Welcome back to the Hill House’s homeschool curriculum choices for the 2020-2021 school year! This year, our homeschool will have a (very busy) preschooler, 4th grader, 6th grader, 8th grader, and 10th grader.
Last week I published our 4th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices, so go take a peek at that if you have a 4th grader.
Over the next week or so, I’m publishing all of the homeschool curriculum we will use – from 4th through 10th grades – so make sure to check back often.
Today, I am sharing our 6th Grade curriculum picks!
More 2020-2021 Homeschool Curriculum Posts:
→ 4th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2020-2021
→ 8th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2020-2021
→ 10th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2020-2021
Browse through all of the homeschool curriculum posts here at Mama’s Learning Corner.
This post uses affiliate links. You can see my disclosure policy at any time. I am not affiliated with Memoria Press at this time, except as an affiliate. I’m just a very happy customer.
A couple of years ago, we moved to mostly using Memoria Press. While I taught my children using unit studies and more delight-directed learning in the very early years, our homeschool is one that teaches classical education now.
→ Read more: How I Educate Myself as a Classical Homeschooling Mother
My current 6th grader has quite a bit of trouble with the physical act of writing, so I’ll be working with my daughter each day using some of the pieces from Dianne Craft’s Dysgraphia package. We will have a heavy emphasis on the Writing 8 strategy and the other crossing the midline activities. I’m not sure of the other curriculum pieces will use as of yet.
6th Grade Latin – Second Form Latin
My 6th grader will work through Second Form Latin from Memoria Press this school year. We need to review the last Unit of First Form really well, and then we will move on to Second Form.
This summer, I took the Adult Intensive version of Second Form Latin through Memoria Press Academy. While I didn’t master all of the forms as well as mastery of Latin requires, I have a very good idea of how to teach her the class this year and extra helps to solidify the work in both of our memories.
Just for the record, I do think it’s very possible to learn the Forms and then teach it to your child. The DVDs are excellent teaching tools, as well as the Teacher’s Manuals.
The Second Form Latin set from Memoria Press includes the Text, Student Workbook, and Teacher’s Manual. The teaching DVDs and flash cards are optional.
I also use the Latin Grammar Recitation set to lead our daily and weekly recitations. While the Recitation set is definitely not a must-have, it really has made the recitation portion of our week a no-brainer. I have been so pleased with this purchase!
6th Grade Math
My sweet 6th Grade girl needs to finish up some work from Rod and Staff Math Grade 5. Then we will move right on into Rod and Staff Grade 6 Math.
My daughter only has so much physical writing stamina each day (which we’re working on – see above), so I must make sure math is done first thing in the morning. Long division and fractions take a lot of writing work, so I want to make sure she does math when her hand is fresh.
We will continue to spend a lot of time doing the Oral Drill in the Teacher’s Manual, which is where the excellent teaching review is found. It is not to be missed!
6th Grade Bible Study
Even though it has looked differently through the years, we have always started our homeschool day together with Bible study. This year, my girls and I will finish the last Units of Christian Studies II, which covers the rise and fall of Israel and the period of the Prophets. We have two units left of this study as a carry-over from last year.
Then we will move on into Christian Studies III which is all of the major accounts from the New Testament.
I don’t require a lot of writing for Bible study, since we do most of our Bible drill orally. My girls are required to write the answer to the test question, to complete the Unit Review, and to take the Unit Test.
Tests in Bible study? I know. That would have seemed really strange to me a few years ago. Now that I have seen the fruit of that memorization, I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Yes, you can certainly do the memorization without tests, but my children remember better with tests regardless of the subject. 😉
6th Grade English, Spelling, Poetry, and Cursive Handwriting
We have used Rod and Staff English for years and years, and my 6th grader will move on to Rod and Staff English Grade 6. In typical Rod and Staff fashion, the 6th Grade English book steps it up a notch in depth of concepts and required analysis. With my older children, I slowed the pace of 6th and 7th grade English tremendously, since grammar is reinforced so beautifully in their Latin studies.
I’m not sure yet what my plan is for this particular girl and English, but we’re starting out at the regular pace at the beginning of the year. If the work is too overwhelming, I’ll slow it down for her.
