Basket

• Sarah Witcher's Story 
• A Light in the Attic

Math

• We played Sleeping Queens
• We did math fact practice
• Life of Fred Farming

Language Arts

• Handwriting without Tears Cursive Success
• All About Spelling 3
• Queen's Language Lessons for the Elementary Child vol 1

Ancient History

• The Story of Civilization volume 1
• History Pockets - Ancient Egypt
• Egyptian Gods and Goddesses

Logic

• Cat Crimes (board game)
• Red Herring Mysteries vol 1

Latin

• Prima Latina lesson 1

Our 5th Grade Daily Routine

 I chose our curriculum, bought it, organized it into our book basket and now I'm looking at daily routines/schedules for 5th grade.  

I'm not sure how all of this is going to work out, but this seems to be my best option.  

Weekly Schedule

Monday

• Book Basket
• Math
• Language Arts
• History
• Logic
• Latin

Tuesday

• Book Basket
• Language Arts
• Bible
• Geography
• Music

Wednesday

• Book Basket
• Math
• Language Arts
• History
• Latin
• Physics

Thursday

• Book Basket
• Math
• Language Arts
• Bible
• Art/Handicrafts

Friday

• Physics
• Texas History

Finalizing 5th Grade Plans/Preparing to Start

 Although our plans are generally the same, we've made a couple of small changes as we looked at samples, talked over what we want to do, etc.  I still haven't solidified a weekly schedule for ourselves.  I might just throw everything into a book basket and fly by the seat of our pants without a schedule.

We start the second week of June (after Vacation Bible School).

Here's what we have:

BIBLE

My First Hymnal (Concordia Publishing House)

The Action Bible

The Action Bible Devotional

MATH

Continue Life of Fred series

Math games

LANGUAGE ARTS

Language Lessons for the Elementary Child volume 1

All About Spelling 3, hopefully 4 also

Handwriting without Tears Cursive Success

LITERATURE

Choose as we go

Poetry

HISTORY (2 STREAMS: WORLD AND AMERICAN)

The Story of Civilization volume 1 (Spine)

Famous Figures of Ancient Times

Choose books as we go

GEOGRAPHY

Geography from A to Z

Countries of the World Coloring Book

Paddle to the Sea

Seabird

LOGIC

Cat Crimes Game

Mindbenders volume 3

Red Herring Mysteries Book 1

PHYSICS

Real Science 4 Kids Physics (spine)

Max Axiom comics series

Mark Rober's Crunch Labs year 2

Other labs as we go

Archimedes and the Door of Science

The Librarian Who Measured the Earth

LATIN

Minimus: Starting Out in Latin

Learn some of the church prayers in Latin (Prima Latina)

ART

Arts: A Visual Encyclopedia

MUSIC

Story of the Orchestra

HANDICRAFTS

Choose as we go

Interactive Notebooks Blog Post

We don't use Interactive Notebooks, but I was really fascinated by this blog post on how to make/use them with upper elementary students.

https://thriveingradefive.com/interactive-notebooks-how-to-get-started/#:~:text=I%20highly%20recommend%20using%20composition,work%20to%20pull%20them%20out.

Curriculum Plans for 5th Grade 2025-2026

I originally planned to continue with Sonlight, but the fourth grader is asking to go back to Ancients again.   He's specifically fascinated with Ancient Greek history.  I looked at the next Sonlight level that starts with Ancient History and it's HBL G, which is way beyond his age range (he's only 9 and that level is written for late middle school/early high school).  

My Plan is to give The Well-Trained Mind a try again (we've used this before).

Here's my hopefully final plan (subject to change).

Also, the 12th grader graduates in May, so she will be in college with the older three.  I will only be homeschooling one for the first time ever.

Bible

• The Action Bible
• The Action Bible Devotional

Math

• Continue Life of Fred (he will finish the elementary series this year)
• Wild Math 4

Language Arts/Reading

• Readers based on interest
• All About Spelling 3
• Handwriting without Tears Cursive (the 5th grade book)
• Language Lessons for the Elementary Child Book 1

Literature, History and Geography

• The Story of Civilization, Book 1
• Ancients, myths, classics, etc - literature and history booklist from The Well-Trained Mind
• Geography from A to Z 
• Countries of the World Coloring Book
• Famous Figures of Ancient Times
• Memorize 3-5 poems, narrations, learn to do a 1-level outline

Logic

• Cat Crimes (board game)
• Mindbenders Book 3
• Red Herring Mysteries

Physics and Technology 

• Books and science kits suggested in The Well-Trained Mind
• Real Science 4 Kids Physics
• Max Axiom comics
• MIT's Scratch, Cubelets from the library
• Year 2 of Crunch Labs

French

• Continue French with Mr. Innes

Fine Arts

• Study ancient art with The Arts: A Visual Encyclopedia
• Drawing, clay modeling, painting
• Story of the Orchestra
• Continue piano
• Start ukulele