Grade 5, a new beginning

It is that time of year again. The days are lengthening, the temperatures dropping (maybe a little? Soon, at least), and football is right around the corner. It is time for a new school year. Although Calvin does some school work year round (math, spanish, and music mainly), and though we live with a general atmosphere of learning, we do still celebrate the beginning of the tradiitonal school year the same way others do: with new books, new tools, and, now that he's older, a return to the pencils, papers, and desk.

Although our local schools didn't start until this week, the day after Labor Day, we went ahead and started a week earlier because we'll be taking a couple of extra vacation weeks during the year (shh! Don't tell). It was quiet around here, and plenty easy to settle down to business, so we're now well into our second week of fifth grade and it's sliding along pretty smoothly. I'm actually a little in awe of how much easier the work goes down this year, and of how much he loves his very first honest-to-goodness text book. It's a Spanish text, the only curriculum we could find to fit our needs, so I'm thankful for his enthusiasm.

Actually, it's going to be a year of many firsts for us. In a couple of weeks I'll be dropping Calvin off for his first ever public school class—fifth grade band. And he's taking tap and ballet dance lessons, both new to him. And I feel like this year especially he's growing right in front of my eyes, not only physically (as evidenced by my having to return the hiking shoes I got him for a larger size only two weeks later), but in confidence, poise, and occasionally ornery moodiness. There's a first for everything.

But with new beginnings come some closed doors. There will be no more cy365 this year: he's asked to have it taken off his school list and I'm barely keeping up with it anyway. And the bus stop play is different this year, because his two best friends, being different ages, now attend different schools and are picked up at different times. For Calvin this means getting up earlier if he wants to see his 5th grade friends off, then he gets a second go at bus stop play with the slightly younger crowd twenty minutes later. So far it hasn't been a problem, but we'll see how long the older kids want to get up in the cold and dark to play ball against the garage door before school.

I posted our Year 5 School Plan (a resource and goal list) here.

History: Story of the World Volume 4

Tech & Engin: Snap Circuits with Student Guide 

Geography: Draw the USA

Math: Math-U-See Geometry

Michael Clay Thompson's Level 4: Classic Literature Series, Sewing School, Javascript for Kids, Drawing With Children, Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding, Avancemos Spanish 1

Avancemos Spanish 1