Maria is in 8th grade this year. Oh my goodness. Eighth grade. I remember eighth grade so well. Starting a fire in Mrs. Silvas' physical science lab...barely making the audition cut to be in the show choir...that crazy mean girl who used to stalk my best friend and I and tell us she was going to beat us up for no apparent reason...anyone remember wearing Eastland loafers with two pairs of different colored socks? Remember rolling the cuffs of your pants? hehe.... Oh my goodness. I heard Guns and Roses on and oldies station a few weeks ago. An OLDIES STATION people. That's not possible! Oldies stations play the music my mother grew up with! If they start putting the music *I* grew up with on oldies stations, then were will they play the music *she* grew up with? Because, for heaven's sake, surely they will not put Guns and Roses on the same station with Engelbert Humperdinck!
"I'll dance the laaast waaaaaltz with you.....
Two lonely people together...."
Ok, anywho, back to planning....
Maria has been doing well in school. Writing and spelling remain her hardest subject,,,which makes sense with the whole dyslexia thing, huh? Still, she can follow the Mother of Divine Grace 8th grade syllabus pretty closely.
Religion- She's using the 8th grade Faith and Life book, Our Life in the Church, with a special focus on confirmation preparation. She will also continue to study and memorize the Baltimore Catechism. Religion looks like it is her main writing subject too this year. MODG doesn't teach a separate writing course. Instead, writing is woven into the other subjects, usually one subject in particular each year.
Math- We're using Saxon 87, which is a thorough review of basic math as well as a pre-algebra course. We're also using Saxon Teacher for the first time this year. So far this has been a wonderful timesaver for me!
Grammar- Easy Grammar Plus
Spelling- Oh. It's atrocious. We are trying All About Spelling this year...our fourth program and last ditch effort to get her skill level up.
History- Medieval History-the time right after the fall of the Roman Empire-this year with The Story of the Church, The Old World and America, and a slew of supplemental texts like Fingal's Quest and Augustine Came to Kent. On a related note, geography study will focus on Europe too. We are also trying in earnest to finish up our wall timeline. It looks so neat! And she's enjoying it too, which is nice because she doesn't like history much.
Science- Our last year using the Concepts and Challenges series...this year is the physical science book.
Latin- Our Roman Roots...we have been using Latin Christiana, but in a spotty way, hit or miss....I'm going to try something different with her this year. It was kind of impulsive, I have no idea how it'll work out!
Poetry- Shakespeare again this year. She is currently reading Macbeth. Next is The Merchant of Venice.
Art- Seton's 8th grade Art Through Faith series. I love this series. Love. It's just lovely.
Music- 100 Masterpieces of Classical Music
We are having some reality checking this year too,,,looking into Maria's future plans. She has always said she wants to work on an animal reserve, which is great, except we've found that you have to have masters degrees, usually, to work in these places. Maria doesn't want to go to school that long. She loves animals and wants to work with them in some way. So, we will explore that. We're starting to look into colleges as well. We would of course like a good Catholic college. But we may go the community college route for the first two years. She wants to stay close to home longer. That may change though in the next five years.
5 comments:
Agh! Thinking about colleges -- you're scaring me. Mine oldest is in 7th grade this year. She doesn't have a clear idea of what she wants to be when she grows up but I keep thinking she's only 12. Maybe I should be saying she's ALREADY 12!
Maria's line-up looks great. I ordered Art 7 this year, our first time using it. Are you going to hs through high school as well? We're still debating. I wish there was a good Catholic high school I could send her to around here and I wouldn't have to drive an hour or more each way to get her there.
hehe...well, the college, thing..that started with Maria. She has been talking for years about wanting to work at this animal reserve. And finally a few months ago, I reminded her how much schooling it would take to have a job like that, and reminded her how much she says she hates school, and was she really wanting to go to college for several years? Is that wrong? I'm all for her doing it if that's what she wants to do, but I didn't feel like she was being very realistic...about that, and other things too. Maria is a bit prissy and not an outdoors type of person. I couldn't see her shoveling out cat cages in sensible shoes in all kinds of weather. She just kind of had this romantic vision of playing with these wild animals all day, and I felt like she needed a reality check!
the art books...Mother of Divine Grace only uses these books in certain years. We used it in 6th grade I think? But I really like them.
If we had a Catholic high school, it would cost a fortune I imagine!! They keep talking about building one someday...but they've been saying that since we moved here ten years ago.
Guns N Roses was my favorite band when I was in 8th grade... I am always laughing at what they play on oldies and classic rock stations now!
The oldies station here no longer plays 50s music, much to my father's chagrin. That was always oldies to me-- the music my dad enjoyed when he was young. The station now plays 60s and 70s music as oldies. I was 12 in 1980, so a good deal of music I remember as a kid is officially oldies and that is disconcerting, to say the least! :-) Thank goodness there are still 80s stations! I wonder how long it will take to classify it as oldies.
Maria's classes look great! Michael, our oldest, is in 7th this year. I'm going full enrollment with Seton, but will probably be tweaking things as we go along and will be reading your experiences and recommendations closely! :-)
I'm glad she's doing so well!
I"m with you on the oldies thing - I recently heard a band [I'm thinking it was "the red hot chili peppers" but I could be confused] played as an "oldies" song and I was like "NO way, seriously? Come on!"
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