Middle School Monday

I changed my categories a little bit, to remind myself to write on a somewhat regular basis about what each of the kids are doing.  I certainly don't think I'll make an entry for every child, every week, but hopefully a little more often than what I had been doing.  So this will be my first "Middle School Monday" which will focus on what Spencer is working on.  He is doing some Grade 7 and some Grade 8 work.  One of the things that I love about homeschooling is that a student doesn't need to be held back in everything when one subject is more of a struggle.  Reading, writing, and spelling have not come easy for Spencer, so that is one subject in which he is working on the Grade 7 material.  We also did an odd thing with him and with Harrison a couple years ago - we started the Alpha Omega Lifepacs for Language Arts, but not at the beginning of the school year; we started in second semester!  Needless to say, they didn't finish the entire grade level in just half the school year.  So at the beginning of 2006/2007, Spencer started with the remainder of the Grade 5 Language Arts (Unit 5 or 6 out of 10) and finished that before starting the Grade 6 material.  Therefore, this year he still has two of the Grade 6 units that he is finishing before starting the Grade 7; and I expect that we will be well able to finish the Grade 7 material units by the end of this school year.  If it goes well, I will certainly encourage working ahead into the Grade 8 books and getting a head start on that.  We're in a similar situation with Math.  He's just about finished Saxon 7/6 and although I can tell that he's "rusty" after the summer break, I am planning to give him the placement test before deciding whether we'll do all or just some of 8/7 or perhaps even go straight to Algebra 1/2. 



What We're Using:

Math:   currently finishing  Saxon Math 7/6



Language Arts:  Alpha Omega LifePacs



Social Studies:  Around the World in 180 Days

 

We are not doing this book in the order it's written, which could make it interesting.  I think it will work though - we started at the end of the book so right now we are studying North America.

Science:  God's Design for Heaven and Earth - Our Planet Earth





I haven't really chosen anything specific for electives or arts at this point.  Spencer, along with the other kids, is also in a 16 week co-op gym class which satisfies Phys.Ed. requirements.