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Struggling w/ 7th grade curriculum, Public to Home this yr.


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Our situation isn't different than most I'm sure but I need some guidance from veterans. I'm reviewing the book, online, forums etc and maybe some generous soul out there could offer me some insight as to how to handle our particular situation :)

 

We are leaving the p.s. system this year with our daughter entering 7th grade. Her schools bounced around quite a bit when it came to math, history, reading, and well all of the major subjects. I'd prefer to give her a better foundation of these subjects than what she's had so she can grasp things better. She's never had geography at all.

 

From my understanding she would need to do the 5th grade in order to back track on what she hasn't reviewed but never did, is this correct? Ancients 5000 B.C. to A.D. 400? Or should I start her where the book recommends on the 7th grade level? She loves learning I just want to lay the best foundation for her as possible with the mess the public schools created. She has no understanding of what happened when and how it transitioned into where we are now.

 

Math- Everything says pre-algebra but she is just now grasping the concepts of multiplication and division. My thoughts were to get her comfortable and review till mastered then move forward. I know the book is a mere suggestion but that's where I pray that the Veterans can come in and help guide me towards what worked for them so I at least have some solid idea of where to begin.

 

My main goal is ultimately for her to gain the academics she needs to succeed while not holding her down forcing her to learn something over her head, especially if back tracking to 5th and gradually moving up will get her to Modern Day history and she be fine. I've read a few alternatives that put ancients last and ancients in the middle. I guess it's safe to say I'm confused.

 

Any parents out there transition out this long after public schools and find themselves confused. I love the ideas and resources WTM is throwing towards me, I just want to feel comfortable applying them as well as possible for our budding child!

 

I appreciate you reading my ramble. Thank you in advance if you have suggestions. And yes, I know the first suggestion should be- calm down and breathe. :)

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A few thoughts:

math: meet her where she is. You can't skip any math, skills build on each other. Disregard what is "recommended" for 7th grade and use whatever  level she needs now. If that is 5th grade math, then so be it. Slow and steady wins the race.

 

history: the chronological progression is nice and makes a lot of sense, but it is not the law. If your student is interested in modern history, by all means go ahead. Alternatively (and that is what I did when I pulled DD put of ps and homeschooled 7th grade) you can simply start with Ancients and go in chronological order; you might not get to Modern before high school, but that is not a problem: you can then either start the sequence at high school level again, or continue with your progression and have a high school level modern history in 9th grade and return to Ancients later in high school.

Having her come from ps with not such a  great experience, I would let my student choose what kind of history she wants to study.

 

best wishes

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You and I are about on the same level of thought with it. I almost want her to choose in a way so that she's happy but then I'm trying to look ahead and make sure we get it all covered properly at some point. I also think in a way she doesn't care, she just wants structure and some sort of discipline with it (woohoo) and I ultimately am attempting to nit pick it apart.

 

Thankful to hear that I was thinking about the right way according to math. It said Pre Algebra and I knew I'd forever lose her if I threw her into that. Introducing her to the calculator prematurely has caused her delay. We are working with that now and attempting to correct what I consider the "wolves" destroyed. :) Thank you for your response and clarification on some of my general thoughts with it. I guess all of us deal with the concerns, worries and fears but I just need to remember to keep her happy and learning and all will be fine. Beauty of home school- keep forgetting that part.

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From my understanding she would need to do the 5th grade in order to back track on what she hasn't reviewed but never did, is this correct?

 

 

No, you wouldn't back up to "fifth grade." Most subjects are not grade-level oriented anyway. You'll want to find out what her skills are and start from there, regardless of "grade level." :-)

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History: Sonlight has a 2 year cycle. You could do core G and then H. It uses Story of the World 2 books per year. Then when you hit high school you can start a 4 year cycle.

Math: pick a program that will suit your daughter. Then have her take the placement test. If she is behind there is time to get caught up.

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If you focus heavily on math this year and you have a cooperative student, I think that you will be pleasantly surprised at the progress she makes this year. 

 

My son came home last year (6th grade), and I was beside myself at how far behind he was.  A year later, he is no longer behind.  It wasn't always easy or pleasant.  There was plenty of frustration (his) and worry (mine). 

 

It took me a long time to get a really good feel for where to place him.  If I had it to do over again, I would start with a VERY thorough placement test like ADAM from Let's Go Learn.

