Revamping 7/8th grade, wants older looking stuff

[Janeway]

My son is not happy with the choices for history and science for this year. His objection is that he wants to assert that he is older now and needs older looking stuff. He is 12 yrs old but will turn 13 yrs old the day before the cut off for our state, meaning, he could be 7th or 8th grade by our state standards. For science, I already have all the focus on middle school Real Science 4 Kids books except biology so I bought the biology to add to the rest. 

I might be able to return the biology. Wondering if I should bother to replace it and if so, with what. It was short and to the point and covered all the topics I wanted covered. 

As far as history goes, he was to do Story of the World along side his siblings and then I was adding in extra for US history, specifically, I have a variety of books including Hakim's Story of US.  He hates to read, although he is not behind in his capabilities. SOTW was to be our spine with adding in extra to go more in depth for US history.

WWYD?

Edited August 11, 2022 by Janeway

[EKS]

For science you could try a middle school textbook, like Science Explorer (or whatever the go to equivalent is now).  Or how about Exploring the Way Life Works?  Or the less textbookish version The Way Life Works?  It is a conceptual approach to biology.

A more appropriate world history resource would be K12's The Human Odyssey.

If he hates to read, I'd read whatever you end up choosing aloud to him.

[alisha]

In my experience, the Real Science 4 Kids subject books are below the grade level they say. I think that 7th grade is the upper end of their age span. (I used it with 3rd and 6th graders and it was ok.) And he's right-they are childish but in design-not content. I know they are expensive, but if you can, I really would go with something different for him. I'll let others recommend what specifically might work, though, as I have no suggestions.

As to History, I'll let others suggest on this. 

[skctgbrlis]

I would suggest handing him the CLE history Changing Frontiers to do independently. He could also continue listening in on SOTW. 

[Janeway]

On 8/12/2022 at 12:16 PM, skctgbrlis said:

I would suggest handing him the CLE history Changing Frontiers to do independently. He could also continue listening in on SOTW. 

Is that better than Notgrass?

[skctgbrlis]

I think it’s easier to do independently. I prefer Notgrass as a read-aloud, though.