Our Charlotte Mason Homeschool Fifth Grade Recap (take 2!)

(Please note that I have linked to the book lists on the Ambleside Online website to respect their licensing terms and the hard work they’ve put into such an amazing curriculum that they offer for free. Books that use affiliate links here are not listed on the AO website.)

It is much to be wished that thoughtful mothers would more often keep account of the methods they employ with their children, with some definite note of the success of this or that plan.

CHARLOTTE MASON (HOME EDUCATION)

I remember my transition from fifth grade to sixth grade vividly as it was the year we moved from the small town in which we had lived for the previous four years (I still consider it my hometown since it was the place I lived the longest when I was a kid) to a larger suburb of the Twin Cities. I not only left my friends behind and started a new school, but it was a middle school. I went from being one of the oldest students in my school to being one of the youngest, and on top of that, we shared a building with teenagers. It was a rough year, and I actually ended up transferring to a private Christian school (that kept the sixth graders in elementary school) the year after that.

As my daughter has just ended her fifth-grade year, she is walking this same path, albeit very differently from the way I did, for which I am thankful. I’ve also decided that we’re going back to the old way of doing things, before middle schools were invented, and sixth grade is still part of elementary school. So I still have an elementary student. At least….for a little while. She’s okay with this plan.

I wrote in my planning post at the beginning of the year that my planning for this year looked quite different from years past, and I am thankful for that. It was a challenging year in many ways, but I think the only reason we (mostly) got through it all was because of the lists, action items, and purchased supplies I made or bought last summer. I am now addicted to making lists on my phone for pretty much everything under the sun, especially random “good ideas for school” that I think I’ll remember forever and always, but then, without fail, fall out of my brain at the next shiny object. I want to offer this advice to all of my fellow homeschoolers, especially the newer ones: get into the habit of making lists of anything and everything you can think of. Our brains have to manage and juggle so many different things on a day-to-day and, I’d even venture, an hour-to-hour basis, that lists are our friends. I have quickly become acquainted with them, and it’s a beautiful relationship.

I also started the year with the grand plan of pre-reading, taking notes, and highlighting people, dates, and places for each reading, and using those notes to have good discussions with both kids when they narrated, as well as further my own education! I did use cheatsheets for most of my daughter’s readings because I’ve read the books once before with my son and felt like I really only needed a refresher. However, there were a few books that didn’t have cheatsheets, so I pre-read and took notes for those.

I managed to keep this up until about March or April, and the discussions were good, and I did further my own education. However, I then got a bad head cold for a few days, which made it impossible for me to maintain my daily reading schedule (which was already exhausting), and things went downhill from there. I did at least manage to continue with the pre-reading part (made all the easier by the cheatsheets), but all the beautiful notes I had taken up to that point, complete with highlighting and special symbols to indicate those people, dates, and places, came to an abrupt stop. I still have them. They are still beautiful. But they are incomplete, and my type-A side says none of the good stuff matters because I didn’t finish them. My non-Type-A side says that it’s okay, and I did my best, and taking pretty notes is not something I have the capacity to do right now. I am choosing to listen to the latter voice.

So it was a good year in some ways and not such a good year in other ways. I learned a lot about pruning books from our schedule, and also to be okay with that (not being able to check all the boxes is a hard thing for me). I became acquainted with lists (see above). We made amazing new friends in our weekly hiking group. We said goodbye to very dear friends. We found a new news program to watch together, which has prompted good discussion. We fell behind. We read great ideas together. We grew in personal responsibility. We didn’t do great in some of our exams. We discovered new interests.

But the best part of all of this is that we did these things together. The good and the bad. The learning and growing. The loving and arguing. All of it was together. And I’m so thankful we homeschool.

Morning Time

Imaginative Prayer
Connoisseur Kids
Laying Down the Rails and Laying Down the Rails for Children

Our Morning Time routine looked pretty much the same as it has for several years:

This is the printed schedule I have in my planner to keep myself oriented. We began with prayer, then sang the Doxology, then recited the date and the day’s weather in Spanish. Depending on whether or not the day was a Feast day, we either read about the saint who is remembered on that day in Stories of the Saints or Saints and Heroes, or, because we were working on manners this year, we read a section of Connoisseur Kids. Then we sang either our hymn or folksong, alternating days for that, followed by a special topic for each day of the week. I liked to start the week with a reading from Imaginative Prayer so that we could use some of the practices suggested in the book throughout the week (we weren’t great at this, but it was good to have it as an option). On Tuesdays we did composer study, Rural Hours (there were more than enough entries to read this once every week) on Wednesdays, Picture Study on Thursdays, and then the Fridays we were at home we did a habit reading from Laying Down the Rails for Children.

