6th Grade / Daily Schedule / Homeschool

Good morning! Or afternoon. Or whatever time it is you’re reading this. Good day!

6thgrade_curriculum

Today I’m sharing our 6th grade homeschool schedule. This is basically an outline of our day and things do change up a bit here and there. But for the most part, this is the schedule that Strawberry Shortcake is following this year. She has had the pleasure of completing a photography class so she’s excited about that, and I think I’ll allow everyone to pick one elective next year since this one went so well.

Strawberry Shortcake is currently 12 years old, and in the 6th grade. She definitely has a filled schedule this year, but she’s doing great and enjoying school!

6thgradeSchedule_2015

Download a copy:

Here is our basic 6th Grade Schedule:

  • 8:30am – Breakfast / Family Devotions
  • 9:00am – Daily Learning Notebook
  • 9:15am – Bible
  • 9:30am – Math
  • 10:30am – English
  • 11:00am – Handwriting
  • 11:20am – Reading
  • 11:30am – Spelling
  • 11:45am – Vocabulary
  • 12:00 – Lunch/PE
  • 1:00pm – History / Science
  • 1:30pm – Fine arts
  • 2:00pm – Writing / Literature (2x per week)
  • 2:30pm – Free
  • 4pm – Swimming

As you’ll probably notice, Strawberry Shortcake’s schedule is virtually identical to Turbo’s. I find it works well to keep their schedule’s in line with one another. That way neither feel that they’re doing more or less work even though the work level is different. Since they’re only 1 grade apart it makes it easier to teach them together as well.

As I mentioned we are currently doing Bible, History, Science, and Literature as a group which makes it a bit easier on me. And this year Tinker Bell, Turbo, and Strawberry Shortcake all do IEW writing together too.

I received several comments on when we do chores. We mostly do chores in the afternoon after school. Since we have sports almost everyday, we each do one thing between 2:30-4. So for example Turbo will empty the top of the dishwasher, Teeny Tot will empty the bottom, Strawberry Shortcake and Tinker Bell will fold laundry together, and I’ll sweep the kitchen floor.

We do an all family house clean on one of our weekend days. Everyone gets 1 job and we all clean together.

 

Here is our 6th grade curriculum for the year:

Extra-Curricular Activities:

51 Comments

  1. Quick question, Vocabulary Workshop, does she do all the work online or are there workbooks to go along with it? Also, did you pick her level for Spelling You See by taking their assessment on their website? My son scored high based on their assessment but I’m skeptical and didn’t want him to miss out and have any gaps in this program as it would be new to us. Thank you as always.

    carlen
    Reply

    1. We bought the workbooks, so they all do one section per day.

      I just talked with them to decide which levels to purchase. I think I got too easy of levels, but they all did well this year, so I’m still happy. I will be getting levels as follows next year:

      Level B – 1st grader
      Level C – 4th Grader (though she could probably handle level D, it’s just longer passages)
      Level D- 6th Grader
      Level E – 7th Grader

      I know that doesn’t make sense level wise with going on each grade, so I’ll have to figure it out for the following years, but I just chose levels that looked appropriate for where they are at now.

      erica
      Reply

  2. Just curious….when are chores done? We have seven kiddos…five are home schooled and the other two are ages 6 months and 2 1/2. I have to schedule in laundry, dishes, vacuuming, etc. When do you fit those things in?

    Thanks,
    Angela

    angela
    Reply

    1. Angela, your kiddos seem to be in close age to my kids. Could you share how you fit your chores into your schedule? Also, what do you do with your 2 littlest ones during school? Thanks!

      kelle
      Reply

    2. We do chores in the afternoon after school. But since we have sports every night, each person does one thing between 2:30-4. So for example Turbo will empty the top of the dishwasher, Teeny Tot will empty the bottom, Strawberry Shortcake and Tinker Bell will fold laundry together, and I’ll sweep the kitchen floor.

      erica
      Reply

  3. What handwriting do you use for Turbo? My son’s handwriting is awful. Do you make your kids do cursive from 3rd and up? If so, how long? And do they write cursive in all their subjects or just handwriting?

    kelle
    Reply

  4. Hi Erica,
    2 questions for you. 1 – You use both AAS and Spelling You See – if you were to choose one, which would it be? Do you use both because they are each lacking something the other offers? and 2 – When I was a teacher our school used Vocabulary Workshop. I was planning on beginning it with my daughter next year because I don’t have experience with any other vocabulary curriculums. What are your thoughts on this curriculum? Is it holding your students’ attention? Do they/you enjoy it? If I recall it’s just worksheet pages in a book (nothing totally wrong with that, but it’s been years, so my memory is blurry on it 🙂 Thanks so much for any quick responses you can give me! Renee 🙂

    Renee
    Reply

    1. Renee,
      If you’re working with younger kids, I would suggest AAS for Level 1-2, those have the most phonics rules and I do like how they teach and memorize those rules. Once we got to the older levels of AAS they didn’t seem to be helping my older kids as much plus it is kind of teacher intensive. So I’ll probably continue to use AAS for the younger grades until phonics rules are down, then move to SYS for the older ones.

