First Day of Seventh Grade

First day of school pictures!  As we enter into middle school years, I can't put cute pink ribbons in her hair anymore, and it's like pulling teeth to get her to wear anything but sweatpants (so I usually don't ask her to).  So, here she is, in her ten year old glory, starting seventh grade.  I love her more every day.

My sweet, happy girl.  <3

My mom bought me a teacher's apple for my desk.
It's ceramic.  So cute!

This year I thought we would try an A day / B day schedule.  Today being an A day, we did half of the subjects, but two lessons.

My lesson plans

We started with devotions:

 Then we went onto Grammar.  Today we went over proper abbreviations.

Teacher's answer key for today's grammar lesson

Then literature.  She will be tested on the speed of her reading this year.  At first I thought this was dumb and wasn't going to pay any attention to it.  I thought comprehension was all that mattered.  But then I was reminded she will need to take those pesky timed standardized tests, so we will work on that this year.  She read this story in 10 minutes, 55 seconds.  I guess that's around 180 WPM.  Not sure if that's good or bad.  I will keep an eye on it and see if she improves along the school year.

Update:  Just looked it up.  The teacher's plans say seventh graders should read at least 125 words per minute or faster.  She's good.

Her writing was based on the story she read, which she will finish for homework.  This year she will keep her own calendar and keep track of her own homework assignments.  This is a good year for it since I will start assigning things that are due later than just tomorrow.  One step at a time!

Then we learned how to take notes (thanks to Confessions of a Homeschooler's cool video on you tube), and we started Spanish over again.  We are going to go at the recommended pace and work to get high school credit.  She has a huge safety net though - if she can't handle it, there is no need to start with high school credits yet.  We can try again later.  We are trying now, though, because I think she can do it.

Kara's big seventh grade binder

Kara and I took notes together, at the same time.  Since she is artistic, she LOVED taking notes.  I know it's the first day, but I sure hope she always likes taking notes!!  She will need to do it for many years to come.

Kara's notes

My notes

We will also take notes in Science.  In History, we will keep track of a timeline, and may take some notes.

Up tomorrow for our B day:  Devotion, Math, Science, History.  I'm looking forward to it.  It's like another first day of school!!!