✨ALL✨ SIXTH GRADE CURRICULUM PICKS 2024-2025 | HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM CHOICES

Name: ✨ALL✨ SIXTH GRADE CURRICULUM PICKS 2024-2025 | HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM CHOICES | Open Video
Uploaded: 2024-06-19T01:19:48+00:00
Duration: 26 min 9 s

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Hey guys, welcome back to my channel for another video
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Today, I'm going to be talking about homeschool curriculum for my sixth graders next year
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All right, welcome to my channel, Blessed Homeschool. If you don't know me, my name is Sarah
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I am a homeschool mom to four kids. My oldest is 12
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He will be in seventh grade next year. I've got twins who will be in sixth grade and they are going to be the focus of this
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video and the curriculum that I chose for them. And then I have a five-year-old who will be in kindergarten next year
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So we are going to jump right in. I have kind of talked about the curriculum that I'm going to be using for my sixth graders
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I've kind of woven it throughout some of my other videos because some of it is similar
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to what I'm doing with my seventh grader and even with my kindergartner
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But I realized from some of your comments that it might be helpful to have a video with
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everything in one place. So just a curriculum video about what I'm using for sixth grade
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So that is what I'm going to be talking about today. All right, so the first thing that I will talk about is kind of our main spine curriculum
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that I'm going to be using, and that is My Father's World Creation to the Greeks
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If you guys have been watching my channel for a little while, you know that I love My
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Father's World for many reasons, mainly because they really make God's work central and they
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integrate the Bible with their study of history, geography, science, art, music, all of that stuff
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So I just love that about My Father's World. We started using them when my oldest was in kindergarten
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We've used their first and second grade curriculums, and then this year we used Exploring Countries
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and Cultures. And I just really love that they help form that biblical worldview
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They help teach from a biblical worldview. It's kind of a combination between Charlotte Mason's ideas, Hebraic classical education
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and unit studies, all from that biblical worldview. So we have really enjoyed their curriculum, and this is what we're going to be using next
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year for, like I said, kind of our spine. Creation to the Greeks is a one-year program, and it is geared for kids in fourth through
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eighth grade, and they use a family learning cycle. So My Father's World is really written to encourage families to learn together
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So while it's aimed at fourth through eighth graders, if you have a second or third grader
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that has older siblings that are going through this, they can also be included and use this
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curriculum as well. So I love that aspect of My Father's World
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It really makes it easy for families with multiple age kids to kind of come together
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and learn together. They have differentiated lessons. They have instructions in their teacher manual for different levels, and it's all really
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broken down for you, planned out week by week, very open and go
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You can see how the lessons are kind of structured here. So for each week, you have a different column for each day that lays out exactly what you
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need to do. So I love all of those things, and I will be talking and sharing more about this throughout
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the year, of course, as we go through it, kind of sharing how we are organizing it
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how the lessons are going, what I like about it, and things like that. So this is a 34-week program
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We start with creation, and then we kind of learn the history and culture of Israel
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We will be learning about the biblical feasts that God commanded the Jewish people to celebrate
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The Old Testament is really the foundation of the study of history this year with creation
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of the Greeks, and that is integrated with learning about other civilizations such as
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Egypt, Greece, Babylon, and things like that. It is a complete course for history, Bible, science, art, and music, and then you add
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your own language arts and math. So I've got some different piles sitting next to me of the pieces of this that we're going
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to kind of be integrating. If you watched my unboxing video, you probably saw a lot of this, so I will just briefly
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go through some of the things that we'll be doing with history, with art, science, and
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then our read-alouds through My Father's World, Creation to the Greeks. Okay, so first let's talk about the history component
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I am really excited to kind of dig into ancient histories, my kids
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This is going to be new for us. We actually just finished Heritage Studies 5 from BJU Press
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That was the history curriculum that we used for the past two years, and that, it's a one-year
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program, but we took two years through it, just nice and slow, and that was complete
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American history. So that course began with the birth of America, and then we are ending right now with President
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Obama and kind of that more recent time period, and we really loved that
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It was a great overview of American history, citizenship, economics, and also our civic
