Good morning, friends! Today, I'm sharing our fifth-grade curriculum choices with you.

For the most part, we are leveling-up from last year's choices. (I am dropping our formal spelling curriculum. My fifth grader is a very good speller and, in lieu of a structured program, I am going to watch for opportunities to instruct him in spelling as he goes about his other subjects.) We are also dropping a formal typing program. Typing up his writing assignment each week, my son, who is a proficient typist, will get lots of natural practice.

The "big" changes are coming in our swapping our religious education programs and making the VERY difficult decision to drop out of our beloved homeschool music program. I am swapping the boys' AWANA program for our home church's Midweek School. Although I love the emphasis on Scripture memorization in AWANA, and the location is blessedly close to our house ("praise hands" for convenience!), we missed the close-knit feel of our church as well as the Lutheran-specific curriculum.

As for the homeschool music program, I had to accept that I was simply trying to do too much. In previous years, I was just barely able to squeeze in choir and band because the music program's location was within walking distance of our house. Because of the program's success and growth, it moved across town to a larger location, making it suddenly much less convenient for us. I racked my brain to figure out a way to make it work, and I just couldn't. SIGH. (I am not exaggerating-- there were actual tears [mine!] and sleepless nights while this decision was being made.) I know the little ones will get older (too quickly!) and our days will not always be so challenging. We are looking forward to rejoining one day!

Without further ado, here are our curriculum choices for the 2018-19 school year!

5th Grade Curriculum

Classical Conversations is a wonderful program that assists me in teaching many subjects! These include: Bible, math, English grammar, writing, Latin, history, fine arts (drawing, tin whistle, great artists, and orchestra), science, and geography.

• Bible: Midweek School
• Math: Math-U-See *Zeta
• Handwriting: Zaner-Bloser Handwriting Grade 5
• English Grammar:
  Essentials of the English Language (EEL Guide) This curriculum is only available to registered members of the Essentials program, which is a part of Classical Conversations.
  Fix It! Grammar: The Nose Tree** - My son did the Editing Exercises in the EEL Guide (see above) his first year of Essentials. For his second year of Essentials, I wanted to do something a little different. This curriculum is so fun, and I love how it combines lessons in English grammar with concepts from IEW (see next bullet point).
• Writing: Institute for Excellence in Writing -  Ancient History-Based Writing Lessons (through CC Essentials)
• Literature: We do lots of family read-alouds. (Thank you, Sarah Mackenzie at Read Aloud Revival!) My son chooses his own books for independent reading time.
• Latin: Latin for Children Primer B and Latin for Children Primer B History Reader (My son takes an online course through Scholé Academy.)
• Spanish: Duolingo
• Fine Arts: piano lessons, field trips to our local theaters
• History/Timeline/Social Studies: Drive Thru History: Ancient, read-alouds (the Gilgamesh trilogy, Detectives in Togas, Amon's Adventure, and my son will also be writing a "Faces of History" research paper about a historical figure from Ancient times), CNN 10
• Science: Classical Conversations
• Geography: map tracing
• P.E.: swimming and tennis lessons

*Note: My son is a grade level ahead in Math. I would typically recommend the "Epsilon" level of Math-U-See for fifth graders.

**Note: Ideally, I would have started my son with The Nose Tree in 3rd grade, Robin Hood in 4th grade, and Frog Prince, Or Just Deserts in 5th grade. IEW recommends beginning with The Nose Tree regardless of age, so that's why I chose that level. In retrospect, my son's knowledge of English grammar and IEW concepts was developed enough that I could have done a more advanced level than The Nose Tree in fifth grade.

Click below to see our past curriculum choices:
[2017/2018] First and Fourth Grade
[2016/2017] Kindergarten and Third Grade