The homeschool curriculum choices blog posts are great, but what I really want to know is what families thought AFTER they used the curriculum they chose! I will be sharing a series of posts with you; evaluating our choices in each grade level and our group subjects.
First up, 7th grade! Here’s a reminder of the original 7th Grade Curriculum Choices post.
Overall it was a very successful year for my son, despite many interruptions to our homeschool schedule. Everything went crazy a few months into the school last year when my husband fell off of a ladder and broke both legs 6 weeks before we were moving. Needless to say, that affected our homeschooling greatly. Even with the crazy, he did really well and made it through all of these subjects.
Below I will give a small review of each subject, if you have more specific questions about anything, just leave me a comment and I will do my best to answer!
Science ~ Apologia General Science
He did this subject mostly on his own, with guidance and leadership from his Dad. Daddy manages science and math in our house now for the boys. They both felt this was a solid science program and have chose to complete the 2nd portion {Physical Science} for 8th grade.
The experiments were his favorite part…
Math ~ Teaching Textbooks Pre Algebra
This was a big success for our son. I can’t say he loves it, because it is a lot of work, but he likes it better than other math curriculums he has used. We will be continuing on with Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1 for 8th grade.
Math ~ Life of Fred Fractions
He loved this book, but this is the only one he completed {meaning I didn’t buy anymore beyond this}. Originally I planned to use the whole Pre Algebra series, but after the first we decided not to buy the rest. If someone gave us these books we might continue to use them, I just decided not to pay for more at this time.
Reading
We were SO slack with reading this year! He read The Bronze Bow, Hittite Warrior, I Am David and The Hiding Place. I let him choose books and read at his own pace. These were the books I had borrowed from a friend for him to choose from. Sadly I had to return them when we moved, so he didn’t get through all of them as I had planned.
I wanted to see what his pace would be without a strict curriculum guiding us. His pace was a little slower than I would like. I decided we both need more of a guided reading program so I bought Sonlight’s American Historical Literature 130 for 8th grade {bought the manuals, will be getting books at the library}. He already read the first two books {Peace Child, and Stink Alley}.
Grammar ~ Growing with Grammar 7
This is a good fit for both of us. He doesn’t love grammar, but said he prefers this program if he HAS to do grammar. We will be continuing on with this program with level 8.
Writing ~ Write Shop 1
Slacker. That’s me. We got through 3 lessons done, yup 3. I got very overwhelmed with real life {my husband’s accident and our move} and writing was pushing me over the edge. So, we quit. I do love this curriculum and we will be picking up right where we left off and hopefully NOT giving up this year.
Vocabulary & Comprehension ~ Vocabulary Connections G
I like this workbook, he does not. He completed it and was very thankful to be done. I am not requiring him to do a vocabulary workbook for 8th grade, he will be focusing on vocabulary through his reading with Sonlight.
Spelling ~ Spelling Workout G
He did not like this spelling book and honestly neither did I. Many of the words were words I have never heard of and didn’t know how to pronounce {maybe that shows my intelligence level?}, but even when my husband took this subject over in the spring, he said it was an obscure word list. We will not be using this again and will instead use the spelling list in Sonlight.
Bible/Worldview ~ Who is God?
We basically just read this book together. We both enjoy it, but have no plans to purchase the rest at this point. If they were given to us we would definitely use them, it’s a budget thing right now.
Stay tuned, I will be sharing our year-end review for 3rd grade, Kindergarten and our All Together subjects. I will also be sharing our curriculum choices for 8th grade, 4th grade, 1st grade and All Together subjects.
