Summer Curriculum Picks - Starting 8th Grade

I believe I have most of KM's 8th grade curriculum choices laid out. I have decided however to list them each session, as I had done a while back, because we do change our minds quite frequently and I want to be sure to leave lots of space for changes and new interests that are developed along the way.

We school year round in 10 week sessions so we begin our "grade" year in the summer. KM will be an 8th grader started July 5th and will be studying the following topics -

English Language Arts - there will be a very strong focus on writing over the summer utilizing our free Mondays to boast ELA up to two days a week.

Math - KM will be finishing up Algebra, utilizing the free Ko's Journey subscription we received and working on word problems -

Science is always a huge area of study for KM so we are not slowing down, but charging ahead into the time line approach -

History will also be continuing on a steady pace and we hope to have Volume 2 completed by the end of the summer -

Music will be continuing with piano, voice and some extras -

We will also be doing some electives in Financial Literacy using Brain Pop and finishing up our Ocean Study using lots of movies on Netflix. Our physical education will center around swimming and bowling - Kids Bowl Free. We will be using some free resources for Art from the National Gallery of Art.

Since I had posted about thinking outside the box KM thought it would be fun to post some of her top Wii and DS game picks that she finds very educational...

Wrapping things up - SORT OF!

I have to say that I think we are really getting a handle on this "homeschooling" thing! The past few months have been going by so fast, so smoothly and SO productively ~ I am just amazed at how much we have gotten accomplished. Our homeschooling style has changed a lot over the last two and a half years, without a doubt we are much more relaxed and go with the flow so much more than we did at the beginning!

In the springtime a lot of homeschoolers who follow the traditional "school year" start to look ahead for curriculum and programs for the next school year. As we school year round, things can get a bit fuzzy as to where one grade stops and another begins. For reporting purposes our "grades" go from July to June - so KM will begin her 8th grade school year this coming July. Since KM has a tendency to want to blow through some programs at the speed of light while she meanders and delves deeper into others we also tend to have books and programs on all different levels at one time. I have been getting many emails from interested readers about our picks for 8th grade and we are in the process of making the final decisions, but aren't quite done yet.

We began a good amount of new programs during this spring session - you can see the current things we are using in the right hand column near the top of the page - and many of these we will continue with throughout the summer. In the past we have done a substantially lighter workload during the summer, however this year we have cut back to 3 days of book work, so we will be staying with the same pace for the summer months. I am thinking about changing up our one a day plan though and trying something like focusing on one subject each week over the summer, but I am not sure if that would be too overwhelming or pushing too much at one time. This is something that I will have to discuss with KM and see how she feels before I make the final decision.

So as far as resources go, just check back and I will let everyone know when I have the final list together or something changes.

Spring Session Choices -

KM has finished a lot of her programs VERY quickly this year. So we will be beginning some new things for the Spring session.

Math -

• Middle School Advantage Math - for review
  

Science -

• Chemistry of Matter ~ we tend to stay away from "textbooks" but I came across this series on Paperback Swap and I really like the setup of it. Of course we will be supplementing with other resources to make it come alive, but this text is a great outline.
  
• Brain Pop
  
• Adaptive Curriculum
• Dynamic Earth ~ we will be using the above things when we get to this portion as well.
  

Writing - the bain of my homeschooling mission!

• Writing Survival Skills for Middle Schoolers
• Compostition and Creative Writing for Middle Schoolers
  
• Painless Writing
• Yoga for the Brain
• Unjournaling
• Building Writing Skills
• Brain Pop
  

History -

• Middle Ages - STOW - all parts
  
• Middle Ages Gifted Learning Series
• Medieval Times Thematic Unit
• Knights & Castles Hands-On Activities
• Professor Noggins Medieval Times Card Game
  
• AND MUCH MORE TO COME!
  

Geography -

• Geography of the US - Teaching of the Five Themes
• Professor Noggins Geography of the US Card Game

I have updated the links in the side bar so you can always check what we are working on now at the top of the screen to the right. If you have any useful links to share PLEASE do!

Winter Session 7th Grade Curriculum Picks

As we are drawing our fall session to a close over the next week, I figured it was time to look ahead and finalize the choices we have made for the upcoming Winter Session! Since we are always changing things around here, this is of course a rough guess of what we will be doing. Most of our picks for the fall session worked out rather well, but there are some areas that we needed to tweak a bit. Here is our "intended" outline -

ELA -
We have swapped out our ELA system SEVERAL times in the past two years, but I do think that we have finally made a bit of progress in this area. KM worked through Levels 3 & 4 of Writing Strands rather quickly and decided to work through a few workbooks for latter half of this past session and the next.

