SCM team and anyone else who has the individual guides,
I own yr 5 and yr 6 of the Individual studies guides. I didn’t utilize it when scheduling this last term and now that we are at the end of the term, I am evaluating how things went. My kids are happy, but I’m not thrilled. They spend a bit too much time with school work IMO. SO……I’m looking at where to cut back, how SCM scheduled individual studies, etc. I have a yr 6 and a yr 7 this year.
Is 2 days a week of science really ok for a 6th grader (not taking into account nature study….just need reassurance here.
My biggest question, is how would the individual studies look different for yr 7 and yr 8? Oh how I wish you had those available.
I own Planning Your SCM…..and utilized it but feel like maybe we are on overkill here (and yet I worry about 2 days of science being enough. lol.
Hi, Tamara. Sorry for the delay in responding; I’ve been away. Two days per week for 5th and 6th grade is enough, with the additional 1 day for nature study. However, if you are concerned about making the transition into 7th grade, feel free to increase that to 3 days per week with an additional day for nature study (so 4 total).
The individual studies for grades 7 and 8 would look something like this:
Spelling Wisdom, Book 3, and Using Language Well, Book 3 (which I am working on right now) (2 days per week);
optional Analytical Grammar, for those who want more in-depth and diagramming;
Apologia’s General Science or Physical Science, depending on grade level (about 4 days per week) plus nature study; you could also do a living science book on nature study days, if desired;
Math (every day);
Ourselves, Book 1 (1 day per week);
Getting Started with Latin (2 days per week)
So the main differences are switching to individual science and increasing the work load of it, adding a personal development book to read and discuss, and adding Latin.
I noticed separate literature is still not scheduled at this age according to your post above. Is this correct? I will admit, since meeting you last year in KS and asking this question for the younger years, I’ve struggled with letting it go and allowing history readings to be enough. My older 2 children are not big readers if it’s not scheduled. The 7th grader will pick up a lot of “factual” books and sometimes biographies but definitely does not pick up any literary books beyond those 2 types.
Following as well. I struggle with the individual literature too. My kids have additional assigned reading (at their level) with oral or written narration everyday in addition to their history readings. It doesn’t feel like too much now, but sometimes I wonder if it will be as they progress into harder and longer history readings.
Correct. I do not have additional literature assignments at this grade level. I encourage the parent to assign the family read-aloud titles for this age group as individual reading if those titles are not being read aloud; for example, if the read-alouds are from the younger group list.
Please feel free to add more literature assignments as desired. Just be cautious of overloading with too much reading and not enough time to digest and think about what was read. Also be careful of themes and topics covered in the books you add. Just because a child is capable of reading something at this age doesn’t automatically assume that he is ready to deal with the ideas those books will introduce.