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mom2mpr
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| Posted: May 07 2010 at 1:17pm | IP Logged
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What do you do?
I was planning out second grade--easy!
7th, seems so foreign to me.
I got math covered but what about the rest.
Ideas? I need to gently challenge this kid. He is super smart but on the other hand very lazy. He needs to see a purpose to what he is doing.
In some ways I am tired of catering and trying to make it fun. But also, I hate to see his flame for learning die. Though, I have seen some of that this year.
So, just looking for goals, things to work on with him.
He MAY go to high school so that weighs on me a tad.
Any help would be appreciated.
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Anne, married to dh 16 years!, ds,(97), Little One (02), and dd (02).
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Sarah
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We just finished 7th grade so I'll just tell you what I did. It was not a great year as I was sick with pregnancy but I will just give you our year anyway. He read from Berquist's list of books for explorers and we started From Sea to Shining Sea as a history text. We did Seton's wb for English and also Warriner's 9th grade writing. It was not too hard. He enjoyed it as it was mostly writing paragraphs and exercises. Seton's 7th grade religion wb is also consise and good but not too much. We did Apologia's zoology which is fun. It is recommended for grade school but IMO, not too easy for 7th grade. He also loved Apologia's Astronomy book. We did Seton's reading comprehension and thinking skills which my son enjoys, for the most part. We don't formally enroll in their classes, though. Not super exciting curriculum but it was enough. I had hoped to do more history projects but was too sick. Oh well. He still learned a lot anyway.
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Six boys ages 16, 14, 11, 7, 5, 2 and one girl age 9
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Kristie 4
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Sarah, a bit off topic, but did you use the MODG plans for the Warriner's book?
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Kristie in Canada
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Angel
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| Posted: May 10 2010 at 7:10am | IP Logged
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We are just wrapping up 7th grade, too. We used Ambleside Online's Year 7 as a spine. He didn't read all the books; we have been picking and choosing. For some of the literature selections, we substituted their free reading selections; for instance, he read the Lord of the Rings trilogy this year. I think 7th grade was a really good time for a boy to read those books. I've used Kolbe's Junior High Literature booklist to choose from, too. I bought the lesson plans, but we haven't really used them too much. Writing nonfiction as a whole sort of flopped this year. 
Fiction writing was more of a success: he's really enjoying the One Year Adventure Novel curriculum. And since he got interested in epic poetry (he read Beowulf), he's writing his own epic poem.
Grammar -- Our Mother Tongue, about half the book
Spelling -- My ds has a lot of problems with spelling and we have floundered around for a long time. We've just started using Spell of Words, which was recommended on these boards.
Science was sort of a "general science make it up as you go along" thing this year... I'm hoping for us both to be more organized next year.
Religion -- we go through the Baltimore Catechism as a family, and he read some biographies of saints. My ds has a very hard time focusing on what are not his interests of the moment, so... this was what I could get out of him on his own. Of course he participates in family prayer and family discussions.
We finished Latina Christiana I (My ds and my 5th grade dd were doing this together) and moved on to First Form Latin.
That was about it. Mostly he read a lot this year and didn't do many projects. Like Sarah, my pregnancy has corresponded almost exactly to the school year, so... I think it's been a good year for us, considering.
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Angela
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Erin
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| Posted: May 10 2010 at 4:04pm | IP Logged
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Like Angela I use mater Amabilis as a springboard to make our plans which to be honest generally get tweaked a little as we go too.
Mom2mpr wrote:
I need to gently challenge this kid. He is super smart but on the other hand very lazy. He needs to see a purpose to what he is doing.
In some ways I am tired of catering and trying to make it fun. But also, I hate to see his flame for learning die. |
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I can relate to this as my 7th grader is the same. For years I invested alot of time into making things fun and burnt myself out in the process. Sometimes at this age it is not a matter of being fun, but the fun comes from the sense of achievement in mastering a skill or knowledge. If you have them plugging away, the 'rabbit trail' interest will come. It's a different rhythm, it took me long time to get that and stop mourning what was, and enjoy what is.
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Erin
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margot helene
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I just did 7th grade with 2 really bright students. I suppose what we do is a little unusual. We use Latin Alive (Classical Academic Press), which is the follow up to Latin for Children. We love it because there is a lot of translating built into it.
For math we used the middle school geometry program from Right Start Math, which I cannot exclaim loud enough about!!! It was/is wonderful!! It starts in 7th grade (or whatever grade you want to start in, I guess), continues to 8th and leads into pre-algebra. These two students were math-haters and are totally converted. They are girls, but I think boys would really like the hands-on aspect of this course. The drawing tools are really cool!
Then for English we used Lingua Mater 7 (of course), vocab: sadlier (a little dry, but it gets accomplished).
We roughly follow Connecting with History for history and we did the time period 1100 AD to founding of the colonies, ~ 1700. I used Light to the Nations, now available in textbook form from Catholic Textbook Project. Can't say enough good about that text as well!!! We also tie all of our literature into the historical time period and there are some fantastic titles for that time period!! Oh we also used the Renaissance portfolio from homeschool journey but tweaked it quite a bit putting in what WE wanted. 
