We started a little early this year since Ginny and Benjamin started volleyball the last week of July. Since we had to get in routine for that, we decided we might as well get on with school as well. Hannah was still hanging around until mid-August and we knew we would have some days off with her. This year Joel is doing Core F which is Eastern Hemisphere and I think a fun core.
Joel got 6 weeks of school done between July 20th and end of August which is pretty good with all the distractions we have around here. 6 weeks down, 30 to go.
For bible, Joel participates in our family devotions, and has bible passages to read each day and memory work. For school we’ve been reading through The Radical Book For Kids for theology.
In history/social studies, started with a unit on China. We read a book on Hudson Taylor (missionary to China) and then started a unit on the Koreas. Our spine is Journey to the Eastern Hemisphere. He has notebook pages to help remember important content. We also read selections from a book called 100 Gateway Cities to help us pray for certain important areas. Joel has a timeline and current events assignment at the end of each week. Read Alouds included Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and Young Fu. We also have All the Small Poems as our poetry collection. In each country unit Joel has to pick a project to do. For China, he made a calendar comparing our holidays with theirs and for Korea, he learned how to make kimchi.
In LA we have a weekly cursive assignment, spelling with Sequential Spelling 3, and vocabulary with Wordly Wise 3000 Book 6. Each week we have a creative writing assignment. Joel read Li Lun, Lad of Courage, Mission to Cathay, The House of Sixty Fathers, and The Kite Fighters for readers.
For math, Joel is in Horizons 6. I told him when he finished 6th grade in Prodigy he can stop doing that as extra.
Science spines are The Usborne Complete Book of Human Body and Blood and Guts. Every now and then we have a selection from Food and Nutrition for Every Kid. Joel is pretty excited not to have to do any experiments this year but I have gotten him to do some of the drawings for the body sections.
Joel doesn’t have a sport right now but he still goes to Royal Rangers on Wednesdays and Children’s class on Tuesdays at church. He continues to play the drums as needed for worship and is a helper all around whatever we are doing for church or Connections. He got to go to a LOT of volleyball games to watch Ginny and Benjamin and even learned how to help run the Sideline App to help with stats. During this unit we had one visit from Grandpa and Grandma Diltz to attend volleyball games and he got to to go 6 Flags and a Mideival dinner show with friends. We went to 6 Flags with Hannah and then took her to college mid-August. Other than that, he tries to get done with schoolwork as soon as possible so he can play video games. He used some of his savings money to upgrade his laptop. He will be playing basketball in the winter so he will go outside and shoot some if we remind him.