• She has been working through 5-Minute Daily Practice Grammar, she tends to do all 5 lessons for the week at once on Monday, but she is getting them all correct, so I guess I can't really complain can I.
• Quick Practice Writing Skills is a bit more of a challenge for her - well it varies day to day. There are some things that she just needs a slight reminder on and others that have never been covered, so when we come to an area that needs to be covered completely we stop and cover it. It seems to be working and she is far less weary of asking for help.
• For writing itself we have gone back to the 3 minute non-stop writing and are using 350 Fabulous Writing Prompts. Some of the prompts are not so fabulous in my opinion, but we just skip those ones and take those days to go back over and review or edit her previous days writings.
• We will also begin working through the Grammar and then Writing on BrainPop.
• For literature we will be using Teacher Created Resources for Tuck Everlasting and The Island of the Blue Dolphin. As well as a Scholastic Book Guide for Around the World in Eighty Days which will coincide with our Geography. KM of course will also be continuing her free time reading - not that I have to worry about that.

Math -

• We will be finishing up The Complete Book of Algebra and Geometry this next session so that she can feel confident when she goes back to the Teaching Textbook for Algebra in the Spring.
• I also thought that it would be fun and interesting to take a look at Women Mathematicians during this session. This book features 15 women and we will spread them out covering one or two a week for the 10 week session.
  

Science -

• We have decided to put off Story of Science again as KM wanted to slow down a bit on her Physics so that she could really investigate each area more closely. So for the next session she will continue with her Physics Workshop Kit from Thames & Kosmos. She will also continue to supplement with Brain Pop.
• We are also going to revisit Chemistry. She had done a bit of it last year at our co-op, but I think we will try to dive a bit deeper this time around. I have gotten a light textbook - Chemistry of Matter - from Paperback Swap and she has agreed to try it. I have the Periodic Table from Basher Science Books - WHICH SHE LOVES! - as a stand by in case the text flops. I have a lot of projects and kitchen chemistry things to add in as well as BrainPop - AGAIN!
  

Social Sciences -

• For history we will be working on Ancient Rome and finishing up volume one of Story of the World. This will also conclude our Giant Lapbook! I will be sure to post all the info on that when it is complete! This will be our final history pocket as well. KM is very happy that we will also be continuing with the Horrible Histories series, which despite mixed reviews from others, has been going over very well with her! We started out with the books, then I purchased the animated series on Ebay and now have been using the resources for the CBBC series.
• We will be finishing up Rand McNally's Intermediate Geography as well as doing a cultural study of each area as it is covered in the book. I am using several other resources for this including Global Trek, Hands-On Heritage series and Art Projects from Around the World.
  

Health -
KM really likes the Learn to Be Healthy site - though some of the content is a bit below her level, most of it seems to be sinking in and she is moving right along through it. They do have a high school level, but I don't think she is ready for that set just yet. She is also working through the Health topics on Brain Pop.


Electives -

• Staying with our strong Science focus - per KM's request - she will be studying weather and meteorology this session. I will be listing our resources for this in a separate post.
• For her foreign language she is going to be doing Spanish. We were lucky enough to get a FANTASTIC deal on Tell Me More by Auralog through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op last summer and she is REALLY enjoying the program. The voice recognition software is great and the homeschool edition has worksheets that you can print off to supplement with. I will be supplementing with two workbooks - Let's Learn Spanish Grades 7 & 8. I also picked up to sticker books that I thought KM & SC could do together. This would help reinforce the basics for KM and would introduce SC to a bit of Spanish as well.
• Music Alive! is still a big hit and we will continue with this through the next session. We also will be taking a look at some opera pieces from Opera for Everyone and will be going to the Boston Lyric Opera's presentation of Barber of Seville.
  
• Piano Adventures is working incredibly! She will be starting on Level 2 and I am amazed and awestruck by how well she is playing with no outside instruction. There was talk of an interest in Flute, but I am not too sure how serious that was...
• She will be continuing with Drama at our co-op and they will be working on another Shakespearean play with music and dancing, but the title has not been disclosed yet!
• We will be continuing to work through the Meet The Masters for our art practical and theory section. She will also continue on her cross stitch work and may start some sewing as she interested in working on her costume for the play this spring.
  

Again I can't stress enough how much of a guideline this is and it is in NO WAY set in stone. I am very open to changing things that are not working and try to make sure that KM feels that she can be honest with me about how she feels something is going.

Changes Again...

Sometimes life gets a bit overwhelming and you just need to change things up a bit! We have decided that due to the craziness around here lately, we are going to cut back to 3 full days, 2 light days of lessons and NO work on the weekends! This is our first week of trying this routine and so far it is already feeling like what we needed. It basically works out that the days that we have the Littles will be our light days and the days that we don't have them are the full days.

I have changed up some of her workload as well to accommodate this schedule. One of the new things that she has been enjoying is Brain Pop! She really likes the movie clips and activities. I really like that she can email me the quizzes and it is one less thing that I have to really think about. She is using with the Physics kit and has been searching the site for the key words in her manual to correlate with the program - LOVE IT!!! She is taking her own initiative to expand on the subjects - HOW GREAT IS THAT!

