Recap and Review Fifth Grade Charlotte Mason Homeschool Plans, 2020-2021


It feels like forever ago that I posted these homeschool plans. But finally, we have (almost) reached the end of our 180 days of schooling (as required by PA) and I can revisit our plans and show how we accomplished them, what we ditched, and what books rounded out our home learning for the year.

You can read more about Peter and about how I planned out our homeschool year in the original planning post, but please know that he is academically gifted, reads fast, and works above a normal grade level for math. My other children do not accomplish this much work in the same amount of time.  First I'll recap our schedule and then our subjects.

Daily Checklist / Flexible Timetable for Form IIA
This year, I created a daily checklist for Peter to manage his own work. And in a year when so much of my plans did not go as well as I had hoped, this schedule worked almost as written for the whole year.

Every day he got right to work. Using voxer to send me his narrations worked perfectly. I very diligently checked his work every day. Occasionally, I would forget to listen to some narrations but would catch up the next day. 

Subjects
Each year, I consider the subjects that Charlotte Mason included for her students as well as the time spent on each subject per week and information about the number of pages read each term. 

I love to consult Ambleside Online, a Catholic Charlotte Mason curriculum, as well as Wildwood Curriculum and A Delectable Education for ideas and materials, but I put our plans together in my own way. I have tried to note in [ ] whether I'm using a free book or how much I paid for each of the resources we are using. I am committed to homeschooling with free or really cheap books as part of our journey to be debt-free while living on one income.

This post contains affiliate links. Read my full disclosure to learn more. 

Bible Lessons
Morning time, oral narration after each lesson
We accomplished our plans to read narrative portions of the bible during our morning time during breakfast using the lists available on Ambleside Online and using a New Revised Standard Translation. Unlike Ambleside Online's plans (which coincide with the way Charlotte Mason planned bible lessons) we choose to read only 1 book of the bible at a time instead of alternating between the old and new testaments. We read Exodus, Mark, Joshua, and Judges. 

Language Arts
Reading/Literature (20 minutes/week of a book chosen by me, plus evening readings of Shakespearean plays as a family)

This year, I planned for Peter to read the following titles at least once per week and in other free time if he chose:
  • Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge [library book or free ebook]
  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain [library book or free ebook]
  • Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling [free ebook] I gave myself permission to stop having my kids read Rudyard Kipling. I always read him myself in an effort to be well-read, although I have really disliked his writing and found it offensive (except for Rikki Tikki Tavi, which I do like). But because his books are heavily scheduled on Ambleside Online, I trusted their judgment over my own. I'm trying to listen to my own heart about what are the best books to give my kids and Kipling doesn't make the cut (except for Rikki Tikki Tavi).
  • The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen [already owned - $1 book sale find]
He never wanted to read his assigned books outside of this block of time so the one major change I made to his (and his brother's) schedule was for one to read while the other one practiced piano. For Peter, this meant alternating novels and biographies (included under history). He read the following additional titles:
We planned to spend about 30 minutes twice a week in the evening reading a Shakespearean play aloud. We will have 2 or 3 Folger editions of the play to share among me, my husband, and my son. Our plans are:
  • Term 1 - Macbeth [2 copies of the play for $4.69 each from Thriftbooks - one was free with reading rewards!] - There was supposed to be a touring company performing at our local university in November, but I doubt that will happen now but now it is planned for fall 2021.
  • Term 2 - Twelfth Night [2 copies of the play for $4.69 each from Thriftbooks]
  • Term 3 - Coriolanus [2 copies of the play for $4.19 and $3.99 from Thriftbooks]
We often missed our sessions due to family life, but we found time to read the first two plays and we are nearing completion of Coriolanus which we should finish with a few longer sessions over the next 2 weeks.

Spelling (3x10min/week)
Peter completed this level and his spelling continues to improve. I continue to use the unprepared dictation passage included on Ambleside Online's exam bank for his spelling exams and he performs well.

Grammar (2x~15-20min/week)
This year, Peter worked through a curated list of lessons from Intermediate Language Lessons by Emma Serl [bought used - $4.69 from Thriftbooks, which was less expensive than printing out the lessons from the free ebook!] as planned.

Copywork/Handwriting/Typing (2xweek commonplace entries, 2xweek written narrations, 2x10min of typing)
  • This year, Peter selected his own passages to enter into his "commonplace"--a basic, wide-ruled notebook he began using for this purpose last year. 
  • He selected two subjects (at the beginning of the week) to do written narrations in a wide-ruled notebook.
  • He learned touch typing using a student account at Typing.com [I purchased a lifetime ad-free membership for $7.99] He completed all levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced) as well as some supplemental levels. 

