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I've shown my son's workload to some other homeschool moms, mainly in tHe context of asking how many books on average are on a homeschooler's book list (the kind we make to show colleges.) The general response is that I've having my son read too many books. The other moms are using CC and other programs where half as many books are read, but papers are written on each book plus debates and such are a part of the homeschool curriculum.

What do you think? We are doing HOD World Geography exactly as written, except for foreign language.

I will say my son has some weakness that we need to irony out, but he isn't having an issue keeping up with the reading. He is behind in math and struggling with algebra concepts. He cannot spell at a all. His writing needs maturity, complexity and depth, but I'm pleased with the progress he has made in the last few years. I'm a natural writer, so of this area I'm more critical.

We will finish up the year as planned, we are only on unit 20. However, I'm considering not using the Living. Library next year, so that we have more flexibility and time to work on fundamentals.

Having toured CC and knowing many families in the challenge program, I wouldn't compare HOD to them for college purposes. The cc tour that we did really showed me that what one person would call a "heavy" workload others would call light. I would just look up and know what you need for admittance to the colleges of your choice and would base my curricula choices on that criteria. We are not doing the living library this year, but it was an economical choice. The written narrations and notebooking pages included in HOD are comparable to the papers wrote for CC in my personal opinion.

How long should his narrations be? Should I be sticking to the five paragraph essay model? What do y'all do?

We do our narrations based on the expectations in the guide. I don't think that is 5 paragraph essay style. I just flipped through the guide and don't see where that is a focus of the narration. I know there is some sort of basic amount of sentences you are looking for though. CC is really structured to be taught classroom style and has classroom goals including their writing goals. It is crazy light in the history as it relies on debate. They actually do less than HOD in my opinion and don't really scrape the surface of the time periods they are supposed to be achieving credits for in history. Their papers are essentially book reports and I did not feel that it is as heavy and challenging as those doing CC feel it is for their students. Again, this is based on touring the CC Challenge program and meeting and talking with Challenge directors just recently as we were pursuing what to do through high school. I would caution against relying on another homeschooler's opinion of your curricula and it's college worthiness especially when they are in something that is as heavily school styled as CC. They are going to push you in the direction of what they are doing and think is college credit worthy.
ETA-My student does know the 5 paragraph essay style and can rattle them off as needed, but I don't feel that she needs to be doing 5 paragraph essays in history and science to be ready for college. That is more of an English requirement. I don't want to bash any other curricula or group on here so I want to just say that most people who go with CC are looking for a specific style in a specific classroom representation to feel at peace with homeschooling high school and feel their student is ready for college. Just as private, public, tutor, and homeschooling are all great choices to achieve a qualified high school education, we all must come to peace with our decisions in regards to homeschooling high school.

I had went to a very challenging college prep high school and I feel like HOD is very much along those lines. All of their resources seem excellent, very challenging, very balanced and a wonderful workload. I actually picked HOD because of the volume covered in later years. I have looked at other programs and considered them light. While my kids are very young still, I have done a lot of research. I think the writing in HOD is very well balance and perfect. I don't think volume creates a good writer. I think quality does. I can see how level builds on itself to produce quality writing and writing that my kids would end up using as adults. I am accountant and I have to write persuasively for grants, expository for reporting purposes and creatively when doing newsletters. So I feel like these are the 3 main areas that my kids will be forced to learn. As my kids get older, I am not opposed to doing the 1 year adventure novel if I have one extremely creative writer for some reason but in general, I want them learning writing they will use.

And I think you as the parent can make your own decisions about what you want included in your child's education. HOD is a very literature rich program. That is why we (my husband and I chose it). We love the books. Also - they are very doable, my kids gain a ton from them, and they build independence and skills. I love that the up level classes do such a good job teaching the topics and make it interesting so that my kids will retain it longer. For me, this is great and what I am looking for. And I also have learned that what is great for me isn't always great for others.

Thanks for the encouragement. I love HOD and it's a great fit for our family. I haven't followed the program exactly as written, and I'm regretting that now. I do t think I ever will regret the reading my son has done.