She completed the Writing Strands 3 & 4 and did a really fantastic job on them so we have also decided to take a break on formal writing and focus more on prompt writing. We will be using 350 Fabulous Writing Prompts and 100 Quickwrites both by Scholastic. They are great prompts and readings that you go over and then allow a set amount of time to write without stopping or correcting. This gives very little time for editing in the head before getting it down on the paper and allows for more of a flow of writing. You can go back later and edit or redo something if you want to, but right now it is more about just getting her to write and not feeling pressure about it.

KM has also decided that she really doesn't like the Ancient Greece thematic unit from Teacher Created Resources. We have tried few different ones with varied success and I thought that she would like this one because it was a more challenging level, but there were some errors in the mapping section - like it tells you to locate Egypt on the map, but Egypt was not shown on the map - and therefore she has no faith in the content. I am also wondering if she is just getting sick of the Ancients, so we are going to stick with the lapbook, more of the multimedia things, - another reason why we splurged for the BrainPOP subscription - and of course the myths, because she loves EVERYTHING about them!

She has also begun to use the Tell Me More Spanish - which we got during the Homeschool Buyers' Co-op group buy last summer - and she REALLY is enjoying it. I think that the voice recognition is such an incredible key to her confidence in it! This program really seems to cover all aspects of recognition, memorization and understanding. She has been doing it daily without any qualms or complaints.

As always we will be constantly evaluating and reorganizing our path, but hey isn't that one of the many reasons why we homeschool - to give our kids exactly what they NEED WHEN they need it!

Curriculum revamped...already

Okay I am notorious for changing my mind with our curriculum choices and I didn't even make it through the first week without deciding that we were not going to use a few things for various reasons.

Health -
We decided to hold off a bit on the NIH Curriculum Supplements Series and to work through the rest of the Learn to Be Health site that she didn't complete last year. I was feeling as though we were really book heavy and wanted to go for something more computer based - this was a rather easy subject to do the switch on.

Latin -
KM was really not into the Latin Through Mythology like I thought she would be and wanted to do Minimus Secundus sooner rather than later, so I complied. I already had the set and figured why torture her if I didn't need to. I want her to love what she is learning especially when it comes to electives, so why force her to use a program that she really just doesn't want to?

History -
We planned on working through the Ancient China Thematic Unit using Between The Dragon and the Eagle, but she REALLY was not into that book, so again why use it if she doesn't like it. We are still working through most of the time worksheets and projects that went along with it and researching things as we go. When I was looking for things at the library I was reminded of the "You Wouldn't Want to" Series and Horrible Histories. KM has always loved these series and I decided to order the DVD series of Horrible Histories to supplement with - as some of the books are really hard to find around her.

Science -
KM REALLY wanted to start with the Simple Schooling Middle School Physics before we started working on Story of Science so we are holding off on that one until we have finished Physics. This actually did make a bit more sense to me after I thought about it because she has caught up with Earth Science, Astronomy, Biology and Chemistry over the last year and a half, but really hadn't done ANY physics work. So we will focus on Physics and then work through the Story of Science sets so that once we finish those KM should be ready to start High School level Science. I think this should give her a pretty solid foundation to work from.

So that is what we have changed so far. I think it will be about it for the fall session! You never know for sure though!

Curriculum Picks for Fall Session - 7th Grade - Everything Else

This is the list of everything else that we will be covering!

Foreign Language - Latin
We will be continuing our Latin study at least through the fall and maybe into the winter...

• Learning Latin Through Mythology - two of KM's favorite things rolled into one, where could you go wrong with that?
  
• Minimus Secundus - KM really like the first level of this book, so I figured we should go for it again!
  

Art -
KM loves art and is very excited we are going to be starting Meet the Master which I got another great deal on through Homeschool Buyers Co-op!


Music -
Another one of KM's favorite areas so we have multiple resources here -

• Piano Adventures Series - this covers her lesson books, artistry and technique, theory, performance practice and her favorite - Christmas songs!
• Music Alive!
• Classics for Kids
• Voice Lessons To Go

Health -
We will be continuing to use the free curriculum supplements from NICHD publications. When I found this resource, just over a year ago, I thought it would be just some small little packets or pamphlets. I ordered almost everyone and nearly fell over when they arrived! These are full sets all ready to go into a 3 ring binder and some come with CD-Rom games and online interaction!
We also will probably be using a few of these websites -

• KidsHealth in the Classroom
• Learn to Be Healthy
• Safe Kids
• BBC's PHSE site
  

Term Elective - KM picks a subject area each term that she would like to know more about!
With the newest baby around so much lately KM has become very interested in learning about child development. It is rather tricky to find information for Middle School at this level, but I did manage to find a few things...by searching under Babysitting Skills!

• Babysitting Handbook - American Girl
• 4H - Child Development Set - I was sooooo excited when I found out that you could just order the 4H curriculums and use them at home!
• REAL LIFE BABY IN OUR HOME 2-3 DAYS A WEEK!
• REAL LIFE TODDLER IN OUR HOME 2-3 DAYS A WEEK!

