5th and 6th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Picks

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Each year (usually beginning around February) I like to take a good look at the homeschool curriculum we are using and decide if I need to make changes. What worked well for my kids, what didn’t, and what might they like to learn about in the upcoming year?

I feel that the choices we’ve made so far have worked well for us, but we are going to make a few tweaks for the next homeschool year. In case you’re curious about what we have used, and what I will be using for my 5th grade twins and 6th grade son, read on!

I know that each family has to make their own choices about what’s going to work for their unique kids, but sometimes it can be helpful (especially if you are just beginning to homeschool!) to read what others are doing, and the reasons behind their choices. So I hope this can be even a little bit of a help to you!

What’s Changing?

Our first three years of homeschooling (Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade) we used mainly My Father’s World, and also supplemented with Singapore Math and All About Reading and Spelling.

When my son began 3rd grade, we switched to BJU Press Homeschool Distance Learning Online (you can read more about why I chose this curriculum HERE). We have really loved the curriculum, and I love their Biblical Worldview Integration.

We’ve used BJU Press Homeschool for my son for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade (2nd, 3rd, and 4th for my daughters). The first year, we used their Distance Learning Online option pretty much exclusively; the past two years I’ve utilized the DLO for Math, Reading, English, and Spelling, and we’ve done teacher-led together for Heritage Studies, Science and Handwriting.

I’ll be honest that many days, handwriting got skipped (we made it about a third of the way through the book, and then just practiced handwriting in other ways). And we were able to work in Heritage Studies and Science about every other day. For the rest of the subjects, my kids worked on those independently each day.

There are two main reasons we will NOT be using BJU Press for our core curriculum next year. Not because I don’t love the curriculum (I do). But because:

#1 – Time. This year, my kids got involved in a few more classes at some local co-ops, we re-joined BSF, and we were just busier. With our Math, Reading, English, Spelling, Social Studies and Science courses all taught and completed separately, some days it became very hard to fit it all in.

Now, I know that it’s ok if you don’t get through all of the curriculum, BUT, this year especially just seemed harder for us in regards to time if we wanted to get to each subject most days. I began looking for a more integrated approach to conquering Language Arts.

#2 – Accountability. The first couple of years using the DLO option really helped in teaching my kids some digital learning skills, and also helped them learn to be a bit more independent in their schoolwork. But this year I felt that my kids personally would benefit from a bit more one-on-one teaching and more accountability, especially in Math and English.

I’m not sure if it’s because we are headed into the tween years or not, but I noticed a bit of slacking this year from one of my kiddos (not pointing fingers!), where they would either not pay as much attention to the teaching videos, or not ask for help when they needed it. There were many days I had to go back and re-explain concepts when I realized pages of their worktexts were completely wrong. So that also added time to our day that we barely had already, and probably could have avoided if we had taken a different route from the beginning.

So, I learned that Language Arts was a bit more of a struggle for my kids this year, and we needed some extra attention on writing mechanics and spelling. I also wanted a bit more literature in the curriculum than we had this year as well.

Our 5th and 6th Grade Curriculum Picks

That being said, here’s what I have chosen for our curriculum next year!

Language Arts

I am trying something completely new to us this year for Language Arts. I’m a little bit nervous, but also excited to dig in to Learning Language Arts Through Literature with my kids!

I’m going to be using the Purple Book with my girls, and the Tan Book with my son.

What is most appealing to me about this program (besides the literature!) is it’s integrated approach to teaching. With one single program, we are going to cover multiple subjects in the context of the literature, which I know research shows helps kids make connections and create deeper understandings.

No longer will our English, Reading, Spelling, and Handwriting be separate, but with LLATL we’ll study spelling, reading, grammar, composition, research and study skills, higher order thinking skills, creative writing and penmanship in an integrated manner. You can check out the scope and sequence for each of their grade levels (1-12) here.

This curriculum is a 36-week program, 5 days a week. Like I said, it will be new to us, so once I get a feel for how it’s working, I’ll have to share an update (fingers crossed!).

Math

With BJU Press Math this year, my kids would watch their lesson video online, and then complete their worktext assignment independently. Even though I LOVE math, I do delegate this because my kids work at different levels, and it’s a less subjective subject, so I feel comfortable doing this.

With our crazy schedule this year, however, some weeks there may have been a couple of days that went by before I could check everyone’s math work…only to find that they’d been doing things completely wrong, and we had to go back and fix some incorrect understandings.

I realized they would greatly benefit from an online program with shorter, more succinct videos, automatic grading functionalities, and the ability for me to really target areas they were weak in. I wanted a bit of both spiral and mastery, and something that was adaptive.

I found all of that in CTCMath. We actually began using the program a couple of months ago and are going to be sticking with it. I absolutely love that all of my kids have access to ALL grade levels with one family membership (so I am saving a lot of money to be honest).

