5th Grade Homeschool Recap, 2025-2026

My one and only daughter brings so much joy and creativity and caring into our lives. And she is the most different learner I have. I constantly feel like I am not doing the best to reach her and help her grow. But she continues to grow and learn regardless. 

This year she traveled to Italy, started the practice of written narration, learned to knit, and colored our lives with hundreds of beautiful works of handiwork.  Here is a snapshot of what her schoolwork looked like this year. 


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Language Arts

Reading / Literature
Sylvia's reading stamina has continued to improve this year. And reading is usually not the activity she would choose. It is easier to do handicrafts when you are listening to an audiobook. That being said, she has enjoyed borrowing books from the library and sometimes gets on a short kick of reading them. She also continues to enjoy reading aloud to me from time to time.

I chose her school books to mostly readable for her but I didn't push it. She sometimes read her books and she sometimes had me read them to her. I am hoping to nudge her to take this task completely over for herself next year. 

For literature this year, we read The Golden Fleece and the Heroes who lived before Achilles by Padraic Colum [already owned $1 book sale find]. Also for free on Google Books and Project Gutenberg. 

Grammar
We orally worked through a curated list of lessons from Intermediate Language Lessons by Emma Serl [already owned - bought used - $4.69 from Thriftbooks] which I had selected for her older brother. 

Sylvia does not seem to pick up grammar quickly or intuitively. It seems like she already gets it or she doesn't. I'm not sure this book moved the needle. However, we did it and it was good exposure. I'm hoping to find a good worksheet program that will work for her next year. 

Spelling
Spelling is not Sylvia's favorite. Because it often became a second point of conflict in a day when math was already difficult, we decided to have her dad do her weekly spelling with her on the weekends, often at a local coffee shop over a treat. 

This year Sylvia completed All About Spelling Level 3 and started All About Spelling Level 4 with the All About Spelling Letter Tiles App [already owned - $14.49 introductory price]. She got about a quarter through Level 4 when we decided to stop there and restart level 4 next year, since she seemed to plateau on her ability to retain and use the rules she was learning. 

This year was finally the year that I admitted that Sylvia is most likely dyslexic (like her older brother) but she masks it very well. When you put in her lack of reading confidence + the type of spelling difficulties she is having + her complete inability to learn long division, it looks like dyslexia in our house. The good news is that I can see that consistent efforts with products that are dyslexic-friendly will continue to grow her skills. 

Recitation
I love recitation as a practice and I have to streamline things as I add more kids so I slightly lowered the amount of pieces down from 15 to 12.

This year Sylvia recited the following:
  • Silver by Walter de la Mare
  • Trees by Walter de la Mare
  • Friends, Romans, Countrymen from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
  • Chip the Glasses and Crack the Plates 
  • Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? by William Shakespeare
  • Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds by William Shakespeare
  • The Hag by Robert Herrick
  • A Pizza the Size of the Sun by Jack Prelutsky
  • Macbeth: To be thus is nothing by William Shakespeare
  • The Tables Turned by William Wordsworth
  • I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud by William Wordsworth
  • Spaghetti Seeds by Jack Prelutsky

Copywork
Nature Lessons for Copywork [$11.95 from Rainbow Resource Center]
Sylvia completed the copywork selections I had chosen from this book and then transitioned to copying her recitation or other poems. 

Written Narration
Transitioning to written narration for Sylvia has been challenging. She has worked up to writing about two sentences twice a week. For my children who may have dyslexia, this process is a slow one and the progress is more obvious over years than months. I'm glad we've got to this point and we will keep working on it next year. 

Social Studies
For the first term, Sylva read books about Italy to prepare for a week-long trip with her father to Florence, Rome, and Milan in October.
Upon her return, I chose books I had used before with her brothers for her to learn about American history to the mid-1600s:
She also studied 
Math
Sylvia seems to find any subject with right or wrong answers to be stressful. She handles it well until she doesn't understand something right away. She has struggled mightily this year to force herself through completing lessons that upset her. Sometimes it goes without a hitch and is pleasant and straightforward. Sometimes it takes 10x as long and affects everyone else's day. We are continuing to figure out how to overcome these challenges is a way that preserves everyone's ability to enjoy homeschooling. 

I have thought very carefully about the situation and I do not believe she has any math disability, but rather it may be dyslexia and anxiety that are affecting her ability to do math. Regardless, she is working one grade "behind." This matters not at all to me, if you are gaining understanding and progressing. It matters to her, however. Her level in math adds to her insecurity and anxiety about this topic. I wish math texts were leveled instead of graded! 

This year I chose 4th Grade Math with Confidence [$60.45 for 2 student workbooks and teacher text from Rainbow Resource Center] for Sylvia. 

