It's that time of the year again when homeschooling Moms and Dads are thinking and planning new curriculum purchases for the upcoming school year. You may have just ended your last school year, but I am knee deep into the planning stages as we start back up in early August.
I have loved using the Lightning Literature curriculum with my older daughters in the past for our summer studies, so I was super excited to have the opportunity to have Montana, my rising 7th grader, work with the
Gr 7 Lightning Lit Set from
Hewitt Homeschooling Resources.
If you have been reading this blog for long you know that we are a book loving family. During our time off for summer break I like the girls to complete some type of summer reading project to keep their knowledge going. Hewitt Homeschooling fits the bill for what I was looking for; a literature curriculum that uses classic books and poems to teach writing skills and literacy analysis. I was thrilled to be offered the Lightning Literature and Composition: Grade 7 Student's Guide, Grade 7 Student's Workbook, and Grade 7 Teacher's Guide to use with Montana.
Hewitt Homeschooling has been around for many years in the homeschooling circle. The company firmly believes that reading great literature and then writing about it goes hand in hand in preparing students for college-level reading and writing. There goal is to serve parents with students from kindergarten through high school with an emphasis on combining excellent academics with character development, by instilling a strong work ethic, and to develop a spirit of community service within the next generation.
We have had the opportunity to use the Seventh grade set for the last six weeks. This set includes a student guide, a teacher guide, and a consumable student workbook. Lightning Lit exposes your child to several different genres of short stories and books and helps your child dig a little deeper into the context. Your child will also practice several writing techniques that are presented in a variety of methods and exercises.
This set covers the following stories and books in this order:
“Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” by Rudyard Kipling from Stories & Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Various poems from Stories & Poems . . .
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
"The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” a short story by Stephen Crane from Stories & Poems . . .
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
Various poems from Stories & Poems . . .
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
These books are available in a package with Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children and in a pack without Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children. For this review we were to supply our own books to complete the work. We are blessed to have many overflowing bookshelves and a library that fills in most of the time when we don’t have a specific book. That was the case with the story of Rikki~Tikki~Tavi. Our library had a copy of the story for Montana to read to complete the beginning exercises in the curriculum.
The Teacher’s Guide contains complete answers to everything in the student workbook as well as discussion questions to check for comprehension. It also includes a helpful planning schedule for 36 weeks of learning. The schedule is split into two semesters so you don’t have to. The Teacher’s Guide retails for $25.00.
The student guide breaks each literature piece or short story down into manageable sections including:
an introduction to what is being read
while you read
a vocabulary list
comprehension questions
literary lesson
a variety of mini-lessons
writing exercises
The vocabulary list could take the place of your separate spelling list as it contains words needed to know. I had Montana complete her comprehension questions in her literature notebook. The Student Guide also retails for $25.00.
The Student Workbook is a consumable workbook and retails for $25.00. Your child will complete grammar exercises, analyze parts of the book or short story, complete crossword puzzles and complete short writing exercises. To keep from being so repetitive, Lightening Lit varies the activities for each book/short story.
I should note that even though this course is listed for seventh graders, a sixth grader who is a strong reader and likes writing may also be able to do well with this course as well as a eight grader who needs a little more instruction on the foundations of composition.
Since I was using this as a summer enrichment for Montana, I scheduled her work through the exercises three times a week. I will say that even though Montana is a strong reader she was challenged by this program quite a bit. She breezed through Rikki~Tikki~Tavi reading and exercises, but really had to think and take her time with some of the questions to complete the exercises for Tom Sawyer. I like that the program challenged her because that is exactly what she needs right now.
Overall, I am completely pleased with this set! Even though it challenges Montana she is excited to get through the next six weeks of lessons on Tom Sawyer and move into reading Alice Adventure’s in Wonderland.
I wholeheartedly recommend the Grade 7 Lightning Lit set to anyone looking for a thorough all encompassing Literature program. Check them out for sure!
And be sure to check out what my fellow CrewMates thought of this program and the other products offered from Hewitt Homeschooling by clicking on the banner below.
Elementary:
Junior High:
High School:
Format ~ perfect bound
Price ~ $ 130.56, sale price $117.50
Ages ~ Junior High
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