Seventh Grade Planning Thread 2021-2022

[rutheart]

This is my second time planning seventh grade. My youngest has dyslexia and dysgraphia. She is reading on grade level now, but her handwriting still resembles a second grader's. We will continue using her computer or wide rule notebook paper for general schoolwork and graphing paper for math.

Language Arts: We're going to alternate Writing Strands with fiction writing, maybe continuing Adventures In Fantasy, or maybe doing NANOWRIMO? She will also work through Vocabulary From Classical Roots books 6 and A, as well as Commas. Otherwise, grammar will be corrected on any completed schoolwork. In lieu of a spelling workbook, I will put any misspelled words into her Word Vault (she daily writes the words from the vault, and she gets to tear up the index card once she spells it correctly three days in a row). She will continue to work on handwriting, with an emphasis of writing smaller.

Literature: We do secular homeschooling, so we will be starting the Bible as literature, covering Genesis-Psalms. She will also read the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Macbeth. If she finishes that early, I will offer Sherlock Holmes. She absolutely loved the one episode of the BBC's Sherlock that we let her watch. Beyond that, I haven't decided. Maybe Ender's Game or The Hunger Games or more of Douglas Adams' books? She also loves drama with humor, so I'll have to think about something for that.

Math: Start Saxon 8/7. I'm not sure yet how many lessons per week or if I'll add in something different for Fridays.

Science: We are doing biology, with Holt Life Science as the spine, but we'll take a detour with McHenry's Protozoa.

Social Studies: For the first time since I started homeschooling, we are not going to use SOTW. Instead, I am creating a history of science/inventions course, emphasizing mealtime discussions of how innovation influenced politics. I will probably assign a research paper per semester.

Spanish: She will finish Spanish 1 (an old textbook my high school teacher gave me) and the customized workbook. On Fridays, she'll use the British Mi Vida Loca website.

Art: Seventh grade art is a year of choices. Every week, she'll get 2-3 choices for ideas for her art journal, as well as 2-3 choices for multimedia projects. She can choose to do one or more from each list, as well as anything else that tickles her fancy. We may work through a colored pencil book to work on shading, highlighting and blending.

Logic: She'll do Logic Liftoff, Mindbenders 4, read Fallacy Detective, continue doing variety puzzles or crosswords. We'll be doing the spreadsheet section of EasyPeasy's Computer Level 8. The year before my kids turn 13, I have them do CommonSense Media's Digital Citizenship course, so they understand the potential consequences once they are finally able to have their own email address. She will also continue Python programming, maybe continuing with Minecraft, or maybe something else.

Life Skills: She will cook one dinner per week, gradually building up her cookbook binder with recipes that she wants to eat. She'll also work through Discover What You're Best At and research potential careers related to those results.

Health/PE: She wants to learn about specific communicable diseases, so I'll make up a list for her to research one per week. She and I both have health issues with our legs, so we'll continue with leg stretching exercises. We're also getting her into the habit of riding a recumbent bike when she watches tv. She enjoys archery, so I'll probably include some practice for that as well.

Electives: She wants to study developmental psychology, but I am struggling to find an appropriate source for that. She also wants to learn how to play her father's trumpet. We'll see if he has time next year to give her weekly lessons.

I know it looks like a lot, but quite a bit of it is once per week or less. And with the COVID-19 quarantine, there are no outside activities.

Ruth

Edited February 11, 2021 by rutheart
I forgot to mention most composition is done on computer due to dysgraphia.

[2ndGenHomeschooler]

DS will be my fourth, and last, 7th grader next year. He has a late fall birthday and is quite young for his grade (cut off here is Dec 31). He also struggles a lot with reading and is only reading at about a 3rd grade level - maybe. We’re working on some vision stuff right now but dyslexia is a possibility as well. So his 7th grade plan is a bit all over the place. I’ll be reading many things to him or using audio versions. 
 

Bible - Apologia series, and whatever is included in the history we’ll be doing. 
 

