Starting Plans for Year 7

Time to start planning, and this is my planning notebook, so I thought I'd write out a few half-thoughts on Year 7.

My main planning resources are usually Mater Amabilis and Ambleside Online.

I go there to see which is closest to the history/literature focus I am planning for the child. With Kieron, I am planning to continue our world history tour. Hopefully, we will get up to the early Renaissance in these last few days of Year 6, and then be prepared to start with world exploration and Renaissance next year, and move to a focus on the New World and US History.

It is nice not to plan things strictly by year, because when we get to Year 8 I can decide if I want to focus more intensely on modern history, or do something else (in the past it's often worked that I did a world history survey in Year 8, but this time through Kieron seems to have gotten a pretty solid background in history already and he is one who seems to remember a LOT, so a survey might be redundant).

So Mater Amabilis is going to be the main resource for "humanities" (history/lit) this year because AO covers classical and modern history in Year 6 and middle ages in Year 7. And I do not think he is ready for Ambleside Year 8, though we may pick a few of the books for challenging read-alouds.

I usually go to the Real Learning booklist for ideas for some possible "themes" or focus areas, and then to MacBeth's Opinion (High School Science) for ideas for "living" science, nature, geography and seasonal type things.

So that covers what Sonlight calls our "Core Curriculum" -- I still have to write out an actual booklist, though.

For math, I am seriously hoping to use Ray's Higher Arithmetic along with books from Living Math, and online resources for drill.

For Grammar and Composition, Classical Writing (assuming I get time to actually plan composition this summer) plus KISS Grammar and Daily Grammar.

For Latin, probably Henle Latin 1. We got through Unit One this year so will start from there.

For Logic, I have a collection of resources. Still have to think this through, because I don't know what approach would be best for him. I am thinking Traditional Logic ought to wait till he is older. I have Canon Press Introductory Logic which I have used in the past (not too time consuming, and builds discussion skills). I also have a couple of books from Critical Thinking Press and am wondering whether to try a bit of informal logic since he is definitely at what Dorothy Sayers calls the "Pert" (Argumentative) stage.