Not every week had all of these boxes checked off, but the rhythm is always the same, which we all appreciate.

Bible & Spiritual Formation

Bible Reading Schedule Here (we did the Year 8 schedule with my son)
SPCK Bible Atlas
Bible Resources

As I mentioned in my planning post, I decided to combine the kids for Bible lessons mid-way through last school year, so we still had some catching up to do this year. We finished the Year 7 readings earlier in the year, and then read through the Year 8 readings this year, so we’re all caught up. I really enjoy doing Bible lessons with both kids, as it not only saves time but is also interesting to hear their different thoughts on the same passage.

History & Biography

History Book List Here
Biography Book List Here
Journey of York by Hasan Davis
History Resources
Book of Centuries

Additional History Free Reads

Now Let Me Fly Free by Dolores Johnson
Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman by Alan Schroeder
Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine
The House That Jane Built: A Story About Jane Addams by Tanya Lee Stone
A Boy Named Beckoning by Gina Capaldi
With Books and Bricks by Suzanne Slade
Buffalo Bird Girl by S. D. Nelson
William Still and His Freedom Stories by Don Tate
Spotted Tail by David Heska Wanbli Weiden
Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship & Freedom by Tim Tingle
Sacagewea by Liselotte Erdrich
How We Crossed The West: The Adventures Of Lewis And Clark by Rosalyn Schanzer

We learned about the period of history between 1800 and 1914, focusing on events such as Lewis and Clark’s expedition across North America, the American Civil War, political and social changes in Asia, and conflicts in Europe. I mentioned at the beginning of the year that I was hoping she would follow the Genevieve Foster book on Abraham Lincoln better than the one we used for George Washington, as her brother had, and she did. Next year we’ll move on to another Foster book, so I’m glad they are working well for her as I really appreciate how they cover a variety of different countries and events all happening at the same time.

We read everything as scheduled, but I also added The Journey of York, which offered a view of the Corps of Discovery from the point of view of York, the only Black and enslaved member of the Corps of Discovery, and aligned those readings with Of Courage Undaunted. I also mentioned in my planning post that I was going to get Joseph Bruchac’s Sacajewea for a free read because I’ve really enjoyed other books by him, but I didn’t necessarily agree with how he presented William Clark and his interaction with York, and that, along with the description of Merriweather Lewis’s death at the end, made me decide not to hand it off to her. I ended up getting Liselotte Erdrich’s Sacagawea, which is more like a picture book, but I thought it was more appropriate.

I also read The Courage and Character of Theodore Roosevelt with her, though I skipped it with her brother, and she is not a fan of this book. Admittedly, many of the concepts, ideas, and language are challenging to understand, especially in the second half of the book, so I understand why she doesn’t like it.

Literature

Literature Book List Here

We read the literature readings as scheduled, except for Kim, which we skipped. I spread The Story of King Arthur and His Knights and Oliver Twist so we read one over the first 18 weeks and the other over the second 18 weeks. This worked very well, as both readings were longer, and that gave us plenty of time to finish them. As I mentioned in my planning post, in Oliver Twist, I had her skip the chapters in which Nancy is murdered and Fagan is in jail, and I just summarized them for her.

Shakespeare

Shakespeare Schedule Here
Shakespeare Resources (we read The Taming of the Shrew in Term 3 instead)

We continued the practice we adopted a few years ago of listening to the Arkangel recording of the play while each of us has our own copy to follow along with, which we all really enjoy. We followed the AO schedule for Terms 1 and 2, but for Term 3, we read The Taming of the Shrew instead. Our weekly hiking group decided to have a year-end celebration together during which the kids would perform a scene from the play, so we all did the same one. It was a lot of fun!

Poetry

Poetry Selections Here

We enjoyed all of this year’s poetry, but John Greenleaf Whittier and Paul Laurence Dunbar especially resonated with her. She also began writing her own poetry this year, which was a wonderful surprise! It’s amazing how different she and her brother are, but I’m so glad to see her personality coming out more and more as she gets older.

Language Arts

Grammar/Mechanics

Junior Analytical Grammar (JAG)
Grammar Resources

If you asked her, she would tell you that grammar is the bane of her existence. She really doesn’t like it, but she is making progress and usually does well on the unit end assessments in JAG, so we continue with one lesson per week.

