Starting 5th Grade

So, a new year is upon us. I've spent the last week reading over materials I've downloaded. I'm on a very tight budget, and I like creating my "own" curriculum. Because of this, I haven't bought a structured curriculum, although there are several out there. 

This year, I mainly relied on Marsha Johnson's Waldorf Home EducatorsWaldorf Home Educators group in Yahoo groups and Meredith Floyd Preston over at A Waldorf Journey  Marsha has an incredible files section in the yahoo group. Plus, I get the daily email list with all kinds of suggestions. Meredith is selling her curriculum guides on her website, and they are very budget friendly. Between these two resources I've put together my year.

I also made a few purchases this year. I bought two of Kovac's books: Botany and Ancient Civilizations. I'm just starting to read through them now. I also bought Dorothy Harrer's English and Math books for the elementary grades. I think my favorite item I bought this year was a tin of Mecurius pencils. Pamela at Meadowsweet Naturals had them on sale. It felt like Christmas when I opened the package!

This year we'll be studying Botany; Ancient Civs: India, Persia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece; North American Geography; Math: fractions review, decimals, metric system, and freehand geometry. We'll include modeling (beeswax and clay), form drawing (taken from ancient civs and feehand geometry, music (piano and flute), and maybe...if I can handle it, French. Whew! I'm tired already!