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From my understanding she would need to do the 5th grade in order to back track on what she hasn't reviewed but never did, is this correct? Ancients 5000 B.C. to A.D. 400? Or should I start her where the book recommends on the 7th grade level? She loves learning I just want to lay the best foundation for her as possible with the mess the public schools created. She has no understanding of what happened when and how it transitioned into where we are now.

 

Personally - I would not make her go back just for the sake of going back. That said - History Masterminds by Trisms covers all of history in a year (or you can take two if she needs it). They also include language arts, geography, and historical science. Actually - for what you're saying has been missed - it sounds perfect!

http://www.trisms.com/HM/learnmore.html

 

Math- Everything says pre-algebra but she is just now grasping the concepts of multiplication and division. My thoughts were to get her comfortable and review till mastered then move forward. I know the book is a mere suggestion but that's where I pray that the Veterans can come in and help guide me towards what worked for them so I at least have some solid idea of where to begin.

 

I would start where she is and not worry about labels. The stronger her foundation in basic math skills the better prepared she'll be for higher math. I've helped tutor some high-schoolers who were doing dismally on the ACT and SAT. Turns out they had a horrible understanding of percentages, division, fractions, etc. Once they got that down - they increased their scores dramatically. She has time to catch up, no worries!

 

 

I appreciate you reading my ramble. Thank you in advance if you have suggestions. And yes, I know the first suggestion should be- calm down and breathe. :)

And yes - breathe :)

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I bought Developmental math to help by behind child catch up. As far as history, pick whatever time period sparks an interest and move forward from there. How are her Language Arts skills? Hake is a good program for grammar and writing. I would start her with the 6th grade book.

 

http://www.mathplace.com/Developmental/Developmental.asp

 

http://www.hakepublishing.com/

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Thank you all for the replies. Definitely beneficial. Sometimes it's just nice to know if I'm moving forward or sitting still and it's difficult for me to determine because I don't have myself to compare myself to :{ Maybe next year ;)

 

Her LA are fabulous. She's never really struggled but she'll be the first to tell you she memorized what they told her would be on the test. And when they gave her the study guide, that was the test. She never learned to study and she never studied to learn. 8 years worth of correcting I'm working against.

 

Thanks for your help. I'm going to look at these links!!!! I appreciate you all. It truly is a blessing to have helpful people at every turn. :)

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you could try doing the math mammoth placement tests and buying the appropriate blue books to cover weak/missing skills.

This is exactly what I was going to suggest. My DS (good at but hates math) wasn't "behind" but did have some missing pieces. I bought MM blue (by topic/subject). We went over the missing pieces in 5th/6th grade. He should be done with P-Alg (we're taking it slower)by Christmas. Then we move into Algebra. I don't think we could have moved this quickly without MM. As for History you could do a 2 year survey and cover it all quickly then start with Ancients in 9th grade. Another option, Do a year of U.S. History followed by Modern (if that's when she's interested in?).
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I know the WTM book seems to tie grade levels to certain historical periods, but please don't overlook the chapter about starting in the middle.  I have been & still am in a similar situation with children being behind in some subjects (per WTM standards).  Mentally separate history into 2 categories: Content and Skills.  As you read through the WTM 5th - 8th gr. history sections, you'll notice that not only are different historical periods recommended for ea. grade level, the skills build up as well.  There is grade-level skill work that can be done on any content.  I took notes from TWTM to make a reusable weekly assignment page for history which lists WTM assignments for all the grade levels I'm teaching for the year.  It could be applied to any of the historical periods, but I have to update it whenever one of my children moves on to the next WTM skill level for history (overall or even for specific types of assignments but not others).  It's the level of work you're requiring, how much, and what kind that makes up the skills.  Off the top of my head (so, this is not comprehensive & may not line up accurately w/ WTM) I put it in a format somewhat like this:

Day 1:

Read main encyclopedia page(s)

Make fact list, list ___ (however many) facts that are most important or most interesting

Choose 1 or 2 facts to read more about

Day 2:

Outline encyclopedia pages or most interesting resource from further reading on day 1 (list specific type of outline for the WTM grade level you're teaching - might not match your dc's age-grade correlated level & that's OK.  As soon as it's mastered, you can bump it up and try adding the skills from the next level up.  For ex., learn basic 1-level outlines 1st semester or 1st Qtr., then 2-level when the child is ready, & so on.)

