Another year is in the books… Julia has officially finished her 7th grade year, and we are on a mini summer break for a few weeks. Check out my End of Year 7th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Review | 2017-2018 to find out what did and didn’t work for us this year!
This is not a sponsored post, and all the opinions below are my own.
BookShark Level 7 All-Subject Package
After a ton of research I decided to switch Julia to BookShark for all of her core curriculum this year. This was a pretty big change for us, but I am really happy that we took a chance with this boxed curriculum. Since so much is included in BookShark All-Subject Packages, I will break down my review by subject.
History
BookShark Level 7 Reading with History consists of the following three components:
- Read Alouds 7
- Level 7 Readers
- History 7
You can see a complete list of all the books included in this level here. Combined Julia and I read 25+ books for history alone this year. That is a ton of reading, but it was totally worth it! In the beginning of the year Julia was very hesitant about using this program because of the amount of reading, but shortly after Christmas break she fell in love with it. We were introduced to some truly amazing authors and stories. Julia even asked me to buy a few books from an author she fell in love with a few weeks back. It just warms my heart to see her curled up reading these additional books on her own.
The use of Story of the World in this package has been questioned and objected to by some secular homeschoolers, but I did not find their inclusion to be a problem. Our history is full of a lot of religion, so I think it is impossible to completely avoid the topic all together and still give our children a well rounded education. However, that is just my opinion and everyone has to determine what is best for their own families.
Language Arts
The Level 7 Language Arts uses the same books as the history portion. I really enjoy the idea of blending subjects, but the language arts portion was not a perfect fit for us. Throughout the year Julia’s writing assignments focused mainly on current events. With all the negativity in the news I try to filter some of the bad out. Due to this I found it a lot more work on my part to filter the news and still have her have a solid language arts class. These current events papers are technically part of the history assignments, but in my mind it is the writing portion for this 7th grade language arts class.
I also was not a fan of the lack of grammar practice. A few months ago I had Julia start Fix It! Grammar: The Nose Tree Book to supplement her BookShark assignments. With this addition I felt as though we salvaged the year, but I will purchase more well rounded materials for her 8th grade year.
Science
BookShark Level 7 Science focuses on conservation, robotics, and technology. The books included in this package are very interesting. I am just not sure if they are enough for a middle school science course. I also found that some of the books were not great as a read aloud, so Julia had to read them on her own to truly grasp the concepts. For a child who is very into robotics and technology I think they would love this science curriculum, but Julia is not interested in these fields of study at all.
Math
Julia started Teaching Textbooks Math 7 towards the end of her 6th grade her. My plan was for her to complete this level and then move onto Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra, but it took her longer than expected. She just completed Math 7, so she will start Pre-Algebra after our mini summer break. I don’t have much to say about Teaching Textbooks other than I LOVE IT! The amount of time I save is well worth the price of this program. It works perfectly for Julia to go complete her math lesson for the day when I am working with Jack. I will, without a doubt, continue purchasing Teaching Textbooks for the remainder of our homeschooling years.
Homework and Horseplay’s final thoughts…
Overall I stand by my decision to switch to BookShark this year. Just like I would do with any curriculum, I tweaked this program to fit my child. This meant that I read a few of her readers aloud to her because she was struggling to get through them on her own. I also did not ask her all of the discussion questions or assign all of the geography work. Some days all we did was read the recommended pages, but for us that is enough! The amount of knowledge we gained this year is amazing. Anything new takes time to get used to, and I am thankful we found our footing and ended this year on such a high note.
If you are looking for a boxed curriculum for your middle schooler, I highly recommend BookShark Level 7. The Instructor’s Guide included in our package was a dream. Everything was planned out for me, so it was truly an open and go program. With the hectic year I had BookShark was just what I needed to get through everything and not be overwhelmed.
Thank you for checking out my End of Year 7th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Review | 2017-2018…
I hope you all have an amazing summer, and don’t forget to check out my 5th grade and 9th grade homeschool curriculum reviews!
The post End of Year 7th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Review | 2017-2018 appeared first on Homework and Horseplay.
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