Here it is, homeschool friends. Our 2019-20 (2020!? WHAT?!) gifted homeschool curriculum choices post for 3rd, 4th and 6th grade.
Before I dive into favorite resources, exciting new curricula, gameschooling, and Lazy Unit Studies, can I just say that I cannot believe it is August?!
I feel like I just took this photo:
Summer goes by in a blink here in New England. I want to savor every single delicious moment of warm weather and sunshine. Because of this, I always plan a slow start.
Currently, we are doing math, reading, and piano daily. We’ll continue to layer on subjects and activities until we’re back up to normal September speed. If the weather is awesome in September, I’ll plan to spend more time outdoors. If the weather turns foul, we’ll get back into the swing of things quickly.
I’ve learned to take advantage of the fantastic weather. I know we have plenty of cold, gray days ahead of us and I’ve learned we always manage to catch up!
All that said, September is coming. I know this because I’m getting heaps of emails from readers asking about favorite resources by subject. When this happens, I know it’s time to write my annual homeschool curriculum post.
Gifted Homeschool Curriculum Choices: 3rd, 4th, and 6th grade
But, first- Did you know I have a self-paced digital course on how to embrace your child’s passions and cross off all of those academic ‘must-dos’?
It’s true! You can read more here.
If you’re new here, you must know that we are gifted homeschool curriculum ‘dabblers’
If you haven’t already, I invite you to read our posts from past years. You can find all previous homeschool curriculum and resource posts on this landing page:
Homeschool resource landing pages:
- Homeschooling: Resources by Academic Subject
- Gameschooling: Resources by Academic Subject
- Books: Resources by Academic Subject
- The Best Homeschool Subscriptions and Memberships
Check out My Little Poppies Course Offerings:
- The Lazy Homeschooler’s Guide to Unit Studies
- How to Rock THE MOST IMPORTANT PART of Your Homeschool Day
- Gameschooling 101: How to Add More Play to Your Homeschool Day
Our Homeschool Routine for 2019-20
Our family has some scheduled activities such as piano and art lessons, athletics, science courses, farm school, and Story Club. You can read more about how we opt for a routine over a strict homeschool schedule here.
As always, I will start each morning with Coffee and Books.
Our family loves to via Lazy Unit Studies
I love to embrace those rabbit holes and surrender to delight-driven learning. I love to follow my child’s lead, embrace their interests, and model how to find information.
An example of a super-simple Tall Tales Lazy Unit Study.
I believe that this type of learning helps children to maintain joyful curiosity and lifelong learning.
An example of a super simple human anatomy Lazy Unit Study.
I layer on the learning in the form of books, documentaries, field trips, games until we are all ready to move on.
An example of a super simple fairy tale Lazy Unit Study.
Read more about Lazy Unit Studies here:
Gifted Homeschool Curriculum, By Subject
Okay, here we go!
Math
My 6th grader loved Mr. D Math Online Pre-Algebra last year. This summer, he elected to continue with Pre-Algebra 2. Mr. D Math didn’t fit our summer schedule and so we tried Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) online Pre-Algebra 2. (For those who love Beast Academy, AoPS is the big-kid version.)
My son loved AoPS because, in addition to Pre-Algebra, he learned to use LaTex and Asymptote. As a result, this year he will be taking:
My 4th grader will use the following:
My 3rd grader will use the following:
All three kiddos will dabble in:
Money Bags is a fun way to teach children to identify coins and make change!
Language Arts
We meet weekly with two homeschool families and have a Story Club, where the children write and illustrate stories. Also, all three kiddos will enjoy:
- Audible
- Beautiful Feet Books History of the Horse
- IEW
- Writing with Ease
- Writing and Rhetoric
- Coffee and Books
- Marie’s Words
- Journaling
- Language Arts games
This award-winning language arts game is one of our favorites, and it’s so versatile! We’ve written so many stories with this one!
Science
My 11-year-old is obsessed with biology right now, so in addition to the resources listed below he will be taking:
Everyone will use:
- BookShark Science 5 Package (Health & Human Anatomy) – Read more about this choice here.
- CuriosityStream
- Exploring Nature with Children
- Science games
- Nature games
- Local STEM class
- Farm school
- Nature journaling
Geography
Everyone will use:
History
Everyone will use:
- Big History from Great Courses
- Beautiful Feet Books History of the Horse
- CuriosityStream
- History games
Art
All three kiddos take an art class each week. Also, everyone will dabble in:
- Alisha Gratehouse’s Masterpiece Society Studio (more info below)
- Chalk Pastels | You Are an Artist (more details below)
- Art & Music Games
If you love art, I want you to know about two of our favorite art membership sites:
1. The You Are An Artist Clubhouse Annual Membership
We *love* Nana and her Chalk Pastel tutorials. Now, Nana has created an entire clubhouse for artists!
The Clubhouse annual membership includes:
- Instant access to oodles of video art tutorials
- A new art course added monthly
- A new art lesson each week
- … and Chalk Pastels at the Movies
You can read more or sign-up here.
2. Masterpiece Society Studio
I’m not at all surprised, but my kiddos are *loving* this membership site. My oldest was sick as a dog on Valentine’s Day. Everyone was grouchy (self-included) and feeling a little crummy that our day didn’t go as planned.
Music
All three kiddos participate in piano lessons. Everyone will dabble in:
View this post on Instagram
Technology
Everyone will dabble in:
Always smiling when our BitsBox arrives!
