To say that our 6th grade curriculum choices for our daughter are different from our choices when we were Homeschooling 6th Grade with our son would be an understatement. That is the beauty of homeschooling, though, is that you pick what fits your child so that he or she can thrive. It's pretty awesome. Here's a look at our 6th grade homeschooling curriculum for the 2020-2021 school year.
6TH GRADE CURRICULUM
Switching curriculum has been an amazing decision for homeschooling 6th grade this year. Our daughter is engaged and loving learning, which is what I had hoped for.
FAMILY CORE CURRICULUM
The first change we’re making is that we’re going to be working together on core curriculum more. All three kiddos. We are going to be using Year 1 of the Gather Round Homeschool curriculum along with the Year 1 Lifer package.
As I mentioned in my Gather Round Homeschool article, this curriculum uses themes and topics to draw the whole family together with one teaching time and each kiddo has a leveled student notebook to work in that corresponds to their ability. We’re using the Year 1 Lifer package, too, because it includes recipe books for each of the Connecting Continents units as well as three mini units (Christmas, US Government, and Canadian Indigenous Peoples). The Lifer package does also include cursive notebooks.Check Out Gather Round Homeschool Full Year Bundles
6th GRADE MATH
You may recall that last year, she started Teaching Textbooks Math 5 as her primary math curriculum. Teaching Textbooks 3.0 is an online math program. While she tested into Math 5, we found that there were a few significant gaps in her skills once we got started. A simple email to support, and we switched her to Math 4 last year. She completed Math 4 with no difficulty, and is now working her way through Math 5. She's passed the point that sparked tears last year, and is doing well, so I know we made the right decision.
We will also use games like Yahtzee, Chess, Tile Up, and Kozo for strategy building.
Classic Yahtzee, An Exciting Game Of Skill And Chance
Winning Moves Games Winning Moves No Stress Chess, Natural (1091)Tile UpWinning Moves Games 1223 Kozo, Wood Grain
6th GRADE SCIENCE
The Gather Round Homeschool Year One curriculum covers a bit of science in each of the Connecting Continents Units, but there are also science specific units. They include: North American Birds, Space, Oceans, Earth Science, and Human Body. We chose to purchase the Full Year Digital Bundle over the summer.
You can also purchase single units as well.
GRH North American BirdsGRH SpaceGRH OceansGRH Earth ScienceGRH Human Body
Of course, she'll participate in most (if not all) of the activities and experiments that we include with our 2nd grade curriculum.
6th GRADE LANGUAGE ARTS
She continues to use the Wilson Reading System Student Workbooks. She continues to make great progress with her private tutor. She'll also continue where we left off with the Super Stories Writing Prompts and Code Breakers Inspirational Quotes from Tip Top Printables. As with last year, I'll allow her to use Google docs to write her stories, and we'll work on editing them together.
Super Stories: 100+ Creative Writing Prompts!Code Breakers
Sister will use theYear Long Handwriting Practice Bundle from The Sprinkle Topped Teacher for both manuscript and cursive writing practice. She will also be using the cursive handwriting guides included in the Year 1 Lifer package for the GRH curriculum.
Year Long Handwriting Practice
6th GRADE READING BOOKS
While our fresh 6th grader does struggle with dyslexia and dysgraphia, she does enjoy reading. You may recall her Radical Readers list from my Homeschooling 5th grade post. She really enjoyed most of those books, and is much more likely to pick up books of her own volition now. So far, her reading list consists of Warrior Cat books that she picks, Courageous World Changers, three Rebel Girls books, and a few selected dog related books, like DogWinks.
The Warrior Cats is a series about cats written by author Erin Hunter.
Warriors Box Set: Volumes 1 to 6: The Complete First Series (Warriors: The Prophecies Begin)
The Courageous World Changers book introduces young girls to fifty women who have used their God-given talents to live out their faith to the fullest.
Courageous World Changers: 50 True Stories of Daring Women of God
The Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls is a children's book that has 100 “bedtime” stories about the lives of extraordinary women from the past and the present. The book is illustrated by 60 female artists from all over the world. The sequel, Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls 2, showcases 100 brand-new stories of incredible women throughout history and around the world. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Immigrant Women Who Changed the World is the third book in the series. It's due out in October. According to the publisher, it is packed with 100 all-new bedtime stories like the first two books, but this volume recognizes women who left their birth countries for a multitude of reasons: some for new opportunities, some out of necessity. That's 300 women worth reading about!
Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Tales of Extraordinary WomenGood Night Stories for Rebel Girls 2Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Immigrant Women Who Changed the World
Dogwinks is filled with true stories of dogs about coincidences and divine intervention.
Dogwinks: True Godwink Stories of Dogs and the Blessings They Bring (The Godwink Series Book 6)
She wants to train our dog, so The Joy of Dog Training is in her stack.
We'll also use a Would You Rather book, because we love Would You Rather scenarios.
Would You Rather: A Game Book For Kids, Teens, and Adults – Volume 1
Obviously we'll add to her stack as the year goes along, and as her interests develop.
6th GRADE SOCIAL STUDIES
One of the features of the Gather Round Homeschool curriculum is the Connecting Continents units. We'll be using all of those, and adding videos and activities to each lesson.
Our favorite channel so far is Geography Now. We also use Nat Geo Kids quite a bit. We're adding in the Torchlighters episodes that correspond to our lessons, as well.
Torchlighters 16-Episode Ultimate DVD Collection
We'll also be using a few games in our social studies, like Risk Europe and Risk 1959.
Winning Moves Games Risk EuropeWinning Moves Games Risk 1959
6th GRADE ELECTIVES
She chose to take a P.E. class, an art history class, and a social skills class at our co-op. She's learning skateboard tricks in her P.E. class. Her art history class is using the Picturing America curriculum to explore historical art and its significance to America history. Each week they explore and critique 2 to 3 pieces of art. Then they create our own art pieces that reflect the art that that they explored. Her social skills class uses a lot of board games. She's enjoying games like Sorry, Pass the Pigs, Pass the Pigs Pig Party, and Tapatan. We have a Big Pigs set, but we keep it at home because of the pandemic. a
Pass The Pigs (Party Edition) (Colors May Vary)Winning Moves Games Pass The PigsPass The Pigs: Big Pigs
As you can see, I am really trying to incorporate more FUN into our learning this year. Because fun learning is lasting learning.