Mapwork

Prepare a summary of the reading from day 1

 

Etc.

 

 

By the way, you can divide up the assignments into however many days you like, and you can do the assignments in whatever order makes sense for you.

 

Hope that helps & isn't too confusing; it's very late here & I wonder if I'm coming across clearly, if at all, lol. :)

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I'm in the same boat. We pulled dd11 after finishing 5th. She took the MM placement test and failed miserably despite being in advanced math in ps. She has some snapshots of American history, but that's it. We have been using Khan Academy and IXL to evaluate her math skills and pinpoint where we need review then using MM's free worksheets, Khan Academy's videos, and BrainPOP as needed to remediate. My goal is to have her in MM6 next month. The ladies here really helped me formulate that plan, and it's working great so far. They are a wise bunch. As for history, I started her at the very beginning, and I'm making it grade level appropriate. We are using Oxford University Press's The World in Ancient Times, Kingfisher's Encyclopedia of World History, and whatever topics she finds interesting we'll do additional living books on this year. She really likes being able to choose those. This plan will have her finishing the logic cycle in 9th grade, though. So we'll have to condense a little in high school. I figure they get one year of World History and one year of American History in public high school so she's still getting more.

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My daughter also began homeschooling in 7th grade. 

 

I'll address the subject of history.  I planned a three year sweep through world history, and in seventh grade my daughter covered the time period up to 500AD.   (In eighth grade, she covered 500 to 1700AD.  In ninth grade, she covered up to the year 2000.) 

 

She used the following materials in 7th grade:

 

 

Selections from The Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World by Charlotte Evans et al.

 

The Young People's Story of Our Heritage: The Ancient World, Pre-history to 500BC by V. M. Hillyer and E. G. Huey

 

The Young People's Story of Our Heritage: The Ancient World, 500BC to 500AD by V. M. Hillyer and E. G. Huey

 

A Bone from a Dry Sea by Peter Dickinson

 

Cave of the Moving Shadows by Thomas Milstead

 

Spirit on the Wall by Ann O'Neal Garcia

 

Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

 

Pharaoh's Daughter by Julius Lester

 

Video:  David Macaulay's World of Ancient Engineering:   Pyramid

 

Black Ships before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff

 

Dateline: Troy by Paul Fleischman

 

Inside the Walls of Troy by Clemence McClaren 

 

The Curse of King Tut by Patricia Netzley

 

The Golden Fleece by Padraic Colum

 

Escape from Egypt by Sonia Levitin

 

Troy by Adele Geras   

 

The Wanderings of Odysseus by Rosemary Sutcliff

 

The Cat of Bubastes by G. A. Henty

 

City of Gold and Other Stories from the Old Testament by Peter Dickinson

 

Gods and Goddesses by John Malam

 

The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone by James Cross Giblin

 

Selections from  Cultural Atlas for Young People:  Ancient Greece by Anton Powell

 

Selections from Then and Now by Stefania and Dominic Perring

 

Selections from Usborne Book of Famous Lives

 

Selections from  Heroines by Rebecca Hazell

 

Selections from A Picturesque Tale of Progress, Volume 2 by Olive Beaupre Miller

 

The Story of the World, History for the Classical Child: Ancient Times by Susan W. Bauer

 

Niko: Sculptor's Apprentice by Isabelle Lawrence

 

How Would You Survive as an Ancient Greek? by Fiona Macdonald

 

Calliope Magazine: Taharqo

 

Calliope Magazine: Ancient Celts

 

Alexander the Great by Peter Chrisp

 

Video: Alexander the Great (The History Makers)

 

Men of Athens by Olivia Coolidge

 

Selections from Mathematicians are People, Too by Luetta and Wilbert Reimer

 

Science in Ancient Greece by Kathlyn Gay

 

Selections from A Day in Old Athens by William S. Davis

 

Your Travel Guide to Ancient Greece by Nancy Day

 

The Librarian who Measured the Earth by Kathryn Lasky

 

The Emperor's Silent Army by Jane O'Connor

 

Selections from Ancient Japan by J. E. Kidder

 

Hannibal's Elephants by Alfred Powers

 

The Story of the Romans by H. A. Guerber

 

