Our Charlotte Mason Homeschool Seventh Grade Recap

(Please note that I have linked to the book lists on the Ambleside Online website to respect their licensing terms and the hard work they’ve put into such an amazing curriculum that they offer for free. Books that use affiliate links here are not listed on the AO website.)

It is much to be wished that thoughtful mothers would more often keep account of the methods they employ with their children, with some definite note of the success of this or that plan.

CHARLOTTE MASON (HOME EDUCATION)

See our plans for this year here.

My older student is now halfway through junior high! Or 2/3 of the way through middle school, however you want to refer to these middle grades. This was certainly a jump in both the amount of readings and the content for both of us, and there were definitely some growing pains as we didn’t finish a few of the books (though we will continue with them through the summer). However, I think we both learned a lot in how to manage the time better and in the content itself, and I am again so thankful for this Charlotte Mason education for all of us!

Morning Time

The Lay of the Land
Book of Virtues
The Ology
Stories of the Saints
Saints and Heroes
Morning Time Resources

The Morning Time routine we settled into last year continued to be a success this year, and the only change I made was replacing the Lord’s Prayer with the weekly Collect from the BCP (and I moved the Lord’s Prayer to after our Bible lesson). We did finish The Ology about halfway through the year, but I didn’t replace that with anything, and I think that was a good choice for us right now. It’s so refreshing to have found a routine that works so well for us and allows us to include all of the “extra” things that are just as important as the regular subjects.

• Prayer
• Doxology
• Spanish Dailies (we go over the date and weather in Spanish)
• Stories of the Saints/Saints and Heroes
• Music
  • Monday/Wednesday: hymn
  • Tuesday/Thursday: folksong
• Reading/Riches
  • Monday: a single reading from The Book of Virtues (we’re still making our way through the section on courage)
  • Tuesday: Picture Study (see below for more details)
  • Wednesday: ten minutes from The Lay of the Land until it’s finished, then we’ll go back to the seasonal Dallas Lore Sharp books
  • Thursday: Composer Study (see below for more details)
• Collect of the Week
• Benediction

Bible & Spiritual Formation

Bible Reading Schedule Here
Spiritual Formation Book List Here
SPCK Bible Atlas
Bible Resources

I did end up making changes to our Bible reading schedule. At the beginning of the year, I decided to have both kids do Bible lessons together, but I wasn’t sure what schedule or reading plan to follow. I decided to go with the BCP reading schedule and stick to a more liturgical cycle, which I had always wanted us to do together. I really liked this at first, but as we didn’t read the passages together on the weekends or on days that we didn’t have school, I realized that we would be missing parts of the various stories we were reading. So, about halfway through the year, I decided to go back to AO’s schedules and started the new Year 7 reading schedule. My son did this last year with the old Year 6 schedule, but repeating it was fine, and now they’re both on the same schedule, which I can continue for the next five years. I really, really liked the three of us doing Bible lessons together rather than doing them separately with each kid, so this was a good change to make.

I chose to have him read Bright Valley of Love and More Than a Carpenter for spiritual formation. He didn’t have much of an opinion about either book, which is kind of status quo for him, though he did like the “Lord, Liar, or Lunatic?” chapter from Carpenter. I got the 2009 revised edition, but didn’t realize this until we were near the end of the book and used the wrong schedule up to that point (the revised schedule is here). This worked out fine, as I didn’t end up having him read the last chapter due to content anyway.

Citizenship

Citizenship Book List Here
Plutarch Schedule Here
Plutarch Resources
Plutarch Maps
World Teen News (and PrintFriendly browser extension)
Newsela

Though I was excited to start B on Ourselves, I was also a little nervous because when I started reading Charlotte Mason’s volumes, I had difficulty understanding them. The language was so dense and old-fashioned compared to what I was used to at the time that I remember having to read them out loud to prepare for my monthly Charlotte Mason book club. Fortunately, after seven years of Charlotte Mason homeschooling, B didn’t have the same problem, and he was able to read and understand his readings quite well. I am glad we’ll continue this book for personal development through twelfth grade!