Pros: short lessons where I could really see her abilities on a day to day basis, a short amount of independent work ever day, predictable format which is good for anxiety because Sylvia knew what was coming, lots of review built in to slowly cement new skills, a short curriculum with many optional lessons so we could complete the entire program in 144 days of math (I think that is the proper number, but I might be a little off]

Cons: games sometimes felt babyish or onerous to my learner, being called 4th grade math with confidence was a confidence buster, not able to be completed independently, which was a problem for my learner and put us in conflict sometimes over a difficult subject, graphics which seemed cute for younger years seemed a bit juvenile for this age, especially because she is working 1 grade below level and is old for her grade. The memory work is hard for children who are dyslexic or have trouble memorizing concepts without much context, but it was probably good to keep working on it.

She learned a lot. And she hated it. I like this curriculum because it is straightforward and not overwhelming with a nice amount of practice and repetition--not too much and cemented slowly over time. I insisted that we complete this curriculum and I'm glad we did and it was difficult. 

Next year, she is a whole year older. After a bit of deschooling, I am going to get her to take a placement text for Teaching Textbooks and we are going to try that this year. She wants to be independent for her math. She will still need help but it will be better for her to be frustrated and mad at the computer than at me! I hope she places into 5th grade math because it is so important to work at your correct level, but she is so sensitive about it. Yikes! Being the teacher in a homeschool is hard sometimes ;-)

Science
This year, I had Sylvia study a different study topic each term. We also read Insect Adventures by J. Henri Fabre retold for young readers by Louise Seymour Hasbrouck [free Google ebook] as an all-year long nature book and read books on different nature topics each term. 

She narrated after every reading and even did some as short written narrations. 

Term 1
Term 2
Term 3
Arts and Handicrafts


Sylvia is a maker! She can't stop making things every day. This has been true of her since she was three, but now she is has developed so many advanced skills and can crochet, sew, knit, and use a sewing machine. She can follow a pattern, but she can also be inspired by another's work and then quickly make her own version. Yesterday, she saw a granny squared crocheted hat at the farmers market and came home and made one to her liking. Her work ethic at her crafts is very impressive.

Every week on her schedule is a spot for "handicraft meeting" where we discuss what she needs. Sometimes it is a new pattern or some materials. I try to keep her in the resources she needs. Almost every Monday afternoon, she drops in for open studio time at a local crafting shop. There the owner gives her patterns to work on and assists her with her work. Sylvia will attend a 1 week camp for tweens there this summer as well as be a helper during the store's other craft camps. Sylvia is able to be a second set of hands for help with sewing machines and threading needles for younger crafters and she loves to be of use.

This year, Sylvia participated in a Christmas market for homeschooled kids and she sold out of her little crocheted animals--octopuses, birds, axotls, and narwhals. She also participated in a fair for makers (her wares are pictured above) where she sold a few things but also hopefully inspired a lot of kids to be makers. At our table, we taught many eager children how to make cordage with a lucet and it was a great day. 

We studied three fine artists this year and I decided to reuse some materials from the beginning of my homeschool journey:
We studied three composers using Tillberry Table Guides plus her YouTube playlists bought during a 20% off black Friday sale. But we really only completed the first two. We will return to Beethoven next year. My discipline slips after Christmas in a big way and I need to plan better with that in mind. 
We studied three poets this year using Ambleside selections plus Poetry for Young People series for Shakespeare and Wordsworth because I bought a bundle of them for $5 as 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. 

Everything Else
Sylvia went a trip to Italy with her dad and it was a big experience for her. She ate a lot of gelato and had fun even though she was outside her comfort zone quite a bit. She enjoys a very close relationship with her father and it was a wonderful bonding experience for them. 

She saw David and visited the Uffizi Gallery and Pitti Palace and Duomo in Florence. She experienced the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain in Rome, and toured the Palantine Hill, Forum, and Colosseum. She went to Saint Peter's Basilica and saw the Sistine Chapel. Finally, she visited the Doumo in Milan. And when her initial flight to Milan from Portugal was delayed in Portugal, her father got a flight directly to Florence, eliminating a train trip and allowing them to scoot into Lisbon for a quick bite and another county to add to her trip. This is why the kids travel with their father who is more comfortable going with the flow. 

Sylvia attends a Ninja gym class once a week and it is a great workout and social experience. She loves to attend our weekly nature day where she gets to play with her Wild + Free friends almost like family for about 4 hours. She loved her swimming lessons last summer and at her swim instructor's urging she decided to take a big risk for her and sign up for summer swim team this year. In the past, she has not liked being part of a team like this, so we are holding onto this commitment loosely. It is good to try new things AND I know that certain parts of this are going to be difficult for her. I have learned that I'm not a good predictor of how things are going to go so we will see!

Sometimes I wish I had the courage to radically unschool this child, who seems to find structured learning so anxiety-causing at times. On the other hand, I see how hard she works to overcome overwhelming feelings of frustration to do what she ought. It is a balancing act of setting expectations, providing high support, but also trusting that children usually are trying to do their best. Almost every evening we bond together with 20-30 minutes of a cozy mystery show so that helps keep the relationship strong no matter how the day went. Truly, every year has gotten easier so there is that too to give me encouragement.
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