Our Charlotte Mason Homeschool Sixth Grade Plans (take 2!)

Please note that I have linked to the book lists on the AO 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’ve been focused so much on getting my son’s first year of high school all planned and settled that it only hit me just before we started that this is my daughter’s last year of elementary school and Form 2. I remember when my son started Year 6 and I realized that we were almost at the halfway point of his home education, and now here I am again. I need these reminders that my time with them is fleeting, especially on the days that aren’t going so well!

As I wrote in my other planning post last week, this year is going to look quite a bit different than previous years in that we have several commitments at specific times, either online at home or out of the house. Both kids will be taking part in online live Spanish lessons every week, and my daughter will be in a weekly homeschool PE class. We will also be continuing weekly hikes with our homeschool group (along with a monthly visit to an assisted living facility with them). All of these things together mean there is less time at home for all of us, so I decided to overhaul our school schedule. Instead of trying to cram two readings in for myself each day, I reduced that to one and gave the kids a few more readings to do on their own. I really paid attention to the scheduling matrix that Nicole Williams made based on the PUS schedules, and laid out our days thoroughly, even down to being done with certain things by certain times, and making sure all of us have enough time for the subjects we need to get through. Admittedly, I have been in the habit of being more haphazard about this up to this point, which is leftover from when my kids were young and we had plenty of time to get everything done in the morning. But as they’ve gotten older and their weekly tasks have increased, that has become more challenging.

Because we now have various things going on during different days of the week, and because both kids now have school-related tasks in the afternoon, I also ended up revising our overall family schedule, and it’s been good to revisit that and refresh my mind on our family rule and what is most important to us. I am excited to see what this year brings for all of us!

And now on to the plans for our second time through Year 6!

Morning Time

Our Morning Time this year is going to look very similar to how it has in the past several years, other than a few minor changes. We’ll begin with prayer, then move into singing the doxology. If the day falls on a feast day, we’ll read about that saint. We’ve gone through the majority of Stories of the Saints, so I picked up a copy of Our Church Speaks over the summer, which includes more short biographies of individuals from church history. If it is not a feast day, we’ll do our daily Spanish recitations of the date and the weather.

This is followed by alternating our hymn and folksong during which we sing along with Hannah on the folksandhymns channel on YouTube. After this, on Mondays, I’ll read aloud from Created for Work. Originally, this was a book I was only going to read with my son, but I read several reviews that it is suitable for girls as well, so we’re reading it together! On Tuesdays, when my son is gone, my daughter and I will read a section of Between Us Girls together. I don’t know a whole lot about this book, so I am not necessarily recommending it, but the preview I read looked good and like something we’d enjoy doing together. I’ll write about how it goes in my year-end recap post.

After our singing on Wednesdays and Fridays, I have time for our habit scheduled, which means we’ll be reading from Laying Down the Rails for Children. I’ve had that and the original Laying Down the Rails for years, and have tried to implement them off and on since my oldest was in kindergarten, but they always fell to the side when things got busy. I also am a little torn on their effectiveness, or if they’re even needed. I went back and forth quite a bit this year, wondering whether to include this in our time or find another way to work on habit formation. Ultimately, I decided to include it as I feel like I need help in this area, and I appreciate the focus on specific habits that the guides provide.

After our habit reading, on Wednesdays we’ll move into composer study, and on Fridays we’ll move into picture study (more on those two things below).

On Thursdays, after our singing, if we have a nature study video to watch to prepare for that day’s hike (more on that below), we’ll watch that and then read from Land of Little Rain together, which is scheduled as a nature study reading for the year my son is in. We read the Year 8 nature study book (Rural Hours by Susan Fenimore Cooper) together during Morning Time last year, and it worked well for us, so I thought I’d continue that practice this year.

During the entire week, after these things are done, we’ll pray our weekly collect. This is the prayer written for the particular week we’re in from the Book of Common Prayer. If it’s a holy day or feast day, we’ll read those prayers instead. This will be followed by our Bible lesson (more on that below), then the Lord’s Prayer, and we’ll end with a benediction.

I’ve already made a few changes to this layout, so it may change more throughout the year. If so, I’ll share and changes in my year-end post!

Bible

We’ll be doing our Bible readings all together again this year. I combined both kids into one reading two years ago, and that works better for our time management. They also have their own personal quiet time in the morning (C is going through Exploring the Bible: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids), so these readings are more in a “lesson” format where we read the passage, narrate, and look up any pertinent facts in my commentaries or locations in our Bible atlas. I’ve really enjoyed doing this with all of us together as I find it very encouraging to hear their insights about the passages we read.

