Need help planning ds's curricula next year

[Storm Bay]

ETA Have added the current plan (not all set in stone) as another reply.

 

Ds is a rising gr 8 student who hates all things academic, but since gr 8 is now at the local ps, where he's going to be part time in Sept for band & math (great honours math program there and he really, really, really, really wants ps so this is our compromise.) He is a budding musician who takes both piano & trumpet and he swims on a local team, but isn't so talented we're going to put him in a US swim team. We're moving to specialize, but also want to call things by the correct names because he'd like to transfer to ps for his last year or two (not my choice, but if he drops something by then he could do it.) We live in an area where that can be done, and my eldest transferred partway through her sophomore year. He doesn't like learning anything from me, so I'm trying to reduce that and still stay within our budget. He's too young for dual enrollment as he'll be 13.

 

He's going to go to a great writing tutor starting this fall. He hates grammar, so if he can successfully finish the program he's doing now, he'll be done with formal grammar study as he can write and parse sentences; he's never going to be an editor. I'm planning to have him listen to most of the WTM classics we opt for as he retains much more this way for books he hates to read.

 

Do you think gr 8 is too young to do Windows of The World for literary analysis? If so, is there something we can do that doesn't involve Jim Stobaugh? I tried one of his books, but since I want something that tells me how to teach this, it wasn't a good fit for me.

 

History: this is the one subject I'm hoping to complete at home because he hates, hates, hates this. However, in order to transfer to ps for his jr or sr year, he has to have the correct courses in order to graduate from a ps in this state. This means that in gr 8 in our district he needs to study basically what's covered in SWB's second book, History of the Medieval World. I have that book & like the series, but I promised him (please don't blanch!) something with a workbook and no projects, essays, etc (he'll write in English next year). It won't go on his transcript for college, so it doesn't have to be stellar, but I don't want something that's terrible, either.

 

Science. If he does eventually transfer, he'll do Biology at ps with band in his freshman year to take the wretched state test; the honour course is quite decent and they have to do a serious science fair project for a significant part of the first semester's grade, and then do another project the second semester--it's all year & a full 2 courses worth. That means he needs to do something we can call Earth & Space or physical science next year. We tried DIVE this year online, and it hasn't worked well for him. Had I been patient enough to wait for the DVD to be ready (they were out of stock) we could tackle it again, but it will expire in the fall. I no longer own anything for this, and want something with a good hands-on component that we can easily do in our kitchen. I do have some science things at home already. I've bought, used and sold BJU (my eldest did it), and can't see him using that.

 

Foreign Language. He doesn't want to do this, but has been slowly going through our RS German with no writing. He doesn't have to start one this year, but I haven't ruled it out yet.

 

Logic: I own both Bluedorn books and Traditional Logic. He hasn't done this in a formal class with me outside of math, and he definitely could use some work in this area. Could I jump right into TL, or should I do the Bluedorn books first (Fallacy Detective & the other one)?

 

Music: covered between lessons, band, & theory (I can teach him the theory easily enough.)

 

Phys Ed: cross fit & swim team

 

What am I missing here? I feel like I'm missing something.

[Storm Bay]

Wow, 10 years on WTM and zero views! No one can help:?

[Kathie in VA]

hmm, I'll take a stab with some ideas...

 

I don't know about Windows of The World, so I can't comment on that one. But if he hates academics then I gather your looking for something that is either really easy to just get done or something that will spark an interest so as to reduce the 'hate' portion.... or both. Is there a literature course out there that covers topic that he is at least interested in? Does he like science fiction? Maybe something that ties in to his interest in music? wait it's 8th grade... does he need literature?

-History: hmm, have you considered Streams of Civilizations? It's a textbook and there are schedules online.

 

-Science: We did Apologia's Physical Science class via a co-op and their General Science class via a co-op but looking back at them they were straight forward text books to use. I was able to also use them as an intro to how to use a textbook.

 

-Logic: I've done the Fallacy Detective and Thinking Toolbox books. Those are fun. We did them sitting on the couch with me reading them out loud and we discussed them. I have Traditional Logic here also but haven't used it yet. You don't need to do the other books first though.

 

no, I don't think you are missing anything..