Math - SM Dimensions 7A&B

History - Diana Waring’s Romans, Reformers, and Revolutionaries. We’ll be adding SOTW, Kingfisher and Usborne Encyclopedias, and library books to this. 
 

Science - Apologia General science

English - LLATL Purple. This covers everything - spelling, grammar, writing, literature, etc. We’re using it two years behind but that’s where he’s at. 

Extras - Piano, Cello, Karate 

[Plagefille]

My youngest will be 7th grade this year.

Math: Singapore Dimensions 8

English: Winston Advanced Grammar, Word Roots 2, Spelling Made Easy, Writeshop 1, choose literature from the school shelf

Logic: Fallacy Detective

Science: World of Physics with videos, labs, etc

History: SOTW 4 and some sort of geography, probably just stuff I already have 

Art: Artistic Pursuits Middle School 2 and Udemy class

Extra: Piano, Violin, Dance, Choir, Theater (she loves the arts)

 

[My4arrows]

I have a tentative plan for my seventh grade.  I may add or slightly change things, but as of now this is what I'm thinking.  

Bible- Apologia Who is God? and Who am I?

Math- Math Mammoth 7

English- IEW's Fix it Grammar, Phonetic Zoo, and IEW Narnia Book 1

Logic- Fallacy Detective, Mindbenders

Science- Apologia General Science

History- Notgrass Either Uncle Sam and Me or America the Beautiful

Geography- Beautiful Feet's Geography Through Literature

Literature- Figuratively speaking along with short stories, picture books and poetry; Further Up and Further in

Art- Unsure, but I know he wants something

Extras- Band/Trumpet, Co-op, hopefully Lego League, and Soccer, some sort of Architecture Study

 

Edited February 18, 2021 by My4arrows

[carriede]

We're going to continue with Memoria Press for most things.

Latin: Second Form Latin
Math: Math Mammoth 7
Literature/Reading: MP 7
Writing: CC Confirmation and Refutation
Grammar: English Grammar Recitation III
Spelling: Spelling Workout book F, maybe?
 
History: MP 7 includes
    • Famous Men of Greece with the Greek Alphabet
    • American History
    • continue Book of Centuries 
    
Science: Novare's Physical Science
 
Religion
    • Bible: Christian Studies IV
    • Catechism: Faith and Life book 7
    • Saints: Vision Books series

He'll also continue Scouts BSA and tennis camps from time to time.

[Noreen Claire]

Math: He'll finish AoPS Intro to Algebra by Christmas, and then he'll get to choose between starting Intro to Geometry or doing Intro to Counting and Probability first.

Logic: continue w/Logic Liftoff series and Mind Benders books.

Science: Chemistry (library books & Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia) along with continuing in The Story of Science books that fit the history timeline

History: Early Modern period, using Kingfisher History Encyclopedia and Light to the Nations P2 & the companion The Making of the Modern World: The History of the United States;  reading lists from Living Math U3

Latin: continue with Henle First Year

Language arts: Spelling Workout G; Writing With Skill level 2; some sort of word roots program; Grammar for the Well Trained Mind (we did lessons 1-60 in the purple book last year,  will do 1-80 in red & 60-80 in purple this year, and will aim to review 1-40 & do 41-100 in blue next year.)

Literature: assigned books from the WTM reading list plus whatever else he wants to read, he usually has several non-school books going at once

Sports: summer cross country training with the local running club, fall soccer & cross country, winter basketball ONLY if everyone is vaccinated, spring soccer. 

Misc.: Keep up with typing program online. He's knitting a blanket, slowly. He's blowing through Hoffman Academy piano lessons, so we will find him an in-person teacher as soon as everyone is vaccinated.

[freesia]

This is my fourth and last. 

