We've been using and enjoying Living Books Curriculum for the past few years. It tied in nicely with the NSW Board of Studies' requirements for the primary school years.
However moving in to the higher school years and having to satisfy the curriculum outcomes made it difficult to continue with Living Books Curriculum and I couldn't really find another Charlotte Mason curriculum that tied in neatly with what we had to do or a curriculum she could work from semi-independently at least, that we liked.
So.....I for the first time had to "put together" my own curriculum!
I was overwhelmed by the whole thought and drowned in hours of scouring the internet to piece together what I needed.
Thankfully I remembered this free online curriculum that I'd heard of years ago and put on the back burner because I didn't think it was rigorous enough for Rebekah: allinonehomeschool.com
I looked at it again and found that I could easily match their Ancient History course to the NSW outcomes! That got me excited and I knew I could beef it up / adapt it quite easily to make it more Charlotte Mason for my liking:)
I looked further and found that I could easily use their Geography and once again adapt it to make it more Charlotte Mason and their English had some great classics too!
I was starting to feel better :)
Maths was easy, we could just continue with Singapore Maths.
I got the homeschool planner from homeschoolingdownunder.com which had all the NSW outcomes laid out with suggested books.
So after a few hours of working through these, I came up with this for Rebekah:
Year 7 curriculum for Rebekah
Bible and Christian
Studies:
Bible reading plan as outlined in EP curriculum Level 7 year
1 studying the books of Matthew in the NT and in the OT books from Genesis to Esther.
With mum 3 x week: Pilgrim’s progress to the end then ‘TheDavid Club’ by Andrew Shepherd.
(We ended up not using The David Club after all not because we didn't like it but I decided to give her some extra books for free reading instead).
(We ended up not using The David Club after all not because we didn't like it but I decided to give her some extra books for free reading instead).
English:
Literature and Poetry:
Reading 7 of EP Curriculum
Rebekah did oral and written narrations from these books.
Books used:
The Spy, James Fennimore Cooper;
Penrod and Sam, Tarkington;
The Call of the Wild, London;
Treasure Island, Stevenson;
The Talisman, Sir Walter Scott;
The King Will Make a Way, Giles
(We are carrying over the last two into year 8)
To the above, I added some other books that Ron and I felt would be great for her to do as part of her 'school work':
Animal Farm by George Orwell, We of the Never Never by Jeannie Gunn and The Word Spy by Ursula Dubosarsky.
However we never got to the second two!
Poetry as set out in EP Reading 7 from Dickinson, Keats and Tennyson(We are carrying over the last two into year 8)
To the above, I added some other books that Ron and I felt would be great for her to do as part of her 'school work':
Animal Farm by George Orwell, We of the Never Never by Jeannie Gunn and The Word Spy by Ursula Dubosarsky.
However we never got to the second two!
Australian Poetry: 2 x week – Australian Bush Verse and
other Australian Poetry at home.
Poetry is read only in the first week or two of Easy Peasy so we read poetry to Rebekah at other times including for bed time read alouds - just because we love and enjoy poetry!
Poetry is read only in the first week or two of Easy Peasy so we read poetry to Rebekah at other times including for bed time read alouds - just because we love and enjoy poetry!
Grammar: Intermediate Language Lessons by Living Books Press
3 x week
(I opted not to use Easy Peasy's Grammar because we had already done ILL part 1 and 2 in years 5 and 6)
We ended up cutting some of the chapters out of ILL and adding in EP's Language Arts for year 7 as ILL was getting a little tedious and I found EP had some great grammar lessons that suited us much better and also helps meet the outcomes ;)
We ended up cutting some of the chapters out of ILL and adding in EP's Language Arts for year 7 as ILL was getting a little tedious and I found EP had some great grammar lessons that suited us much better and also helps meet the outcomes ;)
Writing: I wanted Rebekah to begin learning some styles of writing so she will do some of Easy Peasy's year 7 writing course.
Copywork: Aesop’s Fables copy work 4 x week on the days when
there is no c/w in Reading 7. (We didn't end up doing this as her work load was full enough)
Spelling and Dictation: As directed in schedule/ by mum on a
weekly basis.
Debate: Weekly classes at a home school co-op.
Logic and thinking – as scheduled in EP year 7 (We ended up ditching this and going with "The Fallacy Detective" by N & H Bluedorn, reading a chapter or two a week .....
Current events – Tween Tribune (online newspaper for tweens)
2 x week, Ongoing family discussions and watching of news, Behind the News. (Didn't end up reading the Tween Tribune)
Shakespeare: read a play depending on what’s available to
watch live during the year.
(We watched Bell Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Term 1 so Rebekah re-read the children's version of this)
Maths:
My Pals are Here maths
Science:
Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology (term 1
to 3) with living books to supplement it. She did oral and written narrations from these along with notebooking pages to go with some of the work and experiments from Apologia along the way. We chose not to get the Apologia notebooking journal as from past experience we didn't use most of it, so Rebekah made her own notebooking pages from what was available free online.
A Gruseome but true story about brain science by Phineas
Gage
Louis Pasteur Germ Killer by John Mann
Blood and Guts by Linda Allison (to complement experiments
in Apologia Human Anatomy)
Gregor Mendel The
Friar who grew peas by Cheryl Bardoe (on genetics)
Exploring the world of Chemistry, J H Tiner (Term 4) (We didn't do this as we found we didn't like it much, more like Rebekah was a bit young for it, so we've put it away for when she's a bit older. We instead began Apologia's 'Exploring the World of Physics and Chemistry' by Jeannie Fulbright).
Computer: following schedule of EP level 7 when scheduled. (We ditched this through first term).
