This year, my eldest son has joined us in the My Father’s World (MFW) Family Learning Cycle for the last time before starting high school next year (Ack!). We are enjoying Exploring Countries and Cultures again, having utilized it during the 2016-18 years.
He is experiencing this curriculum at a different level this time and although he retains much of the information he learned last time, there is a deeper focus on the geography, religions, and people of these various countries.
He is using the 7th/8th Grade Supplement with more advanced books that we have enjoyed reading aloud and Exploring World Geography. My Father’s World (MFW) has it scheduled out where children in the family cycle do various activities together, but the “advanced students” (ie. those in 4th grade or higher) have more requirements based on their grade. He completes all of the sheets for the various continents and then provides me with a typed up report on the countries that we “visit” in our studies.
He has decided to take Honors Chemistry and sees the rigor in Jay Wile’s Discovering Design with Chemistry. We got off to a rough start where he would rush through and not check with me if he didn’t understand a concept, so we restarted and he is doing well. We held off on Biology because we hoped to do that with our co-op next year, but that’s a separate post.
He finished Foerster’s Algebra and has moved on to Jacob’s Geometry. We have the DVD for geometry but he has only required that once. It is still handy to have and I’m sure it will get a lot of use with our upcoming students.
My Father’s World recommends using a couple of Progeny Press study guides during the year, so our two choices were Fahrenheit 451 and The Lord of the Flies. We are in the middle of the latter, but I really enjoyed sharing some books I remember from school with him. He was not a fan of The Lord of the Flies but I believe it is an important piece as it is referenced often.
Classical Academic Press’ Writing & Rhetoric 11: Thesis Part 2
This 8th grader is on his last Writing & Rhetoric book (11) as the final book has not yet been published and he will finish just in time to start next year fresh with MFW’s built-in writing credit.
He has continued onto Word Roots 3, Fix-It Grammar 4, and Pentime 8.
As far as foreign language goes, he is on level 6 of Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek. Once he finishes that, it will count as taking 3 credits of high school Koine Greek. He is also on level 4 of Rosetta Stone Spanish and enjoys learning Arabic and Dutch on Duolingo. He finds that kind of thing fun!
We are both slugging through Classical Academic Press’ Discovery of Deduction. We’re not enjoying this book like we did The Art of Argument, but I’m not sure of a more enjoyable formal logic. We are almost through the Building Thinking Skills books (both figural and verbal) by The Critical Thinking Co.
Apologia’s Health and Nutrition is light and informative, covering various subjects so far like mental health and varying personalities.
He continues to use Typing Club to strengthen his typing skills and Hoffman Academy for piano. He also watches the fabulous Tomorrow’s Filmmakers videos in his spare time. He has learned so much through that course!
Of the Vine 