The Seventh Grade Basket

EP207: In this episode ~ effectively homeschooling grade seven for a transformative year.

Listen in to the podcast as Jean explores Waldorf-inspired homeschooling grade seven. Including the seventh grader’s physical, emotional, and cognitive growth.

Hear strategies to craft a learning experience that not only satisfies your child’s burgeoning curiosity but also nurtures their self-exploration.

This is a year for nurturing growth and connection.

You’ll also hear ideas about the themes of study for the seventh grade year, how they meet the child’s developmental stage, plus encouragement to choose resources that speak to your child and fit your teaching style, both Waldorf and non-Waldorf resources alike.

We’ve included an extensive list of ideas for the Seventh Grade Basket.

Find the Show Notes here  https://artofhomeschooling.com/episode207/

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Chapters

• 1:13 Your Seventh Grader
• 2:54 Themes for Grade Seven Waldorf-inspired Homeschooling
• 4:29 Your Journey as a Parent-Educator and Human Being
• 5:09 Exploring Non-Waldorf Resources
• 5:53 Choosing Your Block Topics ~ Ditching the Dogma
• 6:32 Ideas for the Seventh Grade Basket
• 9:44 Ages & Stages Printable Guide

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

You're listening to the Art of Homeschooling podcast, where we help parents cultivate creativity and connection at home. I'm your host, jean Miller, and here on this podcast you'll find stories and inspiration to bring you the confidence you need to make homeschooling work for your family. Let's begin. Is your seventh grader unpredictable and sometimes hard to read? That's because they're going through so many changes this year. Be gentle with yourself and your child as they enter the teenage years. The best approach I've found is to get curious, observe your child and strive to really get to know who they are. This podcast episode, the 7th Grade Basket, is designed to help you with all of that. In 7th grade, your child is experiencing physical, emotional and cognitive growth, as well as developing insights into themselves and others. This all requires curriculum themes that meet them as they look both out into the world and also within, as their inner, emotional and intellectual lives deepen. Here is a great quote from a book I highly recommend for all grades the Tasks and Content of the Steiner-Waldorf Curriculum by Avison, rawson and Richter. I'll be sure to put a link to that book, along with links to other resources I mention, in the show notes for this episode, which you can find at artofhomeschoolingcom slash, episode 207. Here's the quote schoolingcom slash, episode 207. Here's the quote.

Speaker 1: 2:09

Two fundamental gestures characterize this phase of life an outer active principle and the stirring of a dynamic inner psychological state. An appetite for knowledge of and about world phenomena mingles with a budding capacity for reflection and the first promptings of self-reflection. Studying biographies of historical and heroic figures, conducting hands-on demonstrations and relating subjects to real life will be key homeschooling components this year. The goal is to have your child take the reins more and more in the learning process, while you provide structure and guidance. Themes of study this year can include medieval history, geography of the world, the age of exploration and discovery through the Renaissance physics, astronomy perspective, drawing the golden ratio and the Pythagorean theorem, and an introduction to algebra and ratios. Here's another quote from the Tasks and Content book Curriculum. Themes which mirror the pupil's outer exploration of the world and the inner journey include the journeys of exploration in history, the focus on mood and style in English, the areas of combustion and mechanics, and chemistry and physics, and the health, nutrition and hygiene main lesson block.

Speaker 1: 3:42

There's a big shift happening for seventh graders. They're going from seeing and interacting with the world in a heart-centered way to a more head-centered one. Both seventh and eighth grades can be real transition years. I want you to keep that in mind. Your student may start to crave an intellectual challenge and more structure and critical thinking in their studies. Independent projects can really take off during grade seven.