Research Project: Pick one topic and follow guidelines to
complete it (google research projects for year 7 and 8) This can be done in
year 7 or 8. (Didn't get around to this)
History:
EP Curriculum Ancient History component as scheduled for
days 1 – 95 with additional days for Ancient World, Egypt and China.
She did oral and written narrations from these along with mapwork.
History Spine: The
Story of Mankind by H VanLoon
The Ancient World: Investigating Ancient History –
Kingfisher “The Ancient World” ; Life in
the Great Ice Age by Michael Oard; Cairo Jim and Doris In Search of Martenaten
by Geoffrey McSkimming
The Mediterranean World:
Egypt: Cairo Jim and Doris In Search of Martenaten by Geoffrey McSkimming ;
Mara Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Mcgraw
Egypt: Cairo Jim and Doris In Search of Martenaten by Geoffrey McSkimming ;
Mara Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Mcgraw
The Asian World:
China: The Ch’I-Lin Purse: A collection of Ancient Chinese Stories by Linda Fang;
The Emperor's Silent Army: Terracotta Warriors of Ancient China by Jane O’Connor;
China The Waking Giant by Nuri Mass.
China: The Ch’I-Lin Purse: A collection of Ancient Chinese Stories by Linda Fang;
The Emperor's Silent Army: Terracotta Warriors of Ancient China by Jane O’Connor;
China The Waking Giant by Nuri Mass.
We didn't need to do this but I chose to teach Rebekah more about Ancient India, and so we read some chapters from Beacon Lights of History Volume 1 along with another fictional book we had at home.
We did mapwork and kept a Book of Centuries along the way.
Civics: Skwirk, Prime Ministers of Australia
by J Bruce (from library). (Didn't get to this, plan to cover it in year 8)
Special thanks to Carol from journey and destination blog who helped me with some of the additional living books for History and Science :)
Special thanks to Carol from journey and destination blog who helped me with some of the additional living books for History and Science :)
Geography:
EP Curriculum Geography and Cultures Component as scheduled along with additional living books to be read along the way. Some of them are living books about the area covered and some are about the lives of great men and women of God from that part of the world.
Oral and written narrations were done along with mapwork.
Books used:
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
George Mueller by Janet and Geoff Benge
The Family Under the Bridge by N S Carlson
The Story of David Livingstone, V Golding
The Family Under the Bridge by N S Carlson
The Story of David Livingstone, V Golding
Global Environment field trip to Wetlands
Olympic Park with additional research and a written essay.
One community and the
way it interacts with the selected Global environment - The Mighty Murray by
John Nicholson, Rebekah read it and wrote an essay on the topic from the book.
In NSW in years 7 and 8 students need to study 5 compulsory subjects: English, Maths, Science, History and Geography along with 2 electives from a selection of 4. Rebekah chose the following:
In NSW in years 7 and 8 students need to study 5 compulsory subjects: English, Maths, Science, History and Geography along with 2 electives from a selection of 4. Rebekah chose the following:
Electives:
Languages:
Latin (her co-op finished up teading Latin at the end of 2016, so she began Visual Latin in 2017 and is loving it!)
Creative Arts:
Dance classes weekly and ballet 3 x week
Guitar lessons fortnightly changing to keyboard lessons from
July. (Guitar finished up end of 2016 and she continues practising at home, she didn't commence keyboard lessons)
The following are not required for the NSW BOSTES, however, we try to follow the Charlotte Mason methods so are included:
Book of Centuries: Updated every week
Nature Study: we didn't do as much as I would have liked to but went on nature walks as much as we could and journaled along the way.
Picture Study/ Art:
I got Rebekah to follow along with Easy Peasy's Ancient Art course of study so she could see some of the art of the countries she was reading about in Ancient History.
We also did Tom Roberts, Rembrandt, Giotto
We also did Tom Roberts, Rembrandt, Giotto
Composer/ Music:
Once again I got her to follow along with Easy Peasy's Ancient Music course so she could listen to the music from some of the cultures she was studying about.
We also studied the lives of Mozart and Tchaikovsky and read their biographies and listened to their music during the year.
Free reading done this year:
Heidi, Johanna Spyri
The Peterkin Papers, Lucretia Hale (with mum)
The Von Trapp Family Singers, M Von Trapp (with dad)
Where the mountain meets the moon, Grace Lin
The Watchmakers Daughter, Jean Watson (On Corrie Ten Boom)
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
The Lost Prince, F H Burnett (with mum, still going on)
The Golden Goblet, E J Mcgraw
William Carey, obliged to go by Janet and Geoff Benge
Shakespeare's Scribe, Gary Blackwood
Anna and the king, Margaret Landon
Mystery of the Roman Ransom, Henry Winterfeld (Sequel to Detectives in Togas)
William Wilberforce the Freedom Fighter, Derick Bingham
Escpape from Mr, Lemoncello's library, Chris Grabenstein
The Second Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling (with dad)
The Thieves of Tyburn Square: Introducing Elizabeth Fry by Dave and Neta Jackson
Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson
Traitor in the tower: John Bunyan, Dave and Neta Jackson
Alice Miranda takes the lead, Jacqueline Harvey
The Christmas Stories of George Macdonald
These Happy Golden Years, Laura Ingalls Wilder
Star of Light, Patricia St John
Sky Lark, Patricia St John
Meet Ruby (Our Australian Girl), Penny Matthews and Lucia Masciullo
Teddy's Button, Amy Le Feuvre
Tree House Mystery, Gertrude Warner
The Time Machine, H G Wells
Ben Hur, Lew Wallace
The Silver Chair, C S Lewis (with dad)
Michael Faraday Father of Electronics, Charles S Ludwig
