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Hey guys, welcome back to my channel for another video. My name is Sarah and today I'm going to be chatting with you about my sixth grade language arts homeschool curriculum picks
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So for those of you who don't know me, I have four kids. We have been homeschooling since my oldest son was in kindergarten. He's going to be in seventh grade this year
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and I have twin girls that are going to be in sixth grade and then I have a son who
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will be in kindergarten next year. So I have a couple of other videos that I will do talking
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about some curriculum choices for my sons but today we're just going to focus on language
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arts for my girls sixth grade. So if you've watched my channel for a while and seen some of my
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unboxing videos some of this might not be a surprise to you. You might know that we have used my
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father's world exploring countries and cultures this year and we plan on using my father's world
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again next year it'll be the creation to the Greeks and actually I have spent the last couple days
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my floor is a mess in here because I've been trying to go through and kind of plan out I've got my
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little notebook here I've been planning out kind of our schedule and I like to write down
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how I'm going to be organizing homeschool planet and all that stuff so I do use homeschool planet
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for our day-to-day organization, but for setting it up and figuring out what are our schedule
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is going to look like, do I have all the curriculum that I need, things like that. I like to get
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that on paper before I actually just put that all on the computer and get it set. So that has been
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my chore the past couple of days. I'm almost done with everything and it feels really good to
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have everything planned out and to know what I'm going to be doing. And it makes me really excited
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for the upcoming school year. I know it seems like a while out, but it's going to be here before we
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know it. And actually in Missouri, we can start tracking and logging our school hours, starting in
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July. So we do tend to kind of take a slow roll into all of our new curriculum and everything. So
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it just feels good to have all of this done. So with my father's world, that includes history. There's
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science component, there's an art component to it, and what else? Bible, probably forgetting
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something. But with my father's world, you do have to, at this level, include your own math
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and language arts. So this past year was when we switched to learning language arts through
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literature, and I used that for all of my kids. So if you are curious about that, I did a flip through
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of both of the books, actually. So there's one for the purple book, which was our fifth grade
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language arts curriculum. And then there's one for the tan book that I did a while ago
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which is what my son used this year when he was in sixth grade. So you can go back and check those
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out if you want to. And we enjoyed it for the most part, but there are certain things that I kind
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of wanted to change and that we need to change. So this year, I am going a different route for our
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language arts. And I've got three different things here that I'm going to show you guys that I've
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chosen. Two of them, you might already kind of know if you've watched some of my videos, and one of
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them is going to be new. I finally made a decision about our literature curriculum, what I'm going to
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use for that. And I'm really excited about it. So I can't wait to talk to you about that. So let me
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show you. I've got our writing, spelling, and literature here. So you can see what my girls are going to be
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using next year for sixth grade. And I will say sixth grade, this is where we get into the middle
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school era, right? And I was always kind of nervous about getting into this realm. I feel like, oh
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you know, middle school, the kids are growing up. What's going to, you know, be a big change? Is there
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anything major that I need to worry about or focus on? And my son is finishing up sixth grade this
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year. And honestly, it's been just fine. We really have kind of carried on. We didn't make any major
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changes jumping from fifth grade to sixth grade or anything like that
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The main thing has just been you know he is getting a little bit more independence in some of his schoolwork and some of the things that we doing Next year there going to be even more independence with some of his work And I have started to think more about high school
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And that's going to be here before I know it. So just what is that going to look like
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I've done a couple of not high school training, but just different sessions that I've gone to at like conventions
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and from local homeschool organizations that kind of talk about homeschooling in our state and what we need to be thinking about. And that has been really helpful just to
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this early on start kind of prepping and planning for that and thinking about it. Because like I said
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it's going to be here before I know it. And I just like to be prepared and know what to expect
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So as far as the middle school years though, honestly nothing major has changed. So I'm really
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looking forward to the curriculum my girls are going to get to use next year. I'm excited about it
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and I just think it's going to be great. So we'll start with spelling
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We are doing a separate curriculum for spelling because my girls just need it
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And I kind of, I feel like I stayed with the wrong spelling
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curriculums for too long. And we just kind of needed something to get us back on track
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So if you've watched my video, you have seen me talk about all about spelling
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And so this is what I'm going to be using for our spelling curriculum for next year