 

hths

[elegantlion]

Ds is a rising gr 8 student who hates all things academic, but since gr 8 is now at the local ps, where he's going to be part time in Sept for band & math (great honours math program there and he really, really, really, really wants ps so this is our compromise.) He is a budding musician who takes both piano & trumpet and he swims on a local team, but isn't so talented we're going to put him in a US swim team. We're moving to specialize, but also want to call things by the correct names because he'd like to transfer to ps for his last year or two (not my choice, but if he drops something by then he could do it.) We live in an area where that can be done, and my eldest transferred partway through her sophomore year. He doesn't like learning anything from me, so I'm trying to reduce that and still stay within our budget. He's too young for dual enrollment as he'll be 13.

 

He's going to go to a great writing tutor starting this fall. He hates grammar, so if he can successfully finish the program he's doing now, he'll be done with formal grammar study as he can write and parse sentences; he's never going to be an editor. I'm planning to have him listen to most of the WTM classics we opt for as he retains much more this way for books he hates to read.

 

Do you think gr 8 is too young to do Windows of The World for literary analysis? If so, is there something we can do that doesn't involve Jim Stobaugh? I tried one of his books, but since I want something that tells me how to teach this, it wasn't a good fit for me.

 

I don't know, this might depend on where his writing ability is at currently. I have not used this program, so I defer to others on this one.

 

History: this is the one subject I'm hoping to complete at home because he hates, hates, hates this. However, in order to transfer to ps for his jr or sr year, he has to have the correct courses in order to graduate from a ps in this state. This means that in gr 8 in our district he needs to study basically what's covered in SWB's second book, History of the Medieval World. I have that book & like the series, but I promised him (please don't blanch!) something with a workbook and no projects, essays, etc (he'll write in English next year). It won't go on his transcript for college, so it doesn't have to be stellar, but I don't want something that's terrible, either.

 

You might consider something like " Focus on World History" by Walch. They have several books and you could round out with some video instruction. You could get some of the Great Courses on the Middle Ages or find something online like at Learner.org. Something like The Western Tradition has free videos.

 

Science. If he does eventually transfer, he'll do Biology at ps with band in his freshman year to take the wretched state test; the honour course is quite decent and they have to do a serious science fair project for a significant part of the first semester's grade, and then do another project the second semester--it's all year & a full 2 courses worth. That means he needs to do something we can call Earth & Space or physical science next year. We tried DIVE this year online, and it hasn't worked well for him. Had I been patient enough to wait for the DVD to be ready (they were out of stock) we could tackle it again, but it will expire in the fall. I no longer own anything for this, and want something with a good hands-on component that we can easily do in our kitchen. I do have some science things at home already. I've bought, used and sold BJU (my eldest did it), and can't see him using that.

 

Foreign Language. He doesn't want to do this, but has been slowly going through our RS German with no writing. He doesn't have to start one this year, but I haven't ruled it out yet.

 

It depends on if he wants to learn German or if he simply wants to earn a foreign language credit. My feelings on RS aside, if he's doing it for credit, I'd wait until next year. If he wants to truly learn German, I'd ditch RS and start with something different this year (not sure what). Many colleges are looking for 2 years of language instruction in high school, some three.

 

Logic: I own both Bluedorn books and Traditional Logic. He hasn't done this in a formal class with me outside of math, and he definitely could use some work in this area. Could I jump right into TL, or should I do the Bluedorn books first (Fallacy Detective & the other one)?

 

I would start with the Bluedorn book and then move into Traditional Logic. I found, for my ds, a background in some informal logic helped when he moved into formal logic.

 

Music: covered between lessons, band, & theory (I can teach him the theory easily enough.)

 

Phys Ed: cross fit & swim team

 

What am I missing here? I feel like I'm missing something.

'

Hope some of that is helpful.

[Kathie in VA]

hey I found some workbooks for history that might help. I was on the RainbowResource site and did a search under history for workbooks and then display it in order by grade level.

