WWYD? Seventh-grade schedule question

[Rebecca VA]

I'm working on my 12-year-old's schedule for next year. Here's what she'll be taking:

 

Rod & Staff English 7

Wheelock's Latin

CLE Reading 7, plus a formal literature and composition class

BJU Life Science

Dolciani Algebra 1/Algebra 2

Guerber's History of the Middle Ages/Renaissance and Reformation History

Precept Bible courses

 

Extracurricular activities: speech club, piano, ballet, Bright Lights, Junior Cotillion, sewing class

 

She's fine -- and even enthusiastic -- with all of this, except for history. She hates history, except modern history, and always has. I've changed curricula several times trying to hit upon the right one that will enthuse her, and she still hates it.

 

I found out today about an online Children's Chinese course that meets three times a week and looks very good. I think it would be a real asset for her, or any student, to know Chinese. But there just isn't room in her schedule for a three-time-per-week class.

 

WHAT IF...I were to take history away and let her take Chinese instead? My reasoning is that language acquisition is a skill that takes years to learn and is best started young. She can always learn more history later by reading a book or two. (I mean, think of how many homeschool moms didn't learn much history until they read SOTW with their children.) She knows ancient history and modern history well; it's just the centuries in-between that she's a little vague on.

 

Would adding Chinese skew the balance of subjects in her schedule? Right now they seem to all mesh nicely together. Chinese just seems so...out there, meaning it kind of clashes with Latin and English.

 

And would she be at a disadvantage by not getting her history down a little better now, in middle school?

 

Please give me your input! The 20% discount for the Chinese course ends tomorrow, so I want to decide ASAP.

[Harriet Vane]

I would not skip history.

[amtmcm]

Chinese sounds great if it's a language you're both enthusiastic about. How about studying history of Asia & Eastern World along with Chinese? Maybe using the Sonlight 5 literature list?

 

Does your daughter like to read? Have you tried Beautiful Feet? It sounds like you've tried a number of curricula, so you probably have, but my DD loves BF so I thought I'd mention it since they have a Medieval/Renaissance guide.

 

Ducking for cover here.... I think learning a foreign language is more valuable than learning history at that age. As you say, look how many Mom's grew up not remembering much history until we use SOTW with our kids. However, I am a huge fan of learning geography and world culture so if it were me I would make learning Chinese the center of some kind of study about Asia. Or take a year off history and do World Geography for an hour each week on top of Chinese. A Beka has two really great workbooks for 6th/7th grades - one is Western Hemisphere and the other is Eastern Hemisphere and she could easily finish them both in an hour per week during the year. Or use something simple like Everything Kids Geography or Janice Van Cleeve Geography, or.....

 

Just a few suggestions.... but IMO, I don't think there's anything wrong with what you're considering in middle school.

Edited July 15, 2009 by amtmcm

[Rita]

If your dd is excited to be studying Chinese, I'd go for the Chinese and toss the structured history for the year. I'd give her some historical books (like a previous poster suggested...use SL Core 5 as a book list)

Rita

[kiana]

Does she want to take Chinese, or have any interest in it?

 

If you decide to do Chinese history instead, Suzanne Strauss Art has some books that look pretty good.

 

http://www.pemblewickpress.com/china.htm

[Rebecca VA]

I mentioned the Chinese class to her yesterday, and it kind of startled her. However, she has a good friend, a Chinese-American girl who lives in another state and whom she e-mails every day, who knows some Chinese. Also, taking it would get her out of taking history, and that's a good inducement for her.

[Rebecca VA]

Bump...Anyone else have an opinion? I asked my daughter this morning, and she said she'd do almost anything to get out of history. But she didn't say she really wanted to take Chinese.

[MIch elle]

Listen to SOTW 2 & 3 audio. Listen to the audio & take the SOTW tests once or twice/wk. - history is DONE! I also recommend discussing those SOTW chapters with your dc; discussion can help retain the info.

[Rita]

Bump...Anyone else have an opinion? I asked my daughter this morning, and she said she'd do almost anything to get out of history. But she didn't say she really wanted to take Chinese.

 

If she didn't say she really wants to take Chinese, I'd go with History. Chinese, in my opinion, is a difficult language to learn if you're not motivated and wanting to learn it (to me, learning the Chinese "alphabet" or whatever term they use for it would be HARD :001_smile:) PLUS, you have the out of pocket expense for an online class.

Rita

[PeterPan]

I wouldn't pay money for an online class for Chinese for someone who doesn't want it. On the history, have you looked at BJU? I'm a history-hater, die-hard (my mom runs a museum, stepdad is curator at another), and I can tolerate the BJU history. Sometimes people try too hard to make it interesting. Better to do it and get it over with.

 

If you want her to start a conversational language to add to her latin, she's old enough to have a say in picking it.

[Rebecca VA]

Well, she's a child who can't make a decision (really! she's always been like that). She depends on me to make decisions for her. She has opinions on a few things (she likes ballet, she hates history), but mostly she goes with whatever I choose for her.

[Ester Maria]

History may not be interesting for everyone, but an overview of a national and world history is, with no doubt, a part of the "standard equipment" we expect from an educated person - any educated person, regardless of what they do in life.

