Beggining HOD with High Schooler

[KTLM6]

After a chaotic semester of trying to make my own plans, I'm returning to HOD. I was crazy to leave and I've definitely learned my lesson. My Kindergartener will begin Little Hearts and my 7th grader will begin Res to Ref in the next few weeks. Over last summer our situation changed a bit. My husband and I were given permission to homeschool his daughter, my step-daughter. She had spent years in public school struggling with learning disabilities, an IEP, and LD specialists. She had been seeing a private tutor for years. Upon getting permission to homeschool, we used the curriculum recommended by the tutor, a more traditional curriculum. For the first time, my step-daughter doesn't feel like she is a horrible student. In fact, she is getting nearly all A's. After having worked with her all semester, I've seen that her struggles are mostly attention issues (diagnosed ADD). The one-on-one, quieter, calmer atmosphere at home helped a lot. She does sometimes struggle with comprehension/retention in reading, but usually this accompanies textbooks. She used to rebel at all reading, but has devoured all the books I've placed in front of her as extra reading for our schooling. I think a Charlotte Mason based curriculum would be perfect for her; shorter lessons, hands-on projects and notebooking, and a slower pace through living books. She will be going into 10th grade next fall. I've read many of the posts about beefing up programs for high school. She is taking World Geography and Biology this year. Since she is supposed to take physical science next year, I'm thinking Rev to Rev with the extensions and advanced options for science would work. I realize I'll have to beef up and supplement here and there to make it all high
school credit worthy, plus add in electives. Have any of you began something like HOD this late in
the game? Her math and grammar would stay traditional because that is what she has been doing.
I would add in the creative writing from Rev to Rev and a high school lit course. Doing three guides is a bit scary, but I don't want to skip guides with my 12 year old and miss important skills, even to combine her with her sis.

[glperky]

Sorry, I don't have an answer to your question, but wanted to bump this up hoping to get a responds because I too would like to use HOD with my 10 th grader next year.

[ChristGentleShepherd]

First, I have to say that I am not currently using HOD with my high schoolers, but am about to make the switch for one of them. I haven't used Rev to Rev, so I'm speaking generally here and not from Rev to Rev experience.

I do want to say that she is blessed to have you & I'm so exciting for you at her progress. Excellent! And it seems to me that going with Rev to Rev instead of MTMM might be a good place to be. You want it to be a more gentle introduction to the Charlotte Mason methods and not be overwhelming in difficulty. I have one high schooler with some learning issues, and I know that anything I use with that child has to be adjusted. Selecting RTR is a means of tailoring the program to fit your stepdaughter just as you or her school would do with an IEP. You are the one in charge, so if you want to use RTR for high school credit, you can.

Having just done World Geography, she's probably ready for a different topic, so the history in RTR should be appealing. Also, you might be planning on skipping the newest guide, as it is a geography year? By doing RTR next, you will have the ability to use MTMM the following year.

I had to laugh when you wrote, "After a chaotic semester of trying to make my own plans, I'm returning to HOD. I was crazy to leave and I've definitely learned my lesson." This past semester in my house will live in infamy as most disrupted and least progress made. I finally thought, "Why am I putting myself through all this when HOD has created daily lesson plans for me?"

[Carrie]

Cathy,

I think that your plan sounds like a good one, and your placement sounds right based on what you've shared so far. Since your oldest student has an IEP, she will have a bit more leeway in her placement. You'll have to see whether you feel she could handle the extensions.

One other thought that I had would be that she could potentially do RTR with your 7th grader if desired, as this would give her a credit in world history (which she'll likely need for graduation). If you did go the RTR route, you could add in the Advanced Version of the science from Rev2Rev for her physical science requirement instead of the science in Rev2Rev.

If you did follow this plan, then she would do Rev2Rev and MMTMM for her final two years of high school, which would give her a credit in American history that will be needed. You could add a bit to Rev2Rev to gain her government credit and add a bit to MTMM to gain an economics credit. So, this is one other possible route.

If, however, the mix of the older two in the same guide would be a negative, then I would definitely shy away from that option. Then, instead, you could do Rev2Rev followed by MTMM, skip over the geography guide (since you've done a year of geography already), and finish her senior year with our one year overview of world history (that is coming out after the geography guide).

Either option would work well.

Blessings,
Carrie

[deltagal]

I'm enjoying reading this post. I had planned to skip RTR, because I just think my 14 yo will not connect with the history in this particular guide, BUT this post gives me pause. Maybe we'll give it a go. I did use RTR for my oldest for his Freshman year and it was GREAT! And I like the idea of using the higher level science for high-school credit. It's looking like a good plan.

Hmmm. Thanks for the original post KTLM6 and your thoughts, Carrie.