Student Spotlight: Joy

   Joy is next! She is 12 years old and in seventh grade this year. That seems awfully big. She truly is a Joy, and such a blessing to so many people. When she's happy you just can't help but smile along with her, and she's such a helpful kid. Really. We've had rental offers. LOL  The other morning I woke up the front door opening. By the time I'd stumbled to the door to see what on earth was going on, Joy was coming back in and raised an eyebrow and my disheveled, blinking sleep out of my eyes self, "I was just taking the trash out, Mom." She'd fired up the computer, made a pot of coffee, and helped Valor get his morning sippy cup of milk. Just because. Wouldn't trade her for anything. ♥

 

 
   Joy's goals for the year are speaking Greek, swimming better, reading an actual Latin book, and reading ten thousand books. Her favorite color is blue, her favorite subject is math, and her current favorite book is The Mark of Athena. On our Not Back to School Day, it was Hunger Games. Rick Riordan finally released a new book shortly afterward. Hunger Games didn't stand a chance. She enjoys the story, but will be quick to tell you that Riordan is a -much- better author.

   My goals for Joy's seventh grade year are keeping her appropriately challenged in math and science, getting her writing strong essays, and delving into literature analysis.







  Here's her curricula plan for this year.

• Grammar: Rod and Staff's English 7
• Spelling/vocabulary: Rod and Staff's Spelling by Sound and Structure, finish 6, then 7
• Literature: homemade study based on Anne of Green Gables, following the allusion and footnote trails through the annotated version, also using Anne's Anthology and Anne of Green Gables Treasury (recipes, handiwork, and such)
  Figuratively Speaking for literary terms
• Composition: Lively Art of Writing for the first semester, writing and revising for the rest of the year (to the tune of one main paper a week)
• Penmanship: Spencerian Penmanship (at her specific request)
• Math: finish pre-algebra, start Jacob's Algebra, Patty Paper Geometry on the side for fun
• Science: Conceptual Physical Science, The Great Physicists from Galileo to Einstein, History of Chemistry, Backyard Ballistics
• History: homemade, starting at the Revolutionary War and going as far into modern times as we get, using a mixture of Human Odyssey (Spielvogel), The History of US (Hakim), History: The Definitive Visual Guide, American Short Story, and literature 
• Latin: Latin Alive from Classical Academic Press
• Logic: Discovery of Deduction from Classical Academic Press (one semester course, slowed down to take a whole school year)
• Poetry: Art of Poetry (first semester)
• Art: Annotated Mona Lisa (second semester)
• Civics: Land of Fair Play, homemade Constitution study (first semester)
• Geography: to be determined (second semester)

That looks like a lot all typed up. I swear she doesn't work ten hours a day! The last four elective type subjects stagger with each other and don't take much time; they're the first to get set aside if the core subjects need more time. I don't plan on even scheduling the penmanship in; she'll do that for the fun of it. The grammar book gets set aside for the day if her writing load is heavier than normal. When I get their student spotlights finished I'll work on some daily schedule examples.


End of the year curricula comments, posted June 2013

   Where the Brook and River Meet was AWESOME. Best lit year ever for this kid.
   We fizzled on Lively Art of Writing and went back to mom made assignments, and she did plenty from Where the Brook and River Meet, too.
   We started out loving Conceptual Physical, but they felt in over their heads. We ended up using just parts and pieces of it, adding Tiner's Exploring the World of Chemistry, Exploring the World of Physics, extra literature, extra experiments, and such. They both asked if they could just go back to Apologia next year.
   History was great. She mostly read through it this year.
   This was just not a good year for Latin. It was us, not the curricula.
   Logic got set by the wayside. She wasn't ready for formal logic.
   Art of Poetry was a hit! We'll finish it over the summer or next year.
   Art didn't get touched, civics barely got touched, and separate geography never happened. We over planned. Definitely.