And Plutarch. I was so intimidated by Plutarch before we started reading the Lives in Year 5, but it has quickly become one of our favorite subjects, and Cato the Younger was a particular favorite this year. I did fall behind on my pre-reading a few times, but thanks to Anne White’s guides, this wasn’t much of a problem. I want to be better about making that a priority next year, especially as my daughter will also join us for Plutarch. I also discovered this map, which I printed and laminated, and it was so helpful for all of the lives we did this year.

Penny Candy was an excellent addition for this year, and I think it introduced a lot of great ideas (especially Austrian vs. Keynesian economics!) to B, though he did struggle with some of the more complex concepts. I also didn’t discover until we were almost done with it that there are several newer editions that include more up-to-date information (the copy I was reading was from 1994). I did some summarizing and read chapters from the newer book once I made the discovery, but I’m also putting it on our free reads shelf for him to look through himself at some point.

For current events, I mentioned at the beginning of the year that I had planned to use Newsela, but they changed to a paywall structure that is highly cost-prohibitive to homeschoolers. They do offer four free articles per week, but these are selected for you, and most of the topics were ones I wouldn’t have chosen. Instead, I used World Teen News and the Printfriendly browser extension to print those articles out. I tried to balance the two articles I chose, one being more serious and one lighter, printed them out, and put them in his school binder. Then, he orally narrated one of them and typed his narration for the other one. AO recommends that students “re-write them in their own words,” but B struggled with this as he does not enjoy writing, especially more creative writing, so we’ll keep working on this. I am debating switching us to World Watch and CNN10 next year so he can get broader exposure to more news and choose which stories he’d like to write about.

Foreign Language (Spanish)

28 Bilingual English-Spanish Fairy Tales & Fables
Under the Manzano
Simple Spanish Year 1

Our Spanish lesson plans were a little all over the place this school year, but we still made progress, so I call it a success. We started the year with Term 3 of Tierra from Under the Manzano, and as with last year, that worked so well for us. The creator took a break from developing it and is going to be offering more à la carte resources in the future (which I definitely plan to use when they’re available!), so we explored other options in Terms 2 and 3.

In Term 2, I used 28 Bilingual English-Spanish Fairy Tales & Fables, and we went through one story each week. This was an interesting change, but neither kid retained much from this Term, which was reflected in their exams. For Term 3, I decided I needed to do something more structured, so I pulled out the Simple Spanish lessons I purchased in 2022. Her scheduling structure is somewhat confusing to me (she has made updates to the curriculum since I bought it, so I am interested to see the changes), so I came up with my own schedule using her suggestions for formal and informal lessons as well as what I learned while we were using Tierra. I used the Gouin series, book readings (I found the book on YouTube, which was so helpful!), Bible verses, and poems to make a version that worked for us. This was our schedule:

• Monday – Hymn (we just sang this together. My daughter suggested that in the future, she’d like our Spanish hymn to match our English hymn, and I think this is a great idea, so we’ll be doing that next year); Series
• Tuesday – Bible Verse (again, I will be matching this to whatever we’re learning in English at the time); Book page
• Wednesday – Folksong (I’m going to try to match this to our English folksong if possible); Series (also review old series)
• Thursday – Poem; Book page

I also tried to include the weekly challenges by going over them at the beginning of the week and printing them out to put on the fridge, but I found that most of them didn’t really apply to us, and we usually forgot to use them.

This schedule worked so well for us. Even though we haven’t done exams yet, I know both kids learned a good amount of vocabulary and grammar in Term 3. We’ll continue this schedule next year.

Geography

Geography Book List Here
AO Forum Year 7 Map Resources
Seterra Maps
Geography Resources

We both really enjoyed The Brendan Voyage! What a great way to explore the North Atlantic and learn more about this amazing Irish saint! How the Heather Looks was a little more challenging, and we didn’t finish it (we’ll read the rest through the summer) as quite a few of the books we weren’t familiar with. For the ones we did recognize, however, it was neat to hear her experience of visiting the related locations, especially Wind in the Willows, as I was able to pull out my copy with the Ernest Shepard illustrations to see what she was referencing.

