6th Grade Curriculum Choices for 2023/2024

Titus's curriculum choices for this next school year look a lot like Silas's, but I decided to make a separate post for him anyway!

Saxon Math 7/6 with Nicole the Math Lady subscription

Titus has used Math Lessons for a Living Education up until now, and he had one more level to go! He asked me to start "The Math Lady" math this year, and I figured it wouldn't hurt a thing! Saxon 7/6 is for sixth graders or seventh graders who struggle with math. Silas used this level last year and I think Titus will do well with it. I love that math is one subject I don't have to teach!

Writers in Residence 

I used this with Mikaela and Eli, and when I saw it on clearance for less than a dollar (from $80), I knew I had to buy it to try it with the boys! It's an independent, self-teaching writing program that worked really well for my older kids.

Language Smarts Level E

We used this as a review product last year, and I absolutely loved it. Titus is about halfway finished so we will work three times a week in this workbook and finish it up this year.

The Story of Civilization Volume One

We will use this a family three days a week with additional readings, maps, notebooking, and crafts. I'm planning to give each of the kids a blank notebook to be their Narration Notebooks, where they'll write narrations, draw pictures and diagrams, label maps and glue them in, and even some timeline entries.

Great Science Adventures: The World of Plants

Titus will use this with Silas. There are foldable books, notebooking, experiments, and other projects that we will use with this, also with a Narration Notebook. This will be done three days a week.

Readers in Residence

Again, this was on clearance for less than a dollar so I wanted to try it with the boys! It will be his literature for the year, and if we decided we don't like it then I won't feel bad about spending a dollar on it.

We will also have Co-Op classes on Thursdays, which is new for us! He will be taking three classes - "Show and Tell - An Intro to Public Speaking", "History Pockets: Ancient Greece" (taught by me!), and "FUNdamental Skills." I'm super excited about this year!

DIY Sensory Cards for Baby

I created these sensory cards for Zoey and she absolutely loved them. In fact, even Zeke enjoyed feeling the different textures! They were really simple to make and I think they'll last for a while. I may even make a few more with some different textures.

I used some wood squares that Silas uses with his wood burning kit. These were purchased on Amazon in bulk, but you can also buy them in smaller packages. 

I cut a piece of felt, a piece of bubble wrap, a piece of sandpaper, and a piece of foil to fit the squares. I hot glued them to the wood squares, but you could also use wood glue. That's it! It was a quick and easy craft and Zoey spent a good ten minutes playing with the cards, which is a long time for a 9-month old.

Have you ever made sensory cards? What other textures should I make?

2023/2024 Morning Basket Plans (with a high schooler, middle schooler, elementary age, and kindergartener)

Morning Baskets are such a beautiful addition to our homeschool days. Even if our Morning Basket looks different each year, it's always been an anchor to our homeschool. Some years our Morning Basket is fuller and heavier, and other years it's very light. It changes to fit our needs for that year, and that's one of the beautiful things about it.

If you ask my children what their favorite part of Morning Basket it, they'll probably all answer with the book they're allowed to read aloud to us each morning. This year, Silas read missionary stories while Titus read history stories each day. It's become important to them to have a part in our Morning Basket, so I'm making sure to include them in it this year, too.

(I don't have Thursdays listed below because those are our Co-op days. We will be leaving the house early and I know I will be too tired to do it when we get home.)

Here are our loose plans for this year:

Bible (10 minutes)

We always start with the Bible. As Christians, the Bible is the most important book to our family. If my kids know nothing else but the Bible, I know they'll have all the truth they need. 

What does our Bible Time look like? I simply read from the Bible to them! I use the New Living Translation because not only is it very understandable in modern English, it's a very close translation to the original transcripts. No translation is perfect, but this one is my absolute favorite. 

We will be reading straight through from Genesis this year. Our history focus this year is ancient history, and history begins with the Creation of the world. I will read a chapter or two each day and we will discuss it together. We should get through several books of the Old Testament.

Memorization (5-7 minutes)

We memorize scripture and poetry every year; some years are heavier on scripture and some on poetry. This year we will be memorizing "chunks" of scripture. You'll notice I chose a passage from each of the four gospels.

Matthew 6:5-15

Mark 14:22-26

Luke 4:1-13

John 1:1-18 

If we memorize those four passages, then I will choose some more. The plan is to memorize two passages before Christmas break, and two passages before summer break.

Read Aloud (10 minutes)

I plan to read a chapter from a book each morning to them. I want these books to be books that are classics we have missed and other books that the kids will want to hear more of each day. I chose three books and when we finish these, I'll choose a few more.