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responsibilities as Christians. I thought that course was really well done. I'm almost sad to be done with it
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We really enjoyed doing that together, but I am excited to start some ancient history
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and go through some of this stuff with my kids. It'll be new for us. So let me show you some of the books that we'll be using for ancient history
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This is one that came with the curriculum, so Streams of Civilization Volume 1, and this
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just kind of reminds me really more like a textbook. So I'll just show you a couple of the pages so you can get a feel for it, but it's separated
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into chapters. There are lots of, lots of pictures, lots of graphics, but also a lot of reading
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So this was one of the books included. We also had the illustrated family Bible
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So these lessons are going to be worked in alongside the history that we are reading
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and kind of integrated through this time period as we go through it
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We also have this book right here, Ancient Egypt, a hands-on approach to history
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So there will be some things included from here in our lessons. And then this is an Usborne book, World History from Ancient to Modern Times
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So these are the main things that kind of make up the history component of this curriculum
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Plus, like I mentioned, the biblical feast is in there. Okay, and then it comes with a few different read-alouds
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There will be a lot of things my kids have to read on their own. There are, they call it a book basket
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So they've got book recommendations in the back of the teacher's guide of books that
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you can pick out from the library and things like that the kids do for silent reading
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but also they encourage read-aloud time. So these are just some of the books that are included for read-alouds
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We've got Aesop's Fables for children. And then there is Trojan Horse, The Children's Homer, Star of Light, The Tanglewood Secret
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and Treasures of the Snow. So these are the read-alouds that are included with My Father's World, Creation to the Greeks
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And then they also have an art component. So this is what they include for art, and there's actually two volumes for this
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So there's one, and then there's a second book that goes with this as well
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But this art curriculum is a chronological study of art and history, and it focuses on
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mainly Egyptian and Greek art for this year to kind of go along with Creation to the Greeks
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And in addition to this, one of my sixth graders, we're adding on a little bit for art
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So I had the opportunity to try out an art curriculum from Masterbooks
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This is Living Art Lessons, The Seven Elements. So one of my daughters who is a little bit more artistic and has really been wanting
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more art, wanting to learn more art, wanting to do more art, like I said, I had this opportunity
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So we are going to give this a go next year for her. This is a 35-week program, and it's recommended that they do lessons at least two times a
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week and they're supposed to be only about 30 minutes long. So it's not a lot of time
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It came with this book right here and then this book. I think this is the main book and then, or wait, no, this is the artist journal
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So in this journal here is actually where they have the schedule
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So they have a suggested daily schedule in here that the kids can follow, and there's
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checklists in here. I like that it is very student-friendly, meaning I think she's going to be able to do this
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pretty independently, kind of open up and flip through and do the lessons, follow along
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with the schedule pretty easily. And then they just have space in this book where they can do the different assignments
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and things that it's asking them to do. So this is what we're going to be doing for art in addition to what came with My Father's
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World, Creation to the Greeks. Okay, and then let's talk about science
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I am using the recommendations for science from My Father's World. So I, with my sixth graders, they recommended Science in the Beginning from Brian Biller
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So we are going to be using this for my seventh grader. I talked about that in his video
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They recommend a different science for seventh graders. So he will be doing something on his own, but my girls and then actually my little kindergartner
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are going to be doing this together. And I talked about this in my kindergarten curriculum video
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This right here is actually written so it can be used with kindergartners through sixth grade
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So I think this is going to be really cool to kind of combine their learning and do this
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together with them. They have a couple options in here where they talk about how you can schedule this in and
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what we are going to be doing is the two day a week option
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So they have what's called challenge lessons, which if you want to spend more time on science
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you can include those, but we probably will not be including the challenge lesson part
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because I just know how our schedule gets and I know how much time we have and we do
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love science, but it's just going to be really hard to put those in. So I like that they give those different options in here
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So we will be going with the two day a week option for science and I am planning on doing