Math:Saxon 8/7

Science: Science Explorer:Life Science and some Ellen McHenry units

German: Duolingo 

English: Rod and Staff 7, Spelling Workout, Jump In, literature from Tapestry of Grace year 3

Bible: not sure

Logic: we will do fallacies with an undecided resource  

History: my Tapestry/ Sonlight mash up 1800s

Art:co-op and various resources 

Music:guitar and piano 

PE: soccer and TKD, daily exercise 

ECs:Scouts, youth group, co-op

Edited February 12, 2021 by freesia

[eternallytired]

Seeing this thread inspired me to start planning!  Here's what I've figured out over the last couple weeks:

Math - My big ??.  Debating whether to continue AoPS or try something different, since I'm struggling to help him with any questions he has.

Language Arts - Drawing Sentences (second half), Aunt Ruth II (by kids' request!), Jump In!, Family Book Club

Science - Ellen McHenry Cells, Protozoa, and Botany rounded out by CPO Life Science

Social Studies - Crash Course World History (I had no idea there was a curriculum to go with the videos, and it's really nicely done!)

Spanish - Probably Homeschool Spanish Academy, since I have reached the limit of what I can teach and I don't think our weekly conversation tutor wants to take on full curriculum planning

Other - Weekly art projects and logic puzzles, taekwondo, piano lessons

[wendyroo]

Math: Algebra II (Foerster) + 2nd half of AOPS Algebra + Alcumus + ProfRobBob Youtube videos
Logic: Thinking Toolbox, A Workbook for Argument, perhaps start CAP Argument Builder

Writing: WWS + Lantern
Literature: Mosdos Gold + Figuratively Speaking + Lots of Reading + Read Alouds
Grammar: MCT Magic Lens 2...maybe just the practice book

Science: Mr. Q Advanced Physical Science, practicing note taking

History: Medieval: Kingfisher, OUP, tons of supplements, MapQuest & Notebooking

Spanish: Spanish 4 - Tutor, Rosetta Stone, reading novels, writing paragraphs

Art / Music: Piano, Comic Book Drawing

Memorization: Anki, so many Anki cards!!

Misc: Teaching his sister piano, chess, SAT prep

[fourisenough]

On 2/12/2021 at 11:44 PM, eternallytired said:

Social Studies - Crash Course World History (I had no idea there was a curriculum to go with the videos, and it's really nicely done

Can you link to the crash course curriculum? I’m aware of the videos, but didn’t know there was a full curriculum.

[eternallytired]

9 hours ago, fourisenough said:

Can you link to the crash course curriculum? I’m aware of the videos, but didn’t know there was a full curriculum.

Apparently it used to be on the Crash Course site (along with...maybe American History?) but they pulled it down at some point, so now it's just being shared as PDFs by people who had downloaded it.  It was offered free, so it's okay to share.  The blog "World History Teachers Blog" on Blogspot had a link to this Google Drive folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B0pNd2UvO5qlN0VqaUx3TFlUeEU

[AsgardCA]

He'll be working on a lot of the same things as his 8th grade brother, and 10th grader will join in for some of it.

Math - second half of Saxon 7/6, then Saxon 8/7

Science - Elemental Science Biology for the Logic Stage

Language Arts -

• Spelling - Spelling Wisdom 3, Vocab from Classical Roots 6
• Grammar - Using Language Well 3, finish Fix It! 2
• Writing - Writing with Skill 1, The Creative Writer, Writing & Rhetoric?
• Canadian Handwriting E
• Logic - Fallacy Detective?
• LLtLotR & Twelfth Night
• Reading list based on history & Canadian history

History - History Odyssey Middle Ages Level 2, with Human Odyssey Vol. 2 and/or OUP

Canadian History/Government - Modern History Through Canadian Eyes, Headphone History, etc.

Canadian Geography - Headphone History HS Geo, Draw Canada & Greenland

French - French for Children Primer B, DuoLingo...

Extras - 

• Piano. We were given a great keyboard, and since our piano is still a work-in-progress, I'll have them learn on the keyboard for now. He's a beginner, and we'll start with music theory, but I'm still looking for what we'll be using.
• Fine Arts - Masterpiece Society Drawing 101, & some Medieval & Renaissance artists on the side
• Typing
• Some sort of emergency preparedness unit. Natural disasters, fire drills... a youth version of wilderness safety/survival (?) for bears mostly.
• Possibly a local babysitting first aid course.

