Little Miss is now in sixth grade, which is hard for me to write because it means that we are officially fresh out of elementary school. And as I shared in my A Homeschool Year Unlike Any Other article, this year is just hitting differently. We’re fresh outta any routine like we’ve ever known before, too. Here’s what we have lined up for our 6th Grade Plans for 2024-2025. Of course, like all things in life, they are subject to change as needed.
6th Grade Plans for 2024-2025
Little Miss will take classes at our local homeschool learning center once a week. While she will do the bulk of her learning at home, she will take four one-hour classes at the homeschool enrichment center.
6th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices
6th Grade Math
I mentioned in my 10th-grade-plans-for-2024-2025 that Sister takes a math lab at our homeschool enrichment center. Well, the same teacher also teaches two middle school math labs. Middle School Math 1 is for 6-8th grade students and Middle School Math 2 is for 7th-8th grade students. Sister took both of the Middle School Math classes with this teacher, so I did not hesitate to sign Little Miss up and recommend the class to other homeschool parents. For the Middle School Math 1 class, her teacher is using the All Things 6th Grade Math from All Things Algebra® in addition to other resources. Sister has previously used curricula from this curriculum writer, so we’re familiar with the format and really appreciate it.
All Things 6th Grade Math by All Things Algebra® is comprehensive and well designed.
There are, however, things in the 6th-grade level that I consider to be higher grade-level math and put us on the struggle 🚌. This week, there were 4 problem in one section that put ME on that struggle 🚌. Like, roll over me and scrape me up, because I do NOT remember doing this in 6th grade and I was good at math. I literally went all the way through calculus in high school and passed pharmacology calculations. WHY is 6th grade math-ing difficult?
Anyway. I folded the packet, folded my hands, and walked away, with a hearty, “Brotha, ugh” followed quickly by, … “You can ask your daddy when he gets home, he’s the genius!”
Because this Momma knows, …
“You’ve got to know when to hold ’em
Know when to fold ’em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run..”
I do fully understand that my (our) struggle could also stem from certain life events that occurred in the last part of 2021 (which I’ve been encouraged to not discuss online) that have made math a bit more difficult for me. My math-er just doesn’t math like it used to. Which is why I now enlist the help of others to teach math. That’s the beauty of homeschool, right?
Fortunately, one friend that I recommended the class to? She has two kiddos in the class. Her college age daughter kindly sent her a quick video tutorial on how to do one of the problems in the section, so I should be able to help my 6th grader muddle through the other three. Brotha. Ugh. She might make it through 6th grade math with me. LOL.
6th Grade Science
You may recall that Little Miss explored Chemistry in our 5th Grade Plans for 2023-2024 article. She really enjoyed chemistry, so we’re going to dive a little deeper into chemistry this year. She’ll be using the Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics textbook (Young Explorer series) from Apologia. She’ll be in a one hour lab at our local homeschool enrichment center each week, where she’ll be doing lots of experiments, many of them not found in the textbook. At home, we’ll read the material each week, complete worksheets and quizzes, and learn all there is to know about the chemistry portion of the book. Next year she’ll likely take the class that focuses on the physics portion of the book.
| Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics from Apologia |
And, I’m sure she’ll be completing some chemistry experiments at home. She’s always experimenting with something.
6th Grade Language Arts
This year we are focusing on the basics of grammar and writing. Little Miss will take a one hour Grammar and Writing Lab at the homeschool enrichment center. The class will have several creativity-building games and exercises to help make the grammar and writing fun. Which is absolutely needed for Little Miss, because I’ve tried e’rything, and she finds all things grammar and all things writing to be laborious and torturous. She would rather me pull her fingernails out with pliers than make her spend fifteen minutes journaling. Her class at the enrichment center will include journaling prompts and there be short quizzes given most weeks over the assigned reading.
At home, she’ll be required to journal for fifteen minutes daily (I have my pliers ready) and read for fifteen minutes each day. I have my writing prompts for middle school students ready for her. And because she frequently thinks that things that originate from me are lame (because I’m mom, and my ideas are lame), I’ve also compiled a list of writing prompts from other resources… so NOT lame, right? We’ll see. Check them out…
- 100 Creative Writing Prompts for Middle School from Story Writing Academy
- Monthly Writing Prompts from Vibrant Teaching
- Daily Writing Prompts from The Teachers Corner
- Writing Prompts for Kids from Night Zookeeper
- National Days Writing Prompts from Blessed Homeschool
I will remind myself (a few times if necessary) I refuse to judge the success of the year by the first few weeks.
