Current 5th grade schedule...need advice....planning for grade 6

[sheryl]

This is our 5th grade schedule we are finishing. It seems sooo overwhelming....is it or no? If not, why not? If so, why so? Please remember that some of these classes are 5 days a week and others are once or twice, etc a week. (I've posted this on the curriculum board, but I hardly ever get responses there). :glare:

For those of you who are new...dd is almost 11 and has controlled epilepsy. She's been seizure free for over 2 years. She has "companion" issues which are behavioral in nature: mood swings, add, adhd and odd. Below is our current schedule. Our 6th grade will look similar, but using 6th grade books. :D


M-F (5 days)
Language
** Writing: this is tricky....but there's some form of writing almost everyday. It can be writing 1st or 2nd draft for outline or transferring into book report form for 1st, 2nd or final draft.
Math
Hist/Sci/Health (One subject per semester. Science was (FALL) Sept to after Thanksgiving, History we are working on now(WINTER/SPRING) from mid Jan and will finish mid-end of May, and Health will only take 2 weeks and we'll finish end of May or by mid-June).

Spelling
Violin
Devot/Pray/Bible
ETC (warm up, takes her 1-2 min. top)
Read Lit, etc.

** MOH supplement only

1 day a week, on different days:
Copywork
Dictation

Read. Comp.
Art

Manners

2 days a week, on different days:
Wordsmith
Penmanship

** Would like to add progeny press, llatl, etc as supplemental/filler


Need to work in....but where?

Foreign Lang.
Typing
Logical Games

Gearing up for 6th grade and feel this is waaaaay too much.

Tell what you think, but please be gentle and be specific. ;)

Thanks. Sheryl <><

[specialmama]

M-F (5 days)
Language
** Writing: this is tricky....but there's some form of writing almost everyday. It can be writing 1st or 2nd draft for outline or transferring into book report form for 1st, 2nd or final draft.
Math
Hist/Sci/Health

Spelling
Violin
Devot/Pray/Bible
ETC (warm up, takes her 1-2 min. top)
Read Lit, etc.

** MOH supplement only

1 day a week, on different days:
Copywork
Dictation

Read. Comp.
Art

Manners

2 days a week, on different days:
Wordsmith
Penmanship

** Would like to add progeny press, llatl, etc as supplemental/filler


Need to work in....but where?

Foreign Lang.
Typing
Logical Games

Gearing up for 6th grade and feel this is waaaaay too much.

Tell what you think, but please be gentle and be specific. ;)

Thanks. Sheryl <><

Hi Sheryl!
Under your M-F you have His/Sci/Health. Do you mean you rotate these so one gets done per day or do you do each one every day? If the latter, then I agree it is too much. Can you do History and Science on alternate days and make health a rare thing? Maybe one day every 2 weeks or incorporate health into every day living and science?
I would also skip spelling if she's a good speller. Just keep a running list of words she has a hard time with and go over that list. You're doing dictation, so that could serve as your spelling. You know your dd so if she needs spelling in gr 6 then keep it obviously. I'd also skip copywork now, or skip handwriting. No reason why they can't be combined into one. Again, you know her, but for my 5th grader going into 6, I'd skip ETC unless it's remedial. It's time to move into outlining, timelines, thinking questions, etc., and losing some of the elementary stuff. Again, you know your dd and if she needs remediation, then keep it.
I use one time slot throughout the week for either penmanship or typing. I just remember that it's letter forming time, either electronically or manually. ;) Logic games could be over lunch or in the evening, and foreign language greatly depends on your goals and the program you're using.
You may want to choose one day per week to do a timeline.
Do you have a grammar program or is that under Language? I guess it would help to know which programs you use. Some can bog you down and be really teacher intensive. My 5th grader has 2 teacher intensive programs: TOG and Classical Writing. The rest are either completely independant or very easy on me LOL! Can you share your programs? Can you also let us know which you're willing to modify and which you absolutely won't budge on?

[specialmama]

I meant to say something else: do yourself a favour and don't write down devotions/bible/prayer. It is best done as a way of life, not subjects, like breakfast and getting dressed. Just taking it off the list (but making it a permanant part of your morning routine) will feel good. :D My dd still writes it on her own schedule, but that's ok. I feel less stress with less writing on my schedule.