Dictation

Spelling Wisdom Book 1
Post-it Page Markers
Spelling Resources

On the other hand, if you asked her about spelling, she would say that’s one of her favorite subjects. We didn’t finish the first book this year, but I didn’t expect to. We’ll continue with that at one lesson per week as well.

Copywork

Copywork Resources

She did ten minutes of copywork every day, and I can see more improvements in her handwriting. Hopefully, that trend continues.

Repetition/Recitation

Ruminating on Recitation Article (read this first!)
Recitation Guidelines and Student Log (updated in 2021)
Recitation Resources
AO Recitation Recommendations for Year 5

Our repetition/recitation practice continued as it has for several years, and she ended up reciting Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Village Blacksmith at our year-end celebration.

Foreign Language (Spanish)

Under the Manzano
Simple Spanish Year 1 (or new version)

Our Spanish this year was a bit of a hodgepodge of different curricula. We started with the old version of Simple Spanish Year 1, which I purchased a few years ago, and we’ve used it intermittently since then. I’ve also been testing Spanish language resources from Under the Manzano over the last few years as they’ve become available. Kathryn sent me Cuenta 4 in November, so we used it in Term 2. I can’t recommend this curriculum enough as it has been such a wonderful way to learn Spanish! In Term 3, we returned to Simple Spanish Year 1, but I downloaded the new version, which worked very well for us.

Geography

Geography Book List Here
AO Forum Year 5 Map Resources
Seterra Maps
National Geographic Map Maker
Wonder and Wildness Book of Marvels Occident Videos
Geography Resources

She really enjoyed Halliburton, which is great because I like those readings also! We did much better filling out her maps this year than we have in previous years, and having them all printed out and filled in each week before her readings really helped. We’ll keep her Halliburton map for next year as we continue through the second book.

Citizenship

Citizenship Book List Here
Plutarch Schedule Here
Plutarch Resources

This was C’s first year participating in Plutarch with us, and while there were times when she struggled to follow the story, as the year progressed, she became increasingly engaged with the lives of the people we read about.

Science

Science Book List Here
Squirrels and other Fur-Bearers by John Burroughs
Blood and Guts by Linda Allison
Term 1: Sabbath Mood Homeschool Form 2 Botany Living Science Guide
Term 2: Sabbath Mood Homeschool Form 2 Tech & Engineering Living Science Guide
Term 3: Sabbath Mood Homeschool Form 2 Geology Living Science Guide
Various books from the Sabbath Mood Homeschool living science books lists
Science Resources

We have been using the Sabbath Mood Homeschool guides as our primary science curriculum for the past several years, and as a result, we skip some of the AO-assigned science readings. This year, that was mainly just Madam How and Lady Why, Volume II, Further Afield. I also replaced Wild Animals I Have Known with Squirrels and other Fur-Bearers, which I had also done for my son, but I especially wanted to do with my animal-loving, sensitive daughter. The rest of the science books we read were as scheduled, and she said that the George Washington Carver biography was her favorite book this year.

For the SMH guides, we started the year with me reviewing the lessons and conducting the experiments with her, but I fell behind, so she began doing them herself, which worked very well. She enjoyed the botany and geology studies (especially cracking open geodes!), but wasn’t a big fan of the tech and engineering guide, which was not a surprise. As I mentioned above, she and her brother are very different!

Nature Study

Nature Study Book List and Recommendations Here
Nature Study Schedule Here
Ambling Together Nature Study Guides
Nature Study Resources

I followed the AO schedule for nature study, but Terms 1 and 2 were definitely better than Term 3. I used the Ambling Together guides for Terms 1 (cultivated crops) and 3 (insects), and then the Nature Study Collective for Term 2 (weather), as we’ve studied weather several times before, and I wanted something a little lighter for that term. For the most part, the Nature Study Collective guide worked well for us as a way to keep us focused on our nature study subject, but quite a bit of it was review (as I’ve mentioned, we’ve studied weather several times before). I really like the layout of the book and the lessons, and I think it’s a great resource if the topic is one you haven’t studied before.

Term 3 was just challenging as it felt like we were behind a lot, so a few things fell by the wayside, including Nature Study. I justified this partially because we did object lessons with our weekly hiking group, but I definitely dropped the ball on our insect study. I did ask both kids to at least make a drawing in their nature journals each week, and I could definitely see progress in C’s drawings.

