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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