7th Grade Plans

Nathan is graduating from our co-op tonight, and we've been thinking about what is going to happen next year. For language arts, we are doing a small co-op with Christine, her oldest, and 2 other boys. They are going to focus on writing, a weakness of ours, and also literary analysis. I'm really excited about this co-op. I think it will really be exactly what Nathan needs.

I had always planned that Nathan would go on to the jr. high/high school co-op that is associated with our elementary co-op. In fact, Bob and I went to the meeting for that group last Tuesday, and we weren't considering anything else. This co-op has 4 classes that 7th graders could take--prealgebra, general science, composition I, and geography. Nathan would only have taken geography and science, since we're doing something else for English, and he is already doing prealgebra. The catch is that I have to do something in this co-op--teach a class or lab, be there the whole day for 6 sessions to monitor a study hall, or something like that. Now the only problem with that is what to do with the other 6 while I am there, especially the 3 little girls. I was really not sure about it at all. I was considering doing the biology lab, since that would be right up my alley, and because it would be a shorter period than all day, but I still would have to find someone to watch everyone.

Then Christine called Wednesday night. She had gone to an open house for Classical Conversations that is starting up really close to us. I knew about it, but I hadn't even considered it because I knew it was expensive. Well, Christine made me really interested. The K-6 program focuses on memory work and projects in math, grammar, Latin, history, science, art, and music. We have not done much with music or art, and the experiments and projects they do for science would be good as well. But here's the big thing--all the kids can go, and they have a nursery. It is expensive, but if I were to be a teacher, then that would pay for 2-3 of the kids to go, depending on how many kids were in my class. They provide what you need to cover each week, so that would be less prep work than running a lab, where I would be coming up with what I wanted to cover and do. Even though Nathan is not technically a 6th grader, it really wouldn't matter--he would still be doing new stuff, and we would still be doing the language co-op, and our regular math program at home (at CC, they just really focus on solidifying math facts, formulas, etc., not actual teaching of math). Then next year, Christine and I would focus on starting the jr. high program of CC, which has a lot of writing, and also the science that Nathan would need. The only drawback I can see is that Nathan would be a year behind on science going into high school, but possibly he could take one class (physics or something) at the community college later on to catch up. So right now, this is what I am thinking we will do. It's a big change of plans, and not anything I was even remotely considering before Wednesday. I'm praying that if this is the right path for us, then I will have a real peace about it, and the Lord will show us clearly.