Edited September 4, 2021 by AsgardCA

[MeaganS]

Dd12 is my oldest child, but she's also my special needs kid (Autism and Turners Syndrome) and is hands down my most difficult to homeschool. She'll technically be entering 7th grade this year.

Math: Math is her most difficult subject. Although not officially diagnosed, I'm am 99% sure she has dyscalculia. She is in the middle of Teaching Textbooks 6 right now but it is proving difficult for her. We already took a break to do Life of Fred Fractions as extra review, but I think she may actually end up needing to redo 6th grade math, possibly even 5th grade. I'm ok with that but am just trying to figure out what will work best for her. In the past CLE was a pretty good fit except she also has attention issues and the length of the lessons was too much. So we'll see. She also does Dreambox Math and Prodigy for extra practice and Reflex Math for math facts.

Writing: Writing and Rhetoric. She's in book 5 right now (Refutation and Confirmation). I'll probably keep going and she's likely to do at least Book 6 (Commonplace) next year.

Grammar: Grammar for the Well-Trained Mind. She excels at grammar. She's doing the Purple book now and we'll see how far she goes before we need to swing back around and do another "color."

Spelling: All About Spelling. She's almost done with book 5 and will probably do book 6.

History/Science: We unschool history and science. I will probably be more formal about it at high school level but so far, unschooling it has worked very well and my kids are learning and progressing. We use a variety of tools, like SOTW audiobooks, documentaries and tv shows, other audiobooks, library books, science kits and toys, museums, travel, family discussions, etc.

Reading: All my kids are required to read 30 minutes from a pile of mom-chosen literature books daily. I also require 15 minutes of non-fiction reading from a pile of mom-chosen library books on whatever subjects I deem "school-worthy". That can be science, history, biography, geography, etc. They also do 10 minutes of personal religious study.

Piano: Hoffman Academy. She's caught up with the end of the available lessons, so I have her work on new lessons as they are released and work on songs I assign.

Spanish: Duolingo. Continue.

Geography: Draw the World. I have my 3 older girls doing this. So far they've done the continents, USA, Europe, and Africa. Right now they are working on Mexico/South America. I have them on a rotation for them so they can learn new ones while reviewing old ones.

 

 

[mrsfellman]

This is my first year planning for a 7th grader. 🙂 I have all boys and they are each so fun and unique. After realizing this year that with my own personal health struggles I need more outside help  we started using WTMA and Veritas Press SP courses. I have been super happy with both sources and then added on SingaporeMathLive as another source to help me out. Next year I'm considering dropping VP and doing MoH. I want all 3 boys to study the ancient times together and also plan to do science course together. So far I have for my oldest...

Math: HighSchoolMathLive course, Probably Pre-Algebra. I have him taking placement tests today but judging from where he is in SM Primary and how confident he is in Math I think Pre-Algebra may be our fit. If not he'll do their Pre-Pre-Algebra course.

Grammar/LA: WTMA he is enrolled for Expository Writing and then Grammar 2 in the Spring. He loves to read so we will keep up with interest lead books. 

History: Ancient Times with brothers 

Science: Elements with Ellen McHenry for at least 1st semester (also with younger brothers)

Spelling: He's finishing Spelling WorkOut G this year! 🙂

Extra Curriculars: Soccer (been in soccer since 1st grade🥰) I'd like to have him add in an instrument or a language soon. I was a private music teacher for a decade before having my own littles (and medical stuff) so I could teach him piano, violin, mandolin or guitar but so far he hasn't shown much interest. I might just make this year a year of piano since it's such a great base and see if he wants to change to a different instrument in 8th grade. I'd love to have him join our local jr/high school band as I know the leader and he's an awesome musician but I don't know about dealing with all the "red tape" to get the school to allow him too. 

