Oak Meadow Grade 5 Suggested Textbooks
As I've mentioned probably a gazillion times, we cobble our curriculum together each year from a variety of sources, and this year's planning is no different.
Yeah, it's true, it seems I am often in some stage of planning for the next year. The reason for this is because I prefer to have as much done ahead of time as possible so that when I'm working on a current week's lesson, most of the work has been done already. We're so busy that I don't want to stress about not having what we need from week to week. Also, if there are free versions of material available, I want to seek those out or watch for sales on things that are not free, order books from the library, etc.
What I've chosen for part of next year's social studies is the middle book in the picture above:
Oak Meadow Fifth Grade US History and English.
I have not typically found the teacher manuals to be of much help, since I tend to do my own thing for different topics anyway.
As I looked through the history book, I took note of every book expected to be read during the course of the year. I then set about how to get these books, or close equivalents (in some cases, it would suggest that other books on the same topic would be fine), for free or at least for less than full price.
As an example, I found Where Do You Think You're Going, Christopher Columbus? as a read-aloud on teachertube.com. I also converted the video to audio format so we can listen to it in the car on our many excursions into our nearest "city" each week.
Another book on the list is If You Sailed On The Mayflower In 1620, which is located at our local library. When the time comes for that unit, I'll just reserve it (or order another copy sent in if it is not available) a week or so beforehand and then sign it out when we need it.
I found a Greek Myths book (by Olivia Coolidge), which is recommended by several Waldorf schools for Grade 5 when we get to the block on Greece, in the 25 cent bin at our library last week. SCORE! It is definitely a book that I'm happy to own. I also found a copy of Book 1 in the Percy Jackson Olympians series, which we're planning to start reading this summer to get us in the mood for Greek Myths. DS9 made the suggestion himself that we could read the book and then watch the movie to compare and contrast. Sounds like a fun summer project to me!
I also found a free copy of D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths online through careful googling (broken down into chapters in pdf form) . My, my what lovely illustrations the book has! I would be happy to have that one to own as well, but until/unless I find it in a 25 cent bin, that's unlikely to happen.
To support our lifestyle of me staying at home without an income, I make this educational journey as frugal as humanly possible. That means that I seek out whatever free resources I can, and then dole out money carefully for select items if I don't think we should really do without them for some reason. So far I've been able to get away with buying very few books. Even the Oak Meadow Grade 5 US History and English book I got on a Waldorf Book Swap and Tag Sale site for $15.00...and that included shipping to my door!! It's hard to beat that price, and I am very likely going to be able to recoup that cost when I sell it after we are done with it (after DD7 has finished with grade 5 in a few years).
I have found many maps, videos and free books and resources online for this coming year, which I am very pleased about! Yes, we do use videos and audiobooks in our homeschool, as I've mentioned many times in this blog. We aren't afraid of technology and believe that, if used correctly, it can be a wonderful and useful learning tool. We really, really enjoy listening to audiobooks in the car, and so I mix up listening to "pleasure books" with "educational books" regularly (but, of course, in my opinion it all serves as learning! Literature in its own right is very educational and mind-opening).
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Currently, our nightly read-aloud book is The Magic Thief, by Sarah Prineas
We are really enjoying this book so far and I anticipate that we will then want to read the entire series (I think there are four books in the series right now??).
This is in actual paperback form and separate from the audiobooks we listen to in the car. We don't read aloud every single night. We typically do this about three times a week, depending on how busy the week is. Sometimes everyone is just exhausted from our day and everyone chooses to decompress in our own bedrooms after a long day, and so we will skip that night for reading aloud. Some weeks, however, we get knee-deep into a story line in a book and want to read it every single night until we finish. We love the flexibility of choice each week and happily embrace everyone's energy and rest needs.
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I was recently asked how many of the books we read (whether suggested in the curriculum, or "extra" ones that I find at the library or purchase at a book sale) do I have the children choose. Ahhh, you all know how much I love these "How much is "enough" child-led activity" questions!
The kids pick out a couple of books for themselves every week when we go to the library. These books are for their own pleasure reading during the week and are completely separate from curriculum. They are literally never about whatever topic we're working on in homeschool. DS9 usually chooses a graphic novel or two, while DS7 usually chooses easy readers that are about her various favorite characters.
Books that are suggested in the curriculum I tend to pick myself. I do get input from DS9 from time to time (such as "Would you prefer THIS book on Egyptian myths, or THIS one?"), but the topic really isn't up for choice. As I have mentioned before, if he totally hated the topic, we would probably breeze through it in an introductory-style way over a much shorter period of time. I'd likely choose only 1 short book, and the rest would likely be videos/documentaries to get the gist and point across of the main idea, and then we'd likely move on as quickly as possible.
The topic, however, *WILL* be introduced if it is suggested for that year and if I feel it is important in a scope-and-sequence kind of way. DS9 knows this and accepts that topics of less interest will go by quickly. I am under the belief that topics that are that loathsome to a child will not be retained to any large degree, and so a brief introduction can sometimes be enough. Some topics we may be able to skip altogether, but generally I've already weeded through the topics to keep things as minimal as I feel I possibly can.
I don't believe in "busy work", so we do only what is absolutely necessary to practice the material and then we move on. Some topics, if the kids are really enjoying them, we will linger onto longer, and that's totally cool, too! For example, we are still doing our unit on The Vikings. We take our time with it, working slowly on the craft projects, map skills, and listening to stories from The Children of Odin. We are really loving these rich stories, so I imagine they will be in the car's CD player for at least a couple more weeks!
As for the nightly read-aloud books, I do often consult with DS9 about those, since they are meant to be "pleasure books", and so if he doesn't have any interested in them, then it really defeats the purpose. I showed him several books I found interesting at the books store, and he and I agreed on The Magic Thief (see above) together. If you're wondering why DD7 is not included in this, it is because her autism often means she is not interested and/or capable of sitting still long enough to enjoy a long chapter book at the level DS9 is on. I read to her separately in the afternoon a couple of days a week, when she seems calm and interested in me reading to her. Often she prefers to just read to herself.
It is a good balance for us between child-led and parent-led for us. It does allow the kids to have some say, and their input does affect the amount of time we spend on a topic....but at the same time, they WILL be introduced to these topics, even if they don't find them to be one of their favorites.
Recently, we did scrap trying to pick up the book Farmer Boy again. DS9 simply has no interest in it. The Little House On The Prairie books are highly recommended for grades 4, 5, and 6 so I am really pondering that. Understanding the pioneer lifestyle is a part of US history, and not one I'd be a fan of skipping altogether. We won't reach the block on Westward Expansion until at least midway through 5th grade, so I have some time to ponder this. Perhaps we can try viewing some of the Little House episodes to see if that sparks any interest? It is not just the info about pioneers that I feel is important, but the literary importance of the books themselves.
I feel we lose something when we do not include such classic books. Is our society doomed to only care about what is going on right now rather than the classics of our past?
Should I care so much about this and be prepared to die on this particular hill?
I guess maybe I will try a few episodes of the series as an opener and see if maybe we can go from there. I know I probably need to consider my mind-set on this. I don't want to be so rigid that I can't accept that maybe the kids just aren't interested in pioneer families and how people used to live, challenges they faced, etc. Maybe they'll become interested later on? I guess it still keeps coming back to the same question: "How much "child led" activity is enough"?
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