      I haven’t loved any specific vocab we’ve tried, but I will say our kids seem to be doing well with Vocabulary Workshop so I’ll probably stick with that again next year. But no, they don’t like it 🙂 I’ve tried other more fun things like Evan-Moor vocab workbooks, but I don’t feel like those were enough.

      erica
      Reply

  5. Hi Erica,
    I was just wondering how you use the time travelers history? I bought one of the CDs and it seems difficult to put together or know how to use. Maybe it’s user error.

    Lori Brown
    Reply

    2. Now I am starting to home school my daughter next year. I was wondering if most of the time they have two specials, why does strawberry shortcake have one special a day and sometimes non at all?

      amber
      Reply

      1. This is just how her schedule worked out last year, it changes each year depending on what she wants to include and how much time we have to spare 🙂 Right now she only has time for her special activity once a week.

        erica
        Reply

    1. Hi Rachel,
      It’s just personal preference. I don’t feel like BJU writing is done very well. They more just give assignments and then say “here write this”. That is okay for my daughter who is naturally a decent writer, but did NOT work very well with my son who needed more direction.

      We tried IEW this year with everyone (except my kindergartener) and it went really well. They give a lot of instruction on how to form paragraphs, and add in strong verbs, adjectives, etc. It has really helped everyone with their writing skills and wasn’t at all as intimidating as I thought it would be.

      So we just skip the BJU Writing chapters and only use the English/Grammar lessons.

      erica
      Reply

  7. What would you suggest for a boy with weak grammar skills?
    He is going into 4th grade this is our second 3rd year homeschooling. I feel he never got a strong understanding in ps.

    Elizabeth parker
    Reply

    1. Elizabeth:

      Have you tried using Landmarks Freedom Baptist Curriculum? I found it in my last couple years of teaching my older children. It is a fantastic Curriculum and my kiddo’s loved it believe it or not. They use a lot of older books. You can find information on their materials at:
      http://www.landmarklfbc.com/ I have a younger son who is technically a adult but has a mental age between 2nd grade to 4th depending on the subject. So I still work with him but these days I look for materials on the web for things that go along with his likes. We don’t have to be so regimented with him because no one is looking over our shoulder but it sure is nice to hear someone say “I didn’t know he could do that:” This site is one of the ones I go to for help when I am looking for something because I know I will find something that Erica has done that will work with him.

      Jackie Schlageter
      Reply

  8. Erica I was wondering if strawberry shortcake has finished all the literature units and is doing different ones now? We have almost finished all your units, thank you so much for. Was wondering if you will making more of them.

    Kendal
    Reply

    1. Hi Kendal,
      Yes, she’s almost done all of them now. They’re really too easy for her at this point, so she’ll be reading other books next year, still determining what that will look like 🙂 I might make more!

      erica
      Reply

      1. Erica I am starting this website with my daughter next year, but I am not quite understanding the strawberry short cake process, and I would like to have some more information as to what the process does for children and how it works. I would like to know how this is a benefit for my child. She loves to learn and she is super good at math and writing. Also she does not now what english is so I would like a explanation as to what is online for like a little guide. Thanks so much for your consideration as to my problem. -Amber

        amber
        Reply

    1. JoAnn,
      Vocab Workshop and WW are somewhat similar, however I prefer Vocabulary Workshop for some reason. I’m not sure exactly why, but it seems to work a little bit better for us. But they are similar in style and workload.

      erica
      Reply

    1. Hi Sherry,
      Oh, sorry for the confusion! I should rename that. The 10 minute reading is the Abeka Read and Think Skill sheets, they’re timed comprehension tests that they do, so they only take 5 minutes actually. Then you’ll notice she has literature later on for 30 min., that’s more her actual reading time if that makes sense 🙂 I’m putting up new schedules shortly that will hopefully clear that up!

      erica
      Reply

    2. I am sorry for another question,but i would just like to no how to teach an 11 year old 6 year old and 10 year old at the same time. Do i teach them in my room in the same way or is there a special method as to how to make it work? I also will work 4 hours a day, so how can i fit that in the info. Thanks again for your help to our problem – Amber

      amber
      Reply

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