 

http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/Story+of+Western+Civilization%3A+Middle+Ages/026321/0b96bce699d161639175b913?subject=14&category=4349

 

http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/Medieval+Times/014620/0b96bce699d161639175b913?subject=14&category=4349

 

and here's an idea from Christian book distributors

http://www.christianbook.com/greenleaf-guide-famous-middle-students-book/9781882514052/pd/405X?item_code=WW&netp_id=112275&event=EBRN&view=details

 

hths

[Storm Bay]

Thanks, these ideas are right along the lines of what I was hoping for.

 

hmm, I'll take a stab with some ideas...

 

I don't know about Windows of The World, so I can't comment on that one. But if he hates academics then I gather your looking for something that is either really easy to just get done or something that will spark an interest so as to reduce the 'hate' portion.... or both. Is there a literature course out there that covers topic that he is at least interested in? Does he like science fiction? Maybe something that ties in to his interest in music? wait it's 8th grade... does he need literature?

-History: hmm, have you considered Streams of Civilizations? It's a textbook and there are schedules online.

 

-Science: We did Apologia's Physical Science class via a co-op and their General Science class via a co-op but looking back at them they were straight forward text books to use. I was able to also use them as an intro to how to use a textbook.

 

-Logic: I've done the Fallacy Detective and Thinking Toolbox books. Those are fun. We did them sitting on the couch with me reading them out loud and we discussed them. I have Traditional Logic here also but haven't used it yet. You don't need to do the other books first though.

 

no, I don't think you are missing anything..

 

hths

 

He tends to like books with plenty of action, so for reading in print we stick to those. Right now he's reading a spy series while waiting for Rick Riordan's next book to come out. I'd like to do some literature while he's at home, because they do less of it in ps (they do do a bit; in honours freshman year they read Romeo & Juliet, A Tale of Two Cities and Of Mice and Men all the way through, and then they read short stories & excerpts, but it doesn't tie into their history which is US History I). If you have good suggestions for action books, I'll take them. He's already read the Hunger Games trilogy, the 4 books in the Eragon series (who'd have thought ds would ever read a book over 800 pages???) and the Goliath series (whatever the first book is, I'm not sure anymore) by Westerfeld, and right now is reading the Cherub series. However, we don't discuss any of those books because they are for fun, and if I do too much talking he won't read them. OTOH, I'm going to have him practice doing the ps summer reading packets & he can pick books he likes from their list for that. He will have to look for some literary devices, etc, but nothing onerous.

'

Hope some of that is helpful.

 

Yes, thanks.

hey I found some workbooks for history that might help. I was on the RainbowResource site and did a search under history for workbooks and then display it in order by grade level.

 

http://www.rainbowre...4&category=4349

 

http://www.rainbowre...4&category=4349

 

and here's an idea from Christian book distributors

http://www.christian...RN&view=details

 

hths

 

Thanks, I have all these pages open.

 

ETA some phrase I used here made some security page open that I had to fill out in order to post this. Hopefully that's reducing spam :).

[Kathie in VA]

He tends to like books with plenty of action, so for reading in print we stick to those.

 

how about the G A Henty books for historic narratives? <some are free downloads! >

[Storm Bay]

 

how about the G A Henty books for historic narratives? <some are free downloads! >

 

Thanks, I'll look these up.

[Sisyphus]

My Ds (grade 9this year) did windows to the world, and wrote lit analysis papers for the first time this year. Though he has always been a strong reader and writer, and I tried lit analysis earlier due to that, it didn't "click" until this year. It's a great program, by the way, and cheap, so you could try it and if it doesn't work out shelve it for a year. My Ds could write and think about literature only in the "book report" way, as in who, what, where type stuff (I'm sure there is a word for this, but it's early here...) until this year, I do think it's a developmental thing to be able to analyze literature and think about it at a deeper level.

[Parrothead]

I keep coming back to this post. I don't mean to be presumptive in my response.

 

Ds is a rising gr 8 student who hates all things academic, but since gr 8 is now at the local ps, where he's going to be part time in Sept for band & math (great honours math program there and he really, really, really, really wants ps so this is our compromise.) He is a budding musician who takes both piano & trumpet and he swims on a local team, but isn't so talented we're going to put him in a US swim team. We're moving to specialize, but also want to call things by the correct names because he'd like to transfer to ps for his last year or two (not my choice, but if he drops something by then he could do it.) We live in an area where that can be done, and my eldest transferred partway through her sophomore year. He doesn't like learning anything from me, so I'm trying to reduce that and still stay within our budget. He's too young for dual enrollment as he'll be 13.

