 Hey you guys, my name is Brittany and welcome back to my YouTube channel. You guys in today's video I will be doing my end of the year recap for my fifth grader. If any of you are new here to my channel again My name is Brittany. I'm a homeschooling mom to three girls and I just finished my third year of homeschool So you guys I'm so excited to make this video really recapping my fifth graders homeschooling year I'm really talking about all of the things that I feel like I did well this homeschooling year some of my regrets and Overall giving you like an overview of the curriculum that we used some of my highs and some of our lows So you guys I'm gonna go ahead and get into this thing because I know this one is gonna be a lengthy one because I definitely want to Make sure I really give you guys a thorough a review and recap over our overall homeschooling year I love looking back at these videos and seeing all the things that we got up to each year and They're really really fun for me to film So first and foremost the things that I feel that went well for us this homeschooling year was definitely our Homeschooling schedule. We did the sap of homeschooling schedule you guys where we did the six weeks on one week off And it was amazing. I really felt like at the end of those six weeks I was able to Really recap and see some of the things that went well some of the things that didn't go well I was really able to pivot in like our daily flow and Maybe some adjustments in our curriculum that we use that Tom and it was really really great for me to have that week off for briel when she had that week off I really feel like she began to really get the opportunity to be creative and do like a lot of interest let learning in That week off that we had because of our schedule So she did a lot of creative writing during that time when we had our week off Bria really really enjoyed learning how to use pro create where she was able to do like her own cover pages and illustrations to her creative writing stories and just really making some fun creations on there as well She did a lot of piano and just a lot of things she was interested in on those weeks off And I really really feel like I was able to squeeze out all of like the freedom and a flexibility We do have in homeschooling by doing that schedule and that's something that is definitely not changing in the upcoming homeschool year Another thing that I really feel like I did well this homeschooling year and the things that I was really really proud of myself Was that I overall you guys I feel like I slowed down I feel like when I first it off our homeschooling year I was like bam bam bam rushing rushing trying to get everything in our you know homeschooling day And I really feel like I was pushing Brielle to the limit But I definitely feel as we hit like our second six-week term I really began to slow down and enjoy that flexibility of our new Sabbath homeschooling schedule, and I'm really really happy that those things worked out something else that worked out very well For us this homeschooling year was Brielle student planner you guys this was just a free student planner that I found online I will go ahead and link it down below, but what Brielle pretty much did was she? Had an opportunity like to decorate her homeschooling planner to write all of the things that she was doing for each day And I really feel like this planner really gave Brielle like a sense of independence because she knew what she had to do each day And she didn't have to wait on me this really allowed me the opportunity to work 101 without any interruptions with my younger kiddos because Brielle had a list She knew what she had to do and I really feel like this gave her Overall good sense of like independence, and I really feel like once we started giving a Brielle this student planner She really took off in a lot of her core work I really was coming in on the back and helping her the only subjects I really taught Brielle this year was really grammar science and history the rest of her core was really video led And I really came in on the back and just helping her Assist her in her education. I think she really enjoyed this Independent student planner that she had you guys. I enjoyed my school nest planner you guys. I really really enjoyed Doing my weekly reflections my weekly recaps I really enjoyed all of the sections that Megan has in the school nest planner It was really really amazing for me to be able to like recap each week to set Realistic weekly goals for us in our home in my homeschool planner and really just looking back at some of the recaps That I had you guys is so amazing all of the things that I seen that we got up to each year or each week And now that our end of the year is over you guys this bad boy is pretty fat But I really really enjoyed using a planners this homeschooling year Now some of the things that I regret for this homeschooling year is definitely I really feel like I wish I would have Simplified my homeschool curriculum sooner I really feel like since I put out my fifth grade homeschool curriculum picks in February a lot of things Changed from February into August when we really kickstarted our homeschooling year And I really wished I would have took my time in selecting some of the curriculum choices because I feel like I probably Wouldn't have had Changes that I had Overall, I feel like this year I had the least amount of changes that I have had in my past two years as far as Curriculum goals. I feel like most of the things that I Started off my homeschooling year with we pretty much end it with we had a few pivots But not too many and overall I am proud of that and I'm proud of the I'm proud that we didn't have really big big Big us switches and things like that this homeschooling year But I will say that I really wish I would have took my time And I was I would have simplified our homeschooling curriculum sooner another thing too that I regret Doing a spelling curriculum for Brielle this homeschooling year because when I tested her After the end of her fourth grade year She tested very very well and spelling and I knew by watching her that you know She was pretty much she pretty much mastered spelling Phenetically and I don't know why I felt the need to do a spelling curriculum I really wish I would have focused more on vocabulary Which was one of her weaker areas this homeschooling year and really honed in on that I think I just did a spelling curriculum because you know She still was in elementary school and I felt like I needed to do a spelling curriculum But I really should have looked at her skill level and followed that instead of doing a spelling curriculum I loved our spelling curriculum we use but she really didn't need it another one of my regrets is I wish we were able To do more field trips, but I really have to be realistic in a season of life that I'm in I do have a three and a five-year-old and when we started off our homeschooling year They were two and four and it's really really hard You know wrangling two toddlers with you going places now that they are older and potty train I definitely know our upcoming homeschool year We definitely will have more opportunities for field trips and I really need to give myself a little bit more grace when it comes to that and Another thing that I have my last regret is I wish we did it more literature studies because Brielle Really really enjoyed like analyzing literature and things like that and I didn't realize that that was something she enjoyed So I really wish I would have put in and carved out more time for us to really do like more literature studies and literature guys When it came to like our read aloud, so you guys let's go ahead and get into all the curriculum I have it broken down. I have curriculum Which is all over the place and I'm gonna go ahead and briefly give your overview on What we finished what we didn't finish what we loved and what we didn't love. Okay you guys Let's go ahead and get on into math. So when we started off our fifth grade homeschooling year We were wrapping up Saxon 6-5. We started Saxon 6-5 January of 2022 so we completed Saxon 6-5 in September of 2022 so Saxon you guys I have so many videos on Saxon on my channel. I'll link them down below I love Saxon. It's tried and true. It just didn't fit well with Brielle once we got into Saxon 7-6 We started Saxon 7-6 in October of 22 and we went we stopped Saxon in January So we worked in it for a good what so that's what October November December and a little bit of January So we worked in it for a good three months I really was pushing Brielle when it came to Saxon and really trying to make this curriculum fit for her Just because 6-5 went pretty well The spiral approach was showing that it wasn't necessarily driving well with her particular learning style When it came to her learning other concepts went with the spiral She was forgetting a lot and I really figured that I needed to hone in and slow down math for her We're definitely getting into higher mathematics. I mean in the next couple of years She will be in or not this year, but next year she will be in pre algebra So I definitely knew I wanted to lay a good foundation for her before she gets into upper mathematics Saxon was no longer working for her So we went ahead and started math. You see epsilon in January and I have a couple of videos Flipped throughs and the reasons why we switched so I'm just gonna go ahead and give you guys my final review of math You see it was great Brielle loved it. I love the simple approach to mathematics I love the fact that I was able to simplify and slow down math for Brielle math is not necessarily Brielle's strongest subject She's good in it once she got the light once she gets the concepts and when she's confident She's good in it, but I really started to notice with Saxon She was losing that confidence and I wanted to regain that confidence with math I wanted to simplify it and slow it down for her and this was like the perfect curriculum for Brielle now Saxon math you see you guys they're both very very tried and true curriculums. I stand behind both of these curriculums I love Saxon still you guys, but math you see is just a better fit for Brielle I loved using these math you see Fraction overlays this really allowed Brielle to hone in on the multiplication of fractions division Added in subtraction unlike common denominators. You guys Brielle did awesome on her final exam in math You see epsilon so I'm so proud that I made the pivot even though I was scared because this is math So technically this homeschooling year. She finished two math curriculum She finished Saxon six five and epsilon so I'm really really proud of her and I'm I was nervous about the pivot and the change, but it just worked out very well for her. So that is math Now as far as grammar goes you guys we did fix it grammar this year our first semester We did fix it grammar town mouse and country mouse book two in our second semester We did Robin Hood book three now English is Brielle's strongest subject Brielle definitely is working at like a sixth grade level right now when it comes to English So both of these books a fix a grammar. She really didn't learn anything new in and it's not Anything bad about fix a grammar. It's just that Brielle is very strong and proficient in grammar So I was really using these as independent work for her for her to remember and hone in on those grammar skills That she learned last year We use rod and staff for last year for her and you guys she absolutely loves rod and staff And I definitely will say the bulk of Brielle's grammar instructions this year as far as learning new concepts and new things came from rod and staff We started off our homeschooling year with rod and staff five But I gave Brielle the placement test because she was saying that it was too easy for her So I gave her the placement test and she placed into rod and staff six and that's why We are in rod and staff English six right now. She loves this English curriculum you guys I definitely have to do a do a lesson with you guys We are continuing rod and staff this summer because we made it through 72 lessons We made it 72 out of 124 lessons. So we're gonna finish up rod and staff six over the summer She loves it. We do a lot of these lessons orally I use the dry erase board when she's diagramming her sentences and I think she really really just loves English So rod and staff six was where she learned it and fix a grammar was like again that review Repetition of the skills that she already learned English is just her strong subject and that's just like how Brielle jive she wants the English she wants all of it As far as spelling you guys goes we did a hundred and eight days of spelling and word study I don't have anything bad to say about the spelling curriculum is traditional is tried and true I definitely will say the spelling words in this curriculum is very very challenging And I loved the challenge for her I definitely was able to see how proficient she was in spelling and to really be honest I wish I would have focused more on vocabulary for Brielle this homeschooling year Like I said before because she is really really strong in spelling What I did to go ahead and utilize the vocabulary and word study portion of this program was we used our School Ness fifth grade notebook and what I was doing was I was making Brielle write sentences in her in context Typically, I will have her write all of her Vocabulary words and spelling words in sentences in this school Ness notebook So that was how we was ending it off and towards the end She was definitely able to write the vocabulary words in context and I feel like I was able to Really focus on the vocabulary when it came to this curriculum, but I really wish I would have done like word roots earlier We tried out wordly wise Brielle just didn't jive with it And I didn't want to force her to do wordly wise especially since she didn't love it I really didn't feel like it was worth it to push her to do something she didn't enjoy So I definitely know this upcoming homeschool year I definitely am going to be focusing on vocabulary and we will be using word roots to really focus on those Latin and Root words and prefixes because I found that Brielle retain more words when we Focused on the prefixes the Latin and the root words then just actually memorizing a list of vocabulary words now for Reading comprehension you guys I love this reading detective book for reading comprehension They actually use real literature passages in here in the excerpts one of the excerpts was like The witch of blackbird pond they use Alan of the blue dolphins where the red fern grows And they just take a lot of literature excerpts and they ask the kiddos comprehension questions They really focus on that inference and skill I'm gonna be honest Brielle did not enjoy this book when we first started off because it was really really challenging She really had to hone in on those context clues in the literature And it wasn't just straight to the point questions for her and I really feel like This really is a great book for that higher-level thinking you guys the critical thinking company I have been sleeping on them. They are awesome. So this level right here is for fifth and sixth grade We've made it halfway through this curriculum. So I definitely know we will be finishing this off This upcoming homeschool year We only did reading comprehension twice a week on Mondays and on Fridays So that's probably how I will continue to use our reading comprehension the upcoming homeschool year As far as handwriting goes we did handwriting without tears great excellent I love the cursive that she did now one thing I will say the cursive is kind of funky I kind of like more of the italicized cursive Then the way that they teach the cursive and handwriting without tears But it definitely lays a great foundation for the overall structure of cursive handwriting and Brielle loved it as far as Writing goes Brielle did creative writing like I mentioned before and here are some of Brielle's short stories That she's written. She's written actually five. I only printed off four of her creative writing stories right now Um, and again, she did a lot of creating writing in like the afternoon and especially when we had our week off So I'm really really proud of Brielle to really be able to hone in on those creative writing skills And I definitely will let you know as Brielle was reading her creative writing towards the end of her homeschooling year her writing definitely flourished and it flourished because of of course Iew you guys I already made my full end of the year review of Iew but you guys I love this curriculum I am so proud of Brielle. I'm so proud of the foundation that Iew laid for her as far as her writing skills Um, I went into details in my video about Iew all of my pros and my cons of this curriculum But overall you guys I'm really really happy with Iew. I'm happy that the writing pressure was taken off of me this homeschooling year Uh, and I'm really really. I'm just happy to see the growth in her writing She wrote 24 papers this homeschooling year And I cannot believe to you know like to say that she wrote that much But I'm so proud of her and I'm proud of all of her growth. We will continue with the Iew series I'm not too sure if we're going to do Iew this year, but next summer We definitely will do another level of Iew because I'm just so like I'm blown away by the growth in her writing And I've definitely seen it translated in other areas, especially when it came to like science and history As far as literature you guys we did two literature guides this year and we did a brave writers literature guide with the liminate war and I actually don't have it printed off anymore because I just took out the pages that I need it So uh, Brielle did like a lot of copy work when it came to the brave writers literature guide All of the copy work that she did she actually used her school nest notebook right here In doing like all the copy work this literature guide focused a lot on like a slang We talked a lot about semi-colons um, we talked a lot about um anamata pias And um, it was really really great all the literary devices that it did pull out I definitely will say I liked brave writers literature guide, but you definitely have to do some planning when it comes to using their literature guides It's not just straight to the point and you know, you have all of the things the checklist for each day You definitely have to put in the planning But I did like being able to pick and choose the different elements I wanted to focus in when it came to um the literature So I loved it, but you do have to put some work in the brave writers literature guides um So for that purpose I wanted to try another literature guide And I went ahead and tried Rachel's literature guide from where you learned that uh from seven and all And this is the witch of black bird pond literature guide and here goes the book right here And you guys I have to absolutely say this was one of my favorite Yet simple literature guides that I use for briel. She said that this was her favorite uh before brave writer I love the independence that it gave briel. It really gave her a lot of nuggets before starting off the story It was simple, but it was enough depth for us to really squeeze out all the juice in this Uh book the witch of black bird pond we listened to it on audible And it was great hearing like the narrator narrate this um the narrator had like this british accent And it was really really fun Us listening and following along on the witch of black bird pond at the end of each of uh rachel's uh from seven and all's literature guide She does have like a little final project and briel decided to do like a final character sketch Where she did like a quick a quick um analysis of the character's personality and she drew a picture And I thought the day was really really fun to end off our homeschool year doing this fun literature guide I didn't want her to do any of the writing assignments in the literature guide since she's done so much writing with iow I wanted her to really like analyze the literature and enjoyed it and she really really enjoyed that one Rachel from seven laws uh literature guides. I have a few of them I'm not too sure if I can squeeze them into our upcoming homeschool year But if I can squeeze them in I definitely will because I really really enjoy them and um, she's coming out with even more you guys Now as far as history and science you guys Goes we did two history curriculum The first curriculum that we did and finished was heart and soul by amber o'nell johnson And I love this. This is actually a simple african-american history The books that we read with heart and soul was of course heart and soul We actually listened to this on audible with the narrator and it was so awesome. Um, we loved it We also read 40 acres and maybe a mule. This is a great book about the uh after or it's actually Talking about african-americans after the emancipation proclamation them really trying to find their footing in this new america and where they belonged after slavery and This book was so awesome age appropriate I definitely feel like um, it was a great way to introduce. Um, I guess that uh specific time and that specific error After the civil war and what these newly free african-americans Had to do to really gain their footing in america great book We also read um stellar by starlight you guys and we listened to this one again on um, I think this was on script We listened to this one and it's a great book. This book actually went along with the um, it went along during the great depression error And uh, it really just focused a lot on all of the hardships and things that the african-americans had to go through during the great depression You guys this was such a great and uh inspiring story. It definitely didn't leave you feeling like Down it definitely left you feeling I guess inspired to see the the motivation That all of these african-americans had during this time, especially in fighting for voting rights briel Love this book. It was in the perspective of stella. Who was a 10 year old girl And uh briel loved that so great book you guys. I love that one briel did a lot of um, I guess copy work and narration and little short stories with all the picture books that we read With heart and soul heart and soul. I think it was a total of 26 picture books we read with this unit and after we read each picture book briel would do some type of Paragraph or summary about it. Uh, she would maybe pick out like a quote that she enjoyed She would probably write like a timeline. So that is how we utilize our history notebook Now when we first started off our homeschooling year our main curriculum was beautiful feats, uh American history the intermediate guy it didn't really work out well for us And I switched over to blossom and root a river of voices and you guys like I love this curriculum This curriculum definitely you have to get used to the format of this curriculum Um, it definitely is more of like a pick and choose It's doesn't it's not like a schedule like heart and soul was where it lays out what you're going to be doing each day It definitely gives you a plan and a guide and all of the different resources you can pick and choose from I think that that was the most challenging part for me when it came to blossom and root of river voices Was really getting used to that format. But when I got used to it I did enjoy being able to pick and choose the picture books that we were going to be reading and the chapter books and The activities and whether I wanted to do the right and assignment for that week or not We only made it halfway through this curriculum We didn't get into the revolutionary war and up into the constitution as I wanted to in this curriculum But i'm not too worried about it because when we are make or because our um curriculum that we're using For the upcoming years. We will touch on these specific these specific time periods So i'm not worried that we didn't finish this one. Um, but I definitely will say if I was to go back I may have wanted to try o freedom Instead of blossom and root because I seen o freedom has more of a specific schedule And I do think I kind of am a more specific schedule person But then i'm not so that's like my only con about blossom and root My other con about it is that some of the literature So they blossom and root has it sectioned out in a gentle path and a standard path And sometimes I found myself straggling between the gentle path and a standard path for briel because I felt like The standard path was a little bit too much information when it came to american history It's definitely not information I want to shy away from in the future But I feel like it's too much information for right now that I do want to give her So that is my only con about it that I really had to like pivot between those two levels. Um We also used this book before columbus. It was great But I really wish I would have studied ancient history before using this book And some of the information did go over top of briel's heads The other two reference books. They were really kind of like textbooky And I really utilized more of like the picture books and things that they selected instead of these reference books But um overall I did enjoy blossom and root of river of voices and um, yeah, so you guys um Let's go ahead and briefly go over science For science, we started off our homeschooling year using heaven and earths our universe We completed our universe I kind of like added in some things that I wanted to at the end So that is kind of like how we did our space study briel used her school next science notebook and she did like a lot of space Templates and things like that when going over space. So I really loved using these books God's design for heaven and earth was This god's design in particular heaven and earth wasn't as fun as god's design for life And I'm just going to be honest with you guys And that's kind of like one of the reasons why we pivoted in our science because briel wasn't enjoying it And honestly science is not my strongest subject I really wish I would have outsourced science sooner for briel In our second semester, we tried out core knowledge and we also tried out Generation genius and you guys that blend was so great for us We used the weather and climate from core knowledge We actually just read the reader and then we did the Book sharks weather unit, which was a free unit all this is free you guys free science And we really really enjoyed studying weather and then we ended off the year doing earth spears which just went over the different earth spears and You guys like I think that I found one of the sciences that I'm going to use for my younger kiddos when They do when they are up there because I really enjoyed core knowledge I'm going to use another one of core knowledge units for our summer And I definitely will kind of like update you guys more on core knowledge But at the end of the day all of these free resources ended up working out for us versus the curriculum that I actually paid for which is crazy, but um Science was definitely my weakest subject again But I really feel like I found the good footing in what I'm looking for in science And I really wish I would have used generation genius and core knowledge sooner So you guys I hope this video wasn't too long, but this is my end of the year curriculum review Um, I'm really proud of us and all the accomplishments that we did this homeschooling year I'm proud of my daughter and um, I really look forward to our upcoming homeschool years I really feel now that I am confident in my homeschool choices and my homeschool curriculum And I'm confident in myself as like a homeschooling mom now And I definitely know you probably won't see many big changes on my channel anymore when it comes to curriculum Because I really have learned what curriculum that I need to outsource and that I'm not the best at and what curriculum I really feel like I can take on as homeschooling mom. So this is my end of the year reflections you guys I really hope that it's helpful and as always I look forward to seeing everybody in my next one Bye