First Week of 7th Grade!

Whew!  We made it through our first week of seventh grade.  We did have a bumpy ride but all in all it went well and ds has grown so much academically and physically.  He's getting tall, his hair is dark and his voice is starting to change!  I don't know if I can take it.

Most of our books & schedule comes from Ambleside Online Year 6 (the years aren't necessarily grades)

Here's what we are doing right now:

• He's reading the Bible (NLT) on his own and writing  (Yes WRITING!) something (short and sweet) in a small notebook.
• We do some reading drills, math drills and Digit Span cards.  (He's moved up a digit this year!)
• Math - so far so good.  It was taking waaaayyy tooooo long, so I cut the lessons in half.  No problems now.
• All About Spelling - ds has dyslexia (in fact he hasn't been tested but if he were to be, this would be at least one of the diagnoses) We have started at the beginning and it's going very quickly, we will probably do 2 or 3 levels this year.
• Poetry - Robert Frost, and writing some simple poems of our own.  (Yes WRITING!) 
• Music Appreciation - Beethoven
• Art Appreciation - Albrecht Durer.  DS is making a PowerPoint about Albrecht Durer and his works.  (This covers art and PowerPoint in one lesson)
• Nature Study - trees
• Timeline - we add things into our timeline notebook every week.  
• Science - Finishing up "Observing God's World" by A Beka. We chose this text because it's interesting and short!  Only 2 days a week needed to get through it. It's also inexpensive used.;) We will continue with "Order and Reality" in a few weeks.We don't do all the tests, quizzes, worksheets etc.  We narrate and sometimes make lapbooks or notebook pages, or drawings.  DS is reading an Albert Einstein Biography a friend got for me.  It's a "reader" type book, not really a "living" book but he's able to read it on his own. Also reading School of the Woods.
• History - SOTW 4 and The Story of My Life: Helen Keller
• Geography - Trail Guide to World Geography
• Writing/Grammar - Writing Strands (Yes WRITING!) 
• Literature - Shakespeare Tales - Hamlet, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, The Hobbit, D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths

Wow, is that everything?

Here's how it looks in a week.

Day 1
Bible reading & Journal
Drills
Math lesson
Spelling lesson
Poem
Artist Study
Science - Observing God's Creation
History -SOTW
Trail Guide
Writing Strands
Shakespeare

Day 2

Bible reading & Journal

Drills

Math lesson

Spelling lesson

Poem

Composer Study

Science - Observing God's Creation

History -SOTW

Trail Guide

Writing Strands

Greek Myths

Day 3

Bible reading & Journal

Drills

Math lesson

Spelling lesson

Poem

Nature Study

Science - School of the Woods

History -SOTW

Trail Guide

Writing Strands

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Day 4

Bible reading & Journal
Drills
Math lesson
Spelling lesson
Writing Poetry
Timeline
Science - Biography: Albert Einstein
History -SOTW
Trail Guide
Writing Strands
The Hobbit
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

We are going to try this 4-day schedule this year.  We need a day to shop and do errands. We also take my Mom shopping and to the doctor, things like that.  Every week we have somewhere to go, so I thought why not just make a day for that?  It might mean we move a little slower through the math, but that's really the only thing.  And that may not be a bad thing for us.  I have also scheduled one week off every 6-weeks to catch up or work on other things besides academics. I'm already looking forward to the break! :-D

I hope to post in one month and say how it is going for us.  We've had such a rough time with school these past few years for various reasons, this one looks to be the best yet!