→ Read more: How We Use Rod and Staff English Grammar in Our Homeschool
I made the mistake of not teaching my current 6th grader phonics very well since she read early and well. I have paid the phonics price ever since! My daughter will continue to work through Spelling Workout E (she’s about halfway through) and then we will move on to Spelling Workout F.
→ Read more: How I Teach Spelling in Our Homeschool
We will also read and memorize several poems from Poetry for the Grammar Stage, starting with England’s Sovereigns in Verse. I love that one!
Lastly, my sweet girl still needs tremendous help with learning cursive. For the first 10-12 weeks, she will work through cursive practice worksheets I made using Startwrite’s software. In her particular case, she needs targeted help with her trouble spots. After we work through those areas that are challenging, she will work through Cursive Copybook III for the rest of the year.
If there are leftover weeks in the school year once she completes these, I’ll add in a few of my cursive handwriting packets.
Even though she’s been working on cursive since 4th grade, she needs more practice and wants to improve her writing. So we will!
6th Grade Literature and Composition
I am so excited about my 6th Grader’s literature selections for this year! This is a fun year of novels based in the Middle Ages time period – Adam of the Road, The Door in the Wall, Robin Hood, and King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table.
This is Memoria Press’ Sixth Grade Literature Package, which includes the study guides that we work through each day. Completing the study guides with solid, complete sentences is a task we work in each day in our homeschool. It’s important for children to express their thoughts clearly and concisely in a written sentence.
While I don’t read each chapter aloud with them, we do go over the questions and discuss the story every chapter or two.
These are not the only books my girl will read this year, as she’s a voracious reader! These are the only literature books that we will study and analyze together, however.
To be honest, I’m still a little undecided about my 6th Grader’s composition for this year. She’s worked through many lessons in Classical Composition: Fable, and 3 or so lessons in Classical Composition: Narrative. We hit a brick wall last year with composition due to multiple issues.
My (very) tentative plan is to work through Dianne Craft’s Dysgraphia program the first semester and then pick back up with Classical Composition: Narrative during second semester.
6th Grade Classical Studies and Timeline
My sixth grade girl will be working through Famous Men of the Middle Ages this year. It has been several years since anyone in our homeschool worked through this time period, and I am excited to return to it!
My daughter will be participating in the Vita Baeta online discussion group, which will be very new to our family. Starting in 6th grade, I like to outsource one class so my children can be accountable to another teacher, and also to give myself a little bit of breathing room teaching-wise.
Unfortunately, my older two children took up all of the budget for outside classes, however, I think the Vita Baeta group will be a good fit for my 6th grade girl. I am excited for her to try it out!
6th Grade Science
My daughter will be working through Memoria Press’ The Book of Trees curriculum this year. It is essentially a study of botany through the study and classification of trees. Our family enjoys trees and being able to identify them, so this will be a fun topic for all of us to discuss.
Trees lasts about a semester and a half, so I’m unsure what the last portion of 2nd semester will hold. I might have her read through Tiner’s Exploring the World of Biology (no tests or writing – just discussion of what she’s read), or I might have her just continue with Tree Classifications.
Or we might just call it good and not schedule anything else. 🙂
6th Grade Geography
My 6th grader has worked through States and Capitals and Geography I, both from Memoria Press. This year, my daughter will work through Geography II, which covers Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. Included in that Geography package is Geography I Review Book, which she will work on.
Geography has mostly been an independent activity for my daughter, and the results show. Even though I graded work each day and quizzes each work, she did not learn the capitals and locations to the mastery level.
While exposure is sometimes the goal in a subject, my goal for geography in the 4th-8th grades is mastery.
I found an excellent method of review and drill on the Memoria Press forum for Geography, and I’ve already printed the packets and am ready to go! I believe this method of review will bring success for her. It was my lack of time to implement review that was the missing piece for this particular child.
We also work through Memoria Press’ Timeline program together in the mornings. My sixth grader will continue to work on through her Timeline Composition, but I’ll modify due to her writing stamina.
What is your sixth grader studying this year?
4th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2020-2021
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