5th Grade Curriculum Choices 2024

*Some links are affiliate links; see full disclosure below*

My ten-year-old is going into fifth grade! He developed a love for reading last year, which made me so happy. He struggled in his earlier years with reading, but once it clicked he made great progress and started reading for pleasure. He also loves fishing, hiking, and anything science. He would love to be able to skip math, but alas I feel math is an important part of his education.

Reading:

He will be working through All About Reading Level 4 to continue to strengthen his phonetic skills. Now that he is reading well independently, we may skip some parts of the curriculum, but I find there are still some important skills to learn.

He will also be using Read Aloud Revival’s family book clubs, The Prairie Primer (see history section below for more info), and plenty of independent reading.

Spelling

We have been working on All About Spelling, and he will continue to work his way through that. There will be even more focus on that this year now that his reading is more comfortable. We found All About Spelling years ago when my oldest was a struggling speller, and it has been our family favorite ever since.

Writing

For writing, we will be using Master Books Handwriting A to Zoo to review some handwriting skills. He will also be doing First Language Lessons to work on some grammar. In addition, nature journaling and some other creative writing assignments will help improve his skills.

Math

He will be continuing with Math for a Living Education this year. We both love the format; it worked very well for him. There is generally enough practice for him without it being too much busy work. If there are concepts where he struggles, we can add in some extra practice.

I am still looking at options for extra practice with math facts to help him speed up his computation skills.

Science:

This year both of my younger boys wanted to learn about rocks and geology. They became intrigued on our trip out west this spring and wanted to keep learning. I had never taught a geology course, but I dug around to see what we had and what resources were available. We believe in a young earth creation and wanted primarily resources that aligned with those beliefs. Using Master Book’s Geology book and Northwest Treasures Rocks and Minerals for Little Eyes book, I created our own geology study. You can find out more and get a free copy of it over at our post: Creationist Geology Unit Study for Elementary and Middle Grades.

In addition, we will be doing nature study at least weekly (we often do it more when the weather is comfortable.) Sometimes our nature study is as simple as going outside and observing, but we also love to use our subscription to Homeschool Nature Study to take things a little further and help me find some great activities and ideas.

History:

We are generally a Story of the World family for history, but last year we did the new Tuttle Twins American History Volume One book. I had planned to go back into Story of the World Volume 3 this year, but the boys were very interested in the history of the western part of the United States. We had a chance to visit parts of the Oregon Trail and a Pony Express stop as well as many other historical places west of the Mississippi on our spring trip. So, I decided to use a curriculum that would allow us to dive a little deeper into some of those areas.

We are using the Prairie Primer, which is a unit study style program that teaches history, science, health, and more through the Little House on the Prairie book series. We will not be doing all of the activities and will focus mostly on the literature and history components.

Art

This son is the one I refer to as my little artist. He loves to draw, paint, and create. We will continue to use our membership with You Are An Artist chalk pastels for his online art lessons and provide him with lots of time and materials to be creative.

This year he plans to focus on some of the acrylic paint lessons that are included in our membership to broaden his art skills. He also plans to explore independently with water colors and other mediums.

Morning Time:

Morning time is my favorite part of our school day. We will do our daily Bible study and watch World Watch for current events each day. In addition, we plan to do a rotation of fine arts studies, poetry, Tuttle Twins books, and more. You can find out more about the resources we are using this year at Morning Time Plans 2024.

We have a seven-month-old in the house, so I am holding all of our plans in an open hand and praying for the best. We will do what we can, when we can, and trust that God will fill in the gaps. I will adjust as we go along, but I think this is a good start and I am excited about our choices this year.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library, you will get a link and password to the library; we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always, I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in, and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.