Summer/Fall 2026 Curriculum Choices (6th Grade)

 We are almost finished with our big break - we always take April off from school.  We're getting ready to start back up again with our 6th grade curriculum.  Most of these things we have already started, since he was working on a 6th grade level in January.

We are continuing with the curriculum plan outlined in The Well-Trained Mind.  

Bible

• The Action Bible

English

• Spelling Workout F
• Michael Clay Thompson's Language Arts (Royal Fireworks Press)
• Writing with Ease 3

Math

• Saxon 6/5

History

• Story of the World 2
• Story of the World 2 Activity Guide
• Famous Figure of the Middle Ages
• Selections from The Well-Trained Mind history reading list, including:
• The Usborne Illustrated Tales of King Arthur
• The Adventures of Robin Hood
• St. George and the Dragon
• The Whipping Boy
• The Great and Terrible Quest
• Cathedral
• Castle 

Science

• Apologia Astronomy
• Apologia Earth Science with Notebooking Journal

Reading

• Continue reading literature that he chooses
• Read-Alouds including
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• The Incredible Journey
• In the Moonlight Mist, A Korean Tale
• The Ghost of the Tokaido Inn

Artist and Composer Study

• Artist Studies
• Michelangelo
• Titian
• Raphael
• Giorgio Vasari
• Tintoretto
• Peter Brueghel
• Peter Paul Rubens
• Composer Studies
• Thomas Tallis
• de Palestrina
• Michael Praetorius
• Henry Purcell
• Antonio Vivaldi

Foreign Language

• He's been working on DuoLingo German

Our First Day Back + New Scheduling Strategy 1/5

 Our first day back was a big success.  The 10 year-old said his favorite subjects were "Latin and Beowulf" (history).  I'm using a new scheduling strategy that I used with one of my high schoolers.  Instead of using a daily schedule, I bought book bins for each subject, labeled the book bins and placed our schoolbooks for each subject in the book bins.  Today, I just let him choose which book bin to work from first, which one to work from next, etc, and we worked through all of them.

The book bins look like this.

Here's what we accomplished today:

Bible

• The Action Bible

Math

• BJU Math 5

English

• Voyages in English 6
• Spelling Workout D

Reading

• Independent reading
• My Side of the Mountain (read-aloud)

Latin

• We started Minimus 1, which he really liked

Medieval History

• Story of the World 2
• Mapwork from the Activity Guide
• Stories of Beowulf Told to Children

Science

• Exploring Creation with Astronomy

This was a hugely productive day.  Yay!  Book Bins!

New Semester's Curriculum (January 2026)

 He's 10 years old, but starting to operate on more of a 6th grade level, so these curriculum choices will reflect that.

Here's the plan for January.  My plans are loosely based on The Well-Trained Mind.

Bible

• continue The Action Bible
• continue The Action Bible Anytime Devotions
• finish My First Hymnal (CPH) on Easter Sunday

Reader/Read-Aloud

• Independent reading
• Wonders Literature Anthology 6 (McGraw Hill)
• Read-alouds

English

• Voyages in English 6
• Spelling Workout D

Math

• continue BJU Math 5

Medieval History/Geography

• Story of the World 2 
• Story of the World 2 Activity Guide
• History/literature selections from The Well-Trained Mind
• Famous Figures of the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Science

• Exploring Creation with Astronomy (Apologia)
• Exploring Creation with Earth Science (Apologia)

Latin

• Minimus 1

Art and Music

• Artist Study
• Giovanni Cimabue
• Hieronymus Bosch
• Albrecht Duerer
• Michelangelo Buonarroti
• Titian
• Raphael
• Giorgio Vasari
• Tintoretto
• Peter Brueghel
• Peter Paul Rubens
• Composer Study
• John Dunstable
• Guillaume Dufay
• Thomas Tallis
• Giovanni Pierluiga da Palestrina
• Michael Praetorius
• Henry Purcell
• Antonio Vivaldi

Logic

• The Great Chocolate Caper

Friday Co-op Classes

• Art
• Physics and Technology

Extracurriculars

• Intermediate Ballet
• Boy Scouts
• Karate
• Youth Group at church

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

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

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

Enjoying The Well-Trained Mind Podcast, Season 2

 I am really enjoying the second season of The Well-Trained Mind Podcast.

 https://welltrainedmind.com/the-well-trained-mind-podcast/

Season one did more of an overview and history of classical education, but season two went into more specifics about how to teach.  Season one was good, but I am very much enjoying season two.

I particularly liked these episodes:

• Episode 3 - "Different Approaches to Teaching Writing with Julie Bogart"
• Julie Bogart is the author of Brave Learner and the owner of the Bravewriter company.   
• Episode 6 - "Teaching Languages the Classical Way with Elizabeth Weber Edwards"
• Episode 10 - "Homeschooling: The Outside Gaze"
• Episode 11 - "Teaching Science the Classical Way with Courtney Staff"

I am in the middle of "Classical Education for College-Bound Students."

I hope she makes a season three and I hope she talks more about how to teach.

I am definitely getting a lot of cleaning done around the house while I listen to this podcast!

A Helpful Podcast: "Classical Education for Students with Learning Differences w/ Courtney Ostaff"

 I am really enjoying this episode of The Well-Trained Mind Podcast.  Here's a link to the show itself. https://welltrainedmind.com/the-well-trained-mind-podcast/  The title of the episode is Classical Education for Students with Learning Differences w/ Courtney Ostaff.  The episode is part of Season 1, Episode 11.

