Top Journals for 6th Graders

January 22, 2024January 22, 2024 / Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

6th grade seems to be the grade nobody quite knows what to do with. Are they middle schoolers or elementary? Should we call them kids still? Fun-Schooling allows families to let their 6th grader find independence and autonomy in what can be a confusing season of growing up.

Since most areas place 6th graders in Middle School, we also suggest you check out our post of tips for Fun-Schooling Middle School.

Our journals are super flexible in terms of age. You’ll see kids age 8 through 18 using the same journals. It’s all in the materials you use alongside them. Kids can repeat the same journal- especially core journals. Some kids have done the same core 4 or 5 times!

The Top Fun-Schooling Journals for 6th Grade

Bundles for 6th Graders

Bundles are great for this age because they invite independence and provide structure. We include a lesson plan kids can follow along with.

Here are our 6th grade bundle options. Click the image below to be taken to the suggested lesson plans and journal descriptions. We have one bundle that’s more girl focused, another that’s boy focused, and one for kids with Dyslexia/ADHD or other learning challenges.

The journals from these bundles are available for sale individually on Amazon and most are PDFs on our website as well.

More 6th Grade Journals

These journals are also popular for 6th Graders

We suggest working through the single-country journals starting at this age if you haven’t started them yet, see our bundles for suggestions on the order to do them in. Start with your country’s journal first, if possible.

All About Dogs- Fun-Schooling Journal– Cover every subject with a fun dog theme. Kids will learn about dog breeds, jobs, and more. Even includes math practice!

Inventions & Inventors Students will study 30 of the most impactful lessons of all time. Space is included in back for them to research inventions of their own interest too.

Grades 6 to 8 Fun-Schooling Journal is one of our most in-depth core journals. This is a Christian-based journal with tons of variety and Bible study included.

Top 30 Grammar Mistakes dives into the most common Grammar mistakes and gives students plenty of practice using proper grammar rules.

Tropical Birds Research Journal Students will research, finish activities, color, and enjoy breathtaking photography of 26 different tropical birds.

Yum-Schooling 15 recipes to teach children how to bake, calculate, measure, spell, use logic, serve others, apply science, and be creative. Create delicious dishes to share with the whole family while working on building your skills and learning.

What other journals is your 6th grader using? Share in the comments to help other families!

Make sure to check out

About the Author- Amanda Osenga is a Fun-Schooling mom in Columbus, Ohio. She is also the social media manager and a Virtual Assistant for Thinking Tree. Her family combines Thinking Tree books with the Charlotte Mason method using books from Ambleside Online and Wildwood Curriculum. In her free time, Amanda is an avid reader and loves to be outdoors.

Mom of 15: I Followed My Passions and Discovered This…

October 7, 2023October 7, 2023 / Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

Before the kids came along, I considered myself an artist, a writer, and a traveler. I was filling my life with art, creativity, and wonder. I used to travel Europe selling jewelry and art to fund my passions.

After becoming a mother, my passion became my children. Around 3 years into motherhood, I began to remember how much I loved art and poetry. I started to add a few of my passions back into my life. My husband started working four days a week. I took Fridays to dive back into my passions.

I began reading, writing, and small art projects. I purchased paintbrushes and acrylic paint and covered my home with murals. That turned into a small business decorating other’s homes. Then I started teaching moms homemaking, homesteading, and creative skills. We let our little ones play while we learned together.

There was one thing I didn’t do lots and lots of moms my age were doing. Spending time on TV and the Internet. I found when you have little kids, you’re going to be exhausted. The default can be turning on a show and putting them in front of a TV. We didn’t have a TV so that was never an option. I didn’t want that to be the example I set for my kids of adulthood. As parents, we are our children’s greatest teachers. The life we model for them is what their perception of adulthood is. Do we really want them to think being an adult is about working so much you’re exhausted and then starting at a screen watching other people live their lives the rest of the time?

As my kids reached school age, I started customizing their education around their passions. They take their passions seriously and become experts in their fields of interest. All of my kids start businesses in their early teens. Creativity and beauty has kept my children from becoming addicted to screens and technology.

Well-meaning family and friends have expressed concern my kids are missing out on aspects of “standardized” education. Yet my children have skills and talents kids in traditional school don’t have or have to wait until their 20s, 30s, or 40s to develop. I let them let go of things that are irrelevant and they’ll never need to know.

When a child’s education revolves around what they love, there’s no struggle or fight.

Our modern day workforce is all about skills, talents, and ability more than degrees and head knowledge. My children will be able to have specialized careers in their fields of passion. They’ve been studying since they were young and most of my children are making their own income before they ever move out as legal adults.

The way I raise my children looks very different from what you would see in a schoolroom because the childhood happening in our house looked like a lot of fun, adventure, exploring, creating, community, and more. Everyone is contributing their own gifts.

This is all because I set the model for them of pursuing my passions and letting it fuel my actions and career path. I want my children to look at the model I set of adulthood and be excited.

Today I have 15 children age 8-24. I delight in my teens and we have so much fun together. You have one life to live and it shouldn’t be boring. This is what I want my children to know and how I want their education to look. What about you?

