Starting highschool credits in 8th grade?

[flackattack]

Hi all,
I would love some input on something I have been pondering. I live in Colorado and the homeschool law doesn't specifically say when you can start counting classes as credits for highschool. I was reading some of the threads about how to beef up RtR for highschool credit and it got me thinking. My 13 yr old ds will be already be doing Saxon Algebra 1 and Spanish 1, which I was planning on putting on his transcripts. After reading the threads I wondered if I should just beef up the history in RtR and use it as his World History credit on his transcript. I was also thinking of doing that for English as well. He would already be doing the Medieval History-Based Writing Lessons, so he could just add the extensions there. I was already planning on him doing DITHOR, so I could just tweak my book selection to have him read more classic novels. I was planning on him doing R&S 6 this year as well. I know Carrie suggests 1/2 of level 7 for 9th grade, but he hasn't done 6 yet, so I would like him to go through that first.
My son is bright, but doesn't love school like I wish he did! I think that he would appreciate knowing that all the work he is doing is for a purpose. Honestly I think it would motivate him more in the day to day. This would mean that by his Senior year he could have a lighter load, take some college classes or just really focus on some things that might interest him more. I called CHEC (Christian Home Educators of Colorado) and talked to someone about what I was thinking. The lady I spoke with seemed to think it would be a good idea, but I wanted to see if anyone else out there has done this before. Also, I have read Carrie's thoughts on how to beef up RtR, but wondered if any of you ladies who have done RtR for highschool could tell me what you used to make it credit worthy (specifically for the history portion).
Thank you!
Blessings,
Katie

[big sky]

i think this is a great idea, its what i plan to do with my soon to be 8th grader. I didnt know a one year time period in history counts towards the world history requirement for highschool. All the highschool textbook curriculums address the one year world history to cover all the time periods. This is great news if this works for it though!

I purchased a great book on creating transcripts for college, setting the record straight by lee binz

hopefully others with some experience can answer your questions

[raceNzanesmom]

I would check the colleges he's likely to apply to. Many don't allow hs credit before 9th grade.

[flackattack]

I spent some time looking at another forum yesterday to see what info I could find on this topic. Turns out that most people say the same thing... It might be ok on the highschool side to use 8th grade classes as credits on transcripts, but a lot of colleges won't accept them. From what I read, colleges will just expect more higher level courses taken in 9th through 12th. I don't want to set my ds up (who doesn't dig school all that much!) to have to take even harder courses! I will just stick with him taking Algebra 1 and Spanish 1, since that's the level he's at in math and we'd like him to go through Spanish 3 anyway... Thanks!

[water2wine]

This is something I looked into a lot. It seems places like HSLDA and others who specialize in transcripts for hsers etc seem to say that yes it is possible. It is not guaranteed that colleges will take it but there seems to be a lot that have for graduated hsers that have gotten into colleges. I have read that people do transcripts by subject or year (meaning the actual like 2011) for reporting it. At the very least I would start keeping detailed records of all that is done in 8th grade. When you think about it ps kids are able to take Ap courses in 8th grade and that does count as credit often times so we should be able to as well.

[MomtoJGJE]

Are we meaning still doing 9-12 grade and just counting some of what they do in 8th? Or are we talking about counting 8th as high school? I don't see how the colleges would KNOW they did grade 8-11 as high school rather than 9-12? Am I misunderstanding?

[arstephia]

A lot of families make their transcripts to show credits, not years to accommodate 8th grade work. We are using Rev2Rev this year and I will be counting the Physical Science (advanced) for my son's high school physical science credit. Our transcripts are not broken down by time but by subject, so his will look like this:

Sciences
Physical Science B+ 3.87 (or whatever grade point it will be, I am just plugging in numbers for illustration)
Biology 1 B 3.79
Chemistry B+ 3.87
Physics A- 3.91


Even though Physical Science will be 8th grade, Biology 9th, Chemistry 10, Physics 11th, it won't have the grade levels. He will then be free to do an internship or something his 12th grade year this way. History will be the same way. I am wanting his 8th grade stuff to count as much as reasonably possible to he can pursue other interests to hone his future his senior year. Just be sure the CONTENT is grade level. I won't be stretching RTR for my dd for high school because that IMO is too much a stretch, but Rev2Rev is not a stretch for 9th grade/high school work when using the extensions.

So it just depends on how you set up your transcripts. I have many families in our Co-op who use the subject format instead of year format, used 8th grade as a springboard, and have successfully gone to a wide variety of colleges based on their transcripts.

[flackattack]

Thank you everyone for the info! I think RtR for World History is a stretch, but I think I might go for an English 1 credit. Seems like from Carrie's thread on beefing up RtR that she thinks that it is doable. I would be doing all she says... Medieval History-Based Writing Lessons with extensions, DITHOR with classic novels, and R&S Grammar. The only difference is my ds would be using all of R&S 6 instead of the first half of 7. Do you think that matters?
Thanks again for your help!

[dianeh47]

Ladies,
I had asked Carrie or Julie to respond to this, however they were busy getting the new guide to the printer, so maybe you ladies can help me. My 7th grader will be starting RevtoRev this month. I wanted to add The 5000 Year Leap and The Federalist Papers for high school credit and the advanced science for high school, I know that RevtoRev is meaty enough for high school, but here are my two questions. Is 7th grade too early for high school credits, and would The 5000 Year Leap and The Federalist Papers be too much for 7th grade? Thanks for any suggestions.
Blessings,
Diane

[flackattack]

Diane...I am hoping that someone with more experience will pipe in, but from what I have read and been told, I think that credits are only accepted on highschool transcripts in 8th grade. Hopefully someone will correct me if I am wrong.... I wish I could help more, but I am on the same journey as you... trying to make sense of all this highschool transcript stuff!

Also, I was wondering if someone could tell me if these book choices look ok and are credit worthy in conjunction with DITHOR:
Biography:
Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Adventure:
Around the World in 80 Days or Robin Hood
Historical Fiction:
The Outsiders
Fantasy:
The Hobbit
Mystery:
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Humor:
Through the Looking Glass
Realistic Fiction:
The Call of the Wild and/or White Fang
Folk Tales:
Tales of King Arthur
Instead of doing Non-Fiction I will add the Progeny Press guide on poetry that Carrie recommened.

I have been pouring over this the last few days. I realized I had to research what lit program I might want to use after DITHOR and then find books that are not used in that program that could fit into these specific genres... and that my ds might like! I would appreciate any input someone might have!