I never thought I would get back here to talk to you about homeschooling... but life is full of surprises! After working pretty hard to put together a solid Waldorf 6th grade curriculum for my girls, I felt like if it could help some families (and save some parents some time!), it was worth sharing!
First, let me say that this very blog was started in 2008 to help families who wanted to homeschool following Steiner's philosophy (Waldorf). It took many tangents throughout the years and I decided to close it completely last year, when we moved into our bus and hit the road (I moved to a Squarespace platform). I didn't really want to talk about educational choices since they were constantly changing with our children's needs. Mostly, the girls have asked to "do school" since we came back from our first year-long trip in 2012-2013, so we loosely followed Donna Simmons's 4th and 5th grade curriculums (and supplemented with this great blog, my friend Stephanie's Main Lesson Books and blog and Pinterest boards).
We have decided to keep going with grade 6 this year since the girls love doing school (yes, truly!) and because, for personal reasons, we want them to be able to reintegrate the school system at any point from now on if need be. Since a good plan is key to successful (and fun!) homeschooling (and since I am good at planning and like it!), I wanted to share the work I did with you.
I did 4th and 5th grade mostly in French (that meant finding close to equivalent books in French, which is hard and time consuming since you have to adjust the curriculum accordingly and end up losing the flow...). It's impossible to find something that comes even close to D'Aulaires' Norse Myths or Greek Myths books in French unfortunately...). So this year, 6th grade will be bilingual. I will write the posts in English, but feel free to ask questions in French in the comments.
Maybe one day I will create posts on my detailed plan for 4th and 5th grades (all our Main Lesson Books are in Quebec and the Yukon now, not in the bus with us).
Of course, I will continue to write about our (non-school related) adventures on our main blog Road it up.
Here are the resources I worked with for this year's plan :
Donna Simmons 6th grade Rough Guide
Melissa Nielsen's 6th Grade Curriculum (that I do not recommend... I barely used it, did not like it)
Homeschooling Waldorf Website (I got A LOT from this wonderful site)
Pinterest (all of my 6th Grade Boards)
So here's the yearly plan for Grade 6:
1 week of Physics (sound)
5 weeks of Roman History (Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4 and 5)
1 week of Physics (light)
4 weeks of Geometry (Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4)
1 week of Physics (heat)
3 weeks of Europe Geography (Week 1, Week 2, Week 3)
2 weeks of Business Maths
2 weeks of French Literature/Poetry
2 weeks of Geology (Week 1, Week 2)
2 weeks of Maths (Percents)
2 weeks of Astronomy (Week 1, Week 2)
And here's a list of all the books I needed for Grade 6 (by subject):
Roman History:
Donna Simmons Roman History Bundle (that includes Charles' Kovacs Ancient Rome book)
In Search of a Homeland: The Story of the Aeneid
Augustus Caesar's World
City: A Story of Roman Planning and Construction
Math/Geometry:
Making Math Meaningful: A Middle School Math Curriculum for Teachers and Parents
String, Straight-edge and Shadow
Compass Drawing
Key to Geometry Workbook 1 and 2
Key to Fractions Workbook 3 and 4
Key to Decimals Workbook 2 and 3
Key to Percents Workbook 1 to 3
Math Mysteries
Perplexors (I get each girl one of those, Level A, B and C)
Geology/Astronomy:
Geology and Astronomy
Sky Phenomena
The Constellations: Stars and Stories
Please keep in mind that we live in a bus and space really is a concern, so I went for the bare essentials. If you have access to a library, you can supplement with many more books.
And don't hesitate to share your favorite resources with me!
I have lots of ressources posted for Waldorf Grade 1 and 2 on this blog, starting here (in French).
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