Our Charlotte Mason Homeschool Fifth 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)

C is now squarely in Form II, and, I think, handling the heavier load well. In fact, because we fell so far behind at the end of last school year (which we fortunately mostly made up over the summer), I’m giving her more readings to do on her own this year than I did with her brother when he was going through Year 5. I’ve just found that with the number of books they’re both reading, as well as the length of the readings, in order for us all to make good progress through the schedule, they have to read more on their own. I was a little nervous about giving her so many more readings, but since we started last week, she hasn’t made a single negative comment about it and, in fact, figured out how many readings she has to do per day to keep up. I so appreciate that giving them their own readings like this also trains them in the skill of time management. She is also excited about at least one of the books, which is very encouraging!

As I mentioned in her brother’s Year 8 plans post, my planning this year looked quite a bit different than it has in years past. Rather than waiting until two weeks before the school year started to really begin planning, I made it a slower process that I worked on through the summer. I started just after we finished our exams for last year by doing a year-end review and making notes about things that I wanted to do for the coming year, lists of tasks I wanted to accomplish before the school year started, and items I wanted to purchase to make learning more efficient for us. The CMEC 2018 Retreat recordings were instrumental in this, and, as I’ve said in other posts, I highly recommend them. I listened to and took notes on Celeste’s “End-of-Term Reflection: The Mother’s Key to Hope and Growth” talk and then made myself a template with all of the questions she goes through at the end of the year with her students so I could do the same with mine each year. Also helpful were the “Pre-Reading as Scholé: Teaching with the Posture of a Student” and “Of Midges and Methods: The Practices of a Prepared Teacher” to get a better routine of pre-reading and preparing in place before the year started.

Though I won’t be doing the beautiful notebooks that Celeste showed as examples in her talk, I did get two 3-ring binders (one for each kid’s readings), dividers, and page tabs. I will be taking notes as I go through my pre-reading as well as labeling maps and learning right along with my kids. I feel like this will better prepare me to not only discuss the topics we read about but also have maps, terms, and names ready for the lessons. I didn’t make it as far in my pre-reading as I had hoped over the summer, but I’m thankful for the progress I did make and how it is all unfolding.

Before I get to the list, I wanted to add a note about narrations. I have her narrate every book, whether I am reading it or she is. As I mentioned above, this year, she will be reading more books than any other year in the past, so for the books she reads on her own, I’m giving her the option of doing verbal or written narrations, though I will require at least one written narration.

And now, on to our year 5 (take 2) plans!

Morning Time

Morning Time Resources
Stories of the Saints
Imaginative Prayer
Our 24 Family Ways
Laying Down the Rails and Laying Down the Rails for Children

Our Morning Time routine has worked well for us for several years now, so I have a few minor changes, but overall, it will remain the same. Last year, I included readings from Saint and Heroes (on the Year 8 Bible/Spiritual Formation list) or Stories of the Saints on feast days but then didn’t read anything else during that time on non-feast days. This year, on non-feast days, we will start with an exercise from Imaginative Prayer on Mondays and then go through Our 24 Family Ways Tuesday through Thursday (we don’t have Morning Time on Fridays). I have owned Our 24 Family Ways for several years now, and we have memorized all of the ways, but we have never gone through all the family devotional sections, so we’ll continue doing one per day until we finish the book.

I also decided to bring Laying Down the Rails for Children back into our Morning Time. I’ve used this in the past and had mixed success with it, but after doing Celeste’s year-end reflection that I mentioned above with some of the questions asking what habits or character traits I’d like to help grow in my children, I feel like it’s a resource that I’d like to use again. I don’t know that we will use it exactly as written, but I’d like to at least have it as a framework to focus on better habits. I also read the section in Laying Down the Rails about repairing the rails, as one of my children has developed a bad habit that falls into one of those categories. Re-reading the section from Parents and Children that’s included in that, as well as the suggestions for steps to take and specific habits to focus on was also helpful. Instead of The Book of Virtues that we’ve been reading on Mondays, we’ll focus on our habit that day.

On Thursdays, we’ll read the last week of entries from Rural Hours (scheduled in her brother’s Year 8), and if there are none, we’ll keep reading Lay of the Land, which was scheduled for Year 7 but we did not finish.

Bible & Spiritual Formation

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

I decided to combine both kids into one Bible reading last year, so we re-did all of the readings my son did in Year 6 (which are now the Year 7 readings) so that my daughter could catch up, and we’re back on track this year to follow the Year 8 schedule for both kids. We will do Bible lessons all together.

