6th Grade Language Arts - English, Latin, Reading, Writing, Spelling

For English, we are still in Rod and Staff English 5 but continuing on with R&S English 6 - we love this curriculum!  It also teaches writing, so we don't need a separate curriculum for writing.

In Spelling, we are finishing up the All About Spelling series with the last two books, AAS 6 & 7.  K will also be doing Spelling Workout E & F and possibly G & H.  Since we have been doing AAS, Spelling Workout is really just extra practice for her and she has been going through a lesson faster since we returned to it recently as an extra.

K is still doing Latina Christiana I since we took off time from Latin to focus on the main subjects while I was having health issues.  She will continue on with Latina Christiana II using the DVD teacher.

Reading for us is not a curriculum, it is a book list.  I plan on listing her 6th grade book list in another post, which I will link to here (if I remember!).  She will be reading books that correlate with Ancient History.  She writes full-page narrations after she reads each book and also reads in the evening.

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.

4th Grade Language Arts - Spelling, Grammar, Writing and Reading

3rd grade was a hard year adjusting to a newborn and we barely finished the basics, so we have a lot of things to finish in other subjects.  We also had to take some time off of writing because K was really struggling with dictation.  Some guidance I got was to go back to the Writing With Ease Level 2 book.  However, upon listening to Susan Wise Bauer in 2 videos she posted about dictation, I realized I was expecting too much for dictation.  You can give it one sentence at a time, you are just trying to stretch the child's memory capacity to see how much they can hold.  K can hold 12-15 words easily in her mind and then write them down, which is about 2 sentences.  So we are going to go ahead and do Writing With Ease Level 3 this year.

Reading - Morning Independent reading list and Evening Hour reading list, along with our history read-a-loud list as well.

Spelling - we will be finishing up the All About Spelling this year with levels 4, 5 and 6 and Spelling Workout D and E.  This will be the last year of AAS and we will continue on with SWO through to 7th grade.

Grammar - First Language Lessons Level 4

Writing - Writing With Ease Level 3

Spelling Workout Completion Plan

In order for K to start Vocabulary from Classical Roots in 7th grade, she needs to finish all of the Spelling Workout books by the end of 6th grade, the last one being H.  Others have said that the later books are more difficult as they include some word study, so we are planning on giving a year for each of those last few books.  Here is our plan for completion of Spelling Workout, which I will abbreviate SWO:

2nd grade - SWO C and D
3rd grade - SWO D and E
4th grade - SWO F
5th grade - SWO G
6th grade - SWO H
7th grade - Vocabulary from Classical Roots A and B

K is finishing up SWO B by the end of summer and we will do reviews and then she will begin C at the start of 2nd grade in September.

All About Spelling Level 2

We absolutely LOVE All About Spelling!  K loves using the magnetic board and I love that she is getting very thorough in her spelling and not going too fast.  We finished Level 1 and are now moving onto Level 2, which looks fun.  There is a "jail" for rule-breakers, along with the word cards, key cards, etc.

If you purchase All About Spelling, please go through my links as I will be compensated for referring you!  You can see what the magnetic tiles look like and find out more detail about how All About Spelling works in my post on Level 1 here: http://www.cambridgeshireacademy.com/2010/02/arrival-of-all-about-spelling.html

All About Spelling Video

Go through my referral link if you decide to buy All About Spelling and I will be compensated for referring you!  We use it and LOVE it!

All About Spelling Level 1 Video

I promised that I would update on how All About Spelling is going and we are absolutely loving it!  It is K's favorite to do right now and its so easy to teach!  I decided to just go ahead and record one of the steps this week that we did so you can see what a typical step is like.  You don't have to do the whole step in one day like we did - you can spend on a week on it if you need to.

Arrival of All About Spelling

We were so excited to get All About Spelling last week and today we started to put it all together. 

What I really likes is that it comes with tab dividers so you don't have to make your own.  Also all the cards were perforated for easy removal - no cutting required on those!  I have to get a new (bigger) index card box because the lid wouldn't close.  That's ok though because this one was only 44 cents and I can use it for something else.

You do have to cut the tiles out (they are thick and laminated) and then put the magnets on them (magnets come with it).  K was so excited about the letter tiles she started playing with them and later making words on her own for fun.  We plan to use the letter tiles along with OPGTR lessons as well.

Level 1 comes with a chart that we can put stickers on for each step K finishes - she loves sticker charts! There is also a certificate she gets awarded when she finishes Level 1.  I read the introduction on how to teach the lessons and skimmed over the book - it really looks awesome and I feel I made a great choice!  The lessons are easy to understand and teach and here is sample one:

Most people go through Level 1 quickly and I can tell we will probably be done with it by Summer and continue on to Level 2, which gets harder.

It is also a great review for the phonics K has learned so far in the OPGTR and that also goes along with the way I teach - we don't move on till we have mastered something OR we continue to review it daily until we do master it eventually.  Our math program, Saxon, also has this philosophy and I believe it is one that works and leaves NO GAPS later on.

All About Spelling

I wanted to start a spelling program before fall but Spelling Workout A covers some phonics that K hasn't had yet in OPGTR (Ordinary Parent's Guide to Reading). I also wanted to have some sort of phonics review.


Instead of buying 2 different programs, I came across All About Spelling.  Not only is it a wonderful, THOROUGH spelling program that is easy and fun - it is a phonics review as well!  Level 1 covers things K will be able to do so we ordered it and starting it next week.  She is enthused about using the color-coded letter tiles and we did a sample lesson already and K is so excited!

If you click through any of my links on this post or here and purchase the program, I will receive compensation for referring you.  ;-)

I plan on doing reviews of the program as we go along but from what others have said that have used it - its awesome!!

Reading & Spelling

I have used other reading programs that have shown to be very slow in the coming and just didn't work for my daughter (they actually made her very frustrated).  I tried a different approach and found success so far with it and my daughter can now read Bob books - slowly, but it will improve with increased phonics learning.  Reading is probably the biggest subject (as far as material covered) that we will do this year. 

Our phonics reading program is "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading".  We plan on doing 2 lessons a day to get caught up on the program by the middle of the school year.

She will be learning spelling as we go along in the book and by the middle of the school year, we will start a spelling program from Modern Curriculum Press Spelling Workout A. When she has finished this, we will continue on with "Spelling Workout B".

For readers, we are using Bob Books Sets 1-5, Abeka Little books and Little Owl books and Christian Light's 1st Grade Reader "I Wonder".

Read alouds will be not only stories from Bible class and History, but we are supplementing with books that go along with what she is learning in History; ancient times, Egyptian topics, etc.  My husband will be reading her the complete Chronicles of Narnia book series with her.  I also have some audiobook classics & KJV audio that I started playing when she is doing crafts, playing or cleaning in her room.

For extra read alouds, I will be reading a few of Rod and Staff's little jewel books: Helping Mother, God Gave us Father and Mother, Molly Helps Mother, God Loves Me, and God's Happy Family.


Image credits: Amazon, CB, R&S, Abeka