Find my whole talk on this subject in the video below. And subscribe to my YouTube channel for more videos like this.

Get a FREE Mom School bundle so you can dive into your passions.

Buy 2, get 1 free Mom-Schooling Bundles with the promo code B2G1MomSchoolBundles at https://www.funschooling.com/mom-school

Learn more-

Sarah’s Mom Tips – Choosing a Major & Why 13 Is the Magic Number
From Anna: “Start Your 10,000-hour Journey”
One Day There Was A Mom

How to Fun-School with Reggio Emilia

September 13, 2023September 13, 2023 / Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

What is Reggio Emilia?

An educational philosophy developed in the 1960s
- Named after the town in which it was developed
- Founded by Loris Malaguzzi who wanted children to have a more holistic education after the war
- Similar in many ways to Montessori and Waldorf
- Come to the US in the 90s

Main Focuses of a Reggio Emilia education

Teachers learn with children
- Teacher/sparents are seen as guides and the primary learning is child-led
- Suggestions are only made if the child asks for them
Play-based, especially in the younger years
Self-directed
- When a child expresses interest/curiosity in a subject/topic, that is what the child is invited to explore
Education is highly focused on involving and engaging all the senses
Children are given control over their learning
- Lots of project-based learning
- Documentation is important, learning journals are kept and utilized daily

Other tidbits

“Hundred Languages of Children”
- Written by the founder and addresses how children are natural communicators and communicate through a variety of methods such as art, writing, drama, speech, etc
The classroom/learning environment is referred to as the “third teacher”
- Space is kept clutter-free, organized, and full of natural materials
- It is not a “prepared environment” like in Montessori, rather an environment children can play, learn, research, and grow.

How to combine Fun-Schooling with Reggio Emilia and peek inside Reggio Emilia-friendly journals
Make sure to join our Facebook group and then click below to watch!

What questions do you have about Reggio Emilia? Do you have any resources to share on the Reggio Emilia Method? Share in the comments!

Learn More-

Fun-Schooling + 9 different educational methods

Back to School Shopping–$10, $15, $20 Sale!

July 24, 2023July 25, 2023 / Sarah Janisse Brown / 3 Comments

This great sale has been extended until August 15th! Something for littles all the way through teens…and some beautiful journals for Mom School, too!

$10 Sale Journals

$15 Sale Journals

$20 Sale Journals

Please note that we request for Amazon to mark down journals to a specific price for a certain length of time but they don’t always get marked down/ stay marked down the whole time. If there’s something you really want, make sure to grab it soon!

How Do Unit Studies Work with Fun-Schooling?

June 28, 2023June 24, 2023 / Sarah Janisse Brown / 1 Comment

Unit Studies…

A deep dive into a topic/interest
- Can be based on an animal, nature topic, hobby, interest, book, place, person- anything really!
Combine multiple educational subjects into the same topic
- For example, a unit study on horses might look like:
- Math- calculating horse speed, stride, distance, stats, etc for racing horses. Managing a budget for horse feed and equipment. (lots you can do with horse math!)
- Science- horse biology
- Social studies- horses around the world, how horses are used in different cultures/communities, horses throughout history
- Language Arts- read a classical book about horses, do copywork on horses, learn to spell horse-related words
Multiple ages can work together on the same unit study with age-appropriate materials for each subject
Students can also work individually on a unit study
Great for students who tend to get “sucked into” a subject
Goes well with our idea of choosing a major https://funschoolingwithsarah.com/?s=major
Can last as long as you’d like- a day, week, term, month, or even an entire school year!
An easy way to combine elements from multiple educational approaches/methods (see the comments below for links to the other educational approaches we’ve covered)
How do I set up a unit study?
- Start with a Fun-Schooling journal based on what your child wants to learn about- or a blank core journal or Master Class if we don’t have a themed journal on the subject
- We’ll talk about this more on the 21st- information below

How do you set up a Fun-Schooling Unit study? Make sure to join the main Fun-Schooling group, and then click below to watch!

Is Fun-Schooling a Full Curriculum?

June 23, 2023December 12, 2023 / Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

(Guest post by Amanda Osenga)

Q- Is Fun-Schooling a Full Curriculum?
A- Yes and no.
Yes because you can easily cover every required subject with our materials- and all of your electives.
No because it’s not a traditional curriculum. We aren’t going to tell you what lessons to do on what days. We don’t tell you what specific books to use or how to guide your days.

We have thousands of Fun-Schooling families and everyone’s school looks different.

Some families use a journal or two to cover a specific subject. Others like to use our journals for electives. While other families Fun-School for every subject.

You’ll combine journals with books, podcasts, documentaries, etc. that correspond to your child’s academic levels. This is how you customize and build your curriculum. A huge age range of kids can use the same journal because each child will use it with different materials.

You can even use our journals alongside boxed curriculum and other more traditional materials.

Some journals, such as Spelling, Math, and Grammar, are more sequential. We’ve been sharing a subject-by-subject breakdown with one subject per month on our blog, private group, and Instagram, Facebook page if you want to check those tips and info out.

