I have been homeschooling my oldest daughter for a five and a half years now and my kindergarten son for two and a half years. I started homeschool preschool with my oldest when she was 2.5 years old. After two years of preschool work, she started kindergarten when she was 4.5 years old. She completed all her kindergarten level work by the following May, so I graduated her to first grade in June. She finished all her first-grade level work the following March, so she began second grade in April. She started third grade the following February and then started fourth grade last December. My son and other two daughters will start their grade 4 work around age 9. If you are interested in any of the materials, easily find copies on Amazon via my affiliate links.
Originally published on May 14, 2020. Updated on July 20, 2022.
Reading
My daughter completed the third level of the McGraw-Hill Reading series during second grade. I liked the textbooks and accompanying workbook. However, I could no longer find the series at a reasonable price. I therefore have switched to the Treasures series for fourth, fifth, and sixth grade.
I also used Read & Understand Poetry, Grades 4-5 to focus on reading and understanding poetry. The workbook contains 27 poems with activity pages.
Grammar
Because of the many errors and problems in the grammar books for fourth grade currently available, I wrote my own fourth grade grammar workbook for my children. A Form-Function Grammar: Level 4 is the fourth workbook in the elementary series that builds up to A Form-Function Description of the Grammar of the Modern English Language, a textbook and workbook that provides a descriptive grammar that strives to provide an objective description of English as used without value judgements.
The goal of Level 4 is to reinforce the word classes (parts of speech, grammatical forms) of English taught in Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3. Level 4 includes nouns, determiners, pronouns, verbs, phrasal verbs, modal verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, coordinating conjunctions, correlative conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, and interjections. Level 4 reinforces noun phrases, determiner phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases, verb phrases, and adverb clauses. Level 4 also introduces subject-verb agreement, simple subjects, complete subjects, infinitives, split infinitives, catenative verbs, transitive verbs, direct objects, indirect objects, quasi-modal verbs, relativizers, and adjective clauses.
Level 4 is recommended for ages 8 to 9 in third grade through fourth grade.
The answers to all the activities are located at the end of the workbook.
Writing
For writing, I chose The Grammar & Writing Book: Grade 4, which is a 266-page grammar and writing book that expands on the information learned in the third grade edition through grammar instruction and practice, writing craft and models, and writing and grammar test preparation. The 30 lessons cover a variety of grammar and writing topics appropriate for fourth grade students including sentences, word order, parts of speech, punctuation, and paragraphs.
I also included Grammar and Punctuation, Grade 4 in our writing lessons as supplement practice on important grammar and punctuation rules. The black-and-white workbook covers 25 grammatical and punctuation topics including conjunctions, parts of speech, subject-verb agreement, present and past tenses, commas, and quotation marks that build on the topics learned in the third grade edition. Each section includes four pages of instruction and activities for a total of 25 instructional pages and 75 practice pages. I use the workbook as extra practice for concepts covered in The Grammar & Writing Book.
I heavily modify The Grammar & Writing Book and Grammar and Punctuation because of the errors in the grammar sections.
I also included Weekly Real-World Writing, Grades 3-4 help my children explore real-world purposes for writing with activities that demonstrate thoughtful and effective writing strategies starting with my second child.
I am also continuing lessons on handwriting within our writing lessons. My daughter continues to learn cursive writing using the second half of The Brainy Book of Handwriting as well as Cursive Writing (Practice Makes Perfect), Learning to Write Cursive, and other cursive workbooks and printed pages. (I copy the pages from the workbooks so that she can practice problem areas multiple times.)
My daughter and I continued doing word study using Structured Word Inquiry. Each week she and I chose a base word or two to study. I am also using the InSight Words (Volume 1, Volume 2, Supplement, and Inflections) from Linguist-Educator Exchange. We also studied other words that arose in day-to-day life such as studying the spelling of a word like
I also created the Teach a Student to Spell: Level 4 workbook for spelling lessons. Level 4 consists of 36 spelling lists of 12 words each. The spelling lists are based on the most common words in English and various sight word lists. The first goal of Level 4 is to teach more spellings of the most common English words and common free English bases. Each list reinforces the graphemes taught in Teach a Student to Read. Some complex words are also introduced. Related words are noted. The second goal of Level 4 is to teach more English prefixes, suffixes, and spelling rules. Words from Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 and additional words sometimes appear in Level 4 to reinforce spelling rules with prefixes and suffixes. The final six lists focus on bound bases.
Vocabulary
My children began using 101 Lessons: Vocabulary Words in Context: Vocabulary Words in Context to expand their vocabulary in fourth grade.
Math
For fourth grade math lessons, I selected Singapore Math Level 4 (US Edition). The two textbooks in Level 4 teach mathematical concepts, and the workbooks provide additional independent practice. The US Edition has been minimally modified from the original Singapore edition to teach American money and include American English spellings. The textbooks follow a unique pattern of moving from hands-on demonstrations to picture drawings (concrete examples with pictures) and finally to the abstract (numbers and symbols) in a natural, easy-to-understand progression. The program aims to teach children to learn to think mathematically rather than just being able to solve math problems.
In addition to the Singapore Math textbooks and workbooks, I also used a few other workbooks to supplement math lessons that I picked up from the Dollar Tree.
My daughter also continued using Khan Academy for extra math lessons.
Science
For science lessons, I selected the 576-page textbook Scott Foresman Science and the accompanying workbook. Each lesson includes questions at the end, and the workbook includes further questions for study.
Social Studies
After finishing the grade 3 social studies textbook and workbook, my daughter moved on to the Macmillan/McGraw-Hill Our Country’s Regions Grade 4 textbook and the accompanying workbook. The 441-page hardback book covers various social studies topics such as community, geography, history, and culture. The accompanying workbook is essential for reinforcing the lessons in the textbook and covers vocabulary, writing, and other activities.
My daughter also completed Macmillan/McGraw Hill TimeLinks: Our Country and Its Regions (Volume 1 and Volume 2) along with the accompanying workbook for additional social studies work.
After completing the History Pockets: Life in Plymouth Colonies, my daughter and I moved on to History Pockets: Colonial America, Grades 4-6 and History Pockets: The American Revolution Grades 4-6. The reproducible activity books teach information about each time period complete with illustrations, arts and crafts projects, and writing activities. My children complete each section over one or two days with a culminating portfolio to show their study of time period in history.
Health/Life Skills
For health lessons, I opted to continue using the same textbook series, the 400-page Harcourt Health & Fitness: Grade 4 and the accompanying workbook. The accompanying workbook provides practice that reinforces the information from each lesson. Most of the worksheet pages cover two or three lessons per page.
In addition to the textbook and workbook, I also included an activity book: My First Human Body Book.
Art
For art lessons, I continued using the 13 Children Should Know series of books. For fourth grade, I used 13 Art Materials Children Should Know, 13 Art Techniques Children Should Know, 13 Art Movements Children Should Know, and 13 Sculptures Children Should Know. We also used YouTube and Facebook Live to learn more about various artists, artworks, and art styles.
Music
I used Story of the Orchestra and The Usborne Story of Music for music. I hope that my kid develops a love for music and different musical instruments, which is why I have put the effort to accustom my kid to the stories of how music evolved over time. Perhaps, if she shows interest, I would enrol her on guitar classes (where she could further her knowledge by learning about things like blank chord charts) or piano lessons. However, whether she will be curious to learn any of these, only time will tell! Till then I can just nudge her in the right direction.
Spanish
My daughter continued using Rosetta Stone to learn Spanish. I think she has learnt a lot from it. Hope she continues to do so! After all, I am doing all the right things to raise her like an educated human being!
Image Credits
All images via Amazon
