Not yet! I’m wondering if it’s a very new program. I guess if we try it I’ll have to provide a review, since I can’t find any!🤪 Thanks for the bump.

Hi there, Someone on Davidson Young Scholars linked the June Writers Academy as a good writing program for accelerated kids. I had never heard of it before. The website looks really interesting, but I can't find many reviews. Does anyone here have any experience with it? I'm sorting out LA for next year for my 7yo who scores very well in reading comprehension but has not had a formal writing curriculum yet. I had been leaning toward MCT Island level (possibly the online class? He is rocking an online Latin class right now, so I think the format would work). This would be much less expensive, but I can't tell how the programs compare.

I know you want no/low cost - but we're doing a bird study right now and LOVING this book. Maybe you can find it through your library or interlibrary loan? It has all different bird songs programmed in. So many children's books with sound just play 8-10 sounds - this one has multiple entries for most birds, so that you can identify what bird it is and what they are saying. We live in the West so we got this one, but there are versions for all different parts of the US. I got the recommendation for the book from a Cornell Ornithology class about learning about birds with children. We read a chapter of the Burgess Birds book, find it in our Peterson guide, find the songs in this book, and then do a coloring sheet focusing on the coloring/markings that are distinctive. I'm supplementing with other picture books about birds in our home library and picture books about birds from the library.

@Ting Tang I’m so glad it’s helpful!

Plans for my sponge-like six and a half year old: Math: RightStart Math C (starting this summer) and Beast Academy online 2 Language Arts: Silent reading time, read aloud and oral narration from history curriculum, WriteShop Primary B to learn about the editing/revising process, Handwriting Without Tears, still experimenting with spelling vs. copywork. He seems to absorb spelling without explicit instruction. History: Medieval history - History Quest, reading selections from Build Your Library, lots of hands-on projects and make believe. SO MANY great read aloud books this year, I'm really excited. Science: Robotics/Circuits/Computing/Coding - Per his request, so I'm cobbling this together. I found a book to use to work through concepts with LEGO Boost robot. I got a big snap circuits set to systematically learn about electrical circuits. We'll also read a variety of related books. Music: Piano lessons continue Art: Visits to the art museum, art appreciation, plus crafts from the history curriculum Input levels are much more advanced than written output, so I'll continue to scribe for him.

In addition to Build Your Library having excellent book suggestions in the curriculum, they’ve also curated this site: History Book By Book You can find diverse selections of read alouds, readers, and picture books for different time periods. I also found the “History Hops” in History Quest to include a wider array of points of view. There are plenty of fascinating stories of women and people of color who have shaped the world’s history, including the history of western civilization.

I used Blossom and Root year 1 science this year, which was Earth Science. The curriculum listed SO MANY excellent topical picture books. You would have to buy the science curriculum for the full list. Other science years have different topics.

Something I’m trying this year is “silent reading time,” where both my son and I (he’s an only child) curl up with our novels and a delicious snack. We’ll aim to read for 20-30 minutes. We’ve tried it twice so far and it’s been a huge success. He can choose what he wants to read in his free time still, but we read chapter books during the silent reading time. I think that having the shared time and a known end time is working well.

I didn’t reply at first because I did prehistory/evolution with my Kindergartner last summer and I thought the resources might be too young for a 7th grader. Now as I read this thread I’m realizing that a bunch of things I used as read aloud are in this thread, so I’ll provide more from my list. Just check them to see if they feel too young for your learner. I used book lists from Build Your Library prehistory unit study and the prehistory section of Blossom and Root Animals Studies science. I’m sure the activities in Blossom and Rot might feel too young for most seventh graders, but the book list is up to date and extensive, and there are suggested videos to go with each of the topics. We loved the When Fish Got Feet books too. These graphic novels by Abby Howard ended up being one of our favorite things. They weren’t on any of the lists I was using, I wonder I’d they are too new. Theyare detailed, up to date, and packed full of information: Dinosaur Empire Ocean Renegades Mammal Takeover Regarding early humans: I did “Maroo of the Winter Caves” as a read aloud. It would be an enjoyable read for a seventh grader without some of the problematic aspects of Clan of The Cave Bear. It looks like it’s already on your list. There is also a Human Evolution coloring book that is used in lots of first year anthropology/archaeology classes. Would be a fun addition for a kid who likes that kind of thing. One of our favorite projects was looking at old books’ depictions of dinosaurs and discussing how scientific knowledge has grown - depictions of dinosaurs have changed accordingly. We did this orally, using old and new dinosaur toys and books, but it might make for an interesting research paper - looking for out-of-date depictions in Jurassic Park, for example, and then using evocative description of what was depicted alongside citing recent research papers.

I haven’t read it, but Ahisma by Supriya Kelkar might be worth a look. It’s a middle-grade. novel about the Indian freedom movement.

