Year 7

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2025-2026 School Year – Planning

M will be in Year 7 and Em will be in Year 4. This is my first time through Year 7.

Overview

We will be using a lighter version of the AO7Lite for M. M tends to move more slowly through the readings and takes longer to process what he’s learned. I have skimmed through all of the recommended readings for AO7 and AO7Lite and chosen a selection for M to read. I have also found additional readings I think are important, relevant, and will be interesting to M to replace or supplement some of the AO recommendations.

Weekly Schedule

Every week I will make a weekly schedule for M to follow (see Planning and Scheduling for further details). I plan out what he will do independently and what he will do with me and make sure it can all fit into the school time allotted. This is not all of his work since we also spend 45-60 minutes in Together Time first thing in the morning (Together Time template here).

Bible

Bible is split up into Together Time and Vespers and then by the time of the year. This year we will cover the following:

	Together Time	Vespers (see Liturgical Year for details)
Aug – NovOrdinary Time	Finish up Ezra, Nehemiah, and Jonah ; Weekly Proverbs	Joshua
Advent	Hallelujah by Cindy Rollins	Advent Readings
Christmas	N/A (no school)	Christmas Readings
Jan/Feb	Special Study: (TBD) ; Weekly Proverbs	Luke
Lent	The Sacred Sacrifice by Hannah Paris	Lent Readings
Easter	Job ; Weekly Proverbs	Acts
Jun – Aug Orinary Time	n/a (no school)	Judges

AO has Proverbs scheduled for Year 7, so I have decided to add that in to our morning reading. I will follow the schedule above Mon – Thurs, and read the AO weekly assigned Proverb on Friday.

Check Out the Other Guides pages for Bible Reading schedules (I’ll post them as I create them).

Sunday Readings during Vespers we’ll continue with Parables of Nature.

For Bible Memory, we work through one or two passages a term in Together Time. I will use the suggestions from AO for Bible recitation for AO4 and AO7.

History

AO History Booklist here

We will be using the Saints & Heroes pdf linked from AO and keeping the AO schedule over three terms and I will be reading it aloud to M.
I have opted to use Arnold Forster’s A History of England instead of Churchhill’s because I think M will be able to follow the stories better. I will be reading this aloud from the free download available on archive.org and linked in AO. I am planning on keeping to the AO schedule over three terms. Tough we’ll see how much M absorbs each reading and may have to slow down the pace.
I will read aloud the Bede’s Ecclesia for term 1, using the linked docuement on the AO website.
In term 2, I will read aloud the Battle of Hastings and Magna Carta from documents listed on the AO website
I have Timeline scheduled for once a week for us to add in any significant events or people we’ve read about that week.

I have decided not to schedule The Daughter of Time this year. I have read this and know that M is not ready for the book, so I will add it in later.

Biography

AO Biography Booklist here

In term 1, I will read the selections from The Life of King Alfred as scheduled. I’ll use the document linked in AO.
In term 2, M will listen to the Audio of In Freedom’s Cause and follow along with the book. I have a docuemnt with my pre-reading notes (see Other Guides) I will reference for narrations. The document includes maps and several links to photos or videos I will show him as well as a listening schedule to fit it into one term.
In term 3, we will read the shorter Joan of Arc biography by Lang instead of the longer one by Mark Twain (which I hope to read with E when he gets here, but this one suits M better). M will listen to the Livribox audio recording while following along with the book. I will listen before he does so I can follow along with the narrations. The audio works out to be about 10 minutes per week.

Language Arts

Shakespeare

For Shakespeare, we will be reading Love’s Labor Lost (since our local Shakespeare in the Park will be performing it this summer), Julius Ceasar, and Much Ado About Nothing. We’ll read one of the retellings at the beginning of the term familiarize ourselves with the story. Then read the listen to the play together while following along. This will be the first year this will be during morning school since Em will be in AO4 and starting the full plays this year.

Literature

AO Literature Booklist Here

In term 1, M will read along with the audio for Once and Future King. It works out to about 20 minutes per day to finish in one term.
I will read aloud the History of English Literature for Boys and Girls along with the AO schedule.
Daddy will be reading Ivanhoe to M during bedtime reading. He will start this reading before the start of the school year so that he’ll be done by the end of the year.
In term 2, I will listen to Watership Down along with M as he follows along with the book. We’ll listen every day to get through the AO schedule.

Poetry

AO Poetry List Here

We do poetry in morning school, so we read from poets assigned to both years. I alternate poetry and folk songs, so we only do poetry three times a week. One day a week we will read the AO7Lite list of poems from the Oxford Book fo English Verse. I will use the document I created (see Other Guides) with the original and AO paraphrases side by side as well as the linked readings when they are available. For the longer poems, I will split them over several days. The other two days we will read from Maya Angelou for Term 1, Alfred Lord Tennyson for Term 2, and William Wordsworth for Term 3.

I will read Beowulf together with Malcolm, listening to the audio version while following along in the book. We’ll read 15 min per day during term 1 and into term 2. I am using the Seamus Heaney translation because I happen to have a copy and there is an audio version available. In term 3, I will read the Golden Key aloud every day to (hopefully) keep the AO schedule.

Grammar

For Grammar we’ll continue on with Fix It! Grammar about one lesson a week. This year instead of doing grammar every day, I will schedule a new concept on Mondays and independent work on that concept two days a week.

Recitation

AO Recitation Passages

This year I will combine recitation with Em and do it in morning school. This makes sense for us since I already combine poetry and Bible and Em will be joining us for reading full Shakespeare plays this year. We will work on recitation together twice a week and they will work on it independently the other three days.

Dictation

We will continue using The Modern Speller by Kate Van Wagenen during morning school. I switched to this in term 1 of last year and it’s been helping improve M’s spelling. As before, I’ll have both M and Em do this in morning school with one new lesson Mon-Thurs. They will review and practice the lesson in independent time and then I will do a dictation lesson with them on Friday using the new words. While M is still catching up with spelling, and Em is just starting dictation, I think this is a good option. I hope to move to picking passages from their reading in the next year or so.

Copywork

M will continue doing cursive copywork in the workbook The Copyworkbook: Comedies of William Shakespeare. He will do this twice a week. He started this last year but did not finish.

Foreign Language

Last year M finally moved from Getting Started With Latin to Keep Going with Latin. So we will keep going with that book. We usually do 2-3 lessons per week. He does independent work translating 4-5 days per week and we review what he’s done or learn something new every day. The lessons are starting to get more complex, so we may not get through as many lessons per week.

Geography

AO Geography Booklist here

Each year we choose a continent (or one year, the State of California), to work our way through in morning school. We cover the map, physical features, history, original peoples and/or current peoples, and sometimes mythology or folklore for each country on the continent. We’ve spent a year on Africa, a summer on Australia, two years on the U.S.A., and one year on California and South America. I used Heritage Mom’s Amazing Africa!, and I’ve posted my guides for U.S.A., California, and South America in Other Guides. This year we’ll go through the U.S. Territories, the Carribean Islands, and Central America. As I complete them, I will post these studies in Other Guides.

In term 1, I will read the Brendan Voyage while M follows in the book. To keep with the AO schedule, we’ll read twice a week.

Citizenship

AO Citizenship booklist here

I have scheduled Citizenship for 10-15 min each day of the week. We will follow the AO schedule for Ourselves and Penny Candy. I’ve also included Fallacy Detective in the Citizenship category (though AO places it in Logic, it just fit in the schedule in the Citizenship slot.) I will read each on one day per week. The fourth day I will review with M what he has written for his Current Events narration. For Current Events, we will continue to watch The World From A to Z daily in morning school and subscribe to The Week Jr (which they read in free time). M will be assigned to write a summary of something from watching or reading the news that caught his attention that week. The citizenship slot for the fifth day will be a flex day to catch up with any readings we did not get finished on the assigned day.

Plutarch. As much as I want to continue with Plutarch, I realize this is not something M is mature enough to understand. I tried in Year 4, Year 5, and the beginning of Year 6. We made it through several lives, but slowly and painfully. I plan to start again when Em is in Year 5 and do it together so M can see how Em narrates. I have found this helpful in other subjects as well.

Science

AO Science Booklist here

Just looking at AO7 science made me panic. Even the AO7Lite version I knew would be too much for M to get through. So I went through all the books, cut some, chaged the schedules of some, and replaced others. I have prepared a document that outlines what we’ll be doing each day per week for all 36 weeks (See Other Guides). It lists labs and activities and the supplies I will need. I decided to do Plant Studies and Signs and Seasons in Morning School. Mainly because these activities will end up being more family activities than M specific, so I might as well include Em. Especially since Em is capable of learning all that is studied in those books.

