Are you looking for a fifth grade homeschool curriculum for your student? I must admit that fifth grade was probably the most challenging year in our homeschool. Not necessarily because of the curriculum but primarily because of my mindset. I remember vividly my sleepless nights panicking about my son being behind in his education because of me teaching him. Do you ever struggle with similar thoughts? Well, don’t. These thoughts are not founded in reality and you are more than capable of teaching your children.
So what did I do to comfort my soul? I got my son tested. We chose the California Achievement Text (CAT) and worked through it. He not only scored 98th percentile overall, but in Mathematic Concepts and Problems, thanks to Singapore Math, he showed the ability to comprehend concepts of a senior in high school. This experience proved to me a couple of things:
- God is very much involved in our endeavors to teach our children and supplement our inadequacies.
- Education tailored to the child’s needs is what helps them succeed.
RELATED: Singapore Math? Really?
But on to the fifth grade curriculum. First, let us look at…
What Is a Typical Fifth Grade Homeschool Curriculum?
The typical fifth grade homeschool curriculum includes the following:
- Math: Fifth grade math teaches more complicated problem-solving skills that include all four operations (adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing) within the same problem. It also includes approximation, estimation, multiplication, division and conversion of decimals, ratio, angles, percents, graphs, volume, and more.
- Language Arts:
- Reading: Fifth graders already know the mechanics of reading and therefore are able to dive into fully independent reading and analyze the setting, plot, and characters in the stories. They are required to frequently refer to the text to support their opinions by examples.
- Writing (includes Spelling and Grammar): This year your student will be required to do much more writing than in previous years. They will learn the mechanics of the writing process and will be asked to edit their own clarity of thought and punctuation.
- Science: Fifth grade dives deeper into many of the science subjects already introduced in earlier grades, but also introduces new areas. Most curricula include properties of light, structure of the earth, astronomy, chemical properties of elements, circulatory system, and nutrients.
- Social Studies: Most of the social studies for fifth grade cover history of the United States, including the creation of the US government as well as biographies of famous people in US history. It also includes geography and basic map skills. However, depending on your preferences and previous areas of study, you may choose to structure your social studies differently than is commonly done.
Fifth grade homeschool programs also include PE, art, and music.
How to Choose the Best Fifth Grade Homeschool Curriculum?
In How to Choose the Best Homeschool Curriculum we describe the best practices for choosing a curriculum based on your state’s laws, your purposes and goals, how much time you want to spend teaching, etc. I always try to look for curricula that meet the following criteria:
- They are engaging and taught in a clear and fun way.
- They include regular reviews in order to reinforce the material taught.
- They encourage problem-solving skills.
Our Fifth Grade Curriculum Journey
Following are the fifth grade homeschool curricula that we used:
Note: As I am more of an eclectic homeschooler, we have combined a number of curricula from various resources. However, if you prefer using a complete curriculum set, Abeka and BJU Press are some of the most popular ones (but there are many others!). These packages will provide you with all textbooks, workbooks, tests, teacher’s manuals, etc. so that your only time investment will be familiarizing yourself with the material.
Reading:
Step by Step by Pathway Readers: This is actually a sixth grade reader in the Pathway Readers series. However, as we combined both fourth and fifth grade reading in the fourth grade, we were able to get a step ahead of the regular grade level.
This curriculum presents a child with beautiful, real-life wholesome stories and keeps the reader excited to continue reading. The workbook not only requires the student to answer the questions but also leads them back to the text in order to search for particulars.
Note: All these readers can be found for purchase on second-hand sites like Ebay or Thriftbooks for a fraction of their original cost.
RELATED: Fifth Grade Reading List
Math:
Primary Mathematics 5A & 5B, Standards Edition by Singapore Math: We followed the same curriculum that we used since kindergarten. To learn more about the benefits of Singapore Math, please read a detailed description at Singapore vs. Saxon Math – Which Is Better?. Also, you can read about our personal math journey in Singapore Math? Really?.
English:
Climbing to Good English 5 by Schoolaid: This is a Christian based curriculum, easy to use and very economical. The series takes the student from the first grade all the way to the eighth, but can be joined in any grade. It is very complete and thorough and encourages independent learning. We used it for several years before switching to more hands-on English program in middle school, which became more suitable for us at that time.
We also started with Institute for Excellent in Writing (IEW) program for composition. It is an absolutely outstanding curriculum that has the ability to make a good writer even out of children struggling with dyslexia and dysgraphia. We have had much success with it over the years and can recommend it without hesitation.
Penmanship:
We continued with New American Cursive Penmanship by Memoria Press that we started in the fourth grade. It was a good choice for us as it provided my son with simple cursive letters to assist in his battle with dysgraphia. I only wish we would have started him on cursive much earlier!
Spelling:
Fifth grade found us continue with Spelling Power by Beverly L. Adams-Gordon. It is a very comprehensive curriculum with many support activities and games. We stayed with the curriculum until high school years when we determined we needed to bring a change to our spelling.
Science:
This was the first year we began using Abeka Science curriculum. The fifth grade book series is called Investigating God’s World and I have only good things to say about it. It is commonly known that Abeka’s science prior to fifth grade is not considered the best option for teaching science. However, fifth grade really brings science to life. We also purchased the accompanying Health Kit and learned the fundamentals of a human body and how to best take care of it. Both my son and I enjoyed science this year very much.
History:
The Mystery of History, Volume 2 by Linda Lacour Hobar was our history curriculum for the fifth grade. This was our least favorite of the four-volume series. The curriculum is still very comprehensive, however we haven’t found the Middle Ages time period all that exciting. Yet, we learned and you will learn too if you choose to follow this curriculum.
Over the years we completed all four volumes of The Mystery of History, including various projects, time-line on a board, as well as time-line book. Our entire family profited from this curriculum and can highly recommend it to you too.
Geography:
The fifth grade found us diving into Passport to the World by Craig Froman. We had so much fun! You can read my detailed review of this curriculum in Geography Curriculum Review: Passport to the World by Craig Froman. It was worth every penny and every minute of my preparation time.
Bible:
We opted for reading the Bible itself and heavily memorizing scripture verses in the fifth grade instead of following any particular curriculum. We were very blessed to study the Bible as a family and enjoyed our conversations on various passages.
Arts & Crafts:
I wish we could have been more artsy in our homeschool but that was not the case. Fifth grade was the year we were able to decipher my son’s difficulties with penmanship and art in general and began to work excessively on correcting them. Therefore we didn’t get a chance to do much crafting. However, we managed to finish Art with a Purpose, Artpack 2 that we had been working on for a couple of years. If your family enjoys art, this curriculum is an excellent option. Their program covers all grade levels and takes the learners through coloring and pasting in the earlier grades to color combining, perspective, lettering, and pen and ink drawings in the higher grades.
Music:
We continued with learning how to play piano with Hoffman Academy. This program provides students with basic understanding of music and teaches them to play both classical and other genre. Whether you play a musical instrument or not, Hoffman Academy is very easy to use and will teach your child more than just fundamentals of music. It is the best program I have seen thus far.
PE:
As we had to relocate to a different state during our fifth grade, we lost our favorite homeschool co-op PE program. We replaced it with competitive swimming in our new location and enjoyed it very much.
In summary:
Looking back I must admit that fifth grade was a year of much joy in our homeschooling. We were able to discover root causes of some of my son’s learning difficulties and approach them accordingly. Our curricula proved to be a good choice for our family and continued to build a firm foundation for the years ahead. I can’t think of anything we would have changed that would make our lives more satisfied. I pray you, too, would find the “perfect” curriculum for your fifth grader.