I am still struggling with map drills. With The Brendan Voyage, it was a little easier as, most of the time, there were definite locations that were mentioned, so we did map our way across the northern Atlantic, but toward the end of the book, that became more challenging. I also tried to do some mapping in France for Joan of Arc, but because that was a book he read on his own, sometimes I’d forget to pull out the maps. The same was true for How the Heather Looks. I think next year, I need to go back to scheduling map drill time rather than trying to tack it on more organically after narration of different books. I also really like what Celeste Cruz has done with her kids and having them keep year-long maps in a notebook to update as they make their way through different books. I want to plan to include this somehow next year.

Scouting

Scouting for Wild Ones

We did one section of scouting (basic hiking skills) with our micro co-op at the beginning of the year, but the co-op didn’t continue into Terms 2 and 3, so it fell by the wayside. I am hoping to pick it up again next year.

History & Biography

History Book List Here
Biography Book List Here
AO Year 7 Historical Documents Printable
History Resources

Additional History Free Reads

Castle
Before Columbus: The Americas of 1491
Children of the Longhouse
Fine Print: A Story about Johann Gutenberg
Mansa Musa and the Empire of Mali
Mansa Musa: The Lion of Mali
The Picture History of Great Inventors
A Single Shard
The Trumpeter of Krakow

We covered the historical time period from 800 to 1485 this year, which is such an interesting part of world history. As I mentioned in my planning post, I chose to go with Arnold-Forster’s A History of England, and I loved this book! I can’t compare it to Churchill’s Birth of Britain, the main history book AO recommends, as I haven’t read it. But Arnold-Forster worked so well for us that I was pleased with this choice. I appreciate the tables of dates and people at the beginning of each chapter (which helped tremendously with his own Book of Centuries entries) and how the chapters were broken up. He had a conversational style that offered living ideas and was both entertaining and informative, which we both appreciated. We’ll continue using this book through next year.

We did most of the other readings, though I made a few changes here and there. We got through many of the original documents, but in Term 3, because we were behind in other areas, I decided to drop Deeds Done by the Sea. When I do Year 7 again with my daughter, I may have her read all of these independently instead of reading them with her. I also originally intended Daughter of Time to be one he read on his own, but due to some more adult content in the beginning, I switched that and had him read Joan of Arc on his own instead. We did not finish Daughter of Time, so that’s another one we’ll be reading through the summer (with no written or oral narrations). We struggled a little with that one as we hadn’t gotten to the chapters about Richard III in Arnold-Forster when we started it, so trying to understand the references to different people was challenging.

B enjoyed In Freedom’s Cause, and I wished I had read it when I was younger, as my husband and I visited Stirling castle and Bannockburn in 2009, but I had no idea what any of it was about at the time. We will have a lot of traveling to do in the future!

Literature

Literature Book List Here
Shakespeare Schedule Here

The only change I made to our Literature readings was substituting Julius Caesar for Measure for Measure in Term 3. We were able to recall quite a bit from Plutarch’s Brutus (which we read last year) while listening to the play, and because we were also reading about the life of Cato the Younger during the same Term, we were able to make some connections there as well. We found all of the plays interesting, but my daughter specifically has requested no more tragedies for next year. 🙂

Beowulf was a bit of a struggle for both of us. Even with the translation, some parts were challenging to understand, but all of it was clarified when we read about it in The History of English Literature for Girls and Boys. It was good exposure to Old English, which was also something we learned a lot about this year!

B really enjoyed both Once and Future King and Watership Down, with the latter probably being his favorite book of all the ones he’s read for school. I enjoyed how Once and Future King was tied into The Age of Chivalry and Tennyson’s poetry, as well as bringing back the King Arthur material we read in Year 5.