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right now we are finishing up level two we've done level one and then almost done with level two so I have
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level three for next year and I plan on just kind of taking this at an easy pace trying to fit in
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probably I think three lessons a week is what I had written down as my goal um to try to to get through
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the year this has um 30 total lessons but the the lessons don't have to be done all in one day. It really just kind of depends on how well your
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kids are picking up on it and how well they're doing with everything. It comes with the teacher's
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manual. You have an activity book for the kids. And then you have some stickers. There's like a
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little reward chart. And then you have all these cards that are like flash cards that your kids use
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throughout the program. So, you know, we will start it, kind of work through it at our own pace
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and then those 30 lessons, however long they take us, we will get through level three and then
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either start on level four or reevaluate at that time what we're going to need. It also comes
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with these letter tiles, which I have a set of these already, so I'm not sure if I'm going to need
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these ones or not. But if you're interested in learning more about this, I do have a video that
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I have an unboxing, I think, of this one, and then I have a level two, do a lesson
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with us video that kind of shows you how all about spelling works and you can get a really good
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idea of if you know what a lesson would look like and if it would work well for you in your
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homeschool okay next up for writing this is going to be new to us this year but we're going to be
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using essentials in writing and i'm using level six for my girls they have a free trial and you can
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kind of get in there and see what the lessons are like before you purchase or jump into it and I felt
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like level six is going to be the best fit for them, we really need more writing practice
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I feel, than what we were getting with our current language arts literature curriculum. So
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these are video lessons. The video lessons are short. They usually cover one concept at a time
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so the kids can really focus on them. And yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. So in level six
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the focus, I'm just reading from the back, they'll identify and apply parts of speech
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identity and apply varied sentence structure and follow the writing process to compose
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expository persuasive and descriptive paragraphs personal narrative a persuasive letter a summary
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compare and contrast writing an expository essay and an informational report okay so this right here
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is um just the booklet that they will kind of go through as they follow along with their video lessons
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So there's space in there to write and just follow along with the lessons
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It also comes with this assessment and resource booklet that you get So tests and things in there if you want to use them different resources There are just different checklists that the kids can use to help them with their writing
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And then there's also a little teacher handbook that kind of gives you the scope of all the lessons
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gives you some answer keys and things like that, how to plan everything out and whatnot
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But I had my kids go through the lessons online when we did the free trial and take a look
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at them, they, you know, they were interested in them. They thought they looked good. And I think
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this is going to be really good. They do well with the short, succinct to the point lessons and
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then being able to apply what they are learning. So I'm looking forward to trying this out for
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writing this year. Okay. And then finally, I am really excited about this one. Literature was
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something that I wasn't sure what we were going to use for my sixth graders. For my son who's in
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seventh grade, he's also using essentials in writing and they have an essentials in literature curriculum
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for seventh grade. They don't have one for sixth grade. So I was kind of going back and forth. I
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considered using maybe sunlight readers and kind of making a curriculum out of that. I looked at and
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have some of the not consumed reading journals and I really like that as well. But what I ultimately think
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I'm going to go with is a new curriculum from one of my favorite publishers
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BJU Press. So what's funny is they had just come out with a new catalog. And as I was kind of
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debating what I wanted to do with this, I noticed that this year they're coming out with a brand
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new sixth grade literature curriculum. And I finally got it in my hands. I'd flip through it at a
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local convention. But perspectives in literature is a new sixth grade curriculum, literature curriculum from
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BJU Press. And I love BJU. We've used them in the past, a lot of their programs
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And I really love their biblical worldview focus. And I'm really excited to give this a try with my girls
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So this came with basically the textbook. And I'll flip through it in just a second
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But it also came with an activity book. And then these three books
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So we've got Island of the Blue Dolphin. a single shard and this one, the book of three, the book of three. So I'm not familiar with
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these books, but these are the ones that came with the curriculum. And we are going to be using
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the distance learning online for this. So they will have, they will be able to log into the BJU Press
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homeschool hub. Their video lessons will be on there. And the video lessons for this course are
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about 15 minutes on average. So they, how it works is they'll log in. They will watch their video