6th Grade Reading Books
In years past, our kids have been required to read thirty minutes daily. We’ve reduced that to fifteen minutes as a *requirement* to add in the required journaling each day. Little Miss generally exceeds the reading requirement. I will only assign a few books, because this is the age where I’ve found that keeping them reading is most successful when I “strew” good books and keep them rotated.
Required reading will include:
Books that she’s requested:
- The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1)
- The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 2)
- The Titan’s Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 3)
- The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 4)
- The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 5)
- Out of Range
- Britfield and the Lost Crown
- Britfield & The Rise of the Lion
- Britfield & the Return of the Prince
- Britfield & the Eastern Empire (shipping in late September!!!)
- On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness: The Wingfeather Saga Book 1
Great books that we’ll either use as read alouds OR that will be “strewn” for her to read on her own include:
And many, many more.
Many of the books that are generally recommended for 6th grade, she’s already had the pleasure of either reading or having read to her because she’s sat in when they were read to her older siblings. So, she can choose to read them again, or she can use her Libby App and Hoopla App to access digital titles from our local library.
That said, because of the great book sell-off, I also have some room on my bookshelves, so if she finds a series she loves, I don’t mind investing in it. She just has to actually love it. 😉
6th Grade Social Studies
Little Miss is using Power Homeschool for World History and Geography 1 this year. This course focuses on world history from pre-civilization through the rise of the Roman Empire.
In this class, she will:
- become familiar with the basic principles of geography
- learn about the Middle East, Egypt, Judaism, Mythology, and Early Greece
- analyze the Greek City States, Persia, and war between Greece and Persia
- study India’s geography, cultural system, religions, and contributions
- explore East Asia, focusing on China’s geography, isolation, warring states, religions, politics, and dynasties.
- investigate the rise of Rome, some of its legends and founding people, Julius Caesar, and Pax Romana
- examine the birth of Christianity, its impact on Rome, and its enduring impact throughout the world to this day
- explore interactions among various cultures, emphasizing the lasting contributions of each and the link, despite time, between the contemporary and ancient worlds
The World History and Geography 1 class is not taught from a Christian perspective. I am fine with that as long as it teaches history accurately and doesn’t gloss over or hide things in effort to make certain populations look better.
6th Grade Electives
Art Level 2
This year Little Miss will take an Art Level 2 class at the homeschool enrichment center. This one hour weekly class will allow her to expand on the drawing, painting, and sculpture concepts that she has previously learned. She’ll learn new design principles, drawing techniques, and painting skills that will hopefully lead to her taking more art classes in the future. This should be right up her creative alley, because this girl LOVES to create.
Foreign Language
Little Miss started the year asking to take French, so I signed her up for French 1 through Power Homeschool. It is a high school-level class, and she quickly realized that she was not ready to invest in it. She’s watched her sister with some of her ASL studies on Power Homeschool, so she has asked to switch to it. So, I’ve added ASL to her class list on Power Homeschool and she’s attempting that. It is also a high school level class, where she’ll learn basics like the sign alphabet but she’ll also learn about deaf culture and learn to converse in ASL on a wide range of topics, from talking about their families to discussing the weather or shopping. If she decides she is not ready for it either, we will simply drop the class, no questions asked.
Middle School Social & Emotional Health 1
Little Miss is taking a Middle School Social & Emotional Health class. It is designed to guide students on a journey of discovering their strengths and potential, help them develop skills, focus on self-awareness, harness self-control, and learn the value of self-direction. It will help her learn the value of setting realistic goals to accomplish personal change in her own life. And hopefully, it will help her understand that her attitude is her choice, and that the attitude she chooses will go a long way toward impacting the life she lives, the happiness she possesses, and the impact she has on the people and the world around her.
These are ALL conversations that I’ve had with her — along with “all emotions are welcome, all behavior is not” — and this year I’m enlisting the help of Dr. Pajet Monet.
If we do make more changes for her this year, I will come back and edit this post. As much as our homeschool changed from what I thought it would be in April to what it actually started as in August, it could look completely different come October. Who knows. The beauty is, in homeschool, if the curriculum isn’t working you get to change it.
