School Starts Tomorrow!

Our 7th grade curriculum is similar to 6th.  Main subjects:

Math: A Beka Basic Mathematics for 7th
Language Arts: Original Stories, Journal Entries, Review of Grammar, etc.
History and Literature:  Sonlight Core G, World History Year 1
Science: Evolution: The Grand Experiment Homeschool Pack (new)
Bible: Children's Bible Field Guide (new), Daily Evening Readings/Discussion, Memory Verses (hopefully?  haven't done well on this in the past!), Great Commission Learning Adventure (new)
Music: Weekly Piano Lessons 9 months/year (3 on/one off), See Below
Foreign Languages: See Below
Current Events: God's World News Magazine: Top Story for Middle School (new)
Miscellaneous: Educational Shows/Documentaries on Netflix, Current News/Videos from the Internet, Recreational Reading

At co-op for the fall trimester (two months, 8 weeks):

1st Hour: German
2nd Hour: Latin and Greek Roots
3rd Hour: Guitar

Co-op begins next week.  I will be teaching a fun class for 2nd-4th grade girls.  There are only 6 students signed up, so it should be a delightful, easy little group!  Any themes I haven't yet covered on my blog, I'll try to post about as I go.  I expect this to be the most relaxing fall in ages, especially with offering a repeat class for the first time.  Using past lesson plans will massively reduce prep time, and shopping will be reduced since I'll already have most of my supplies.

As usual, we'll be doing our field trips through co-op, and PE will mainly consist of physical activities with Greg: basketball, bike rides, tennis, etc.  One of my primary goals this year is to have Kylen do more hands-on stuff.  Back when my illness was bad, I dropped almost all hands-on learning due to my limitations and pain.  After my health got better, I never seemed to be able to transition back, and I feel like Kylen needs improvement in this area.  I'll try to have him help me cook more and maybe sneak in a few art projects, but I've asked Greg to take on a larger role in his education by focusing his efforts on the hands-on department.  We have a couple books he can draw ideas from: The Dangerous Book for Boys and The Book of Potentially Catastrophic Science.

Thank you again to Katrina's son for the guitar advice!  We purchased a Yamaha FG700S-SDB.  We had to get the slightly fancier one, because they were sold out of the regular, which was totally fine.  The price difference wasn't much.  We also got a case, stand, and tuner.  He's learned how to tune and a few cords from Alfred's Kid's Guitar Course 1, but I think playing at co-op will motivate him more.  Looking forward to seeing how it goes!

Well, that's the plan, and we probably won't stick to it!  Lol!  Changes are inevitable.  I will miss all my extra free time, but we both enjoy the transition to a more scheduled routine, and it will be nice to see the moms/kids at co-op, both old friends and meeting new.  Welcome 2012/2013 school year!