1st 6 Weeks of 5th Grade

The first 6 weeks of Ginny’s combined American History I and II are done. Woohoo! Ginny had a few things to finish up from last year so we are a couple weeks delayed from the others. Unfortunately, that has put three of the kids in roughly the same section of history. It’s been hard for me to keep straight who read about who. Hopefully we will stretch out a little bit from each other soon.

In bible, we joined our church in finishing up our study of The Story for our devotions. For school, we have a book called Starting Strong and daily bible selections. We also read about and pray for a native group each week using American Indian Prayer Guide. And we have a weekly memory selection.

In history/social studies, our spines are American History: A Visual Encyclopedia and Landmark History of the American People. We do timeline once a week and current events on Fridays with World Kids.

Read Alouds have been a bit of a stretch for Ginny. A lot of cultural content and some difficult stories along with longer readings were a bit of a step up for her but we’ll get there. She has enjoyed the stories though. This unit we read Pedro’s Journal, Walk the World’s Rim, and Witch of Blackbird Pond. Our poetry book for the year is How to Eat a Poem.

Reading / LA is a step up also. We have Sequential Spelling 1 for spelling, Wordly Wise 3000 Book 4 for vocabulary, and Grammar Ace for grammar. She has a weekly creative assignment or project. We are not doing a handwriting program but still do a cursive activity each week and require readability in all assignments. Ginny read Om-kas-toe, Blood on the River, and Sign of the Beaver.

Science this year is an updated Core C Forces and Cycles. The science videos are not available yet for C so Ginny and Joel are both working through the A science videos and experiments together. This unit we read DK Did You Know? Science, Fossils Tell of Long Ago, and Bringing Back the Wolves. She also had a weekly reading from The Story of Inventions.

Math is Horizons 4. The spiral approach still seems like a good fit for her as she needs to revisit topics often to keep them fresh. She is still working Prodigy for some supplemental practice. We will move straight into 5 when she is finished.

Extras include weekly piano lessons and karate twice a week. We tried to keep going to royal rangers on Wednesdays but have since added other activities at that time. She tried out cheer for 6 weeks while the others did soccer. Ginny joined a class to learn how to knit this fall and has made a couple of squares. Needs to learn a bit more to do it all on her own. Daddy took all the kids to the beach and to NASA for a field trip in September. Grandpa and Grandma Diltz came up for some volleyball and we got to go to the TX Ranger Museum. Gram came up for all the sports and took the kids to the circus. And we got to celebrate birthdays with the Millers in Round Rock.

Joel and Ginny play together pretty well still. She has a lot of fun participating in all the Connections and Active Love Church events. She likes to write stories on her Chromebook and is writing the script for our Christmas pageant in December. Doing pretty well!