What's Covered in Age 10-12
The Age 10-12 curriculum is a comprehensive, literature-based homeschool program that spans a full year of science, social studies, language arts, and math. It includes structured daily lesson plans, handpicked literature, and fully stocked materials kits. Usually used as a sixth-grade homeschool curriculum, this program offers an immersive, integrated learning experience that nurtures critical thinking, creativity, and well-rounded academic development. Your child will read a lot, write more clearly, and understand more at the end of this interesting year of homeschool.
Stories are Central
Our language arts program is designed around the belief that children learn best through stories. Each lesson is centered on compelling characters and narratives to fully engage students in their learning. For example, in The Wanderer unit, students journey through Sharon Creech's novel, developing language skills as they chart the Atlantic voyage and participate in interactive readings. In Number the Stars, learners explore World War II history while crafting acrostic poems and designing propaganda posters. In The Giver, students delve into themes of emotion and individuality by writing additional chapters and analyzing key symbols. These story-centered units foster creativity, critical thinking, and a deeper connection to literature.
Write With Purpose
Our writing approach develops students into competent writers across various formats, including essays, short stories, reflective journaling, character narratives, and reports. For instance, in The Giver, students write an additional chapter to extend the story, fostering creativity. In the Short Stories unit, they craft their own tales inspired by nature, enhancing narrative skills. When studying Bull Run, they compose character narratives and argumentative essays on historical issues, boosting analytical and persuasive abilities. By engaging in diverse writing tasks linked to the literature, students become proficient writers adaptable to multiple formats.
Here is a short list of some of the writing projects your child will complete.
- Personal and formal letters
- Reflective journal entries
- Ethical debate essay
- Narrative, expository, and argumentative essays
- An original creative short story
- Descriptive, cause-and-effect, and problem-solution paragraphs
- A Newspaper report
- A variety of poems
- A book report
The Full Spectrum of Science
Our year-long homeschool science program offers an engaging overview of earth science, chemistry, physics, and biology. Students build mini weather stations in the Weather and Climate unit, become geologists constructing edible 3D models of Earth's layers in Our Changing Earth, and experiment with gravity and Newton’s laws in Force and Motion. Chemistry comes alive as they generate gases through electrolysis and engage in kitchen experiments in the Matter and Chemical Change units. In the Cells unit, students explore plant and animal cells using microscopes and conduct experiments on brine shrimp.
Your child will dive into experiments and activities that make science tangible and unforgettable. Here are a few examples:
- Construct a Mini Weather Station: Build and use weather instruments like a barometer, anemometer, and hygrometer to measure atmospheric conditions.
- Edible Earth's Layers Model: Create a 3D model of Earth's layers using edible materials such as marshmallows and chocolate.
- Magnetic Slime Crafting: Make slime infused with magnetic properties to explore magnetism hands-on.
- Parachute Building and Testing: Design and test parachutes to understand the impact of surface area on air resistance.
- Electrolysis Experiment: Generate oxygen and hydrogen gases by splitting water molecules through electrolysis.
- Kitchen Chemistry Experiments: Use everyday items to observe and conduct chemical reactions in a relatable way.
- Atomic Model Construction: Build atomic models using collage materials or digital tools to visualize atomic structures.
- Organize a Chemistry Fair: Plan and host a fair to showcase experiments and share scientific knowledge with others.
- Microscope Usage: Set up and use microscopes to observe plant and animal cells up close.
- 3D Cell Models: Create colorful, three-dimensional models of cells to understand their components.
Our unique materials kits, included in our curriculum packages, contain hundreds of items designed to make these hands-on activities both fun and easy. These kits are unlike anything you've ever purchased, ensuring that your child’s scientific exploration is as engaging as it is educational.
U.S. History II, Geography, and the Americas
Social studies continues from where Age 9-11 left off. U.S. history covers the Civil War to modern times using authentic documents like speeches and letters. Geography comes alive through hands-on map-making and landform studies. The year concludes with a look at the modern social environment of the Americas and an immersive exploration of the ancient civilizations of the Aztecs, Incas, and Maya. Extensive readings and interactive projects—such as recreating artifacts and participating in debates—provide a dynamic learning experience that fosters critical thinking and a deep appreciation for history.
To make these topics come alive, your child will participate in a variety of hands-on projects and activities, such as:
- Crafting personalized and world maps
- Engaging in mock debates and reenactments
- Analyzing primary sources like speeches, letters, and historical newspapers
- Cooking traditional dishes
- Writing and delivering speeches
- Interpreting coded messages using the Navajo Code Talkers' Dictionary
- Comparing historical and contemporary media to understand societal change
These activities not only deepen your child's understanding of social studies but also make learning an enjoyable and immersive experience.
Math Made Meaningful
Throughout the year, your child will revisit fundamental operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and then delve into more complex topics such as exponents, factors, and prime factorization. Your child will explore integers and rational numbers, work with fractions, and navigate the coordinate plane. The curriculum also introduces ratios, percentages, and unit conversions, helping students solve real-world problems like determining "What's the Best Buy?" in our final projects. As they progress, students will tackle algebraic expressions and equations, explore two-dimensional and three-dimensional geometry—including lines, angles, triangles, area, and volume—and venture into statistics by conducting their own "Statistical Study." With engaging projects like "Planning a Party" and "Building With Solids," your child will apply mathematical concepts in creative and practical ways.
Language Arts Prerequisites
- Able to read and comprehend novels at a late 6th or 7th grade reading level
- Able to write multiple paragraphs on a topic
- Familiar with the five-paragraph essay
- Usually used by children in the sixth grade
Math Prerequisites
- Able to multiply fractions, including mixed numbers, and divide unit fractions
- Able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimal numbers to the hundredths place
- Can graph points with positive-number coordinates on a coordinate plane
- Able to find the volume of rectangular prisms
Math Placement QuestionnaireInterdisciplinary Curriculum
Beyond the Page integrates language arts with science and social studies from preschool through middle school.
Each day, your child will complete three lessons.
- One lesson in language arts,
- One in science or social studies (these alternate every three weeks), and
- One in math.
Language arts is presented in the form of literature units that center your child's language arts learning around interesting stories and characters. Rather than giving children a series of random, unrelated activities, all of the writing assignments, grammar lessons, and vocabulary are integrated into these unit studies. This creates a more cohesive experience, and we find that kids are more engaged when they’re writing about stories and characters that interest them.
Our curriculum is designed to integrate science and social studies topics with our language arts program through thematic connections. For instance, when students delve into units like Weather and Climate in science and social studies, in language arts, they read The Wanderer, which explores themes of nature, survival, and the environment. When they study Slavery and the Civil War, it is complemented by reading Bull Run, giving students a literary perspective on historical events. Similarly, exploring Force and Motion alongside Albert Einstein bridges scientific concepts with biographical literature. By aligning topics such as Civil Rights with Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, we help students make meaningful connections across subjects, deepening their understanding and engagement with the material.
See a complete list of the units and how they line up.
Beyond Standards
Because all lessons are based on state and national standards, you can be confident your child will learn all of the necessary skills for his age. Your child will also be challenged to read and write at a higher level.
The Age 10-12 Full Year Curriculum Package covers science, social studies, language arts, and math.