As the last born of the family, my youngest has the advantage of a relaxed homeschool mom. I've experienced more than my share of both hits and misses over the years and realize that a great education doesn't require me to find the "perfect" curriculum, the "perfect" schedule, or the "perfect" plan. (Spoiler alert: in the realm of homeschooling, "perfect" only exists on Instagram.)
I've been doing this thing for 16 years now and know full well that a successful homeschool year has less to do with what resources/materials a child uses and more to do with how faithfully he uses them. Steadfastness will move the academic needle far more than any spectacularly impressive program ever will.
That said, here's what my 7th grader will be using this year. Since we only homeschool 4-days a week, you can assume that each of these subjects will be covered only four times each week unless otherwise indicated. An asterisk signifies a new-to-him or new-to-me resource.
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Content-rich Subjects
As always, he'll do all of his content-rich subjects like Morning time/Bible, history, Civics, and sign language with his older siblings. You can see those curriculum choices here>>>
Personal Devotions- every day
Language
- LLATL Green Book (Use coupon code unlikelyhomeschool at checkout to get 15% off your entire purchase from Common Sense Press, the makers of LAHTL.)
- Finish All About Spelling level 5 and begin level 6.
- Read for pleasure. (every day)
- Read the following books that correspond with the LLATL Green Book: The Star of Light and The Mysterious Benedict Society.
- If he's not currently working through an LLATL suggested book, he will read a chapter from a book that I assign to him. These will be classics, biographies, or exceptional fiction.
Math
Science
In the elementary and middle school years, I think it's important to plan content-oriented subjects with delight in mind. I typically go through a series of questions with my kids to help them determine what they want to learn and/or learn more about. Since his two remaining older brothers will be doing distance learning for science this year, I let my youngest son choose the topic he most wanted to explore with me. He selected astronomy.
Normally, I would put together a homespun living literature unit around the selected topic. Unfortunately, after scouring the internet, I did not find many Creation-based living books that are age-appropriate. So, we will be trying something completely new for him and learning science through a textbook. I think, in the end, it will be a good introduction to the more robust style of learning that he'll be introduced to in 8th grade when I begin to transition all of my kids over to a more traditional approach to science study in order to give them a soft-year before having to keep grades for a high school transcript.
Exploring Creation with Astronomy*—I plan to treat this as a read-aloud that we will take turns reading to each other.
Astronomy Notebooking Journal*—This is a prefabricated Charlotte Mason-style notebook that includes science project instructions, notebooking sections, word puzzles, and copywork that corresponds to what he will be learning in the textbook. Because copywork is included, I will not be assigning him a separate handwriting/copywork resource.
World View
- Who am I? and What am I Doing Here?- I highly recommend every single title in this four-volume What We Believe series!
Life Skills/Extra-Curricular Subjects
- Play tackle football within our local district this fall.
- Enjoy some downhill skiing with his dad and older brothers this winter. (1x a week through the winter months)
- Volunteer at the local soup kitchen with the rest of the family. (1x a month)
- Clean his room and make his bed each day.
- Daily chores: sweep the kitchen, sweep the living room and vacuum the area rug, and empty all the bedroom and bathroom trash cans.
- Weekly Chores for his child-of-the-day privileges and responsibilities: help make lunch/dinner, do two loads of laundry, wash the dishes on Fridays
- Monthly Chores: dust the main floor with his siblings, mop the kitchen, mop the living room, plus randomly select and complete two chores from our chore jar one Saturday each month
- Feed the neighbors' cat when they are away.
Co-operative Learning
His first-semester co-op classes will be as follows:
- United States Military
- Architectural History
His second-semester co-op classes are yet to be determined.
This boy of mine keeps me on my toes. He's high energy with a love for sports, people, and sports that include people. I can't wait for another year of learning alongside him.
The family subjects link takes you to 2021-2022 choices. Just so you know. 😊
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