May 22, 2023

Why I Added More Books to Our 6th Grade Homeschool

Sixth-grade homeschooling continues to prove to be a game-changer for us. First, I changed my lesson planning strategy Now, I'm adding more books to our daily lessons.

We have 14 subjects (or topics) from Monday to Thursday. Friday is reserved for art, trips, etc. In past years, we usually had 1-3 books per subject that we used. For our 6th grade, I use at least 3 books per subject. Why? I make the topic branch out. I add supplementary materials. For example, In World History, under the topic of the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette and Napoleon were mentioned. Because of this, I decided to branch out to study the lives of these two personalities. So, that's 2 more books added to the World History book. If something interesting catches my attention in these 2 books, I will probably explore that topic further with another book and so on. Does this bother my child? Not at all! This method actually makes him more excited to learn new things that branched out from a general topic. It also energizes me to make new lesson plans. The extra knowledge I gain doesn't hurt either.

Another reason I decided to add more books is I was inspired by the living books of the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling. I've been flirting with this homeschooling method for a couple of years now and I've finally made the decision to incorporate more CM books in our daily lessons. We've read a few recommended books and so far, we're happy with them.

Adding more books to our daily lessons can be quite expensive. Some may argue that one can easily find information on the Internet. Yes, that's true but not all information on the Internet is accurate. I also have to go to several websites for research. With a book from a reputable publishing company or a book that has good reviews, I save time and energy. My time is way more valuable. I'd rather spend a few dollars on books than spend 2 days researching a specific topic. I don't have to go through several websites to get the juicy information that I need. I also have the peace of mind that what I'm teaching is highly accurate.

More Benefits

Enhanced Learning Opportunities

My son has a wide range of interests and having an extensive pool of knowledge right at his fingertips is important. He can get a well-rounded education because of the crossover lessons we have.

Broadened Vocabulary and Language Skills

Every day, I get to hear a new word from my son and I owe that to the extensive books that we read daily. We always have vocabulary lessons in most of our subjects. He writes 5 words that he doesn't know the meaning of in his journal and he looks up the meaning of those words. When I was teaching the homeschoolers in my group, I would ask them to write a sentence using the vocabulary word, too.

We are also exposed to different writing styles as we explore different genres. This is helpful for me, as a writer, and him, as a student who is tasked to write reports and essays daily.

Stimulated Critical Thinking

It's such a joy to hear my child talk about his different ideas, perspectives, and comments about the stories and books that he reads daily. Some of his comments are comical, some are intellectual, and some are even thought-provoking. He also develops stronger reasoning skills because he has the knowledge to back up his answers. He can relate the things he reads to what's going on around him and in the world, making him more observant.

Improved Reading Fluency

My son has a speech flaw. He keeps repeating the first word of a sentence and regularly says "eh" in between words. It's mainly because he speed reads when he is reading on his own and so his mouth cannot keep up when he is reading aloud. Having a lot of read-aloud sessions helps him to slow down, apply emotions to what reads, and avoid his speech flaws, making him a more fluent reader.

Sparks Creativity and Imagination

My son has always been creative especially when he expresses through his story writing or comic making. Now that I've added more books to our lessons, I'm noticing that his stories are better because they have more details and his writing style has also improved.

Encourages Independent Learning

My son has been learning independently since he was in 3rd grade. Having more books for him to read empowers him to take ownership of his learning now that he is in 6th grade. He can independently choose books from our homeschool library if he wants more information about a topic that piqued his interest.

For our lessons, I tell him to read a few chapters then he has to do the activities based on those chapters. He only needs me to explain a few things to him.

Holistic Learning

Since we have a lot of crossover lessons in most of the subjects we discuss, we experience multidisciplinary learning. We can connect ideas across different topics. For example, in World History again, while discussing the French Revolution, we learn about Marie Antoinette. I did a lesson about her (Biography) and we came across another famous name - Mozart. So, I did another lesson on him (Great Composers, Music Appreciation). Our multidimensional approach enhances our understanding and increases the stickiness of the knowledge we learned and encourages holistic education.

Development of Empathy and Cultural Awareness

One of my goals for homeschooling is for my son to be a global citizen, to develop his empathy and cultural awareness, and to tackle hard issues like apartheid, discrimination, violence, poverty, etc. Exposing him to different kinds of books and authors makes him aware of what's going on in other parts of the world, and what went down in history, and challenges him to think about the future. He learns to appreciate what he has and gets challenged to do more and have more because of the inspiring stories we read.

I hope this post gave you ideas to use for your own homeschool. If you want to save this post, feel free to Pin the image below.

Some books that we've read:

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