Middle School Curriculum Choices 2020-2021

Mercie is in the 7th grade and is mostly independent this year in her homeschool work. I chose her curriculum based on what worked for my older kids. We are halfway through our school year, and this curriculum is working for Mercie, too!

MATH:

Principles of Mathematics Book 1

My older daughter and son used this curriculum in middle school. We really love it! The textbook is written in a conversational style which makes it easy to understand and read. The math is practical and challenging without being too difficult. She rarely needs my help with it. Next year we will move on to Book 2.

LANGUAGE ARTS:

Learning Language Arts Through Literature, green book

This has also been my favorite language arts program (and believe me, I've tried tons!). It's short, effective, and covers so many areas of language arts - grammar, writing, spelling, literature, and more. Read my unsponsored review from several years ago here. It takes her around ten to twenty minutes to complete a lesson. The only complaint she has is that is has quite a bit of diagramming - and she doesn't like diagramming nor does she see the point in it. Funny because my older daughter loved to diagram sentences! 

HISTORY:
From Adam to Us, by Notgrass

We've used America the Beautiful a few times, so I knew Mercie would love From Adam to Us. She uses the Map Book, Timeline Book, and Student Workbook with it. We have skipped the literature portions so far, but I do want her to start adding those in. It's very well written with lots of beautiful, full color pictures. 

SCIENCE:
Apologia's General Science 

She also really likes this science course and the way it's set up. The Student Notebooking Journal adds so much to the textbook. She has science experiments weekly (and they all use readily available items and don't take long to complete). It's a four-day a week course, so Friday is always her "short" day. 

ART:

Artistic Pursuits Middle School Book 2

She uses this on her own time. I don't assign it to her. She loves to draw and paint so it doesn't take any prodding to get her to work on this! These are the best art books out there, in my opinion. I have written a few reviews here and here if you're interested.

Mercie also reads all the time. I haven't assigned her many books to read this year, but she reads on her own and chooses good books. I did order her a book for Learning Language Arts Through Literature (The Mysterious Benedict Society) so she can complete the Literature Units (we've been skipping those but are coming back to finish them). 

She also has chickens, a goat, dogs, and cats that she takes care of. She just started getting a few eggs from her chickens! She spends a lot of time outdoors doing farm chores, which is great for teenagers. Physical activity is so important, and I'm glad I don't have to force her to exercise! 

She took a selfie with her first egg!

Then she made brownies with it!

She also spends a lot of time with Zeke, which is a blessing to me and to him. She's almost like his second mama! He loves her and she really loves playing with him and helping me take care of him.

What is your 7th grader using this year?

7th Grade Plans 2020-2021

Mercie will be in 7th grade next year, and I've been in full-blown curriculum research mode for a few weeks now! I think I finally have decided what she will be using for her 7th grade homeschool year.

MATH:
She finished Math Lessons for a Living Education 6, and I'm going to continue with Masterbooks. She will use Principles of Mathematics Book 1 this year, and she will use Book 2 next year. Mikaela and Eli both used this curriculum and we really enjoyed it.

LANGUAGE ARTS:
She  used Learning Language Arts Through Literature, the Tan book this year. We decided to continue in this series, and she will be using Learning Language Arts Through Literature, the Green book. The books she will be reading with this course are "The Star of Light" by Patricia Saint John, "Much Ado About Nothing" by Shakespeare, and "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart.

SCIENCE:
Her science course this year will be done independently. She will be using Apologia's General Science course for middle school.

HISTORY:
We will be doing history as a together subject with her 5th and 3rd grade brothers using Mystery of History Volume 1. I've been through this with her older siblings, and it's such a good, solid Bible-based ancient history. We will be using the notebooking pages and challenge cards with it.

ART:
She is using Artistic Pursuits right now and loving it (review coming soon). She will continue in this book until she is finished, and I'll order her another one in the series.

MORNING BASKET:
I'm going to bring our Morning Basket back into our homeschool day! We slowly quit doing it because I had a baby and we were in survival mode! It really does add so much to our lives, though, that I find it very important to bring back.

We will be using Road Trip USA by Confessions of a Homeschooler each morning to gently cover each of the 50 states. I am ordering every state book in the States Alphabet series to read during this time, as well as having map drills, states and capitals drills, and a few hands-on activities.

We will also be reading the Bible during this time. We are currently in Deuteronomy and will continue reading straight through the Bible. I read from the New Living Translation and discuss it.

We will work on scripture memory, memorizing chunks and chapters of scripture.

We will also have a poem a week, like we used to do. The kids loved reading the poem aloud and memorizing it. I usually choose poems based on the seasons or interests of the kids.

I'm also planning to have a read aloud each morning that corresponds with our history lessons. Mystery of History has tons of book suggestions that I will choose from.

