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I am considering switching to HOD for my 9th and 11th graders. I have questions that I hope more experienced moms can help with. My 11th grader still needs US History and I would like him to ideally have some European Modern History. Would it be reasonable to follow this schedule for my kids: 9th & 11th: World Geography (this year); 10th & 12th - American History (next year); 11th - World History (fall 2017); 12th final in HOD series - (fall 2018). I realize there is some flip flopping here and am wondering if the order matters because of skills attained (I'm already aware of a science/math level issue that we'd have to work around).

On a related note, does the World Geography cover some of Modern European History? Just wanting him to touch on it since all he's had thus far in high school is American Gov't/Econ and Ancient World.

The good news is that whatever we do with the olders, we should have all the books for #3 to do them all in order when it is his turn.

Thanks for your help!!

I think that is a difficult question and would somewhat turn into a personal decision. First, before making any decisions, I would check the placement chart and verify that both children fit in this guide. If they don't, then I would consider doing MTMM instead and then adjusting more significantly in the areas of science and English for the 11th grader. If both children fit into the WG guide, then I would do that as is. As for European history, no, this level does not cover that information. The WH level would cover that.

As for skipping a guide, well, that again will need to be a personal decision. Typically, with the guides, it is not recommended to skip because they do increase in difficulty with each guide. However, with high school, you are required to cover certain topics that vary by state and college to meet graduation requirements. I think you would need to assess once you complete the WG guide if you think both students could handle the rigors of the AH guide.

In addition, I am not sure if in your position if you might be better served splitting the kids up. Since you have had ancient history and econ so far, you might be better served completing the WG and WH guides this year with both of these students. The one wonderful things with HOD is that the guides are very independent so you won't necessarily be overwhelmed with running these two guides. In addition, the WH guide includes health and fine arts - and I am not sure if still need that for your 11th grader for graduation. If you run both of these guides next year, the nice thing would be that your 9th grader would just follow the guides in order. And then your 11th grader sounds like they would just need the WH and AH guide for graduation requirements. I am just curious - are you mainly concerned about the volume of running this many guides or is it cost. I do know cost definitely drives my decisions at times. If it is primarily cost - I might consider getting WG this year for both and then possibly trying to split them up next year. This would help alleviate the cost this year and give you time to save up for multiple guides in the following year.

On a side note - and I know the younger guides are much cheaper - but I only started HOD 2 years ago. My first year I had to buy 2 guides and my second year 3. While it was cheaper than what you are considering, it was still expensive for me. This year I only had to buy 1 guide. That was a definitely joy!

Thanks for your response. Lots of good things to consider.

Cost is definitely a factor, but having them work together and be able to have discussions together is important, too. My oldest ds is an introvert who has been homeschooled since K, until last year when he went to a Christian school. He would like to return, but a job change has made that impossible. He is also in the habit of speed reading through everything and completing assignments rather than lingering and going deep. My middle ds reads more slowly, thus deeply, and considers questions beyond the assignment. So ideally, I would love for them to be in the same level for dialectic discussion purposes.

Also, ds1 desires to complete work in a timely way, but has some very real executive function issues that can make this a challenge. By having them work together, there is more accountability and structure (ok, and competition because who wants to be 'shown up' by little brother? )which helps the executive function issues tremendously. Of course, I'd like to join in on some of those discussions.

Finally, we are doing some outsourcing for ds1. He has surpassed my ability to teach him English/Grammar/Writing because he is much better than me at this point, so he will be taking an online Lit based class for this. I have also enrolled them both in a budget friendly Spanish class in the community, more for the social interaction (they've both had 2 years of Latin and we'll be continuing Latin at home, so expect Spanish to come easily) and in a chemistry lab for homeschoolers offered by a local Christian school (with the idea of doing Chem/Phys in WG with ds2). And he will be finishing up his current math with TT before moving on to perhaps ChalkDust Pre-Calc (if I can find it used for a reasonable price!) So he really just needs History and Bible, which I would love to combine with his brother, so a full guide for him is really not cost effective for us currently. Sorry to not make all that clear from the start! It's an eclectic kind of year for him!

It seems the thinking your response made me do has made the core of my dilemma a bit clearer for me. Thank you! I have loved HOD since I first used it in 2010, but we only used it for one year before being unmistakably called into Classical Conversations. We have now been unmistakably called OUT of CC and are just trying to put the pieces together. Since no two programs really 'mesh' very fluidly at the HS level, this is a bit of a challenge. We're down to HOD and Sonlight to figure out the History component, so will continue to try to figure those out!

Thanks again for your wise words!!

Depending on placement, MtMM might be a good fit in terms of content. It is modern times wiht a focus on US history. But, I think there will be some of the European history you are looking for (I haven't done the guide yet, so that is based on the introduction only). Then you could do WG the next year.