'Tis the season to think about next year...

[Girlnumber20]

Happy New year! I am just wondering something about literature. DD is going to be 13. She has been using the cores a year "behind" in everything but math. She has always found the lit selections a bit too easy. I looked at the literature selections for 7M and she has read all those books multiple times, and the ones in 8M, too, except As you Like It. I am wondering what the repercussions might be if I were to let her take a year off literature, focus on Horatius, and the other "non-lit" selections. This would also give us a bit of wiggle room for doing Novare Physical Science, Algebra I, and Third Form }}}}}shivers{{{{ Latin.

In your opinion, could skipping literature for a whole year impair her in getting ready for high school level work?

the other thing I am considering is taking everything from a bunch of different cores, so 9th literature, 7th Latin, Grammar, Classical Studies, 8th Science and Math.

The last question I have is, is there geography in 7M?

Maria

[jen1134]

Re: 'Tis the season to think about next year...

Happy New year! I am just wondering something about literature. DD is going to be 13. She has been using the cores a year "behind" in everything but math. She has always found the lit selections a bit too easy. I looked at the literature selections for 7M and she has read all those books multiple times, and the ones in 8M, too, except As you Like It. I am wondering what the repercussions might be if I were to let her take a year off literature, focus on Horatius, and the other "non-lit" selections. This would also give us a bit of wiggle room for doing Novare Physical Science, Algebra I, and Third Form }}}}}shivers{{{{ Latin.

In your opinion, could skipping literature for a whole year impair her in getting ready for high school level work?

the other thing I am considering is taking everything from a bunch of different cores, so 9th literature, 7th Latin, Grammar, Classical Studies, 8th Science and Math.

The last question I have is, is there geography in 7M?

Maria

Instead of taking the year off of literature, maybe pick her two favorites out of the 7M selections so she can dive into them more deeply using the guides? My boys loved the Hobbit guide in particular because the Appendix actually shows you how to write Hobbit runes! Picking two would allow her to experience the difference between reading for fun and reading for understanding while still giving you room for those more difficult subjects that are coming up. When she hits 8M you could do the same with the literature, but be sure to do the mid-year poetry months as that will prep her for the high school style guides and introduce her to deeper literary thought.

[KF2000]

Re: 'Tis the season to think about next year...

Happy New year! I am just wondering something about literature. DD is going to be 13. She has been using the cores a year "behind" in everything but math. She has always found the lit selections a bit too easy. I looked at the literature selections for 7M and she has read all those books multiple times, and the ones in 8M, too, except As you Like It. I am wondering what the repercussions might be if I were to let her take a year off literature, focus on Horatius, and the other "non-lit" selections. This would also give us a bit of wiggle room for doing Novare Physical Science, Algebra I, and Third Form }}}}}shivers{{{{ Latin.

In your opinion, could skipping literature for a whole year impair her in getting ready for high school level work?

the other thing I am considering is taking everything from a bunch of different cores, so 9th literature, 7th Latin, Grammar, Classical Studies, 8th Science and Math.

The last question I have is, is there geography in 7M?

Maria

Hi Maria!

First off, there is a small break of strict "geography" because students are doing the American history course in seventh grade. So that takes the place of a geography. Then they do Geography III in 8th.

Then as for your questions about literature - I don't think it is a bad idea to take a bit of a break during her adjustment to 7th grade. Of all the years, those books are the ones my kids have always been the most familiar with, and having gone through the guides with the kids, there was not a lot of "depth" they needed to acquire because of such strong familiarity. I would not say the same thing about the 8M selections though. My kids had read those books as well, but there is also a lot of depth to them that they did not pick up on, which made using the guides for those very valuable. Plus, even though the format of those guides is similar to the younger grade guides, we still noticed a bit more challenge to them. Wind in the Willows was a treasured experience, so don't skip that. And As You Like It is a great "first Shakespeare" study. All that is to say that I agree with you that if you were going to take a bit of a break, 7M would be fine to pass on, but I would not skip 8M.

Now, whether to totally take a pause or not...As far as whether your daughter would still be well-prepared for high school - I think the answer there is "it depends." It would depend on how well she writes and answers the material in her other guides, and whether she is keeping up on her composition lessons well. I agree that the workload of 7M can definitely be an adjustment, so if this is an area where your daughter is strong, taking a break might be a good way to help focus in on doing everything else better. It would still be following the principle of "depth, not breadth." We have made concessions in our choices over the years as well for the exact same reason.

But also keep in mind that the way you start out the year does not have to be the way you continue the whole year. Maybe you give her the first eight weeks (or however long the first book is scheduled) and just see how the year is going. If she is still feeling strained with the workload at that point, you know you have made a good choice, and lit should continue to be on the back burner for a time. Then re-evaluate again at this time next year. Maybe she has gotten a good sense of routine going and you could fit one or two lit guides into the end of the year. That is the great thing about the MP lit program - you don't have to feel as though it is an all-or-nothing subject for the year because you can just take it one book at a time. That is what we are doing with my son this year - lit has been a weak spot just because of the workload in his other subjects and because he practices a LOT of piano each day. We are still trying to finish his first guide! So I understand the desire to have a solid plan of what you will definitely do next year, but this may be an area that you just want to allow for some flexibility. Start the year as you are thinking, and then see how it goes. There's always summer break too - you could have her do one guide this summer and one guide next summer and that is still half of what she would have done!