 

 

[bluemongoose]

This is my 3rd time planning 7th grade. 

DS will be doing:

Math: AOPS: Finishing up PreAlgebra and beginning Algebra 1

Science: Conceptual Integrated Science

Writing: IEW Narnia 1

Grammar: Easy Grammar 7

Spelling: AAS 6 and Sequential (Sequential is review and practice for us)

History/Lit/Geography/Bible/Art history: TOG Year 4 Modern times using K12 Human Odyssey as a spine.

Various logic books

Spanish: Finish up Spanish for Children B and duolingo

Poetry: We are trying out the IEW poetry memorization program as a family this year.

Art: Meet the Masters and drawing with Mark Kissler

Music: Cello and Piano lessons. Music Theory. We might take the year off Orchestra to wait for vaccines. 

[PeterPan]

On 2/2/2021 at 12:36 PM, rutheart said:

She will also work through Vocabulary From Classical Roots books 6 and A, as well as Commas.

What is Commas?

On 2/2/2021 at 12:36 PM, rutheart said:

She is reading on grade level now, but her handwriting still resembles a second grader's.

This is my ds' boat. We've been using this https://www.therapro.com/Developing-Visual-Motor-Integration.html  and gotten improvement. Next I'm starting him in Cursive Logic. http://www.cursivelogic.com  If you do one of her promo webinars (free) she gives you a coupon. It keeps them tracing models longer than anything else I've ever seen.

[rutheart]

After finishing our regular grammar curriculum (Exercises In English), this is what I've used to teach comma placement, as that seems to be my kids' Achilles heel (grammar-wise). My oldest had about 50% reduction in missing/incorrect commas after finishing this book, so I'm hoping for similar success with my youngest.

https://www.amazon.com/Commas-Teaching-Students-Correctly-Without/dp/1877673382/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Commas&qid=1617216609&sr=8-3

[kiwik]

Our school year is Feb to Dec but he does English through Lantern English so he will start Level 2 in September.  

[Condessa]

My oldest will be in 7th next year.  We are juggling ds6's cancer treatments and I am having a very high-risk surprise pregnancy with baby due in November, so dd's 7th grade year is mostly outsourced.

 

English: Intermediate Literature and Composition class from CLRC, Spelling by Sound and Structure 6, Spencerian Handwriting

Math: AOPS Introduction to Algebra class

History: Introduction to the Renaissance and Early Modern World CLRC class

Science: (maybe) STEM Critical Thinking class from AAA--not fully decided on this one

Language: Middle School Latin II CLRC class

Music: Piano lessons

Logic: The Thinking Toolbox, maybe some of Think with Socrates, maybe spring semester Beginning Logic class from CLRC

Edited April 6, 2021 by Condessa

[ChocolateCake]

Grade 7

Language Arts: Wilson Reading System (for Dyslexia), Memoria Press Literature (with guides)-5th grade lit. with Vita Beata Discussion Group-she read these already so she will review before her group meetings (Lassie Come Home, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Heidi) and also do The Bronze Bow and Anne of Green Gables, also some historical fiction related to history that she will just read and narrate, Rod & Staff English 5, Pentime Cursive 6, 180 Days of Social Studies for 6th grade (this is more for reading comprehension practice), Wilson Workbooks (to review previous phonics/spelling lessons), Touch Type Read and Spell

Math: Key to Series (Measurement, Decimals, Algebra-she already started these), LOF Decimals, Patty Paper Geometry, Math Mosaics, Khan Academy for review

History: History Revealed (Ancient Civilizations & the Bible) We may also be doing SOTW 1 with Activity Book with another family, I will pick out just a few activities per month as I also have the Elementary Activity Book from History Revealed 

Foreign Language: She’s interested in Spanish but has learning disabilities so we’re just working slowly through a basic Spanish workbook (Complete Book of Spanish Workbook For Kids grades 1-3), I will have her make her own flashcards for this, maybe we will add Mango or something like that

Science: Apologia Swimming Creatures & Botany (with notebooking journals and audio download)  

Art: She just picks projects she finds online and does them with a friend via video chat 

Bible: Long Story Short, Training Hearts and Teaching Minds

Edited April 12, 2021 by ChocolateCake

[Bay Lake Mom]

HISTORY: BF Ancients (I think... trying to choose between Ancients and Modern/World. Her sister will be doing Ancients with SOTW1.)

