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I have had the shrink wrapped World History plans for a few weeks now and I have been reading the history in the order that it occurs in the guide and all I can say is Wow! I love how the resources are integrated together and I am learning so much. I am also glad that he is reading Trial and Triumph this year, I feel the timing is perfect. I love that even the literature often lines up with the history, for example when the are studying ancient history they are reading Ben Hur, Julius Caesar is read at the same time that period is being read etc. The thing that I love the most though is that it is going to push my ds in the areas that are truly important for success in college.

My dd will be a Junior this year in college and she has said the things that were the hardest to get used to were the amount of reading required each week and the amount of writing each week. She was in ps her freshmen year of high school and homeschooled for the remaining 3 years and I will admit that even though she is labeled gifted I didn't push her as hard as I should have. I only made her work on one paper at a time and often let her skip the longer essay questions on tests and felt bad if I made her read over 20 pages in lit a day. I realize I did her a disservice because when she got in college she had 5-6 classes all requiring papers at the same time and each class requiring 40 plus pages of reading a week as well as almost every test she took required a 3-5 paragraph essay as part of the test and those tests were timed. As I pour over the WH guide plans I feel like Carrie has tried very hard to balance the work yet push the dc to the point of being able to handle larger amounts of reading and multiple writing assignments each week. I love that not only do they do written narrations, but also the Art History class has paragraph responsive writing, the Health tests often require a 3-4 paragraph essay and the literature journal has very thought provoking questions that require paragraph answers that aren't just straight forward but involve giving opinions and deeper level thinking. When I first looked at it all I thought -wow how in the world is my ds going to handle this, and I will admit I am still nervous about that, but I realize that if he is going to go to college he needs to start learning how to handle it and what better time to do it than when I am here to help him figure out what works best for him.

So once again Carrie thank you for helping me to be a better homeschool mom.

My oldest will be entering HS shortly, and it's nice to have reassurance that HOD is preparing students for college level work. This is very helpful and encouraging, and I appreciate your taking the time to share.

I have such a peace of mind about this as well! We've used the HOD WG guide and the HOD WH guide, and I am confident in our ds being prepared for college too. Thanks for sharing this, Lynn!

In Christ,
Julie

Thank you also for sharing what you are seeing with your daughter and your son. I get in discussions with other homeschooling parents who have a less structured approach and have often wondered why it is that many of the homeschooled kids I see around me don't seem to even want to go to college. Now, I will say that college isn't for everyone and I am glad in the homeschooling community we don't take for granted that our kids have to go to college. But I also think that the approaches I have seen with other homeschooled children might not be great preparation. Being in college is challenging if you want to be successful and the right kind of challenge and preparation is really key. I'm thankful for the wisdom and knowledge Carrie has and brings into each of the guides. Can't wait to move on and experience even more!