CO-OP Classes
We will be attending our co-op for two classes this fall, as well as a Theater Group with our local homeschool support network. Our first co-op class will be Geography and loosely based on the Trail Guide to World Geography for the mapping aspects and different parents will be responsible each week to provide the cultural aspects that go along with it. The second class will be on Algebraic Reasoning using Family Math for Middle Schoolers and LOTS of math games. The theater group is the same one that she participated in last spring and they will be continuing to do some work on Shakespeare, as well as some monologues and some skits on famous historical times and people.



I think that is it for our fall session line-up. If you missed any of the previous posts just head to the top of the screen and type in curriculum picks and they should pop right up! Don't know how much we will get done or how many times we will change things around, but we are hoping for the best!

It may be quietier around here for the next few weeks as we take a bit of time off in between sessions! Be sure to let us know how your fall is starting out!

Curriculum Picks for Fall Session - 7th Grade - Social Sciences

Now on to our picks for Social Science:

Social Sciences - The social sciences comprise academic disciplines concerned with the study of the social life of human groups and individuals including anthropology, communication studies, economics, human geography, history, political science, psychology and sociology.

History -
We will be continuing our journey into ancient cultures and first stop in the fall will be China! Though we will be continuing to loosely follow the Complete Book of World History, I was pointed toward History: The Definitive Visual Guide and I am seriously thinking about switching over to that, but I will make sure to keep you all posted on that!
For China we will be using the Ancient China Thematic Unit and focusing on Between the Dragon and the Eagle. We will then move onto the Ancient Americas.

Geography -
Our co-op will be doing a full year Geography class, loosely following the Trail Guide to World Geography and I will be supplementing with a few resources.

Cultural Studies -
As well as touching on the cultures of areas that we go over in geography we will be doing some specific cultural studies as well starting with Investigating the First Thanksgiving and Holiday's Around the World.
Investigating the First Thanksgiving website
Holiday's Around the World Websites -

• http://www.lessonplanspage.com/SSChristmasAroundtheWorldK1.htm
• http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/holidays/
• http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson213.shtml
  

Curriculum Picks for Fall Session - 7th Grade - Science

Keeping the ball rolling - here are our science choices:

Science
Our approach to science is going to be a bit hard-core this year because that is REALLY what KM wanted! I am not too sure how we are going to fit everything in, but hey she is excited about science, so I REALLY can't smash the interest!

• The Story of Science, Aristotle leads the Way - we got the whole shebang on this one! Books, teacher's quest and student quests!
• Middle School Physics - I fell in love with this site when I stumbled across it at the beginning of the summer and I have to say when I downloaded this program it did not fail to please...hopefully it will be as easy and enjoyable to execute as it appears!
• Unit study on weather & meteorology - more specific information on resources for that to come later as I am still putting it together!
• Basher Science Series - we LOVE everything about this series! From the cute little comic pics to the through yet entertaining information! We have been working through Astronomy this summer and plan on starting Biology in the fall and Physics, well when we start Physics!
• Adaptive Curriculum - to supplement with extra projects that we wouldn't be able to do in our home! She absolutely loves this program and we got a SUPER deal on it through Homeschool Buyers Co-op.

Keep your fingers crossed for us that our ambitious choices will not crash and burn!

Curriculum Picks for Fall Session - 7th Grade - English Language Arts

I am continuing to hammer down our curriculum choices and here are our ELA choices!

English Language Arts - Traditionally, the primary divisions in the language arts are Literature and Language, where language in this case refers to both linguistics, and specific languages. The subjects, including reading, spelling, and composition, aimed at developing reading and writing skills, usually taught in elementary and secondary school.



You may have seen my many different postings about KM's lack of interest in writing and my realization a few months ago which has lead me to the following choices -

• Word Smart Junior I & II
  
• Writing Strands Level 3
• 5-Minute Daily Practice - Grammar
  

Literature & Reading Comprehension -
KM is an avid reader - she has already read 31 books this summer. So we are going to try a different approach to literature this year by alternating with an actual literature curriculum and literature unit studies. I am hoping that with this mix it will keep things moving and build her writing skills a bit as well...

• Island of the Blue Dolphin - Teacher Created Resource
  
• Cricket in Time Square - Teacher Created Resource - we will be using many of these products throughout the next two years
• Language of Literature - we will be alternating doing one literature unit mentioned above and one unit from this book.

We also will be trying to increase and encourage more free writing and may work out some sort of writing prompts as we did toward the end of the spring with our Proverbs Project.

Curriculum Picks for Fall Session - 7th Grade - Math

It is that time of year again - KM would be entering 7th grade this year and we are finally finished figuring out what in the world we were going to study! We had made an outline last spring as to what subjects she wanted to learn more about and then I set about the task of finding options that I thought that she would enjoy. Of course if you have been visiting my blog before you may realize that we don't always stick to the full plan so there are some changes since the beginning of the summer! One of the greatest as well as most overwhelming tasks for any homeschooling parent is making that final decision and dishing out that cash for the product with high hopes - all fingers and toes crossed - that it will be as FANTASTIC as it looked online or in the store! So I have decided to post our final decisions here over the next few weeks doing one or two subjects at a time so that it does not get lost in the midst of all the other posts!

