Curriculum Choices for the 2016/2017 School Year: 7th Grade

Over the last several days I have shared my curriculum choices for kindergarten, 2nd grade, and 4th and 5th grade.  Today I am sharing my 7th grade curriculum choices for the 2016/2017 school year.


This year is going to be a little different for Alex.  I have always had Alex and Nick together on history and science, but this year Nick is starting high school and will be working independently and Alex will be with all of the younger children for the next two years.  He will also be using a brand new math curriculum this year and going in a different direction for language arts.  My goals for Alex is to improve grammar and writing and to move him towards working more independently.

Math: Alex will be using Teaching Texbooks 7.  We have never used Teaching Textbooks before.  This will be a big change, but I am hoping a good one.  Alex is a visual and auditory learner and I think the video lessons will be good for him.  He also will receive immediate feedback and opportunities to see each problem worked out if he needs to.  Honestly it was hard for me to spend so much money on one subject for one child!  But if it works out well it will be worth it and I can use for some of the other children.  If it doesn't work out well, it has a pretty good resale value :)

Spelling: Alex will continue where he left off last year in IEW's Phonetic Zoo Level B.

Bible/Geography/Science/Art:  Alex will be joining his younger siblings (except Emmie) in My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures.  One of my biggest draws to MFW (besides the fact that it is Christian based) is the ability to use it with a wide range of ages.  We have never done geography specifically, just included mapping with our history, so it will be a little different for all of us.

Science: MFW recommends 7th and 8th graders use Apologia General Science but I am not a fan of that course.  Since the younger children will be using Exploring Creation with Astronomy in addition to MFW science, Alex will be doing that as well.

Language Arts: Alex is the only one of my children who did NOT do well with Fix It! Grammar and I struggled last year to find a Language Arts Curriculum that was a good fit for him.  You would think with all of the products I reviewed I would've found something!  So we are trying something a little different.  He will be using All-In-One English series for grammar, and we will be doing some reports on the countries we are studying in ECC.  I may also use some of IEW SWI A if we need to fill in.

We will also be doing:

IEW Poetry
Family Read Aloud

I am looking forward to a great start to the new year!

Happy Homeschooling!