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And I, I love how BJ Press videos are really engaging. The teachers do a great job in breaking
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down the concepts, teaching vocabulary, really going over what the big picture is of the lesson
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And with literature, they usually kind of pause the video at certain points so the kids can go through
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their book and read a certain number of pages and then they come back and discuss it on the video
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or the teacher will go over key points or things that they are supposed to have read. And then at the
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end they will have an assignment in their activity book that they have to do. So a certain number
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of pages in here to fill out and complete. And then in the homeschool hub, it's really nice because
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I'll have access to a teacher manual on there too, which if I ever wanted to do it with them
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instead of having them watch the video, I would be able to do that. And then all the answer keys
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and everything are all in the homeschool hub. So I can easily look over their work, grade it
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and see how they did if they got an understanding of the material and things like that. It makes it
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very easy. If you are interested, I do have a video. I did it a while ago, but it's all about
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the homeschool hub for BJU Press. So you can go on there and see how that works. I think it's a really
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great tool that the company uses that helps you keep your homeschool organized. And
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everything in one place I am not going to flip through this whole thing right now but I kind of just give you guys a couple of key things that you can expect from a curriculum like this what it kind of looks like and what I excited about So it broken up into units
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So unit one, why do I need relationships? Unit two, how does God want me to use knowledge
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Unit three, what gives me courage in difficult times? Unit four, how can I prepare to be a leader
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Unit five, how do I overcome evil? and Unit 6, how do I make the right choices
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And so it's, I know it's kind of hard to see, but it's split up into the different chapters
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And in each little chapter, they're reading segments of different stories, and they all kind of tie into that unit's focus
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So as I'm flipping through, I'm seeing different things in here. There's some C.S. Lewis, Mark Twain, Robert Frost
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So there is poetry. There are biographies, informational text, lots of different genres, lots of different types of writing and things that they're going to be reading and going through
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And when my daughter flipped through this, she was really excited at the beginning
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She saw some Greek mythology and things like that in here. And I thought that was going to be really cool because we're doing creation of the Greeks this year
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So some of this will kind of tie in. But for every unit, let's see, right start at the beginning
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So it gives you kind of an overview what they're going to be learning in this unit
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Why do I need relationships? So, for example, it says in this unit, I will discuss relationships and identity with my peers
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compare three texts about good neighbors, yze texts about family memories, and share one of my own
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discuss the relationship between humans and animals, and write an informational paragraph about relationships
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Okay? And then it's very much, I mean, kind of like a textbook
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You know, BGE Press is a little bit more traditional of a curriculum company
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But at the beginning, they have a big question. So at the beginning of each little section
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So this first one, they're reading Bloomability, a little snippet from that
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And the big question is, why is it important to understand other people
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So the teacher will teach her lesson over that. they will read this little part of this book, excerpt from the book, and then there are some
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different questions and things that ensure they will go over after reading, along with
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things from their activity book. So, for example, the next one, the big question is, does who I
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worship affect the way that I act? Okay, so these big pictures tied into the themes of the whole unit
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and also to the different stories that they're reading, which I think is great
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And it all is put together to support and build a biblical worldview and to point our kids to Christ
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Because I think that's what a great literature curriculum should do because that's, you know, who created literature
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Who created, you know, the arts and everything that, you know, we're able to read, you know
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was written by people who are talented, given those talents and those gifts by God. And I just love
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the approach that BJ Press takes not only in their literature curriculum, but in all the
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curriculum that I have seen from them so far. So I am excited to give this one a try. I just
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couldn't wait to share that with you guys. And if you're looking for something for your sixth
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graders. Like I said, we're not, this is, um, we're using this and we're using, um, their biblical
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worldview curriculum. So we're not doing like every subject with them, but this is something that
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we are adding in this year. And I think it's going to be great. All right, you guys
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thanks so much for watching. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up and consider
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subscribing to my channel. I love sharing tips and encouragement, curriculum reviews, things like that
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with homeschool moms. And, you know, know if you're interested, I have not done, you know, a full flip through of this yet, obviously
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because I just got it in my hands. But if you're interested in seeing more of that or of anything
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else, or if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below. And I would love
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to chat with you more about that. All right, you guys, thanks for watching. I will see you next time
