MeghansMom Posted July 26, 2016 Share Posted July 26, 2016 Last year we did Veritas Press Scholars Academy full-time and while it was a great experience, it is really expensive and rigorous. We felt like we had no time for anything else but VPSA. So this year we are back on our own. Meg will be taking Honors Pre-Algebra with MyHomeschiikMathClass.com. They will be using PreAlgebra 3e by Margaret Lial. I signed her up for Expository Writing II with WTMA. We will be using Excellence in Literature for Literature and supplement it with MP guides and books. So I am good with those subjects, but the rest I am not a hundred percent on and I need to fill out my registration by tomorrow for the next school year and I have been indecisive. She took Shirley Grammar last year, she did not particularly care for it and she took Rod and Staff the year before but she hated all the writing. I was thinking maybe Easy Grammar for 7th or 8th, but I have not heard very good things. I don't think she needs spelling or vocabulary separately because she is a prolific reader.However, she does love linguistics so probably something more on word roots. Science, I wanted an online class but money is tight, so I was thinking of using Elemental Science both their Biology for the Logic Stage and their Earth Science and Astronomy for the LS. She has used ES before and was okay with their class series. She hated Sassafrass. I have looked at a lot of curriculum, trying to decide what is best. With History we used Mystery of History and I was thinking of going back to that. What about government and civics? When does she take those? I was thinking of getting her books in these subjects too because she is very interested in the election and human and animal rights and she would be interested in reading these on her own time. Also what her rights and responsibilities as a citizen. Logic, I figured The Fallacy Detective. Art we are going to do See the Light Art Class with some art history and music is going to be SQUILT along with music history, etc. Bible Study will be What's Up? and possibly Kidcoder: Game Programming Online Course. So any ideas? Anything I did not think of? Sorry this is last minute. She wants to be an attorney working pro bono for animal rights cases and open an animal sanctuary, second choice is a veterinarian. She is very extroverted and is an auditory learner. She is also ADHD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mschickie Posted July 26, 2016 Share Posted July 26, 2016 Depending on your state regulations you can either do a year of US History/ Government in 8th grade or you can just do a year of US History and then 1/2 year of Government in high school. For Logic I personally like Art of Argument better than Fallacy Detective. I have used Easy Grammar for several years and I really like it. Do you need to do a Health program? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted July 26, 2016 Share Posted July 26, 2016 We thought Easy Grammar was great here. We combined it with lit and writing too. But for get er done grammar, worked great for us. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiramisu Posted July 26, 2016 Share Posted July 26, 2016 I'm an Easy Grammar user and I like it. I'm just not convinced doing for only a year is worth it, having used it that way. I have heard great things about Shurley 7... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seasider Posted July 27, 2016 Share Posted July 27, 2016 If you liked the info covered in Rod & Staff grammar, and she is an auditory learner, why not do much of it orally? You would only need to buy the teacher book and could skip any composition assignment considering the expository writing class. Diagram sentences on a whiteboard. I've never used Easy Grammar so I'm not sure how it compares, but I do like the systematic method of R&S. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahbobeara Posted July 27, 2016 Share Posted July 27, 2016 We have been Rod and Staff English all the way, and now the kids are a bit burned out, even having done most of it orally. We are switching to Easy Grammar for all 3. (IEW for writing; lit, vocab, and spelling added in separately.) DD9 just did not retain a lot of grammar last year with Rod & Staff, so we're trying this. We did the Fallacy Detective last year, DD14 and DS12 enjoyed it, and continue to call me out whenever they catch me in a fallacy. I am going to keep your science in mind, OP, in case our science bites the dust. We're doing Joy Hakim's Study of Science...completely new curriculum for me :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Governess Posted July 27, 2016 Share Posted July 27, 2016 Okay, so: Math - Pre-A online English: - expository writing 2 - literature with MP - grammar - ? Science: Elemental Science - Biology, Earth and Astronomy History: Mystery of History Logic: Fallacy Detective Art: Class, art history Music: SQUILT (not sure what this is), music history Bible Study: What's Up? Programming: kid coder course Altogether you have 9 separate subjects. I'm not familiar with the time requirements for each... this may or may not be too much of a load, depending on how in-depth you plan to go for each subject. For grammar, what about analytical grammar? I'm bringing up this title because it has a flexible time frame - can be completed in chunks here and there or spread out over 2-3 years. Also from the reviews I've read it seems to be a solid program with good retention, but not as time consuming as R&S. Your science selections sound good... Each title is meant to be completed in one semester? History: I'm not sure what time period you are covering... you have quite a few categories. It looks like you are thinking of using a standard full-year history curriculum, but then adding art and music history, and possibly civics/government. I would add in some extra readings on government if she is studying American history and it interests her, or maybe some extra art/music history resources to go with a different time period, but not everything on the list in the same year. For the rest, I would look at total hours needed per week and make sure it looks doable to have that many subjects. If it's too much, you could always do single semesters for the extras rather than an entire year. So maybe art and programming in the fall, music and logic in the spring... or something like that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeghansMom Posted July 28, 2016 Author Share Posted July 28, 2016 Depending on your state regulations you can either do a year of US History/ Government in 8th grade or you can just do a year of US History and then 1/2 year of Government in high school. For Logic I personally like Art of Argument better than Fallacy Detective. I have used Easy Grammar for several years and I really like it. Do you need to do a Health program? I will check out Art of Argument, thanks. :) Well, she will be 13 in October and we will be getting a gym membership in Sept. She can do a good bit at the gym that age and wants to start running and we will be getting bikes in the fall and our neighbor is going to go with us so we can eventually bike long distance with his group. It just dawned on