Our Morning Basket will probably take around an hour each morning to do.

I'll share what I'm using with my 5th and 3rd graders in a few days!

7th Grade Week in Review: Jan. 11-15, 2016

This week, Mikaela worked on Khan Academy every day. She requested an actual textbook and workbook for math, so after some research, I ordered her The Principals of Mathematics, which is a math book from a Christian perspective. As soon as it gets here, she will begin working in it!

She worked in her Easy Grammar and Daily Grams, as well as her Spelling Time Journal, daily. She did a lot of review of predicate nouns and adjectives.

In science, she read about the planets and the earth's rotation. She drew some pictures and wrote some interesting facts in her Fun-Schooling Journal.

In history, she learned about the Oregon Trail and the difficulties the pioneers faced traveling westward. She is also reading "Bound for Oregon" as part of the literature portion of America the Beautiful. She mapped the Oregon Trail and filled in her timeline.

She has been working on her jewelry and started making these adorable tassel key-chains. We are going to add them to her page {KKs Korner  - look at the top of my blog for her page} soon. Check it out - there are so many cute necklaces she hand crafts.

She has been reading "The Scorch Trials" in her spare time and loves it. She thinks the books are much better than the movies {they are!}, but she still loves the movies.

She has also added some recipes to her Do-It-Yourself Cooking Tips and Ideas book and played around with her Chocolate Pen, making some cute chocolate molds.

 How was your week?

7th Grade Week in Review {January 4 - 8, 2016}

This week in math, Mikaela worked on Khan Academy every day. There were some tough concepts that she had some difficulty with, but she kept trying and worked hard! She also worked several pages in "Are You a Math Genius?" and played a fun fraction dice game!

In language arts, she worked on predicate adjectives in Easy Grammar, did her Daily Grams, well, daily, and worked in her Spelling Time Journal. I can see some improvements with her spelling since she started using this.

She really enjoyed science this week. She read about the universe in "It Couldn't Just Happen!" and used her Fun-Schooling journal to record the information she learned. She was particularly interested in pulsars, and watched some videos on them. I'm glad we have found a science book that she looks forward to reading each day! Best of all, it is from a Creationist point of view!

 

In America the Beautiful, she learned about traveling on a steamboat and about Samuel Morse. She had a fun activity where she had to write a message in Morse Code, and then I had to decode it! It is working out very well dividing the lessons over two days instead of one. She seems to take her time reading and completing her activities.

She is also working through a free hunters education course online.

Mikaela had several outings this week. She went to see a movie with several friends on Saturday night {and their parents!}. Monday, she, Eli, and Mercie went with some of the same friends to watch their rank test in karate {they all passed} and receive their green belts! Tuesday, she went to the mall with a friend and his mom, and they ate at a Hibachi restaurant. Wednesday, she had youth group and today she is going to get a pedicure with my sister! All of this was done in the afternoon or evening, and she didn't miss any school. She starts around 8:30 and is done by lunch every day.

How was your week?

Week in Review: September 14-18, 2015

We completed Unit 8 in Bigger Hearts and Little Hearts this week! Here is a summary of what we did.

Bigger Hearts: Unit 8

In history this week, we read about an Indian called King Phillip and a man named Benjamin Church, and the war that took place between the white men and the Indians. The kids made a wampum belt with purple and white rice:

We added Captain Church and King Phillip to our timelines. These are starting to look really nice!

We defined vocabulary words for this week {wampum, plunder, and sachem}:

In science, we continued reading in our Science in Colonial America book. The kids like listening to this science book. We did an experiment showing the path of light. We read about some the transit of Venus and watched a video on YouTube showing the one in 2012. We then drew the planets in our notebook, and using the NASA website, colored the planets correctly.

Our poem this week was titled A Prayer, and the kids illustrated it:

Our memory verse this week was Proverbs 29:25, "Fearing people is a dangerous trap,  but trusting the Lord means safety." We had some really good discussion on peer pressure and trying to please our friends, versus pleasing God and going against the grain. Our character trait this week was Courage.

They are both still working in Singapore Math and Rod and Staff grammar. They each have devotions they do daily, and Mercie has handwriting. We are doing HOD's spelling lists for Mercie. I found a free e-book, The Modern Speller Book Two for Eli to begin dictation. He likes it a lot better than spelling lists! He really needs to work on his handwriting, so I ordered him Cheerful Cursive. He can write a little in cursive, but I think it will be much easier for him to write in cursive all the time. I also ordered Mercie a copy, so she will learn right along with him.

They both finished their books for Drawn into the Heart of Reading. This program is fantastic, and I have enjoyed watching them get so much from their books.Some of their answers in their workbooks surprise me with the depth of understanding. Mercie read Dolphin Adventure and Eli read Cabin on Trouble Creek, which he loved!

