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Hi,
I have been searching the forum to find someone in my boat, but I can only find half speed questions/posts for the younger grades so here goes!

For my ds, we are finishing up CTC and will begin RTR in September after my materials arrive. We have a bit over a year until our furlough so we will be doing RTR (for 7th grade) here in Indonesia.

When we return to the US (fall 2012-fall 2013), I am looking at different options because we do a lot of traveling and visiting. Also I want to make sure we do things we are not able to do here such as field trips, museums, fun days with cousins/grandparents, etc. Thinking back to last furlough, it gets busy and while we have such a nice time, we are approaching high school and I want to use as many HOD guides as we can for each dc. I think realistically it might be better to plan a slower/different year rather than always feel like we are "behind". I hope that makes sense.

One idea I came up with would be to do Rev2Rev half speed for ds (8th grade). He would do math daily or as much as possible. Can anyone suggest what else should be done more often? And if this might be the way to go, how would you do it? Would you do the left side of the book one day and the other side the next? If we had a day where we were staying home, I think I would have ds do the entire day. Should I plan to use the extensions for him and how would you schedule that? Edited to add that ds can do the work in a regular day. We just don't have many of those on furlough (regular days ).

If we did that, it would put us using the following sequence approx............

9th~Finish up Rev2Rev with extensions & start Modern Times with extensions
10th~Modern Times finish up & Geography with extensions
11th~World History with extensions (after Geography is finished)
12th~American History with extensions (after WH)

But since we homeschool year round we COULD possibly catch up and we might even get in that last guide since we are not sure if ds will stay a bit longer with us once he is done with formal schooling. From what I can tell, this would, with extensions, net us our 4 credits for hs history. Would everything else, if the guides are done as written, be fine for high school credits?

Thanks for any encouragement and advice. I feel like I have a lot of time and I should not be thinking about this too heavily, but I also know that I am just feeling caught up from our last furlough, return to the field, moving, etc.

Edited to change title so my question is clearer and to add the part above in bold font.......

Sorry, bumping this up so Carrie or Julie can give input once they have time!

Just brainstorming...have you looked at how it would work out if you did RTR 5 days a week instead of 4? Then you could start Rev2Rev sooner?

Hi,
Thanks for responding! Yeah, we would do the program 5 days a week, but the biggest problem is that we are not going to ship the material over for next year (we live overseas) and then turn around, bring it back to the US, use it for ds in the US and then ship it back over to use for dd at a later point. If we were normal we would more than likely begin early and use a 5 day program.

Thanks again for the great idea! Anyone else?

Sherry

SMiles wrote: One idea I came up with would be to do Rev2Rev half speed for ds (8th grade). He would do math daily or as much as possible. Can anyone suggest what else should be done more often? And if this might be the way to go, how would you do it? Would you do the left side of the book one day and the other side the next? If we had a day where we were staying home, I think I would have ds do the entire day. Should I plan to use the extensions for him and how would you schedule that? Edited to add that ds can do the work in a regular day. We just don't have many of those on furlough (regular days )..

I'll just give you what I might do. I would include language arts more often than that as well. If you are using it along with HOD that might be writing and dictation when not using R&S. To me if you did that and had some other educational opportunities as you said you will that would seem like a fine plan. We have had times when we have had to just do LA and Math. Our choice was to have a longer school year because our reasons for needing to streamline were not educational. But truly I think if you are going to have a lot of opportunities like you have planned your plan sounds wise to me. Keep them moving forward and gaining skills without overloading them with too much and expecting it all to be done. I am not sure how to answer on the extensions. I think that is a personal call as to how that could fit for you. They are scheduled in the back of the guide to run with the program. I would tend to follow that schedule to get the most out of the program on the other hand I have had kids read extension books after having done the program and enjoy them as well. I think that might be a personal call. It will fit with what they are studying better to do them with the program. I just love how HOD flows adn works as written I hate to mess with it too much because it's always such a blessing as Carrie writes it.

Oh and just on your overall plan I think that could work as well. I would lean toward something that can work with the normal work load rather than something that requires running everything 5 days a week all the time to catch up. That can work too but I think as they get older with electives and requirements that will not completely be met by the guide, that fifth day free really matters.

Hi -

Definitely math every day. Dictation 3 times a week. Writing 3 times a week. DITHOR 3 times a week. Bible daily. Regarding grammar...I think it depends where they are with their skills. If they are in Book 6 then I would take it 2 lessons a week. If they are in Book 5, I would simply pace it so they'll be in book 6 by the time you start high school. I would not do extensions. There is plenty of material without doing extensions. If you have those books put them in a basket for free reading. Then I think I would do science assignments one day along with the rotating box (poetry, devotional study, art appreciation) and history assignments along with independent history the next day. I would rotate those subject areas. Then I would do either storytime OR history project OR rotating box (shakespeare, geography, etc.) on the Science day and the other 2 on the history day. Your pick. They each require about the same amount of time.


Here's a previous thread where Carrie talked about RTR time allotments. Maybe it will help you. I would go for BALANCE. The most important thing is to keep moving forward. I don't think it ultimately matters what you do when.

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