Sixth Grade Homeschooling (a flashback)

Laura in Sixth Grade

I've had children in public school and homeschool.  Next year my youngest will be in the sixth grade.  Never having been in a traditional school, I sometimes look at the things she is working on and compare her to how things were with her older siblings. 

Sixth grade in our area is almost always a nightmare for public-schooled students.  My older ones all experienced the woes of sixth grade.  They were switching classes.  They had hours of homework nearly every night.  The difficulty level amped-up, and it seemed as if there were a few meltdowns.  Maybe this doesn't happen to all children, but it did with every single one of mine... except my homeschooler.

Making a Gragger

When Laura hit sixth grade, the difficulty level of her school went up a bit.  However, all of our work is homework.  I went through blog posts from that time to read about how our school year progressed then.  That year was a challenging year in many ways, but our homeschooling that year brought some great memories.  We painted our poetry and created whole worlds under the coffee table during read aloud time.  We learned about money and made wampum beads, read classics like Heidi, and made Jewish graggers and hamentashen cookies when we studied Purim. We took a couple amazing field trips and kept some traditions alive.  My memories of that year, looking back, are ones of joy.

My daughter learned a lot.  At that time we began working through levels of work with her, and she simply tacked each day's work.  It wasn't about piling on the work or stressing out a child.  My memories of that time were tough, as we had a lot going on in our personal lives.  However, we did manage to keep school going, and even thrive.

Learning about Camouflage

I don't want my youngest daughter to be overwhelmed by her schooling.   I don't want her to feel like school is a drag.  I have had a couple of conversations with other parents, and so many of them feel that the sixth grade pile-up of work is unnecessary.  Or, they feel that their child wasn't prepared for the sixth grade work level because their younger years hadn't been as challenging.  And despite all the research stating that homework is counterproductive, I still heard the arguments that, without it, children won't be able to tackle the workload in college.

painting her poetry

reading

And, many children aren't prepared for college.  However, homeschooled children tend to do better in college that their public-schooled peers, despite the uptick in workload that many may not have had in high school.  Perhaps it is because they are used to tackling the work load before them independently. 

In any case, rereading the blog posts about that year was entertaining.  It was five years ago, and I am about to embark on the same curriculum with my youngest that I used with my daughter then.  In one post I wrote:

"This school year went by very quickly.  Laura became very independent.  In fact, I miss her.  I don't feel that I got to be a part of her education the way I did when she was younger.  Independence is a good thing, but I still want to be a bit more involved." 

 I find that very interesting, because Laura is completely independent now.  One day I am certain that Megan will also be just as independent in her studies.  It was at about this age when Laura took off in her independence.  And yet, as she grew in independence, she was not spending hours each night completing hours of homework.  She was mastering the level that was in front of her, slowly and methodically.  

Sixth grade for homeschooling does not look like public school.  For that I am grateful!