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Everything looks wonderful, but I'm a little worried it's going to be too much. For those of you who have used it, how long is it typically taking each day? I really don't want her to lose her love of learning because her school day is so long. I didn't even get the living library....and it still looks like a lot. I was a little overwhelmed.

My son used the living library and for most of the year I was reading it to him, which added time. His day was usually around 6-6.5 hours. He used TT for math and I dropped a few of the lit books and spread out the reading a little bit, but that was the only tweaks. He has to type everything due to dysgraphia so things like written narrations can take him a long time.

Deep breath! I felt the same way! First of all, go slowly and consider doing some summer reading. I'm glad we had a few Living Library books under our belt before September started (just a thought and recommendation). It did take us some time to get going with WG. Remember CtC? It was a BIG jump from Preparing. WG is that same big jump from MMtM but your dc will rise to the challenge! We started WG half-pace and did it that way for a whole month. We DID start early. Just think of how well-read your dc will be and how, by the end of high school, you'll feel 100% confident with the education you provided for them!

I did the reading for the Living Library. I would say school days were in the 6-7 hour range. I'm okay with that for high school.

Do remember that the plans are for four day weeks, so you have that fifth day to "catch up" if needed.

It IS a lot to be sure (I haven't done it yet but have some friends who have). But one thing to consider is that most high schoolers spend 8 hours a day at school and then at least another hour or two on homework each day. 6-7 hours of work with NO homework afterwards is much less than that. And as StillJulie pointed out, this is also only 4 days a week. I think it will be very doable once you and your DC get used to it.

My daughter takes about 6 hours. We use TT for math and don't do the Living Library either. She's never complained about the length of her day. However, I did a lot of warning the year before that her first high school year was going to be more intense.

My daughter is using WG as well. We are using Living Library. I asked her how she would respond to your post since she is the one actually doing the program. This gives you a view from the students perspective.

Her take is that when she first started, it took 6-8 hours a day depending on the days assignments. As she became familiar with all the components and the flow of the guide her school day is now 5-7 hours. Again, depending on that day's particular assignments and her level of concentration that day. She is a diligent student who reads and writes well, so if she wants to be done early she has no problem moving through at at faster pace if she chooses to. I asked her if she would choose to exclude the living library to save time; she said she would not. She enjoys the books too much to miss them.

These times are in line with highschool level work. I agree with the previous posts. You can start half pace to begin with until she finds a good rhythm for her school day. Also, not forgetting that we have the fifth day "free" if she has a particularly challenging week.

My son will be officially beginning the WG guide this fall. Because he is a slower worker than the daughter mentioned above I am having him start the guide going half pace for the past few weeks thru May. This is giving him a "preview" of what to expect next year. He will already be familiar with the guides expectations, as well as how the individual components are layed out. It is a bigger step for him into highschool than it was for my daughter. I can already see that having him get familiar with the guide was a really good choice. I believe it will streamline the start to our school year this fall in a big way.

Just remember you can change the pace or arrangement of the guide until your daughter has a solid routine. The content is excellent and interesting so the longer days don't seem so bad according to my kids.

Blessings

Thank you all! What wonderful encouragement. This morning I have worked through part of an actual day in the guide. First, I found it incredibly interesting! ( I wish I did this for high school Second, it seems to be broken down into doable chunks. I think I was just overwhelmed when I opened up the boxes. I feel a lot better about it now

Hi quiverfull! There's good insight here already, so here are just a few more thoughts... a few helpful links...
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viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14423&p=102094

A portion of a thread where I shared about my experience starting high school with WG and what I learned that will make a difference in how I approach it a second time with my middle son in a few years...

I remember starting high school with Wyatt and feeling like I needed to really 'toughen up.' I was sort of looking for errors at first and jumping on them like "HA! I caught you!" I don't know why. I think I got cold feet or something. I think I felt I needed to become 'strict mean teacher' to really demand his best, or maybe he wouldn't do his best.

Well, it made us both sad. It was not the answer. What I realized is I needed to really give him time to learn the guide under my tutelage, which meant me underlining the guidelines laid out in the WG daily plans at first to draw his attention to them. I also realized I needed to look at the weighted percentages for coursework in the WG Introduction more carefully. I also realized I needed to take time to correct things daily. Finally, I realized I had to decide if I still had faith in the CM way of doing things or not. That's what it really came down to for me. I had answer keys for LOTS of things and tons of helps in the WG "Introduction" as well as clear guidelines in the WG plans, so what it came down to was the CM things, and the assignments that planned for students to respond creatively, personally, and individually to subject matter. There has never been an answer key for CM oral or written narrations, and there is a reason for that, a reason that CM intended for all time: there is not one right oral narration or written narration. There cannot be an answer key because doing narration the way CM intended means there is not one right way to do it. It is creative, personal, and individual. That is the point - sharing what struck you personally the most... sharing in your own words... sharing your heart... sharing what got you all worked up... sharing what you'll remember about whatever you read 10 years down the road. That can't have an answer key, for if it did, we'd drill it, demand it, make our dc 'fix' it to match it (or at least I know I would). Does that sound special? No. Definitely not CM.

