Seventh Grade {The Plan}

With all the schools and homeschools starting up I feel like I'm a little late with this post.  It took all summer to finalize plans, figure out books and curriculum.  Last year was our first full year and we both learned a lot. This year is bringing some significant changes.

The first big change is  Classical Conversations.  I am super excited about this opportunity for Zippy.  She is going to take both Foundations and Essentials.  She is technically a year past the end of these two programs but I believe that is just what she needs to completely catch up, especially with writing.  I am grateful that our campus is allowing her to do this. My goal and expectation is that she will be ready to do eighth grade work at the end of this school year. 

I've always been drawn to a Christian Classical education, but felt it was a bit daunting for Zippy with her distractabiltiy.  So many of the things that I've seen are right up her alley like using songs to memorize information.  So many of the pedagogical ideas really fit into my idea of what education should be.  

The second big change is I am getting a job.  I hoped this would already be done, but, alas I am still in training for just a little while more.  When the job happens schedules will be massaged.  My plan is definitely not set in stone.

Spelling:  All About Spelling - Zippy is up to book 4, I would like to be done with all 6 by the end of this year.  As I've said before this program has been the single most significant thing in remediating Zippy education.  

Grammar:  Classical Conversation's Essentials program

Writing: Institute for Excellence in Writing, Style and Structure and History Based Writing Lessons.

Math: Saxon 7/6

Science: Apoligia Astronomy

Social Studies:  Using the Classical Conversations as a spine, Zippy is using The Story of the World as a text and filling in timeline and geography from the Classical Conversations memorization work.

Music, Art and PE: There is some music and art in the Classical Conversations, and we will fit it in  as we can.

I will also continue my reviews for the TOS Review Crew at least through December, so we will fit that in as well

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Looking Forward

Ok, ok I know that they new year starts tomorrow, but, for me and Zippy it feels like today is the beginning of the new year.  That is because today starts a brand new day for us in homeschooling.  We are starting a whole new course of study. 

I took a hard look at where we are.  Here is the truth, I was trying to make her perform - or catch up to - where others say she is supposed to be performing.  She was in sixth grade last year so she should be doing seventh grade this year, right?  The answer is definitely no.  She is working at a sixth grade level this year and in some subjects even lower.  When we put her in school, her birthday was two days before the cut off date, so she would either be the youngest in her grade or we could hold her back and she would be the oldest.  We took a little bit of a gamble and put her in young.  I always had it in the back of my mind that I had a year of grace. 

The year of grace is here.  This is it.  The beginning of this year was an adjustment period.  Her adjustment and mine.  We know what we need to do.  We know where we need to go.  We are going to focus on those things that are necessary: reading, writing, spelling, math.  The other things, science, social studies, and specials will find a place within the framework.

Here is the plan

Spelling - All About Spelling
Reading - Using the novel Worldwalk by Steven Newman, we will work on comprehension with questions, and fluency by practice.  There is also a big geography component to this book that we will be using as well.
English/Grammar/Writing - I am putting together a straight forward "boot camp" approach to bring her up to where she needs to be, I'm calling it a Language Lab. 
Math - Time4Learning - 6th grade -
Science - Apologia, and Handbook of Nature Study with the direction of the Handbook of Nature Study Outdoor Challenges from the Handbook of Nature blog {because, frankly, we need to get out of the house once a week}. 
Social Studies - This Day in History by Schoolhouse Teachers.  She will be starting an index card timeline. 

Well that is it.  The Plan.  Not completely set in stone, but a good starting place.  I am letting go of the stress of the judgement and expectation of others.  From here, this new starting place, this beginning, of the year, of the plan, from here we can move forward with purpose.   

What plans do you have for the New Year?  Any change ups for the second half of the school year?  I love comments.  Leave one and let me know what are your plans.

 

Schoolhouse Teachers - A Review

I am tickled pink to share with you a review of the website www.schoolhouseteachers.com.  This website is a fantastic resource for the homeschooling family.  SchoolhouseTeachers.com is owned by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine .  The price for this wonderful resource is only $5.95 per month.  There are so many great member benefits and bonuses.  Please check out all the extras on the schoolhouse.com sign up page.  My personal favorite bonus is the free planners, including the Big Mama planner with over 800 pages of planning goodness.

My first impression of schoolhouseteacher.com was: Wow there is a lot here. The content is deep, but it is also wide. They have lessons, created by expert teachers, for pre-k through high school for everything from the 3Rs to guitar.   I like that they have lessons not only for many different subjects but also in a variety of time frames.  They have lessons available monthly, weekly and daily.  The best thing is though, the lessons are ready to teach right away.  They also have an archive of past month's lessons as well. 

We jumped right in with weekly geography lessons, and daily writing and daily grammar.  The geography was great for us because it filled in a gap in our curriculum.  It is organized in a topic per month with weekly lesson plans.  December's topic is Industrial England at the beginning of the 19th century.  In fact this topic gave us a great jumping off point for reading The Christmas Carol.  I absolutely love the interactive nature of the printable maps and the easy to follow directions.

The daily writing and grammar is great because it really took a load off of my shoulders. For the daily lessons I simply print off the one page worksheet for both writing and grammar.   Zippy does them, we discuss.  This gives me more time teaching and less time re-inventing the wheel.

I would highly recommend this website for any homeschooling family.  The tag line says it the best, "Everything you need, for a full program or to fill in some curricular gaps."

Find more great reviews of SchoolhouseTeachers.com on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog:  http://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/786859

Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.