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a bigger flip through and review of this pretty soon. Um, it actually, so when I ordered this through my father's world, it came with this book
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very, very much a textbook, but also very easy to kind of navigate
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And it also came with this helps and hints book. And so this kind of just goes lesson by lesson and it gives you any extra things that you
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as a parent might need to add in or talk about. And then there are also tests and answer keys to the tests in here
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So if you wanted to either have your child use this book to take a test or if you wanted
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to print them out or make copies of them, um, and then you have answer keys in the back
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I will probably use some of the tests for my sixth graders this year just to get them
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kind of used to taking a test and having to kind of study and prepare for that
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But I don't really plan on keeping grades yet. Once we get to high school level, that's when I'm going to really start taking, taking grades
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and keeping track of that. But I think it's good to start getting them in the habit at this level
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Um, but what I wanted to mention is I didn't even know that this existed because it's not
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on their website, but with the brain builders, a friend told me, well, I had a couple of
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different people tell me about some extra things you can get with this curriculum. Um, one of you guys watching actually mentioned that they have a lab kit where you can order
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basically all of the extra materials that you will need for the experiments and things
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Um, I found them on either rainbow resource or Christian book and you can buy that kit
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It was, I think it was around a hundred dollars or so, but then you have everything that you
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need for all of the activities, all of the experiments. So you know, a lot of the experiments use kind of common materials around the house
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but some of them don't. So you either have to make sure you stay on top of things and buy them, or you're using
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up stuff at home that you have to replenish. I love the idea of having this kit because it, for us, it makes it more likely that we're
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actually going to do the experiments because I have everything on hand
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And even if my girls are going to kind of take charge and, you know, do some of it on
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their own, one of the days they have everything there that they need
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So that's going to be coming in. And then I had another friend the other day, tell me about, um, notebooks that they have
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to go through this. So I have those coming too. I wanted to wait until I had those in hand before I did the video on this
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You guys can go look them up if you're interested in them to see more, but I just know I will
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be kind of doing a flip through and showing you guys all that stuff once I have it all
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in my hands. And then also these two books came with the My Father's World curriculum
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So we have this book on learning about pyramids and then this book about dinosaurs of Eden
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Did Adam and Noah live with the dinosaurs? So this came with the curriculum
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We'll be incorporating this into our science studies as well this year. Okay
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Let's talk about math real quick. You guys probably know that we use CTC math
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I still plan on using that for my sixth graders. We are finishing up fifth grade work and we'll, we'll plan on finishing that probably by the
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end of the summer. We are going to be doing some math over the summer. I like to do that kind of year round just to keep everything fresh and keep us, you
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know, doing a little bit of that math work. The plan is for them to finish up through their sixth grade and then ideally get through
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about half of the seventh grade work next year. We'll see how it goes
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I mean, that may change if they're moving at a slower pace. You know, that's not super important
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I just kind of set those deadlines in my brain because of longterm where I'm seeing, I kind
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of want to go with their, with their math work, but we will be using CTC math
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Have a couple of videos about that if you're interested in learning more. And I do have another one planned probably, um, before the end of the month for a few
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updates and things that I wanted to talk about specifically for CTC math
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And then for language arts, I recently shared a video of just my sixth grade language arts picks
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So if you're interested, you can go check that out. I will go through them really briefly again
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So they're kind of all in one spot, but let's start with writing
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We are going to be using Essentials in Writing Level 6 with my girls this year
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This course is online. So there are online interactive video lessons that the kids will go through independently
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Very low prep for me, which is great. You get a, this student book right here when you order the curriculum
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So you obviously get your video lessons and then you have this book that your kids will
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be doing their writing in. It also comes with an assessment and resource booklet and then a teacher handbook. Okay
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So that's what comes with the curriculum when you order it. We did a trial of this online
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You can do a free trial, see what the videos are like, kind of look through, see what the
