Vitality of Many Minds Part I
Transition From Elementary to Secondary
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy helpfully has the words “Don’t Panic” printed on the cover. Panic is what many of us feel when we get to the last few years of homeschool. Why do we panic? I think because we look at the years left to us with our student, and we think that we have so much we want to cover and not enough time. Also, because our student doesn’t always cooperate with our efforts, and we worry that our efforts are in vain. And probably we wonder if the way we are approaching each subject is really the right way. I think often when we reach these last few years of homeschool we start to think that we aren’t capable of adequately preparing our students for the world after homeschool and we need to bring in outside help. Once we enter middle school or junior high or whatever they call that space between elementary school and high school where you come from, school seems serious and deadly and like something we need to be afraid of.
Middle school (or junior high) and high school are different from the elementary school years because our students are growing up. The principles that we’ve been using from the beginning still apply now, though, so we’re not throwing out everything and starting over. We’re just moving into a new phase with older students who need us in different ways. They're slowly moving into adulthood, and we have to slowly begin transferring more responsibility and even more authority over to them so that before they leave our home they are already practicing what they need to do as adults. This is a gradual process, and it looks different with every child and in every home.
AmblesideOnline's Year 6 is a bit of a transition year, moving on from what we had been doing in the earlier years and towards what we will be doing. In Year 6, the history cycle starts over again with ancient civilizations.
In AmblesideOnline's Years 7 and 8, students begin reading from primary sources more and more. Their history studies especially show them multiple viewpoints for the same events. Their poetry comes from roughly the same time period as their history, and often their literature connects in some way too. These years even have some folk songs suggested that go along with the historical period. You can find them in a footnote on the booklist for each year. A few new subjects are added: spiritual formation, citizenship, current events, science (in addition to natural history or nature lore), logic, health and physical education, and life and work skills. It looks a lot heavier than Year 6, and it is heavier, although probably not really as much as it looks. Or maybe it's just that our students generally grow to meet it!
In 7th and 8th grades, most students should be doing a full school day. What that looks like will vary greatly, but a general rule would be 4-6 hours. Less than four hours, and I'd want to make sure the student is being challenged sufficiently. More than six hours, and I'd question if the student is being pushed too hard. But you have to evaluate your personal situation--I obviously don't know all of your details. There is no magical amount of work that every student has to complete in order to have "done enough." We want to include as much variety as we reasonably can for a particular student, and we want to challenge them without overwhelming them.
When I plan Year 7 for a new student, I do usually look at the schedule and think it must be too much! But for many students, it won't be too much. Don't cut drastically when you plan for the first term, but if you can see that this will need to be pared back, do it. You have flexibility. You can add more at midterm or in the second term if you find that your student can handle more. You can cut more later if you find that that’s needed. What one student accomplishes in four to six hours won’t be the same as what another student accomplishes in that amount of time. What one student accomplishes in four to six hours at the beginning of the year won’t be the same as what that student accomplishes after a couple of weeks or after you help scaffold some books. You will not be able to perfectly anticipate how much is too much or too little, or which books or subjects will be more challenging. We just make our best assumptions based on what we know about our students and our circumstances, and then we adjust when we find we need to.
Year 7 may be daunting at first, so don’t expect your student to be immediately independent. You may need to do some reading aloud or at least scaffolding in the first week or two to help your student encounter these new books. The first few weeks will be a learning process, learning to manage the new work load, and the amount of time required in each day at first may be longer than what is needed after your student has become familiar with the books and the new routine.
Years 7 and up take longer to schedule than earlier years because there are more options from which to choose and there are more resources that require you to decide how to make the weekly schedule. More often in these years you’ll find a note to spread content over a certain number of weeks. You will have to decide how to do that spreading. I like to do that up front, so I edit the schedule and actually make the assignments for the term. If what I did doesn’t work as well as I hoped it would, I can always adjust during the term and then do it differently when planning the next term.
The Spiritual Formation schedules may need adjusting for each student. You may find that some students will need a quicker pace for some of the books, especially the shorter biographies. If your student wants to read a whole chapter in one week but the schedule has it split in half, let them read it in one week. If they are able to narrate well for an entire chapter at a time, it’s fine to continue at that pace. Those shorter biographies usually have pretty short chapters. Also, this is one area where different students will need different books because they are in a different place spiritually. Pray over all of your school planning, but especially this part. I haven't actually worked through the new spiritual formation schedules with any student yet, but I anticipate keeping the scheduled books and just scheduling them at a different pace that fits my student when I need to. If my student reads the biographies more quickly, I will probably add some additional books that I think my student will benefit from.