So I thought I would start with my favorite subject:

Math -

You may have seen my post in the spring where I mentioned that CJ and I had discussed having KM take a year off from Teaching Textbook. She did Pre-Algebra last year and did a really great job - averaging a very strong 94% -, but I felt that maybe I was rushing her a bit in this area. I really want her to fully understand the concepts and processes of math. So we will be working through some pre-algebra and area specific workbooks at least through fall and winter. Here are the ones we will be starting out with -

• Tables, Charts and Graphs
• Building Basic Skills - Problem Solving Grade 7
• Math Minders Graphing - Grade 7
• The Complete Book of Algebra and Geometry - Grades 5 & 6 - I made this choice because KM has never had much Geometry and the Teaching Textbooks did not cover it at all, so I really feel like she needs this before she moves onto the more advanced concepts in Algebra 1 and Geometry
• Family Math - Middle School Years - Our co-op is going to be doing an algebraic reasoning class using games and projects from this book as well as some great math board and card games.

We will also be using some math software that KM hasn't used in a while to change things up from time to time -

• Cluefinders Math Adventures
• Math Blaster
• Carmen Sandiego Math Detective
• High Achiever Middle School Math 1, 2, & 3
• Middle School Advantage 2007 - Pre-Algebra & Geometry
• Snap! Geometry

I am sure that there will be more to come in this area, as I am ALWAYS finding new things for math - so I will keep posting additions!

Human Body Study - update

I have mentioned several times ~ starting way back when ~ how much KM has been enjoying her Human Body study.

First I have to mention the new subscription that we got to Adaptive Curriculum through Homeschool Buyer's Co-op group buy. OH MY GOSH!!! It is fantastic, I was so impressed with the 10-day trial that we did get the year subscription and it is such an incredible supplement. Science is one of KM's favorite subjects, whereas for me it is one of the most daunting because I feel like I know the least in this area. Therefore it is far and away the one area that I spend the most money on, but I am also so super careful that the things that I get are secular, accurate, engaging, entertaining and WORTH THE COST! This program so is!!! KM has been asking each day to redo the experiments and activities that are on it and since it is interactive she is really understanding the concepts and can work through the situations and experiments on her own. WE LOVE IT! Here is a screen shot of the DNA building model -




You had to build the DNA strand and then it showed you what you animal you would have built based on the given combination that you picked! VERY COOL!

We also did some exploring at the Museum of Science last week. Of course it was their busiest field trip day of the year - just our luck! - but we did manage to get to most of the exhibits that we wanted to -

Explored the different mechanical solutions to bone repair and zapped tumors.

Hmmm...that eye looks familiar, she got it together in a snap and the giant ear was a cinch as well!

She had a very lengthy and informative conversation with a MOS volunteer who explained how infrared lighting works and how the different levels of light can be scene by the eye.

Her FAVORITE exhibit though was a new one on Nano technology

It was amazing to see all the things that they can do with these TINY little particles! I think this will be next weeks research project!

Astronomy Elective Resource List

KM wanted to do Astronomy for her elective this term and she has been doing an incredible job!
Here is a list of the resources that we have been using -

• Usborne Internet Linked Book of Astronomy
• Learning Pages Space Mural
  
• Ancient Astronomy By Isaac Asimov
• Mythology and the Universe By Isaac Asimov
• The 50 Best Sights in Astronomy and How to See Them By Fred Schaaf
• An Intimate Look at the Night Sky By Chet Raymo
• The Constellations Stars & Stories By Chris Sasaki
• The Galaxies a Project Pack By Hands of a Child
• Astronomy 101 DVD
• Space and Astronomy By Sorcha McDonagh
• Seeing Earth from Space By Patricia Lauber
• Exploring our Solar System By Sally Ride
• Stars and Constellations By Gregory Vogt
• Mercury, Venus, Earth & Mars By Gregory Vogt
  
• Jupiter, Saturn & Uranus By Gregory Vogt

I will post pics of the mural that she is finishing up this week as well as pics from our trip to MOS to do the planetarium exhibits.

Egyptian Resources

I got asked about our history plans 3 times over the weekend and twice today on a wet hike so I thought I would get myself together this afternoon and get them posted! Here is what we have so far -

• Complete Book of World History by School Specialty Publishing - this is may all time favorite spine. I am very impressed with how this book lays things out and although it is listed as grades 4-8 it could easily be used for younger or older children with very little modifications as a spine/timeline guide.
  