If you’d like to jump in and use this as your full curriculum, here’s a post with tips about how to do that: https://funschoolingwithsarah.com/flip-to-fun-schooling/

We also offer curriculum bundles with a suggested lesson plan and everything you need for an entire school year. Students can go up or down a few grade levels and be just fine so if your student sees a bundle that sparks their interest, go for it! https://www.funschooling.com/all-curriculum-bundles

Journals in the bundles are also available individually via Amazon and most are available on our website as PDFs https://www.funschooling.com/bookstore-all-pdfs

How to Inspire Your Children to Read

June 14, 2023June 10, 2023 / Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

I don’t worry much about reading before age 9. The longer they play the better! When my children start asking me “Mom, how do you spell…?” That’s when I know they are ready for reading. When a child is ready to learn to read it’s so easy to help them.

When it comes to learning to read there shouldn’t be a struggle. Dyslexic children and creative kids struggle because we are trying to teach them too soon. Dyslexia Games helps prepare the mind for reading and writing without stress, and helps to teach reading in a self directed way that works for creative kids.

Still, sometimes the brain just isn’t ready for the job of reading before age 9 (for some it may be age 11, kids who learn to read late tend to be very artistic and creative.)

The 1st key to inspiring a child to read is to find out what the child wants to learn about and be attentive to what he is passionate about. Provide books on ALL levels about those topics. Look at the books together, and use books with a Fun-Schooling Journal. Allow the child to do a lot of drawing in the Fun-Schooling Journal if they can’t write, and please do some of the writing for him or her while the child watches and dictates (writing for your child once a week is enough).

The 2nd key is to model a love for reading real books and writing on real paper – in front of your child – that’s what Mom-School books are for. When a child sees a parent reading and writing (not on a computer) they automatically desire to do it too. The brain is wired to give children a drive to do what adults do. (One big problem with classrooms is that all the kids are the same age, and kids are not getting an example of how people learn at a higher level.)

Curiosity will drive the desire to read, and the brain will begin to wire itself to read, write and spell. When a child is curious about reading they are going to learn quickly and efficiently. When a child feels the need to read, they WANT to learn.

When you try to force kids to read. write and spell before they desire to do it naturally you are going to face a constant struggle. If the child desires to learn, they are going to be active in the learning, and actually teach themselves – it’s beautiful and joyful.

So, precious homeschooling mom, if your eight year old can’t read, don’t worry, just remember the two keys!

Using Fun-Schooling Books to Develop a Complete Curriculum

May 1, 2023May 1, 2023 / Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

Guest Post by Gina Phillips

I would like to share with you how I am using the Fun-Schooling books by Sarah Janisse Brown to create a complete curriculum for my 5th grade (working at a 3-5th grade level) son.

I first purchased the Do-It-Yourself Curriculum Fun-Schooling with Minecraft journal. Then I just took each section and figured out what I wanted to use to cover it. My son needs a little more structure with his learning so not everything is just him choosing what he wants to use. I let him choose topics and extra books but the core is chosen by me. Then, we added in items to cover Math and Language Arts.

Here is a list of what we do:

For the Geography pages we use: The Children’s Atlas of God’s World and The Not-For-Parents Travel Book

For the Design Your Own Animal pages we use: Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas

For Reading Time and Core Subject Pages, he has decided to study Chemistry and Middle Ages: Amish Pathway readers, The Story of the World Vol. 2 (we also do the color pages associated with this book), Usborne Look Inside a Castle, Fizz, Bubble & Flash, God’s Design For Chemistry and Ecology: Properties of Atoms and Molecules, Usborne Medieval World. We are also reading Robin Hood and The Knights of the Round Table.

News, Movie Time and Nature Study are not planned out I just help him find good quality things to cover these areas that we find online or outside! Some we like are the Wordup! DVD, Drive Through History and Horrible History.

For the Math Time pages we will use the Bedtime Math App. because we have a separate Math program

For the Copywork pages, I decided to use Draw-Write-Now and let him choose which book he wanted to use.

For Listening Time we are going through the Usborne Famous Composers Reference Book. (It has QR links to listen to music from the composers!)

Then for the Vocabulary pages we are using English from the Roots Up Vol. 1. We write the word root at the top of the page and I let him select from the included words which ones he wants to write down and define.

For our remaining subjects we use the following:

Math: Comic Book Math and Learn Math Fast Books

Spelling/Phonics: Explode the Code and Teach Your Child 100 Words to Read, Write,Spell and Draw

Thinking Skills: Thinking Skills from plainandnotsoplain.com

Grammar: we are reading Simply Grammar, Usborne Illustrated Grammar and Punctuation and we use the Mad Libs Game.

I hope this helps give you an idea of what we are doing in our homeschool using the Fun-Schooling books. Click here to see how this looks on a daily schedule.

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We Learn Everywhere!

April 20, 2023April 20, 2023 / Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

Fun-Schooling Happens EVERYWHERE!!!!

I was flipping through family photos and made a little collection of photos that show how my kids are learning without the traditional “Desk” approach… Sometimes they enjoy working at a desk or table, but the floor is also popular! Some kids love to be in the middle of everything and set up school at the coffee table in the family room. Others like to hangout on their beds to study.