While talking to my dad over Skype the other week, he mentioned that when he was growing up, 7th grade was considered the first grade of high school. I found that interesting considering Year 7 is the first House of Education year of the AmblesideOnline curriculum. I rather like the idea of six years of high school instead of four, and high school level work done in 7th or 8th grade can be counted on a transcript. And Year 7 is just a great year – I’m looking forward to another round! As usual, I’ve used AmblesideOnline’s curriculum as a starting point and made adjustments to fit our needs and tastes. 🙂
Bible & Church History
Mr. D will continue to read and narrate through the Bible – he’s in the Minor Prophets right now. I’ve decided have him continue the History Lives series, finishing Peril and Peace: Chronicles of the Ancient Church and then reading Monks and Mystics: Chronicles of the Medieval Church over the first two terms. I think these books will be good preparation for reading some of the Church Fathers later on. For the last term he’ll do one of the AO devotional selections, probably How to Be Your Own Selfish Pig.
History, Biographies & Geography
He will do the history schedule as written, and I am so thankful that a mom on the AO forum has made the historical documents available in a printable form so I can easily put them into a booklet for him! I am going to move The Brendan Voyage to Terms 2 and 3, and schedule The White Horse King (a bio of Alfred the Great that I read a few years ago) in Term 1 for biography and geography.
Government, Economics, Citizenship & Current Events
These will be as scheduled by AO – he will read WORLD Teen and watch CNN 10 for current events.
Literature & Poetry
Several changes here: as I mentioned before, he will read The Sword in the Stone instead of the first two books of The Once and Future King. AO very kindly scheduled the illustrated Beowulf, so that’s one less thing for me to do! Our Chaucer retelling, A Taste of Chaucer, can fit in Term 3 along with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (on the AO free-read list). And I will also schedule David Copperfield over Terms 2 and 3. It doesn’t fit the time period, but it’s one I want him to read (or listen to), it’s on the free read list, and it probably won’t be done unless I schedule it. 😉 I am not sure if we’ll attempt The Grammar of Poetry, as it got dropped with Miss A, and he already has quite a bit of writing on his plate. I’m counting Beowulf as poetry for Term 1, and I have an audiobook of The Idylls of the King which I might schedule over the next two terms if the schedule isn’t too cramped (but that does make for a lot of King Arthur in Year 7, so we’ll see).
Grammar & Writing
Mr. D will start working slowly through Our Mother Tongue, probably taking at least two years to get through it. He will continue written narrations, and we’ll work towards increasing their length. He will also continue Writing & Rhetoric Book 4: Chreia & Proverb – while looking through it, I noticed that most of the stories used are from the Medieval time period, so it will be perfect for him this year. 🙂
Math
He’s currently working through Teaching Textbooks Math 7, and will continue on to Pre-Algebra when he’s done.
Science
He is currently interested in astronomy, so I want to capitalize on that and have him complete the Classical Astronomy book over the next two years rather than AO’s much slower pace. So he will do many of the other AO Year 7 science books, but I’m dropping the chemistry book (he’s had quite a bit of chemistry so far anyway) and the botany book from the schedule. He will also be on a First Lego League team again this year.
Music & Foreign Language
He will continue with Visual Latin and French (The Learnables), as well as piano lessons.
Physical Education
He’s been biking this summer, and he’ll continue parkour classes.