Have you considered working on the relationship? Perhaps in doing so he will take instruction from you easier.

 

He's going to go to a great writing tutor starting this fall. He hates grammar, so if he can successfully finish the program he's doing now, he'll be done with formal grammar study as he can write and parse sentences; he's never going to be an editor. I'm planning to have him listen to most of the WTM classics we opt for as he retains much more this way for books he hates to read.

I don't know of many people who enjoy grammar. I'm sure there are some somewhere. Nothing wrong with being an auditory learner. It is good that you know this and can play to the strength.

 

Do you think gr 8 is too young to do Windows of The World for literary analysis? If so, is there something we can do that doesn't involve Jim Stobaugh? I tried one of his books, but since I want something that tells me how to teach this, it wasn't a good fit for me.

I know nothing of Windows of The World so I can't comment.

 

History: this is the one subject I'm hoping to complete at home because he hates, hates, hates this. However, in order to transfer to ps for his jr or sr year, he has to have the correct courses in order to graduate from a ps in this state. This means that in gr 8 in our district he needs to study basically what's covered in SWB's second book, History of the Medieval World. I have that book & like the series, but I promised him (please don't blanch!) something with a workbook and no projects, essays, etc (he'll write in English next year). It won't go on his transcript for college, so it doesn't have to be stellar, but I don't want something that's terrible, either.

There are many many individual parts of history. Help him find a smaller focus other than Medieval times. There was quite a bit going on in those centuries. Maybe he would be interested in Irish history of the time or maybe Asian or South American. Find something that interests him from the past.

 

Science. If he does eventually transfer, he'll do Biology at ps with band in his freshman year to take the wretched state test; the honour course is quite decent and they have to do a serious science fair project for a significant part of the first semester's grade, and then do another project the second semester--it's all year & a full 2 courses worth. That means he needs to do something we can call Earth & Space or physical science next year. We tried DIVE this year online, and it hasn't worked well for him. Had I been patient enough to wait for the DVD to be ready (they were out of stock) we could tackle it again, but it will expire in the fall. I no longer own anything for this, and want something with a good hands-on component that we can easily do in our kitchen. I do have some science things at home already. I've bought, used and sold BJU (my eldest did it), and can't see him using that.

Would this interest him? You could make a year's course from the labs.

 

Foreign Language. He doesn't want to do this, but has been slowly going through our RS German with no writing. He doesn't have to start one this year, but I haven't ruled it out yet.

If this is a requirement for college entry, and he wants to go to college, then he needs to pick the language. Explain it to him so he understands the choice (college attendance) is his. Either he does the language and gets into a good college or he doesn't do the language and settles for the community college. If he decides to follow through, let him pick the lanugage

 

Logic: I own both Bluedorn books and Traditional Logic. He hasn't done this in a formal class with me outside of math, and he definitely could use some work in this area. Could I jump right into TL, or should I do the Bluedorn books first (Fallacy Detective & the other one)?

Dd did TL in 7th and 8th grade. It was dry but she muddled through.

 

Music: covered between lessons, band, & theory (I can teach him the theory easily enough.)

 

Phys Ed: cross fit & swim team

 

What am I missing here? I feel like I'm missing something.

Do you have vocabulary covered?

[Musicmom]

Do you think gr 8 is too young to do Windows of The World for literary analysis? If so, is there something we can do that doesn't involve Jim Stobaugh? I tried one of his books, but since I want something that tells me how to teach this, it wasn't a good fit for me.

 

My dd used Windows to the World in 9th, and it was very good. (Gr 8 may not be too young--it kind of depends on your dc's maturity level--is he ready to look beyond basic plot and comprehension?) However, you do kind of have to teach it--that is, you need to keep up with the instructions in the teacher's manual, and sit down with your dc to guide him through and discuss concepts. It's not very straight forward, "open and go" for the student. Unfortunately for us, dd's 9th grade year was also ds's senior year--so it was a very busy time and it was hard for me to focus on this with dd as I should have. Consequently, she bogged down and the curriculum took all year. Be aware, too, that WttW uses short stories for analysis, not novels. My original plan was to do WttW for the first semester, then apply the techniques to novels for the second, but that didn't happen.