We both also enjoyed A Taste of Chaucer. I read it on Archive in the beginning, but then a friend found a nice copy on eBay, so I splurged and added it to our permanent collection.

Logic

Logic Book List Here
Fallacy Detective Short List of Fallacies (missing Strawman)

At the beginning of the year, I said that if we were falling behind, I’d drop How to Read a Book, but I’m so glad I didn’t do this! For one thing, it’s not a lot of reading, so it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. But also, it’s a great book! It’s making me rethink how I read, and I’ve taken quite a few ideas from it for how I can read more efficiently. B isn’t quite as enamored with it, but I’m hoping what we read now will stick with him, and he can process it as he gets older.

We did not make it all the way through Fallacy Detective, but we just have a few chapters to finish, so we’ll also do that over the summer. This was a fascinating book, and I’m glad we could do this one together, as it gave us many opportunities to discuss hard topics and recognize the many forms that manipulation, no matter the source, can take. Toward the end of the year, the end-of-chapter quizzes became a little more challenging as B couldn’t remember all of the fallacies, so I made a printable with just the names of all the fallacies and had that out for easier reference for him. I also printed the shortlist I linked to above for my own quick reference.

Nature Study

Nature Study Book List and Recommendations Here
Ambling Together Nature Study Guides
Nature Study Resources

We used Ambling Together’s nature study guides in Terms 1 and 2, and I was so thankful I had these as they not only helped us through those terms, but I was able to use them as a model for Term 3 when she moved away from the AO schedule to do weather. Both kids had a term of weather in their science curricula, so I stuck with the AO schedule in Term 3, and we learned about amphibians. This worked out perfectly as we rescued/adopted two tiger salamanders from our window well/yard last fall just before snowstorms that have become permanent pets. Because of this, when I planned out the Term, I chose Moon of the Salamanders as our nature lore book, and we spent four weeks learning about them since we could observe them. Here are all of the resources we read together for our amphibian nature study time:

Moon of the Salamanders
The Guide to Colorado Reptiles and Amphibians
Frogs and Toads
Spotted Salamander

I had also moved Lay of the Land as a read-aloud during Morning Time, and we did not finish that, so we’ll continue that during Morning Time in the fall. I really appreciate everything I’ve read from Dallas Lore Sharp, and this one has been no exception.

Poetry

Poetry Selections Here
YouTube Playlist of Term 1 Selections

We appreciated being able to listen to people who know how to properly read Middle English in Term 1 by listening to the YouTube playlist of the poems. B found it especially interesting when there was some kind of Modern English translation to compare the words.

In Term 2, we read a few pages of Idylls of the King every school day, and he also enjoyed that. It helped that we’ve read about King Arthur’s life in the past, and when some of the stories came up again later in the year in The Age of Chivalry, he recognized them immediately.

Keats was interesting, but I don’t think he was a favorite for either of us. I know we are in the minority in that. 🙂

Science

Science Book List Here
All Three Terms: Sabbath Mood Homeschool Form 3-4 Biology Living Science Guide
Term 1: Sabbath Mood Homeschool Form 3-4 Chemistry Living Science Guide
Term 2: Sabbath Mood Homeschool Form 3-4 Weather Living Science Guide
Term 3: Sabbath Mood Homeschool Form 3-4 Physics Living Science Guide
Various books from the Sabbath Mood Homeschool living science books lists
Cognitive Surplus Notebooks
Science Resources

Additional Science Free Reads

Weather (Term 2)

Blizzard! The Storm that Changed America
The Secret World of Weather

Science was the most significant leap for us this year as we did not follow the AO schedule, and B did about 98% of it on his own, whereas in the past, I have always done it with him. It was nice to have this off my plate, and I think it was good for him to be responsible for ensuring his tasks got done. One struggle he had was not waiting until Friday to do everything, as we often had things planned on Fridays, so he didn’t have time and would end up having to finish his experiments on the weekends. He also really did not enjoy having to handwrite his narrations for science (which is what is expected in the Sabbath Mood Homeschool science guides), but I think this was also good for him, especially as it will give him a hint of the lab notebooks he will most likely need to keep in the future.

