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SEVENTH GRADE CURRICULUM PICKS 2024-2025 | HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM CHOICES
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Jun 19, 2024
Chatty video about my 7th grade homeschool curriculum choices for the 2024-2025 school year. What we're using, and my *rough* thoughts on how all this is going to fit into our daily homeschool rhythm in the fall. MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO: ⭐ My Father's World Curriculum ($25 off) — https://blessedhomeschool.com/mfw ⭐ Essentials in Writing — https://essentialsinwriting.com/ ⭐ Latin Curriculum — https://id.memoriapress.com//idevaffiliate.php?id=272 VIDEOS YOU MIGHT LIKE: What is CTCMath?: https://youtu.be/opycTf5Y-LQ Science Shepherd Review: https://youtu.be/e61DXE4wKU4 My Father's World Unboxing: https://youtu.be/xm82anBaxr8 ********************************************* Hey there! I’m Sara, and I’m a teacher-turned-homeschooling mom to 4 kiddos (including a set of twins!). I balance homeschooling while working full-time from home, and am so thankful you are here. I love sharing about homeschooling on my blog, Blessed Homeschool, where you’ll find tips, resources, and curriculum reviews. Whether you are a newbie or a veteran, I hope you will leave inspired and equipped with what you find.
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Hey guys, welcome back to my channel for another video. My name is Sarah. Today I am going to be sharing with you all of the seventh grade curriculum choices that I've made for my oldest son next year. So if you have a seventh grader that you're going to be homeschooling and you are curious about what we're using, want to see some different materials. I hope you'll enjoy this video
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I absolutely cannot believe that I am going to have a seventh grader
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next year. My oldest son, he's the one that I've been homeschooling since the beginning. So we started
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homeschooling when he was going into kindergarten. And I've been homeschooling him since then. Following him
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are his twin sisters who are 10, so they will be in sixth grade next year. And then I will have my
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youngest son in kindergarten. So that's kind of the age range of kids that I'm homeschooling next year
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And today we're just going to be talking about seventh grade, though. What am I doing for my seventh grader
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these years go by so fast, don't they? If you've been doing this for a while like me
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you can probably relate. But it feels like just yesterday we were getting started with this
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whole homeschooling thing, trying to figure out if it was what we were supposed to be doing
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what curriculum were we going to use, what are all the rules that I have to follow. And now, you know, we're definitely still figuring things out year to year
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But it has just been such a blessing. And I'm really excited for this next year
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I'm excited about the curriculum that we're going to be using and just to continue this journey with my son
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As I've gotten all of our curriculum in and started making choices, I've been working on kind of a schedule for how ideally in my mind
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things are going to look next year with our routine and just our daily homeschool flow
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So I've got it on paper. Most of you guys have been doing this for a while, probably know
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It rarely will end up going perfectly how I'm envisioning it. and we will probably make some changes
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But this is just how my brain works. So as I've been thinking through the curriculum
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I want to know how it's, how it's going to fit into our day, giving my son that independent time that he wants
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and allowing him to get his work done, work on the things that he likes to do
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but also making time for the things we're going to do together as a family
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especially with my youngest son, who will be in kindergarten next year
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coming in, and there's going to be some things that he will be doing with us
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as well. So if you guys see me looking down, I'm just kind of referencing my notes here because I don't
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want to leave anything out. All right. So thinking through our kind of rhythm or our schedule for next
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year, ideally what I want to do, especially since we're having my younger one, more with us next year
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is we, I'm envisioning more of a morning time where we come together and we are working on things
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together like our Bible memory work, our catechism work. We enjoy watching Robots News. So right now we do
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that over lunchtime, but I'm envisioning that more as our morning time work. Any kind of read aloud
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that my youngest son has in his kindergarten curriculum, that will kind of take place in the morning
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time. And then we are using, this is for all my kids, but you know, my seventh grader, we're going to
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using creation to the Greeks from my father's world. So this curriculum covers a lot of different
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subjects. So there is a Bible portion. There's history. There's science recommendations, art
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and some read aloud. So there are parts of this that we will kind of pull and do in the morning
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So any of the Bible portion of this, any of the Bible memory work, we're going to do kind of
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of in the morning portion of our homeschool and that'll be for my seventh grader and then my sixth
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grade girls are going to be doing this along with us as well. We used to do this a lot when my
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older kids were younger, which is why I'm thinking about it again as my youngest is going to be in
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kindergarten. And as I've gotten older and more independent, we have kind of gotten away from
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that morning time. And I really miss it. I like, you know, just coming together to start the day