Citizenship

Citizenship Book List Here
Plutarch Schedule Here
Plutarch Resources

C will join us for Plutarch this year, which I look forward to! Plutarch has been a surprisingly enjoyable part of our week for my son and me, so I’m glad she will also participate in that now. We will do these readings all together.

Spanish

Tierra
Simple Spanish Year 1

In Term 1, we will continue what we did in Term 3 last year by using a modified version of Simple Spanish Year 1 with the following schedule:

• Monday – Hymn (I will try to match this to a hymn we’ve learned in English already); Series
• Tuesday – Bible Verse; Book page
• Wednesday – Folksong; Series (also review old series)
• Thursday – Poem; Book page

I was also mistaken last year when I said that the creator of Tierra will not continue making it, so I will also wait for her next theme to come out, and we will use that during one of our terms as well. We will do all of our Spanish activities all together.

Geography

Geography Book List Here
AO Forum Year 8 Map Resources
Seterra Maps
National Geographic Map Maker
Wonder and Wildness Book of Marvels Occident Videos
Geography Resources

I am excited to begin Halliburton with her! I really enjoyed doing Occident and Orient with her brother and was sad when we finished it at the end of sixth grade. Since then, we also visited four out of the first five marvels last October on our trip to California (we made sure to drive over the Bay Bridge and unintentionally drove over the Golden Gate Bridge three times, visited Yosemite Valley, and also stopped at the Hoover Dam) so it will be fun to revisit those places through the book!

As I’ve been pre-reading, I’ve also printed out maps appropriate for the books we’re reading in all subjects that we can label as the year progresses. Map drills have been problematic the last few years, and I haven’t been good about getting them done, so I’m hoping tracking each of the stories along on a map helps with our geography knowledge.

Scouting

Scouting for Wild Ones

We didn’t do Scouting in Terms 2 and 3 last year but will pick it up again in Term 1 with some homeschooling friends.

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

We will be mainly in the 19th century this year and studying the period from 1800 to 1914 and just before World War I. As with last year, one of our primary history texts will be from Genevieve Foster. I remember when my son transitioned from George Washington’s World to Abraham Lincoln’s World, he could follow the second book better. I’m not sure if it’s because of how it was written, what was happening in the world at the time, or just his intellectual growth, but I hope for the same thing with C.

We’ll be reading the schedule as written, though I am adding Journey of York, the story of the only enslaved man in the Corps of Discovery, to read alongside Of Courage Undaunted. The York readings are relatively short, and I’ve scheduled them to match the time periods of the Of Courage Undaunted readings. I also plan to get Joseph’s Bruchac’s Sacajewea, but I will probably only add this as a free read as I feel like it’s too late to require it. She will be doing both of these readings on her own. I will read the rest of the books with her.

We’ll also start The Story of the World Volume 4 in Term 3. I remember enjoying reading this book with B, so that’s another one I’m looking forward to. Also, when he went through this year, I did not schedule The Courage and Character of Theodore Roosevelt because I had other books and felt like it might be too much, but I decided to schedule it for her to read on her own.

Literature

Literature Book List Here
Shakespeare Schedule Here
Shakespeare Resources

Despite my daughter’s request that we never do another tragedy ever again (she wasn’t a huge fan of King Lear or Julius Caesar last year :)), we are following the Shakespeare schedule as written. You can read about how we do this on the Shakespeare resources page.

We will skip Kim, which I did with my son as well, and spread out The Story of King Arthur and His Knights (we already own the Pyle version, so we’re going with that) and Oliver Twist over the whole year. I will not have her read the chapters in Oliver Twist where Nancy is murdered and Fagan is in jail, as I feel the content is a little too intense. Instead, I’ll narrate those chapters to her.

Poetry

Poetry Selections Here

My son and I enjoyed the poetry of Rudyard Kipling, and I especially appreciated the message of If, so I’ll have her learn that for her recitations. I think this is, overall, a great year of poets, and I’m excited to introduce her to these new ones.

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

As with my son, science is the subject in which we differ the most from the AO schedule. This began in Year 4 when I opted to do the Sabbath Mood Homeschool (SMH) guides instead of Madam How and Lady Why, which is what we’ll do this year with Madam How and Lady Why, Volume II, Further Afield as well. She will be reading the science books on her own, but I will do the lessons and experiments in the guides with her.

For the rest of the science books, she’ll be reading Squirrels and other Fur-Bearers instead of Wild Animals I Have Known, and I’ll read with her Blood and Guts instead of Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology. Otherwise, she’ll read the others as scheduled.

