Curriculum Replace: seventh Grade and fifth Grade

We started the year off with this set up and schedule. We got about a month under our belts and realized some aspects were working well and others just… weren’t. But one of the perks of homeschool is getting to pivot when you need to, so that’s just what we did. First through, let’s start with what was and is working well for us!

What’s Working in our Homeschool

• Shorter lessons, more subjects. It almost feels criminal that I made them do an hour of math each day last year (though I’d argue it was effective). 30 minutes of math and other “core subjects” like language arts and science is much more manageable and gives us time for all the “extras” that we often neglected before.
• The “extras.” Quotations around extras because they aren’t superfluous by any means, but often we would push these things to the back burner. However, we’ve now incorporated handicrafts, bible study, art study, poetry, memory work, nature study, and composer study into our weekly lessons. We also have read aloud as a staple in our daily routine instead of a fun bonus we hoped to get to. This is making our days feel really enjoyable and the time flies by.
• Online grading for math. We still LOVE Nicole the Math Lady and Saxon, and I’m really glad I opted for online grading this year. Both kids thrive on the immediate feedback. We are going slower now that we are not skipping over parts (like practice problems or mental math fast facts) but I feel like it’s really helping nail down the concepts and the kids are both doing really well with math. So am I, if you’re interested- ha! I’ve become quite competent in improper factions, factors, exponents, complementary and supplementary angles, and so on and so forth. Thanks, Nicole 😉
• World News Watch. With the girls being 13 and 10, I have been wanting to find a way to talk more about things going on in the world (in an age appropriate way). Enter- World News Watch, a daily 10 minute video episode about happenings in the world through a Christian world view. So far from what I’ve seen, I feel they do a wonderful job of sharing facts about hard hitting news (Helene damage, Iran attacking Israel), and balancing it out with interesting stories of people doing amazing things from around the world.

What Wasn’t Working and What We Switched to

• Cover Story (creative writing for my 7th grader)– I had high hopes of this curriculum with a journal and magazine writing being a fun choice. Maybe it was just us but we never could get into a good flow with it and H was just not engaged; her eyes would gloss over each time. We switched to The Well Trained Mind’s Creative Writer, Level One (for 6th-9th graders) and it’s SO good. Quality literature, open and go format, and best of all, it makes sense to her and is teaching great concepts. She opted to spend an extra hour after school yesterday on her own accord working on a short story she’s been writing in order to incorporate these new concepts. I think that says it all!
• Bravewriter (for my 5th grader)– K loved the topic (Encyclopedia Brown) but I just could not get in a groove with the teaching. I felt like it bounced all over the place. I was unclear on how much to introduce each day. It felt clunky and ineffective for us. I switched her to The Well Trained Mind’s Writing with Ease Level Three (with both Workbook and Student Pages). And… also love it. Simple instruction, taught with quality literature, open and go. The dictation has been particularly helpful in our case.
• Doing language arts at the same time. Language arts probably sounds like a bit of a jumble, but we actually have a great system. Every other day we do writing for each girl, something I have to be hands on for, so the child I’m not working with during this time does a Synthesis Tutor lesson. On the other days, we do First Language Lesson Level Four together, then split into IEW’s Fix It Grammar (have used and loved for H for years) and All About Spelling (for K).
• Geography– I realized our Beautiful Feet Geography books are all in storage somewhere. Instead of alternating geography and science, we are doing Weather Science. I’m supposed to teach this in our new co-op at the beginning of the calendar year so I’m considering this a dry run and am making notes on what is working and what isn’t. So far I really enjoy the book, but the experiments have been duds.

Our Homeschool Schedule

I *** Thursday because soon this will be our co-op day. However, for now we are doing our lessons Monday-Thursday and Friday is a more relaxed/fun day. We might do a craft or writing or watch Mystery science or work on a personal passion project or field trip it somewhere.

Current Homeschool Favorites

A few items currently helping our homeschool days to run smoothly and effectively.