Middle School Curriculum Recommendations

In my last post, Middle School Matters, I talked about more of my philosophy about Middle School. In a previous blog, Middle School Vision Casting, I talked about helping kids create and set a vision for their future which helps lead them to a, Passion led High School.

Today, I am just going to talk about the fun stuff, curriculum!

Science –

I know many people don’t like Apologia General and Physical Science because they are more textbooky and are more challenging but that’s exactly why I like them.  I want my kids to be challenged in Middle School.  I think these are a good level for most kids unless they have some reading challenges.  They come with helps, like the Notebook, or the online textbook and I like the fact that they are learning to take notes, write-up Lab reports and starting to take tests.  They are necessary steps to prepare for high school, also the experiments are super fun.  I also think Science needs to have Worldview taught very clearly in the Middle School grades, especially as this is supposed to be Independent.  It’s important to me that they are taught about the Theory of Evolution from a Creationist Worldview.

General Science Kit

Physical Science Kit

Math – 

Sooooooo, math.  I usually have two maths that I have my kids doing, a fun math and a challenging math.  Depending on the child, any of these might be considered the “fun math” or the challenging math.

Life of Fred Pre-Algebra Bundle – we love, love, love Life of Fred.  Set in a story about the little character Fred, math is taught in a funny, word problem kind of way. This appealed to my readers, and the funniness of the story appealed to my “punny” kid.  We also found these to be a good stalling point between finishing Singapore 6b and full-fledged Algebra.  Even my math kids weren’t always mentally ready to step into Algebra even if it seemed like that was the natural next step. There is some natural brain maturing that has to happen before a kid can understand the abstractness of Algebra.

Thinkwell – My son, Collin, thrives on Thinkwell.  He likes the teaching videos, the shorter lessons and the step by step instruction.  I like that it’s taught by some of the best educators in the country, it’s rigorous, self-graded, and far less expensive than a live class.  We have had a lot of success with Thinkwell both with math, science and AP’s in high school.  I have never some across anything objectionable in the math videos but they are a Secular company so the Sciences are taught from a different worldview and I wouldn’t have kids younger than 10th or 11th grade take those classes.

Art of Problem Solving – The Basic Vol 1 – I went through Volume 1 and 2 with my kids.  I did it out loud and together in 7th grade.  IT’S HARD! AOPS gives you the problem before they teach you the problem.  You have to think through the problem and then they give you the how tos.  Collin found this absolutely horrifying, however, Connor and Caileigh loved the challenge.  We have used the online classes, hard cover books, and the online books with videos.  This is the most rigorous math curriculum that I know of, but it is not for everyone.  For the kids that love a challenge and don’t mind being wrong, this is a great curriculum.

Khan Academy  – If you don’t know about Khan Academy, GO THERE RIGHT NOW! It’s free, it’s excellent and it had thousands of videos on everything.  Caileigh loves Khan Academy.  I don’t allow it to be the main curriculum but it often is the most visited. Again, it’s a secular company, so you might want to steer away from the Science portions.

Language Arts – 

Writing With Skill 1 – This is my hands down favorite writing curriculum.  I think its excellent and does an amazing job teaching kids and parents about writing.  Essays, outlines, history research papers, science papers, literary analysis of prose and poetry etc. It is rigorous, but so good.  I do half a book a year starting in 6th grade through WWS3 in 11th grade to prepare for the AP English Lit test.  Get the Instructors Guide, you’ll need it.

Grammar for the Well Trained Mind – I was given 6 months of this years ago in a pilot program and the twins and I loved it.  It was thorough, interesting and did the job without too much pain.  I was sooooo sad when she didn’t have the rest finished for the twins.  You will need the Student workbook for each year, the key for each and the Core Instructor Text.  I might buy this just because… I mean the twins might need it for 12th grade, right?

Rod and Staff English – Connor didn’t have the same opportunities that the twins had so he did Rod and Staff English in Middle School.  I would start with 5 in 6th and try to get through 8 by 9th or so.  It is HEFTY.  We did a lot of it verbally and did none of the writing because we were using other things, like WWS. He only needed a refresher in grammar after 3 years of R&S.  He had it down and it showed in his perfect English score on the ACT.

Vocab from Classical Roots – When my kids were done in 5th or 6th with Spelling we moved to Vocab.  They did Vocab through 10th grade.  I really like this program as it neatly followed the Vocab we did with Greek and Latin roots in English from the Roots Up during Creation to the Greeks and Rome to the Reformation from My Father’s World.

Foreign Language – 

Prima Latina – After Lively Latin, we did two years of a more rigorous Latin.  I did not overly stress about knowing every single declension but more about the latin roots.  I think having a foundation in Latin is really helpful for learning a foreign language so all three of mine did several years of Latin in Middle School.

Homeschool Spanish Academy – If I hadn’t done Latin in Middle School, I would have just started Spanish.  I have talked about them before, but we love HSA.  One on One (or multiple students – the twins take their classes together) attention, they start speaking Spanish immediately and the teachers are really great.  They remember their names, interests, friends, birthdays and form close bonds with their teachers.