I realize there is a hole in our homeschooling. English. We do spelling words every week and I keep meaning to start easy grammar but we've done it too many times so it just doesn't sound 'appetizing' in the least, so I keep putting it off. I need English 7th grade suggestions. Plus, not wanting a textbooky approach. Was thinking some textbook, some hands on or maybe an all encompassing dvd/video game program? Any suggestions? We need to cover grammar and writing skills.
I like abeka, we did the dvds but it also is a bit textbook style. Both my kids did that and now in 10th my ds is doing easy grammar because I feel he has gotten the foundation. We are supplementing with Worldly Wise for vocabulary and use it as spelling also. We still use the 10th grade abeka literature book.
Have you looked at Queen's Language Lessons? It is a very gentle, Charlotte Mason style book. We are using it this year with Early Grammar. We have also used Christian Light... the light units include spelling, grammar, writing - everything you need for a whole LA curriculum. We like it a lot. It is all laid out for you, just open and go. And at his age he probably should be able to do it on his own. Is there a certain approach you are interested in?
I do appreciate the Charlotte Mason approach although we've gotten away from it this year. Not sure how to use a CM approach in 7th grade. It seems like we have so much to do and little snippets of learning in each subject just don't cut it. Need to look into CM again, because I miss it. Anyway, off topic. I'll look into those programs. Is early grammar something new or did you mean Easy grammar? I have that. I also have Jensens Format Writing but I'm thinking its for older kids. Edit: Just looked up both the Queen and the Christian Light. LOVE the Queen program. It seems a bit short so I see how you need to do Easy grammar or whatever with it. Might look into that if I can find it inexpensively.
Yes, Easy... sorry! I got my Queen's from eBay. I spent $15 on it with shipping. I really, really like it, but did feel the need for a bit more grammar. Daily Grams may even would be enough.
We do a piece-meal approach too. We're taking a break from Easy Grammar this year and just doing Daily Grams. My daughter is enjoying the brake. We're also doing Apples Daily Drills for Spelling - it's just a one page daily review of basics and rules. Again, daughter loves it because it's fast. We've done Easy Grammar for 3 years - which is why the break. I plan on having her do it again in 9th Grade....but I thought she has a really good grasp. For Writing, we're doing IEW this year - we're using the Ancient History one because it goes with the period of time we're studying. I love Andrew Pudewa!!!! For Vocab, we're using Vocab from Classical Roots. Daily Grams and Apples are every day because that's how it's designed, Vocab is probably 3 times a week, maybe? I let her schedule that out b/c she does A LOT of schoolwork. Writing is about 3 times a week, too. The book has 30 lessons, so if she does 1 lesson a week we'll get done. I let her decided if she does it all in one day OR if she's going to spread it out over the week. Hope this helps!!!
Queen does have it for middle school. I'm using it this year with Faythe, in high school. As stated, it's Charlotte Mason and rather gentle. Much too gentle, imo, but we've hit grammar hard the past few years so I'm willing to back down from it right now. Lots of copywork, editing, creative work.
My dd is in 7th and we really like SOS Language Arts. It mixes it all up. She has a grammar assignments one day, a reading comprehension the next and spelling after that. It's all completed on the computer. The daily assignments are graded for you except for the occasional written answer that you have to grade. The have little spelling games and vocab games. They show short movies sometimes or you can click on a "tiny tutor" that will explain a concept in a short lecture format. It's pretty multi-modal. We really floundered with finding a good language arts program. This year both my 4th and 7th graders are doing SOS and liking it pretty well. They don't hate it at least! LOL! Edie
I highly recommend MCT's Grammar Voyage from Royal Fireworks Press if you want to stay away from textbooks. We started this last year and my daughter now has a passionate love for grammar, so much so that when I gave her a choice between one more year of grammar with Jensen's Grammar or 3 more years with the next 3 levels of MCT grammar she wanted the MCT stuff. With the MCT books you get a student text and TM but you go through it together for 6 weeks. I'd read to her and we'd discuss what we read. Often times we'd both find new ways of thinking about grammar. After you're done the 6 or so weeks your child parses a sentence a day from the Practice Voyage or 4Practice books (depending on level) so that grammar only takes, at most, 10 minutes a day. The constant review REALLY reinforces what the Grammar Voyage books teach. We generally have a lot of fun checking her work although now she knows much more then me. I got a lecture today on gerund phrases. A great companion is Jensen's Punctuation. It's very much the opposite, old fashioned and dry, but completely thorough. It reinforces what a child learns in MCT about clauses, uses real sentences and paragraphs from great literature and I think the mix of JP and MCT has done more for her grammar and punctuation then either could have alone. Grammar Voyage is a great level to start for a Grade 7 student who wasn't heavy into grammar before. ETA: The other HUGE help to Catherine in terms of grammar (so much that she mentioned it yesterday) has been Latin with Getting Started With Latin but I realize I'm probably pushing it now. Latin IS her favourite subject though with grammar being an extremely close second.
I liked "Editor n Chief" from the Critical Thinking Company. The student corrects a paragraph which has 12-15 errors it. The book contains a grammar guide, so when my daughter didn't find all the mistakes, I gave her the grammar rule that was broken. (The answers actually tell you the rule number, so it is easy to find.) She could then go back and find the error once she knew the rule. They also have a software program called Punctuation Puzzlers. I'm using Language Mechanics with my 5th grader. It says that it is for grades 4-7. I like it, becuase it gives the logic behind the rule by demonstrating how the rule prevents the reader from misunderstanding the writing. www.criticalthinking.com