The kids love it, too, so we’ll see how it goes as we continue!

Social Studies & Science

We did enjoy our BJU Press Heritage Studies and Science this year, but I decided to go with an integrated approach again and will be using My Father’s World Exploring Countries and Cultures with my 5th and 6th graders together.

From what I’ve heard and can tell, there’s not a lot of “history” with this curriculum package; it’s mainly Geography. I don’t plan on adding anything additional right now. In fact, we’ve done a good deal of U.S. History the past couple of years, and not as much Geography, so I’m really looking forward to this study before we did into Ancient History in upcoming years.

The Science component of this program focuses mainly on Ecosystems and Habitats, and corresponds to the different countries we’ll be studying.

Bible

Exploring Countries and Cultures also includes a Bible component, so my plan is to use this daily with my kids. We’ll be reading and memorizing the book of Matthew, and also studying true missionary stories and learning about specific prayer needs of different ethnic groups. We’ve used the included book, Window on the World, a little bit in the past with Bible Road Trip, but I am looking forward to revisiting it as my kids are a little older now.

In addition, we attend a local Bible Study Fellowship that meets for an hour and a half once a week. My kids get a short Bible Study assignment that they complete from there, but I also like to supplement with Not Consumed Bible Studies for morning time devotionals.

And, you guys, there really is just too much good stuff out there. I found this Basics for a Biblical Worldview curriculum from BJU Press that I really want to incorporate into our studies. I am not sure if that’s going to happen or not, but we may simply read through the lessons as we are able to. There are 8 units, and it’s geared for 6th graders. I’m not going to stress about it, but if we can get to a lesson or two a week and just take our time, I think it would be a great study for all of us.

Art

There is an art and music component included in Exploring Countries and Cultures, but I’m honestly not sure how much we will utilize them. We have been really loving Creating a Masterpiece for our art lessons, and try to do at least 1 project a month (sometimes it’s every other month!). I continued our subscription, so we are going to keep at it at least one more year.

If you’d like to read my review of the program, you can do so here.

Foreign Language

We participate in a once-weekly homeschool co-op and I teach a Latin class there. So far we’ve completed Prima Latina and Latina Christiana from Memoria Press, and we are 2 units into First Form Latin now. We’ll pick this up again in the fall, and should finish this book by the end of the school year.

Additional Subjects

I feel really blessed to live in an area where we have so many opportunities available to us as homeschoolers – we have a great community!

Through our co-op, my kids will not only take Latin, but they participate in a drama program and typically one other class (the co-op meets for 3 hours once a week). We also meet once a month with a sweet lady who teaches kids how to quilt (she runs a fantastic program from her home – I don’t know a local homeschool family who doesn’t know her!).

For music, each of my kids takes lessons for an instrument they chose (and of course they all chose something different: piano, violin and cello). They also each play a sport, which I have been counting as their “P.E.” time.

And this is just something extra, but at lunchtime we love to tune into World Watch News, to get our daily dose of news from Christian journalists.

Homeschool Record-Keeping I Use

This year I am going to be using Homeschool Hall to keep track of our state homeschool requirements, and I also use Homeschool Planet for lesson planning. My kids can log into Homeschool Planet each day to see what their assignments are, which is super helpful.

I have thought about just using one tool, BUT, Homeschool Hall doesn’t have a great planner yet (even though they are working on implementing one!). And I don’t love how Homeschool Planet functions for the hours tracking I need to do (I just prefer Homeschool Hall’s functionality for this!). Maybe in the future I’ll consolidate and just use one, but for now, I’m enjoying using both.

Final Thoughts

So there you have it – my curriculum picks for my 5th and 6th graders!

As I mentioned earlier, every family (and every child!) is different, with different needs, different state requirements, and different resources. Your curriculum choices may be different than mine, and that’s ok!

Will we complete all this perfectly? Will I get every subject in, every day that I plan it? Ha – maybe for the first month! But keep in mind that even with my “ideal” choices (for now), things happen, and we do the best we can day by day. I can’t see the future to know that all of this will work for us, and may need to make changes mid-year…but that’s the beauty of homeschooling, isn’t it?

I say that just as a gentle reminder that one way is not better than the other, and as you are making your own curriculum decisions, take what you see from others with a grain of salt. But I do hope that maybe you found something helpful and useful in this post, and if you did, would you drop a comment below?

And let me know what you’re looking forward to regarding YOUR curriculum for the upcoming homeschool year – I can’t wait to hear!

Curious about what I’m using with my preschooler next year? Check out this video (and see one of our lessons here)!

Related Posts

• Why Homeschool Hall is the Last Homeschooling Tracker You’ll Need
• Effortlessly Homeschool Pre-K with My Father’s World Preschool Curriculum
• Homeschool Planet: Is This Online Homeschool Planner Right For You?

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