Galen: My Life in Imperial Rome by Marissa Moss

 

Caesar's Gallic War by Olivia Coolidge

 

Selections from Ancient Inventions by Peter James and Nick Thorpe

 

Video:  Anthony and Cleopatra (Royal Shakespeare Company, 1974)

 

Videos:  I, Claudius (Volumes 1-7)

 

Augustus Caesar's World by Genevieve Foster

 

City by David Macaulay

 

The Wadjet Eye by Jill Rubalcaba

 

Video:  David Macaulay's World of Ancient Engineering:   Roman City

 

Song for a Dark Queen by Rosemary Sutcliff

 

Detectives in Togas by Henry Winterfield

 

Video:  Ancient Mysteries:  Pompeii, Buried Alive

 

The Capricorn Bracelet by Rosemary Sutcliff

 

The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff

 

Selections from Wonders of Ancient Chinese Science by Robert Silverberg

 

The White Stag by Kate Seredy

 

Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges

 

Selections from The Dark Ages by Tony Gregory

 

Lady Ch'iao Kuo:  Warrior of the South by Laurence Yep

 

The Dancing Bear by Peter Dickinson

 

Video:  Africa (Ancient Civilizations for Children)

 

The Cartoon History of the Universe II, From the Springtime of China to the Fall of Rome by Larry Gonick

 

If you'd like specifics as to what I had her do, let me know and I'll post more details.

Regards,
Kareni


 
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I'll throw in my two cents for what it's worth.  My two children (son, 10 entering 6th and daughter, 13 entering 8th) were in public school up to now.  We decided to homeschool for many of the same reasons you are.  I've been planning what to do for almost a year now and my only real desire was to have them working on the same subject content at the same time knowing they may be at different levels or using different curricula.  Basically I didn't want my youngest doing American history while the oldest did the ancients, but other than that I was open to just about anything.  My goal for the year is to teach them how to really enjoy learning and how to do research, something I think was completely lacking up to this point.  It is important to me that they unlearn what they have been doing in PS which is mostly reading from texts, doing worksheets and studying for multiple choice tests, and learn how to really gain knowledge of subject, not just skimming the surface to pass a test.

 

Knowing the transition might be difficult from PS to homeschooling (although my daughter has asked me before to homeschool her and both are VERY excited to be starting this new adventure) I asked them both what they would like to start with for history and science.  My daughter, the history lover, said she wanted to start at the beginning and do the ancients.  My son didn't really care and so I researched curricula and made decisions on what I thought would work best for each child.  The oldest will be working thru TRISMS while my son is doing Sonlight G.  Both curricula are heavily reading based and use both historical fiction and non-fiction, encyclopedias and other reference materials for gaining knowledge of the subject.  They also include some language arts and we will be working through IEW TWSS at the same time.

 

For science we will be doing some anatomy and physiology along with nature studies, trips to science museums and lots of experiments.  DH and I both have chemistry degrees so I know that we will be doing A LOT of science :)  I am hoping to do a few unit studies with my son on science topics like carnivorous plants, dinosaurs, cicadas, bridges, and geology to break up his regular studies and keep him interested.  DH is excited to do projects with my son like build a computer, rockets, iPod dock, etc...  I hope throwing in some really fun projects and subjects will make working on the things he dislikes (writing mostly) easier to get through.

 

My husband will be doing math with both kids mostly because he is not only very knowledgable in math but he can also teach it, where I lack the patience and understanding of how to teach it even though I know the material.  Last year when my advance math daughter was having problems in math he took over and she went from D's to A's just by changing the way he taught the same material.  He likes to explain the why's and how's of math and not just have them memorize equations and plug and chug problems.  I'm not sure what exactly they will be working on, but my daughter finished pre-algebra and started algebra in her class last year and my son will probably do some review work and then begin pre-algebra.  

 

My daughter's second love after history is language arts and I am very lucky that both she and my son love to read.  The TRISMS program (which is research based) incorporates IEW into their lessons and I also have IEW's Ancient History writing program that we can do along with it.  She also wants to complete a novel in November through the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge.  My son will work on language arts through IEW TWSS and also TRISMS History Makers curriculum which we are not doing as a complete program but here and there as the historical inventor/discovery matches what he is studying for history.  I also have Radar, Rockets and Robots IEW program for him to work on as a science/writing subject since I want to make his writing assignments as interesting as possible.

