What Are We Using For 7th Grade

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Some days it is hard to believe that I already have a 7th grader. I remember so clearly our first year home schooling (his 1st grade year). So very much has changed since then as we found our rhythms, learned to home school instead of recreating school at home, and even added two more children to the mix.

I am by nature a planner and find that I am less stressed when I have a workable plan. I also know that the Lord orders my steps and I try to keep our plans flexible and adaptable to the curve balls that life inevitably sends our way. I am sharing here what we plan on using this year for 7th grade. I try to remain open to changing things up as needed if something is not working. I will also be supplementing with various Review Crew products.

Reading: Elements of Literature (one of the Schoolhouse Teachers Courses) My son loves to read and I wanted to make sure that his reading program was literature rich and full of complete novels and stories, not watered down excerpts. I love how this course is broken down into various genres to help him broaden his reading options a bit.

Writing: We switched writing programs to Essentials in Writing during the second half of last year and it seems to be a good fit so we are going to stick with that program and supplement his writing with projects for 4H and NC Junior Historians. He is not fond of writing but is more motivated when he feels like there is a real purpose to his writing and it is not just an assignment.

Spelling: All About Spelling We struggled for years to find a spelling program that worked. When I used traditional lists he could often spell the words correctly for the test, but none of it seemed to be translating into spelling correctly in his writing. I tried non traditional curriculum, word walls, and copy work but nothing was improving his spelling. All About Spelling has been such as blessing as we’ve used it over the last 3 years and I have seen steady improvement his his spelling. One thing we added last semester that made managing the program a lot easier is the All About Learning App which means that we can use the kindle instead of magnetic tiles. The magnetic tiles are a great option for many learners but our preschooler kept getting into them.

Math: A+ Interactive Family Math We used this some last semester when I had a chance to review the program and he really wanted to try and use it as his primary math program this year. We will be starting Pre-algebra which is exciting and a little scary because it has been a long time since I used some of the higher math classes that are quickly approaching.

Science: We will be finishing up both Apologia Physics and Chemistry and Apologia Anatomy. We did parts of both of those last year and will be finishing them up this year. we love the Apologia series and these will finish up that series for my son before we do a general science next year to get ready for high school.

Art: You Are An Artist Clubhouse Subscription I need to be honest and say that I’m not always (read never) the best at making sure art happens in our home school. At least I was not before I found a way to have art done for me in an easy relaxed way from the comfort of my home. We love these lessons because they are simple and easy to follow. My son has decided that the pastels are not his favorite medium and so he does the lessons with his colored pencils. I am purchasing him a set of pastel pencils to try this fall to see how he likes those. I like the subscription because there are lots of options for the whole family, but they also have a lot of great courses that you can purchase independently.

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Bible: For Bible we will be listening to the Daily Audio Bible App as a family during our morning basket time and working through the Bible Study Guide For All Ages as a family. In addition he will be going through the Sibling Challenge Journal by Not Consumed which includes Bible study on sibling relationships.

History: We will be beginning our second cycle of Story of the World this year with Story of the World Volume 1. We are excited to be going back to Ancient History and looking forward to going deeper into our studies. I will also be supplementing Story of the World with some great games and resources from Home School in the Woods. I will be posting a chapter by chapter list of resources for Story of the World Volume 1 as soon as it is completed.

Typing: He went through Bytes of Learning UltraKey Online last semester and we saw a great deal of improvement in his typing speed and accuracy. I am going to have him continue to use this program with a higher goal this year to keep improving his keyboarding skills.

In addition to these studies we will be completing our morning basket time and ‘Evening Education’ (more on this in a blog post next week) as a family. These times will include poetry, missionary studies, artist and composer studies, and read alouds. Once I have ‘finalized’ my morning basket plans for this year I’ll share what I have in the basket as a separate post.

I would love to know what curriculum you are using this year. Are you still searching for that perfect fit or have you found something you love?

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Deals and Freebies!

You Are An Artist Clubhouse Memberships are now Open for enrollment!!

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is doing an amazing sale this month! Buy One year get One Year FREE! We use this for several of our courses and one price covers all the students in your home for as many of their over 400 courses and you would like to use.