4th Grade Curriculum Choices for 2018-2019

4th Grade Curriculum Choices for 2018-2019 #homeschool #curriculum

My son's birthday is just days away. Do you know what he's asked me to decorate his birthday cake to look like? A wasp's nests. Specifically, a bald-faced hornet's nest. Out of all the different kinds of wasp's nests, this one's his favorite.

Yes, he has a favorite kind of wasp nest. (He's actually, at this very moment, making a paper mache version of one so that I'll have a "model" to look at while I decorate his cake.)


The boy knows about and can identify nearly all of the native wasps and their nests of our state. In fact, if you invite him to your house, don't be offended if he spends most of the time scouring the outside of your home and property for them. If he finds any, he'll want to show them to you. You've been warned.

This summer, his passion has been wasps. Last summer it was tornadoes. The summer before that, it was lake fish. And who could forget the predatory birds during the summer of 2014?

Are you sensing a trend?

He's an autodidactic learner who has a special fondness for nature. Once he homes in on one particular element of the natural world, it's all he can think about. He reads about it, watches documentaries about it, and becomes a walking encyclopedic advocate for it. (I bet you think I'm exaggerating here, right? Nope. Not even a little bit.)

How many other kids do you know who would request a bald-faced hornet's nest birthday cake? I rest my case.

He's an easy boy to teach because he loves to learn!

In addition to all-things-nature, here's what he'll be learning this year in 4th grade. Since we only homeschool 4-days a week, you can assume that each of these subjects will only be covered four times each week unless otherwise indicated.

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4th Grade Curriculum Choices for 2018-2019 #homeschool #curriculum

Content-rich Subjects

As always, he'll do all of his content-rich subjects like Morning time/Bible, history, science, art and creative writing with his older siblings. You can see those curriculum choices here>>>

Personal Devotions- everyday



  • Jesus Calling for Kids- I am not a fan of the adult version of this devotional nor any of its supplementary materials as I think it is replete with heresy. However, I have read the kids' version from cover to cover and have not found any of those same false teachings within its pages. 


Language

  • LLATL Orange Book (Use coupon code unlikelyhomeschool at checkout to get 15% off your entire purchase from Common Sense Press, the makers of LAHTL.)


  • Finish All About Spelling level 3 and move on level 4
  • Read for pleasure. (everyday)
  • Read the following books that correspond with the LLATL Orange Book:
The Boxcar Children, Book 1
Wilbur and Orville Wright
Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin By His Good Mouse Amos
The Sign of the Beaver
  • If he's not currently working through an LLATL suggested book, he will read a chapter from a book that I assign to him. These will be classics, biographies, or exceptional fiction.

Math


Typing- 1x a week


Piano

  • lesson 1x a week
  • practice 5x a week

Life Skills

  • He will continue to be a child-of-the-day and help me make lunch and dinner once a week. 
  • Wipe down the bathroom sink, shelves, and toilet every day after lunch.
  • Feed his fish.
  • Help his older brother transfer the clean dishes from the dishwasher to the cupboard 
  • Vacuum the living room as needed. 
  • Sort the laundry with his younger brother as needed.
  • Put his own clean laundry away each week.
  • Dust the house on big-chore days with his brothers.
  • Help clean the boys' room and make his bed each day.

Co-operative Learning

This year, our family has joined a larger co-op that meets twice a month in a neighboring town. (Funny enough, it's the same co-op The Hubs attended as a teen.) My son will be in the 3rd-6th-grade group with his younger brother. His classes for the first semester will include the following:

  • Physical Education
  • STEM
  • Botany with a lapbook project

For now, my son is fascinated with wasps. He'll carry his devotion into the new school year. But if I were a betting woman, I'd place my money on a new creation infatuation by late fall. In the meantime, if you need him, just look for the giant stack of field guides in the middle of my living room. He'll be huddled somewhere underneath it.

4th Grade Curriculum Choices for 2018-2019

22 comments:

  1. im sorry but Jesus Calling series is heresy. the woman writes for Jesus in automatic writing and it is contrary to scripture. there are many articles that explain her false teaching...many well-meaning and even learn-ed Christians have been deceived by her bc it is so insidious. please look into it.

