4th Grade 2022-2023
4th Grade: Age 9
Scriptures: Right now we are studying The Old Testament. To see the materials we’re using, please visit my post The Old Testament. In January 2023, we will begin studying The New Testament and continue using Come Follow Me and Red Headed Hostess. We’re also adding the As I Am workbook from A Mighty Change. I had a little part in the creation of this book on Christ-like Attributes so it’ll be fun to do this together once a week.
Language Arts, Handwriting, and Math: We’ve used TGTB for the last three levels and we’re sticking with them for both Language Arts 4 and Math 4. This year the shared reader for LA 4 is world biographies which I think will be wonderful to read together. There is even a biography on the “tennis twins!” How fun! We supplement LA 4 with Evan Moor Spelling because the spelling words in TGTB have always been too advanced for my girls. And, I am really looking forward to an independent math course! Yay! The girls are working on their cursive and have already started level 4 and we’ve had a really good experience with what they’ve done so far. We’ll also continue to use Typingclub.com for typing.
Both LA 4 and Math 4 have a lot more independent work so this year’s rhythm is going to look a little different for us. I’ve watched some of the on-line lessons for Math 4 and I think it’s going to be a really good fit and the girls are ready for it! I do think they’ll need a little more assistance with Language Arts, but we’ll see how it all goes! Both courses are lovely and I am looking forward to another “good and beautiful” year.
Now, I am a sucker for a good party so when I saw Dash Into Learning’s new poetry collection and printables for a tea party, I knew we had to have those. When I got everything with my son, I added in the poetry books at the last minute and I think the girls are going to love doing these with all the tea party printables. No set plan on when to use it, but we’ve got it on hand — and I suspect we’ll be having some friends over for a party soon. The twins will also do the Emotional Resilience Curriculum that I talked about in my son’s Kindergarten post. Remember, you can use discount code: HCL15 to take 15% off at anytime when you shop Dash Into Learning. (I am affiliated with Dash and it helps me out when you click and shop through my referral link, so thank you!)
Science: We tried TGTB Botany unit last spring and loved it so this year we’re going to stick with everything The Good and The Beautiful science. We’re starting the year off with birds and if you followed my Botany unit you know I like to dress the units up a bit with learning shelves. I may not do them with every unit, but definitely a few of them. We also picked up paleontology, geology, and space because those were the topics the kids wanted to study. So, we’ll just rotate those in based on interest. However, by the time we get to geology and space, they may have their updated units available. I’ve gone back and forth on whether we’d buy them when we already have the older ones so I am just going to play it by ear and see how things go with the new student journals. Personally, if you’re looking at a year of science with TGTB, I’d buy one unit at a time so you can watch as their courses are updated. You can read more about their science changes here.
Social Studies: For History I settled on The Good and The Beautiful History 1, but I will be modifying it a bit. I am a little bit nervous about starting this course since they’ll be changing all of their history courses, but since we don’t have a lot of information on that (this is what we know) and we already had these materials (I purchased this curriculum two years ago), I decided to just go forward. It’s my understanding that, say, we were to finish history 1 this year, we could easily hop into their new history 2 next year IF it was released. The problem is, I don’t know if it’ll be released by then. What if only level 1 is released and now I’m a year off??? (I e-mailed and asked the company, but they couldn’t give me any more info, unfortunately). But, alas, I felt good about utilizing this course and just changing it to work for us. From most people I chatted with the read-aloud and audios are fantastic so that is where we will focus our time.
Additionally, once a week, for the entire year, we’re going to work through The Tuttle Twins Free Market Rules Curriculum. This is another curriculum I am really excited about. We’ve had a family economy running in our home for years (looking a little different these days than when I wrote that post) but I think my older kids are ready for a more discussion on the economy. They’ve heard my husband and I talking a lot about it over the last few months so naturally they’ve had a lot of questions and I think this course will be simplified enough and a great introduction to economics. Along side the curriculum we are going to re-read The Tuttle Twins 12 Book Combo Set (this is the one that begins with The Law). Since these are super short and we will move through these quickly, I just added The Tuttle Twins 4 Guidebook Combo Set to our collection. There are 4 books in this combo: Beware Your Bias, Courageous Heros, Inspiring Entrepreneurs, and Logical Fallacies. I don’t think we’ll read these from cover to cover, but pull a little for each of them as we work through the course. I am still waiting for these to come in the mail, but when they come, I’ll show them on my IG.
Last, but not least we’ve had our Letters From Afar subscription for two years, the longest subscription we’ve ever done, and we’re still going strong and don’t plan to stop. We LOVE these letters and it’s something we ALL look forward to every month. They’re a great way to learn about geography and different cultures. When our letters come, we often take an afternoon and dive deeper, watching YouTube videos and looking up the places in our books.
Technology: For My Tech High, we get to utilize technology classes. So, this year we’re doing custom built classes - Exploring Technology and Video and Film Production. We’re just letting the kids explore these items and if there is anything we add that we love, I’ll be sure to do an update. They’re still loving digital art and our Osmos which we worked on last year. I never posted about this, but we actually ended up adding in a Lego Boost to their tech class which was SO fun. If you’re looking for ideas for tech - definitely check it out. (BTW, we paid $280 for this and I just noticed it’s $130 cheaper right now! Sad for us, good for you!)
Fine Arts: We will integrate art and music into our unit and holiday studies. The twins are also planning to pick up their sewing class again next fall.
Health & Physical Education: We’ll be doing Safety from TGTB. And, we’re also using a rec center pass this year for extra swimming and activity. The kids also are big into riding bikes (my husband takes them on trail riding trips a couple times a year) and they also are big fans of pickle ball right now so we just get out and practice as a family.
4th Grade Quick Reference Links:
Christlike Attributes Workbook from A Mighty Change
Language Arts 4 and Math 4 from TGTB
Dash Into Learning Poetry Collection and Printables
TGTB Science: Birds, Geology, Paleontology, Space
Free Market Rules from The Tuttle Twins
The Tuttle Twins 12 Book Combo Set
The Tuttle Twins 4 Guidebook Combo Set
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