The Mystery of the Periodic Table was fascinating, and I appreciated how it went into the history of chemistry and explored the periodic table itself. I think it was a good framework on which he can build future chemistry knowledge. We both really enjoyed Eric Sloane’s Look at the Sky and Tell the Weather (the illustrations are beautiful!) and learned a lot about how weather moves and patterns form. Secrets of the Universe was also a good series, and he got the overall concepts, though he didn’t enjoy those books as much as he did the others.

He loved the weather unit and chose to read The Secret World of Weather for independent reading. He was less enthusiastic about chemistry and physics but enjoyed the experiments.

Math

RightStart Level G
Math Resources

We just have the review and the final exam for RightStart Level G before he finishes that book. This was another subject he did on his own, other than me checking his work and occasionally playing games together. I have been pleased with RightStart and the progress he has made. However, in doing more research into what kind of math he’s going to need in high school to pursue a more technical career (right now, we are looking at Electrical Engineering), I am leaning toward skipping RightStart Level H and switching him to Saxon Algebra I in Year 8 so he will have more time in high school to move on to calculus and statistics. I have a Saxon placement test for him to take after he finishes Level G to see if he’s ready for Algebra I, and based on the questions, I think he should do just fine. I just need to figure out if this will be a good move for him as I took Saxon math in high school and remember it being very rigorous. (Updated July 26th – my husband, who has a degree in chemical engineering, felt that RightStart Level H will be just fine in preparation for Algebra in high school, so we are sticking with it!)

Language Arts

Copywork

Copywork Resources

We continued what we’ve been doing for copywork over the last several years, with B doing ten minutes of copywork every day. He starts with his recitation selections and then moves on to the copywork suggestion files from the old AO Yahoo Group. He also switched from skipping lines to writing on every line.

Dictation

Spelling Wisdom Book 1 and Book 2
Post-it Page Markers
Spelling Resources

He finished Spelling Wisdom Book 1 early in the year, and we moved on to Book 2 in the second half, with one to two lessons per week, depending on how long they were. I love these books and am so thankful for this resource and the Charlotte Mason approach to spelling, as both kids have excelled in this subject.

English Grammar and Composition

Grammar and Composition Book List and Recommendations Here
Junior Analytical Grammar and Mechanics  (JAG)
Grammar Resources

As I mentioned at the beginning of the year, I chose to skip the AO choice of Our Mother Tongue because we’ve been working on formal grammar with the JAG books since fourth grade, and they’ve worked fine for us.

With the handwritten narrations he was doing in his science notebook, he was doing four written narrations per week, which is an increase from last year. I allowed him to type the two narrations that weren’t for his science notebooks, which he appreciated. His written narrations are still shorter than I think they should be, but I’m not sure my expectations are too high. I found a great thread on the AO forums with a sort of narration rubric that I would like to use in the future, and I hope to read through Know and Tell this summer.

Recitation

Ruminating on Recitation Article (read this first!)
Recitation Guidelines and Student Log (updated in 2021)
Recitation Resources
AO Recitation Recommendations for Year 7

For recitation/repetition, we continued with our schedule of Old Testament on Mondays, New Testament on Tuesdays, a Psalm on Wednesdays, and poetry on Thursdays, and I am so glad this is part of our days! Here is what he learned this year:

• Term 1:
  • Numbers 14:20-38 & 27:12-23
  • Luke 1:39-56 & 6:20-38
  • Psalms 56 & 61
  • “Praise of Women” and “The True Knight” (from The Oxford Book of English Verse)
• Term 2
  • Genesis 35:1-15 & 45:1-15
  • Luke 2:22-38 & 4:1-13
  • Psalms 62 & 19
  • “The Charge of the Light Brigade” and “Crossing the Bar” (both by Alfred, Lord Tennyson)
• Term 3
  • Exodus 15:1-21 & 16:1-21
  • Luke 8:1-21 & 8:40-56
  • Psalms 25 & 26
  • “To Autumn” & “Chapman’s Homer” (both by John Keats)

Typing

The Good and the Beautiful Typing Curriculum

He finished his typing curriculum about halfway through the year, so we are all done with that. I was pleased with this curriculum, and it worked well for us.

