High school questions... 3 years left.

[kayrenee]

I'm trying to make some decisions for my current 9th grader for the rest of high school. I'm trying to decide where to place her if she were to finish with HOD. My first thought is the most obvious, which is to have her do World Geography, but I'm also thinking about how to have her finish world history (which is what she's been doing so far), and also get in her American history, Govt and Econ credits.

I *love* what I see in the Geography course, and placement is not an issue because the English that Carrie has planned would be good for her. Or she could also do something entirely separate for English, and she already has her own math which won't change. She's doing Apologia Biology right now, but there's no way she'll be ready for a full blown Chemistry course next year, so I was even considering having her go ahead and do the IPC. (She did Apologia Physical in 8th grade.) I already have the materials Carrie schedules for Logic, so it's nice to see that scheduled in, too.

But if she does Geography for 10th grade, what would she do for 11th & 12th? I wonder if I should just have her finish Ancients this year, and then I wonder if Carrie will have American history ready yet the following year? I hate to miss out on what Carrie has planned for World History, aside from the fact that my dd won't need biology.

Or would it be feasible for me to have my dd do at least some of the World Geography course between now and the fall?

Can someone brainstorm with me a bit? I had also considered having her do MTMM beefed up, but I think I've ruled that out because everything else I've mentioned just seems like they fit the puzzle pieces a little better.

[LynnH]

Carrie's plan is to have the World History guide come out fall 2014 and then fall of 2015 come out with the Early American History guide which will include government and then the fall of 2016 come out with the Late American History guide which will include economics. If you finish up the World History you are doing this year and then do the World Geography guide next year that would set you up for 11th and 12th grade to get what she needs with the guides that are coming out.

[8arrows]

Could she finish out ancients this year and count that for world history? Some states don't say what time frame you need to cover for world history. You could then do the geography followed by the 2 American history years (which will have government and economic--at least that is what I think I have seen posted). Or, you could do the geography guide, the world history guide, and then pick one of the American history guides to use. That would only leave rescheduling government or economics. My daughter will have physical science and the IPAC science on her transcript. She is art and music minded. She will still surpass our state science requirements. Would either of those options work with your state requirements?

[kayrenee]

Could she finish out ancients this year and count that for world history? Some states don't say what time frame you need to cover for world history. You could then do the geography followed by the 2 American history years (which will have government and economic--at least that is what I think I have seen posted). Or, you could do the geography guide, the world history guide, and then pick one of the American history guides to use. That would only leave rescheduling government or economics. My daughter will have physical science and the IPAC science on her transcript. She is art and music minded. She will still surpass our state science requirements. Would either of those options work with your state requirements?

Either one would work, really. In the state that she will most likely be graduating from, as a "non-accredited private school", we have NO requirements as to what subjects to teach. Even as an accredited school, she would only need to have geography, U.S. and state history, and civil government (as far as social studies/history goes). For college admissions (and she'll be starting at community college, if she goes), it's a by-right state and she only has to have an ACT score of 21 for admission. Thus, she doesn't really *have* to do anything, because anything she misses at home, she could theoretically take at CC. So any requirements she has for graduation come strictly from her father and I.

I was looking closely at some of the assignments on the first week's sample lessons for Geography today, and realized that some "history" actually is included in context of the geography.

BUT.... I would still hate to miss out on what I'm seeing that Carrie has planned for World History!

I think if we were going to skip a year, as far as the history content/time period is concerned, it would most likely be Early American because dd feels like we've beat that one to death already. She asked me if we could do a 10-minute Early American course next time: "And then there were the explorers. And then there was Jamestown. And then there were the Pilgrims. And then there was...."

I wonder if there will be anything scheduled in Early American that will be carried over to Modern? You know how some curriculums might include both a state study and a presidents study spread over two years.... I know that HOD covers these things in Rev2Rev and MTMM. Will they be covered again in high school? Or anything else that "starts" in Early American and "finishes" in Modern? (I suppose that's a question directly for Carrie since no one else knows yet. )

[LynnH]

Since you said she didn't want to spend much time on explorers you might want to look closely at A Book of Discovery that is in the World Geography guide because it is basically the story of all the explorers that have discovered different parts of the world. That might impact which guide you decide to do.

[kayrenee]

Oh, thanks for mentioning that, LynnH. I'll take a look.

[8arrows]

I think if we were going to skip a year, as far as the history content/time period is concerned, it would most likely be Early American because dd feels like we've beat that one to death already. She asked me if we could do a 10-minute Early American course next time: "And then there were the explorers. And then there was Jamestown. And then there were the Pilgrims. And then there was...."

Based on this and your state requirements I would do geography, world, and the second American history. You could give her the choice of which she wants to skip since you will be able to meet any of the requirements easily.

The president videos from MTMM are not long. You could view the presidents before the time period of the 2nd American guide the summer before her senior year just to give a little review. We have enjoyed and profited from these videos, and they are not lengthy.

[Carrie]

The ladies are doing a great job of helping you talk through options! A couple of factors I was thinking of that might make a difference in your planning are... how far your daughter is into the Ancients right now and approximately how many weeks of school she has left of her 9th grade year.

For example, if she had quite a few weeks left of 9th grade, you could potentially switch her to the World Geography guide now (if desired) and do it 5 days a week. With the World Geography guide being a 4 day plan, your daughter would make quite a dent in the guide that way (If she had quite a few weeks left of 9th grade at this point). For example, if she schooled 5 days a week through the end of May (instead of 4 days as the guide has planned) and started now, she could complete half of the World Geography guide by end of May. Then, next school year she could pick it back up and finish it that same way. Due to our busy summer season where our boys have to work hard in the warehouse daily, we do our guides this way at our house (schooling 5 days a week for their whole school year, even with the 4 day guides). it is a necessity here for now, but I would one day love to go back to enjoying the 4 day a week plan.

After that she could head into the World History guide, possibly skipping over the part of the Ancients that she had already done and begin where she left off time period-wise. While we wouldn't normally recommend the skipping approach, it just gives your daughter one way to take advantage of what she has already covered and allows her to move forward from there.

If the reverse is true and she is quite far into the ancients and doesn't have many weeks of school left than it is probably better to finish out the ancients and think about skipping one of the other guides instead.

All of the options the ladies mentioned are workable. I just wanted to give you one more possibility to ponder in the mix of things.

Blessings,
Carrie

[kayrenee]

She's on Week 20 of 36 in her current lesson plans. She *needs* to be done by mid-June, or July 1st at the latest, as we'll be knee-deep in performance prep for the end of July.

How many hours a day should one expect Geography to take? I think I saw 6 or 6-1/2 hours somewhere... Yeah, we would definitely need Fridays because she really only has mornings to get as much done as possible. Although two afternoons a week are Spanish (which she's already doing), so she wouldn't be doing that subject OR science in HOD (for the next 16 weeks). Spanish and Biology will be finished in May, so that will free up two afternoons a week. But the other three afternoons are consumed with dance and performance prep for the next 5-1/2 months.

I'm also trying to make a decision about 10th grade science....

If I go ahead and follow your suggestion, Carrie, how would you propose we do English and Lit?

I've also considered doing MTMM beefed up (+ Govt) for 10th, then having her do Geography in 11th and World History in 12th. I would just need to fit Econ in there somewhere.

[kayrenee]

I think if we were going to skip a year, as far as the history content/time period is concerned, it would most likely be Early American because dd feels like we've beat that one to death already. She asked me if we could do a 10-minute Early American course next time: "And then there were the explorers. And then there was Jamestown. And then there were the Pilgrims. And then there was...."

Based on this and your state requirements I would do geography, world, and the second American history. You could give her the choice of which she wants to skip since you will be able to meet any of the requirements easily.

The president videos from MTMM are not long. You could view the presidents before the time period of the 2nd American guide the summer before her senior year just to give a little review. We have enjoyed and profited from these videos, and they are not lengthy.

I think I need to sit down and see if it matters to her which time period or history topic she does in which order. She may not care (aside from the issues with early American), and as far as our state and college requirements, that doesn't matter much, either, sooooo.... That just make the decision that much harder on me!

Maybe I should just ask my husband. He's not quite so emotionally wrapped up in it.

[my3sons]

...How many hours a day should one expect Geography to take?...