Math

RightStart Math Level E
RightStart Math Level F

She has finished RightStart Level E, and we’re currently working our way through Level F. Although she doesn’t particularly enjoy math, she does very well at it for the most part.

Art

Picture Study

Term 1 – Albrecht Dürer
Term 2 – Caravaggio
Term 3 – Rosa Bonheur
Picture Study Resources

I was excited for this year’s artists, as Albrecht Dürer is a favorite, and I’ve always been fascinated by Caravaggio. Instead of Eugéne Delacroix, I opted to introduce them to Rosa Bonheur. I knew my daughter would especially like her as she was all about animals!

Drawing

Lily and Thistle Nature’s Art Club

This was another subject that fell by the wayside as the year progressed. We managed to complete a few lessons and started using colored pencils, but we’re not nearly as far along as I planned. I’m still very impressed with this course, and I’m glad I chose it for us. The lesson length is just right, and I can definitely see improvement in their drawing abilities.

Music

Composer Study

Composer Study Schedule Here
Tillberry Table Beethoven Composer Study Guide
Book of Composers
Tillberry Table Chopin Composer Study Guide
Composer Study Resources

For our composer study, I used the Tilberry Table guides for Terms 1 and 3, which, as always, were so helpful! In Term 2, I used the Book of Composers from Beautiful Feet Books to create my own study, as they had sent it to me the previous year, and I wanted to try using it during our composer study time. The information in the book, along with the resources it came with, was very helpful, and we enjoyed learning more about Vivaldi. I think it is a great overview of many different composers and would be a helpful book to have on hand for reference.

Hymn/Folksong

Hymns

Term 1: Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken & Come Ye Thankful People Come
Term 2: How Great Thou Art & Trust and Obey
Term 3: Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer & Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Folksongs

Term 1: The Gypsy Rover & I’se the B’y
Term 2: Sussex Carol (for Christmas) & Keys to Canterbury & All Through the Night
Term 3: (we continued All Through the Night in the first half of the term) & When You and I Were Young, Maggie

These were the hymns and folksongs we ended up learning this year (I only do two per term rather than the three that AO schedules as we began this habit with our old homeschool co-op and it stuck). We enjoyed them all!

Piano

Hoffman Academy

She finished two years of piano lessons through Hoffman Academy in January. I gave her the option of continuing if she wanted to, as I did with her brother at the same point, and she declined, so we are all done with piano lessons. I’m a little sad that she chose not to continue doing it, as it was something she did very well, but I wasn’t surprised when she said no. The convenience of Hoffman Academy worked so well for us, and I’m very thankful we were able to use it!

Physical Education

We ended up joining a local weekly homeschool hiking group with some other Charlotte Mason families last August (after I wrote my planning post), and the weekly hikes, which average about 3 miles, were an excellent form of physical activity for us this year. We’ll be continuing that into the foreseeable future.

Handicrafts

Seedtime

I went into this year with the plan of continuing Sewing School 2, but instead, when a friend mentioned that she was getting fertilized quail eggs and asked if we were interested in any (we had previously discussed it), we delved into the world of quailkeeping. This was a particular pet project for C, as she is very interested in animals, so it was an exciting endeavor. We brought the eggs home and watched them roll around in our incubator for a few weeks before they finally hatched. We also prepared a brooder for them and monitored them under the electric hen for several weeks, which was absolutely adorable. We lost one chick for unknown reasons during this time, but the rest were healthy and grew to full size before we moved them out to their hutch in the backyard.

Based on their behavior up to that point, we thought we had one boy and three girls, so the plan was to begin collecting eggs as soon as they started laying and see if C, who has an allergy to chicken egg whites, could handle them. In the end, we discovered that we had four boys, so the whole point of this quail experiment (aside from allowing her this hands-on experience with gamebirds) was thwarted. We ended up giving three of them away, and we still have one, but he’s quite loud, so we will most likely have to give him away as well. We’re still planning to get hens, but even if we don’t get around to it, it’s been beneficial for her to see what it’s like to care for animals of this kind.

Free Reads

Free Reads Book List Here

I mentioned in my planning post that, prior to this year, she had already read Little Women, A Christmas Carol, Treasure Island, Anne of Green Gables, all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, and Carry On, Mr. Bowditch. This year, she also read The Prince and the Pauper, Treasure Island, Lad: A Dog, The Treasure Seekers, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Hans Brinker, Across Five Aprils, The Story of My Life by Helen Keller, and Theater Shoes. She started Puck of Pook’s Hill, but didn’t care for it.

And with that, I’m done with Year 5!