Great Astronomers is not included in the Science document mentioned above. I will be reading this aloud to M along with the AO schedule.

I decided not to include the following from the AO7Lite schedule:

Life of the Spider or Social Life of the Insect World. We studied insects in nature study and read a nature lore book about insects when M was in year 6. I knew M’s reading load was already getting to be too much for him and something would have to be cut. I anticipate including one of these for Em when he gets here.
Relativity and Quantum Mechanics from the Secrets of the Universe. There were not many readings from this volume of the series and I was running out of space in the schedule. So I decided to cut this one since it was the one M would most likely have trouble understanding.
The Wonder Book of Chemistry. After reading through about half of this book, I decided that M would not follow much of it. So I am substituting it with a simpler Chemistry book with lots of simple demonstrations.
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made. These short chapters contain concepts that Malcolm is not mature enough to process. I did not need much of an excuse to make M’s schedule more manageable for him, so this one didn’t make the cut.

Nature Study

AO Nature Study Info Here

We do nature study object lesson and/or observations one or two times per week plus a nature lore book once per week in Together Time. This year we will be covering the following topics:

Term 1: Reptiles
Term 2: Brook, River, Ocean (though more of an emphasis on ocean, ocean life, and tides)
Term 3: Garden Flowers / Weeds (Though I’m reserving the right to switch to succulents)

All my nature study schedules with object lesson ideas and observation helps are located on the Nature Study page.

Mathematics

M will continue with Math U See. He did not finish the book he was on in AO6, Epsilon, which deals with fractions. So we will finish that book and move on to Zeta.

Art

AO Art and Artist Info Here and Music Info Here

In morning school there is an art/music slot in the schedule, so each day of the week we do either artist study, Lumen, Architecture, Composer, or Sound to Song.

Artist, Architecture, and Art History

Artist Study and Prints from A Humble Place

This year we will study Pissaro and Jean Honorē Fragonard from the AO schedule and the studies from A Humble Place. The third option, Albert Bierstadt, is not one that we can view their works locally, so I will do more research to determine which artist we’ll study in term 3. I hope to find a non-European artist to substitue in. Since are not twelve paintings in a term, we also will also take a look at the ones that are available for us to view in local museums (LACMA, The Getty, The Huntington, Norton-Simon). And we’ll have some flexibility in the schedule for weeks we take a day to go to a museum.

We will also work through the next Lumen volume from Goldberry Press. We add this in once per week. There are not 36 lessons in the book, but again, we’ll have flexibility in the schedule.

For Architecture this year we will read through Mosque by David Macaulay. As we did with Cathedral last year, we’ll read a small section every week-ish. See Architecture page for a study guide on both books.

AO assigns The Story of Painting by H.W. Janson for Year 7. We have a copy of Janson’s History of Art for Young People, and since it is suggested as an alternative, that’s what we’ll use. I will be reading this to him one time per week.

Composer

This year we’ll study Joplin for Term 1 (using the resources from Heritage Mom), Mozart for Term 2 (using either this short book or the Tillberry Table study) and Term 3 we’ll do Mendelssohn (using the Simply Charlotte Mason study).

Composer is on the schedule for once per week. During that time we either read from the book/study guide about the composer or we listen to a peice. I also put the peices in our “composer study” playlist that we sometimes have playing in the background.

This year I decided to add in the “From Sound to Song” study from ThistleandBiscuit.com to help us understand the elements of music better. We’ll be working through this study one time per week.

Hymns and Folksongs

We will continue to work learn new hymns and folksongs along with the AO rotation and use Hannah’s lovely YouTube postings at folksandhymns. I support her on Patreon and receive a monthly email with an mp3 of the music and a pdf of the lyrics. It makes my life so much easier! And with the mp3 I can create a playlist of hymns on my phone so we can listen to all our AO songs.

The monthly hymn is added to our family hymnal that is used during our Vespers time in the evenings (See Liturgical Year for how we have family readings and singing each evening). The folk song is learned during Together Time in the morning. We usually sing the current folk song twice a week and pick an old one to sing on Fridays.