Little Hearts: Unit 8

This week, I stopped our "phonics" lessons and started working on basic letter sounds. We started simple, with A, B, and C. We practiced writing them on the board, played listening games, and tried to sound out "cab". He seemed to have much more fun with this, and his attention span increased to about 15 minutes of lessons. 

He worked on A, B and C in handwriting book, so that gave me a few minutes to practice the sounds with him {without it being "phonics"}.

In math, he practiced counting 1-10 and 10-1. I made some index cards labeled 1-10 for him to put in order, and he did a pretty good job. He gets confused with 6, 7, 8 and 9, even though we've been working on them for a few weeks. He is getting much better at forming and writing numbers.

 He also practiced his shapes - square, triangle, rectangle, and circle. He already knows these, but it was good practice to trace and draw them. I even had some shape buttons that I had him sort {no circles}.

He memorized Psalms 56:3, "When I am afraid, I will trust in You." We talked about being afraid, and how God is always with us to help us.

He made a tambourine to celebrate with singing and instruments, just as David did with the Ark of the Covenant was brought back to Jerusalem.

He also had to use his "wisdom" to guess items in a paper bag just by feeling them. I put a paintbrush, feather, crayon and pair of scissors in the bag. 

God's Design for the Human Body: Eli's extra science

I don't feel like the science in Bigger Hearts is sufficient for a 5th grader, so he has been going through this book for the past month or so. He read about the digestive system this week, and had to label the parts:

 He also read about taste buds, and had to label them by color.

 He enjoys this book, and he is always telling us really cool facts about the human body.

7th grade week in review: Mikaela

Mikaela had a good week this week. I didn't get many pictures, because her work is mainly independent. She is almost through with Book 3 in Key to Fractions. In Easy Grammar, she is finding the predicate adjectives and direct objects in sentences. I love how they teach to mark out the prepositional phrases first. It helps so much in finding the other parts of speech.

She had some writing assignments in her Spectrum workbook, and worked in her Art book. She had several science experiments this week; one was on buoyant force. In history, she continued working in her America the Beautiful curriculum. As I said before, this is one of her favorite parts of homeschooling.

She finished reading The Little White Horse for Drawn into the Heart of Reading. We start our project next week! 

So, we had a productive and busy week!

7th grade Week In Review: August 31- September 4, 2015

Mikaela had a very creative and productive week this week!

In History {America the Beautiful by the Notgrass Company}, she had to make a Pocahontas Museum. She did a really good job! She had 10 exhibits to make, but I'll only show you a few.

"Pocahontas would take corn and furs to John Smith, who at the time lived at Jamestown."

"Pocahontas changed her religion to Christianity..."

Pocahontas's baby boy.

She has mapping and timeline activities almost every day, and a lesson review and activity every day. We are only on her third week of this curriculum, but she loves it! It is such a great and thorough curriculum, and she can do it mostly independently. She reads a lesson each day, and then a passage in We The People, which is a collection of documents, songs, stories, poems, and articles from the past. She also has a "Thinking Biblically" section each day, where she looks up scriptures and applies it to her lesson. There are at least 5 extra activities listed for each lesson, and while you don't have to do all of them, she usually does because she loves them. Here are a few examples of her timeline and maps {which is ongoing}.

For science, {Science in the Ancient World by Jay Wile}, she had some more experiments. We did a cool one Wednesday. She had to put vinegar and baking soda into a 2-liter bottle. We lit a candle, and then turned the bottle sideways, being careful not to spill any, and the gas caused the candle to go out! We did it several times because it was so neat.

In math, she is still adding and subtracting, multiplying and diving fractions. She is on the third book in the Key to Fractions series. She is getting a little tired of fractions, but she could probably do them in her sleep now, and that was my goal!

For grammar, she is using Easy Grammar Plus, and finding direct objects, adverbs, and prepositional phrases like a pro.

She is continuing in Spectrum Writing 7. She loves to write, and this twice weekly workbook is just perfect. It's not too much, but it keeps her creative juices flowing while giving her some direction and teaching her rules. I don't worry too much about her spelling errors, because that is her weakness and I want her to enjoy writing. I did correct them on one of her writing assignments and made her re-write it.

She is doing great in art, and her drawing has improved.

We just started Drawn into the Heart of Reading this week, and boy are we loving it! It is such a fun, easy reading program.

I didn't take pictures of her workbook {some of the questions are personal}, but she did have an activity today. She had to draw a cover for her book to make people want to read it. She did a great job {and yes I know she misspelled 'manor.}

I am so proud of her for being so motivated. We have found curriculum that works for her, allows her to have her independence, and is teaching her so much.