Junior High Junction Link Up: 7th Grade Curriculum Choices for 2016

Hi, and welcome to the first ever Junior High Junction link up! I am super excited about this, and I hope that you will come back each week and link up your Junior High/Middle School related posts!

This week, I am going to share our 7th grade curriculum choices! We have swapped around and mixed up some different things since we started in July, but we are going to keep on with this schedule until May.

Math: We have had the hardest time choosing {and sticking with} a math curriculum for Mikaela. Math is not her strongest subject {nor mine}. We tried out several things {Christian Light Education and Spectrum workbooks, to name a few}, but I finally decided to give Khan Academy a try, and I am so glad we did! She really enjoys working on Khan Academy, and the videos are so helpful. I have her work around 20-30 minutes a day, including watching a video. Most videos are less than 5 minutes, and then she will practice the concept for a while. I really like how they will give "hints" {the first step in each problem} if you are stuck. They also email me a weekly report with the time she has logged in each week, the percentage completed, the percentage of answers wrong versus right, and what she has mastered or still needs to work on.

She also started a new book by the Thinking Tree, called "Are You a Math Genius?" It's for people who think they are no good at math. I have her do it a few times a week. It is kind of like a logic book. You have to use your head and be creative! This takes her around 5 minutes a day.

Grammar: Mikaela used Easy Grammar Plus and Daily Grams daily. She likes that there is no "fluff" to this program. She opens to the lesson, reads about a new concept {if it is being introduced}, and does one workbook page in each book daily. It takes her less than 15 minutes {usually} to complete grammar.

For spelling, she works in her Spelling Time journal a few times a week. This is a great way to learn spelling. It uses the top 150 misspelled words in the English language. She colors the words, fills in the missing letters, and writes them in pretty letters.

History: Mikaela picked up Notgrass's America the Beautiful again this week! Her main complaint was that the lessons were way too long each day {and they were}. So instead of doing one lesson per day, I am dividing up the lessons and activities to cover two {or even three} days. She has mapping, timeline, Biblical thinking, Lesson Review, fun workbook pages like crosswords or codes, and extra literature reading {which she does most of}. She also has a Unit Project to complete, which is fun stuff like making a Pocahontas museum or making marbles and a felt bag. {Here is my review of this curriculum.}

Science: We are starting something new for science. I have a book by Lawrence O. Richards called "It Couldn't Just Happen - Knowing the Truth about God's Awesome Creation." Mikaela will use this book with her Fun-Schooling Journal. I am writing her "lesson plans" for each day. She will read the assigned pages in the book and do the activities I specify in the journal. For example, on the copy-work pages, I will write down which paragraph from the book to copy, or on the drawing time pages I will tell her to draw something from the pages she read. Some of the pages won't correspond {like Thinking Time or Yesterday's News pages}, but she will still do them. I'll have her do 2-4 pages a day in the journal.

 

 

Here is an example of her lesson plans for Science and History.

 

 

{I took a picture before she finished Science today, hence the unchecked boxes. :-)}



I hope you enjoyed our Curriculum Choices post! Please share in the comments what you are using for Junior High! Or, better yet, link up your post with us!

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