choirfarm Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 (edited) As I'm entering grades, I realized that my 7th grader only has 5 classes now. He started SOS Spanish I with his brother and it was wAY too hard for him. I never fount a replacement. Here is what he is doing: TOG Redesigned: The history component, geography and church history as well English- some of the reading for TOG.. he's actually read over half of it allready so I have it modified with him sharing a little bit of rhetoric reading, vocabulit, we just finished going through IEW C. He takes about 2 weeks to write a 5 paragraph paper. We will try a research paper before Christmas.Analytical Grammar was too hard, so we are trying Application of Grammar from Christian Liberty Press. Chalkdust Pre-algebra Apologia General Science Maevis Beacon typing That's it.. No wonder he is finishing so much earlier than his brother who is 9th grade and slogging through 7 courses!! So.. what should I add, if anything?? Christine Edited November 9, 2009 by choirfarm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhonda in TX Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Writing? Fine Arts (music/art history)? Grammar? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choirfarm Posted November 9, 2009 Author Share Posted November 9, 2009 As part of the writing, he did IEW level C. He is doing 5 paragraph essays every other week and we plan to write a research paper in December. He tried Analytical Grammar and it was too hard, so I went to CLE grammar and it is still hard for him, so I have to help him with that a lot. They take piano and normally enter competitions, but his piano teacher's husband has had health problems and is now having hospice care at home and so lessons are on hold until further notice. He plays teen handbells at church. Christine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Do you see anything in there you'd like to see him accomplish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Definitely Logic for a 7th grader. Either Latin or a good roots-based vocabulary program, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Actually, isn't he taking math, science, history, geography, church history, grammar writing literature typing music (lessons/performance) It helps to see TOG separately, and English as more than one "class," even if it's just one credit. It's fine for 7th grade. High school, no, 7th grade, ok. If he's truly flying thru, maybe logic would be a good add on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 As I'm entering grades, I realized that my 7th grader only has 5 classes now. He started SOS Spanish I with his brother and it was wAY too hard for him. I never fount a replacement. Have you looked at Spanish for Children? I'm going to start it with my 7th grader after the holidays. (She is finishing up some other Spanish work right now.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choirfarm Posted November 9, 2009 Author Share Posted November 9, 2009 I hate to invest in another Spanish program as we tried Rosetta Stone for several years and it just didn't work. We tried Latin Christina and he didn't get beyond the first couple of chapters. Last year we did Latin Road to English Grammar and completed the first two chapters. My oldest is almost finished with Introductory Logic... I guess he could do that??? The problem with him is that he is your typical boy who is about to be 13 in a couple of months. He forgets things and is horribly disorganized. I cannot get him to fill out his planner and do everything he is supposed to do anyway. I have to constantly ask him to do this!!! Frustrating. He seems to understand things better that he can read and/or he needs interaction to understand. I cannot just hand him something and expect him to understand it. So I am already having to explain every subject except TOG to him. He currently just took the retest for Apologia ch 4 after making a 54 on the original test. He is currently furious because he made an 80 after extensive reteaching. (He missed the T/F questions but got all the ones he had to write answers or do calculation questions.. ) He is really mad. He is frustrated with chalkdust, too right now as he has made a C on the last two chapters... GRRR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 I hate to invest in another Spanish program as we tried Rosetta Stone for several years and it just didn't work. We tried Latin Christina and he didn't get beyond the first couple of chapters. Last year we did Latin Road to English Grammar and completed the first two chapters. My oldest is almost finished with Introductory Logic... I guess he could do that??? The problem with him is that he is your typical boy who is about to be 13 in a couple of months. He forgets things and is horribly disorganized. I cannot get him to fill out his planner and do everything he is supposed to do anyway. I have to constantly ask him to do this!!! Frustrating. He seems to understand things better that he can read and/or he needs interaction to understand. I cannot just hand him something and expect him to understand it. So I am already having to explain every subject except TOG to him. He currently just took the retest for Apologia ch 4 after making a 54 on the original test. He is currently furious because he made an 80 after extensive reteaching. (He missed the T/F questions but got all the ones he had to write answers or do calculation questions.. ) He is really mad. He is frustrated with chalkdust, too right now as he has made a C on the last two chapters... GRRR I wouldn't add anything, then. I would work on time management and study skills. Make it a weekly thing. Start by building little habits one by one. For example, the first week, show him how to use his planner and spend the week making sure he does. Do that for as long as necessary until it is a habit for him. Teach him different study strategies and how to choose which ones to use. I think those things are more important than subject areas right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choirfarm Posted November 9, 2009 Author Share Posted November 9, 2009 How do you show him??? Other than sitting down like I do several times a day.. what did you do for math??? write it down?? You haven't done grammar...write it down??? GRRRRRR. We've organized his notebook. It has sections, but I find his work on the floor in his room, scattered around my hubby's desk, etc. He can't ever find anything because he never puts it where it goes!!!!! My oldest is a self teacher, everything has its place, completely organized kid. So much easier! Christine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 How do you show him??? Other than sitting down like I do several times a day.. what did you do for math??? write it down?? You haven't done grammar...write it down??? GRRRRRR. We've organized his notebook. It has sections, but I find his work on the floor in his room, scattered around my hubby's desk, etc. He can't ever find anything because he never puts it where it goes!!!!! My oldest is a self teacher, everything has its place, completely organized kid. So much easier! Christine JMHO, but at this point, it would become a discipline issue with dh involved in our home. If you are helping him and showing him, but he is still not keeping it up, then he is being disobedient. If he acts like this in the work force, he will lose his job. If he manages his life like this, he will lose his home. I think it is a good time to get serious with him. One way or another, it has to be more painful for him to not do what he is supposed to do. (I have one dd who is naturally organized and one who needs to be not-so-gently corrected for her work habits.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verity Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Just some suggestions - it sounds as if your 7th grader is expected to organize himself, keep track of his own work, fill out a planner and then self-teach some/most/all(?) of his subjects. Some kids would flourish in that setting but others need alot more training, practice and teaching before they can achieve in that kind of setting. From the admittedly small amount I have read about your situation it sounds like your 7th grader needs to work in one physical space (his schoolwork should never be in his bedroom - reading maybe but no papers), he needs his teacher to make up his assignments on some kind of log for him so he knows what to do next and can just check off as he completes and it sounds like he needs more one-on-one instruction. I'm teaching two boys, plus a toddler running around us, so I know how difficult it is to multitask with different lessons/grades but it can be done and sometimes must. It requires more work upfront but the end results are successful students and less chaos overall. Right now it sounds like both you and your son are frustrated (lots of "grrrrs") and he is experiencing failure after failure. You have to find a way to turn that around. That may mean using remedial texts/workbooks (meaning lower level or just something a little easier). Your initial question seemed to be if he was doing enough work (five classes) but it seems that your question has evolved more into is he doing the right things and how to make him a more successful student. Focus more on quality over quantity. Help him to excel in the areas that he is working on. It is always okay to take a time and step back to focus on the basics. Provide him structure so that he learns what structure looks and feels like. He may be able to learn that skill and continue it on his own later in the year or he may be in 12th grade and still struggling with organization and structure. It's okay either way, your job is just to supply the organization and structure that he is lacking along the way to whatever degree is necessary to facilitate success. It's so easy as a parent for us to compare the ways that one child learns to another and expect both to produce the same results in the same situation but each child really is different and may need different environment, teaching/learning styles, different structure to experience similar levels of success. I hope I didnt offend, just observing what seems to be the trend in your posts and responses. I wish you the best of luck in getting this student back on the right track. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacy in NJ Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Find a lanugage program that works for him. I've been looking at SOS Spanish for my 7th grader. My understanding is that SOS Secondary is really Spanish I, SOS Spanish I is really the equal to Spanish II. We'll begin with SOS Secondary. Just and FYI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choirfarm Posted November 9, 2009 Author Share Posted November 9, 2009 Here is an example of his TOG history syllabus: Week 13 Victorian England British Monarch: Victoria Abraham Lincoln’s World 105-111,120-122,129-136,147-154,175-179,180-181,189-190 Our Island Story CI_CII George Muller: ch 6-10 2. Questions/Charts 3. Maps 4. Timeline Here is week 13 English Week 13 Vocabulary-lesson 13 Grammar lessons 22, 23, Review and Test Descriptive Essay Finish The Princess and the Goblin Test over the novel We go over his Chalkdust assignment and I cirlce the problems he must do. For science I give him a deadline every day and we go over the module summaries and on your own and he can tell me definitions verbetim. I don't know what else I would take away. He already gets in trouble nearly every day for backtalk or being mean to his little sister. He loses some computer time every week and all of it many weeks. (They get an hour and a half total time on the weekend.) In some ways he is really smart. I gave him a practice SAT exam on Friday just so he won't be surprised when he sees it in January for Duke. He got a 510 on the reading section and a 410 on math ( his worst subject) I was thrilled. He isn't dumb. He just doesn't like to work. Christine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeegal Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Instead of another academic course, could you create a study course? There are several good books on study skills, organization, keeping track of assignments, etc. your son could work through. A friend of mine's highschool required all freshmen to take a course on study skills. She mentioned it helped quite a bit making her way through a competitive high school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verity Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Here is an example of his TOG history syllabus:Week 13 Victorian England British Monarch: Victoria Abraham Lincoln’s World 105-111,120-122,129-136,147-154,175-179,180-181,189-190 Our Island Story CI_CII George Muller: ch 6-10 2. Questions/Charts 3. Maps 4. Timeline Here is week 13 English Week 13 Vocabulary-lesson 13 Grammar lessons 22, 23, Review and Test Descriptive Essay Finish The Princess and the Goblin Test over the novel We go over his Chalkdust assignment and I cirlce the problems he must do. For science I give him a deadline every day and we go over the module summaries and on your own and he can tell me definitions verbetim. I don't know what else I would take away. He already gets in trouble nearly every day for backtalk or being mean to his little sister. He loses some computer time every week and all of it many weeks. (They get an hour and a half total time on the weekend.) In some ways he is really smart. I gave him a practice SAT exam on Friday just so he won't be surprised when he sees it in January for Duke. He got a 510 on the reading section and a 410 on math ( his worst subject) I was thrilled. He isn't dumb. He just doesn't like to work. Christine Seeing the weekly ToG assignments that looks like the teacher's list - how does your son know how much work he should do every day and approximately how long that will take? Or is he just given a list for the week and knows to complete it by the end of the week? Some people would do great with a list of assignments for the week but from my work in the public schools I can tell you that most 7th graders, especially boys, don't fit into that category. For my kids (and myself) I have a weekly chart I make using Word that shows the classes and days of the week in a grid and each class has assigned work for each day of the week. We do the work in small manageable chunks, mark it off and know that we are on track for the week. Rarely do I not complete (or allow them to not complete) work for the day, the exceptions are illnesses and family emergencies. My sons both have attention issues and sensory problems. By giving them something visual and concrete for every day they and I both know that we are on track (or not) and they also feel a great sense of accomplishment from completing their daily work - it doesn't hang over them for days. At the end of monday's list they are done and have earned a privilege of some kind of game time or play time for that day. Obviously as kids get older they have to learn how to delay gratification and plan their duties/obligations over a longer period of time but at 13 your son may not be there yet. From what I've read he is bright and capable but that doesn't mean that he is organized or capable of staying focused on a whole weeks list of work. JMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbjmeyer Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 here are a few observations and things I am doing for teaching organization and scheduling: he gets a daily assignment sheet from homeschool tracker (hstracker.com- the free version) which I complete each night and print out for him. Each subject for the day is listed and exactly what is to be done in detail. He checks off each thing as he completes it, and this keeps him on track. I let him pick the order to do subjects usually. I frequently ask how he is doing on the work, (after I've gone over the lesson involved) to keep him focused. Otherwise, he'd get off track. If he gets sassy, I remind him to change his tone, and if it persists he loses computer/wii time. But I give him a chance to get himself under control, since all of us have times we feel mad, but need to develop self-control. He is learning to keep his 3-ring notebooks organized this year. After a co-op/spanish day, I have him hole-punch all handouts and supervise him placing them in the correct sections of his notebook. (I set these up at the beginning of the year) All papers left out at the end of the school day must be put away - and I check on this and on his work in the evening. If it's not done right, he is interrupted from his playing and fixes it. We keep everything in our living room, which is our school room. Gradually, he is getting the hang of this and is needing less proding. But it has taken a concerted effort on my part to have him learn this, and he's still learning. Hope these examples help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Have you viewed this teaching company DVD on How to be a Superstar Student? It's on sale right now for only 25.00. You might also check your library for it. My son just turned 12. Some days I feel like we are making headway in the organizational dept. Other days it's like his brain has left the building. I give my ds a weekly assignment sheet and he checks off the subject as it completed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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