4Real Forums: Thinking about next year

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Natalia
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Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: Louisiana
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Posted: April 17 2005 at 9:50pm \| IP Logged

I have been thinking about next year for my 7th grader (dd 12 by then).
There are things I know what I am going to do:

Math- continue with Singapore
History- continue WTM cycles. We will be on our third year.
Latin- Latina Christiana II

But I have some questions in the following areas:

Grammar and English: I am thinking about enrolling her in one of Julie's Bravewriter classes. When she was in 5th grade we did a pretty intensive grammar course with the Rod and Staff textbooks. In 6th grade I thought that it was time for her to apply grammar rather that study it. So we have done copy work and narration. I am unsure of how this has worked. For one thing I find more difficult to keep track of her progress. I don't know what to expect of her narrations- as far a quality of language and grammar. Please remember that my native language is not English so it is difficult for me to judge what is adequate for her age. So my dilemma is, should I continue with this method or should I do something more structure like Rod and Staff? or should I continue with narrations and dictations etc and do something like Easy Grammar? Or is there another option that I haven't thought about?

Spanish - I have always flaunder with Spanish. She is pretty fluent in Spanish but needs to study the grammar. We have done several things but it is difficult to find the right level for her. Some things that I have tried are too easy and some too hard. I would love to just do narration, dictation and copywork but I am having troubles finding good material.

Religion - This year we did Vision Books. We have paired those with our history studies and we used the Teacher's Guide to get more out of the books. Now I am not sure where to go from here. I guess I could go with Faith and Life series again. I also thought of using Jeff Cavins the Great Adventure. Do you think that it would be too much for a 7th grader?

Science- So far she has gone to a friend of mine for science. She goes three times a week and they work their way through the textbook that our local Catholic School uses. This has worked so far even though it hasn't really instill in her a love for science. I am not sure if this set up is going to work for next year so I am looking at my options. What do you do for 7th grade science?

Any ideas you would like to share?

Natalia

Elizabeth
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Joined: Jan 20 2005
Location: Virginia
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Posts: 5595

Posted: April 18 2005 at 6:38am \| IP Logged

Natalia wrote:

I have been thinking about next year for my 7th grader (dd 12 by then).
There are things I know what I am going to do:

Grammar and English: I am thinking about enrolling her in one of Julie's Bravewriter classes. When she was in 5th grade we did a pretty intensive grammar course with the Rod and Staff textbooks. In 6th grade I thought that it was time for her to apply grammar rather that study it. So we have done copy work and narration. I am unsure of how this has worked. For one thing I find more difficult to keep track of her progress. I don't know what to expect of her narrations- as far a quality of language and grammar. Please remember that my native language is not English so it is difficult for me to judge what is adequate for her age.

I think Brave Writer would be great for both of you and you will really enjoy Julie's mentoring. The Brave WRiter lifestyle will afford you more than just grammar or even just writing and Julie can help you apply the study of English across the curriculum.

Natalia wrote:

Religion - This year we did Vision Books. We have paired those with our history studies and we used the Teacher's Guide to get more out of the books. Now I am not sure where to go from here. I guess I could go with Faith and Life series again. I also thought of using Jeff Cavins the Great Adventure. Do you think that it would be too much for a 7th grader?

I think The Great Adventure would be GREAT for her

and shouldn't be too difficult at all.

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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)

Cindy
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Joined: Feb 01 2005
Location: Texas
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Posted: April 18 2005 at 7:13am \| IP Logged

Hi Natalia-

I love the Great Adventure, but we had trouble with it last year (my boys were 13 and 10) We got bogged down in the OT, trying to read the associated scripture to go with his program and my youngest had lots of questions about the OT I could not answer. (Wrathful God, etc) I decided to wait until I had more help in that area. We tried just watching the videos and that worked ok, but got a little long for them.

I thought I'd shelf for a few more years- but that was just our experience and might work fine for others.

Just an fyi as you gather info!

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Cindy in Texas

It Is About The Journey

tovlo4801
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Joined: Feb 28 2005
Location: Minnesota
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Posts: 386

Posted: April 18 2005 at 9:35am \| IP Logged

Natalia,

I agree with Elizabeth that Bravewriter should work very well. I've been working my way through The Writer's Jungle and started using the Arrow magazine, to guide me on dictation/copywork/grammar, etc. She has another magazine called the Slingshot for highschoolers, too. I don't know which would be more appropriate for a 7th grader? The books for the Arrow are below my ds's reading level, but it's probably just fine for pulling out sections and working on language arts with. He still reads other books at a higher level. I really need the guidance the Arrow provides. I'm thinking about a class next fall for my ds too. I don't know what the classes are like, so I can't comment on that.

Religion: I don't have any suggestions for you, but I have a question. Where do you get Teacher's Guides for Vision books? I'm trying to decide what to do for religion for my ds next year and that sounds like a great plan!

Science: Here's an option to consider. We are using the Usbourne Book of Science. It is split into three different sections - Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. The program we were using suggested that we take a subject each year over the course of three years. We did Physics this year. It has a colorful two page section for each subject covered within the topic. It covers science vocabulary, some simple experiments, some mathmatical formulas, etc. This year we just started at the beginning and worked our way through the book. I'm going to try something different next year. I'm thinking of setting up something like I've heard suggested for history. I'm going work with Nick to put together a box with several folders in it for each chapter in the book. We'll skim through the whole book so we're familiar with the topics covered. We'll still try to focus on the Chemistry next year, but anytime in our day to day that any sort of science comes up we can write notes about it and put it in the proper file folder. So if we watch a show on the Discovery Channel about genetics or play at the Science Museum with mechanical experiments, we could put notes about what interested us about it in the folder for that chapter.

My understanding is that this little book covers everything on the SAT. I can't vouch for that for certain, but I believe that is what I was told.

Good Luck!

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