I can help with this part! Here are the approximate times for the WG guide...

World Geography box: 35-45 min.
Living Library: 20-25 min.
Geography Activity: 20-25 min.
World Religions and Cultures: 20-25 min.
Foreign Language: 25-30 min. (with audio online practice included)
Logic: 20-25 min. (longer on discussion days)
R & S English/Essentials in Writing/Dictation: 30 min.
BJU Lit/Boy Set: 40-45 min.
Math: 60 min.
Bible Study: 40-50 min. (plus the devotional once weekly in addition to this as part of the Bible credit)
Science with Lab: 40-60 min.

I guess that is 7 hours (if you look at the longer times to allow for longer assignments), which means with everything for receiving credits, about 6 to 6 1/2 hours would be the shorter version for completing all work each day. We are currently in Unit 19 of WG, and these times have held pretty true. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[kayrenee]

Thanks, Julie. I assume your son does it all pretty much independently. Do you then have discussion times daily or weekly? How do you follow up on what he's done?

Followup and grading work consistently is one of the hardest parts of high school for me as the teacher.

[my3sons]

Thanks, Julie. I assume your son does it all pretty much independently. Do you then have discussion times daily or weekly? How do you follow up on what he's done?

Followup and grading work consistently is one of the hardest parts of high school for me as the teacher.

Glad to help! You are right - Wyatt is quite independent at this point. He is an early morning riser and gets up at 6 AM to start his school. I have one meeting time with him from about 9 AM to 10 or 10:30 (the extra time is usually due to Algebra or us having to work through some things in his writing for Essentials in Writing). I hear you on the follow-up and grading work consistently being tougher to do in high school. The times I have let it go for more than a few days I've found I've made a mess - either for me or for him. So, what is working really well now is for me to start our meeting time with his oral narration (whatever it is on for the day). He knows this, and prepares for it as I clean up after breakfast. After his oral narration, we check anything that we didn't check from YESTERDAY'S work, with the goal to have every box from yesterday checked off before moving on to today's work. I have a special orange gel pen to check off the boxes, so I can easily see which boxes don't have my orange checkmark from the day before, and Wyatt has everything all ready to show me. I gave him a sliding EZ grader with the grading scale copied from WG"s introduction and taped on it. He grades his own science, logic, and the end of his math with this (I correct his math as we go when we are doing the oral part of Algebra 1 and at the start of the lesson when I am still with him). So, he shows me each thing (i.e. the map he made for geography, his graded logic, his graded science - this works as he has always been an honest student - if he thinks his answer is wrong at all, he counts it completely wrong. This self-grading may not work with my second ds.) Anyway, then with pencil in hand he reads any completed written work out loud to me (i.e. his written narrations, his essays/writing for Essentials in Writing, his one sentence summary, his bookmark, etc.). He often catches any errors he may have himself this way, and I stop him to help if he doesn't catch them. I look at "Practical Happiness" annotations, discuss BJU if need be, etc. After we have gone over everything from yesterday, then, he can show me anything he has ready to be corrected for the current day. I usually check his Rooted and Grounded workbook as he gets out his grammar/writing and math for the day. I look over his writing to be sure he knows what he has to do, and if it's a day he's choosing a topic to write about in Essentials in Writing, I invest some time up front helping him pick a topic and talk through some ideas for it (this goes a long way in helping the whole writing process go smoothly). Or, if it's a R & S English day, we do the oral review questions, go through the lesson orally/on marker board, and finally leave him with 1 assigned portion of the grammar to write. Then, we do his math together. Once I feel he's got a good handle on it, I let him finish on his own and pop back in to check on him now and then (as I'm then doing Riley's math at the dining room table). I also pop in later at some point and go through his Spanish flashcards with him for about 10 minutes a day. I hope this makes sense! Please ask more questions if it's about as clear as mud.

In Christ,
Julie

[kayrenee]

Well, I think I need to print out your post and think through it some more away from the computer screen... Plus I'm tired, so everything's blurring together. But I kinda' get the gist. I have to think about how I would schedule both her and my younger dd, since our afternoons are mostly taken up outside the home. (Although next year I think we'll only be gone two afternoons a week. Yay!)

Thanks so much for typing all that out, Julie!