History & Biography

From the history and biography booklist schedule, we will be skipping the chapter in Answering the Cry for Freedom about Sally Hemings due to the more adult nature of the content. We will also not be reading Genesis, Finding Our Roots. The AO recommended substitute for this book is Ben-Hur, but at 620 pages, this is not practical for us, so instead, I’ll replace those readings and start a little early in week 16 with Vinegar Boy. I found this book in Books Children Love, and, as with Ben-Hur, it also follows the story of Christ and explores the lives of people living at that time. I did this same substitution with my son when he was in Year 6, and we both enjoyed it.

I also want to offer a tip that I wish I had known when I did Year 6 the first time, and that is to not buy Hendrick van Loon’s Story of Mankind! I made the mistake of buying the book and realized later that the edition I had didn’t even include the chapters I needed for this year. I ended up getting the correct version from the library and just renewing it once for the five weeks we needed it, which is what I’m also doing for my daughter.

Literature

We will be going through the literature readings as scheduled, and I am so excited to have her read The Hobbit! We’ve listened to it in the car as a family, but never got around to finishing it, so I’m glad she will now get to join the rest of us in Middle-earth.

For the Iliad and Odyssey readings, I’ll be using the Alfred Church versions that AO recommends, as those worked well for my son.

Poetry

C began writing her own poetry last school year, and I love all of the poets scheduled for this year (Robert Frost is a particular favorite), so I am especially looking forward to reading through these with her!

Language Arts

Copywork

She will continue doing ten minutes of copywork per day and copy her recitation pieces, followed by any additional pieces she chooses (usually poetry). She was grumbling about having to continue doing it as her brother no longer has this expectation, but we can both see the improvement in her handwriting, so it’s definitely worth the time!

Dictation

We’ll continue with one dictation/spelling session per week. I’m not sure if we’ll get through the book this year, but if we do, we’ll move on to Book 2.

Grammar and Composition

We’ll also continue with one grammar session per week. AO doesn’t have any specific recommendations for this year in this subject or in dictation, but I’ve used these books with both kids since they were in Year 4 and this system has worked well for us.

Recitation

I do look at the AO recommendations for recitation each year, but usually don’t use them. I had every intention of picking out all of her recitation pieces before the start of the school year, and, as is the case every year, it just didn’t happen. However, I have them picked out for the first term:

I’ll share the rest in my year-end recap!

Foreign Language

We are taking a big leap in our foreign language education this year and beginning online, live Spanish lessons. The books and resources we’ve used up to this point, especially the Folklore en la cabaña guides from Under the Manzano, have worked so well for us. But we’ve gone through all the ones that are available, and with her brother now in high school and needing foreign language credit hours, I wanted something that offered more instruction than my limited Spanish knowledge can provide. Several friends have been using Puentes from the Spanish Institute of Honduras in their own homeschools, so we are now scheduled to meet with our Spanish instructor for one hour each week.

On a daily basis, we will go over the date and weather in Spanish during Morning Time. Later, we’ll also go through a Repertorio from Under the Manzano and learning a Spanish folksong, hymn, poem, and Bible verse. I love the layout of these as they’re essentially open-and-go, which means I don’t have to prep anything, and that is a wonderful thing.

We also won’t be doing Latin this year as I wanted to keep things simple because of all the extra activities we added to our schedule.

Geography

We will be reading all of the geography books as scheduled, except for chapter 8, The Slave City (or 37, Timbuctoo, Desert City, depending on which version you have) of Halliburton, which we’ll skip as I don’t care for how he makes light of child slavery.

For map drills, I’m going to do what I’ve seen suggested many times on the AO forums and what some of my friends do and use the Seterra map quizzes to focus on the specific areas we’re learning about. For my daughter, I’m starting with European countries, and then we’ll move on to African countries to go along with the David Livingstone biography. I’ve never done it this way before, but map drills are something I’ve struggled to actually make happen, so we’re going to give this a try.

We’ll also be filling out maps as we go through the other books we’re reading. I’ve printed a few blank maps from Seterra for her binder, and we’ll use the “Map by Map” books to find specific locations.

Scouting

Under geography, I’ll also be leading scouting lessons from Scouting for Wild Ones with our homeschool group once per month. We’re beginning with the section on Observation, and I’ll share the other sections we cover in my year-end recap post.

Citizenship

We’ll be following the AO Plutarch schedule as written this year. Anne White’s guides make it so incredibly easy, and I love that this is a subject that we all do together. It has become a highlight of the week for me.

Nature Study and Science

Nature Study

We’ll be doing nature study with our homeschool group during our weekly hikes using the Sabbath Mood Homeschool Nature Explorers guides this year, so we will not be following the AO nature study rotation. I am really looking forward to using these guides as they look so thorough and well-done!

We’ll also be using the Bloom and Brush nature journaling prompts along with the brushdrawing component of the course (more on that in the “Art” section below) to make entries in our nature journals every week.

