4th Grade Homeschool Recap, 2024-2025

Sylvia is my only daughter and sometimes it feels like homeschooling her is unlike homeschooling my other children. Her talents and personality differ enough that I have had to be more flexible and take a slower path toward my educational vision. 

Like every year, this year Sylvia showed amazing growth both in her areas of greatest interest and her areas of greater challenge. She was able to read several of her own school books this year and be a lot more independent which works well for her. But she also seemed to enjoy our work time together more.

Here is what Sylvia accomplished for her fourth grade year.  



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Language Arts

Reading
Sylvia is a good reader but needs more practice to continue to improve, especially because she doesn't often pick up books to read in her free time. Instead, she likes to craft and listen to audiobooks. I had her read to me aloud several times a week and she completed:
  • Brambly Hedge by Jill Barklem [already owned gifted book]
  • Viking Adventure by Clyde Robert Bulla [already owned $8.99 from Rainbow Resource Center]
The last third of the year we transitioned to her reading independently and silently from a chapter book, often from Dragon Masters series which was a favorite of her brother's at that age as well. She also reads to her younger siblings a lot more often. 

Handwriting
Nature Lessons for Copywork [$11.95 from Rainbow Resource Center]
Despite the very negative review on Amazon, this book was what I wanted. I used post-it notes throughout the book to assign the copy work pieces and Sylvia copied a few lines per day into a wide-ruled notebook. 

Recitation
This year, Sylvia memorized and recited 15 poems and passages, including poems by the poets we studied, passages from the Shakespeare plays we were reading, and several poems of her choosing. 

Spelling
We continue to use All About Spelling. This year, Sylvia used

When you don't like to make mistakes, spelling can be a very unpleasant subject to learn and to teach. To make it easier for us, my husband took over doing spelling with Sylvia. Usually they go to a local coffee shop and complete our normal week's worth of work in one sitting. My stress level went down and the spelling is still getting done. 

Science / Nature

Sylvia studied a new experimental science each term with the following books and materials, which I read and she narrated:

She also read to books from a few special topics this year including

And she chose audiobooks to listen to in the afternoon from a list. Her choices were always nature related and all were available through a library card on Libby or Hoopla. She listened to the following:
  • What the Chicken Knows by Sy Montgomery
  • The Octopus Scientist by Sy Montgomery
  • Rascal by Sterling North
  • The Earth Moved by Amy Stewart
  • The Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson
  • Of Time and Turtles by Sy Montgomery

We also read the following books at our together time in the afternoon:
Sylvia also enjoyed lots of free time in nature, including attending our local Wild + Free group which meets weekly in all weather. She also made many nature-related drawings in her school notebook and nature journal. 


Social Studies

In her study of the 20th century, Sylvia read from the following books, except that I read A Place to Hide, and she narrated:
She studied ancient history by listening to me read and narrating from:
For geography, she narrated from:
Also, I took all my kids on a 2.5 week road trip in September throughout Michigan and the upper peninsula. We camped on or near Lake Erie, Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior and stayed at a hotel next to Lake Huron. We saw waterfalls and traveled through the American and Canadian locks at Soo locks. We visited museums, took a shipwreck boat tour, ate ice cream, and visited Sleeping Bear Dunes and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshores using Sylvia's 4th Grade National Parks Pass. I hope that it made Paddle to the Sea come alive for all of my children.

Sylvia and her older brother were studying the 20th century so we read and listened to lots of books about that topic. Some additional nonfiction or historical fiction books we read this year included:
  • Talking Leaves by Joseph Bruchac
  • Lines of Courage by Jennifer A. Nielsen
  • Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming
  • Underground Fire by Sally M. Walker
  • Only a Dog by Bertha Whitridge Smith 
  • Daughter of the Mountains by Louise Rankin
  • The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy
  • I Survived the Nazi Invasion, 1944 by Lauren Tarshis
  • I Survived the Battle of D-Day, 1944 by Lauren Tarshis
  • I Survived the Attacks of September 11, 2001 by Lauren Tarshis
  • The Chestry Oak by Kate Seredy
  • A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus
  • Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
  • I Survived the Wellington Avalanche, 1910 by Lauren Tarshis
  • A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus
  • Remember: The Journey to School Integration by Toni Morrison
  • Story of the World, Volume 4 by Susan Wise Bauer

And we watched CNN10 together 4-5 days a week. 


