Homeschool 7th Grade {Curriculum Picks}

We are largely staying the course, so to speak, and savoring this season. Someone recently mentioned the sweet spot between diapers & driving- life is sweet, by that definition! The “baby” potty trained this summer, and we have a few years till the oldest gets behind the wheel. I’m acutely aware of the speed at which these kids are growing, and there are certainly micro-stages within this sweet spot. But here we are, scaffolding into independence bit by bit and leaning into new interests. Our nine year spread from firstborn to last is tricky, but I’m striving to “lay down the rails” as Charlotte Mason would say, for hopefully smoother days as the littlest one ages.

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Family and Independent Reading

Still finding our groove with family read alouds with a super self-focused preschooler underfoot. It’s a process, and a worthy fight. I find myself strewing more books around the house and missing our connection time of shared reading. We read a lot of books independently and then chat about them (with some required overlap thanks to co-op book club). I’m lining up our book club picks now as I lead that at book club co-op (more on that below).

Language Arts

• Essentials in Writing. We had success with this last year for grammar and composition. Short daily video lessons and a page or two of connected work; as the course goes on, the writing assignments become more involved.
• Touch Type Read Spell. Second year with this program. It checks multiple boxes, which I am all about! Spelling and dictation along with typing, taught with the Orton-Gillingham approach. My son is not a natural speller, so the methodical approach is great for him. I also love that you can add customized spelling lists for content we’re studying (geography/history terms, etc.). You can use the code LIBRARIAN for my 10% affiliate discount.
• Writing with Hobbits from Compass Classroom. We’re going to give this a shot, though my son is at the young end of the recommended age. I believe his deep interest in all things Tolkien/LOTR will push him over the hump. Though this is a writing course, I’m viewing it as a literature analysis type course, and I won’t put as much emphasis on the writing assignments. I’m pumped to listen in as well, as the teacher is a favorite author of ours, Jonathan Rogers.
• Copywork/dictation– weekly passages taken from Tolkien & other texts of interest; we’ll be using quotes from Learning Cursive with The Hobbit, too.
• Narration of texts required from co-op (Story of the World and science textbooks)
• Night Zookeeper. (online writing, grammar, spelling practice) My son has been enjoying this on his own this summer, but I suspect that his more pressing independent work will crowd it out. It’s not a must in my eyes, but I renew the subscription because he enjoys it. (My 5th grader even more so! I wish I had found this when my kids were in earlier elementary school as they have really enjoyed it the last few years. My full review here.)
• Book Club. This is run through our co-op, meeting about every 3 weeks for a student-driven discussion organized around a set of guiding questions. Students come prepared with 2 discussion questions from our master list (along with their answers). Our novels are often tied into our history cycle, but not always. On the short list currently: Charlie Thorne and The Curse of Cleopatra; The Outsider: Ruth, a Retelling; Twice Freed; Archer’s Quest; The Bronze Bow; Thieves of Ostia.
• Poetry Teatime. Bringing this back to life shouldn’t be difficult if I promise treats will be served! I’ll be using The Music of the Hemispheres to guide us in looking deeper at poetry this year, and seasonal poems from Exploring Nature with Children.

Math

Right Start Math. My son started level G midyear last year, and wow- I’m so impressed with this program! We have been with RSM since the *start* in kindergarten. 🙂 Level G switches its format and becomes student self-study. The text is written to the student, and it builds in self assessment: the student rates himself after completing the lesson, then checks his work, and finally gives a revised rating based on that feedback. We love how hands-on it is, integrating drawing tools and baking in computation within the work rather than as drills. As always, the online supports are so helpful when he hits a snag, and there are optional video lessons you can subscribe to if the student needs more modeling.

Co-Op Subjects

• Science

I’m teaching grades 5-8 science at our co-op this year. I’m melding two components that homeschool moms a few steps ahead of me have recommended as important for preparing for high school: self study and lab report writing. For self-study, students will be completing reading, activities/experiments, and reflection questions for Science in the Ancient World. I have full confidence both of my boys can handle this; the self-study portion will be the most challenging aspect- planning time, organizing materials, cleaning up 🙂

For our classroom time at co-op, we will be using Layers of Learning’s “What Is Science” unit to lay a foundation and then the kids will be researching & writing experiment proposals to be completed together. They’ll take turns leading the class through their chosen experiment and we will all do lab report write-ups.

Besides science, co-op will share the burden of many subjects. What a beautiful thing it is to have other moms pouring their gifts into subjects that bless our family!

• History: Story of the World (volume 1 Ancient)
• Logic: The Fallacy Detective
• Art & Music. These subjects will be taught lining up with our history cycle, using Layers of Learning (art) and Beautiful Feet (music)
• Geography. We use the Kathy Troxel geography songs to structure our geography studies, and we learn about each region/country as we go.
• Memory. I’ve selected several poems and scripture passages for the kids to memorize together and perform for our end of year capstone. Here’s my post listing all the things we’ve memorized in the past and upcoming.
• Nature Study. We have a group of families that meet outdoors weekly in all weather. Free play is a given, and we will train our eyes to observe the beauty of God’s creation as well. We are planning to return to Nature Journaling from previous years.

This is the time of year when I wonder how it will all come together, what will be left to the wayside, and what we might pick up along the way. I know my boys are leaning into hobbies, and as a family we are focusing on naming and pursuing things that bring us joy. Per my 7th grader’s feedback, that will include pickleball, archery, and Warhammer Lord of the Rings miniatures. 🙂

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