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lessons are like. And my girls really liked it. I had some questions about what grade level you kind of start at
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This is our first time using it, but I will say that they recommend starting at grade
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level because they take a very systematic approach in their writing instructions
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So they've got short instructions and then they give an example. Then the kids really get to apply what they're learning immediately
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And they really emphasize organizing their thoughts before writing. So instead of just jumping in, um, to whatever it is that they're writing, they really work
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on having the kids organize their thoughts, what they're going to write about so that
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they, um, can then when they're ready to actually write, they can focus more on that structure
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I think that is kind of what sets this program apart. And that's also why they say that many kids can kind of jump in at grade level and find
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success unless they have, you know, maybe some kind of learning difficulty when it comes
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to reading. But if you're interested in it, definitely get online and check out that free trial that
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they have. So you can see if the teaching style and everything would be a good fit for you
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I really love their short lessons. If they're teaching a composition, they break it up
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So they're teaching and modeling small chunks of it over a couple of days so that the lessons
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can be shorter and that the kids don't get overwhelmed so easily, which I think, um
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can happen, happen easily for my kids. So I think we're really going to, um, like this approach
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They, they work from the ground up. So they focus on teaching the kids good sentence structure, good, um, paragraph construction
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before they get into writing like multi-paragraph essays and things like that
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So we are looking forward to using and trying out essentials in writing for writing this year
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And then for spelling, again, I've talked about this quite a bit
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So you guys might know we're using all about spelling and I've got a couple of videos on
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it if you're interested in learning more, but all I'm really going to talk about for
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all about spelling for today's video. And then for literature, this is a new, um, online video curriculum that BJU Press is
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putting out this year. So they've got a new sixth grade literature curriculum, and I will also be doing a flip
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through of this in the next upcoming weeks. Um, we'll see when I can get it done, but I wanted to show you guys just a little bit
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more inside kind of what the lessons are like. We will be using the online video lessons, but I do have the teacher manuals for this
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So if you're interested in maybe teaching this yourself, it'll give you a good look
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at what the manuals are like and what you can expect. But I love the online video lessons because the teachers do a really good job of setting
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up the lesson, making it engaging for the kids. Um, they're typically, you know, pretty short, 15, 20 minutes or so
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They will pause during the lesson so kids can read, do different things from their book
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and their activity book. And I've just really enjoyed BJU Press courses in the past
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I love their biblical worldview focus. So I'm really looking forward to trying out this literature curriculum this year
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Um, there are six different units, six different themes. Um, so they will be studying through literature
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They'll be studying relationships, um, knowledge, courage, leadership, overcoming evil, and then making choices
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So those are the six themes. There are 160 lessons, but then they also have novel studies and there are three different
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novels that came with this. So Island of the Blue Dolphins, A Single Shard, and The Book of Three
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And I need to look at this a little bit more. But if I'm remembering from the past curriculums that we have done, typically we've just picked
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one of the books to do a book study. So there will be about 20 lessons or so for each one of these
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And then you would pick one to add on to your regular curriculum
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So if this is 160 days, then you've got 20 days of a book study in there somewhere, that'll
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give you your full 180 days of curriculum. So, you know, you could pick one of the books and do the full book study on it
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You could have your kids read the other books or not read them
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It's up to you. We will probably read them, um, and just work one of those book studies in throughout the
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year at some point. So I'm looking forward to this. Like I said, I think BJU Press does an amazing job of helping kids form that biblical worldview
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And in literature, that means, you know, formulate biblically based responses to what they are reading
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So that's really important. Um, the only thing I didn't get with this is the assessment pack
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So you can purchase that separately, but we're not going to be using the assessments with
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that curriculum this year. Okay. We are almost done. So the last, the last main curriculum is our Latin curriculum
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So we have been doing Latin through our homeschool co-op the past couple of years now
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So we are on second form Latin. We're going to be starting this next year