Incidentally, I know what you mean about Stobaugh--I tried his literary analysis book with ds, but it didn't tell me how to teach literary analysis. We muddled through, but it was frustrating, which is why I went with WttW for dd. WttW does provide much more help in teaching, if the format works for you.

 

If your ds really does not do well working directly with you or doesn't seem ready for WttW, another option you could consider would be Grade 8 Lightning Literature (from Hewitt Homeschooling Resources.) It is more "open and go" and the student can be more independent. Dd used this in 8th grade and liked it a lot. I thought it provided a pretty good introduction to literary analysis as well. It has worksheet type assignments that are quite good. I can't remember if there are essay assignments or not (the ones in the high school texts were not the greatest), but with writing already covered by a tutor, you could skip those. You could add extra books too, if the ones they use aren't the most appealing to your ds.

 

For more adventure-type books, I would also recommend the G.A. Henty series. Also, for books that would tie into your history, you might look at the book list for Veritas Press's Omnibus II. Books like The Hobbit, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Otto of the Silver Hand... might be appealing. Smarr Literature's list for Medieval also has some good adventure books (The Black Arrow comes to mind.)

 

hey I found some workbooks for history that might help. I was on the RainbowResource site and did a search under history for workbooks and then display it in order by grade level.

http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/Story+of+Western+Civilization%3A+Middle+Ages/026321/0b96bce699d161639175b913?subject=14&category=4349

http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/Medieval+Times/014620/0b96bce699d161639175b913?subject=14&category=4349

and here's an idea from Christian book distributors

http://www.christianbook.com/greenleaf-guide-famous-middle-students-book/9781882514052/pd/405X?item_code=WW&netp_id=112275&event=EBRN&view=details

hths

I second these suggestions for history. We used the Story of the USA workbook a number of years ago and it was quite good. We've also used the Famous Men series (for Greece and Rome), and liked those. We did them around 6th grade, but I think my dc would have gotten more out of them if they had been older--so it could work well for Gr 8.

 

For science, I'd suggest looking at Apologia's Physical Science. Apologia is solid and very easy to implement--the student can be quite independent. I don't have experience with the Physical Science text itself, but we used all the high school texts, and I assume Physical Science would be similar.

 

For logic, I highly recommend the two Bluedorn books for 8th grade. My ds really enjoyed those! And he learned/retained a great deal from them. We never did Traditional Logic, so I can't comment on that, but my gut feeling would be to start with the Bluedorn books (to help develop interest), and then see about TL later.

 

I hope these ideas help. I don't think you're missing anything--it looks good to me!

 

 

[Storm Bay]

Thanks for the replies. I've been away for over a week as my eldest graduated from high school Sunday, so lots has been going on with everything else that happens in June.

 

My Ds (grade 9this year) did windows to the world, and wrote lit analysis papers for the first time this year. Though he has always been a strong reader and writer, and I tried lit analysis earlier due to that, it didn't "click" until this year. It's a great program, by the way, and cheap, so you could try it and if it doesn't work out shelve it for a year. My Ds could write and think about literature only in the "book report" way, as in who, what, where type stuff (I'm sure there is a word for this, but it's early here...) until this year, I do think it's a developmental thing to be able to analyze literature and think about it at a deeper level.

 

 

Thanks. I'll wait on Windows to the World for a year.

I keep coming back to this post. I don't mean to be presumptive in my response.

 

 

Do you have vocabulary covered?

 

 

No, and I have thought of that recently, but not when I posted. Our relationship is quite good when I'm not having him do school work, and I think he needs variety in instructors. It certainly had done a world of good with his piano. His teacher isn't teaching him things I wasn't, but she's someone different and they get along very well. I like your suggestion about history, and think we can do this even if we gloss over a few things in between with videos, etc. We looked at some of the suggestions here, and one has activities that we can pick and choose from that will help us with this. I also hope to listen to period music for this.

 

I like this Forensic Science you mentioned on first glance, and will look into it. The focus on labs would be great as he works on his writing this year.

