Miss Pink's 5th Grade

Miss Pink is starting to resist school a little more, but for the most part it's still easy to work with her. I can usually trust that she'll get assignments done, even if I don't stand over her shoulder the whole day. We've changed a few things for her this year, but overall we've just moved on to the next level of what she was doing.

Math:  She didn't finish all of Math Mammoth 4 last year, so I had her start this year with Teaching Textbooks 4 and just take the quizzes until she got less than 90%. She's now on Lesson 90 of 119 and will then start Teaching Textbooks 5. I found both on Homeschool Classifieds for great deals. It's my latest favorite site. She's also reading Life of Fred Apples and will go on to the other books in the series soon.

Language Arts: This year we've moved to Rod & Staff's Following the Plan. I do the lesson with her and Mr. Blue. We do a lot of even the written review orally, especially since she broke her finger. We don't have the workbooks or tests, but I'm thinking they'll be a helpful addition. She has continued on with Spelling Workout Level G. I have started having her and Miss Purple write the rules for the day in their new Spelling Notebooks.

History: As I mentioned in Miss Purple's post, we're doing Story of the World Ancient Times. I think I'm going to add the tests in this go round for Miss Pink though.

Science: She's going to the science co-op with Miss Purple and also doing Zoology 2 with her and Mr. Yellow.

Latin: The 3 oldest kids have started First Form Latin. I really like it so far. It's challenging for Miss Pink, but I think she'll do fine. That was another purchase from Homeschool Classifieds.

Art: Miss Pink is going to our little art co-op where they are studying Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.. Once again, this is a little challenging for her, but the teacher is very patient and kind. I think she'll make it through with wonderful results.

Algebra, here we come!

We certainly did a shortened day, but since we missed so much time with the baby we have to be diligent.

We did have an amazing, wonderful thing happen today. Miss Green has always been math phobic to say the least. She has resisted my teaching on anything related to math. I had decided though to switch her to Teaching Textbooks next year, since its something the younger ones will be able to use as well unlike Aleks which is a subscription. I printed out the 7th grade placement test last week, and to my great surprise she said it was too easy. She asked to have the next test to take. So, I printed the Pre-Algebra test. She did great on it! She missed a few questions, but was still passing. So, she wanted the Algebra test. That was more challenging, but after I had her do 2 sample lessons of Algebra, I made the executive decision to order Algebra 1 for her. I can not believe how excited she is about it. She called Grammy to share how thrilled she was. So, it looks like I'll be placing a Timberdoodle order soon.

Miss Pink this year, 3rd grade or so, wrote in her binder today "gnirob si htam." I think she's tired of working on clocks and time. I'll have to fast forward her to the next lesson in Math Mammoth 3A. So, here's her work for this year.

The aforementioned Math Mammoth. I don't think I've mentioned that I bought all levels of Math Mammoth when Homeschool Buyer's Co-op had it offered. It was one of my best purchases yet. It's really nice to be able to print out remedial things for any of them to complement their other math programs. Just this year we've switched over to using it as our core instead of a supplement.

First Language Lessons 3

I just can't say enough good about this program. My kids especially love the poetry memorization. I love it even more that I've got the pdf for the workbook. It makes it so easy to file.

Writing With Ease 2

This one we may skip part of to move up to 3. I'm still undecided. She's doing quite well with it so far. I have the pdf for the student pages on this one too. It makes it super easy to replace anything that goes missing in the course of the week.

So, that's her core. She also has the subjects we do as a group, which will come later.