 

Not sure if any of this helps, but I guess my advice would be start with something she is really interested in for subject matter so she stays engaged.  Lots of people talk about deschooling if your child has been in public school, and I think working on stuff they enjoy learning about will make the process easier.  I would also not worry too much about the actual subject matter for history or science but as you mentioned, work on trying to undo the habits they learned in school and create new learning styles and skills they will be able to use in any subject at any time.  I am not going to worry about what content we work on in what grade until high school, where preparing for college entrance exams starts to come into the picture.

 

Looking forward to seeing others opinions, I always learn so much from reading these posts!

 

Paige

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thankful to hear that I was thinking about the right way according to math. It said Pre Algebra and I knew I'd forever lose her if I threw her into that. Introducing her to the calculator prematurely has caused her delay. We are working with that now and attempting to correct what I consider the "wolves" destroyed. :) Thank you for your response and clarification on some of my general thoughts with it. I guess all of us deal with the concerns, worries and fears but I just need to remember to keep her happy and learning and all will be fine. Beauty of home school- keep forgetting that part.

 

Welcome to our world! :)  I thought I'd chime in on the Math question.  We've been homeschooling from the beginning and my oldest has always struggled with math.  She is just now doing Pre-Algebra in 8th grade and that's fairly common.  Not everyone is ready for Algebra before High School.  There are several programs that have a year you can do if your student is not ready for Pre-Algebra or Algebra.  Bob Jones has Fundamentals of Math for grade 7, Saxon has Level 8/7,  , and A Beka has Basic Mathematics.  I'm sure there's more, but these are the three I'm familiar with and looked into for my oldest.  What we ended up using I wouldn't necessarily recommend for you.  We used Math U See Zeta this year.  It covers Decimals in depth with the understanding that your child KNOWS their multiplication and division.  You can go to their website to read more about it and download a placement test if you're interested.  You might be surprised!  But it is a very different math program from what your kiddo would be used to.  It works on mastery of one concept for entire year.  Some kids thrive on this (like my oldest), some kids don't (my youngest).  

 

Hope that helps!

Dorinda

 

Whoops!  Forgot the MUS link :)  http://store.mathusee.com/

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Kareni, I am not the OP but I would love more details about how you had her work with the books.

 

First a general note about my list above, we're quite liberal so some of the videos on the list as well as a few books (i.e., Gonick's the Cartoon History ...) might not suit all families.   I enlisted my husband to watch all of the videos with my daughter.  It gave them something to enjoy together and also involved my husband in homeschooling.

 

Here is what I handed to my daughter in 7th grade.  I already listed the resources we used in the post above.  Bear in mind that my daughter was a voracious reader; I suspect that one might happily use far fewer books.  We also were homeschooling on a serious budget our first few years of homeschooling, and so I basically used what I could locate at the library and thrift stores.

 

 

"History and Reading

 

The plan:

 

To study history chronologically from prehistory to about AD500.

 

The means:

 

We’ll use Hillyer and Huey’s two books Young People’s Story of the Ancient World as well as numerous other books and resources.

 

Typically each week there will be a list of required reading.  There will generally be a novel to be read pertaining to the time period.  There may also be some myths and legends to be read.  There will also be non-fiction books or selections to be read and perhaps a website to visit or a video to view.

 

You will need to locate any places mentioned on the map, in a historical atlas and on the globe (if we obtain one).  Each week you will make two pages for your Book of the Centuries.  These pages should be work you can be proud of!  They should be well planned, edited and neat.  They can be in your best cursive or done on the computer.  All art work should be done with care.  The pages should pertain to the time period being studied.  Each page should be titled.  Pages might cover such topics as:

 

A people

A great man or woman (a ruler, artist, explorer, scientist)

An artifact (tools, buildings, type of writing)

A religion

An event

A discovery or invention

A war or battle

The daily life of a people

A map (route of an explorer, location of a people) 

An imaginary encounter between two historical personae

???

 

You might find information on these topics at home or you may need to do additional research at the library or online. 

 

Maps should include a legend (which may be printed) in addition to the title.

 

In addition to your two pages, you should also note five to ten important dates in your Book of the Centuries."

 

 

Feel free, Penguin, to ask other questions that might occur to you.

 

Regards,

Kareni

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