Poetry (Listen to the same poem read aloud every day for a week at morning time) 
While I do not follow Ambleside Online's poetry rotation, I do choose the majority of our poets and poems from their collection. We focused on a different poet each term:
  • Term 1: Christina Rossetti
  • Term 2: Carl Sandburg
  • Term 3: Paul Laurence Dunbar

Recitation (3x10min/week)
Each 6-week half-term Peter worked on reciting beautifully (often memorizing) 2 poems and 1 passage or another poem. I pick 2 selections and he picks the other poem with my approval. 

This year, I selected the following pieces for Peter:
Peter also selected 6 additional poems to memorize.

Modern Language: German (3x20min/week)
Peter used Rosetta Stone Language Learning Suite [free access to our family because my husband is a Brown alum] as planned all year. I highly doubt this would work for my other kids, but it does work for him.

Other Read Alouds
We are a real aloud family and even though Peter loves to read to himself, he also loves to be a part of our family reading. This year we read the following books aloud at lunch:
  • The Prairie Thief by Melissa Wiley
  • The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown
  • My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
  • The Little Duke by Charlotte Yonge
  • The Other Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
  • The Great Cake Mystery by Alexander McCall Smith
  • Frightful's Mountain by Jean Craighead George
  • The Shining Company by Rosemary Sutcliff
  • King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry
  • Alice's Farm by Maryrose Wood
  • The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth
  • Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken
  • A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter
And these books at morning time:
  • A Time for Trolls: Fairy Tales from Norway Told by Asbjornsen and Moe
  • Tales of Troy and Greece by Andrew Lang
  • The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: The Story of Dr. Temple Grandin by Julia Finley Mosca
  • Immigrant Architect: Rafael Guastavino and the American Dream by Berta de Miguel, Kent Diebolt and Virginia Lorente
  • The Seed of Compassion: Lessons from the Life and Teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
  • Itzhak: A Boy Who Loved the Violin: The Story of Young Itzhak Perlman by Tracy Newman
  • The Best of Shakespeare, Twelfth Night by E. Nesbit
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Conan Doyle
  • Buddha at Bedtime by Dharmachari Nagaraja
  • Twelfth Night: Manga Shakespeare by Richard Appignanesi
  • The Royal Book of Ballet by Shirley Goulden
  • Favorite Medieval Tales by Mary Pope Osborne
  • The Canterbury Tales Retold by Geraldine McCaughrean

Social Studies: History, Geography, Citizenship
History (American history 1/week, British/European history 1/week, Ancient history 1/week, oral or written narration after each reading)

Overall, I was happy with my book choices, including using the "A History for Peter" series recently back in print through Yesterdays' Classics. However, I take some issue with the first book in the series and I encourage previewing and potentially omitting certain chapters, namely the book's treatment of native people of the Americas. At this point, I would likely choose all of these books again next time we study this time period.

Peter did study American history of the 1900s using the following books:
He studied British and European history of the 1900s using the following books:
He studied Ancient history of the early middle ages (500-1000) using the following books:
He also read the following assigned biographies:
Peter kept a Book of Centuries [bought for last year - $34 shipped] and added at one entry and one drawing per week.

We are not able to come close to covering all of the major events of the 1900s in the time I have allotted for history this year. We supplemented our formal history study with the following read alouds:

Geography (2x20min/week, oral or written narration after each reading, plus related videos or mapwork that I keyed to the readings). Peter read and completed the following as planned. I do not recommend the Guyot reader (too dated) but recommend the others:

Citizenship aka Plutarch (1x30min/week, oral or written narration after each reading)
Once a week, Peter and I read one of Plutarch's lives. We used Anne White's study guides to study Aristides (Term 1) and Alexander (Terms 2 and 3) read for free via Google Play. He does not enjoy Plutarch, but it is only about 15 minutes per week so I think we can live with that.

Math(5x30min/week)
Peter used the following resources as planned:
  • Beast Academy, 5D, last chapter on exponents [already owned gift from grandparent] 
  • The Art of Problem Solving: Prealgebra [Textbook and solutions purchased used via Facebook marketplace for $45 shipped] - Completed through chapter 9, we will continue this part-time through the summer and be ready to start Algebra next year.
  • Related prealgebra videos from The Art of Problem Solving
He also took the AMC exam in November 2020, completed the Brilliant.org daily problems every day, and used AOPS's Alcumus (free) to practice tricky problems in whatever area he was currently learning in his textbook. We were also able to watch a couple free events through the National Math Online Festival.