Chinese, in the other hand, is by no means a part of the "standard equipment". As any language - especially the "big" ones - it is useful, but it is not necessary.

 

I would personally never trade the basics for the extras, particularly if the extras are not really wanted by the child in question. I'm all for the extra content - but as an addition to the regular curriculum, not the substitution for some of its parts which we may deem less pleasant. I would under no circumstances allow a 12-year-old to skip History and to take an exotic, hard-to-learn language instead which she'll most likely master only the bare basics of, given the lack of a true interest and time - and that's in my opinion a waste of time.

[Hoggirl]

I wouldn't pay money for an online class for Chinese for someone who doesn't want it. On the history, have you looked at BJU? I'm a history-hater, die-hard (my mom runs a museum, stepdad is curator at another), and I can tolerate the BJU history. Sometimes people try too hard to make it interesting. Better to do it and get it over with.

 

If you want her to start a conversational language to add to her latin, she's old enough to have a say in picking it.

 

Oh Elizabeth is the one who headed me to BJU history. Ds still doesn't like history, but I feel like it is getting "done." Their grade 7 text would cover the time period in which you say she is lacking. Get it and the activity and call it done!

[Carol in Cal.]

Has she tried a living books approach to history/cultural studies? Maybe she would be more engaged then. It might be worth a shot. Or, since she likes ancients so much, maybe investigating how ancient civilization effects modern history would be a good study area for her.

 

I don't honestly see a big problem with her not taking history this year, though. It sounds like you have slogged through quite a bit of it. Maybe if she studied Chinese you could require some living books along with it, to get a feel for the culture. If you slip in the history that way, it might be more palatable.

 

Personally, DD and I both love history, but if yours doesn't, I don't think that you have to push the issue before high school.

[Harriet Vane]

History may not be interesting for everyone, but an overview of a national and world history is, with no doubt, a part of the "standard equipment" we expect from an educated person - any educated person, regardless of what they do in life.

Chinese, in the other hand, is by no means a part of the "standard equipment". As any language - especially the "big" ones - it is useful, but it is not necessary.

 

I would personally never trade the basics for the extras, particularly if the extras are not really wanted by the child in question. I'm all for the extra content - but as an addition to the regular curriculum, not the substitution for some of its parts which we may deem less pleasant. I would under no circumstances allow a 12-year-old to skip History and to take an exotic, hard-to-learn language instead which she'll most likely master only the bare basics of, given the lack of a true interest and time - and that's in my opinion a waste of time.

 

:iagree: Well said.

[Katiebug_1976]

What if you left out the formal history curric and picked out living history books for her to read, or mabye even read them together? I know my kids learn soooooooooo much more from living history stories than from a curric/textbook. Just a thought.....

[Rebecca VA]

OK. We'll do history. The Chinese lessons just seemed so cool to me, and I thought they would fascinate her and get her to stop huffing and puffing about history.

 

I looked at BJU World History, but I wasn't impressed with the video teacher and I felt that my daughter wouldn't like the text. Thank you for the suggestion, though.

 

I'll keep looking around. She has learned the most and had the most fun when we've done TOG, but it's a huge amount of work and a big commitment in time. We just don't have the luxury of lots of time this year. She hates to read by herself (I'm beginning to realize that she hates to do *anything* by herself), and reading every single historical fiction book aloud with her takes many, many hours.

 

Thank you all for the suggestions! I'm very much open to more suggestions, if anyone has any.

[PeterPan]

Have you pondered how she's going to do high school if she doesn't like to read anything for herself?

[Rebecca VA]

Yeah, I know. It's pathetic. I've agonized over this to my husband year after year, and he always reminds me that he seldom picked up a book voluntarily when he was a boy. Yet he went on to be valedictorian of his high school class and a nuclear engineer for the Navy. He has a very good post-Navy job now. Hating to read fiction didn't damage him too much -- oh, and he actually likes to read it now!

 

She's definitely a "get it done quick and be done with it" kind of student. She is very concrete; she has an engineering-type mind. She thinks in outlines. She gets bored with too much abstraction and long-winded description. Plus, she has ADD, which makes her wiggly and excitement-seeking.

 

I do appreciate your recommendation of BJU World History. I may still consider it. I just wouldn't want to use the DVDs after watching the sample lesson on the website (the teacher didn't do such a great job).

 

Maybe we'll keep using the Guerber books and outlining them. She's doing ballet intensive (five to seven hours of ballet a day all summer), so she hasn't been using them lately, but we can pick it back up in the fall.

[mom2denj]

My dd 12 is doing Core 5 now. She LOVES it!!I think that reading the living books brings life to the history. Maybe you can get a list of the books and find some at the library and see what she thinks. She will learn alot about the history of the Eastern Hemisphere just by reading the books. Good Luck!:)

[Hoggirl]

My son is using their grade 8 American history text. He reads, answers the questions in the book and does the work (almost all of it) in the "activity" book. It isn't hands-on type stuff - really just more reinforcement of what has been read. And, it is definitely "concrete" and "get it done and be done with it" genre. I go through the chapter reviews with him at the end of each chapter. Otherwise, he is pretty independent with it.