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Monday, January 18, 2021

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:



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:



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! 



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. 



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:


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?

5 comments:

  1. My 6th grader is using From Adam to Us and it is a great curriculum. I am thinking we might do America the Beautiful next year with her. I agree- lots of physical activity makes a difference in kids this age.

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    1. My older two kids used America the Beautiful and loved it. I just love all of the bright, colorful images in the books.

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  2. So glad to hear you are enjoying Notgrass History!

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  3. Learning Language Arts through Literature is also our favorite - we've used it with all 8 of our children. And Apologia Sciences too :) Looks like a good line up for your 7th grader!

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    1. That's encouraging! Apologia Science is the best for middle and high school.

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