SCIENCE: Apologia Gen. Sci.

MATH: Saxon 8/7

WRITING: WWE1

GRAMMAR: GFWTM 

FOREIGN LANGUAGE: Getting Started with Spanish (she’s already done half of this)

*Homeschool Swim Team, American Heritage Girls, Youth Group, and possibly fun clubs with our local homeschool group

OTHER w/ 11 yo Sister: 

BIBLE: Wise Up (Proverbs) & Listen Up (Parables) devotionals
GEOGRAPHY: US states (nothing in-depth)
ART / MUSIC: Artistic Pursuits / Music Theory and Piano

 

 

[knitgrl]

I know I am way late to the game....In years past, I was all about planning for the next year starting in Jan. or Feb. It took longer to work up the motivation this year. Dd is the first time I am homeschooling 7th grade. I have seen folks mentioning WWS and RSO frequently here, and now I know why -- they look great! Hoping they are both a good fit for dd.

Writing - WWS Level 1. I am really excited about this, since it is written to the student. Dd enjoyed Bravewriter's Faltering Ownership and we made it through half of the projects, but I just kind of lost steam by March.

Literature - WTM recommendations. I think I can confidently say that we will have finished Henry V by the end of this year, so we'll see how her list for next year goes. It is a lot longer, though....

History - Renaissance & Reformation Times, using bits and pieces from Classical Lessons... and MP Guide. Also, History Odyssey, Early Modern, cutting out most of the literature bits.

Science - RSO Biology. She is excited about this, because for doing science, the ball will be in her court. Also, she wanted to study cells, so there are a good ten weeks of cell-things in this curriculum.

Math - MEP Year 6 four days a week. LoF Fractions and Decimals on the fifth day.

Art - As per WTM

Music - Classical Guitar lessons, Baroque and Classical Composers from Enrichment Studies

Logic - Critical Thinking, Bk. 1, Mindbenders

Latin - Finish Latin for Children A, move on to B

Phys. Ed. - Tae Kwon Do

[rutheart]

I have finalized my plans and here are my updates:

Language Arts: We're going to alternate Writing Strands with fiction writing, maybe continuing Adventures In Fantasy, or maybe doing and using pieces of NANOWRIMO. She will also work through Vocabulary From Classical Roots books 6 and A, as well as Commas. Otherwise, grammar will be corrected on any completed schoolwork. In lieu of a spelling workbook, I will put any misspelled words into her Word Vault (she daily writes the words from the vault, and she gets to tear up the index card once she spells it correctly three days in a row). She will continue to work on handwriting, with an emphasis of writing smaller.

Literature: We do secular homeschooling, so we will be starting the Bible as literature, covering Genesis-Psalms. She will also read the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Macbeth. If she finishes that early, I will offer Sherlock Holmes. She absolutely loved the one episode of the BBC's Sherlock that we let her watch. Beyond that, I haven't decided. Maybe Ender's Game, The Hunger Games, Douglas Adams' books. If she plows through all of that, I'll let her loose on her sister's bookshelf and just make sure she's reading something every day. I also added some LOTR themed parties for the family at different milestones in the books. I think she is going to love it.

Math: Start Saxon 8/7. I'm not sure yet how many lessons per week or if I'll add in something different for Fridays.  In the fall she'll do 4 lessons per week, then around week 20 she'll only do 3 a week. I decided to give her a math-free day so she has more time on Fridays to finish up any other subjects.

Science: We are doing biology, with Holt Life Science as the spine, but we'll take a detour with McHenry's Protozoa.