[sheryl]

Hi Sheryl!
Under your M-F you have His/Sci/Health. Do you mean you rotate these so one gets done per day or do you do each one every day? If the latter, then I agree it is too much. Can you do History and Science on alternate days and make health a rare thing? Maybe one day every 2 weeks or incorporate health into every day living and science? I made the correction....see above in my original post.
I would also skip spelling if she's a good speller. Just keep a running list of words she has a hard time with and go over that list. You're doing dictation, so that could serve as your spelling. You know your dd so if she needs spelling in gr 6 then keep it obviously. I'd also skip copywork now, or skip handwriting. No reason why they can't be combined into one. Again, you know her, but for my 5th grader going into 6, I'd skip ETC unless it's remedial. It's time to move into outlining, timelines, thinking questions, etc., and losing some of the elementary stuff. We just started outlining and writing bibliography cards. She's writing formal book reports. I do want to add a timeline and don't know where to begin to find one. By thinking questions, do you mean logic games/activities, etc? Again, you know your dd and if she needs remediation, then keep it.
I use one time slot throughout the week for either penmanship or typing. I just remember that it's letter forming time, either electronically or manually. ;) Logic games could be over lunch or in the evening, and foreign language greatly depends on your goals and the program you're using. Yes, I agree with you...you have good insight. I just don't know when to stop b/c 3 years ago when she was having seizures she lost alot of "learning". Actually a year before and a year after in addition to her year of seizures. She's still behind in math. I did NO spelling with her (she's a year behind and in reality it's not a big deal), and I didn't force penmanship b/c of her seizures (loss of muscle control). So, I could combine perhaps penmanship/dictation/copywork. Drop ETC. I can see now dropping dictation and copywork. You ARE right. Could we combine penmanship with spelling/vocab? Add typing and logic games. Foreign language on hold for now.
You may want to choose one day per week to do a timeline.
Do you have a grammar program or is that under Language? I guess it would help to know which programs you use. Some can bog you down and be really teacher intensive. My 5th grader has 2 teacher intensive programs: TOG and Classical Writing. The rest are either completely independant or very easy on me LOL! Can you share your programs? Can you also let us know which you're willing to modify and which you absolutely won't budge on?

Using Abeka for Science, Health, History and Language. Saxon math 5/4 repeated and it's a terrible fit. Switching to BJU math 6 and am now wondering if qualifies for 6. Abeka carries it's "language" program through grade 6 called, "God's Gift of Language C" which is for grade 6.

Karyn, Hi!! Thanks for your post. It's definately helping me to refocus.
Blessings to you. Sheryl <><

[EKS]

When I start getting overwhelmed I do several things. First, I make sure that I'm not duplicating work anywhere and at the same time see if there is anyplace where I can combine skills. So, in looking at everything you list for language arts (language,writing , spelling, ETC, literature, copywork, dictation, reading comp, wordsmith, penmanship) I'm guessing there there is some way to combine or eliminate some of this. For example, spelling and ETC might be redundant. Same with writing and wordsmith. In order to add in typing, I would substitute it for penmanship/copywork/dictation. Another place where you could maybe double up is with reading comp and literature, perhaps by asking comprehension questions orally about the books she is reading instead of using a program (I'm just assuming you're using a program here).

Another thing, especially with my kid with ADHD, is that I try to make as few transitions as possible. So, for example, even though ETC might be just a few minutes, for us switching gears means redirecting attention, getting focused, etc. which all take longer than the 1-2 minutes of actual work.

Another thing I do when I feel overwhelmed is that I evaluate my curriculum choices and how I am using them. One way to use materials more efficiently is to allow the child to do much of the work orally. This works well for kids with ADHD because they must stay engaged and they get instant feedback on their answers. Of course, you'll eventually want to get her away from needing this, but it helps keep things from getting too overwhelming.

