I have been meaning to write this post since June, but it has been a very busy Summer! I wanted to share what worked and didn’t work for 7th grade. It was a very trying year with many huge life changes again. We moved from Virginia back to Montana October 1st 2025, into a tiny rental house. Then we moved one month later into our home we bought! We were so busy setting up house and painting and trying to figure out how to live in a home less than half the size of our last house in VA. Then it was the holidays and we had visitors, and it just never slowed down. I think we handled homeschooling 7th grade pretty darn well, considering. And we made some really great memories and learned a lot together!
I will start by saying that we had so many changes, I honestly cannot even remember them all now, since its mid-August and I am now focused on the new school year. But I will do my best!
History
History is always our favorite, and 7th grade was no exception. We had a BLAST! For the last several years, history is something we like to take our time with, doing lots of hands-on projects, and I kind of make my own curriculum by pulling from different books and resources.
First semester was all about the Middle Ages. We used the Medieval Times workbook by Mark Twain Media as our main “curriculum”. I sometimes photocopy worksheets and then have my son tape them in his narration notebook, but often I just pulled ideas for the workbook for him to write about it in the narration notebook. In addition to that workbook, here is a list of all the books we used:
A Kid’s Life During the Middle Ages
The Kitchen Knight: A Tale of King Arthur
Usborne World History Medieval World
How Would You Survive in the Middle Ages?
We learned all about castles, jobs in the Middle Ages, read The Canterbury Tales, recreation, noble rankings, did a deep dive on Knights, learned about the black plague, science and medical beliefs of the time, inventions, common foods eaten by peasants and nobles, Joan of Arc… It was really fun! We ended 1st semester with a Middle Ages peasant feast.
Second semester was a deep dive on the Renaissance. For this, we really focused on famous people of the era- specifically artists and inventors. I used Renaissance by Mark Twain Media (a workbook), What Was the Renaissance? and the book Renaissance For Kids as my main books. Then I had additional books about Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. I got this Discovering Great Artists book which we will continue to use as we move through history. We watched many videos and documentaries on YouTube as well.
We also studied the life of Shakespeare and read Macbeth a graphic novel. This is a bloody story, if you have never read it. But I have a 13 year old that loved it and the illustrations kept his interest, for sure. I think it was a good introduction to Shakespeare for a teenage boy. We had plans to read Romeo & Juliet (also a graphic novel version) but never got to it. We used a narration notebook for almost every lesson, and I love being able to flip through it to see everything we learned. We did a lot of art projects, too. My son’s favorite was imitating Michelangelo painting the ceiling of the sistine chapel- where he had to lay down on the floor and paint on a piece of paper taped underneath the table.
We ended the semester with a Renaissance Feast, just like we did with the Middle Ages. These are SO fun and I highly recommend them! We did some research on the common foods, made the recipes the best we could with modern-day ingredients, lit some candles, listened to Renaissance music, and served our family one course at a time, explaining each dish. Everything turned out delicious and we truly feasted!
Language Arts
For language arts, we used Level 7 of The Good and The Beautiful (like we do every year). We also worked our way through Skill Sharpener Grammar and Punctuation workbook and my son had a weekly online grammar class for several weeks of 2nd semester. We do a lot of writing with history in our narration notebook, and my son was required to read independently for at least 30 minutes every day. We also finished a cursive handwriting workbook we started the year before, so we started a new handwriting workbook by A Reason For 2nd semester. He also took a handwriting class at our local enrichment classes for 2nd semester.
Science
First semester, we were working our way through a book I got from Amazon- it was terrible.I will link it here so you know not to buy it! It is so incredibly below grade level, my 7th grader was bored out of his mind. We decided to focus on nature study every week and he did a lot of them in his narration notebook. He also started taking an online 7th grade science class with outschool, which was really fun. I did have a hard time remembering to get all the materials for the experiments, but he really enjoyed the class.
Second semester he took a Human Anatomy & Physiology class at our local enrichment classes once a week. For awhile, he was doing both the in-person class and the online class, but it was getting to be a bit much, so we ended up canceling the online class mid second semester. He really enjoyed the in-person class and was bummed we didn’t live here for 1st semester so he could have worked through the whole book.
I use several different resources for our nature studies, but our main one is from A Year of Learning – the Slow Down Collection. I can use this for all 3 of my boys and you can do as much or little as you want. There is copywork and life cycles, anatomy labeling, etc. Use my link and my code MYSIMPLEWILD10 for 10% off your order!
