Middle School Curriculum That Set Us Up for Success in High School | Looking back on our favorites

[@realnerd3142]

This is so helpful! We just adopted a 7th grade boy and he’s seriously struggling in public school, so I’ve been trying to build a curriculum for home and this is the best video I’ve found

[@sha-toinaswint2152]

So good! I have middle schoolers and we use almost everything except BJU products that you named. Our primary curriculum is Memoria Press and it’s been phenomenal. We use Saxon and Dr. Shormann, IEW fix it along side Memoria Press Grammar and Latin, Apologia and Dr.Shormann for science, all of the literature from Memoria Press, geography from Memoria Press along with Classical studies from MP, writing from Memoria Press and Classical Academic Press. I do have IEW structure and style that I will pull out if need be. our History we use a Sonlight HBL. Thank you for sharing!

[@SWKS_AG05]

Great picks!

[@apologiaworld]

Thanks for including us in this video! Those middle school years are so imperative to laying the groundwork for a solid high school career.

[@tfontan2089]

Just found your channel! This video was so helpful. Thank you for sharing!!

[@vanessamoore5771]

This is so helpful! I’ll have a 7th and 6th grader and the transition to middle school has been a little hard as far as choosing curriculum.

[@juliequezada7504]

We have used most of the curricula that you mentioned in this video, but we have also loved Heart of Dakota for middle school history and Bible study.

[@velviteenrabbitt]

Thanks for this Abby. We're using IEW thanks to you. My son is about five weeks into structure and style and feels very accomplished. Despite being quite, well, structured, it actually gives him the freedom within that structure to be very expressive. It builds a lot of confidence. So happy! My other son really loves Guest Hollow - again thanks to you. It's great that you're ahead of us and have such wisdom to share x

[@koinonia-bn7xz]

Yes I agree…so helpful to give a guide to setting up our kids for success in high school. Thank you so much.

[@allyh193]

This was so incredibly helpful!!!

[@myshaharmon6808]

This was INCREDIBLY helpful! All the great middle school information in one succinct video. Thank you!

[@laurenm.6320]

For 6th grade we are using Memoria Press as a core with substitutions for Art of Problem Solving Pre-Algebra, Novare Life Science (watching Science Mom videos for fun), and Writing with Skill and Grammar for the Well-Trained Mind. It’s been a great year so far with a lot of growth.

[@effiemeandmydolls657]

Thanks for the detailed why’s for all of the curriculum. We’re doing the apologia general science this year for 7th grade, but last year we did the anatomy and physiology apologia course, and because my daughter was 6th grade we heavily expanded on the topics, so I’m thinking of skipping the anatomy portion this year and starting physical science at the semester. For maths we use ctc for the spine and enrich with beast academy/ art of problem solving. I find ctc is very straight forward in teaching the concept, but challenging outside the box questions are lacking so the two balance each other well. For everything else I self design courses around countries or states. We study the country from ancient to present, all geography, plants, animals, culture, food, music, art etc., and find 2-3 ( or more) novels. Very much like guest hollow (which I will use next year). Most of our writing centers around our social studies. I use the geospell books for vocabulary. Here’s hoping for a good high school transition in a year. Your videos are really inspiring and so helpful. Thank you for taking the time to produce them.

[@mypracticallyimperfectlife]

How awesome that you designed your own courses! I’m sure that made it a lot of fun to learn about those topics.

[@mar04728]

Thank you for this video! All this information is very helpful!

[@JoleenGraves]

This was exactly what I was hoping for! Thank you!!

[@mypracticallyimperfectlife]

Glad it was helpful!

[@marykateyang1851]

I found this incredibly helpful. Thank you so much.

[@amandamendoza4181]

So very helpful. I have a 8th and 5th grader this year along with our curve ball, a 2 year old!😊😂

[@WanderingFreeTV]

Thank you so much for making this video!

[@shayj3373]

Oh this is so great.... TY for sharing... 🤗💕

[@mypracticallyimperfectlife]

You are so welcome! While there are sooo many great programs out there for middle school, I hoped sharing why these worked well for us would be a good resource for otheres.

