So, here it is. Finally!
I'm doing my best to catch up on promised posts. (Pictures of the house are coming...I haven't forgotten!)
Here are our favorites for 6th - 8th grade. As I have said before, this is not every single thing we used with each child for each grade, just some of our top picks!
THE BRONZE BOW - Elizabeth Speare
THE HIDING PLACE - Corrie ten Boom
JOHNNY TREMAIN - Ester Forbes
THE CALL OF THE WILD - Jack London
THE DOOR IN THE WALL - Marguerite de Angeli
Alpha Omega Language Arts
Learning Language Arts Through Literature
Spectrum Phonics (6th grade)
THE LIGHT AND THE GLORY
FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA
One thing we started doing in the 6th grade was having the kids keep journals. We've done regular write about your day journals, and weather journals, and prayer journals. The main thing for us was just to get the kids writing. (It so much fun to go back a few years later and read these!)We also continue to do a lot of field trips during the 6th, 7th and 8th grade years. I'm always looking for a good science field trip. The children also take music lessons, and participate in family Bible studies, and start their own businesses during these years. Our boys have had success with lawn mowing businesses as well as a dog walking business. Teaching the children to work and to be responsible is as important to us as diagramming sentences, even more so! The children have an increasing amount of work they are responsible for within the family and this is also an important part of our home-school. All of the children have an area of the home they are responsible for cleaning and keeping up. During the 6th - 8th grades we continue teaching cooking, baking, and we teach the children how to do laundry. Anything Dad is doing, he teaches the boys how to do also. (changing a tire, fixing the dryer, taking care of an errand, etc.) It's important also during these years to make sure the children are learning about keeping their hearts pure as well as studying a good text on health. Habits are forming now that have a life-long impact. We like this book for health
and this is one of our all time favorites for keeping children's hearts.
"School" becomes even more intertwined into LIFE during these years. Our home school work does involve text-books but it is so much more than that!
Here is another favorite book......
BETTER THAN A LEMONADE $TAND!
Small Business Ideas for Kids written by Fifteen Year Old Daryl Bernstein
We also love.......
THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BOYS
This book has everything you need to know about building tree houses, tying knots, identifying insects, and A WHOLE LOT MORE!
I'm including 2 of our reading lists. I encourage you to make up a reading list each year and have your children read as much as possible. These lists are required reading and the children read lots of other books of their own choosing as well.
6th Grade Reading List:
The Story of My Life, Keller
Little Men/Little Women, Alcott
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, Sydney
The Secret Garden, Burnett
Narnia Series, Lewis
Wind in the Willows, Grahame
Caddie Woodlawn, Brink
Across Five Aprils, Hunt
7th Grade Reading List:
Robinson Crusoe, Defoe
Heidi, Spyri
Treasure Island, Stevenson
Black Beauty, Sewell
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Verne
My Side of the Mountain, George
Summer of the Swans, Byers
Happy Home-Schooling!
You can order any of the books listed in this post HERE.
Thank you!
Keeping Our Childrens Hearts is also one of our favorites. I seem to reread it quite a bit. Have you seen the Maxwell family in person. We have tried a couple times but it didn't work out. They will be in Pigeon Forge and Alabama next month. Would love to see them and talk with them at a conference.
ReplyDeleteHi Missy, We did see the Maxwells at their Encouragement for the Homeschool Family Conference in Snellville, GA back in 2009. It was the best conference we have ever been to and we learned so much. We still talk about it all the time. If you have an opportunity to attend one of their conferences you should definitely try to go.
ReplyDelete