Based on Faith Academy Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 Do you give them all the tests in math, language, social studies, and science that are sent with their curriculum? Just trying to find out what you expect of your children in middle school since my ds is no longer in elementary. Thank you ahead of time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheReader Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 My oldest is 8th grade. He does daily writing -- just a little writing prompt for creative writing. This is NOT for grammar, spelling, etc. but just to get him in the habit of writing and help his handwriting. More of an exercise than an assignment. He does all the tests for math and science, the only 2 subjects we use that come with tests. He does a book report/written narration for every literature book and history book (or history section, in the case of a textbook style book) that he reads. From each spine for history, he has to also choose one topic/person/event as the subject for a more detailed paper. So, roughly one per semester, and I expect these to be sort of mini research papers. Three to five pages is plenty. His vocabulary comes with reviews/quizzes, and he does those as well but not as a test. we are not strictly classical homeschoolers, more eclectic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 My ds14 (8-9th grade) has Dyslexia and is really struggling in many areas, we don't do any tests, in fact we are now going backwards in the Maths book not forwards. He is using WWE 3, and does dictation twice a week. He copies what I have written on the board for history and science just about every day ( full page). He does many oral reviews etc with me, He gets the content of just about everything, just has trouble expressing it on paper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsTheDay Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 Do you give them all the tests in math, language, social studies, and science that are sent with their curriculum? Just trying to find out what you expect of your children in middle school since my ds is no longer in elementary. Thank you ahead of time. My 8th grader takes notes for history a few times a week (ha, ideally a few times a week, but in reality, not so often). He has writing assignments for Lightning Lit, and every few weeks has a longer writing assignment. He also completes writing assignments in Writing Strands every two weeks or so. This year, I've given him permission to do his work on the computer and email it to me as an attachment. He does all math tests. He does all tests in his Shurley English (but none of those writing assignments). We're don't follow a history or science curriculum, so there are no tests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairfarmhand Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 yes on the tests and at least once a week I get a research report of at least on page on a historical figure (yeah, I added that into our program!) Then she may have other writing to do for Literature but not as consistently as history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kari C in SC Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 My 8th grader is doing IEW along with the student cds. I schedule it about 3 times a week. She does the math tests that come with TT and vocabulary cartoon quizzes. I probably need to step up tests and quizzes, now that I am thinking about it. FWIW, I love IEW and wish I had bought it 10 years ago to use with my oldest. Lesson learned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorMom Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 I patch together a lot of my own stuff, but here are some basics... Math - we do the tests at the end of each chapter, and the review tests about every 10 chapters. If he doesn't do well (this last week was the first time this year it has been an issue) we review and then retest. Language Arts- we don't do a lot of testing, but we do a lot of reading and writing :) We were working on Write Shop for the first semester, so he wrote everyday. Now we are using Learn to Write the Novel Way, and he is writing about an hour a day. History/Social Studies - Our curriculum has Unit tests about once a month, there are three tests, all about 10 questions long. Science- We take tests for about 2/3rds of the chapters. Many chapters are just review at this point as he has learned much of what is in the, We just read those chapters and move on. The other subjects we tend to not test regularly. I have a good idea of where he stands anyway - so it isn't necessary most of the time. I do like the math and science tests, but the others aren't that important to me at the moment. Next year in high school - he will be doing a LOT more testing :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 This year in 8th, I've been giving my girls tests in math, physics, and Spanish. They take notes from their physics text, and are supposed to from their Spanish, but I think that doesn't happen as frequently. For writing, they have ongoing papers that they work on about every other day, as they're sharing a WriteGuide tutor, and take turns submitting something. I have them choose a topic from something they're studying in science, history or literature. They need to develop a defensible thesis. For the first two, I expect some sources and MLA formatting. For lit, I expect supporting quotes from the book they're reading. We're also working through the Lively Art of Writing, which has shorter writing assignments. We've done some timed essays as well (I'd like to do more of those, actually). After we've finished Lively Art (we have a couple more chapters left), I'm hoping to incorporate some things from Image Grammar. They also do some writing in German and Spanish. They take German tests too, but I don't administer them (they go to a German Saturday School) This semester, I'm also hoping to have them do at least some of the Duke King Arthur Study, which has a ton of short answer questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mazakaal Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 My 8th grader is doing Jump In and starting his 5th paper of the year (since September). Researching and writing the paper takes a couple of weeks; in between assignments there are writing lessons. He's also doing Lightning Lit 8 which has writing assignments at the end of each chapter, but I'm not as demanding on those assignments. He either takes notes or outlines for history most days (4 days a week), but his note-taking ability needs improvement. He takes tests at the end of each chapter in science, grammar and math and at the end of each semester for history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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