For science, oh my, we are all over the place. We did Oceanography using Theresa's plans for the first semester. Well - we did as much as we could. They loved it. Then we did meteorology roughly following the high school plans from MODG (didn't assign the papers) and some meteorology experiment books and are now ending with human body using the Milliken Human Body transparency workbook and The Body Book by Silver. (I should add that we do science and history together with all kids grades 4-9.)
WE also did a cool geography project in which they created a geography notebook with a political and physical map of each continent; a political, physical, and produce map of a selected country from each continent; and lastly maps of our state. We added in some maps from the Geography Coloring Book (like world rainfall, population, climate regions, etc). It made a really nice notebook.
Sorry to go on and on!! We had a really good year - looking forward to 8th grade with these 2!!
Margot
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Macmom
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| Posted: May 17 2010 at 10:15am | IP Logged
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I've done 7th grade 4 times now... 4 down and 6 to go! We use a combo of MODG, The Well Trained Mind, and things I find interesting. (Always with an eye to high school... I used to be a high school English teacher, so I'm pushy on writing skills!)
Math: Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1/2 OR Math 7
Religion: Ignatius Scripture Study (Gospel of Matthew) Kids at this age are ready to read SCRIPTURE, not just read the catechism.
Language Arts: MCP Spelling Workout G, Classical Writing: Homer, Easy Grammar the red book OR Seton's English 7 for Young Catholics (I'm not a big fan of Seton's drill and kill workbooks, but this one segways very nicely with the Latin Curriculum I use.
Latin: Latin Road to English Grammar I
Art: The World's Greatest Paintings Explored and Explained by Robert Cumming (LOVELY DK book!)
History: We do a 4-year history cycle, and I make up a lot of my own curriculum. Focus in 7th grade at starting to analyze primary source documents. Also, lots of writing.
Science (no science this year, to get a good amount of time in writing practice in! My husband was a high school science teacher, and he assures me he didn't learn much in elementary school science! Its more important to give them a sense of wonder about the world around them!)
PLUS, for a boy, you need to find activities for them- Scouts, 4H, etc. The hormones will be kicking in soon, if they haven't already, and being a little tired from activities helps keep the edge off their tempers!
Peace,
Macmom
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: May 17 2010 at 4:47pm | IP Logged
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Ohhhhh, I'll have a 7th grader next year. Looking forward to coming back here to catchup on notes and takes notes. 
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Cay Gibson
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mom2mpr
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| Posted: May 18 2010 at 7:44am | IP Logged
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Thank you everyone. Some great info. My parents are here now and I am busy with them, but I'll be back with some questions in the next week.
I am getting excited about 7th!! 
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Anne, married to dh 16 years!, ds,(97), Little One (02), and dd (02).
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Paula in MN
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I'm bumping this up as I now have a 7th grader! Yikes, where did the time go? I haven't begun to look at anything, so I'm open to suggestions.
After several years of hair-pulling and teeth-gnashing, my daughter loves to read. Specifically Ancient Egypt! So, I'm thinking about using CWH, which we own but have never implemented. We both like TT for math. I know I can incorporate reading, writing, spelling, geography, even arts and crafts into CWH. I'm struggling with science, duh. I always struggle with science. Has anyone else used CWH for 7th grade? Or any science suggestions?
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 Paula
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mom2mpr
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Wow! Paula bumped this up and I forgot I started this
What did we do?
Continued with Singapore Math we should finish 6B before the new year. I hope by the end of summer but realistically.......
History-finished SL 3 and started SL4-American History 2. And now I pick books, do the timeline book, toss the Story of the USA and I don't feel guilty not doing everything.
LA-Ds enjoyed Seton Compostion for 8th grade and finished it by Feb. It was recommended by a friend and he took to it because it really taught him the steps and way's to organize his writing. His final paper was awesome!
We then started, because he enjoys writing, IEW. He reads a lot of good stuff on his own so I felt that was enough for LA for him.
Science-finishing up NOEO Biology.
Religion was a bust bookwise--he listened in on dd's FHC prep and of course we live our faith so I don't see it as a loss at all. We tried Faith and Life but there were many tears and I am trying to put together some confirmation prep that will work with him. Wish me luck.
We did science, history, and religion together with second grade dd.
So, for us, that was 7th. I did notice some crankies and angries and he did state to the pedi that running did help. He is a very physical guy and sports are priority for him. The independence thing is kicking in but he just can't do it on his own--I held his hand a lot more that I thought I'd have too. He doesn't like me telling him what to do all the time--and I don't like doing it. BUT even if I make him a list, he forgets to check it.