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    1. Thank you for that insight. I actually completely agree with you when it comes to the adult version of Jesus Calling and the other supplementary books that Sarah Young has written to go along with that original one. However, I have read the kids book from cover to cover and do not find any of those same false teachings within its pages.

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  2. A wasp nest cake sounds awesome!
    My 10 year old son is currently all things turtle :) Please do consider researching Jesus Calling. Here's a good source to start. https://bereanresearch.org/10-serious-problems-with-jesus-calling/

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    1. Turtles are fascinating creatures!
      I actually have researched quite a bit about the entire Jesus Calling series including the supplemental materials. Please see my notes above and below for explanation regarding my choice for the kids's book.

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  3. Hi, I've always thought you on the more conservative side of things theologically, so I'm assuming you may not be aware of the controversy surrounding Sarah Young. Basically she says she has divine hearings from God and such things. There's quite a few discernment sites that discuss it. I also was intrigued by her books until I learned more about her. It's so hard these days to keep up with all the heresy that's coming out of previously safe preachers and teachers. Thought you might be interested in learning more. I don't mean to judge, just wanted to let you know about what I recently learned. But if you know all about her and wanted to use her book, carry on!😀

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    1. Please see the note above.
      I have actually spoken to a small woman's group about staying away from the heresy in the Jesus Calling adult line of books. I guess I'm left to wonder if anyone has actually read the kids' version to see that it is not at all like the adult version. Thank you for your thoughts.

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    2. You know, I actually have not read the kids version! I guess because of the adult version I just avoid all her stuff. Maybe I'll have to peruse it one day.

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  4. Thank you for informing me about the Jesus Calling books. I wanted to use the kids version and then read the adult version along with them. I guess we will just go with the kid version. The books were recommended on FaithGateway, which now makes me question other books I was considering. Thanks again.

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    1. I would definitely stay away from the adult version.

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  5. We currently have a wasps’ nest sitting on a shelf in our schoolroom 🤷🏻‍♀️

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    1. That's awesome. We have a few smaller ones that my son has collected, but he'd like to get a larger one. He's hoping one of our friends who has one hanging from the side of his house right now will be willing to pass it on to him when the wasps move on.

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  6. Hello! Love you blog!!! I am starting Learning Language Arts Through Literature as well! I see that you are also using AAS. How do you go about implementing both? I love AAS and I love the idea of LLATL(because I have no experience with it) but I don’t want to over do it by using both. Also, I miss your YouTube videos!!!

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    1. I will write down three or so words that my kids miss in the dictation section and tack those on to the end of their AAS lesson for the day. I don't find that this contradicts what they're learning in AAS because they can apply the rules from AAS to these extra words.

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  7. I recently bought the kids' version as well as the teen version of Jesus Calling after I realized the devotional my boys had been doing was causing them both to experience some spiritual warfare. It was a frightening time, to say the least! Do you have an opinion on the teen version? Also, are there any other devotionals you would recommend for adults, kids, or teens? I certainly don't want a repeat of what we've recently been through!

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    1. I will only use the kids' version. I'm so sorry to hear about your previous experiences. May I ask if your kids are boys or girls? I have a list of great teen/tween devos for girls.

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  8. I’m so glad to hear that you read and liked the “Jesus Calling” book for kids. I, like a lot of the other readers, skimmed her adult book and didn’t like what I saw there so I had completely dismissed the kid version. I will have to check out the kid version. I’m always looking for devotions for my boys that are worth reading.

    Also, I’m really interested in your copy work curriculum choice. I visited the website, but I didn’t see any preview pages for the character series. Were you able to preview it before buying?

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    1. No, I was not. I did receive this question from others and posted pics of the inside pages on my FB page. I can't quite figure out how to transfer the link to that specific post here, though.

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    2. Oh, okay! I’ll just have to hack my husband’s Facebook account and take a look. 😉 Thanks!

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    3. I posted an Instastory about them but forgot to save it to highlights. Want me to do it again? I'd be happy to if it would be helpful.

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  9. I notice in most of your elementary grades you use All About Spelling and LLATL. I am familiar with LLATL and I wanted to know how you incorporate AAS with it. I have 3 boys that really need help with spelling and I am using LLATL with the youngest and hopefully with the middle.

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    1. I don't do much with the spelling portions of LLATL. Our spelling is a separate time in the day and we use AAS.

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