Our Homeschool’s 6th Grade Curriculum Choices

We’re wrapping up another year of homeschool and, as hard as it is for me to believe, I’m forging ahead and finalizing our 6th Grade curriculum choices.

6th Grade Curriculum Choices for Homeschool

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6th Grade Curriculum Choices

In many ways it feels like we’ve hit a sweet spot in our homeschooling. Thank you, Lord!  It’s taken time and exploration, but we’ve finally settled into the right methods and approaches for our homeschool.  It’s a good place to be!

We’ll continue our “mostly-Charlotte Mason with a touch of classical approach” for sixth grade.  There will be times we utilize traditional homeschooling resources and there will be times when we’re unschoolish. In a nutshell, we’ll continue to be eclectic, delight-directed homeschoolers.  Here’s a look at what we’ll be using for 6th Grade:

History & Geography

We have absolutely fallen in love with The Mystery of History over our last homeschool year.  It’s a no-brainer to include The Mystery of History Volume III: The Renaissance, Reformation, and Growth of Nations in our 6th Grade curriculum choices.  The Boy and I are both excited about exploring one of our favorite time periods through this incredible history resource.

6th Grade Curriculum Choices for Homeschool - The Mystery of History

Along with our main history text, we’re using The Mystery of History Super Supplemental Collection for Volume III. We love this collection because it gives us notebooking pages, challenge cards, and even coloring pages to go along with each history lesson.

As for geography, The Boy will continue using Drawing Around the World from Brookdale House, but this year he’ll focus on the United States.  Since that program focuses on drawing maps from memory, I’m including 50 States and Where to Find Them to add another layer to our geography studies.

As a general rule, I don’t think it’s necessary to add that additional layer to Drawing Around the World, but our chronological approach to history means that we’ve still got some time before the United States is a focal point in our homeschool day.  Since my kiddo has been asking for a state study; 50 States and Where to Find Them combined with Drawing Around the World – USA will work nicely to satisfy his curiosity.

Science

Last year wasn’t our best year with science.  We started off using a well-loved homeschool science curriculum and learned the hard way that it was good, but it wasn’t good for us.  That left us trying several different approaches and curricula before the year was over.  At one point, a friend let me borrow a couple of her Elemental Science books so I could see if they’d be a good fit.  I liked what I saw, but ended up going with Sassafras Science Adventures, the living books-based curriculum from Elemental Science.

6th Grade Curriculum Choices for Homeschool - Sassafras Science
We’re already a few chapters into The Sassafras Science Adventures: Zoology and all I can say is that I wish we would’ve tried it sooner.  It fits The Boy’s learning style perfectly.  He’ll also spend time using DK’s Encyclopedia of Animals and Janice VanCleave’s Science Around the World; both are utilized in this volume of Sassafras quite a bit.

Language Arts

The Boy started using Writing Through History earlier this year and it’s been a great match for us thus far.  We’ll continue this streamlined approach to language arts as it combines grammar, spelling, writing, and handwriting by using literature and poetry that correspond with medieval history.

Our 6th Grade Curriculum Choices for Homeschool - Writing Through Medieval History
He’ll also continue using The Write Stuff Adventure to give him a chance to practice creative writing and develop his confidence in that area.  For more analytical reading and writing, he’ll continue to work through William & Mary’s Autobiographies and Memoirs unit.

Lastly, we’ll incorporate back issues of The Arrow from Brave Writer to provide reinforcement of grammar, spelling, and vocabulary through more current literature selections.  This move is a great opportunity to capitalize on books he’ll be reading anyway since back issues allow us to choose our own book selections from the Brave Writer list.

Math

It’s taken years to find the right math approach for The Boy, but we’ve finally found it!  Math U See has been a dream come true!  After finishing Math U See Gamma earlier this year, The Boy moved into Math U See Delta (single and multiple digit division) and will likely finish it midway through his 6th Grade year.  At that point he’ll transition to Math U See Epsilon, which focuses on mastering fractions and reviewing addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Worldview

After taking some time off from Apologia’s What We Believe Series, The Boy has requested to move on to Who Am I? And What Am I Doing Here?

We do devotion time each day, we try to live with our eyes open to what God is doing around us, and there are times being a ministry family means we practically live at church.

In addition, so much of our homeschool happens naturally through the lens of our worldview that adding worldview to our homeschool routine isn’t a must for me. Since it’s not something I require, I’m happy to let him dig in and go further in this fantastic foundational faith series.

Fine Arts

We’ll be using both Zeezok Music Appreciation and SQUILT for music for the upcoming homeschool year.  We’ve loved both of these curriculum choices in the past and are happy to have them in our plans again this year.

Our 6th Grade Curriculum Choices for Homeschool - SQUILT Music Appreciation
I’m not completely sure of our 6th Grade curriculum choices for art.  Most likely art will be included in our weekly co-op meeting and we won’t need to regularly plan extra art elements.  Because of that, art will be primarily interest-based and worked into other subjects when possible.  Here are some of the art resources we already have and I expect to use again throughout the year:

http://wp.me/p2BXdi-2Kp
What are your plans for the upcoming homeschool year? Have you used any of our choices before? I’d love to hear your thoughts and tips!


4 thoughts on “Our Homeschool’s 6th Grade Curriculum Choices”

  1. Great choices. We will be using Mystery of History for the first time next year for my 7th grade boy. This was our first full year of homeschooling. I may need to check out the writing curriculum. I work full time, outside the house, so things look a different for us. Have a blessed weekend!

    1. I hope you had a great first year of homeschooling, Barbie! I think you’ll love how rich The Mystery of History is… we sure have!

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