4th grade curriculum picks homeschool 2020

4th-grade Curriculum Picks for 2020

These are our 4th grade curriculum picks for 2020.

Getting ready for a new homeschooling year is work in progress all year round. I am always on the lookout for new curricula, better programs and offers but the real prep work starts at least 2 months before we start our new school year.

IMG 4697 scaled

Here’s how all the materials look together. That’s a LOT of books and I know some of you might get discouraged seeing this. Make sure you read the full article to see how we manage to go through the main (spine) curriculum and what we do about the supplements and extras.

You can also see a part of the manipulatives, boardgames and cards that we might use during this school year.

The Subjects – 4th grade curriculum

I pick our subjects by priority. I always make sure to cover the basics: Language Arts and Maths. These 2 are NON-debatable even if M. doesn’t always like my picks. The rest are based on his interests and what I feel he would enjoy.
I do make sure I pick programs that suit his current level, that give him enough challenge but aren’t overwhelming.
Here’s a list of the subjects for 4th grade with Bridgeway Academy this year, including Electives:

  • Math
  • Language Arts (Grammar, Reading/Comprehension- book reports, and Writing Elective)
  • Science (Chemistry)
  • History (Middle Ages)
  • Geography Elective (Europe)
  • PE Elective

It’s 6 subjects- more than enough for a 4th grader so that he has time to cover everything I picked, learn his basics and then just focus on what he loves doing (chemistry, electronics, and free play).

I try to keep it real because I noticed otherwise we get spread too thin and end up loathing the whole school year.
For example, last year I picked German as an elective, but since I don’t know the language and I couldn’t find a teacher that we liked, we had to force ourselves to just finish the lessons. That was a mistake and I owned it, so this year instead of German, I picked Geography.

Language Arts – Grammar, Reading, Writing

IMG 4700 1 scaled

Everything you see above is our Language Arts curriculum for the 4th grade.

I wrote a separate post about each book (with page examples for each). So you can read more here.

Here is a breakdown of what you see in the photo:

The main curriculum is Fix it Grammar and Student Writing Intensive along with book reports for the 4 selected books.
Everything else are supplements and we might or might not complete them during this year.

Math

IMG 4703 1 scaled

We’ve been doing Math in Focus as our math program from first grade and we like it enough not to switch it. I will be back with a separate post on Math for 4th grade soon.

The extras are:

Chemistry curriculum for 4th grade

IMG 4706 scaled

Chemistry is what we will do for Science this year.
I had to buy him more materials because I didn’t know what level M. is at and he tends to work on more levels at the same time.

  • SPINE: Middle School Chemistry (the manuals marked with Chemistry 1&2) from the American Chemical Society – its FREE! to download.
  • EXTRAS:
    • The Elements by Ellen J. McHenry – we LOVE her stuff!The Periodic Table Book from DK
    • The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry
    • Balancing Chemical Equations Worksheets
  • GAMES and MANIPULATIVES
  • MEL Chemistry Subscription (not pictured here)- we absolutely LOVE it!

I will be back with a chemistry deicated post so you see how we use each resource and what other activities we do for chemistry this year.

Geography

IMG 4701 scaled

Geography also has a dedicated post. You can read more about how we approach Geography this year. I wanted to keep things light and fun since Geography is an elective, so here is the list of materials:

History curriculum

IMG 4705 scaled

I am keeping history pretty simple because the spine we are using has a lot of activities and book reading suggestions. We own a lot of books for history but we just pull them out if needed.

  • MAIN: Story Of The World Volume 2 – Middle Ages
  • EXTRA:
    • The Usborne Encyclopedia of World History
    • A Child Through Time by DK
    • Medieval Europe by Core Knowledge (FREE to download)

best tools for homeschool

This post may contain affiliate links. By making a purchase through these links, I get a small percentage for the item you bought while the price stays the same for you. Thank you for supporting me.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Read my Disclosure to find out more about how I support my website and how you can help.

This post may contain affiliate links. By making a purchase through these links, I get a small percentage for the item you bought while the price stays the same for you. Thank you for supporting me.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Read my Disclosure to find out more about how I support my website and how you can help.

Similar Posts

4 Comments

  1. Bună ziua,
    Și noi anul acesta incepem cu bridgeway academy kindergarten. Voiam o părere sincera de la o familie care a urmat aceasta scoala:-).ne-a plăcut curricula lor, noi am ales sa primim materialele lor, pentru început. Puteți sa îmi spuneți cum a fost pana acum experienta cu ei. Mulțumesc mult.

    1. Buna Ana,

      Am expus exact toata experienta noastra cu ei. Nu le gasesc puncte in minus. Dar nu am folosit programa lor, desi m-am uitat peste materiale si mi se pare un punct de pornire foarte bun pentru un incepator.
      Am scris exact ce am simtit in acesti 2 ani cu ei, si adevarul e ca sunt una dintre cele mai flexibile scoli acreditate din cate exista.

  2. Bună, Laura
    Minunate ‘unelte’ ajutătoare am găsit pe blogul tău 🥰. Suntem la început de drum și încă învățăm cum e treaba cu homeschooling-ul. Ne poți recomanda un dicționar sau/și thesaurus? Avem nevoie de amândouă, așa-i? 😊

    1. Buna Anca,

      Ma bucur ca va e de folos <3. Mult succes in calatoria voastra.

      La noi pe Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/themonkeyandmom) am pus mai multe poze/detalii la ce folosim noi.

      Pun si aici linkurile.

      1. USBORNE Illustrated English Dictionary and Thesaurus (this one is VERY useful for kids and easy to navigate for beginners)
      * You can order it from any Usborne representative, or from my favorite Cartile Samirei – http://www.cartilesamirei.com
      * from Bookdepository: https://tidd.ly/2SYUcZE
      *Wordery: https://tidd.ly/346znlq
      * Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/35a0YBc
      * Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2T6dCeU
      * Amazon DE: https://amzn.to/346zrla
      2. Oxford School Thesaurus – we have an older version, but it’s easy to use and pretty complete.
      * Bookdepository: https://tidd.ly/3jagMsK
      * Wordery: https://tidd.ly/3j8bWwi
      * Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3dy6jGq
      * Amazon US: https://amzn.to/359qEhl
      * Amazon DE: https://amzn.to/2T6eqAs
      3. Children’s Illustrated Thesaurus by Parragon – this one is the EASIEST one to use but it also has less words, as expected. It’s great for little children.
      * Amazon DE: https://amzn.to/347EXUk
      * Amazon US: https://amzn.to/344YJQl
      4. Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners – this one is from my high school days and it’s a very complex dictionary that we like using. It’s colorful and easy to navigate even for M.
      *Amazon DE: https://amzn.to/3o03DGA
      * Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2T4xXl6
      * Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3dBOG8L
      *********
      If you want to see more pages from any of the books, please let me know.
      *This post contains affiliate links. If you choose to buy through any of my links, I MAY get a small commission while the price stays the same for you.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *