helena Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 Cozy Grammar (Intermediate level 1) IEW writing (ancient history) Phonetic Zoo (level C) Spencerian Cursive Poetry study Lightning Lit 7 EIC (sticking with this series because she has fun doing it) We take turns picking chapter books for her to read to herself. She's going to be doing a lot of reading for HO 2 Middle Ages.. is this too much? Just right? Am I missing a skill? I'm starting to wonder if Lightning Lit. should stay? Ahhhh!!! :willy_nilly: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekmom Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 Cozy Grammar (Intermediate level 1)IEW writing (ancient history) Phonetic Zoo (level C) Spencerian Cursive Poetry study Lightning Lit 7 EIC (sticking with this series because she has fun doing it) We take turns picking chapter books for her to read to herself. She's going to be doing a lot of reading for HO 2 Middle Ages.. is this too much? Just right? Am I missing a skill? I'm starting to wonder if Lightning Lit. should stay? Ahhhh!!! :willy_nilly: Language arts involves a lot!! I'm not sure what EIC is, but do you have something for vocabulary? I bought Lightning Lit to use this year with my 7th grader too, but I've decided I'd rather do more historical fiction to go along with his study of ancient history. FWIW, this is what my 7th grader is doing this year: Analytical Grammar, Sadlier Oxford Vocab, GD Italics SWB's WWS/ Killgallon Various novels, poetry, short stories, etc. (I pull the poetry, short stories, and other essays from a McDougal Littel 7th grade Lit book) Spellwell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helena Posted August 4, 2011 Author Share Posted August 4, 2011 Language arts involves a lot!! I'm not sure what EIC is, but do you have something for vocabulary? I bought Lightning Lit to use this year with my 7th grader too, but I've decided I'd rather do more historical fiction to go along with his study of ancient history. FWIW, this is what my 7th grader is doing this year: Analytical Grammar, Sadlier Oxford Vocab, GD Italics SWB's WWS/ Killgallon Various novels, poetry, short stories, etc. (I pull the poetry, short stories, and other essays from a McDougal Littel 7th grade Lit book) Spellwell EIC is Editor in Chief. It's a fun way to test your grammar/editing skills. Lightning Lit and IEW writing (ancient history) have vocab work. We also have a lot of reading in history... I'm starting to wonder if LL is too much? Thanks for sharing what your doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmermom3 Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 EIC is Editor in Chief. It's a fun way to test your grammar/editing skills. Lightning Lit and IEW writing (ancient history) have vocab work. We also have a lot of reading in history... I'm starting to wonder if LL is too much? Thanks for sharing what your doing. I think you have a fairly good balance. The reading for both LL7 and HO2 isn't particularly taxing. I would pick vocab work from one or the other of LL or IEW to keep things simple. I usually try to keep at least a few literature selections during the year that are not related to our history just to avoid burnout. What are you doing for your poetry study? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helena Posted August 4, 2011 Author Share Posted August 4, 2011 I think you have a fairly good balance. The reading for both LL7 and HO2 isn't particularly taxing. I would pick vocab work from one or the other of LL or IEW to keep things simple. I usually try to keep at least a few literature selections during the year that are not related to our history just to avoid burnout. What are you doing for your poetry study? I do my own poetry. I'm choosing one poem (maybe two) per month to study and memorize. This year I've found a lot of poems to go with history (Middle Ages) and the fairytale study we're doing. This year I'm doing two new things: -Buying some nice blank journals for them to copy (in cursive) all of the previous poems we've studied. -Having them choose a poem to recite at the end of the month. I'll probably use the Poetry for Young People series for this. It's an easy series for them to read through and there aren't a million choices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in VA Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 Do you really need spelling and cursive for a 7th grader? Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helena Posted August 4, 2011 Author Share Posted August 4, 2011 Spencerian was something she's been asking for, so we'll squeeze it in. I just got it today and I can see that it's nothing overwhelming, just a way to elevate it to a higher level aesthetically. Spelling... we're wondering about this too. We talked about it the other night and decided to go through the cards and make new lists of the ones she can't spell the first time around. Once we wrap that up I would like to do a something casual like 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know. I list this book because someone just gave it to me at a garage sale. :001_smile: Basically I still want to hit those hard, unusual, commonly misspelled type words. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vettechmomof2 Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 We do R & S English, LL 7(which we will finish shortly), EIC(for fun). For vocab we just use a veterinary medical dictionary and I pick words from each letter for her to read,write and memorize spelling and definition. We also use HO but the reading is light so I preread all of the books so that we can discuss them for thoroughly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmermom3 Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 Good for you on the poetry study. It is an area that often gets overlooked in middle school and your plan sounds sounds great. Be sure you look at the LL poetry units and see if you can't piggyback some of your other poems along with the instruction. I think we made it to Week 3 in our 7th grade year with spelling and then dropped it. There just didn't seem to be enough time for everything. I pay attention to what he misspells in regular assignments and test him on that. If you are interested, I'll see if I can find the link to a wonderful mini unit that I discovered while researching AP Literature. An AP teacher had put Beowulf with a poem by U.A. Fanthorpe and a famous painting. I tweaked it a bit and we really enjoyed it. If I had a lot more time on my kinds, I think it would be fun to put together similar units with a theme. That one was "monsters." You could even have put in Tolkien's essay for a nonfiction piece. Anyway Helena, to me, you appear to be right on track with just enough work, but not too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vettechmomof2 Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 Forgot to say about the poetry: We find random poetry/old ballads and memorize/discuss those as well. We plan to start the Art of Poetry next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helena Posted August 5, 2011 Author Share Posted August 5, 2011 Good for you on the poetry study. It is an area that often gets overlooked in middle school and your plan sounds sounds great. Be sure you look at the LL poetry units and see if you can't piggyback some of your other poems along with the instruction. I think we made it to Week 3 in our 7th grade year with spelling and then dropped it. There just didn't seem to be enough time for everything. I pay attention to what he misspells in regular assignments and test him on that. If you are interested, I'll see if I can find the link to a wonderful mini unit that I discovered while researching AP Literature. An AP teacher had put Beowulf with a poem by U.A. Fanthorpe and a famous painting. I tweaked it a bit and we really enjoyed it. If I had a lot more time on my kinds, I think it would be fun to put together similar units with a theme. That one was "monsters." You could even have put in Tolkien's essay for a nonfiction piece. Anyway Helena, to me, you appear to be right on track with just enough work, but not too much. If it's not a big hassle, I'd love the link. thanks :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudyJudyJudy Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 If it's not a big hassle, I'd love the link.thanks :001_smile: As would I. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmermom3 Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 In this thread, I wrote out the poem and linked the painting. What I am still trying to find is the link for the teacher's website. I borrowed shamelessly from her stuff and would love to give her the full credit. If you are going to do Beowulf, my son enjoyed the Nye version, but then we listened to Seamus Heany read his. Wow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 That sounds like a lot to coordinate. Is your student a good speller? By that stage, I was pulling back on the formal spelling, just practising words he missed and concentrating on published lists of frequently misspelled words. I was still doing handwriting practice at that age, but Calvin had coordination difficulties. Do you still need to be doing it? LL7 includes some poetry study, so maybe you don't need to do that separately. It also includes analysis of passages; I don't know EIC, but that might be duplication too. FWIW, we used Galore Park So You Really Want to Learn English, plus LL7. Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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