I do not think there has been a post started yet for 4th grade, but if there is please let me know. I think I have narrowed down my plans for next year but I am still nervous since I will be leaving Abeka for most of our subjects. I homeschooled him for the last half of second grade and then this year we did the 3rd grade and I am ready!! I feel confident to branch out and tackle the world (sometimes lol)! I have also decided that we are schooling year round with breaks that will fit in our schedule. I have a few areas that still need to be completed so I am open to suggestions! Anyone else want to share what they are planning so far? Bible: Apologia- Who is God? and Awana Science: Apologia Astronomy and Apologia Botany Language: BJU Language 4 and Abeka oral exercises Math: Abeka 4 Spelling: All About Spelling History/Geography: undecided Health:undecided Latin: Undecided and really need advice on this one! We will just be started Latin. Thanks, Julie
I love Latin for Children! It's written with 3rd thru 6th graders in mind. We started with Song School Latin, which is very fun, but it has kinder-2nd in mind. I wouldn't use it for a 4th grader. Latin for Children is great, though. You get the lessons on DVD, so it takes the guesswork out, you get the vocab, conjugation, and declensions on CD, so you can pop it into the car's CD player and have the whole family learning the chants (even my 2 year old can do them ... he knows quite a bit of vocab already), you get the primer (student book) with all the grammar information and written review, the teacher's key with all the answers, an optional activity book (things like crossword puzzles... completely optional, and I don't feel it's necessary at all), and there's also the FREE headventureland.com website for playing games, watching videos, and so on. My son plays with that site all the time... which is probably why he's kicking my butt at Latin. Thankfully, English grammar has always been my strong point, and I've had two years of French, so I remember a little bit about changing word endings and tense and such. I'm able to keep up with him that way. I really can't speak highly enough of it. After Latin for Children (3 years) is Latin Alive (3 years) which is written with grades 6-12 in mind. There's quite a bit of review at the beginning of it, but it picks up the pace quickly. LfC is the equivalent of 3 semesters of high school Latin. LA is the equivalent of 3 years of high school Latin. Going through LA will cover all the grammar and most of the vocab in the language. Latin has far fewer words than English, but it has a lot of endings to learn. Oh... and I like Mystery of History for teaching history/geography. It won't work for pure American history or civics, but otherwise, it's great. It's reusable, and it's adaptable for all ages. We're finishing book 1 right now and will do book 2 (of 4) next year.
Love your list! I'm in the very beginning stages of planning since we are only 1/2 way through 3rd grade right now. Bible - ? Still gotta figure out a topic here. History - in depth look at Ancient Rome - Early Church, brief look at Canadian history and American history Geography - in depth study of Sri Lanka, something for map work too Math - Singapore in combination with living math and maybe Life of Fred Science - physics (physical science) and technology Grammar and Handwriting - CLE Writing - Just Write and Killgallon Literature and Reading - Classic books Spelling - Rod and Staff Foreign Language - continuing what we are using now (Alif Baa, Arabian Sinbad, My First Chinese Reader, Pinyin for Everyone, Hey Andrew Teach Me Some Greek) I typically put together my own stuff for content related subjects. There is a lot out there for Latin. Happy hunting!
I know what you mean Julie. We were only doing Abeka LA, and are moving away from it to CLE. I know its the right thing but I am a little worried. On the other hand we have gone to Abeka Science from Singapore Science. That one I am not worried about at all as Abeka's is so much better for us. We just use the book as reading and do our own activities. Although had I ever heard of the science you have mentioned I would have looked seriously into that, it looks great. I have also looked at BJU LA and I think that is a good choice! We are using Christian Liberty for History but we do use them the same as science, for reading and then do our own activities. I have wondered about Abeka Math though. What is it like? We just started our new year for next year. We also are thinking of going the full year too. I like the thought of having lots of breathing room in each subject. Cally
Cally, I have made the final decision on using BJU language after sitting and comparing chapter by chapter of BJU 4 and Abeka 4. The differences were that BJU does a chapter on grammar and then a chapter on writing. Abeka does not. BJU also comes with a disc that has an extra worksheet for each lesson so if my son needs extra practice on something it is right there for me and I don't have to spend the time building him one from the internet! Abeka does not. Other than that they cover the same material just in a different order. Abeka Math is great for us because my son excels in Math. It does move quickly at times but when I feel we are not ready to move on, I stop the lessons and fill in days with my own practice lessons. For example when we were learning mulitplication, I would give him white board work and games to play to cement the facts more before moving on to the next table. My son is pretty workbooky (although I remove his worksheet from the book everyday) so he doesn't mind Abeka Math at all. I really don't have much to compare it too except, Saxon from public school(which he hated) and 1 booklet of life pacs that we did at the very beginning. He did not care for life pacs because of the plain black and white booklet. I am in school myself and I showed my Scientific Inquiry instructor my copy of Apologia Astronomy and she was impressed. She is a retired public school science teacher. She taught for more than 30 years. I showed her the site, the Zoology books and asked her opinion on it all for being a complete curriculum for the next couple years. She felt that we would be covering way more than what would be covered in public school. She also said that if we teach them the process of learning along with what we are teaching them, than anything we do not cover will not be lost. I think I am leaning toward Abeka for History since they do the states in 4th grade.
I am using Christian Light for L Arts and Math, spellingcity.com for spelling using the CLE lists, Time Travelers for S. Studies, and I am not decided on science yet. I have gone back and forth on doing a foreign language next year... We will be reading different books that go along with either a s studies or science topic we are studying, plus free reading. I haven't decided on an art or music, but we will probably use CLE for bible, too.
Julie that is great about the science! I also did not know that about Abeka history so I may go ahead and get that also. The grammar and writing back and forth is one of the reasons I liked BJU LA so much. We found a writing program that teaches how to write a book and the boys are excited about that. That is why we went ahead with CLE. It will be fun to see how all the different stuff works out for all these 4th graders!
2littleboys, Thanks so much for the indepth review of Latin for Children! It is much appreciated. I forgot to add reading to my list. We belong to 3 libraries so his reading with be mostly chapter books of his own choosing, although I still do make him read aloud every so often. Another thing I just started not to long ago was a subscription to the Ranger Rick magazine. We just received our 2nd month issue and he is really getting into it! The articles are right up his little, animal, sciencey mind!! lol It gets him to read more, learn about animals, science and magazine media all at the same time, plus is a once a month treat that I don't have to remember to do lol! The down side is that I had to hear all about a oppossum's back toenail right before trying to go to bed!:roll:
