Everything you need to create a well rounded 6th grade homeschool curriculum: English, math, history, science, art, and more.
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Emma’s 6th Grade Homeschool Curriculum
What You'll Find on This Page
My 12-year-old daughter Emma LOVES reading and writing. Math is her most challenging subject, but we’ve found an excellent math book that she learns a lot from, with a lot of support.
See also: Anna’s Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum and Lily’s 3rd Grade Homeschool Curriculum.
6th Grade Homeschool Curriculum: Art
Emma’s main art curriculum this year are her monthly Doodle Crates. She’s learned a range of art techniques through these crates this year, from clay sculpture to print making. She enjoys using Doodle Your Day as a low key art + writing warm-up.
For the musical side of the arts, Emma plays cello and sings in a local choir.
6th Grade Homeschool Curriculum: English
English is Emma’s favorite subject. She set a goal to write 500 words a day in 2018, and so far she’s on track to meet that goal. She uses the middle school writer resources from Nanowrimo Young Writers Program to work on her fiction writing. She publishes some of her fiction writing and quite a bit of her non-fiction writing on her blog, Maker Emma.
Emma’s been working her way through fairy tell retellings this year using our Kindle Unlimited Subscription. I read the books alongside her, and then we discuss them. We started with K.M. Shea’s Timeless Fairy Tales collection. We then moved on to the Entwined Tales series. That series introduced us to more fun authors who write clean fairy tale retellings, and Emma enjoyed Melanie Cellier’s The Four Kingdoms series. I love that kindle unlimited introduces my daughter to authors she might not find in a standard bookstore, and that it is showing her the potential held in self publishing.
Of course, we also love classic books! Emma read The Hiding Place as a kick-off for studying World War II, and she is just delving into the Wrinkle in Time series.
6th Grade Homeschool Curriculum: History
I grew up firmly convinced that I detested history. It’s an absurd assertion, given that historical fiction is my favorite book genre and I adore living history museums. But I clung to that notion so firmly that I found a non-history class to fulfill the history requirement as a university student. Then I went on to study history book after history book on the Balkan conflict in graduate school. I quickly realized that history is much, much more than memorizing the dates of leaders and battles.
I decided to follow my children’s interests in exploring history, at least this year. Emma thoroughly enjoyed exploring ancient civilizations through a three month History Unboxed subscription. She enjoyed an overview of more recent history through a Fashions in History course we found on SchoolhouseTeachers.com. She also loved participating in Model United Nations (MUN) via an Outschool course.
Since Emma loves to read so much, I’m always on the lookout for good history books – fiction as well as non-fiction. Please share any recommendations you have!
6th Grade Homeschool Curriculum: Math
Math is Emma’s least intuitive subject, and the school math curriculum wasn’t making math more intuitive – even if she did fine in terms of grades. The Art of Problem Solving is an incredible curriculum that gets kids thinking like proper mathematicians. Emma still doesn’t love math, but she’s made a lot of progress. My mom usually does the lessons alongside her, using the voice call function on our Amazon Echo since it has the best sound quality.
6th Grade Homeschool Curriculum: Science
Emma spent the first half of her sixth grade year working through Ellen McHenry’s Carbon Chemistry course. She loves the book’s playful approach, and learned a lot. These lessons were complemented by her work with our Happy Atoms modeling set.
Emma completed that course just in time to start her farm science class. This new biology oriented course takes place on a local farm. Emma loves spending three hours a week learning about plants and animals through hands-on experiments and experiences.
Homeschool Curriculum Recommendations for Other Grades
Are you homeschooling several different ages? Here are some of my other homeschool curriculum recommendations:
- Schoolhouse Teachers Homeschool Curriculum Membership
- Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum Recommendations
- First Grade Homeschool Curriculum Recommendations
- Third Grade Homeschool Curriculum Recommendations
- Fifth Grade Homeschoool Curriculum Recommendations
- Sixth Grade Homeschool Curriculum Recommendations
- Timberdoodle’s Eighth Grade Curriculum Kit
What are your favorite 6th grade homeschool curriculum resources?
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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Thanks for mentioning that your daughter was more engaged with a more recent history course. I’ve been thinking of homeschooling my children, but I haven’t been sure where to start. Where are some great places to get learning materials?
We found the Fashions in History course through SchoolhouseTeachers.com. It’s a subscription site, but they offer a broad range of history course options (as well as other subject materials). Their products are for Preschool-12th grade, and I’ve used them with all of my kids.
Oh, and if y’all haven’t read
Robin McKinley’s Beauty yet, you need to read that. Also all of
Gail Carson Levine’s books.
There’s also a Christian Romance author who takes the idea of fairy tales and says, “What if this happened in the real world? How could the magical parts look magical but actually be true events?” that is interesting, but I’m not remembering that author offhand.
The
Dear America or
My America books are good middle grade history books. There’s also a series called Orphan Train that follows a family of orphans sent West on the orphan trains for some good history books to read. Also anything by
Jean Fritz.
I don’t really know any good middle school level books offhand.
I need to sit down and figure out what curriculum I’m going to use next year.
I can’t wait to read Emma’s books!
I whole-heartedly agree with AoPS as an excellent approach to math. I wish they went further than they do – they kind of stop at Advanced Algebra. Looks like Emma is having a wonderful year!
Really? I’ve seen books of theirs through Calculus.