It’s time to kick off another school year! We’re heading into our 8th year of homeschooling and our oldest is off to 7th grade. Here’s a look at our 7th grade homeschool curriculum choices for history, science, language arts, math, and electives!
7th Grade History and Literature
She’s moving on to the next BookShark level for 7th grade and will be doing level G – World History Year 1 of 2. This is the first year that we are cycling back to explore a time period we already covered. In all honesty, my daughter was not that excited. However, once she looked at the books, she realized that this is a much deeper dive into ancient civilizations. She’s now looking forward to revisiting this era with new books. Yay!
At first glance, many of the read aloud books and readers have an adventure or mystery feel to them which is perfect for her. She just finished reading Illustrated Norse Myths and can’t wait to read more myths from different cultures, so she was thrilled to see Greek Myths. I love that literature is weaved into history with BookShark. This is what really brings history to life and sets this homeschool experience apart from your traditional dry history textbooks.
Related Post – Homeschool History with Engaging Books
7th Grade Science Curriculum
Another moment of honesty, this daughter is not a science kid. She does well with the BookShark science curriculum, but she’s never been all that excited about it. She did BookShark’s science level F last year and was very adamant about NOT doing the experiments. The previous level (E for 5th grade) was pretty heavy with experiments, and we totally slacked off on doing them in 6th grade. This led me down the road of wondering if we should find something different for science.
After much searching, we’re still going to stay with BookShark for level G – Chemistry, Physics, and Biology. I love how this science curriculum touches on several topics throughout the year through a large selection of books. That’s important to both of us. There just doesn’t seem to be a lot of other options that follow a similar format. Once we start getting into high school science, I’ll revisit this and we’ll most likely be switching things up.
All that said… We’re also going to explore other non-curriculum options for learning more about science. Both of my girls will be doing The Curious World of Kitchen Science books – The Biology of a Banana, The Chemistry of Cola, The Physics of Popcorn, and The Math of a Milkshake. I’ll also be looking to see what I can find on Outschool. Perhaps a different approach to science experiments will help her enjoy science more.
My youngest (heading into 4th grade) is definitely a science kid and is super excited for me to throw as many science resources and experiments at her as I can. We’ll see if we can inspire big sis this year!
Language Arts – Writing and Grammar
Last year was our first time using Institute for Excellence in Writing’s Structure and Style writing curriculum. We slacked off on writing for quite some time with her because we were stuck in a curriculum that we both dreaded. When we stitched to Structure and Style, I started both of my girls in the same level. My oldest did so well with it that I need to separate them and have her do the middle school levels. She LOVES words and writing, so it was frustrating to see her struggle with this part of language arts for so long. She has definitely taken off with this program!
Our first introduction to IEW was through their Fix It! Grammar curriculum. We started using it during my oldest’s 4th grade year and she loved it. When something works, it makes sense to keep with it!
Related Post – When it’s Time to Change Curriculum
Math Struggles are Over
We’ll be sticking with Singapore Math for 7th grade math. She struggled with math for so long, but she’s made great progress over the last year or two after using the Thinkster Math tutoring program. Singapore Math is considered an advanced math curriculum, so I’m not too worried about her being on their grade level as long as she’s making strong progress. She started level 5a towards the end of 6th grade and we’ll just keep moving forward.
We’ll also continue introducing math through games, real-life experiences, and online resources. Math clicks for her when she can see it applied to real situations, so I’ll keep finding ways to head down that road.
Related Post – Thinkster Math Program Review
Economics and Leadership
We’ve been fans of the Tuttle Twins children’s book series for years now, so we were thrilled to see them come out with books geared toward middle school and high school kids. Their Choose Your Own Consequence series is just like the old Choose Your Own Adventure books that I loved as a kid. This is a fantastic way to teach the different outcomes of economic policies. We’ll also be using their Guide Book series which includes Logical Fallacies, Inspiring Entrepreneurs, and Courageous Heroes.
Related Post – Making Homeschool Middle School Unique
7th Grade Electives
Foreign language has been one of my biggest regrets in this homeschool experience. I envisioned my kids starting a foreign language in the elementary grades and another one in high school. However, that hasn’t happened. They keep changing their minds on what they want to learn. They’re just not interested for more than a few weeks.
Last year we met a neighbor who is deaf. She can read lips and we can understand her when she speaks, so we’ve been able to communicate with her. Long ago my girls wanted to learn American Sign Language and now they have a great teacher! They’ve been going over there once a week for lessons. It’s the longest they’ve kept interest in learning another language so we’re just going to run with it.
Last year we discovered a fantastic Interior Design Outschool class that meets weekly. This has been such a wonderful experience for her! Aside from learning about the topic and using design software, she’s really come out of her shell and loves to participate and show her work. She’ll continue with this class and we’ll look to Outschool for more classes for our kids’ interests. Save $20 on your first Outschool class!
We also just started volunteering again! Our girls have tagged along in different volunteer opportunities that my husband and I are already involved in, but this time they’re doing something of their own choosing. We found an animal rescue organization that allows kids to work with cats. So, we’ll be cleaning cages and giving the cats some lovin’ once a week.
Related Post – Volunteering as a Family
Whew! I think that covers the big stuff for our 7th grade homeschool curriculum choices. We’ll have a few more local classes for art and music. We do some things here and there but I think at this age it’s best to outsource these classes – at least for our family. What are your favorite resources for homeschooling middle school? Share your tips in the comments!
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