Monday, February 1, 2016

Junior High Junction: Month in Review {January}

Welcome back to the Junior High Junction. Thanks for linking up last week, and I hope to have even more link-ups this week!


This week, I'm going to do a month-in-review for January. Mikaela is in 7th grade, and here is what she has been up to this month.

Math: She quit using Khan Academy in lieu of a textbook/workbook curriculum {her decision}. She started using Principles of Mathematics by Katherine Loop. This math book has a Biblical worldview, which is kind of strange for a math textbook, but Mikaela enjoys it so far. It is challenging in some areas, and some areas are easy review {which she really likes}. There are real-life examples of how and when you will need to use math in your life, which is great because she doesn't like math, and this shows her that she will, in fact, one day use it! The first week she made an abacas. We didn't follow the directions exactly; we just used what we had on-hand. It works, though, and she {and I} learned the correct way to add and subtract numbers in the thousands on the abacas.


Science: She has been reading "It Couldn't Just Happen", which is a book based on creation science. She also follows up in her Fun-Schooling Journal with activities that I list for her - copy-work, drawing diagrams or pictures of the things in the book, spelling words, and writing interesting facts. She is enjoying it. She's learned about the planets and stars, fossils, why dinosaurs could have disappeared and other interesting facts. She loves this book, and complains that I don't give her enough to read every day. But I want it soak in!


History: She has finished up the first book in America the Beautiful. We will not move on to the next book yet, as we are going to start BiblioPlan this week!

Grammar/Language Arts: This is one area that we have been weak in. She uses Daily Grams and Easy Grammar daily, and she works in the Spelling Time Journal several times a week. We don't have a writing program, but we start reviewing one for the Crew on Monday. We have never done a formal writing program, so I'm excited. We also start another review item, a literature kit from Memoria Press. These two elements added to her week will be a big burden off of my shoulders. {Why are we always worried our kids aren't "doing enough?"}

Electives: She has not been doing her Art Lessons, and I want her to pick them back up. She does cook and bake often, which I count as home-ec! She loves making jewelry and key-chains {check out her page - KK's Korner - at the top of my blog}, and she even made few bottle-cap magnets!

Books Read: Some of the books she read this month are:
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
The Death Cure by James Dashner
The Eye of Minds: The Mortality Doctrine by James Dashner
Bound for Oregon by Jean van Leeuwan

I would love to hear what your junior high students have been up to this month!

4 comments:

  1. Yes! I am always worried we aren't doing enough!! Sounds like everything is going well though and I think in the end that is what matters.

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  2. Yes, we mamas worry too much. You are doing a fabulous job!!!

    Looking forward to your MP review :)

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  3. Real life examples in math sure do help. Glad she seems to be liking it, for the most part. Looks like she had a good month. Keep it up! Slow and steady! - Lori

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