Science: Experimental, Nature Lore, Special Studies, Nature Notebook
Experimental Science (1/week science reading, oral or written narration after each reading, 1/week activity or experiment)
He used the following books for science this year:

Term 1- Geology: Rocks, Rivers and the Changing Earth: A First Book About Geology by Herman Schneider [already owned - purchased new from Amazon with coupon and gift card] - He read the first 9 chapters and suggested activities/experiments.

Term 2-Physics: Still haven't figured out exactly how we will cover this topic! I gave him The Cartoon Guide to Physics [bought used for $4.29 from Thriftbooks] as a Christmas gift. For his science study, I bought Real Science Odyssey Physics [ebook for $32.24] and Peter completed most of the readings and experiments in units 1-4. He didn't love it, but I liked the guided experiments. 

Term 3-Biology (Anatomy): Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery by Richard Hollingham, chapters 1-2 [bought used for $12.95 with a coupon from Thriftbooks] and Blood and Guts by Linda Allison [bought used for $4.99 from Thriftbooks], selected experiments

I was really worried about the history of surgery books but it was a huge success and he narrated so well from it. However, I did not have him read the last few chapters--on plastic surgery and brain surgery. There is a lot of adult content in the last few chapters so preview it before you hand it to a child.

Nature Lore (1/week, oral or written narration after each reading)
Peter read 1 chapter a week of The Story-book of Science by Jean-Henri Fabre [free Google ebook] continued from last year and finished out the book. 

Special Studies (1x20min/week)
I chose the following topics for the year using the rotation found on Sabbath Mood Homeschool and Peter read books on each topic at the pace of 20 minutes a week:

Term 1: Weeds, Grass, Small Mammals 
Term 2: Specific trees, specific insects, invertebrates 
Term 3: Wildflowers and Birds

Nature Notebooking (daily entries, weekly nature watercolor drawings)
Peter recorded his own near-daily nature observations in his notebook this year and once a week, he added a watercolor drawing of his choice. [Peter already owns all of his nature journal supplies - our supplies and costs here]

Morning Time (at breakfast)
I selected additional living science and natural history books as part of our morning time. These titles are not narrated and included:
  • Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman [a birthday gift for Sylvia]
  • Honey Bee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera by Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann [owned $1 book sale find]
  • Plant Blossoms by David M. Schwartz [library]
  • Beluga Passage by Linda Lingemann [owned $1 booksale find]
  • From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons [library]
  • Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist by Jess Keating [library]
  • Icebergs and Glaciers by Patricia Lauber [library]
  • Dinosaur Lady: The Daring Discoveries of Mary Anning, The First Paleontologist by Linda Skeer [library]
  • The Magic Anatomy Book by Carol Donner [owned $1 book sale find]
  • The Blue Lobster: a life cycle by Carol and Donald Carrick [owned $1 book sale find]
  • Electricity and Magnetism by Gregory Vogt [owned $1 book sale find]
  • Marie's Ocean by Josie James [library]
  • The Tree Book For Kids and Their Grown-ups by Gina Ingoglia
  • A Drop of Water by Walter Wick [owned $1 book sale find]
  • The Smallest Life Around: Exploring the Invisible World of Microbes with Eight Easy At-Home Experiments by Lucia Anderson 

Wild + Free Nature Group (4 hours every Friday) [$50/year for our family]
We participated in our weekly year-round nature group at a rural property from August-November and from March onward with a break during the worst of the surge of covid cases. The kids worked together to build large fires, improvised shelters, and even an outdoor urinal. Baby raccoons, deer bones, turtles, salamanders, newts, fish, skinks, and snakes have been some of our favorite nature finds this year.

We also really put a lot of effort into taking family nature hikes on the weekends and have logged many miles and made lots of memories on the trail this year.

Art and Music
Drawing (1/week)
This year Peter alternated between drawing along with Art for Kids Hub YouTube videos that I curated into a list he can choose from and worked through What to Draw and How to Draw It [bought new for $6.45 from Living Book Press to get free shipping]

Handicrafts (1x30/week)
Peter worked on handicrafts at least once per week for about 30 minutes. He completed his first quilting project and sewed a gift for his sister. He tried soap carving and made Christmas gifts for his grandparents. He also did a lot of cooking and baking--sheet cakes, cookies, pizza from scratch (including crust and sauce!), and more. He used the following:
One of Peter's many cakes this year.