On to 8th grade and then, gulp, high school at home??? I don't know if I have it in me
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Mackfam
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Paula in MN wrote:
| I'm thinking about using CWH, which we own but have never implemented. We both like TT for math. I know I can incorporate reading, writing, spelling, geography, even arts and crafts into CWH. I'm struggling with science, duh. I always struggle with science. Has anyone else used CWH for 7th grade? Or any science suggestions? |
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I really enjoy the CWH book lists and use them a lot!! I use the guide for suggestions, but mostly we just read and narrate and projects tend to take care of themselves, but I do like the guide for the way it breaks down the units and the reading. You absolutely CANNOT do all the reading suggested for one child though, so plan your booklist based on your dd, Paula, not necessarily the recommendations or thinking that you must use all the books for a certain level. (but...if you're going ancient history DO NOT MISS Mara, Daughter of the Nile!! it's my dd's favorite book!) There is some great copywork and poetry in the guide. So...yes, I think CWH can springboard a lot of your 7th grade plan!
You've got math! Great!
Now, science? How about a year of formal Natural History based on Lee and Gerald Durrell's book, The Amateur Naturalist. It makes a fantastic year-long course and really solidifies earlier years of more informal nature study. I used this as the basis of an 8th grade course and my dd really enjoyed it so much!!! From there, just include some fantastic living books on Botany and Zoology and she'd be set! I have a thread around here somewhere detailing what we did for that 8th grade science year. I'll go find it if you're interested. If not, let me know if there is another area of science you think she'd like to work on? Maybe a Physical Science year? Ideally, I'd do a formal Natural History one year and Physical Science for the other year (7th and 8th grade). I just think it prepares them well for high school science topics, but that's just my opinion.
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Jen Mackintosh
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Mackfam
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Mackfam wrote:
| I really enjoy the CWH book lists |
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Just wanted to come back and add this:
CWH = Connecting With History
...at least, that's the CWH I was talking about. Let me know if you meant something different, Paula!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Paula in MN
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Mackfam wrote:
| How about a year of formal Natural History based on Lee and Gerald Durrell's book, The Amateur Naturalist. It makes a fantastic year-long course and really solidifies earlier years of more informal nature study. I used this as the basis of an 8th grade course and my dd really enjoyed it so much!!! From there, just include some fantastic living books on Botany and Zoology and she'd be set! I have a thread around here somewhere detailing what we did for that 8th grade science year. I'll go find it if you're interested. If not, let me know if there is another area of science you think she'd like to work on? Maybe a Physical Science year? Ideally, I'd do a formal Natural History one year and Physical Science for the other year (7th and 8th grade). I just think it prepares them well for high school science topics, but that's just my opinion. |
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I was hoping you'd chime in! We've always done well with your suggestions. If you can find the thread, your notes, your lesson plans.... 
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Paula
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Mackfam
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Paula in MN wrote:
Mackfam wrote:
| How about a year of formal Natural History based on Lee and Gerald Durrell's book, The Amateur Naturalist. It makes a fantastic year-long course and really solidifies earlier years of more informal nature study. I used this as the basis of an 8th grade course and my dd really enjoyed it so much!!! From there, just include some fantastic living books on Botany and Zoology and she'd be set! I have a thread around here somewhere detailing what we did for that 8th grade science year. I'll go find it if you're interested. If not, let me know if there is another area of science you think she'd like to work on? Maybe a Physical Science year? Ideally, I'd do a formal Natural History one year and Physical Science for the other year (7th and 8th grade). I just think it prepares them well for high school science topics, but that's just my opinion. |
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I was hoping you'd chime in! We've always done well with your suggestions. If you can find the thread, your notes, your lesson plans.... |
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Found it for you!!!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Wildflowers and Marbles
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JennGM
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If you're going with Durrell, I have to put in a plug for Gerald Durrell's book My Family and Other Animals. It's the first of the trilogy of his family living on Corfu...I stumbled upon it at IHM, bought it for $1.00 recognizing the author, and just loved it. Preview it first, because although mostly done tastefully, there are a few places where his brother is a bit "crass". It's very light, but still.
It's a great living book, inspiring from a naturalist point of view. I can't wait to read the others. There were parts I was really Laughing out loud -- had to read the passages to the family.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Paula in MN
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 Thank you!!! 
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Paula
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Paula in MN
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JennGM wrote:
If you're going with Durrell, I have to put in a plug for Gerald Durrell's book My Family and Other Animals. It's the first of the trilogy of his family living on Corfu...I stumbled upon it at IHM, bought it for $1.00 recognizing the author, and just loved it. Preview it first, because although mostly done tastefully, there are a few places where his brother is a bit "crass". It's very light, but still.
It's a great living book, inspiring from a naturalist point of view. I can't wait to read the others. There were parts I was really Laughing out loud -- had to read the passages to the family. |
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Another one to add to the list. Thanks Jenn!
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Paula
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Grace&Chaos
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Paula, I love Jen's plans (I justed added to my favorites so I can come back to it). My dd is sixth grade so will be doing physics with Secrets of the Universe but I have been building our seventh grade science books focusing on biology.
I noticed I have some of the ones Jen listed already but wanted to add two more titles in relation to classification and genetics.
1. Travels (Nature Classics) edited by David Black: Just right for the middle school age. Lots of illustrations and not too long.
2. Gregor Mendel by Simon Mawer which Kris reviewed here on genetics.
Just some thoughts .
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Jenny
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Topic: 7th grade??