Social Studies: For the first time since I started homeschooling, we are not going to use SOTW. Instead, I am creating a history of science/inventions course, emphasizing mealtime discussions of how innovation influenced politics. I will probably assign a research paper per semester.

Spanish: She will finish Spanish 1 (an old textbook my high school teacher gave me) and the customized workbook. On Fridays, she'll use the British Mi Vida Loca website. Mi Vida Loca was apparently Flash based, so it is not available to me now. I showed her a news site with a native speaker talking at a normal speed and she was tickled by it, so I think we'll stick with that for immersion Fridays for awhile, and re-evaluate if she gets bored with it.

Art: Seventh grade art is a year of choices. Every week, she'll get 2- 3 choices for ideas for her art journal, as well as 2- 3 choices for multimedia projects. She can choose to do one or more from each list, as well as anything else that tickles her fancy. We may work through a colored pencil book to work on shading, highlighting and blending. I decided to leave art as completely choice. If she wants practice with colored pencils, I have a book ready for her, but I won't push it.

Logic: She'll do Logic Liftoff, Mindbenders 4, read Fallacy Detective, continue doing variety puzzles or crosswords. We'll be doing the spreadsheet section of EasyPeasy's Computer Level 8. The year before my kids turn 13, I have them do CommonSense Media's Digital Citizenship course, so they understand the potential consequences once they are finally able to have their own email address. She will also continue Python programming, maybe continuing with Minecraft, or maybe something else. My husband found her a book of making her own games in Python, so they are working through that now.

Life Skills: She will cook one dinner per week, gradually building up her cookbook binder with recipes that she wants to eat. She'll also work through Discover What You're Best At and research potential careers related to those results.

Health/PE: She wants to learn about specific communicable diseases, so I'll make up a list for her to research one per week (done!). She and I both have health issues with our legs, so we'll continue with leg stretching exercises. We're also getting her into the habit of riding a recumbent bike when she watches tv (added distance goals). She enjoys archery, so I'll probably include some practice for that as well. The distance goals have definitely helped biking to be a cardio workout.

Electives: She wants to study developmental psychology, but I am struggling to find an appropriate source for that (I ended up buying a book about baby/early childhood development designed for new mothers, so the reading level is fairly low). She also wants to learn how to play her father's trumpet. We'll see if he has time next year to give her weekly lessons. His workload has more than tripled this year and he's expected to head his own (brand new) department soon, so he is going to have to be less involved than previously planned. It has gotten to the point where I have to bring lunch, snack, and sometimes dinner to his computer. If he is able to hire enough people under him to reduce his workload, we'll reconsider trumpet.

I have all the subject schedules printed and filed. She is going to keep the schedules in a binder divided by subject so she can refer to them each week when she fills out her planner. I also made photocopies of worksheets and project pages and filed those by week. I think I am all ready for the first day of school (14 days from today). Once she is used to this year's workload, she will be more independent and I intend to start writing fiction again. I haven't had time to satisfy my muse since having kids, and this feels like a good time to start indulging my own hobbies again.

Edited October 2, 2021 by rutheart

[desertflower]

A little late to the game, but my rising 7th grader will be doing the following:

Bible - Word of Life daily devotional

Writing - IEW  Modern History

Spelling - Spelling You See

Literature - The Good and the Beautiful, an arrow or two from Brave Writer

History - Modern History:  putting it together (because we do history as a family, and I have a 3rd grader) with SoTW, SCM, MOH, Beautiful Feet and Bookshark.

Science - Apologia self paced General Science and Organic Chemistry

Math -  AoPS Algebra

Art - The Good and the Beautiful

Music - Zeezok music appreciation

Logic - Critical Thinking Bk. 1, Mindbenders, Discovery Deduction (possibly?)

Foreign Language - Latin for Children and Homeschool Spanish Academy

PE -   Choi Kwang Do and Krav Maga and walking

Geography - The Good and the Beautiful and Material World

 

Rutheart:  Where do you get Adventures in Fantasy?  Amazon only has used books.  My rising 6th grader is interested in psychology too.  Any recommendations for a good start?  She's enrolled in a psychology class through outschool. 