• Pocket Timeline of Ancient Egypt by Helen Strudwick - this will be our guide to the specific point in history. It has a beautifully done timeline that folds out of the book and looks like it will be a good read for KM.
• History Pockets: Ancient Egypt By Evan-Moor - We are really liking the looks of this series, we have experimented a bit with the lower level ancient civilazation kit when we got it as a free download from currclick a few weeks ago. I wish that I had known about the ebooks beforehand as this is basically a reproducible book, that will need to be photocopied/scanned, but hey at least I get to give you guys the recommendation - right?
• Egyptian Kid Kit by Usborne Books - this is another great hands-on thing and of course this is KM's favorite way to learn.
• Horrible Histories - The Awesome Egyptians - by Terry Deary and Peter Hepplewhite - we came across this series during our Prehistoric Study when KM read and loved Who are You Calling A Wooly Mammoth.
• Egyptology Code-Writing Kit - by Emily Sands - As many of you may remember KM LOVES anything that has anything to with codes, so we had to grab this kit when I came across it on clearance at a local book store.
• Pyramids: 50 Hands on Activities by Avery Hart - You can never have too many hands on things around here!
  
• Ancient Science by Jim Weiss - we have been using this book for a few months now and it has GREAT activities
• Websites that look rather interesting -
  

Ancient Egypt for Kids
Kids Konnect
Eternal Egypt
Mummy Tombs
Ancient Egypt Thematic Unit

I will continue to add to this list once we start the study itself as I know that we will be adding more as we go. If you have any favorite Egyptian resources PLEASE feel free to share!

All bets are closed...

I did it, I didn't even make it a week and I have already changed my mind...hmmmm I am sure most of you are not surprised! I have decided that since KM is so far ahead in Math that we are going to take a few steps back and work on things in a more focused manner. I have a few workbooks that I think we need to work our way through as I am a bit nervous about her really grasping the full algebra 1 concepts at this stage in the game. So we will be using these instead of Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1 in the fall - though wewill begin to use this program when she completes the four workbooks I have listed below I just think that if we rush it, it may backfire:

• Tables, Charts and Graphs

• The Complete Book of Algebra & Geometry

• Problem Solving: Grade 7

• Graphing: Activities to Stretch Young Minds, Grade 7

I also really just want to have a lighter hardcore schedule next year, as she really is ahead of where other kids her age are. I also went a little crazy and had a bit of a spending accident, but I got Joy Hakim's Story of Science and along with the student and teacher's guides. I think this will be our regrouping curriculum for science as well as all the fun experiments and books that I had listed previously. I think this will be our only changes, but of course I was VERY set on what I had last week as well! Guess that is the best part of homeschooling, switch it up as much as the budget can handle!

Balance...

...it seems to be the one thing that I am on a never-ending quest to obtain! In every aspect of my life, I really need to find more balance. Most importantly I feel that we need to find a good balance in our lessons vs. playtime. I really am having some trouble in this area and I think a lot of it is the huge amount of guilt that I feel about having sent my daughter to PS for over 5 years. I feel like she needs to be given time to get some of what she had taken from her back. At the same time however I have this tape playing in the back of my head - I am sure many of you know the one I speak of - it sounds a bit like this "she should be doing work, she should be writing reports, she should be producing physical evidence of what she is accomplishing, it is the middle of the day how can I let her run around outside" and it goes on and on and on. How do you make that tape stop? How do you truly balance what needs to be done, what could get done and what can wait?

Honestly if she were younger, I would have no qualms of saying let her play,- in fact you will often hear me state this to lots of moms who start asking about Kindergarten curriculum as soon as their child turns 5,- but all her friends are starting Middle School next year and I am torn between feeling like I should be preparing her more for High School courses and feeling like she should be allowed to be young and truly "PLAY" while she still can or will for that matter.

As I think back to my college experience I remember that many classes started out right from the beginning of things. It was never assumed that you knew anything about the subject - unless of course there were prerequisites for the class. This is to cover any gaps in core information and to ensure that everyone gets an even playing field.

Science is my arch nemesis, but I am also thinking that for the most part the home school science curriculum for high school are pretty intense and cover A LOT! Why do things over and over and over again. So maybe if I do pull back a bit on certain things over the next year and allow a bit more room for interest-led activities and time for play it would be the perfect time to do it! She is young for her grade level and this could be a bit of a break time. Especially with the new baby on the way VERY shortly - just to clarify I mean another niece of course! I think that I will pull the reins back a bit and maybe try to focus on some of the areas that really need some work - such as writing - and let some of the other areas that she is very strong in -such as math- have a bit more of a break.

7th Grade Curriculum - Preliminary Decisions

As most of you have probably figured out - as I know I have stated it SEVERAL times - I am a HUGE planner, I need to feel like I have a game plan and though I am open to flexibility and wiggle room, I NEED to know that I have something set and ready to go! So before the warm weather gets here for real, I want to make sure that I have everything planned out for next year.

For the most part I have known for a while what we would be doing, but there were some final choices that I think I have committed to. So here is what KM's 7th Grade Curriculum will look like -

Summer Session - Yes we do continue our lessons during the summer, but it is on a much lighter scale. KM and I sat down and tried to figure out what she thought would be manageable and what I would agree to as enough. Here is what we came up with:

Daily:
Summer Bridge Activities - This is a review type book that has different activities each day, but helps you kinda stay on track. Most of the things are fun activities and she has been doing them for YEARS now so she figured why change something that has worked for such a long time.