The episode begins by talking about a famous reading comprehension study done called The Baseball Study: baseball-experiment-two-wisconsin-researchers-discovered-comprehension-gap-knowledge-gap. The results of the experiment showed that the more knowledge you have about a subject, the better reader you are about the subject.  

This episode of the podcast also talks about the importance of losing grade-level rigidity and continuing subjects like art, music, science, etc, for students with learning differences.  Because of my experiences homeschooling my own dyslexic kids, I completely agree with this.  I always felt like the more culture, literature, art, history, science, etc they could be exposed to would help scaffold them with any learning issues they have.

The podcast has links to the Baseball Study, as well as articles about writing with dyslexia/dysgraphia.

Well-Trained Mind Podcasts

https://welltrainedmind.com/the-well-trained-mind-podcast/

I don't identify as a classical homeschooler, but I periodically enjoy reading about classical education.  I stumbled upon this podcast and have been enjoying the episodes.

So far, I've only listened to "What is Classical Education" and "What Isn't Classical Education".  I know there are some harsh reviews of these episodes, but I actually enjoyed listening to them.

I will probably listen to "Where did Classical Education Come From" next, because that episode looks interesting.  

I need something to listen to while I clean the garage!

Adding some things I thought were interesting from the episodes I listened to:

• Susan Wise Bauer sounds much more flexible about homeschooling in person than the tone of the book The Well-Trained Mind
• She suggested that you could cover the history cycle in six years instead of four
• I like how she said she's had to relearn how to knit four or five times
• I thought it was interesting that she said classical education is language based, but it doesn't have to always be print-based.  It can involve listening to language, instead of just reading.
• I agreed when she said high schoolers should be doing so much more than reading and then filling out fill-in-the-blank or multiple choice answers

1st Grader's Changes/Mid-week Review

 I normally do not curriculum hop and change my plans frequently - at least not this frequently.  But, I am really trying to find something that works for the 1st grader.  I'm dealing with vision issues, a fear of reading (from the vision issues) and his neediness and wanting me to do "school" with him constantly.

I spent this week taking The Well-Trained Mind for a test drive.  Here's my thoughts.

Language Arts

• It's just way too much Language Arts for a 6 year-old.  
• He does not like First Language Lessons.  He looked at me like I was absolutely crazy when I tried to go through the first couple of lessons.
• He does not like All About Reading (long story if you've read the other posts on my blog, but he thinks the readers will give him a headache, because that's what happened before we got his glasses - sigh)
• The perfect combination for him right now seems to be:
• Explode the Code
• A beginning reader book (like Moo Dog) that he can try to read to me and we sound out the words together
• Copywork/Handwriting

History: Ancients

• I got some great kids books about Ancient Egypt from the library.  We started to read one of them.  It was mostly about the Egyptian gods.  He FREAKED out.  His questions were like this:
• Are these monsters??
• Are they real?
• Did this really happen??
• Why would they talk to these monsters???
• Why are you saying they're gods??  They're not God!
• As you can imagine, we could not finish the book and I am basically sitting here with my head in my hands.  I do not know what to do.  

Flying Creatures of the 5th Day (Apologia)

• He actually likes this - a lot.  

Literature

• I added real literature to his day - not just picture books (we read those at bedtime anyway).  I'm reading Winnie the Pooh and he loves it.  He's been sitting on the floor making pretend pizzas while I read.  I was surprised he liked this so much.  We read a big chunk of the book in just one week.  

Music

• I picked up Beethoven's Wig from the library - very cool!
• He is so excited to learn how to play the piano.

Art

• He loves art.

So, the hits:

•  Real children's literature
• Actually reading a book to me- instead of a reading curriculum
• Science
• Music & Art

I actually learned a lot about what he likes this week.  Could he be more of a Charlotte Mason guy?? 

Changes to 1st Grade

I'm giving The Well-trained Mind a trial run week with the 1st grader.  Throughout the day, he's crying and interrupting the high schoolers' school time.  He's begging to do the high schoolers' chemistry and physics labs.  A couple of days ago, he was climbing all over the kitchen island while the girls were trying to do their Chromatography lab.  Yesterday, he cried because the 9th grader was working with Python and well, he wanted to program with Python, too.  *rolling my eyes*

I am basically tripling his school, which I've never had to do with a kid before.  He seems to need more structure and more challenge.

This is a great thing about homeschooling - you can try new things and adjust their workload to meet the needs of your child.

I've put together a curriculum based off The Well-Trained Mind 1st grade/Grammar Stage.  It was the most structured method of homeschooling that I could think of.  

3 Daily Subjects

• Language
• Read-aloud and a Reader
• All About Spelling
• First Language Lessons 1
• Writing
• Copywork (1-2x per week)
• Writing letters to grandma (1x per week)
• Math
• Continuing Wild Math 1

Subjects 2-3x a Week

• History 
• Ancient History
• Library books, projects, etc
• Science
• Land Animals of the 6th Day
• Wild Animals Coloring Book
• The Great Animal Search
• Bible
• Keep doing what we're doing

Fridays

• Art - outsourced at an enrichment center
• Music
• Starting piano
• Beethoven's Wig series
• German
• I'm looking around

I'll update at the end of next week and see how these changes went - if he liked them or disliked them.