Our Homeschool Year: Grade 6

This is one overdue post! I usually write about what our homeschool plan is in August or September when we're just starting our year. I did manage to take some pictures of our learning area but that's as far as I got. I didn't even get a back to school photo of Zanna although I did get a First Day of 6th Grade printed. 

Better late than never ... 

6th grade is the sweet spot. I really do love this year - wrapping up elementary school and just before the middle school/junior high years. 

As Sonlighters, I love this year. It's my favourite - Eastern Hemisphere. It's so different from the others years in that it's more of a unit study over many countries in the Eastern Hem. So far this year we've studied the Pacific Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Antartica, and Japan. To wrap up our study of Japan we just ate a dinner of sushi and miso soup! As we study each country we learn about their culture, language, customs and religion. I include two fabulous books I invested in called Material World and What the World Eats. We also pray for the people in the 10/40 window north of the equator. It's incredibly eye opening and fascinating!!

Our other daily lessons include:

Religion: 
CPH Growing in Christ New Testament 4 - middle school
Retirement home services with Dad (1-2 times a week)
Wednesday choir and Bible study, Saturday CAP (congregational assistance program) class, memory work and hymnology 

Math:
Saxon Math7/6
Mathtacular Word Problems

Language Arts:
Easy Grammar: Grade 6
Worldly Wise 3000: Book 6
Institute for Excellence in Writing: Student Continuation Course
All About Spelling: Book 5
Sonlight Readers/ Book studies: Eastern Hemisphere

For Language Arts I spread it all over the year concentrating on one area for a quarter. Grammar is all year. The other three will be taken one at a time. 

We've started with Worldly Wise which is vocabulary. This one is new for us and I thought since she's such an avid reader and great speller, that I would encourage expanding her vocabulary. Honestly I though it would be easy for her. It's actually very challenging and she hates it. She threatens to throw it in the green bin every week which makes me laugh that she's still willing to recycle it - haha! 


SHEP - Science and History Enrichment Program
This is a class Will took for years when he was home. There's a fall session and a spring session. They meet one day a week and in the morning they have gym and art class (taught by an actual artist). In the afternoon they are in a classroom for Canadian History and Science taught by a retired school teacher. Her teacher is absolutely wonderful and she comes home full of information! She has homework throughout the week, weekly Science quizzes, a unit test, and projects in both subjects. It's a great learning environment and gets her prepared for traditional learning.  

She's busy with some extracurricular activities. In some ways she's an only child so I suppose she gets spoiled being allowed to participate in so many activities. She continues to be in weekly swimming lessons, violin lessons, recreational synchronized swimming, Lutheran Girl Pioneers,  and monthly cooking class. In the winter when there's a break from SHEP she'll add on downhill skiing and indoor soccer. 

After reading through that list it seems hard to believe but there's still plenty of time in the week for playing with neighbour friends, knitting hats on her loom, reading ferociously, sporadicly creating art projects, and free play. 

I'm only too aware that I've got precious time with this girl. I'm trying to soak up the less than three years we have together before she goes to Prep. There's so much I still want to teach her and experience with her. I'm so blessed to be able to spend my days with her, watch her blossom into a young woman, and observe her maturity. 

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." Deuteronomy 6:5-8
               


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Autumn Days

Where did October even go? I honestly don't know! Thank goodness I took some pictures occasionally to remind me exactly what we did!

Pumpkin picking is the best! We always pick four - one for each of us. I like to throw in a white one just for fun. 

Everything's coming up fall around the house! Our apples from our September apple picking became a table decoration in my Grandma's milk glass fruit bowl. 

Our Friday night football evenings came to a close as Prep wrapped up their season. It's been so cool to be able to watch the games from the comfort of home. There's something about being able to see my kid in live time and know what he's up to at that moment that's so comforting when he's so far away! Livestream has been awesome!

We had a wedding to attend (and Wayne to officiate) from our Quebec church. This is always a perk in the ministry and I love to watch new families being created through marriage. 

And then there's the official arrival of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. After visiting Germany in the spring and building our VBS and outreach event around it last summer, we were ready to wave Reformation Red and sing our hearts out to A Mighty Fortress is our God. 

After hemming and hawing over what to make for the Reformation potluck at church, I finally settled on a fall pasta salad using my Martin Luther shaped pasta from Wittenberg. I also used my Luther shaped cookie cutter and put some chicken salad sandwiches together. 

Then there was the big reveal of the new church paraments using the Luther's seal fabric from Ecclesiastical Sewing. Our resident sewer/member made the beautiful altar dressings seen in the pictures below. It was stunning! 

In between our remembrance of restoring the teachings of God's grace alone to the pulpit's of churches, there was an annoying holiday that's always celebrated in our culture on the exact same day. We managed to put a little Lutheran twist to it ..... 

Fall traditions in our household included caramel apple making and leaf cookie cutouts. So far we've managed the apples and have enjoyed their gooey goodness. We have yet to do the cookies but it's on my to-do list and Zanna won't let me forget!

Our Reformation celebrating ended with the joint service with the other area congregations at the downtown church. It was a fantastic display of Lutheran love of the Word of God, liturgical teaching and worship, and music through song, pipe organ, instruments and teaching found in the words sung. I got a balcony view as I joined the instruments up there with my violin. 

These autumn days are flying by. I'm wrapping up some loose ends of Christmas shopping, homeschool, and hair appointments. We'll be heading to Wisconsin for our annual trip soon and I can't wait to see my sweet family!!!