Art

Picture Study

Term 1: Tintoretto
Term 2: José María Velasco
Term 3: Georges Seurat

We followed the AO picture study schedule in Terms 1 and 3, but because we did Claude Monet a few years ago with our co-op, I opted to go with the 19th-century Mexican artist José María Velasco in Term 2. I hope to release a Picture Study Aid covering his art soon as it’s beautiful, and we all enjoyed learning more about his work.

Drawing

Lily and Thistle Nature’s Art Club

I was not good at getting in drawing time every week (another thing I hope to work on next year). When we did get it in, this was a highlight of our week, and I saw significant improvement in each kid’s drawing skills. Hannah’s lessons are so enjoyable, and we will continue these into next year.

Music

Composer Study

Term 1: Palestrina
Term 2: Dvorak
Term 3: Rossini

We followed the same time period for the composers scheduled in the AO composer study rotation, but I went with different composers because I used the Tillberry Table guides. I would have to say Rossini was our favorite. 🙂

Hymn/Folksong

Hymns
Term 1: The Rock That is Higher Than I & For the Beauty of the Earth
Term 2: Anywhere with Jesus & This is My Father’s World
Term 3: Count Your Blessings & All Creatures of Our God and King

Folksongs
Term 1: Aiken Drum & The Ash Grove
Term 2: The Lion Sleeps Tonight & The Water is Wide
Term 3: A Man’s a Man for A’ That & Simple Gifts
Music Resources

We got into the habit in our former homeschool co-op to only do two hymns and folksongs per Term rather than a new one each month, and it’s a practice I’ve kept even after the co-op ended. We continued to mostly use the Hymns and Folksongs YouTube channel to sing along and learn these.

Handicrafts

Survivor Kid
Sewing School 2

Handicrafts continue to be a challenge to fit in each week. We got a little more reading done in Survivor Kid in Term 1 but did not get all the way through it before we started Sewing School 2 in Term 2, so we’ll probably finish that in the summer. We made progress in Sewing School 2 but haven’t gotten to projects yet. My daughter has specifically requested that we keep working through that this summer, so that’s another goal. Both books worked really well for us, and I am thankful for what they taught the kids AND me!

Health and Physical Education

We finally managed to schedule an archery class over the winter! All four of us spent six weeks learning the basics of archery and used both recurve and compound bows, which gave us a good taste for each. B has decided that he wants a compound bow, and C and I prefer recurves, so we’ll work on getting those over the summer so we can start using some of the local ranges whenever we’d like. We’re also exploring the option of B joining a JOAD team at some point as well.

In addition, we continued our regular hikes and meetings with our nature group, and the kids occasionally join me for my morning walks.

Free Reading

Free Reads Book List Here

Admittedly, I haven’t looked through the AO free reads list much this year because we had other free reads in so many of our subjects that these fell by the wayside. He did read The Pushcart War this year, The Gammage Cup a few years ago, and we read The Black Arrow together last year. We’ve also been working our way through The Fellowship of the Ring before bed at night for several months, and I hope to finish that this summer and then let him read the rest of the series on his own. Eventually, we’ll get to all of them!

Exams

A Delectable Education Exam Planner
The New Mason Jar Podcast: Exams in the Charlotte Mason Homeschool with Celeste Cruz

I decided I needed to revamp our exams as they haven’t been going well in the last few years and all three of us have gotten to the point that we kind of dread them. I bought the A Delectable Education Exam Planner and also listened to The New Mason Jar episode about exams with Celeste Cruz. Based on these, I made some changes to how we do exams and the kinds of questions asked, and I feel like these will make exams much better. We’ll see how it goes.

And that’s Year 7! Now to start planning for his last year before high school!

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