Planning Seventh Grade
I am researching 7th grade curriculum for next
school year. Yes, it’s early. This is how homeschool moms roll. Like I mentioned before, when the current
year is going smoothly, that’s when we have time to research next year. Also like I mentioned before, planning 7th
grade is really connected to planning high school – it’s a big job. Middle school is really just preparation for
high school. High school is serious
business with official transcripts. I
plan to teach Kara, setting her up for traditional SATs/ACTs and college in her
future. (Gone are the days where I put
my own curriculum together because it tailors more to Kara – she needs to learn
to conform a bit if she is going to make it in college. P.S.
If Kara is a person who won’t be going to college, but will be going
right to work after high school, we may change things up a bit and get her
started in work studies early.)
Today in particular, I’m considering Science, Literature,
and History. (I already have math
planned – Teaching Textbooks has been our curriculum of choice for years and I
plan to keep using it. I am pretty sure
we will use BJU Grammar & Writing all the way through graduation, but I’ll
research that more another day.)
Science so far has been awesome. It’s by far Kara’s favorite subject and she
looks forward to it every day. So far,
it has been snippets of every subject of science all in one year – earth
science, life science, physics, chemistry, etc.
Seventh grade is the first year we study one subject all year. Seventh grade is life science, according to
BJU and Abeka, the two companies that sell our favorite curriculum.
When shopping at the used bookstore the other day, I found 7th
grade science for BJU and Abeka for really good deals, so I bought them both.
BJU, the science curriculum we’ve used for the last three
years, is very in depth, very long, and has quite a bit of work that goes with
it. It will be tough, but I really think
Kara can do it. (She has so far!) I’m not sure how much she will enjoy it, like
she has in the past, but I’m not sure that is a priority for me.
Abeka is shorter, sweeter, and more to the point. Abeka is less big words and only one book,
while BJU is two big books, just for one year.
On the one hand, I want Kara to love to learn. I want her to continue to be fascinated with
science. I want her to constantly seek
more science information on her own, like she does now. On the other hand, Kara is very intelligent
and my goal is for her to sit in college classes completely comfortable with
the amount of work because she is used to it.
I want to keep challenging her. I
want to keep giving her work that is pushing the line, that keeps her on her
toes, that doesn’t let her settle.
I’m leaning more toward the BJU (more difficult) curriculum. I’m leaning toward using the more in depth
reading, without assigning too much work to go along with it. (There are an insane amount of options for
workbooks, labs, etc.) If we get bogged
down with too many details and bigger words, we can always switch to the other
book since I already own it.
And that’s just science!!
As far as literature goes, I plan to switch to
Charlotte Mason by high school. With the
Charlotte Mason method, kids read entire books of classic literature. So much of literature in public school these
days (and homeschool curriculums!) is just pieces of books. I understand the reasoning behind it –
getting the best parts of many great pieces of literature. But I read entire books in high school. And I want Kara to read entire books. To Kill a Mockingbird is so good. And Pride and Prejudice. And Shakespeare. So, the question is, do we start that now, or
wait until high school? My super
shopping trip resulted in 7th and 8th grade homeschool
curriculum that contain bits and pieces of books. I’m thinking we will use this for middle
school, but we may switch. (The good
thing about buying a book for $1 is not feeling badly if you don’t end up using
it.)
As far as history, I do plan to use Charlotte Mason next
year. This year we are sort of doing
that – Kara is reading the American Girl books that go along with important
American history. Right now she’s up to
the war of 1812. I plan for her to finish
the American Girl books by the end of the school year. She actually really likes this history. It’s no secret that I’ve always hated history
in school, but one of my favorite style of books is historical fiction! That girl is more like me than she cares to
admit. So, I bought an inexpensive
(relatively speaking) curriculum guide that should be here in a few days. Then I will begin collecting the books that
go along with it. These history books
will all correlate with biblical history.
I am so excited to learn this history myself. I don’t know much about history (most of
which I learned from fiction books or movies!), so I’m looking forward to
filling in the gaps. (P.S., this
curriculum will take us all through present times and includes world history
and American history, which are graduation requirements.)
Whew. I’ll be praying
about these. Lord, reveal Kara’s
education to me!
Comments