5th Grade Secular Homeschool Curriculum 

It's a lot, that is true. I really only care about the pace of our core subjects of math, French and reading. I find when we focus on those, the rest just comes along naturally. A lot of books are longterm reference books or literature we can always have on hand if we don't get to certain novels this coming year. While I do read all the poetry so I can help pick and choose poems with Morgan, she will only read a couple per book. And I suspect we will stay on the purple grammar book from TWTM for a couple years. We will go at a slower pace with that one than we did with Lesson for TWTM level 4. When we do unit studies, we drop pretty much everything except our core subjects until we have finished the unit study. That really takes the pressure off and keeps the day fun. Thank you so much for watching and commenting. I hope you have a great summer!!!

Thank you! So glad you liked it 😊

We have completed TGTB health, geology and Space books this year. We work straight through the Christianity portions on their videos and discuss that many people enjoy weaving their spiritual beliefs into all subjects and this is how this program chose to do it. For the book portions, there actually is little to none in the kid workbooks and I often pass over the written portions in the instructor manual. This would not work, however, for their Maturation & Sexual Reproduction unit study. In our case, it would be too far from our own discussions on the topic. Same with something like Masterbooks. When I was a total newbie, I ordered Masterbooks Health text and there is a lot of scripture in and around the information that made it unusable for us. I hope this helps!

Thanks for letting me know how this video helps you. I love hearing that. I try to show everything we do and are thinking about doing to generate ideas for others like it did for you! Have fun with your curriculum picks! ☺️

Thank you, I tried to pull as many neutral books from the library that I could to give examples. There are a couple of RU-vid videos showing how Finland teaches it. Because they are so close to Russia, their country has a long history of misinformation flooding in so they teach the topic starting at a very early age. They might be worth watching.

Thank you! I hope you have fun with poetry. It's one of those awesome subjects you can do anything you want with. It straddles ELA, history and art really well, too, and is never a requirement so it's pure fun

Thank you so much for your comment!

Thank you so much!

Thank you!

Thanks for subscribing! Novels: they must be classics, unabridged, and at Morgan's level of basic comprehension with assisted discussion. Her comprehension is far above her current reading level and I choose not to slow down her "reading" because she can't yet read the books herself. Around the 5-minute mark of my Eclectic Homeschool video, you will see one of our weeks listed: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RRjbhv3esmI.html I should probably do another one because my 4th grade homeschool lesson planning is outdated... we had just started homeschool then: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-p6FLBCOLktY.html We do some different things to fit stuff in. Sometimes on a Friday we will have a "math-a-thon", "read-a-thon" or "French All DAY". Or we can do that with any other subject and just take our time studying it. The reading is constant. Morgan reads her own stuff before school in the morning and during her quiet study time after lunch. When she can't read her book fast enough for her liking or she is really engrossed in a book, she will switch it to audible after school and go do a project in her room and listen for a long time. I read to her for a long time before bed. That's the literature books above her personal reading level. The science is easy. We don't do that all the time. We do the unit studies in 2 weeks and then break for a month before we do another science. Our core subjects are reading, French & math. So anything that isn't a core or in her morning routine that she can do on her own, comes and goes as we want to add it. Hmm, now I think I will do a video on this. Does all that help or have I made it worse??? 😊

Not worse, but I would appreciate hearing you narrate your days or a week in your life. As an eclectic homeschooler myself, a day in the life will only provide the tiniest of view!

@@krissettalb913 That is on my list to video this week. I just finished a video another mom asked for -- a flip through and explanation of how I use TGTB science units as a secular mom. That will be out this afternoon along with a mini book haul. Your idea is on the list to work on this week. If you want to send other specific questions or things you wonder about, I can answer them in the video. Your questions will help a bunch of other moms, too, I bet.

lol you mean the ones on the right of the screen that lead into the study? We aren't fans of open concept so when we renovated, we made a wide entrance for 2 inside doors so if we want we can open up the space but mostly keep one or both doors closed. Thanks for the compliment!

I don't think we have talked about it enough in the RU-vid homeschool world. I think I want to do a longer video on this perhaps during the summer break. Thanks for watching and for your comment 😊

Yes, I can do a flip through! I actually don't know if a secular mom has done one. We have used Geology, Space & Health this year. We have Weather (didn't get to it...), Simple Machines, Chemistry & Marine Biology. I can do a flip through of all and start with how we used the ones we did and show the completed workbooks. I really can't find anything better for short and thorough unit studies. We took Morgan's Space workbook when we visited UND's professor of Space Studies, Dr. Sherry Fieber-Beyer. She looked through it and was really impressed with the detail and style of the book. That made me feel pretty good. I will do a video soon. Thanks so much for your comment and interest!

I sure do: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Knj_4GY3iGs.html

Oh no! Don't be overwhelmed! I made the unilateral decision to put the typical books as voluntary for Morgan mainly because I am really sick of them. At my daughter's age, I didn't read any of the ones we so often see on RU-vid or in school now. I feel like we mirror school literature in our homeschool as if they will miss an important developmental stage if they don't read 'Sarah Plain and Tall' LOL! We also eliminated many books that killed off a parent or a dog because we were tired of the sad messaging in the literature. The tougher classics don't have to wait if you are interested in them. I choose to read to Morgan at the high school and above range because she likes listening to the stories and can comprehend them at her level as a nice story and I can enjoy them at mine -- where I can read between the lines and share those thoughts with her. Even the classic literary horrors (Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyl...) aren't that scary at all. Kids love the plots in the original unabridged forms. I love reading them aloud to my daughter. She is under no pressure to study the stories beyond us chatting about them. I also suspect she will re-read them on her own when she does get to high school. She will be able to recognise those books I read to her when she was younger and be fearless to analyse them. There is TOO much good literature out there -- which means that's great for YOU! You can pick and choose.

@@ThePattersonHomeschoolAcademy thanks for explaining. I was thinking your daughter was reading the books. This makes more sense and takes the pressure off. We will read these classics when we get to them. I read more unknown titles aloud for pleasure with characters her age.

U made me chuckle 🤭

Sort of like with our math, Morgan has some gaps I need to let her have time with. She is a good couple of grades different between spelling vs. her vocab, reading & reading comprehension. But I should have probably mentioned that in my video so people don't think that is the level they might want with their kids. I do wish editing and adding was possible on these videos once published! Good comments like yours make me smack my forehead like a v-8 commercial 😊