First Semester of 7th Grade in Review

We made it! One more semester of homeschooling down, with some huge successes and just a few failures. The beginning of homeschooling seventh grade has has its challenges but we've persevered and for both of us, it's been a successful beginning of the year. Because I'm now back at work a little more than half time, we spend a lot of time doing homeschooling at work. The kid has his own desk in the corner of my office and has learned to be far more independent with his work than when we started back in fourth grade. It helps tremendously that I'm the principal at a homeschooling charter. Everyone is understanding of having a kid-shadow everywhere you go, since it is their lives as well. I'm grateful that I job-share with another homeschooling mom/teacher/administrator, because we can share our woes both with work and homeschooling. We back each other up in every way and make it work for us and for our kids.

So what worked curriculum-wise for our adventure? Back in June, I set out our plans for the year. In previous years, our plans have mostly fallen apart. Surprisingly, we've kept to most everything this year!

The Hits
Don't Forget to Write for the Secondary Grades: 50 Enthralling and Effective Writing Lessons (Ages 11 and Up)- We used several lessons from this book, with a few more planned for spring, including the HipHop Genius.

NaNoWriMo Writer's Program- This year, I taught a class at our school with ten students. The kid wrote a novel of more than 17,000 words and it actually has a solid plot and flow. We haven't finished editing it yet, but I can say with huge confidence that any time spent on NaNo is worth double in any other writing program.

Geometry by Plato Edmentum We looked at several online options for high school Geometry and settled on this one. It's been a huge hit. The self-paced nature of the course, along with pre-tests to test out of material you already know, have really settled well with the kid. I throw in Khan practice problems for reinforcement, since it seems to be a touch light in practice but overall, this has been our most successful foray into online learning for math.

The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way- The kid finished this book, along with the accompanying workbook from CTY JHU. We used this for history curriculum for the semester. Being a strongly science kid, who loves history, this was a perfect choice. He'll start the next book about Newton, in January.

E.O. Wilson's Biodiversity - An unexpected find that was a giant success! When our science seemed to be falling apart, we swapped to this book. The iBook is beautiful with stunning interactives and well written text. The kid liked the explanations and I appreciated the experiments and in-book quizzes.

Misses and Unloved Choices
Intellego Chemical Reactions- I've raved about Intellego unit studies in the past and we have both really enjoyed several of the science and history units. I'm not sure what happened with Chemical Reactions for 6th-8th grade but it was a total dud. The experiments focused mainly on plant respiration, asking for complex science equipment that we don't have at home and couldn't buy very easily. Two tablespoons of ethanol? Impossible to find. We'll absolutely use Intellego again, but this one was not a hit.

Daily Language Review, Grade 8 - Let's just say, that I love it. The kid? Not so much. He pretty much dreads it every day. For me, it's not a miss because it's working on grammar skills in a quick and easy fashion. But he would burn it in the backyard if given the option.

What will the new semester bring? Well we have some big plans! The kid is signed up for Dystopian Literature from Online G3, along with the academic writing supplement. He has taken Online G3 and Athena's classes in the past and he is looking forward to the online class and the reading. He'll also be starting a teen improv class with our local theatre company, taking the "how to volunteer" class at our animal shelter and a bunch of fun classes at our charter, including Vet Science and Filmmaking.

On the curriculum hunt

Dear Curriculum Publishers,

I want to let you know there is this "brand new" movement in America called homeschooling. It is creative, innovative and not one-size fits all. It is an untapped market, you should definitely do a little research, as I'm pretty sure this market would be a financial boon for your industry.

Sincerely,
Homeschool Charter Administrator, desperate for curriculum options

As a homeschooler who is also a teacher, I write a lot of my curriculum. Sometimes this is out of pure inspiration but more often than not, it's out of a pure lack of materials. There are so few curriculum materials on the market that are actually designed for homeschoolers, not just tweaked to fit the market. Don't believe me? I challenge you to find a language arts curriculum for middle school that is integrated with reading fiction and nonfiction, grammar, writing and spelling that is secular for public purchase and has a teacher's guide written for one on one instruction. (By the way, if you find it, please let me know- I'm desperately searching for this option!)

Yes, there are some options available for science and history. I'm a huge fan of Pandia Press and Intellego but what happens outside of those options? If a student doesn't have internet access readily available, Intellego isn't helpful. If a family doesn't like the interwoven approach of History Odyssey and wants a different option, what's out there? As a homeschool administrator, I want to offer a selection of options for my families, not just one curriculum that I personally love. I want to make creative curriculum available that focuses outside the worksheet for my families and gives them the opportunity and inspiration to extend learning.

If you're already homeschooling, you know exactly why it's important to find curriculum for homeschoolers. It's very frustrating to have a project that has "In your group" or "Talk to your partners"or "Meet with another group and share information."  It is a constant reminder that you are weird and you don't belong. It's annoying to constantly retool directions that don't match or correct your terms from "Discuss with your group," to "Tell me what you think."

Beyond just annoyance, it's expensive and difficult to use a science curriculum that isn't designed with individual instruction in mind. A middle school science lab guide is designed for 120ish students. I need science lab materials listed for one student- it's far too expensive for me to go out and by a giant container of ethanol for experiments when I need a tablespoon. If I had a classroom and a lab, it would be feasible, but my house is full of leftover chemicals I don't need right now.

Sometimes it's not just about changing the materials but changing the lesson. Traditional classroom instruction models don't work at the kitchen table. Each-one-teach-one or jigsaw lessons with one kid? Weird and unnecessary. Read the history text and answer the questions, day after day? Boring. Assignments that require a group dialogue? Irrelevant.

The best part about publishers rethinking the curriculum for homeschoolers is that it helps everyone, including classroom teachers!  Thinking about one-to-one instruction for curriculum helps teachers create flipped classrooms, intervention, afterschool RTI program instruction. It also encourages teachers and schools to move beyond the lecture/worksheet model. My son would laugh me out of the house if I stood up and gave him a 30 minute lecture and asked him to take notes. So I have to spend a lot of time taking the content for instruction and turning it into something engaging, interesting and analytical. If I could buy an option of this for my families that was fabulous but saved time and money, I would buy it today!

More and more homeschoolers are abandoning traditional classrooms for a huge host of reasons. It's time for publishers to see these families as customers and start making options that work for us too! I promise, if publishers take the leap, it will pay off in the end!