AMDG,
Sarah

[Mom2mthj]

Re: 'Tis the season to think about next year...

You could also look at some of the guides not scheduled in cores to see if there was a replacement that seemed interesting.

[Girlnumber20]

Re: 'Tis the season to think about next year...

Thanks, dear ladies- all good perspectives. Sarah also thanks for those very helpful thoughts and also letting me know about not skipping 8M. Now I am thinking maybe I should see if she can hack a very tough year and do 8M Lit with Novare PS, Latin and Grammar and Ref/Con with 7M, and I wonder if it would be ok to skip her into 8M classical studies? In this way she would be ready to do a grade 9 sort of thing when she is 14, I guess she could even skip 4th Form and go into Henle I, maybe after next year. (I think I read somewhere that is a possibility) I would have to find a way to outsource some of this to the online academy.

Do you think this could work?

[Michael]

Re: 'Tis the season to think about next year...

... I guess she could even skip 4th Form and go into Henle I, maybe after next year. (I think I read somewhere that is a possibility)

Hello,

I'd just like to comment on skipping 4FL. If you've finished through TFL, you've already completed much of Henle I. 4FL will go through Henle I, skimming what is review and focusing on what is new. You can then go straight to Henle II after 4FL. In other words, TFL » Henle I is doable, but involves a lot of redundancy. TFL » 4FL » Henle II will be much more efficient.

HTH!

[Katie]

Re: 'Tis the season to think about next year...

Thanks, dear ladies- all good perspectives. Sarah also thanks for those very helpful thoughts and also letting me know about not skipping 8M. Now I am thinking maybe I should see if she can hack a very tough year and do 8M Lit with Novare PS, Latin and Grammar and Ref/Con with 7M, and I wonder if it would be ok to skip her into 8M classical studies? In this way she would be ready to do a grade 9 sort of thing when she is 14, I guess she could even skip 4th Form and go into Henle I, maybe after next year. (I think I read somewhere that is a possibility) I would have to find a way to outsource some of this to the online academy.

Do you think this could work?

Good morning!

My son is using 8M and MPOA currently. If you have to get rid of something, I would vote the Lit and NOT the Classical Studies. Or, just choose a couple of Lit selections and go through them at half pace. This is sort of what we are doing right now. My son is taking Poetry at our Co-op so we've dropped that (for now), and he chose As You Like it and Tom Sawyer to Read with the Guides. He's read Treasure Island several times and we chose to do Wind in the Willows as a Read aloud for my whole crew and used the guide as a discussion starter. We've also let go of Physical Science as written. He's already read the whole book on his own as he loves science and its a very well written, easy to read text. He has done a couple of the labs on his own, but not with lab reports. I do plan to have him do a lab or two this semester or summer with a formal report just for practice before high school. We decided our priorities this year for my son were to focus on his core subjects (For us this year they are Latin, Comp, Math, Catechism, Classical Studies & Logic) and do those really well, and also work on study habits and diligence to be better prepared for Highschool. He still works on his other subjects, but we don't loose sleep if we have to slow those down or remove for the time being in order to master the core stuff. If you are considering MPOA to lessen your teaching load, my first choices are Latin and Composition!

[Girlnumber20]

Re: 'Tis the season to think about next year...

Good morning!

My son is using 8M and MPOA currently. If you have to get rid of something, I would vote the Lit and NOT the Classical Studies. Or, just choose a couple of Lit selections and go through them at half pace. This is sort of what we are doing right now. My son is taking Poetry at our Co-op so we've dropped that (for now), and he chose As You Like it and Tom Sawyer to Read with the Guides. He's read Treasure Island several times and we chose to do Wind in the Willows as a Read aloud for my whole crew and used the guide as a discussion starter. We've also let go of Physical Science as written. He's already read the whole book on his own as he loves science and its a very well written, easy to read text. He has done a couple of the labs on his own, but not with lab reports. I do plan to have him do a lab or two this semester or summer with a formal report just for practice before high school. We decided our priorities this year for my son were to focus on his core subjects (For us this year they are Latin, Comp, Math, Catechism, Classical Studies & Logic) and do those really well, and also work on study habits and diligence to be better prepared for Highschool. He still works on his other subjects, but we don't loose sleep if we have to slow those down or remove for the time being in order to master the core stuff. If you are considering MPOA to lessen your teaching load, my first choices are Latin and Composition!

Thanks for this input, Katie! Do you mean that I shouldn't skip the classical studies for 7M? I wasn't thinking of skipping classical studies altogether, I was just thinking of moving her into the 8M core for those instead of using 7M, but wasn't sure what she would miss and if it is do-able, even. My thinking was that she could study the Mills book instead of Famous Men of Greece, and it might be a bit more at her level and prep better for highschool than doing another year of Famous Men. But it was just a thought, might not be a wise choice.