A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry (sound a bit morbid, but it's about two sisters, one of which is dying)

To Build a Fire by Jack London (this will appeal to my outdoorsy kids)

The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett (a classic that I have never read aloud to the kids)

Loop Reading (5-7 minutes)

Last year the boys mainly read books aloud that had short stories or short chapters, and I'm trying to keep that in mind as I chose the books for them to begin reading. Last year, they each read every day, but I think we're going to loop it this year. This is my plan for the week:

MONDAY: Favorite Poems, Old and New - Mercie loves to read poetry, and this book has over 700 poems! I'll have her read some each Monday and we will discuss them together. I may even have her read some on her own to find poems that she thinks we will love.

TUESDAY: Hero Tales - We have several volumes of this, and I think Titus would love to read these aloud to us. These are about missionaries. My parents are also missionaries to Nicaragua, so it's important for me that my children are exposed to real-life mission stories.

WEDNESDAY: The Story of Inventions - I think I'll have Silas read this book to us, a few sections at a time each Wednesday. 

FRIDAY: The Genius of Ancient Man: Evolutionist's Nightmare  - This will be my day to read, and I'm going to begin with this book. It will fit in with our ancient history focus for the year. It will also give us lots of good discussion jump-off points!

Enrichment Loop (5 minutes)

I'd like to add a few things to our basket that won't take but a few minutes each day. I'm going to loop them with Friday being a review day for them all.

MONDAY: Art Cards (3-5 minutes a day) - There are 32 cards in this set from different periods/styles of art. The front side has the artwork and the backside has some information. I'll read the information and we will study the artwork each day for a minute.

TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY: Tree Flashcards (3-5 minutes a day) - I'd like my kids to be very familiar with the trees we have around us as well as trees around the world. There are 125 cards in this set, so I'd like to do two cards a week. This will give us 31 weeks, so we will do the other half next year.

WEDNESDAY: Manner of the Week (3-5 minutes) - We will review one manner each week and put it into practice! Manners are something that don't seem to be important to many people these days, but I'd like to remind my children how important they are.

FRIDAY: Review Day! We will review the art cards, tree flashcards, and manner cards for a few minutes. 

Kindergarten Loop (5 minutes)

I want to add some things for Zeke to have as his own each morning, so I'm going to loop a few subjects for him as well. The bigger kids can sit in with him so he will know that his stuff is just as important! (And I'll probably do his loop first.)

MONDAY: Character Development Cards: These 19 cards from Abeka will reinforce good behavior for Zeke. I'll review these throughout the week.

TUESDAY: Science Living Books: I have tons of books of our shelves for science! Let's Read and Find Out are my favorite, and I have quite a few of those as well as some National Geographic easy readers. I'll pick one book each week to read and let Zeke draw in his Narration Notebook about that topic.

WEDNESDAY: My Big Book of Five Minute Devotions: There are over 40 stories in this book, so we will go through one a week. The devotions are based off of animals and are really cute! I'll also have Zeke do some Narration work in his notebook.

FRIDAY: Picture Books: I also have tons of picture books on our shelves, so I will choose one each week to read. We will also do a craft from the picture book as part of my Picture Books and Art series that I began last year.

That's It!

I'm aiming for our Morning Basket to take around 30-45 minutes each morning. Then we will all be off to complete our schoolwork. We will be doing history together, and I will probably just start our day after Morning Basket with history. I'll read the selections, then they'll work in their Narration Notebooks (narrations, mapping, drawing).

What's in your Morning Basket?

BFIAR: Jessie Bear What Will You Wear?

We have had such a busy summer so far, but I wanted to make this a "Before Five in a Row Summer" for Zeke. We took two weeks to "row" Jessie Bear, What Will You Wear?. This quickly became a favorite book for Zeke and we've read it many times! I can't remember what we did each day, so I'll just break it down by activity.

Bear Matching Game

I got this matching game for Zeke, and we have played it over and over again! The bears are so durable and beautifully colored, and it makes playing Concentration so much fun. 

Bear Number Puzzles

We worked on number recognition and counting with these number puzzles.

Counting Bears Patterns

We used our counting bears to learn about ABAB patterns. I made a few patterns and had him finish them for me, and then he began making his own patterns! This was a good thirty minutes of math play on the porch one morning.