Foreign Language
Everyone will dabble in:
Other resources we are thrilled to continue with include:
- Field Trip Zoom
- CuriosityStream
- Outschool (My oldest has enjoyed the Harry Potter courses for books one and two and also the Harry Potter Junior Film Studies!)
Looks like a great bunch of fun things you’ll all be doing this year! How will you use Marie’s Words and Pin It Maps?
Hi, Coriander!
I need to write a post on this. It’s super simple. We basically just talk about a few of the words, post them on bathroom mirrors, and make a game of trying to use the words appropriately. Pin It Maps I use all the time. If you search for them on my site, you’ll find articles about how we use them! Take care!
I love this. I think the phrase that is sticking out to me is “dabble in” – YES! It’s so freeing! We will do some of it, and not do some of it. Great phrase that I am adding to my vocabulary.
Thanks, Ann-Marie!
Did you do the self paced option with Mr D or the live classes?
Hi, Beth!
He enjoyed the live course last year. He does better with a live course over self-paced, but I know others who have adored the self-paced. Mary Wilson at MaryHannaWilson.com has some posts about how her family has used self-paced.
How much time per school day did he spend doing math? Does your son like/love math? My daughter doesn’t love math. She enjoys live classes but I’m trying to decide if the pacing will be appropriate for her.
I never timed it, but he would do some math each morning independently so that he’d be on track for the next week’s class. He does enjoy math. I would contact Mr. D. and chat with him about your concerns. He’s wonderful!
So many great resources! Thank you for compiling these all in one place. Do you have a sample schedule of how you incorporate everything into a normal week? I get overwhelmed by all of the fun choices and balancing everything with our scheduled activities as well. Thanks for all you do!
Hi, Jennifer!
Thanks for your sweet words. We don’t use a schedule. You can read more here: https://my-little-poppies.com/homeschool-curriculum/
I’m new to your site and had not heard of CuriosityStream before. It sounds and looks fantastic. I just wonder if you have to preview the content before watching with your kiddos. My boys are incredibly curious but also super sensitive. Is the content generally safe?
Oh, I am so glad when someone hasn’t heard of them yet. CuriosityStream is one of my go-to, most favorite resources of all time. They have a kid setting! I actually don’t use it but others have raved about it.
What a treasure trove of good stuff – thank you for sharing, Cait! Even though my kids are older, we still use and love so many of your recommendations each year, and I’m always sending hesitant homeschool moms your way. Thank you for the valuable resources you share.
I would love to hear about how you schedule Beast Academy online. I’m looking at it for my 2nd grader right now as he is over halfway through his 2nd grade math book 30 days into the school year. I think it might provide him some challenge. Anyways, I’m overwhelmed by there being a book, problems, videos. Which do I do first? lol I’m not finding a lot online about how people schedule it out.
Hi Nicole. It really depends on what you’re working on. Because it is so challenging, some days one “starred” challenge problem is enough. So, to answer your question, I don’t schedule it. They are expected to work on it daily, but I don’t set schedules or time frames. Hope this helps!
Did you find your son had any troubles going between Mr. D math and AOPS? I know that Beast is so completely different from any other curriculum so I wasn’t sure if that held true for AOPS. We are going to be ready for Pre-Algebra at the beginning of the year so I am looking at both of these. I just know that schedule problems may prevent us from sticking with one path so curious if it was any problem going between them.
Sidenote- I think our kiddos are in Biology together 🙂
Hi, Jennifer!
Small world!
He had no problem with the transition. He had done Beast Academy before taking Pre-Algebra with Mr. D last year and so he was familiar with the set-up. He is enjoying AoPS because he also gets to learn LaTek and Asymptote. A happy bonus for a STEM-loving kiddo 🙂
I noticed that you switched from Michael Clay Thompson for LA to Beautiful Feet…may I ask why? I’m curious because I am just starting with Homeschooling and learning about these options. My Poppy is a first grader and I was going to buy MCT but now I am wondering if I should purchase Beautiful Feet instead (I did buy their primary History package). Thank you so much! Sharing your experience is invaluable to me and much appreciated! 🙂
Hi, Shaun!
We are MAJOR curriculum dabblers. I have and use MCT *and* Beautiful Feet, depending on the year. We also dabble in IEW, too. My kids have enjoyed MCT. Hope this helps a little!
Hi Cait, what an awesome blog! Thank you so much for creating this. I’m spending hours on your site everyday! 🙂
I have a 5 year old advanced learner who LOVES beast academy. She also loves reading books and is currently reading chapter books on her own. I’m trying to figure out the best curriculum for Language Arts for her. Would you recommend using MCT already at 5 or should we try any other curriculum for now? I’m a bit lost with Language Arts and would love your suggestion. Thank you so so much!!
We are also doing Mystery Science for science and some library books to read up on simple history and prominent people. This is my first time homeschooling and it’s so fun!
Hi, Shasha!
Honestly? For a 5-year-old, I would just read fantastic books. The more, the merrier! Reading aloud is the most important part of the entire homeschool day and it also instills a love of stories and that fuels motivation to learn to read when the time comes.
Have so much fun this year!
Hi! Do you use the guides with Beautiful Feet Books or do you just read the books? Also, Writing with Ease or Writing and Rhetoric? I see you used both. Which one is the easiest and more open and go?
We are curriculum dabblers, so we have used all of the above at one point or another. I do tend to use BF books without the guide. And as for Writing with Ease and Writing and Rhetoric, both were easy to use. If I had to pick, I would choose Writing with Ease.