Egyptian Study - if we keep at the pace we are right now with our History timeline study we should be right at Egypt when we start the Summer session. I have TONS of projects, resources, sites, kits and books for this which I think I will list separately. This will be an ongoing thing throughout the summer that I didn't really want to schedule in so we will be working on this bit by bit throughout the session.

Mondays:
Cooking - We will be using the Usbourne Internet Linked Children's World Cookbook - to travel the globe through food. We will also be going to our local farmer's markets to get local produce of the season to cook with as well as using the bounty from our own garden!

Tuesdays:
Geography - along with our world food travels, we will be using Brighter Child Geography Grade 6 which we did not have a chance to get to during this last year's studies.

Wednesday:
ELA - we have been using Scholastics Scope Magazine since last fall, but we could never manage to get to all of it, so we decided to save the reader's plays and the extra worksheets for the summer.

Thursday:
Science - I don't know how long ago it was, but at some point I picked up a copy of Homework Survival Guide: Science and I came across it when we were cleaning out our books over the winter. We decided to use it as a review and do one chapter a week for the summer. We will also be incorporating lots and LOTS of projects to go with each one so be sure to swing by for Science Thursdays starting in July. I think that this will really bring KM up to speed with the basic knowledge that she was SOOOOO lacking from her time at PS.

Fridays:
Math - another book that we just didn't get to as much as we would have liked was Fast Finishers Math so we thought this would be a good time to finish it up!


Starting in the Fall she will be doing -

Math - Teaching Textbooks was such a HUGE hit this year that I will stray from it! She will be starting Algebra 1 in the fall.


ELA - She will be doing 5-minute Daily Grammar - which should help to straighten out some of those things that really just need some repetition to get down. Also upon recommendation by a very good friend, countless internet searches and a LONG discussion with KM we have decided to give Writing Strands a try. We will be starting her off at Level 3 and she is very excited about the way that it is truly written to the student. It also has VERY little prep work for me! I also have on the back burner, Writing Survival Skills for the Middle Grades - which the same friend recommended and I lucked out and found on Paperback Swap! Also a great Paperback Swap find was World Smart Junior which will be in place of a formal vocabulary program.

Literature/Reading Comprehension - For fiction we will be using literature units from Teacher Created Resources. To start we will be doing The Cricket in Times Square, Island of the Blue Dolphin, Bridge to Terabithia and Tuck Everlasting. For non-fiction we will be using a workbook called As a Matter of Fact which seems like it will be a very good fit.

History - We will be continuing our timeline study using the Complete Book of World History as our time-line spine and we will probably begin with Ancient China in the fall. I will list these resources separately as well.

Geography - Our coop group is thinking of doing a full year Geography program, focusing on a different continent each session. This will be a GREAT way for the kids to learn about this in a group setting! I will be sure to post more about this as it develops as well.

Cultural Studies - In the fall we will be focusing on a Thanksgiving Unit that we got from Plimoth Plantation called Investigating the First Thanksgiving which helps to clarify what really happened at the first Thanksgiving and what it was really like for the Pilgrims and the Native Americans. Then we will use several resources to dive deep into the cultures of Southeast Asia, Japan, and Mexico and Central America.

Science - We have a large mismatch group of things that KM really wants to cover for Science next year. We will be starting out with the Basher Series which looks like they are going to be rather enjoyable reading, then we will be using the MOS designed Engineering is Elementary Program, a variety of free electricity resources that we ordered from National Grid and a unit on Inventions and Inventors. We will also be supplementing with a new site that I found through Homeschool Buyers Co-op called Adaptive Curriculum. Once she has all these things done I think she will have a very good basis to start some of the higher level sciences.

Foreign Language Studies - We will be sticking with Latin next year and will be using Minimus Secundus: Moving on in Latin as well as Learning Latin Through Mythology. I am already seeing a huge improvement with KM's word recognition and decoding roots since we started the Minimus: Starting out in Latin.

Art - we will be using a program that looks really intriguing called Meet the Masters. KM is a bit nervous about having to reproduce masterpieces, but I think once she starts and sees that it is really more about the techniques that she will really enjoy the program!

Music - KM is still loving the keyboard so we will be continuing with Piano Adventures. I also came across this rather interesting classroom magazine called Music Alive and for $9 I got all 8 issues of this past years magazines, which feature a current artistic from a different genre each month. KM is so into music that I couldn't pass up a deal like that! We will also continue to utilize the incredible monthly content at Classics for Kids. I am seriously considering signing her up for private keyboard lessons, but I am worried that this may deter her natural drive that she seems to be following. She reads music incredibly and truly enjoys playing, so I will just wait and see if she starts to peak off or has trouble just using the books on her own.