Singing (2x10min/week)
I choose folk songs each year mainly by browsing Ambleside Online and the book Gonna Sing My Head Off!: American Folk Songs for Children by Kathleen Krull. This year I choose 14 songs, and we got to 10 of them. This is not my favorite subject and when my steam was running out, I put it into a more informal singing in the car category ;-) But we really did learn some new favorites this year.
Artist Study (1xweek at morning time)
This year studied 6 works by the following artists:

Term 1Term 3: Henry Ossawa Tanner [Free PDF artist study from A Humble Place]
Term 2: Peter Paul Rubens [Free PDF artist study from A Humble Place]
Term 3 Term 1: Winslow Homer [Free PDF artist study from A Humble Place]

We had to use digital images to study Tanner because the local print shop didn't return my emails at the beginning of the year (due to the pandemic?). However, I was able to get term 2 and 3s prints done for  $.50 each. 

Composer Study (1x10min week)
This year I planned for us to study one composer per term by listening to their music for 10 minutes a week using the following playlists (pieces selected from ones included on Ambleside Online). However, only Peter was actually getting to composer study regularly as I tried to juggle two students who are non-fluent readers. He really got into Camille Saint Saens Carnival of the Animals and he got his siblings into it too, so that was great! I subscribed to 6 months of SQUILT Live over the winter and although it did not focus on one composer per term, it did expose the kids to some great pieces and ideas. It also inspired Peter to learn to play the complete original Fur Elise and I LOVE hearing him play it ;-)

Piano (5-6x 20min/week) (not on Friday when we go to Wild + Free)
Hoffman Acadamy [Not an affiliate link! We just love Hoffman Academy.]
Peter finished until 13 and unit 14 this year. He continues to alternate between practicing Hoffman Academy and practicing out of one of my old piano books. We are still on the fence about getting a "real" piano teacher as Peter really enjoys piano as a low-stress, fun activity. 

Physical Education
I had originally hoped for more normal activities to resume in 2021, but either that hasn't happened or it hasn't seemed like a good idea so instead of a running club or ice skating lessons, Peter has gotten his exercise through
  • Ice Skating Lessons (Winter 2021)
  • Hikes, bike rides, and walks around often, including weekly family hikes
  • Wild + Free nature group which gets us active and outside as a family for about 4 hours each week
  • Swimming Lessons (Summer 2021)? 

So that sums it up!  I appreciate looking back on these plans and seeing how Peter has grown as a person this year. Not all of my plans came to pass, and I always wonder if I am striking the right balance with bookwork and practical or nature experience. 

I am thankful to have Mason's writings as a touchstone to inspire me to plan a wide and deep curriculum. However, I appreciate the freedom to plan a unique homeschool for our family.  

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5 comments:

  1. RuthMay 8, 2021 at 1:50 PM

    Sounds like Peter had a great year!! I just finished listening to Freckles which is the first book in the Limberlost series. I enjoyed it so much I am planning on listening to it again at some point in the future with my kids. We've read many of the books in this post, but I added a few from your lists to future lists for the kids to read independently or us to enjoy together. I'm also mulling over buying a book of the centuries. Ian loves to draw. We are starting over in our cycle with ancient history next year (we took a break this year and studied different countries, cultures, many folktales, etc.) so it would be a good time to get started on a project like that. I'm wondering if it's better to buy one for each child or have the three of them do it together. Hmmm... I hope you guys have a wonderful summer and are able to make it to Acadia! :)

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    1. JenniferMay 8, 2021 at 5:53 PM

      We read Freckles as a read aloud a couple of years ago and my kids did enjoy it. A child who really liked to draw might enjoy their own books of centuries. But I also think sharing one is a good idea too. If you aren't sure, there are always free printable ones to try or you could just make one out of a blank book (like I did for my own book of centuries). This post explains how to make one with a simple notebook http://www.charlottemasonhelp.com/2009/07/how-and-when-to-begin-book-of-centuries.html

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  2. AnaiseMay 9, 2021 at 9:44 AM

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  3. AnneMay 9, 2021 at 10:02 AM

    Your Peter is getting such an amazing education! You have a real gift as a homeschool mom/teacher. I'm going to take notes on many of the books he read so that I can incorporate them into our homeschool, too. Did you just love Girl of the Limberlost? I love it so much!

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    1. JenniferMay 10, 2021 at 8:47 AM

      Thank you! Yes, we do love reading about the Limberlost. But I must say that it is hard to imagine taking all these fragile things out of the disappearing ecosystem!!!!

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