 

Ironically, at my eldest's graduation he decided he'd like to be valedictorian someday, so we'll see how long this motivates him. He scored very well on the honours math class placement test for public school, and so I'm happy with this part time plan right now.

 

My dd used Windows to the World in 9th, and it was very good. (Gr 8 may not be too young--it kind of depends on your dc's maturity level--is he ready to look beyond basic plot and comprehension?) However, you do kind of have to teach it--that is, you need to keep up with the instructions in the teacher's manual, and sit down with your dc to guide him through and discuss concepts. It's not very straight forward, "open and go" for the student. t

 

If your ds really does not do well working directly with you or doesn't seem ready for WttW, another option you could consider would be Grade 8 Lightning Literature (from Hewitt Homeschooling Resources.) It is more "open and go" and the student can be more independent. Dd used this in 8th grade and liked it a lot. I thought it provided a pretty good introduction to literary analysis as well. I

 

For more adventure-type books, I would also recommend the G.A. Henty series. Also, for books that would tie into your history, you might look at the book list for Veritas Press's Omnibus II. Books like The Hobbit, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Otto of the Silver Hand... might be appealing. Smarr Literature's list for Medieval also has some good adventure books (The Black Arrow comes to mind.)

 

 

I second these suggestions for history. We used the Story of the USA workbook a number of years ago and it was quite good. We've also used the Famous Men series (for Greece and Rome), and liked those. We did them around 6th grade, but I think my dc would have gotten more out of them if they had been older--so it could work well for Gr 8.

 

For science, I'd suggest looking at Apologia's Physical Science. Apologia is solid and very easy to implement--the student can be quite independent. I don't have experience with the Physical Science text itself, but we used all the high school texts, and I assume Physical Science would be similar.

 

For logic, I highly recommend the two Bluedorn books for 8th grade. My ds really enjoyed those! And he learned/retained a great deal from them. We never did Traditional Logic, so I can't comment on that, but my gut feeling would be to start with the Bluedorn books (to help develop interest), and then see about TL later.

 

I hope these ideas help. I don't think you're missing anything--it looks good to me!

 

 

Thanks. I'll hold off on Window of the World; I own it as i was going to do it with my middle dd; we've done bits of it. I'll look at Lightning Lit. Bluedorn will probably work well, then, if yours liked it in gr 8; something fun first could help. Hopefully it will be enough before Hon Algebra in Feb.

[Storm Bay]

Here's how our plan works now. Any suggestions or further comments are welcome. Some is set in stone (ie already own, ordered or set in motion) and some is still being thought through.

 

 

Band--public high school (every day for gr 8)

Honours math ps(all year; first hon math concepts, then hon Algebra 1)

Trumpet & piano lessons (my folks pay for the piano lessons)

Music theory; thinking of Music Ace--has anyone used this?

Note: we are leaning to specializing in music & science in high school as he is talented in music & wants to be either a pilot or an aeronautical engineer

 

English: Lightning Lit (to be followed next year by Windows to the World, which I already own), writing with a fabulous homeschool writing teacher, a grammar review (suggestions?), vocab (suggestions? We've used Jensen's, but I'd have to buy a new one this time and am not sure I want to do that one again. I'm thinking of Word Within a Word plus continuing Rosetta Stone German for vocab building not foreign language credit as he wants to do a different language next year).

 

Science The Illustrated Guide to Home Forensic Science Experiments (lab heavy, already ordered, someone already suggested this here. It covers several areas of science and we own a number of science books already we can use as needed.)

 

History Streams of Civilization Vol 1 is what we're leaning toward after checking out suggestions given here.. We are keeping this on the history light side, although he will do audio books for some of the WTM reading suggestions as he might end up going to full time ps by his jr year, so we're following what they do just enough that he can have most or all of his history credits done. It may not stay light every year, but for this transitional year as he has a lot on his plate.

 

Logic still deciding between the Bluedorn books & Traditional Logic, which we own all 3 of, and I've read the suggestions given so far :).

 

Phys Ed Swim team & cross fit; he also wants to try baseball next spring for the first time, so he'd give up his swim clinic (okay by me; he's not nationals swim material based on all we've seen so far)

 

Typing Instructor Deluxe

 

I keep thinking I'm still missing something, but he's not taking art or handwriting anymore.