Nature Study

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

We will be following the AO nature study schedule again this year. I am so thankful for the Ambling Together guides and will use those as a framework in Terms 1 and 3. We only have nature study once per week, so I usually go through and choose just two things from her suggestions each week. In Term 2, I’ll put together my own schedule for weather (she is doing soil that term) using the resources on my nature study page. I’ll share the resources I end up using for that at the end of the year. We do nature study all together.

Math

RightStart Math Level E
RightStart Math Level F

She is progressing very nicely in math and will likely finish the level E book this year, so we’ll move on to level F.

Language Arts

Grammar/Mechanics

Junior Analytical Grammar (JAG)
Grammar Resources

Grammar has been somewhat challenging for her, but I feel like the different parts of speech can be difficult for anyone, so I think she’s still progressing well. We will most likely not finish the grammar book this year, which is fine, but we will keep going through it steadily until it’s done.

Dictation

Spelling Wisdom Book 1
Post-it Page Markers
Spelling Resources

I have noticed a difference in her spelling when we’re doing dictation and when we’re not, so I am glad this is a part of our weeks. I also don’t think we’ll be finishing Spelling Wisdom Book 1 this year, so that will be something else we’ll continue into next year.

Copywork

Copywork Resources

She finished her Getty-Dubay books last year and began more traditional copywork later in the year. It takes her ten minutes to do about a half page, so she does that daily. She begins by copying her recitation pieces and then switches to the Year 5 copywork files (in the Spelling Resources link above).

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

We’ll continue with repetition as we’ve been doing it for the last few years, with her reading aloud to me her Old Testament selection on Mondays, New Testament on Tuesdays, Psalm on Wednesdays, and poem on Thursdays. I’ll share what she learns for repetition in my year-end recap post.

Art

Picture Study

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

We’re studying two artists I greatly enjoy this year: Albrecht Dürer and Caravaggio. I am not partial to the art of Eugène Delacroix, so I decided to do a contemporary of his who painted a lot of animals (which my daughter will love): Rosa Bonheur. I hope to have a Picture Study Aid covering her art available in the future!

Drawing

Lily and Thistle Nature’s Art Club
Art Resources

We will continue with one drawing lesson from Nature’s Art Club every Friday, finishing the drawing portion and moving on to colored pencils this year.

Music

Composer Study

Composer Study Schedule Here
Tillberry Table Beethoven Composer Study Guide
Tillberry Table Chopin Composer Study Guide
Composer Study Resources

I will be using the Tilberry Table Beethoven guide for Term 1, but I decided to put together my own studies for Terms 2 and 3 as Heather doesn’t offer guides for Vivaldi and Chopin at this point (she released guides for Vivaldi and Chopin after I published this post!). Jennifer Taylor modeled composer study for us beautifully at the Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat earlier this year, and though I really appreciate Heather’s guides, I also feel a lot more confident now putting together my own study if needed.

Hymn/Folksong

Hymn Schedule Here
Folksong Schedule Here
Hymn/Folksong Resources

We don’t follow the AO schedule strictly with hymns and folksongs as we only do two per term rather than a new one each month. However, I do generally pick from their selections. I haven’t decided on all of them for this year yet, so I will share what we go with in my year-end recap post.

Piano

Hoffman Academy

She is currently working her way through Unit 13 of Hoffman Academy and has made fantastic progress. I am so thankful for the convenience and ease of these lessons. Getting her to piano lessons would’ve been hard for us with my husband’s travel schedule. She will continue these lessons at least through January when she gets to the two-year mark and gets to choose if she’d like to continue. I’m hoping she does (unless she finishes all of the Units by then)!

Physical Education

We are going to be sticking with archery for physical education this year. We took a class together earlier in the year and learned the basics of archery, and now we need to make time to get our bows. B wants a compound bow, which is a little more complicated to buy than a recurve, which C wants, but once we have what we need, we will visit some local free ranges to practice as often as possible. We will also continue going on hikes a few times per month.

Handicrafts

Term 1 – Sewing School 2

​We went through most of Sewing School 2 last year but didn’t get to the projects, so we’ll be working on three machine sewing projects over the course of Term 1 (I may even pull out my copy of Sew Everything Workshop and make something as well!). I have a few things in mind as options for Term 2, including cardboard modeling and pyrography (we’re also taking a one-time leatherworking class at a local store!), so I’ll share at the end of the year what we end up doing.

Free Reading

Free Reads Book List Here

She has already read a few of the books on this list, including Little Women, A Christmas Carol, Treasure Island, Anne of Green Gables, all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, and Carry On Mr. Bowditch. The rest will be a bit of a free-for-all that I know she would read in less than a week if I gave them all to her in one go. 🙂

And that’s our year 5!