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I will be teaching it to my kids through our homeschool co-op
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So small group of kids, but we're looking forward to continuing this
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This is Memoria Press second form Latin. And so typically with this curriculum, how we've been doing it is we have one day where
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I will teach the lesson and then through their student workbook, there are short little assignments
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that they work on each day to practice vocabulary, practice whatever it is that they're learning
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And so it really, you know, you've got that one main lesson, but then the work each day
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is not too bad. So it's pretty easy to fit into our schedule
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And I think looking at all the curriculum, you know, as I sit here kind of going through
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all this and looking through all this, you might be thinking, wow, that is really overwhelming
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That is a lot to do, but really it's not. I want to encourage you that, you know, it might seem like a lot, but many of the lessons
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are fairly short. You know, when my kids were younger, we spent less time, our homeschooling took less time
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during the day. And as they're getting older, you know, sixth grade, seventh grade, our school is going
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to take a little bit longer during the day to complete, but it's still very manageable
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The plan is to do some of our stuff together in the morning
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We're going to do kind of a little morning time focus where we work on Bible memory
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some of our Latin memory, some things with my kindergartner and some things like that
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We may do some of our, my father's world stuff in the morning
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I can't decide yet if I'm going to do that in the morning or if we're going to save that until the afternoon, but then we're going to have time for independent work
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So that's going to be like when my girls do their math, which will typically take 20 to
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30 minutes a day. They will have their essentials in writing and those lessons are in the curriculum
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It tells us that it'll be anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes per lesson
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So sometimes short, sometimes a little bit longer. And then they will have their literature in there
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So again, probably about half an hour for that. So, you know, you're looking at anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours, maybe
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of independent work during the day. And then we will also be coming together in the afternoon to do our science to again
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maybe our my father's world, depending if I do that in the morning or the afternoon
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and then anything else we need to wrap up. So if there's any of that Latin or art or anything that we kind of need to do
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So it seems like a lot, but it's very doable. And it also is something that I've learned to be flexible with over the years
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So I love planning things out. I love being detailed and organized, getting our schedule into homeschool planet, having
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that structure to follow. But I've also learned to be flexible. And if things come up, if we have a fun field trip opportunity or math takes us longer one
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day because we're struggling with it, and we just can't get to science or we can't get
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to something else that I have planned, then we have the flexibility to move that around
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to take a break when we need to, to homeschool later at night or, you know, take a break
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during the weekend, do it on the weekend. So you know, there is a lot of flexibility and a lot of the curriculum choices that I
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have picked, I pick them because they don't take a lot of time
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They're low prep, and they are starting to give more opportunity for my girls to become
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more independent in their learning as they get older. So there's still stuff that we're doing together
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But as they're going into middle school, we're going to continue to kind of work on that
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independence and what they need to be responsible for and how they can take responsibility of
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their learning. So I'm really looking forward to all of that. I'm looking forward to all this curriculum next year as we move into the middle school
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years. So I hope this was helpful for you. I know we are kind of in the middle of curriculum shopping, curriculum planning season
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So if you, like I said, have a sixth grader or you're looking for some ideas, I hope that
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this maybe gave you some. I'm going to be leaving links to all of these curriculums down in the description below
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So if you're looking for something in particular, go ahead and head down there and you can find
25:11
all of those very easily. And if you guys have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to leave those in the
25:16
comments below. I love trying to help out when I can. Love interacting with you guys
25:21
So don't hesitate to ask or reach out if there is something that you're wondering about or
25:25
something that you might need. I will do my best and my limited knowledge, limited abilities, and the experience that
25:33
I have these past few years of homeschooling to help point you in the right direction
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If you like this video, if you did find it helpful, go ahead and hit that thumbs up
25:42
I would love for you to subscribe to my channel so you don't miss out on future content
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It is such an encouragement to me to have you guys here and I love sharing tips and
25:53
encouragement and homeschooling content with you. So thank you guys for coming along
25:59
Thank you for watching this video today. I will see you next time

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