Any more Science needed for older CTC student?

[playschool]

If my daughter does CTC next year, which will be her 7th grade year, will she need something to supplement the science or could she just use the Science as written? I thought that I'd just use the books listed in the Girls read-aloud portion for her read-alouds and have her use the extension books as well to enrich the history. She will also be using Rod and Staff English 5 but at full speed, Saxon 8/7, and IEW for writing. I am not sure exactly what we are going to do for "reading/literature" at this point. Does this sound sufficient for a 7th grader?

[rainbowacreshs]

CTC is pretty full as it is written. My dd has enjoyed the science pretty much as it is. We did add to the science by adding in lap books that just extended the learning without taking away from the guide as it is written. You can pm me for the website address for the lapbooks.
We used a lapbook that was designed for Apologia's LandAnimals of the 6th day. It was a lot of fun to do. I had dd do one project a day along with her lesson in the guide.
A few weeks ago we were doing a mini co-op with a couple younger boys. I had dd read her plant book aloud to the boys, and then we worked in a lap book, I also required her to do her lesson in the guide too.
I hope that helps.

[my3sons]

I don't think you'd need to sub in anything for the science, but you will know what your goals are there. I would have been comfortable doing with a seventh grader. If you wanted, you could add a research component, where dd looks up additional information on the science topic of the week (similar to how the history research box is set up) and either orally shares what she'd gleaned, or she could create a notebooking page for it. I may have done this with one of our dc if it was for seventh grade, as he loves to research. For the reading/literature, I have to suggest giving DITHOR a try, as it is what HOD has written specifically to fill this need beautifully! It is quite independent at that age, and we even have ninth graders doing it for credit. I think your dd could really run with it and enjoy it.

In Christ,
Julie

[CindyK]

I am also doing CTC for my 7th grade daughter this year. This is our first year to do HOD, but this is our plan.
We are doing CTC with extensions. I also ordered all 3 book packs because she is such a voracious reader. She will be doing Apologias General Science with lapbook. I also ordered the 3 books for HODs 1st semester science because I really didn't want her to miss them ( Zoology 3, Birds of the air, and Plant Life). She did lots of Study of medicine and human anatomy this past year so I didn't get the books for the 2nd semester. She wants to do both sciences the 1st semester...we'll see. If it seems too much I will probably just let her read the HOD science for fun and not do the notebook stuff although she wants to. I also got DITHOR 6/7/8 for her and she will be doing R&S 6 halfpace. She is also doing Pre-Algebra this year.

Personally, with the science I would have been fine with her doing just the HOD science for her 7th and 8th grades. My concern is more when they hit 9th grade and need certain classes for credit. However, I'm probably going to continue next year doing Apologia's Physical Science at this point but that could change. My daughter is pretty advanced for her age so I don't mind the extra stuff as long as it's not overload for her. She likes doing extra. Wish all my kids were this way!

[playschool]

Thank you ladies for the responses and reassurances that using the Science as is would be fine. I wish my dd had such a strong desire to read as your dd, Cindyk, but unfortunately she would balk and feel overwhelmed at doing two science schedules at once. I actually have Apologia General Science and have thought that if I do not use it this year I could pick it up next year and still be on track to use Physical Science in 9th grade instead. I just do not think that she is ready for anything as heavy as even Apologia General Science yet. I have also toyed around with spreading the General Science Text over her 7th and 8th grade years, but I would hate for her to miss out on the Science in HOD (which I know she would enjoy better). I do think however that she might enjoy doing the Science notebook that Apologia will be releasing soon for the Land Animals book. I may look into that. I tried using DITHOR this past year in a very light way using the 4/5 book but due to the busyness of our household I would need her to be more independent than what the manual requires. Thanks again to all of you who chimed in to try to help me.

[Heather4Him]

I think the HOD science would be perfect for your 7th grader!

We're using CTC for 8th grade (although our dd is a young 8th, because of a September birthday), and we are using Apologia General Science just because we did the Apologia Zoology and most of the other books used in CTC's science last year (for 7th grade--which is right where you are!)

Hope this helps! I think you have a great plan to use HOD's science this year, then Apologia General for 8th, and Physical Science for 9th.
That's our plan, too!

[playschool]

Thanks Heather, hearing your experience and future plans, makes me feel better about my tentative plans.