DS will be an older first grader next year, and he is first grade by age and "output" but wants "input" at levels for older ages. We managed that this year by being super literature-based. I think it worked pretty well. He's an only child, so I'm still finding my way: Math: We'll be partway through RS Math C in the fall. Supplementing with BA2. We'll add in some boolean logic and set theory as a part of what we're doing in science Language Arts: This kid is a voracious reader but still learning to write his letters confidently. I think he'll be confident in his letter formation by the fall. Continuing Handwriting Without Tears and Spelling You See. Adding in WriteShop Primary and the Poodle series from MCT. Lots and lots and lots of books that I'll read aloud and that he'll read to me and that we'll take turns reading, many of them tied into our history and science study. History: Medieval history - Build Your Library for pacing and ideas. Lots of make believe history play. Transitioning into more narration and copywork as he is developmentally ready. Science: DS wants to do robotics, so I'm preparing lessons on related science topics with a LEGO boost kit and book that we're working through. Science topics I'm thinking about: a semester on the electrical side of things and a semester on the computing side of things Other: piano, poem memorization, typing, coding, a farm and forest enrichment class that he does once a week, and hopefully swimming lessons if Covid continues to improve

I just wanted to follow up to this thread to say thank you again to everyone for the support and wonderful suggestions. We're upping our hand strengthening work through various activities but I'm not upping the amount I expect for handwriting - and in fact I'm backing off a little. So we're doing more clay, building, piano, rock carrying, grocery carrying, LEGO, etc, but keeping at a slow and steady tortoise pace for handwriting. Instead of asking him to write in other subjects, I'm scribing for any subjects that he wants a scribe besides daily handwriting and one label that he writes per day for his history or science notebook. Meanwhile we're plowing ahead in his subjects in terms of content and skills. So, for math today, he answered his math problems while leaping onto a pile of cushions and I wrote what he said. He seems a lot happier and his handwriting is improving much faster with this approach than when I was asking him to write more.

Wow, lots of great ideas here that I haven’t tried yet, thanks! He would love using a screwdriver I think. Rightstart comes with number cards. I hadn’t thought of having him do the worksheets that way. What a good idea!

Zentagawhatnow? *running off to google to look this up*

Yes. I’m sure other kids do these kinds of things more than he does, as he spends a lot of his free time reading, but he is also a major LEGO kid. We’re also using clay a lot this year for art time, and he really likes that so I’ve been leaning into it. We started piano lessons together a couple of months ago and his dexterity has been growing by leaps and bounds as he practices. Thanks for the scissor book ideas, I’ll look at those. He will use scissors but isn’t very proficient at cutting anything other than a straight line yet.

Good idea - we did a lot of dot to dots last year and I hadn’t thought of them lately. And mazes! Yes. Thanks!

Thank you, thank you! Lots of good ideas here.

Haha about hat if thinking skills didn’t outstrip writing skills. We would have tomes full of writing over here. Usinf a dry erase board is a good idea. That’s such a slick writing surface, and you don’t have to press into it at all. Finger spelling is a great idea too! Thanks.

Thank you! You’re confirming what my instinct was telling me, but it sure helps to hear someone with more homeschooling experience say it.

This is super helpful, thanks! It sounds like your approach really worked for your son. Your 3-5 min per day suggestion confirms my hunch that pushing it too hard won’t be helpful either. I ‘m figuring that continued progress is more important than rate of progress right now. I have heard of dysgraphia. I wonder when to think about that? My son is kindergarten age because of when his birthday is, so I figure I should at least see how far he progresses through this spring and then reassess. What’s a more urgen question to me is how to thoughtfully use curriculum in a way that the handwriting pace doesn’t hold him back.

Hi there, I am homeschooling my asynchronous six year old. He is so hungry to learn about all the things. . He taught himself to read at three, but is still learning to write. He is about a year ahead in math, though I write for him in his math curriculum about half or the time. We whizzed along through Logic of English foundations A and B, very breezy, last year as a systematic way to start learning to write and to start some spelling. We loved using the magnet letters for spelling since his handwriting was significantly behind his encoding skills. He’s started to have resistance to LOE in C as it becomes more focused on the readers. I picked up HWT and we’ve had good luck moving through that, using the chalk board for letter practice, I’m looking for your best ideas for next year for how to support him as the gap between his thinking and writing abilities seems to widen. He’s halfway through RS math B, sometimes doing multiple lessons a day, but he can’t write the full worksheets because it’s too much writing. He is making significant progress in his handwriting, it’s just much slower going than every other subject. I’ve found a pace that isn’t too taxing or frustrating for handwriting practice, so we will keep at it. But looking ahead to next year, the amount of writing in different subjects is increasing significantly. I don’t want every area to turn into a handwriting exercise only, especially when he is so fired up about the subjects. He loves reading about science and history and all sorts of books. Is there a downside to continue scribing for him? Should we take a couple of weeks or months off of everything to unschool and just practice writing? What are the positive and negative parts of teaching him to type? Should I expect that I’ll just be modifying all of the curriculum for the next few years to reduce the writing load? When I’ve asked this question on other forums, I’m told he shouldn’t be doing anything so formal. But it’s not my choice! He wants to do all of it, it’s just that the curriculum is expecting the hand strength of a seven or eight year old. Thanks for any suggestions! ballerbaker

Thanks so much!

Hi! I’m in my third year homeschooling. This is a test post to see how the jpg looks as my profile pic