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in prayer and just to do some of those things together as a family. I think it gets the day off to a
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really good start. So ideally, I want to start implementing that again next year in the morning
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So then after the morning time, this is when I'm going to be working with my kindergartner
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And so my seventh grader is going to be able to do the independent work. And of course, my sixth
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graders as well. For independent work, that is going to include math. So what are we doing for math for seventh grade
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If you guys have been following me for a while, it should be no surprise that we are going to be using CTC math
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And the plan is so right now my son is actually in the seventh grade work with CTC math So what I love about this program one of the things that I love is when you purchase the family membership you have access to all grades
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You don't have to purchase a new curriculum for every grade level. So your child can work seamlessly
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between different grade levels if they need to. And that means they can work ahead or if they need to go back and review concepts
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they can do that as well. So right now my son is working through seventh grade
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material or the seventh grade lesson plans. And the plan is to have him finish up with their
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eighth grade portion next year when he is in seventh grade. And so he'll finish up
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he'll probably end about halfway through seventh grade. So he will continue working on the
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seventh grade step and then move on to eighth grade with the goal of finishing that eighth grade work
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by the end of seventh grade. And then the reason for that, well
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For one, that's just the level that he's working at right now. But the benefit of that will be when he's an eighth grade
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he can begin working on algebra, which will then count not only, you know, for his math for eighth grade
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but I can count that as a high school credit. So, and again, this isn't, you know, this is an option
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This is something that, you know, that you can do depending on, and if your child is working at that level or not
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And this is just where we're at. So, and it could change. He could get into the eighth grade
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material and it might take him a while and it might be harder for him. So we're going to kind of play
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it by ear. That is what my plan is, but we will see how it goes. All right. So also as part of the
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independent work, my son is going to be using essentials in writing for his writing curriculum this
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year. So with essentials and writing, and I showed this during one of my unboxing videos, this is
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an online program. So he will have lessons online. He will log in
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Watch the lessons. This is the activity book that comes with it. So he will have work to complete
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as he goes through each lesson. And I'm really excited about this. I love how the workbook looks
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I think it's going to be really easy for him to follow, really easy for me to kind of help him with it
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And it also came with a teacher handbook. And then this is an assessment and resource book that you can choose to use
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So these are all part of the curriculum. And what I love about this writing curriculum, what really appeal to me is that the lessons are very systematic
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They are step by step and they focus on small daily assignments so that the kids don't get overwhelmed
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And I find that that works really well for my son to focus on kind of one part at a time, really hone those skills and then work on kind of pulling all those pieces together
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And the other thing that they offer is a scoring service, which I'm not going to lie, it was a little bit pricey, but I took advantage of it
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And with this scoring service, you are allowed to basically submit one of your child's final compositions from each of the compositions of their writing
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So one of their final pieces to the essentials and writing scoring service
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And students then they will receive a rubric with their work graded
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and they also get, I think it's a paragraph from whoever scores it that will tell them what they did
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well, tell them what they need to improve. And so it's just, you know, another person that's going to be
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giving feedback on their writing. And I think this is going to be really good for my son just to
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hear that feedback from somebody else and hear that direction and know that somebody else is going to be
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seeing this writing and it's not just me. And I think that's going to help encourage him to
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just put a little bit more focus into his writing. So I'm really looking forward to utilizing
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that service. And then also in that independent work, we are going to be using essentials in
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literature for our literature curriculum next year. So essentials in writing offers literature
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curriculum for seventh and eighth graders. So it came with, again, this workbook, they are
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video lessons, but it came with a workbook that the kids can use to follow along. It came with
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a teacher handbook. And then it also came with this book, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. So again
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kind of the same reasons. I like that this is something that he's going to be able to work on independently. And it'll be easy for me to kind of follow along and follow up on his work
