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.

Our favorite month- NaNoWriMo is almost here!

If you mention to most kids that they're going to spend an entire month writing, you'll probably hear groans echoing loudly. But if you tell them they're going to write a novel, with dares, a support group, prizes and if they're very diligent, they'll even get to publish it, you'll get a different look. Maybe one of curiosity, or one of skepticism, but not the groans.

This will be our fourth year doing NaNoWriMo and I encourage (read cajole and harass) all of our friends, homeschooled or not, to give it a try. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is the perfect answer to the early winter homeschool slump. Log on, sign up and take the challenge and get to work!

Here's how it works- adults sign up at http://nanowrimo.org/  and kids sign up at http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/ . Adults have an automatic set word goal of 50,000 but the kids get to set their own word goals. A kid's word goal should be based loosely on their grade level and enthusiasm for writing. I've seen kindergartners take on 200 words with pictures on each page and 8th graders take on 30,000 words. It really depends on your child.

If you're lucky like we are or brave enough to take it on your own, start a writing group with your charter homeschool or local friends. Writer's block is always more easily cured when you have tea, cookies and friends to discuss your story. We usually meet the last week in October to sign our no editing pledge, once a week in November and then once the first week in December for prizes and sharing snippets of our stories.

There are important rules about NaNoWriMo and even more important rules when homeschooling with NaNo.

1) NO editing in November. None. Zero. Mom, put down your pen and go write your own novel. There is NO editing, changing, manipulating, addressing spelling or any other sort of critique that you might feel compelled to offer. That's what December is for.

2) Get the words on the page. There are no rules about what to write, how to write it or what it should be about. So avoid the temptation to guide the novel into something you believe more appropriate. If the boy wants a fart cannon, and he's willing to write 10,000 words about it- let it be.

3) You have to write too! Ok, this isn't an official NaNo rule, but it is important for homeschoolers. Don't use your daily writing time on Facebook, to do laundry or check the mail. Writing time is to be protected and everyone writes. Period. You'll gain a new appreciation for how hard it actually is to get those words on the paper! Maybe you'll even want to introduce a fart cannon.