LA and Math Elementary and 6th grade

Your not going to see any posts from me with specific lesson plans on LA and Math for Elementary and 6th grade.

About our math: If you go to my schedule here, you'll notice that in that hour block I teach both my 6th grader and my elementary kids, just giving instruction at different times.

I start my 6th grader off doing XtraMath. I have him do 15 minutes of this. It is great for making sure kids know their basic facts. Be sure to sign up with a parent account and they send you daily emails with details of what your child has done, and how proficient they are growing.I also use Khan academy.

For him, I am using Saxon math, so for another fifteen minutes he will do some of the 'Odd' number problems that I have circled. If you know Saxon math, you know it's thorough, but A LOT of math problems. Don't do them all. I circle the one's I want him to do in RED, and when I need him to review I circle numbers in BLUE. So, for the first 30 min he is doing review and getting those basic facts down.

For my elementary kids, math is just 30 min long. If they need extra help on a concept I will go over it with them during One on One time, that I explain on my schedule post. I will keep notes throughout the day and what kid needs extra help in what subject.

For elementary math, I am using Math Expressions by Houghton Mifflin, just because I found the teacher and student books for under five dollars--can't beat that, and so far it seems to be a good solid program.

 About Language Arts:

I teach Language arts for 6th and elementary at separate times.

I am using Glencoe Treasures for both grades. Again, these were resources I picked up with the teacher books, student books and all the workbooks for around 50 dollars at a teacher store. OMG though--because this is a popular public school curriculum, all you have to do is google "2nd grade treasures, teacher resources," or "6th grade treasures, teacher resources," and you will find a PLETHORA of lesson plans put together with interactive white board lessons and vocabulary cards, just everything you could possibly think of to easily make lesson plans. So far, I've had a BLAST using the internet to make these lessons plans, and while I wouldn't recommend these to an inexperienced homeschooler, I would if you're experienced or have some experience with working with public school curriculum.

I didn't just choose this program because it's inexpensive--but for several reasons. My 6th grader--I didn't teach him to read until he was eight. With him, he has dysgraphia which he was diagnosed with and suspected dyslexia. I decided to unschool him, and have most of his life. He naturally picked up numbers, letters and because I didn't push, I FIRMLY believed that is why he is now very successful. So successful that one year I was going to do an online public school academy and he was placed in a gifted and talented program.

He needs to be challenged and this curriculum while intensive, also gives many resources for gifted and talented students.

For my elementary kids, I find that I can use this for my 2 second graders, and use the 'approaching' workbooks for my 1st grader and even my 4 year old can take part in the instruction part and some of the worksheets. It works out perfect for everyone.