Wondering what we’re using to teach 7th Grade this year? Here’s our comprehensive list of 7th Grade Curriculum picks for 2020.
As a homeschool mom of 6 (soon to be 7 kids), I love to look at the curriculum choices of other homeschoolers. It is fun to see the books they have chose to read for their readalouds, core subjects, and elective courses. Hopefully by showing you what we are using this year, it can help you make choices in your own homeschool! Keep reading to find out what we are using for our 7th Grade Homeschool Curriculum for the year 2020!
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As a disclaimer, I would just remind you that every child is different. Every child learns at their own pace and has their own set of gifts and talents. Please don’t judge the success of your child off of another homeschooler’s progress. In any learning environment there are kids that are better at some subjects than others. This could be because of exposure, a natural ability for learning certain subjects, or that they have a greater interest in certain subjects. The curriculum choices that I will be sharing are specific to our homeschool, and our children based on their needs and abilities! The main purpose in me writing this is to help you more fully choose a homeschool curriculum that works for you and your family!
Math
Our 7th Grader will be using Saxon Math 7/6 this school year. Because we did year-round homeschool this year, we are about half way through this book, and once we finish, we will jump right into Saxon Math 8/7. I wrote a whole blog post about why I love Saxon Math and included a video flip through! I love that the older grades in Saxon Math are pretty much self-taught. My daughter is able to go over the lesson herself, correct her work, and then she reports to me on her score. She will then go back and review any problems she got incorrect and try to correct them herself and then I help her if she gets stuck on a problem. I love that Saxon Math is worded in a way that my child can teach herself, yet the book is set up in a simple enough manner that I can quickly figure out the problem when she doesn’t fully understand.
Saxon Math 6/7 includes a math textbook, the solutions manual, and a book with tests and worksheets. Each day we complete a lesson doing all the problems that accompany the new concept being taught, and then only doing evens or odds with the questions that review the previously learned material. On top of that, a test from the Test Manual is completed every 5 lessons. I love that Saxon Math is a constant review so concepts that were difficult to grasp at first become easier and more natural over time!
Although the textbook, worksheets, and tests are all made to be consumable, we use a notebook to work the problems out and write the answers. This has helped to cut the cost on purchasing new curriculum for each upcoming child.
Langauge Arts
This year for Language Arts, my 7th Grader is using The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Level 6. Again, because we chose to homeschool year round, she is more than halfway through with this level. When she finishes it, we will just move right on to Level 7. I love that this Language Arts course is more than just a reading and grammar course. It combines geography and art as well. We have really enjoyed the art projects that go along with this level focusing mostly on oil pastels as the medium. My daughter has been studying quite a bit about Australia, it’s history, famous people in history from there, and recently wrote a research paper on some of the fun animals that inhabit Australia. I think the whole family has really enjoyed learning right along with her as she shares her research with us!
The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts comes with a spiral bound text book and an answer key. I love using the answer key to quickly check through the work she completes each day, especially when it comes to diagramming the more complex sentences! Level 6 Language Arts also comes with a Personal Reader that the textbook will prompt when and where to read out of.
I don’t have my daughter write right in the textbook, but instead I will write out an outline in her notebook each day. She will fill out the outline and I will check it off with the answers in the answer key. We do it this way for two reasons. First, then I can reuse the book for the other six children that will be coming after her. Secondly, then I feel a little more engaged and involved in the work she is doing so that I can keep tabs on the workload that needs to be completed each day.
History and Science
We teach History and Science “family style” or altogether as a group. We use The Good and the Beautiful curriculum for each of these subjects. Even though we learn these subjects as an entire group, there are extension activities included to go more in depth for the other students. Sometimes we will research these subjects more as a family through YouTube videos, and other times I will include some extra reading just for my 7th grader to go along with what has been taught. I wrote a whole post about this family style teaching and included a video flip through of the curriculum that we are using for this year!
Reading
My 7th Grader reads like crazy, so I don’t really have to get after her to keep up on that. We have a Family Reading Log that she writes down all the books she reads and what she would rate them. I am in the process of compiling a list of books for her to read this upcoming year to start to include books on money and finance, character building, and a religious book, as well as a more in-depth classic novel. I’ll let you know when I get to those!
Electives
My 7th Grader is very much into the arts. Pre-pandemic she was taking piano lessons from a very accomplished teacher in the area and participating in solo and concerto festivals. For now, I am teaching her at home and helping to prepare her for upcoming festivals and competitions. I am also teaching her violin using the Suzuki Method books. Luckily I have both of these skills and am able to help her continue on in developing these talents!
We also do a variety of online programs including Duolingo to learn Spanish, Code.org for coding, and Typing.com for typing skills. We usually rotate through which skill between typing and coding we are focusing on that month. The kids are able to choose from a list of educational websites to play on each day and can do extra jobs around the house to earn extra time.
Life skills are very much a part of homeschool as well! Our 7th Grader is learning to cook meals (she is already a fantastic baker). Having more time around the house helps us to develop those normal, everyday house keeping skills that will help her to be successful when she moves out on her own. Meal planning, laundry, gardening, and planning regular household duties are part of her “life skills” curriculum. She is also developing good study skills and habits as well as learning to be a self-starter. Because most of her homeschool is independent work, she is learning good time management skills as well.
That wraps up our 7th Grade homeschool curriculum choices for 2020! We try to keep things fairly simple around here. The biggest thing that we focus on in our homeschool is developing life-long learners with a love for learning (how’s that for a tongue twister?). My biggest advice to you when planning your homeschool year? Keep it simple with the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, and let your children help you figure out the rest based on their talents and interests!