Science is another area where you may find yourself making adjustments in Years 7 and 8. Year 7 has a lot of science books to buy, along with a microscope. If you have time to plan ahead for this, that will help. It also helps to keep in mind that the microscope and several of the books will be used over multiple years, so you won't have to buy so many in future years. When my budget was tight, I used online options sometimes. Secrets of the Universe comes in several volumes. The first time or two that I used that book, I bought the volumes I could find at a price I could afford, and then I used the vintage alternate title for the chapters I had not been able to buy. Living Book Press has republished Secrets of the Universe at a much lower price than I had to pay when it was out of print, and they offer the full set for about $55 now.
I find it helps me to take the science schedule and rearrange it slightly to make modules so I have maybe two or three science assignments a day. That way we don't overload some days or weeks with more science, while leaving others bare. I schedule lab work to fit into this template, so we only do as much lab work as fits into the available slots. This assortment of science books and topics helps our students see how varied the sciences are, and helps prepare them for deeper study in high school. If you need more hand-holding with the science books and especially with doing labs, look to see if Sabbath Mood has a guide. I’ve used their guide for First Studies in Plant Life but not any of the others. They aren’t necessary, but they may be helpful. For Signs and Seasons, I schedule out the readings at the beginning of the year, usually just a couple of pages a week. The weekly schedule for Signs and Seasons doesn’t do this for you because it spreads one chapter over quite a few weeks, so I decide how to spread it for us and put that specifically on each week’s schedule. Then I look at the field activities for the chapters we will be reading, and I choose some activities I think we can actually make happen. Those activities also get added to the schedule. By planning this out ahead of time and putting it on the written schedule, it’s more likely to get done.
Make sure nature study is still happening! The John Muir Laws Nature Journal Connection videos on YouTube can help with that. Your student may also benefit from a Special Study, where they focus on one part of a topic and do careful observations and measurement and perhaps even study. That's not required, but it can be really meaningful.
Year 7 recommends a writing handbook on the booklist for the first time. This isn’t on the schedule, and not a lot of explanation is given, but the idea is to take those written narrations that the student is already doing and regularly start expanding on them. If the student isn’t doing daily written narrations pretty comfortably yet, then you might not want to introduce the writing handbook yet, but keep that in mind as something to work toward. You can look through the handbook when you’re planning the term, and perhaps add short weekly reading assignments and regular writing assignments that seem appropriate for your student.
Year 8 has fewer science books that have labs, but it has some shorter science titles that are more narrative. Some of the lab science books from Year 7 continue into Year 8. Chemical History of a Candle has some great YouTube videos by The Engineer Guy which have him giving the lecture and showing the demonstrations. These videos are a bit abridged, but they make a great supplement and if you are needing to cut back they can replace the reading.
Year 8 expands the practice of having literature selections that were actually written during the historical period being studied. Some of the literature selections may be unfamiliar to you. It's valuable to look up information about any you haven't read or any you aren't sure of the value of. Reading them yourself is great, but I completely understand not being able to do that, or being able to do it but not being able to understand the book yourself. The AO forum has a Book Discussions area where you can read discussions we've had in the past of various AO books, so that's one way to become familiar with one of these books. You don't have to keep every book on the schedule, but you should recognize the value of each book before you decide what to include and what not to.
Let your student interact with the literature without a lot of handholding. A little scaffolding at the beginning, such as explaining the genre and the intent of the piece, may help, but don't overdo it. And definitely don't assume you need to sign up for a class with a teacher who explains all the ins and outs. Charlotte Mason did not want teachers coming between the student and the author, so don't suddenly panic and assume your student cannot succeed without outside help.
If you pare back, don't cut out complete subjects. Remove just one book from a subject if you can, or choose a shorter option for a book if you need to. The Form III for Groups schedules provide some options that are easier and also show you how you might cut back and spread some books over more of the year. But those schedules are just an example--you can pare back in the way that's best for your student. Form III for Groups takes the content of Years 7 and 8 and spreads that content over three years instead of two so it will be lighter and slower. The AmblesideOnline forum is a great place to get help if you think you’ll need a lighter option or will need to go more slowly with a book. People will likely already have done something similar to what you want, so if you ask your question you’ll get help or links to existing threads.
Also consider the possibility that your student may need a hefty work load. Sometimes when school isn’t going smoothly, the answer is not reducing the work but rather making it more robust, so always consider that possibility. Our students at this age are growing and changing, and it takes wisdom and observation to give them what they need.
Comments
Post a Comment