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Family subjects together until what grade?
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We have 6 children ages 11 and under, and I’ve used SCM for years, but my oldest is going into 7th grade next year, and I was looking at the curriculum guide to plan a bit for him and wasn’t sure I understood it correctly. It would seem from the chart that family subjects are done together even through high school, but that doesn’t seem right to me. Most of the history spine read-alouds seem for the younger crowd, and some that are older (Famous Men of…) seem like they could be read independently by the older children since they have been over my younger one’s heads so we haven’t done them.
As he’s aged, he’s preferred to do science on his own, and some other subjects like grammar, still narrating to me orally or written. I think he would prefer to do history on his own as well, but was just curious how SCM looks in your house with secondary students and high school students?
Even though I enjoy family time at the table (well, when the youngest ones aren’t talking/running around/getting into trouble:), my goal has always been to have them as independent as possible at the soonest appropriate time, since I have a lot on my plate, and if they want to pursue further education they will be on their own as well.
What, if any, subjects do you do through 7-9th grade together? Just Bible?
One off topic question; do you do dictation all the way through high school? I have to admit I find it trying, and the passages are getting extremely longer!
Thanks!
My kids are 1st through 8th grades. We do many subjects together, and I plan to continue this way throughout high school.
Our morning readings encompass:
-History/Geography
-Science
-Religion (Bible, Catechism, Scripture Memory)
-Literature
-Composer/Poet/Art Study
-Nature Study
-Character DevelopmentWe spend about an hour each morning on our family subjects, and then the kids break off to do their individual work. My oldest, in particular, will have his own age-appropriate work (readings, videos, notebooking) to do to supplement what we have studied together in the morning.
His “narrations” take the form of either written narrations or discussions throughout the day. There is nothing formal about it. Last week, for example, he watched a documentary about President Garfield and then, because he was so interested in it, he spent about 30 minutes telling me all about it – the presidency, the assassination attempt, the assassin, the doctor, the railroad tracks, etc. I notice with that child, in particular, that if I force the discussion he clams up. If I let it flow naturally in the course of our day, though, he will share naturally because of his enthusiasm.
My oldest is in 8th. We still do all our subjects together, except 3Rs. Each day we have 3 loop schedules that I follow: one for literature, one for arts/fun extras, and one for history/geography/science.
Literature (one per day):
- chapter reading (currently reading Mary Poppins)
- Shakespeare (currently reading Poetry for Young People, but hope to start a play when we finish with this)
- Chapter reading
- Poetry (Random House Book of Children’s Poetry)
- Chapter Reading
Content Subjects:
- History (SOTW 2 and SCM Module 4)/Living Science Book (The Geology Book or other Earth science book)
- History/Christian Kids Explore Earth & Space lesson
- Visits to Europe/Signs & Seasons (Classical Astronomy)
- History/CKE science experiment & review lesson
- History/Signs & Seasons
Extras/Fine Arts:
- Harmony Fine Arts (Grade 6 ties in with middle ages)/Laying Down the Rails for Children
- Paper Sloyd for Primary Grades/AO Folksong
- Draw Squad (scheduled with Harmony FA)/composer study
- Compass Drawing/Progressive Singing For Young Beginners
- Harmony Fine Arts/Bedtime Math
Latin & Bible are included with our daily subjects (along with math, piano practice, & language arts). I really like how our schedule is currently set up and plan to stick with this format, subbing out materials as they are completed or we lose interest. We currently aren’t doing nature study (unless you count Signs & Seasons), so that will probably be added back in when we finish something else.
Next year DD will do a bit more on her own. She will be using Apologia’s Physical Science, but I plan on adding in a Thames & Kosmos physics kit as well as the Physics 101 DVDs. These will be used by everyone once a week. She’ll also be using a different level of Harmony Fine Arts. She will probably skip out on the some of the “younger” items. One of the Your Morning Basket podcasts talked about having the older DC leave after a certain point in the Morning Time. That’s probably what we’ll be doing. I just need to organize our morning so we get to the all-ages materials first, then she can move on to her independent things…or we may move our “morning basket” items to the afternoons. Although I don’t know the details yet, we’ll still be doing literature, Bible, and our family history readings together, along with some science extras and possibly Latin.
We do Bible, extras such as picture study, and history/geography together. Usually for 12th grade my senior does government alone instead of our history, but next year we are doing a projects based government class as a family. We are going to study elections, bill to law, The Constitution, and do a mock court trial.
My teens like the interaction of family history, and the SCM guides have a good way to include high schoolers. Our government courses are usually dry, so we are looking forward to this new experiment.
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