Math

Math is Sylvia's least favorite subject. However, I do believe math is a very important topic worthy of our time and attention, so she spent 30 minutes each school day on it.

Sylvia is behind the normal school timetable of math in some ways, but I am very committed to the idea that a deep understanding of arithmetic can come slowly and nonlinearly throughout elementary and middle school with no future harm to math achievement. 

For example, she didn't know how to carry numbers in addition or borrow them for subtraction at the beginning of the year. She was able to learn both within 1 week. It wasn't a very fun week for her until she got the hang of it, but she quickly did and then we practiced for another week before moving on. 

I have worked closely with Sylvia this year and while we used Beast Academy as our main curriculum, we supplemented with other materials as needed to practice certain concepts. This year we used:
  • Beast Academy 3A, finished from last year [already owned, gifted]
  • Beast Academy 3C and 3D, completed but we skipped the starred problems most of the time [already owned, gifted]
  • Worksheets from Mammoth Math Light Blue Series to learn carrying with addition and borrowing in subtraction[I won this entire 1st-7th grade series as a digital download in 2018 and I have used it from time to time as a supplement to our other math work]
  • Synthesis Tutor [two month membership with a Black Friday sale <$56, I can't find the exact amount] This was before I really loathed Elon Musk but this product helped Sylvia improve her understanding of place value quite a bit. 
  • Occasional episodes of the old Children's Television Workshop series Square One, which is a comedy math program for kids. 


Arts and Handicrafts

Sylvia does not need me to structure her crafting time because she creates constantly. Instead, we have a set time on her schedule once a week where we check in about anything she needs for her crafting projects.

She attended a weekly crochet club in our town and spent so many hours crocheting stuffed animals and gifts for family and friends. In the summer (2024) she attended 3-day camps about sewing and jewelry-making. She painted and drew weekly in her various notebooks. She cross-stitched from patterns and from her own imagination. She completed embroidery projects and did a latch kit unicorn project. She sewed little felt animals. She made beautiful flower arrangements and sewed her own fox ears and tail for a Halloween costume. She needle felted a little bear and crocheted tiny axoltls. She also make many little creations out of colorful modeling air dry clay, and did some bead-making, some weaving, some potholder looming, lots of rainbow looming and she learned how to use a 3D pen. 

And I only have a handful of photos.... I keep trying to work on that. 



We studied three fine artists this year and I decided to reuse some materials from the beginning of my homeschool journey:
We studied two composers using Tillberry Table Guides plus her YouTube playlists bought during a 20% off black Friday sale. I decided to only do two instead of three because it is more realistic for me:
We studied three poets this year using the Poetry for Young People series because I bought a bundle of them for $5 at a used curriculum sale last year.
We followed the Ambleside Online folksong rotation this year using materials shared on the Ambleside Facebook page and a YouTube playlist. In past years, I would select our own folksongs but because two families at our Wild + Free group follow Ambleside it is nice to have the kids learning the the same songs. 

We read three Shakespeare plays together as a family:
  • Twelfth Night
  • Romeo and Juliet
  • The Merchant of Venice


Everything Else

Sylvia continues to thrive at our weekly nature group and loves animals, nature, and the outdoors. About one year ago, she became the proud owner of two rabbit that live outdoors in a hutch and she has taken excellent care of them. 

She has not particularly enjoyed busy group activities or team sports, but she likes her ninja class and worked hard to gain another skill level this year.  She looks forward to her weekly crochet class where she enjoys working alongside the shop owner and getting help choosing her next project. 

She has gotten much more capable in many different areas and she is a responsible, sensitive, loving, child. She doesn't seem to care for school as much as her siblings but she has been accepting it more. Being able to read her own lessons is very good for her and I will keep that in mind as I plan her next school year. 
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2 comments:

  1. AflyonmyhomeschoolwallMay 4, 2025 at 2:09 PM

    Sylvia sounds like my Lola--without Lola's trauma behaviors. Her crafts are so cute! She will do things differently from your boys, but she will do well!

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    Replies
    1. JenniferMay 4, 2025 at 3:24 PM

      I have always loved seeing your kids creations. How wonderful when they can use their skills to make beautiful things. I get such a kick out of it.

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