LearningRUs: June 2020

What a weird year!!!!

Usually in the summer we do everything we would like to do but cannot do during the school year. Not this year. Everything is upside down. So, we are moving on with homeschooling. Basically, we are in the first month of 5th and 7th grade.

Fifth Grade:

Math: We are finishing Beast Academy. We spent the last few months reviewing all of Beast Academy. We are currently busy with finishing decimals, percents and square roots.
English: We are reading and discussing one book a month. This month's book was the Soldier and the Tortoise which tells a story from WWI. We have not yet discussed the book but since we finished it, we are moving on to the next one - Front Desk.

For spelling, we are sluggishly moving through All About Spelling, Level 5
For writing, we are steadily advancing through IEW's Medieval History. I like this curriculum because it is laying down the foundation for good writing, starting with taking notes, making outlines, and original writing based on these skills. We are learning editing, which is a difficult skill, because kids want to write once and be done, and they don't take criticism easily.

Portuguese: Portuguese is back. We have daily grammar lessons, and we have a weekly 40-minute lesson. So far so good!
Music: Orchestra camp for two weeks, plus weekly cello and piano lessons.

Seventh Grade:

Math: We are taking a brief break from Algebra to focus on counting and probability for the next two months. We are continuing with geometry, currently working on quadrilaterals. While my nephew is in town we will do daily ACM8 exams.
English: We are reading and discussing one book a month. This month's book was Wednesday's Wars. We have not fully finished discussing the book but since we finished it, we are moving on to the next one - Amal Unbound.

For literature analysis, we are using EIL Level 7. We just wrapped up the short stories unit, which is the first of the four units in the program. The program is fairly simple which means very little input from me.
For writing, we are steadily advancing through IEW's World History. I like this curriculum because it is laying down the foundation for good writing, starting with taking notes, making outlines, and original writing based on these skills. We are learning editing, which is a difficult skill, because kids want to write once and be done, and they don't take criticism easily. If we homeschool for 8th grade, I will probably go with EIL and EIW, Level 8 just to get a variety of writing instruction.

Portuguese: Portuguese is back. We have daily grammar lessons, and we have a weekly 40-minute lesson. So far so good!
Music: Orchestra camp for two weeks, plus weekly violin and piano lessons.

My nephew is in town for two weeks and I intend to do a sciency camp with all three of the kids
Update: We did not get a chance to do the science listed below