Thanks for the clarification on Latin Michael. I had some confusion about that. We'll make sure we stick with 4th Form, then, the following year.

[serendipitous journey]

Re: 'Tis the season to think about next year...

Good morning!

... We've also let go of Physical Science as written. He's already read the whole book on his own as he loves science and its a very well written, easy to read text. He has done a couple of the labs on his own, but not with lab reports. I do plan to have him do a lab or two this semester or summer with a formal report just for practice before high school. We decided our priorities this year for my son were to focus on his core subjects ...

I just wanted to highlight Katie's experience here -- I love Novare's Physlcal Science, but don't see how to run Novare middle school science as written with the composition, math (algebra here), Latin and classical studies/Greek that are important to me. Of course families and children are all so different; but you may want to be prepared to shift to read-and-discuss, or to answer questions orally and maybe do some memory work.

So glad you mentioned this, Katie -- I thought I might be the only one!

[Mom2mthj]

Re: 'Tis the season to think about next year...

You are not the only one! We have found Novare to be quite time consuming. My son has read ahead in earth science, but we have stalled with what feels like a million questions to grade. I hate to give the quiz unless I have graded homework so we are behind. One advantage to a class is some work is covered orally, the teacher already knows the material, and the teacher isn't distracted by so many other things in the middle of the lesson. There are only so many hours in the day and you can't do everything.

[Katie]

Re: 'Tis the season to think about next year...

Thanks for this input, Katie! Do you mean that I shouldn't skip the classical studies for 7M? I wasn't thinking of skipping classical studies altogether, I was just thinking of moving her into the 8M core for those instead of using 7M, but wasn't sure what she would miss and if it is do-able, even. My thinking was that she could study the Mills book instead of Famous Men of Greece, and it might be a bit more at her level and prep better for highschool than doing another year of Famous Men. But it was just a thought, might not be a wise choice.

Thanks for the clarification on Latin Michael. I had some confusion about that. We'll make sure we stick with 4th Form, then, the following year.

I should have read your original post. Whoops! I thought she was going into 8th next year. Now I see it’s 7th and you are considering using some of 8. That’s what I get for jumping in mid thread

[serendipitous journey]

Re: 'Tis the season to think about next year...

You are not the only one! We have found Novare to be quite time consuming. My son has read ahead in earth science, but we have stalled with what feels like a million questions to grade. I hate to give the quiz unless I have graded homework so we are behind. One advantage to a class is some work is covered orally, the teacher already knows the material, and the teacher isn't distracted by so many other things in the middle of the lesson. There are only so many hours in the day and you can't do everything.

I hope this isn't too off-topic, but wanted to mention that we have had some luck running the science Well-Trained Mind Style: read the book and outline or summarize a section, as well as keep a definitions list of bold words defined in the text. So far this is my favorite way of doing the Novare. But we are a work in progress here! and actually set Novare aside to do a year of biology first. I do wish their middle-school biology were available already.

[Girlnumber20]

Re: 'Tis the season to think about next year...

I should have read your original post. Whoops! I thought she was going into 8th next year. Now I see it’s 7th and you are considering using some of 8. That’s what I get for jumping in mid thread

Oh no worries about that- I was just trying to figure out if you think it would work or if skipping FMOG in favour of Mills would be a bad idea? I don't have familiarity with the Mills book at all, any thoughts are really appreciated!

Ana no worries either it isn't off topic, it is all bang on. Trying to figure out what to do for every subject, in some ways, as I guess a lot of people are around now. I wish I could just use 7M as is. I just don't know if I can get away with doing that anymore. I like the idea of doing WTM style for science.

[pickandgrin]

Re: 'Tis the season to think about next year...

I hope this isn't too off-topic, but wanted to mention that we have had some luck running the science Well-Trained Mind Style: read the book and outline or summarize a section, as well as keep a definitions list of bold words defined in the text. So far this is my favorite way of doing the Novare. But we are a work in progress here! and actually set Novare aside to do a year of biology first. I do wish their middle-school biology were available already.

Pretty sure it's high school Biology/lab in the works at MP using Holt Modern Bio book (with the owl). But, maybe you are meaning a Novare Biology? I'm not up on what they have in the works.

[Michael]

Re: 'Tis the season to think about next year...

I was just trying to figure out if you think it would work or if skipping FMOG in favour of Mills would be a bad idea? I don't have familiarity with the Mills book at all, any thoughts are really appreciated!

The Famous Men books, as you know, cover a historical period or people via a series of biographies (and some myths in Famous Men of Greece). The Mills books are formatted like a textbook, cover both history and culture, and are written at a slightly higher level than the Famous Men books. You can view a sample of Mills' Book of the Ancient Greeks here and a sample of the workbook here. If you do not have time for both FMOG and Mills' Book of the Ancient Greeks, skipping the former is okay.

HTH!