me what you meant by a Health program, ha. Hmm, do you have any you would recommend please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeghansMom Posted July 28, 2016 Author Share Posted July 28, 2016 I'm an Easy Grammar user and I like it. I'm just not convinced doing for only a year is worth it, having used it that way. I have heard great things about Shurley 7... She already did Shurley 7 last school year with VPSA in six grade. :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeghansMom Posted July 28, 2016 Author Share Posted July 28, 2016 If you liked the info covered in Rod & Staff grammar, and she is an auditory learner, why not do much of it orally? You would only need to buy the teacher book and could skip any composition assignment considering the expository writing class. Diagram sentences on a whiteboard. I've never used Easy Grammar so I'm not sure how it compares, but I do like the systematic method of R&S. I like that about Rod and Staff too. I like her doing all the writing because her writing is atrocious. Her handwriting is too young for her age. However, if doing it auditory makes it less torture for her, I will consider that. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeghansMom Posted July 28, 2016 Author Share Posted July 28, 2016 We have been Rod and Staff English all the way, and now the kids are a bit burned out, even having done most of it orally. We are switching to Easy Grammar for all 3. (IEW for writing; lit, vocab, and spelling added in separately.) DD9 just did not retain a lot of grammar last year with Rod & Staff, so we're trying this. We did the Fallacy Detective last year, DD14 and DS12 enjoyed it, and continue to call me out whenever they catch me in a fallacy. I am going to keep your science in mind, OP, in case our science bites the dust. We're doing Joy Hakim's Study of Science...completely new curriculum for me :) We hated IEW. However I can see why it is so popular and consider it a good program. I think with Meg, she is already descriptive with her verbs and adjectives and having that flow interrupted to make sure all these conditions were met, ruined it for her. Ha, I could so see Meghan doing that with me. She is already correcting me too much! I like Elementary Science Classic series, I just think she might enjoy something more auditory. I could add auditory supplements to the lessons though. I just wondered if anyone found anything better. I will check out Joy Hakim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mschickie Posted July 28, 2016 Share Posted July 28, 2016 For health in 7th grade I just use Abeka's 6th grade health book since we never used it for 6th grade. We did Apologia Anatomy and Physiology in 6th grade and that doubled for science and health. That book can also be used for a health class. Some states do not require you do health but ours does. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeghansMom Posted July 28, 2016 Author Share Posted July 28, 2016 Okay, so: Math - Pre-A online English: - expository writing 2 - literature with MP - grammar - ? Science: Elemental Science - Biology, Earth and Astronomy History: Mystery of History Logic: Fallacy Detective Art: Class, art history Music: SQUILT (not sure what this is), music history Bible Study: What's Up? Programming: kid coder course Altogether you have 9 separate subjects. I'm not familiar with the time requirements for each... this may or may not be too much of a load, depending on how in-depth you plan to go for each subject. For grammar, what about analytical grammar? I'm bringing up this title because it has a flexible time frame - can be completed in chunks here and there or spread out over 2-3 years. Also from the reviews I've read it seems to be a solid program with good retention, but not as time consuming as R&S. Your science selections sound good... Each title is meant to be completed in one semester? History: I'm not sure what time period you are covering... you have quite a few categories. It looks like you are thinking of using a standard full-year history curriculum, but then adding art and music history, and possibly civics/government. I would add in some extra readings on government if she is studying American history and it interests her, or maybe some extra art/music history resources to go with a different time period, but not everything on the list in the same year. For the rest, I would look at total hours needed per week and make sure it looks doable to have that many subjects. If it's too much, you could always do single semesters for the extras rather than an entire year. So maybe art and programming in the fall, music and logic in the spring... or something like that. Hi. Grammar three days a week for an hour, Writing online two days a week for an hour Math will be an hour every day including online two hours a week and with her tutor in addition. French for an hour a day, with her tutor two days a week for an hour also. History will be an hour for three days a week and Science for an hour two days a week. Literature and hour during the week and then one day a week for art/music/logic/coding. Religion for a half an hour during the week sighs, I made that too complicated... 830am Bible 9am Math 10am Grammar/Writing 11am Science on Tuesdays and Thursdays/History on M/W/F 12noon French 1pm lunch 2pm Literature 3pm M-Music T-Art W-Code H-Logic F-free 4pm free time Later in the evening, any homework She has horseback riding Saturday mornings, She has AHG on Thursdays and guitar on Tuesdays. She will start volunteering in Oct when she is 13 at the animal shelter four hours a week. Maybe we can do Health on Fridays? Her Biology for the Logic Stage is 36 week long subject. We double up and she completes it in 18 weeks. Earth Science and Astronomy is one subject. It is also a 36 week long class but we would double up and complete it in 18 weeks. She really loves science. SQUILT are music appreciation lessons. www.squiltmusic.com We also live behind Bob Jones University and several other colleges and universities are in the area. We have a lot of performances we may attend and we have The Peace Center and other such venues. We have Roper Mountain Science Center and a lot of SC history is American history. Since she does not need Civics or Government yet, she can start on that this next summer is she wishes. I am open to semesters...you have given me something to think about. I will also check out Analytical Grammar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seasider Posted July 28, 2016 Share Posted July 28, 2016 (edited) I like that about Rod and Staff too. I like her doing all the writing because her writing is atrocious. Her handwriting is too young for her age. However, if doing it auditory makes it less torture for her, I will consider that. :) I feel that! My daughter is the same way. She actually has lovely cursive but hates hates hates to write longhand. Our kids do so much keyboarding these days, I find I have to be mindful about requiring some assignments to be handwritten and making that expectation clear to her. Edited July 28, 2016 by Seasider 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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