Math
Oh, math…. the thorn in our sides. Every year we have struggled with math, and I have shared our frustrations. We have tried so many different types of curriculum, online live classes, online programs etc. We tried working our way through The Good and The Beautiful (we went back to that thinking it would maybe work?) and we were SOO close to sending my 7th grader to school. He wanted to go! And it was truly just because he hated math so much and thought he would be the help he needed at public school. Then came our saving grace 2nd semester… we found a tutor that we could actually afford and she is AMAZING. She understands that my son’s brain just works differently when it comes to numbers. She has the patience that I just do not. She took it way back to the basics that my son was not grasping, and made huge improvements in my son’s confidence with math and his knowledge. She is such a blessing to our homeschool. We are working with her next year as well!
Bible
Our bible study was a bit all over the place for 7th grade. We did a lot of lessons from the Hey-O! kids bible (these are great because there is a coordinating video online and free worksheets/coloring pages). We did some Saddleback Kids Church at Home lessons. I do our bible study time all together (so my 13 year old, a 4 year old, and 2 year old), so it can be a bit challenging. My two littles need the basics and have a much shorter attention span and cannot comprehend what my 7th grader can. I think he needed a more mature bible study, but we are working on that for 8th grade! He worked a bit through his own devotional book as well. I think that’s a bit too young for him now. We also did a lot of devotionals through our nature studies from A Year of Learning.
Our bible study was a bit all over the place for 7th grade. We did a lot of lessons from the Hey-O! kids bible (these are great because there is a coordinating video online and free worksheets/coloring pages). We did some Saddleback Kids Church at Home lessons. I do our bible study time all together (so my 13 year old, a 4 year old, and 2 year old), so it can be a bit challenging. My two littles need the basics and have a much shorter attention span and cannot comprehend what my 7th grader can. I think he needed a more mature bible study, but we are working on that for 8th grade! He worked a bit through his own devotional book as well. I think that’s a bit too young for him now. We also did a lot of devotionals through our nature studies from A Year of Learning.
Extracurriculars
Boy Scouts once a week (my husband is very involved and they are doing some really cool stuff- I am jealous!)
Wild + Free meetings every other Friday (an outdoor nature group that meets no matter the weather)
Jiu Jitzu twice a week
Online art classes every week- we go back and forth between Outschool and Wonderwell Learning. My son usually requests a specific type of art class, and I try to find one that fits our schedule. Then he takes that class for several weeks until he wants to try something new. He’s done acrylic painting, oil painting, oil pastels, 3D drawing, charcoal sketching, watercolors… Art is my son’s passion, but unfortunately there is no in-person art classes locally that are close enough to us and fit our schedule. For high school, he plans to take the art class at our public school.
Second semester he attended classes at our local Enrichment classes. He was there from 9-2:00 once a week...
He took art (this class was NOT a middle school art class, and we were quite disappointed. It was a craft class that would have been more fitting for lower elementary. )
Wilderness Survival was his favorite class and he is taking the same class 1st semester for 8th grade!
Handwriting class- I never saw any of his work from this class, so I am not really sure how he did.
Human Anatomy & Physiology- this was my son’s 2nd favorite class, if not a tie for first. He learned a lot and adored the teacher. He was only sad to join in 2nd semester and that he missed the first (we were still in Virginia).
Model Makers Club- this was a class where groups of students worked together to build different models
The Enrichment classes closed permanently at the end of this past school year. But there is a new Homeschool group that is even better and I am actually teaching 3 classes this year! My son is looking forward to classes starting in a few weeks.
Homeschool Christmas Fair- My son participated in the homeschool christmas fair where he got to sell a lot of his art and learn to market and handle cash. He made ornaments and small canvases and sold quite a bit!
He did some skateboarding at an indoor skatepark with my husband throughout the winter. They will probably pick that back up once the weather gets cold again.
Snowboarding lessons- we live in a ski resort town, so he took lessons to get him back at it (we moved away for 4 years so he was a little rusty)
We did not get through as many read-alouds this year as we have in previous years. But that was partly because we did so much reading with history.
We read about 7, maybe 8 books aloud together.
This is the homeschool planner I used – its simple and very affordable! I liked the layout, so I bought one for this year as well.
I would say the highlights of 7th grade was history- we rocked it and had so much fun. We struggled with consistency with our bible study, was kind of lacking in science, and should have taken more field trips! I am really looking forward to 8th grade where we most definitely will not be moving across the country again. We will have a more strict schedule with me teaching two days a week, but we will still have time for lots of fun and beautiful things. And I will be officially starting Kindergarten with my now 5 year old !
I will share what we have planned for 8th grade very soon. I know, I am so late to the paty sharing all these things, but Montana Summers are to be enjoyed!
If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out:
Adventures with Frog and Toad Nature and Literature Lessons
2024/2025 Homeschool Year End Review- 6th Grade- Honest ups and downs
Is Homeschooling Year-round Right For You?
How To Start a Homeschool Kids Book Club
Our homeschool Daily & Weekly Rhythm + 3rd Grade Curriculum
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