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step by step slow approach to yzing literature, which is something that I'm not super great at
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So again, this will be another piece of his independent work that he will be doing
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kind of in that early late morning portion of our homeschool day All right And then for science So right now we are using Science Shepard We using the physical science and we loving it I mentioned that in a couple of other videos So we are going to get about
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a third of the way through this program, probably by the end of the year. And so next year
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we're going to pick up and just finish the rest of it. I'm not sure yet if we're going to
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continue it over the summer or if we're just going to take a break and then pick it back up in the fall
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So we are going to finish that. Again, that's another class that you can do independently. The video lessons are short. There is a corresponding workbook to go through. And you guys should check out my video on my Science Shepard review if you're interested in learning more about that. But that's what we're going to do for his science, at least for the first part of the year. After we finish up with Science Shepard, because that's not going to take us the whole year. Then I'm going to have to figure out what we're going to do after that
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So we could continue with Science Shepard, which, you know, that is the possibility
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Before we started using Science Shepard, I had purchased the My Father's World Curriculum
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Creation to the Greeks. And what they recommended for seventh grade was actually this program right here
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science in the Atomic Age, and this is from Brean Builders. And I've had this recommended to me from a few friends as well saying that the Brea and Builders
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is a great option for science. And so we'll have to see what I decide
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It's not an online program, which I know he enjoys that. But flipping through this and looking through what it covers, it looks like a really great curriculum
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And what I like about it, it kind of seems to pick up with some of the things that he's doing in physical science right now
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So it looks like it's going to cover some of the things that he is learning, which is going to
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be a good review and then it kind of takes things a little bit further and there are some new things
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in here that kind of build off of what he's learning now he hasn't had a curriculum yet where he has
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had a like a book where he's kind of had to go through and read and kind of follow on his own and
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that's what they kind of recommend starting in seventh grade that the kids start to get a little
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bit more independent with that obviously i would be here to help him out answer if there are any questions and things like that but kind of in my mind I'm just
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wondering if it would be a good transition to try this out afterwards but we'll have to see when we get
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there I'm not I'm not sure this looks like it'd be a great curriculum to me but I also want to make
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sure that you know he is learning in a way that he enjoys learning where he's really going to soak it in
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the best and so I'm going to hold on to this and then I've got a few months and I'll make that decision
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once we get there, what we're going to do for science for the rest of the year. But just in case you're curious, you know, it comes with this, this book
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It looks like I said, very clear, very easy to follow. And then there's also
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answer key and tests that come with it and then just some daily lesson plans
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Okay. And we are going to be using for my sixth graders. They're going to be using
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a brain builder's science as well. So I'll talk about that probably in another video, but that'll give me a
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give me a little bit of time to kind of get used to the program too and learn a little bit more
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if it's going to be a good fit. Okay, so those are the main things that my seventh grader will be
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working on during his independent work. There are a couple of other kind of supplemental things
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I have them do typing practice. So we use typing.com, which is a free program, and they just go on there
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and work on those lessons kind of independently 10 to 15 minutes a day. So not a lot, but they do a lot
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stuff on the computers. So just to get them used to typing and learn those keys, things like that
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we attend BSF, which is Bible Study Fellowship. So they will have homework from that for their daily
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Bible study. They will do that during their independent time. And I'm saying they, I'm thinking
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of my sixth grade girls, kind of lumped in here, but my seventh grader, this is who the video is
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supposed to be about, we'll be doing his BSF work during that independent time. And then also
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silent reading will be during that time. And that will be. be from our creation to the Greeks. They do a book basket and encourage daily silent reading
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time. So those will be books that I pull from the library. They've got great book lists that
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are in the back that they recommend to go along with each unit that we're studying. So they will
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do some silent reading during that time as well. Oh, and I almost forgot Latin. So I teach Latin
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in our homeschool co-op and we're finishing up first form Latin next year we
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will be moving on to second form and we cover the lesson during our co-op