So that is our 7th grade plan - I hope we will stick to it, but if you are a regular reader I would guess that bets are being placed as to when the first change will occur! It feels good to have it all laid out in front of me though and I think that I have found a really good balance of what KM wants and what CJ and I feel that she really NEEDS.

Why do some things just have to be so difficult?

I am really have a hard time trying to get KM to understand the basic concepts of writing. I have tried several different methods and approaches. I am at the point of giving up right about now - I think we are going to just drop the formal writing and try to focus on what she needs to write for her other assignment areas and try to strength those answers. I am thinking in this way it would be more cohesive and if it is connected to something else then it would be more meaningful. I had such high hopes and was really impressed with the Writing Tales curriculum. She even really liked it, but she just was not progressing and we both felt that the content was a bit dry for her age.

I am trying to find different articles about when to start formal writing and composition lessons and pros and cons of different ages so if any of you wonderful devoted followers have any insight or any suggestions at all I would be greatly appreciative as I am just utterly at a lose on this one -----

Moving right along -

is what our week has been doing. I can't believe it is Wednesday night already! Our spring session began on Monday and it is going really well. KM seems to be enjoying doing science everyday. We are using a new series for us from Usborne called Adventures of the Human Body in Ten Terrific Weeks. She really likes the shorter lessons and the hands on charts, projects and interactive websites. We are also making a collage on an area of wall in the playroom where she can display all that she is learning - kinda like a HUGE lapbook. I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of the program and am going to be looking into the Knighthood one once we get into the Middle Ages. It gives a really good outline using books that you can easily get through most library networks.

Another new thing we are trying is doing the Writing Tales lessons twice a week - we had been doing the full weeks lesson all in one day on Friday, so that it took her two weeks to get through the story as it is meant to be done. Now we are doing one on Wed and one on Fridays so that she gets the first and second drafts of the story done all in one week. This will allow her to finish the program by the end of this spring session and then she can decide if she wants to move on to level 2 or go onto a different writing program. KM has always detested writing! She would dictate things to me with no problem so I had always thought that it was the actual physical writing,but I am beginning to think it was more about the pressure of it being accurate and creative that would get to her. With this progymnasmata writing program she really seems to be becoming much more confident in her writing. It doesn't take her nearly as long to get it done and there have been fewer and fewer mistakes lately. That is why we decided to move it up to twice a week - she feels she can handle it. Although this curriculum is below "grade level" in comparison to everything else that she is doing, it has really been a perfect fit for her to gain the confidence that she needed. I think I am going to try to convince her to do the second level starting next fall and then move on to more essay and expository type writings after that. I don't think she will give me much of a hassle with it, but this is one area that I feel I don't want to rush through as I am seeing such a huge amount of progress.

We also decided to do away with spelling and vocabulary in the traditional sense. We are incorporating vocabulary into literature, using Number2.com daily and we are continuing with Latin using the Minimus program which I managed to get through Paperback Swap - SCORE! It amazes me how much she has already picked up and how quickly she has begun to really get the roots. She has also been using Word Coach on the Wii and Spelling Challenge for her DS. It amazes me how many educational games there are out there for things that I never would have thought of! It makes life so much easier when they are truly enjoying the things that can get so monotonous!

Our local homeschool coop is finishing up for the season and we will be having our closing ceremony this coming Monday, which will include the older kids performing in Shakespeare's Midsummer Nights Dream. They have been working on it since January and have really done a great job! They are all so excited about the upcoming performance and are already talking about doing one again next year! It is so amazing to see such a truly great group of "tweens" who are thoroughly enjoying Shakespeare!

Our other programs are all pretty much moving along the same as they had been -

• Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra is still holding up to our expectations and likings
• we are continuing on in our timeline of history - we are just getting into the First Humans and the beginnings of Civilization and are supplementing the text with lots of living books and projects from Ancient Science.
• KM is moving right along through the Piano Adventures series and still loving it!
• Next week we will for Health will be starting another NIDA free program called Brain Power! and KM will starting an astronomy unit - hopefully as a cooperative thing with one of her friends.
  

All and all things really are just moving right along! Now if the weather could just move right along into spring we would all be perfectly sublime!

Nearly Done - Prehistoric Study

We have just about finished our prehistoric study...

KM is very proud of the lapbook that we created from various sources...

The bottom pocket holds this Pangaea puzzle which shows how the continents shifted.

This bar graph is on the back.

We have a HUGE map that I printed out from Owl & Mouse -
I love that you can print them in all different sizes, this one is 4x4.
We covered it with clear contact paper so that we can stick things to it
and use dry erase markers on it.

KM researched where the different fossils had been found and then posted them.

We got lots of printables from Learning Pages - their site is mostly designed for Pre-k to 3rd grade but you can tweak a lot of the cut-outs and murals to fit older age groups or to use with multi-age/level kids ~ which is what we did hear.

KM told SC a story as they placed the different species on the different areas of mural.

We will be ending this area next week with a special trip to the Museum of Science to spend the day going through their evolution outline. We are also going to spend a good deal of time that day studying the tamerians! I will let you know how it all works out!