Speaker 1: 4:12

As a parent educator, this can be a magical year to let your own passions and interests blossom. As you walk alongside your child, you can learn and grow together, exploring the joys of lifelong learning. Important note here about your own journey as a human being. Really, if you've been wholly focused on your children for years, this can be a great time to think about how you might want to explore more of your own interests. I often say that when we begin studying that age of exploration and discovery block with our children, it's a time for us to set sail too. Just keep that in mind as you craft your homeschooling schedule and rhythm. What interests and learning do you want to explore? Just for you as homeschooling parents, this is also a year to begin to branch out into more variety in terms of the resources we use. If you haven't done that already, it's really okay to weave in what we might consider non-Waldorf resources, even if that's new to you. When you do that. You want to look for source material that reads like really great storytelling, especially when studying history. As you may recall from previous episodes in this series, our goal is to take a deep dive into a moment in time in a given time period, rather than trying to teach a comprehensive course in that topic. I also want to remind you that a lot of the block topics we're familiar with are what's become custom in Waldorf schools. But we get to choose, and the truth is that Steiner didn't lay out the curriculum in this much detail really. So I just want you to keep this in mind as you look at your seventh grader and choose topics of study. Even classroom teachers are looking at it this way, and if you haven't listened to episode 200 on ditching the dogma, please go find that episode and have a listen. I think you'll find it very freeing.

Speaker 1: 6:31

Here are some ideas for your book basket. First, for physics, there's a wonderful book, physics the Waldorf Way, by Roberto Trostley. For math, family math, the middle school years, math, family math, the middle school years, algebraic reasoning and number sense is a wonderful book, particularly for fun activities that you might do as a family but that also really lead into the higher level math. You might also choose a solid math curriculum that meets the needs of your particular child and that you can commit to following consistently. Some possibilities include making math meaningful, math UC they have the Zeta program, pre-algebra program. It depends on where your child is. We used teaching textbooks as well. You can start with the online assessments from any of these math curricula to get a sense, a real feel for the program and find out what level your child is at.

Speaker 1: 7:35

For history, there are so many great history books that could be possibilities for this year. You can include historical fiction, nonfiction, biographies and autobiographies, and so much more Documentaries. There are so many possibilities. Sarah, my assistant, one of her favorite books on the Middle Ages is World of Walls by Polly Shoyer Brooks. You can find used copies online of this book. I've always loved using children's books as a starting point, even as kids get older, even through high school, because children's books often provide an interesting, simple and concise description of a topic and include beautiful artwork many times. Or the Renaissance, for example, we loved a book called Starry Messenger by Peter Siss, which is about Galileo. This can just be the starting point, like the beginning of your block, and then your child can find other books and resources to read more on the topic, and then your child can find other books and resources to read more on the topic.

Speaker 1: 8:41

This is a good year to teach typing skills. If you haven't already, there are a lot of keyboarding programs online. Sarah's family has enjoyed a fun program in a game format from the BBC called Dance Mat Typing. If you haven't already, you might also introduce your child to the online world this year and next. If you're not sure how to do that, I recommend taking a look at the cyber civics curriculum used by a lot of Waldorf schools. You can see a chart of topics that they bring to children of different ages and, if you want to purchase the curriculum, they even have a special homeschool rate. I'll be sure to put a link to the Cyber Civics website in the show notes. And finally, remember to continue to keep lots of art supplies on hand so that your seventh grader can express what they're learning through paintings, can express what they're learning through paintings, portraiture, map making, modeling and all of the lively arts.

Speaker 1: 9:49

Now, before we go, don't forget that you can find a free printable guide with an overview of the ages and stages of a Waldorf-inspired homeschool curriculum, including kindergarten and grades one through eight, over on my website. I also want to mention that this episode, the seventh grade basket, is part of a series featuring these ages and stages, so go get yourself the ages and stages guide and check the show notes if you have younger children and would like to visit our past episodes for kindergarten, grades one, two, 3, 4, 5, and 6. And stay tuned for the last episode on grade 8 coming out in a few weeks. My mailing list is the best way to get new episodes delivered directly to your inbox, so if you're not on my mailing list yet, go grab that Ages and Stages guide and you'll be all set.

Speaker 1: 10:41

Thanks for tuning in and be sure to check out the show notes, where you'll find links to all the episodes in the series, from kindergarten through grade now seven, as well as links to the resources that I mentioned today, and you can find those at artofhomeschoolingcom, slash episode 207. Take good care of yourself and your family, and I will see you next time. That's all for today, my friend, but here's what I want you to remember Rather than perfection, let's focus on connection. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you on the next episode of the Art of Homeschooling podcast.