[@DCFashionGirl27]

I loved all your choices! What do you recommend for a base phonics/early reading course? I need a foundation for my daughter who is struggling with reading.

[@mypracticallyimperfectlife]

Oh gosh it’s been a hot minute since I’ve looked at early reader material. But we always liked BJUs reading and phonics programs. If you like something a bit more structured you might check that out. However I’ve heard good things about Five in a Row if you want to take a more relaxed approach to the subject and incorporate more variety of activities for learning. It may work better if your child enjoys activities and hands on learning

[@rachelthomas3947]

I’m planning 7th grade right now and I REALLY appreciate this video!!! Such a blessing ! Thank you

[@Ibyte8256]

I know I’m a little late, but thank you for this!! What did you use for their health credit?

[@mypracticallyimperfectlife]

Apologia Health

[@Ibyte8256]

Thank you! I really appreciate your help!

[@agni199]

Would you mind to share the daily schedule looks like for middle school? Thank you!

[@mypracticallyimperfectlife]

We didn’t have set times for subjects, except for always starting with our group subjects (Bible, German, Read aloud, and either art or apologetics). I let my kids decide what order they wanted to do their independent subjects. Daily they did: math, science, history and English (reading/writing). MWF they did vocab/spelling/handwriting. On T/Th they had different subjects each year based on grade but it was things such as health, geography, or personal finance. I’d say we usually had about an 8:30-9am start time each day and depending on how long they took for lunch, done by early to mid afternoon

[@SaidWhatISaid29]

We are using some of these. Unfortunately Fix-it Grammar I thought would be great is just not working out. It isn’t repetitive enough for my son and daughter to find the patterns of language because of only having one page of examples and the format being different for each new sentence.

[@pinkorganichorse]

Do you do Fit It Grammar and Structure n Style at the same time?

[@mypracticallyimperfectlife]

We did. They pair together well and helped cover both grammar and writing for my kids through middle and high school

[@mindygasca4335]

My oldest is a 4th grader and I'm beginning to look ahead. I'm curious as to whether or not the BJU curriculum you use is a full language arts program. If it is, then why add IEW FIx & and S&S on top of novel studies. I never planned to homeschool, but my girls don't want to go back to public, so now I find myself wanting to begin mapping out what the next couple of years will look like to make sure we are at a great spot for high school success.

[@mypracticallyimperfectlife]

For the middle and HS levels, BJU has a writing/grammar book they offer to go along with the literature book. I looked at it once but it was a very traditional style grammar workbook and I didn’t like how it taught writing. So we have always opted to go with just their literature textbook and add in the IEW grammar/writing

[@mindygasca4335]

Thank you. This is helpful!

[@rachel8531]

Hello! Just came across your channel as I'm going to be homeschooling next year for the first time, 6th and 4th grade. I notice that a lot of your recommendations in this video are for 7th and 8th grade, do you have different recommendations for 6th grade and upper elementary? Thanks so much, I loved this video. I'm trying to get recommendations from moms that have already been through the older years, and see what they used. Seems like a lot of videos are from "newer" homeschool moms.

[@mypracticallyimperfectlife]

I don’t have any videos posted about earlier curriculum we used but if you send me an email I’d be happy to share what we used

[@TK-jr1km]

All of these choices are christian curriculum i'm guessing. How heavy are they on christian concepts?

[@mypracticallyimperfectlife]

Of these, math and writing include the fewest references to faith. The literature and science course interweave it to a much greater extent

[@homeschoolandme]

So helpful! I’m looking ahead to middle school as we have a 4th grader. When would you recommend Fix It Grammar and IEW SS? He hasn’t had a lot of instruction with writing yet, so I’m planning to just do a lot more creative writing this year. Would starting it in 5th or even 6th be too “late” IYO? 🤍

[@mypracticallyimperfectlife]

I think either would be fine. We didn’t get introduced to IEW until middle school (6th grade) and started Fix It Grammar at the same time. It made for a nice transition towards more formal paper writing as they progressed through middle school