World Geography Literature Substitutions

[The2youngs]

This school year, my youngest has returned to HOD and next year the rest will join her! My eldest was a bit reticent, but after looking up and previewing EVERY. SINGLE. BOOK on the World Geography list, he is super excited about it!

I'm hoping you can help with a little issue with the World Geography literature/English selections. My dilemma comes from the fact that we've long been an AO family so my eldest has read many of the books on the World Geography list, both the boy and girl counterparts. Specifically he's read all of the #3 and #5 options (Men of Iron & Anne of Avonlea; Children of the New Forest, Captains Courageous, & Little Women). Some of these he's read quite recently, so I don't think I can swing the "just reread them" argument!

My initial thought was simply to replace choices #3 & #5 with different books, so:
1) Shane (Boy option #1)
2) Treasure Island AND Ragged Dick (Boy option #2)
3) Persuasion (Girl option #2)
4) Screwtape Letters (Boy option #4)
5) The Importance of Being Earnest (Girl option #4)

...but then I did some searching on here and came across a comment of Carrie's indicating that her book selections in this area served specific objectives (ie. certain character roles, etc.) so then I wondered if maybe my plan wasn't such a good one after all.

Can someone lend a hand and help me to know whether I need to pick alternate books for those options or whether my plan will work, based on the purposes they each serve within the guide?

Thanks so much! We're enjoying our last venture through Bigger this year and we're looking forward to ALL returning to HOD next year!

[Carrie]

Heather,

We do definitely have a reason behind everything we schedule in each guide! With that being said, the book selections in the literature portion of the World Geography guide are some of the easiest to swap between the book sets. This is because they are not the spine of the literature study. For this one particular year of study, the BJU literature text is the main spine. In this way, we can make sure that all students coming in to the high school years have some foundational literature study in place prior to launching into the longer, more involved works of literature that are coming in future years.

We have families coming into HOD from all different backgrounds in literature study. While many families have come up through HOD and have had formal literature study, many others have not. So this year of literature study is meant to address the literature needs of all different types of learners.

The books we selected for this year of study are an important bridge to higher level literature study. They are classics and each one is strong in a certain story element, but if your child is coming from a rich literary background like that within AO, he should have some of those skills in place already. In his case, I would agree the substitutions that you swapped make sense.

We pray that your family will enjoy World Geography as much as we do! Our youngest son is currently in Missions to Modern Marvels. He will head into World Geography next year.

Blessings,
Carrie

[The2youngs]

Carrie,

Thanks so much for your reply. I'm glad that it's a fairly straight-forward substitution here.

I'm praying that next year is a real breath of fresh air for us. We're overseas, so don't have the luxury of jumping ship mid-year. We'll continue with our current course for this year and trust that next year will be a great experience!

Thanks again!

[my3sons]

Carrie,

Thanks so much for your reply. I'm glad that it's a fairly straight-forward substitution here.

I'm praying that next year is a real breath of fresh air for us. We're overseas, so don't have the luxury of jumping ship mid-year. We'll continue with our current course for this year and trust that next year will be a great experience!

Thanks again!

Just wanted to say that I hope you have a fantastic year with HOD's WG with your son, and can't wait for you to be full-on HOD next year!!!

In Christ,
Julie