I'm sharing how I've planned for my fifth graders school year using RC as our backbone to build off of and meet him where he is. After a pandemic year, an Abeka year and an ADD diagnosis (not hyper just has some attention issues) we decided to switch to the Robinson Curriculum (RC). As he cannot be left to his own devices and not totally space off all day I do have to provide some direct instruction at this time so you'll see that reflected in my curriculum choices. I'll go into each subject in more depth in subsequent posts so you can see how I implement the curriculum choices I've made.
My first step was to get a lesson planner
but I couldn't find a six day week planner
I liked so I made my own. I'll link at the end. I then split the year into 4 quarters. This keeps me on track for grading and builds in some reflection points.
Then I took a look at my states required subjects. In addition to the 3 R's (Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic) South Carolina requires Science and Social Studies. So I first canvased what was available to me through RC. Then I picked Science and Social Studies Curriculum that was no stress and enjoyable so that we weren't taking any mental energy away from the the R's. I call this RC+.
Another thing to consider is what Dr. Robinson says about science. In elementary school they aren't learning real science, they are learning over-simplified models that they'll have to unlearn later when they learn real science. With this in mind I chose "science" materials that were interesting and enjoyable but no stress. I do not want to overburden my elementary students with extra subjects that take away their mental energies for the three R's. Below is a curriculum by subject list from our first two quarters. You can see what extras were added in but it's mostly RC.
We made progress and learned a lot about what my student needs through trial and error. This is part of the process. Take a breath and keep going if you are in this stage. Based on what we learned first half of the year, I made some changes this third quarter. I'm not knocking anything we were using earlier but sometimes you need to tweak the plan a bit or progress or change strategy.
Obviously we are continuing on our RC reading list books so that is a constant but we did pause Saxon math because I realized my student still didn't have some of his multiplication facts memorized. To address this I had him use the Multiplication Workbook I had created for and was using with my younger son. Once we are through it and I feel he has his facts mastered we will return to Saxon and that's the beauty of home school, that we can tailor education to the needs of the student.
Two things that tremendously relieve my stress pertaining to home school are RC's year-round schedule and the freedom to simplify, add to or drop resources or strategies as needed. I know studies show that a person can basically learn anything once their brain has reached the proper development stage for that skill or content so if your student isn't getting something right away, DON'T PANIC. It's just not time for that yet and when it is their brains will soak it up quickly. Just slow down, simplify, do less or come back to it in the future.
Here is a look at our subject and material list for this current third quarter. The year just keeps getting better!
OK, so here are my recommended steps for getting started planning.
Get a lesson planner
Decide on your subjects
Pick curriculum for said subjects
Make a schedule and lesson plan
I've shown you steps 1-3 for me. Let's talk about step 4; make a schedule and lesson plan. RC focuses on the three R's so we do those first before the "extra" subjects my state requires: Science and Social Studies. Therefore I schedule by priority. Three R's first: Math, Writing & Reading. Now my lesson plan shows Independent Reading of our RC books as last but in reality it's before Science and Social Studies. It was just easier for me to write it there as some point and I got in the habit of keeping it in that column. We don't do Science and Social Studies every day and I changed to curriculum that I could also use with my first grader this quarter. It's taken a burden off me and we are really enjoying the time together. I see myself as the Chief Learning Officer not the teacher as Dr. Lybrand says and I chose curriculum that I felt went with that role. Here is our real life lesson plan for my fifth grader this week.
I hope this was helpful if you are in the elementary years with RC. I see the independent learning on the horizon but right now I'm building them a bridge there. I'll be going into each subject in more detail in subsequent posts and discuss teaching methods and promoting independence and good study habits. How they do school is as important as what they are doing in school as far as successful outcomes in my opinion. Enjoy this time with your children. It's absolutely blessing me beyond my wildest expectations to be on this journey with my family.
Curriculum shown or mentioned in this post (Links in color are current favorites):
Lesson Planner
Bible
Math
Reading
McGuffey's 3rd Eclectic Reader Free With RC
RC Book List Books Free With RC
RC Vocab Materials Free With RC
Writing
Professor K Grammar Free With RC
Science
RC Famous Scientist Articles Free With RC
History
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