Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Our Growing Educational Books

I like having books on a variety of topics available for my kids, so when they have a yearning for a certain subject, chances are we will have a book on it!  If not, they can use the World Book encyclopedia DVD we bought, which contains all of the encyclopedias on one disk!  My daughter has really enjoyed looking up things in the encyclopedia and I'm glad we purchased the DVD because it takes up less space than an entire set would on the shelf!

Most of the extra books I have are on history and science topics, so we dedicated a shelf to each.  This is our history-related bookshelf but it does include some geography books on states as well:



This is our science bookshelf, which is so full, we had to put some on another shelf:



The last shelf is full of miscellaneous things from geography to math:



I buy a lot of our books from Scholastic and more than half were FREE!  We have what we call "Scholastic Time" and my daughter reads for an hour from any of the books on these shelves.  She always comes away really excited with what she has learned.  My son, even though he is just 2, has already enjoyed several of the books, like the pop-up Presidents and Magic School bus books.

5th Grade Curriculum Index of Posts

Here is an index of posts of what we are using for 5th grade:

5th Grade History & Science

For history we have took our time and are just now getting to Story of the World Volume 4.  I don't regret it though because we have read a LOT of extra books on all the different historical topics and it has been enjoyable.  I have some extra activities to go with this time of history, like a Civil War fun pack but didn't picture those.  We also plan on adding in a state history study and learning the states and capitals this year.


Science is one of those neglected subjects in our house but we finally made it to the last subject to complete our full-science learning - physics! We are using Elemental Science Physics that includes the Usborne encyclopedia, 2 biography books and some others pictured.  We are using K'nex Gears kit and Snap Circuits Lights as well.






5th Grade Math, Writing, English & Spelling

K is almost finished with Saxon Math 5/4 and will go right on to Saxon Math 6/5 by February and will most likely finish it before 6th grade.  I don't teach math, she loves using the Saxon Teacher and it has been working great for her! 


For writing, most of it is included in our English curriculum and she also writes a lot in history, science and reading but I may also add in Writing Strands Level 3.  For English (grammar), we are using Rod & Staff's English 5 Following the Plan


For spelling, we were going to go on to Spelling Workout D and finish it up but decided to buy the next level of All About Spelling - so we are finishing up All About Spelling Level 6 and then also doing Level 7.  Level 7 is high school level but K is ready for it and she loves this spelling program!  I haven't ordered Level 7 yet, so it isn't pictured.

5th Grade Bible, Logic and Foreign Language

For Bible, we are in the middle of Christian Studies II and may make it to the 3rd book before 5th grade ends, but I decided to plan the 3rd one for 6th grade. 


A new subject for 5th grade is Logic and we chose to go with a game, Building Thinking Skills Level 2, to ease K in to adding on another subject and she loves it! 


K is in her 2nd program for Latin - Latina Christiana I and then she is also adding in Spanish this year with La Clase Divertida Level 1.  I added Ludere Latine games that go along with the lessons in Latina Christiana I.