I haven't done the WG guide yet, but my son will do it next year. I have the guide and actually am reading through the books right now one by one and looking at the assignments that go with them. I am very impressed with how complete of a program it is. CC is a totally different philosophy than a lit based program. They are not going to understand the use of books to make the history come alive because that isn't one of their goals, at least as I understand CC. I have a hard time believing they do more writing than what is in the WG guide. I guess if they are only counting writing as a book report style report then maybe. However written narrations build writing skills in so many ways where the student has to really assimilate what he has read. You made me curious about exactly how much writing there is in WG. In history alone you have 35 written narrations. In the literature there are several written narrations for each novel read. In the writing program they write 4 Essay's and a Research Paper in addition to the paragraph writing that is done before the essays. There are also writing assignments in Rod and Staff. I am pretty sure there are even writing assignments in the Bible study. When my dd was in 9th grade Honors English in public school she wrote 2 papers the entire year!

I also don't think the written narrations are supposed to be in 5 paragraph essay style. I don't see anything wrong with leaving out the living library next year if you want time to focus more specifically on certain skills. I leave in the living library books because my ds can sometimes have difficulty remembering the history if all he has are the readings from the history spines. I will read them to him though. The living library books are what he remembers years afterwards. He is the kind of person who has to connect emotionally or relationship wise to something in order for him to remember it or for it to mean anything to him. The living library books do that. If that isn't something your ds struggles with then you could certainly leave them out.

I complete agree with Lynn. I have actually found the volume of writing in their younger guides to be very competitive with other programs as well. I feel like they do a great job of building skills each year and having the kids focus on different areas of writing. I definitely think the high school does offer a lot as well - especially since they are completing a 10th grade writing program in the WG guide. To me - that is pretty awesome!

I am NOT a CC fan, and I AM an HOD fan, so I have stated my bias up front. There is a LOT of writing in the HOD guides. It is just scattered throughout the boxes, which means it is scattered throughout the subjects instead of just quarantined to one subject. Although the 5 paragraph essay is hailed as the end-all in many circles, it is fairly simple to teach and write. HOD teaches ALL forms of writing. My favorite aspect of HOD is the connections my children make between events and people in history. I love the way my children can point to moments in history as the birthplaces of problems that plague our society today. I love the allusions they create, relating to the books they have read. My daughter even compared her friends to literary characters she has read about this year in a thank you. It was very creative and insightful. There is a place for memorization, but I will always choose connections, allusions, and a thorough knowledge of not only the events, but also the worldview behind the events. Memorization alone, or even memorization held to too high of an academic virtue, holds the danger of head knowledge without heart knowledge. CC clearly works for a lot of people, but it seems like you are very happy where you are at. My post is not meant to discourage those who have profited from CC, it is only meant to encourage you to examine your own goals and not let the goals of other families dictate your curriculum or your current contentment, success, and joy. Clearly, since this is the HOD board, many of us may be biased to HOD methodology.

Thanks again. My biggest issue in homeschooling the oldest has been having all the littles with the last three ( in 2 1/2 years) being high risk and ending in NICU stays. I allowed my oldest to be too independent while I was in survival mode. Adding in a daily meeting has helped greatly, but we still need more accountability and disciine. I was so happy to find HOD because he could do so much independently, unfortunately I didn't realize how much feedback and direction is needed for high school until a few months ago.

Someone with a graduate please tell me it's not too late. Lol.

I have 2 graduates so far. It is never too late, and I think many of us have learned that lesson. I have said many times that the biggest lie I heard in homeschooling has been that your high schoolers would be doing high school completely by themselves. HOD has a much more realistic version of independence with discussions, check-ins, and accountability. You have discovered that--and earlier than I did. Each day is a new gift from God to implement the new wisdom he gives us. If you saw how much I still have to grade to finish the year, you would know that I can truly empathize! Babies are important, and there are many years that I was not able to accomplish the school year anywhere near perfectly, but we did learn and grow together! I can also assure you that as those babies grow, it does get easier!!!!!!