Science

From the AO science schedule, we will not be reading The Mystery of the Periodic Table (we’ll read that in Year 7 instead with the Sabbath Mood Homeschool Form 2 Chemistry guide), Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology, or It Couldn’t Just Happen. A few years ago, AO replaced The Sea Around Us: Young Readers Edition with the Exploring Creation book, but my son enjoyed The Sea Around Us, so I decided to schedule that for my daughter also. I also replaced It Couldn’t Just Happen with Bruce and Stan’s Guide to How It All Began, using a schedule that AO Auxiliary member Kathy Livingstone used with her kids.

I’ll replace The Mystery of the Periodic Table with the readings and activities from the Sabbath Mood Homeschool guides I linked to above. I have used these guides with both of my kids since my son was in Year 4, and they have worked so well for us!

I’ll also throw in a few free reads from the Sabbath Mood Homeschool living science book lists that pertain to the subjects we’ll be studying each term.

Math

We’re about halfway through RightStart Level F. We most likely will not be done by Black Friday, when RightStart usually has a sale, so I’ll pick up the Level G worksheets then and use the lessons and solutions books that I bought when my son was going through this level. It’s hard to believe she’s already this far, as I don’t feel like it was all that long ago when my son made the transition from F to G, which meant he was mostly doing the lessons on his own.

Art

For art creation, we’ll be using the Bloom and Brush brushdrawing videos and pairing what we learn from that with our nature journaling entries (see above in the “Nature Study” section). I did brushdrawing with my son for a year or two when he was younger, but my daughter wasn’t old enough to participate, so I’m looking forward to doing it again with them both in a much more guided manner through Joy’s videos.

Once we’ve finished the Bloom and Brush course, we’ll go back to the videos we have left in the Lily and Thistle course.

Picture Study

The Denver Art Museum is hosting a Camille Pissarro exhibition beginning in October, so the timing of his being scheduled for the AO Artist rotation this fall was perfect. We’ll be studying him in Term 1 and then going to see that. I’m tentatively scheduling Angelica Kauffman for Term 2 as she was a contemporary of Jean-Honoré Fragonard, who is on the AO schedule for Term 2. I’m not a huge fan of Rococo, and we’ve already covered it in the past, so I’d rather not do it again. In Term 3, we’ll explore epic landscapes with Albert Bierstadt!

Music

Composer Study

We’ll be following the AO schedule in Terms 1 and 3, but since we’ve already done Mozart, I looked through the composer study guides available from Tillberry Table and chose Scott Joplin as a replacement. The woman behind Tillberry Table doesn’t currently offer guides for Delius or Mendelssohn, so I’ll most likely just read from the Milton Cross book to learn more about them. I know nothing about any of these composers, so I’m excited for us to explore their music more!

Hymns and Folksongs

Hymns

Folksongs

We got into the habit of singing two hymns and folksongs per term instead of a new one each month (with the AO schedule) when we were in our homeschool co-op, so we’ll continue that practice this year as well. Along with a few other families in our homeschool group, we’ll be visiting a local assisted living facility together monthly to do a type of “Morning Time” with the residents. We decided that it would be easier if we coordinated our hymns and folksongs and sing them together during those visits, so one of the moms came up with this schedule based loosely on the AO schedule. I might throw a different folksong in during the month of December for Christmas, but otherwise we’ll follow this one as written.

Physical Education

As I mentioned above, we’re trying something new in this area this year, and she will be participating in a local homeschool PE class with some friends. This overlaps with my son’s day out of the house as well, so the timing worked well for us. I only have her signed up for the first semester, so we’ll see how it goes, but she is very excited for it to begin!

We’ll also continue the weekly hikes we have with our homeschool group.

Handicrafts

For her handicraft, I was originally planning to have her go through a ceramics course from Creativebug (we have a free membership through our library). However, she has had an interest in doll-making since she was very young, so this summer, on a whim, I picked up My Felt Doll from Gingermelon from the library. She immediately dove in and made a list of all the supplies she would need and was very excited to get started, so I decided to use this as her handicraft instead. She’ll begin by making the doll and then spend the rest of her handicraft time through the end of the year making the various outfits that are included in the book.

I also mentioned in a different post that I started using the Cook Once, Eat All Week cookbook to batch cook a few meals once per week so we have something fast for busy days. This will come in especially handy this year as we take on more activities out of the house. I did this batch cook day a few times by myself, but then decided that I wanted help, so both kids will be helping me in the kitchen every Monday with the batch cooking. We’ve done cooking as a handicraft in the past, but as they’re older now, they can help with much more!

Free Reads

She has already read some of the books on the Year 6 free reads list, just because I can’t keep up with how fast she reads! I also already pre-read some of them for her brother, so I’ve handed them off to her as well if I feel they’re appropriate for her. There are so many good books on this year’s list, and I’m looking forward to giving her the ones that she hasn’t read yet! I’ll also be using the three books linked above to find additional books for her to read. I’ll share those in my year-end recap post!

And here we are at Year 6, her last year in Form 2. It’s going by so quickly!