In WG, there are extremely detailed answer keys for "Getting Started with Spanish" for teaching Spanish, "The Fallacy Detective" and "The Art of Argument" for teaching Logic, "Fundamentals of Literature" for teaching Literature, Rod and Staff English for teaching grammar as well as writing lessons, "Rooted and Grounded" for teaching Bible Study, detailed rubrics in "Essentials in Writing" for teaching composition, "Foerster's Algebra 1" for teaching math, 180 Activity Book sections in IPC for science - along with labs and reports, the entire mapping of the world with "Mapping the World with Art" showing exactly what must be done, and I am sure I am forgetting some, as it is late at night here. Of course there are also the obvious 'you got it right things' that simply don't require an answer key - i.e. did they memorize their Bible memory work? Well, I had him say it for me. Did they write their Common Place Book entries for Literature classic novels? Check the Common Place Book. Prayer journal notes? Flash it, so I can see you did it, but keep it private. Annotating Practical Happiness or Stepping Heavenward? Well, I paged through it and checked. These things are just natural ways to check work that I know you know, but I'm sharing just to give the bigger picture here for everyone.

So, the things that are left are more CM-like, more creative, more personal. Take the Living Library, which is all history-related, but which is NOT necessary for WG credit. So, the sentence summary, the oral narration, all the cherry on top of learning, but not the 'have to' for credit. My goal here became, as CM would say, 'not to get between the student and the book.'

But how about World Geography then, you say? Well, let's look at that together - really look at ALL of it together rather than just 1 part of it. Let's take the CM style WG oral narrations, for example. Yes, they are more open-ended. There is no specific answer key, which is totally as CM would have intended. But, there are precise clear guidelines that make assessment pretty easy, as far as oral narrations go (i.e. Key Word oral narration has key words provided in the WG plans for parent to listen for - I checked them off as they were said and asked Wyatt to include about half as they are extensive, Summary oral narration must be 7-10 sentences and I held the short reading following along as he gave it holding up a finger for each sentence, Detailed oral narration - set the timer for 5-7 minutes, Topic oral narration - narrate on the topics provided in the plans, Key word typed oral narration - use the provided key words in the plans in narration). These oral narrations are 15% of the WG grade. The Book of Centuries entries (totally easy to grade) are 10% of the WG grade. The completion of the Map Drawings from Mapping the World of Art, obviously easy to grade, are 25% of the WG grade. The geography projects and review maps -easy to grade- are 15% of the WG grade. The Final Project: Create a World Map, easy to grade, is 5% of the WG grade. The Seven Wonders of the World project, easy to grade, very specific guidelines provided, is 5% of the WG grade. So, we get to the Expedition Journal. It involves some things that are obvious for grading, i.e. map reading, sketching, map making, reading primary source documents. It involves some CM things, like written narrations, but even these have guidelines that must be followed (i.e. 3-4 paragraphs and editing using the list in the Appendix), and the Book of Centuries entries, which can easily be checked by looking at the guide. It involved baking, making, creating some things - usually obvious if things turned out. It involved watching the DVD Must See Places of the World, and pondering this or that or responding to this or that, usually in an informal way as the watching of it was the point. It involves comparing of maps in Book of Discovery, etc., which I just had him do or I did it with him. It involves Socratic discussions, which have extremely detailed prep questions in the WG guide, often with provided Scripture verses to look up, with specific page numbers of the WG book read that day, usually spanning only 5 to 10 pages, which I skimmed before we met. It involves outlining. The directions are very clear on this in the guide. Each paragraph of reading has its own Roman numeral in the outline, and each Roman numeral requires 1 sentence. Usually there are about 9-10 paragraphs. I just looked at his one sentence to be sure it matched the 1 paragraph it represented to correct this. For note-taking, there are guided questions with the page numbers that link to them from the reading which is usually not more than 10 pages, so I just checked the notes according the the provided pages. I think I covered most of the Expedition Journal in this - so sorry- exhaustive paragraph! Keep in mind these activities rotate. So, ALL of this that I just described in this paragraph, amounts to 25% of the WG grade. AND, if your student did the Living Library? That adds 10% extra credit to the WG grade. So, we are talking about potentially 15% of the WG grade here, and over half of it or more is quite easily gradable.

The other journal is for the 1/2 credit in World Religion and Culture. I could go through the percentages, but they are in the WG Introduction, and I think it is important to remember that this is an elective - which means an "optional" course of study. Much about this awesome study is personal response, deepening faith in God, and compassion and empathy for those who grew up in a different religion and had the courage to become a Christian against all odds. Yes, hard to grade, but easy to see.

So, in sharing all of this, I am trying to show you the path my thoughts took that first year of high school! I came to the realization that I was sweating the minimal parts of the guide that didn't have exact answer keys and were more CM-like, more personal, more creative, more elective - yet THOSE WERE THE VERY THINGS I WANTED TO BE A PART OF OUR CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENCE! I am putting in caps because it was a big light bulb moment for me. These were the things I promised myself I'd NOT give up. I promised myself I would invest my HEART and SOUL in my son in high school - not just the cookie cutter public school head only academics stuff - but the stuff of a LIFETIME! And I did. Just by breathing in, calming down, and doing the WG guide without sweating the heart and soul stuff that couldn't be tagged with an exact percentage. You know what happened? I enjoyed seeing my son grow, mature, and become a strong Christian young man. You know what else happened? He enjoyed his high school year with ME as his teacher.

Looking back, we had a FANTASTIC year of high school with WG, once I changed my tune. Now, 3 years into high school with Wyatt, I want it to slow down. It's going too fast now, and I can get sad thinking about it. So, I won't. Not now at least. For today, I still have my high schooler to enjoy at home. It is a blessing I remember when I think of it no longer being so. You can do this, quiverfull, and so can your dd! Just go into it knowing high school will feel like high school, more, but intentionally so and eventually beautifully so.

In Christ,
Julie