[rutheart]

I bought Adventures in Fantasy about 5-6 years ago from Rainbow Resource. It looks like it's out of print now, but if you can get your hands on an unmarked used copy, it is worth having. If I were to lose my personal copy in a move, I would definitely pay up to $50 to get another copy. I will say though, that it took me awhile to come up with a year-long schedule for using it as a writing curriculum. Here is the schedule I used with my oldest:

https://westwoodhomeschool.wordpress.com/2016/07/31/sixth-grade-writing/

For my current seventh grader, we've been alternating Adventures in Fantasy with Writing Strands, so she's on a two year schedule to finish her novel.

 

As far as psychology goes, I couldn't find anything on my daughter's reading level, so I'm letting her read sections from Caring For Your Baby and Young Child. She is mostly interested in how babies learn and their brains develop, so I'm hoping that this book will be all she wants until she takes psychology in high school. The other recommendation I got from the forum was to try babysitting books. We are quarantining still, so that seemed like it would be torture to read when she wouldn't be able to do any babysitting.

[desertflower]

Thanks rutheart!

[kiwik]

On 4/6/2021 at 11:00 PM, kiwik said:

Our school year is Feb to Dec but he does English through Lantern English so he will start Level 2 in September.  

So we have;

Lantern English 2

Funda Funda Middle School Latin 1

AOPS PA (probably not until February) book not online

Ellen McHenry mapping the world with art 

Miscellaneous unplanned science

Marimba Lessons

Tap and Ballet

[Dianthus]

On 2/20/2021 at 7:50 AM, MeaganS said:

Geography: Draw the World. I have my 3 older girls doing this. So far they've done the continents, USA, Europe, and Africa. Right now they are working on Mexico/South America. I have them on a rotation for them so they can learn new ones while reviewing old ones.

How does your schedule/ rotation work?

[MeaganS]

2 hours ago, Spirea said:

How does your schedule/ rotation work?

So we've been working on them for a few years now (2.5 I think?). We started just doing the continent one daily. When they had that one mastered, we added in the US. They worked on that every day except Friday, when they would review the continents one. Then they did Europe 3 days a week, US one day, and Continent one day. And so on. Now our schedule looks like this:

Day 1: continents

Day 2: half of USA

Day 3: other half of USA

Day 4: half of Europe

Day 5: other half of Europe

Day 6: Africa 

Day 7-9: Mexico

After talking with my girls, the US map and Europe math take the most time, so we split it over two days. So far this has been an amazing addition to our homeschool and fairly painless. Knowledge of where countries and large bodies of water are in relation to each other has helped in so many ways so far, and I can only imagine it will continue in our history studies and current events. I feel like this has created a great mental "peg" for them and I would highly recommend it. 

[Dianthus]

11 hours ago, MeaganS said:

So we've been working on them for a few years now (2.5 I think?). We started just doing the continent one daily. When they had that one mastered, we added in the US. They worked on that every day except Friday, when they would review the continents one. Then they did Europe 3 days a week, US one day, and Continent one day. And so on. Now our schedule looks like this:

Day 1: continents

Day 2: half of USA

Day 3: other half of USA

Day 4: half of Europe

Day 5: other half of Europe

Day 6: Africa 

Day 7-9: Mexico

After talking with my girls, the US map and Europe math take the most time, so we split it over two days. So far this has been an amazing addition to our homeschool and fairly painless. Knowledge of where countries and large bodies of water are in relation to each other has helped in so many ways so far, and I can only imagine it will continue in our history studies and current events. I feel like this has created a great mental "peg" for them and I would highly recommend it. 

We did the books last year and I loved the results.  Not in the rotation yet this year.  They drew maps while I read aloud and I have had no read aloud time this year, which apparently is another problem with attempting a curriculum package.