Also, certain resources are major time sinks. Saxon math is high on the list in this regard. I am not personally familiar with most of the rest of what you've listed, but anything that has lots of exercises/worksheets tends to eat up time and energy. Examples of programs we've used that are very efficient are:

MCT language arts
Singapore math
Sequential Spelling, Spelling Power, AAS (these only take 10 minutes per day)

I've also found that the order in which we do things is important. I used to think that getting the hardest thing done first was all important. But what I've found is that this just exhausts everyone and puts my child in a bad mood. So we do several little things first, all mom-directed to make sure they go quickly. In our case, these are language arts related. So perhaps your order could be:

Violin (this supposedly gets the brain working together properly, but it is also a major transition and good to do at one end of the day or the other)
Bible etc.
Language/copywork/dictation/penmanship/spelling/typing/ETC--set a time limit for yourself on this and just crank them out in a Mom directed style--reading comp could also go here if she has already done the reading
Math
Writing/wordsmith
History/science
Reading comp/literature
Logical games/art--one day per week each--when we do something only one day per week here, it tends to fall off the radar, so you may want to have something it is substituting for to make it stay firmly in the schedule or simply do less but do them each day alternating perhaps
Manners I would remove from the school day if possible


As for foreign language, in 6th grade my son used Getting Started with Latin (there is also one for Spanish). It is a *very* gentle introduction to the language that takes usually 15 minutes per day. It is a very efficient and powerful curriculum.

I hope something here helps.

[sheryl]

When I start getting overwhelmed I do several things. First, I make sure that I'm not duplicating work anywhere and at the same time see if there is anyplace where I can combine skills. So, in looking at everything you list for language arts (language,writing , spelling, ETC, literature, copywork, dictation, reading comp, wordsmith, penmanship) I'm guessing there there is some way to combine or eliminate some of this. For example, spelling and ETC might be redundant. Same with writing and wordsmith. In order to add in typing, I would substitute it for penmanship/copywork/dictation. Another place where you could maybe double up is with reading comp and literature, perhaps by asking comprehension questions orally about the books she is reading instead of using a program (I'm just assuming you're using a program here).

Another thing, especially with my kid with ADHD, is that I try to make as few transitions as possible. So, for example, even though ETC might be just a few minutes, for us switching gears means redirecting attention, getting focused, etc. which all take longer than the 1-2 minutes of actual work.

Another thing I do when I feel overwhelmed is that I evaluate my curriculum choices and how I am using them. One way to use materials more efficiently is to allow the child to do much of the work orally. This works well for kids with ADHD because they must stay engaged and they get instant feedback on their answers. Of course, you'll eventually want to get her away from needing this, but it helps keep things from getting too overwhelming.

Also, certain resources are major time sinks. Saxon math is high on the list in this regard. I am not personally familiar with most of the rest of what you've listed, but anything that has lots of exercises/worksheets tends to eat up time and energy. Examples of programs we've used that are very efficient are:

MCT language arts
Singapore math
Sequential Spelling, Spelling Power, AAS (these only take 10 minutes per day)

I've also found that the order in which we do things is important. I used to think that getting the hardest thing done first was all important. But what I've found is that this just exhausts everyone and puts my child in a bad mood. So we do several little things first, all mom-directed to make sure they go quickly. In our case, these are language arts related. So perhaps your order could be:

Violin (this supposedly gets the brain working together properly, but it is also a major transition and good to do at one end of the day or the other)
Bible etc.
Language/copywork/dictation/penmanship/spelling/typing/ETC--set a time limit for yourself on this and just crank them out in a Mom directed style--reading comp could also go here if she has already done the reading
Math
Writing/wordsmith
History/science
Reading comp/literature
Logical games/art--one day per week each--when we do something only one day per week here, it tends to fall off the radar, so you may want to have something it is substituting for to make it stay firmly in the schedule or simply do less but do them each day alternating perhaps
Manners I would remove from the school day if possible


As for foreign language, in 6th grade my son used Getting Started with Latin (there is also one for Spanish). It is a *very* gentle introduction to the language that takes usually 15 minutes per day. It is a very efficient and powerful curriculum.

I hope something here helps.


Kai, Yes, much of what you suggested makes sense. I'm so grateful for your reply and the others. They are confirming one another. So....it's clear where I need to make changes. THANKS!!!!

Also, I hope all the reply posters see this....I'm grateful for your insight. It's a breath of fresh air and I'll combine the replies and make adjustments. I'm actually feeling excited about this now. Have not in the past b/c I felt like I'd be giving her "less" in her education. I can see I will not, it will be a different approach.

It makes so much sense not to be redundant...which my schedule dictated. It doesn't need to be frustrating for either one of us.

I'm so thankful for each reply!! THANKS!!!!

Sheryl <><

This is a duplicate sent on the curriculum board for those of you who view both.