2018-2019 Curriculum Picks: 6th Grade Catholic Homeschool

Our summer has been busy, crazy, and full. Have you been hearing the crickets chirping on the blog?

I’m grateful for the school planning I did early this spring. We are now entering our 6th “official” year homeschooling and I feel like I’m finally finding my homeschool mama wings.

Choosing curriculum was easier this year thanks to the failures and successes of the past years. I know immediately whether a curriculum will work for our family or my child and do not mentally flit to the next curriculum I hear about.

I don’t try to fit my children or our life circumstances into a box of a particular method but use what attracts me to each theory in as practical way as possible.

Living books, memory work, workbooks, nature study, Latin, they all find a place in the “Oratory,” as we call our homeschool.

In April I sat down and chose my children’s curriculum for the coming year. Discussing these decisions with Husband is so helpful and I love bouncing ideas off of him for how to make particular curriculums, plans, or scheduling work.

I’m hoping in the next few weeks to iron out the remaining details of the coming year. In the mean time, we are working on our summer homeschool plans when our busy summer schedule allows. There have been summer camps, house projects galore, gardening, fishing, and lots of back yard small pool living.

I also want to let you know that I’ve significantly reduced all the planners in my Etsy store (up to 30% off!!!). I’d love to be done with shipping the remaining stock before school gets into full swing.

Get something for yourself this back to school season! It is my belief that momma can have a fully functional planner for under $30.

Order quick though- once they are gone, they are gone!

Today I’m sharing Lowell’s curriculum picks for the year ahead – 6th grade.

Look for our curriculum picks for 2nd, K, and PK3 soon.

6th Grade Catholic Homeschool Curriculum Picks

Math: Saxon 8/7

Lowell has a real aptitude, so I go with it and he is now in the middle of Saxon 8/7. We will most likely finish it shortly after Christmas time, depending on how long developing mastery takes on the more challenging concepts he is now approaching in this higher level math.

I love that Saxon is mostly independent and incorporates so much practice. It is straightforward and gets the job done.

Writing: Writing and Rhetoric, Lepanto Grammar 6 (writing portion), book summaries (one per term), weekly paragraph writing

This summer we’ve been revisiting the basics of a good paragraph. We are using many of the exercises and instruction in Lepanto Grammar 6. We’ll continue to use it throughout the year and have one polished paragraph due every week. He will also need to write a 5 paragraph summary of a book of his choosing, one for each term.

While I’m not a big fan of traditional book reports, I want to ensure that he can pick out the main points and concisely summarize his readings.

We’ll be using Writing and Rhetoric to develop creative writing.

English: Seton English 6

The ease and thoroughness of Seton English can’t be beat. I used to scoff at Seton, but I’ve found them so helpful as my homeschool plate has filled up. The pages can be completed independently and then we discuss and rework weak areas.

Spelling: Seton Spelling 5 and 6

Again, the ease of Seton wins out for me here. We’ve done years of creating our own spelling list using curriculums like The Writing Road to Reading or Spelling Wisdom, but the simplicity of the Seton workbook has been such a blessing.

We switched to Seton spelling in the middle of the year a couple years ago, and so we always end the year in the middle of a workbook. Lowell should start Seton 6 by Christmas.

Latin: CAP’s Latin for Children A and B

Lowell has been studying Latin for a couple years, but we switched last year from Memoria Press to Classical Academic Press’s Latin for Children. I went ahead and started him in Primer A to make sure we didn’t miss something important. We should finish it this year and move into Primer B before Thanksgiving.

I was sad to make the switch as I liked Latina Christiana from MP. However, First Form Latin seemed more teacher intensive and harder to implement.

Latin for Children has been very easy to use and we both enjoy trying our hand at translating from the reader.

Penmanship: Seton 5

Penmanship is no longer on Lowell’s daily checklist, but is assigned on days where I see a slip in neatness of his work. This practice has been VERY motivating to keep good penmanship throughout his work.

Since we employed this practice last year, he has much of the Seton 5 Penmanship workbook that has not been completed. Rather than purchasing the next level, he will continue to work through this workbook when needed.

Literature: Family Required Reading List

We continue to employ a Robinson Curriculum style reading list. I don’t demand that the books be read in order, but they should slowly be working their way up the list. These are mostly read during our family afternoon quiet hour. There is more free reading before bed in the evening.

If you are interested in our reading list, you can find more info about it in these posts:

Developing a Required Reading List for Your Catholic Child

A Required Reading List for Your Catholic Child

Typing: Typing.com

This free program continues to be a great way to develop Lowell’s typing skills.

History: Story of the World audiobooks, The World of Columbus and Sons, Seton History

History is fairly unschooled in our home. It comes quite naturally to us as we enjoy learning about it and read a LOT as a family. Our required reading list contributes greatly to our children’s understanding of history as well as listening to Story of the World audiobooks in the car.

Last year during lunch I read Augustus Caesar’s World to the kids. This year we’ll be tackling The World of Columbus and Sons.

I also purchased a Seton history book which will not be assigned, but which Lowell can browse through on his own time.

Science: natural learning opportunities

As a science major, I have no issue with delaying formal science studies for my kids. We garden, hunt, hike, fish, identify, record birds, corral monarch caterpillars in a jar, visit my parents’ farm, hunt elderberries, black caps, morels, and attempt a few home herbal remedies.

With this type of science curriculum, who needs a book?

Religion: Living in God’s Church (Our Lady of Victory series), read and discuss the Gospel of Mark, daily devotions and Bible reading

Once our children are reading, we want them to have a daily Bible and prayer time in the morning. Lowell enjoys reading from the Imitation of Christ, a Christmas gift, or another devotional before bed as well.

We have enjoyed the Living in God series from Our Lady of Victory as it further develops and discusses the Baltimore Catechism.

If you use this referral link to purchase a $100 or more order from Our Lady of Victory, you’ll get $25 off your order!!!

We will also be reading and discussing the Gospel of Mark as outlined in Designing your Own Classical Curriculum.

Piano: Hoffman Academy

We are amazed at the progress Lowell has made with this reasonably priced program in the past year. And he still LOVES piano! This from the boy who said he would never play !

Art Instruction: Seton 6

Seton to the rescue again! This is a workbook style art curriculum that Lowell can complete independently. Art is just one of those subject that doesn’t get done around here, so I’m happy to have found this option.

PE: Family Time Fitness, train for a 5k with mom

My broken toe put a real cabash on our planned 5K training this summer. We are hoping to get to it this fall.

After years of skipping PE, I’m excited to incorporate it to help fire up the kids brains in the morning. I just can’t hide from the research anymore! Even Christian’s doctor “prescribed” it to help him will some of the “side-effects” of his epilepsy.