Counting Bear Addition

We used these free worksheets to introduce simple addition problems. We placed counting bears on each picture and wrote the numbers in the boxes. I wrote with a yellow highlighter and Zeke traced the numbers. A few numbers he wanted to write on his own!

Shapes Book

We made a shapes book using this free template. We talked about each shape - how many sides it had, what objects had this shape - and then Zeke traced the shapes.

Fruits and Vegetables

We talked about fruits and vegetables and learned the difference between them. There were several cut and glue sorting worksheets that he completed - this one, and this one.

Teddy Bear Stew

I printed and laminated these free Teddy Bear Stew Recipe Cards for Zeke. He "read the recipe" and added the correct number and color combination of counting bears to his "bowl." He really enjoyed this simple activity!

Find the Bears

I hid six cardstock bear faces in the homeschool room and Zeke found all of them! Sometimes I'm tempted to skip the "simple" activities, but he always loves them!

What's The Weather? Flip Book

We talked about appropriate clothing for different weather situations. Then Zeke made this little flip book. He colored the clothing items and then glued them under the correct weather condition!

Jessie Bear Lapbook Activities

We did several of the activities from this free lapbook from Homeschool Share. I glue the small booklets onto cardstock, hole punch it, and store them in three-prong folders.

Here is where we rowed Jessie Bear What Will You Wear? with Silas and Titus! Click the button below to see all of our BFIAR books so far! 

Week(s) in Review: VBS, Summer Camp, Sick Babies, and New Schedule

The past few weeks have been so busy they're almost a blur! I'll try to recap the highlights of the past two weeks if I can remember them!

VBS - Twists and Turns

I am the Vacation Bible School Director at our church (for the past three years), which always takes months of planning and hours of prepping, but this year I was also the preschool and kindergarten teacher! Last minute, our teacher for that age group had to have surgery. I couldn't find anyone else to take the spot, so I decided I could do it.

My mom came and helped me with Zoey. She sat in the nursery with her during our Bible Lesson time, and we took turns walking her around and watching her during the rotations!

Before VBS one morning in the car

Zeke was in my class and did so well. He had so much fun with the Bible lessons and games, danced and sang to the music, and enjoyed making crafts each day. I was so proud of him and so thrilled he had a blast. He said his favorite part was crafts and Bible lessons! We did a sink or float experiment one day (the story was Peter walked on water to Jesus) and I made them miniature wave in a bottle using baby oil and blue-dyed water in small bottles. It was a fun class with 10-11 kids each day!

He even held the Bible during the pledges at Family Night.

Summer Camp - Titus

Titus is at King's Camp this week. Rod dropped him off Sunday afternoon and we will pick him up Saturday around lunchtime. I'm sure he is having a great time - fishing, zip lining, baseball, swimming, canoeing, and archery are just a few of the options they have each day. It's so weird not seeing him every day! I miss him. He brings a different level of life to our household. Next week, Silas goes to camp, and then Mercie the next! Eli will be leaving for Nicaragua the end of the month for a month on a mission trip with my parents. And then Titus has 4-H Camp! It's going to be a busy month for the kids.

Mercie has been getting some driving practice around town since she starts Driver's Ed this weekend.

Sick Babies

Last week, Zeke was running fever and had a sore throat. I figured he had strep again, but his strep test was negative. They also did some bloodwork to check for mono, and thankfully that was negative, too. I guess he just had a virus - there seems to be one going around!

When he takes a nap, you know he's sick!

This week, Zoey is sick with the croup. I took her to the doctor Tuesday, and she's breathing better now, but she's still very grumpy. She has been sleeping on me off and on all day, and when she's not sleeping, she's alternating between being happy and being miserable. 

I'm seeing this face a lot.

New Schedule

We haven't put our new schedules into practice yet, but we're trying! Monday morning is definitely when I'll be starting the cleaning schedule and morning habits I talked about. Having sick kids and such a busy week last week has thrown me off a little. Plus we've been painting the kid's rooms and redecorating a few things, so I've been super busy every day. I'll be sharing about that soon!

Zeke loves playing games!

The summer temperatures are really starting to heat up. It's been so humid and hot the past few days, but we have gotten some much-needed rain for our corn and soybeans! Our crops are looking fantastic, so I'm praying that God will really bless our harvest.

Checking corn after church

Our garden is starting to produce as well! We've got some cucumbers and okra on the countertop now, waiting to be pickled (if I can ever get a free afternoon!). I have a new friend who does lots of canning and sent me a few recipes to try. I'm also going to have her over one day to really get me started with canning tomatoes!

How was your week?