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but then at home there is short daily homework which is in the student workbook so it won be something that takes long because usually they just have like one page per day because I spread it out throughout the week But that will be something that
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they do that my son does during his independent time as well. Okay. So then after all of that independent
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time, that's when we're going to come together and do some of our together curriculum. So for my
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son, mainly that's going to be our creation to the Greek studies. So this, this
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like I said covers a lot of different things. There is a vocabulary portion which it's going to go
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along with our Latin really well. This is the vocabulary book. So there are some short assignments that we're going to be doing with this
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It encompasses handwriting in some of the activities that they do. We have history in here. So if you watch one of my
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unboxing videos, I show all the different books that comes with this. So we're obviously going to be
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setting creation to the Greeks. So lots of history with this curriculum and lots of
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great books that we're going to be reading and studying. And then also there is an art component
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So we will be doing some art together. And this is the book that came with that curriculum
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And my seventh grader will be using this along with my girls who are in sixth grade
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And we also have been and will continue to use VJU Press basics for a biblical worldview
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We began that curriculum this year and we are not all the way through it. We're going to continue
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on with that next year. So that will be part of our together time as well. Okay, so I think
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think that is about it. I don't think I'm missing anything. We've got C.V. Math, literature
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language arts, science, history, foreign language, art. All right, I think I think that's about it
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Bible, Bible studies in there. So that is just kind of a look at all of the main curriculums
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that I'm using with my seventh grader next year. And kind of a scattered view of what I know
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envisioning our daily schedule to be like. So I hope that's helpful kind of seeing that big picture
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you know, with homeschooling multiple kids and what that can look like, how we balance some of the
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stuff that we're going to be doing together with their independent work. But in addition to this
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curriculum, we do attend a co-op on Thursdays. And I mentioned I teach Latin there. And then we
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usually take two other classes. One of those is a drama class. And my son loves participating in
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the drama class. So that'll be another thing we do. And then, I'm not sure what the other class is going to be yet because we usually don't have that schedule figured out until closer to the fall
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And then my seventh grader also does music lessons. He plays the piano and we do some kind of sport or activity
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He does soccer in the fall. So those will be, while it's not like a formal PE curriculum or anything like that, you know, he's doing that for that physical activity, that physical component
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And then the music for that. music component as well. So those are parts of our day, parts of our homeschool that we also add in
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And I'm really excited about seventh grade this year. I'm really excited to start this curriculum
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It's crazy to me, like I said, that I'm even going to have a seventh grader that we began all this
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when he was just five years old and he is going to be 13 this year. And although I know
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you know, high school is just around the corner, I started thinking about it a little bit. I'm not
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fully there yet, but that is going to be kind of in my mind as we go through this year and
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obviously next year kind of preparing for that and thinking about that as we're making curriculum
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choices and deciding what that's going to be. Right now in seventh grade, not a ton
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changed when he went from like elementary school to what's considered middle school
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Just we've been enjoying working on more of that independence. My son loves some more of that
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independence in his learning. So trying to figure out what's appropriate there, what's going to work
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for him, what's going to challenge him, where he's going to be successful. All of those things are
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just fun opportunities that we get as homeschool moms to grow and learn with our kids. So I'm really
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just looking forward to this next year. Thank you so much for watching today. I hope you enjoyed
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hearing about our seventh grade homeschool curriculum picks and seeing kind of what our schedule
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what our flow is hopefully going to look like in the fall
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If you did like this video, consider giving it a thumbs up. And I would love for you to subscribe to my channel
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If you want to kind of hang around and see how all of this plays out
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Hear more about how our curriculum choices go, see, you know, how I'm homeschooling my seventh grader
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my twin sixth graders, and then my kindergarten next year. I love sharing curriculum reviews, tips, encouragement, and things like that on this channel
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So I would love to have you follow along. All right, you guys, that's it for today
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I will see you next time
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