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We pulled our son out of public school at the end of 3rd grade. We started with Bigger Hearts for 4th grade. Continuing on from that we will only get through the Age of Exploration and Invention at the end of 8th grade. Is that enough American History before high school? Am I obsessing about this for no reason? We could school year round and get through Modern Times, but it would be a tough push and I don't want to make him hate learning. What do you all think?

What are your plans for 9th? Will you still be homeschooling or will you be putting him back in school? You could use the next HOD guides for high school with a little tweaking. You would be able to use the next guide for 9th grade to finish up Amer History and then could do the Geography guide in 10th. I bet the tweaking would be minimal, as HOD's Gegoraphy guide is intended for 9th anyway...so will be worthy of high school credit as is. There is also the possibility that Carrie will be led to write guides for high school. I think you're fine. You might find that some weeks you can make the guides 5 days instead of 4, perhaps do 2-3 days per week several weeks in the summer...nothing big, and not overload at all. Enjoy it still, and don't push. You're right where you need to be for now and later you'll be where you need to be then

I plan on homeschooling for high school. I'm still fairly new to homeschooling and I'm a worrier. I think I just need reassurance that we're doing all right.

Just stay on track with where you are, making steady progress! And then pray hard that HOD will have more high school guides! You can keep going in HOD until the last guide even into high school. Some folks are using CTC and RTR now 9th and 10th grade now! So, you'll be fine! I know how you feel though b/c I'm already planning out those days and my oldest is only in 3rd grade! I try to just remember that I love HOD, it's where God wants us, and I plan to stick with it. There's nothing better. The more guides we get to use, the better! Even if it puts us tweaking 1 or 2 a bit in the end for high school.

Ann,

I want to encourage you to put your worries about the history cycle aside and think more about the Biblical training and the 3R's. These will be the life preparation and high school prepatory skills that your child will need most in order to be well prepared for what is to come. As far as the 3R's go, ,ake sure that you are using DITHR, the appropriate level of grammar and math, and that the writing instruction is enough.

On the history side, you'll find that Bigger provides a good overview of American history's important figures and Preparing Hearts provides a good overview of world history. So, both of these are excellent preparation for future history studies. Then, the independence in CTC on up will train your child in those skills. Mom2Monkeys did a great job of discussing some options to consider as you go.

I just want to assure you that if your child placed well into Bigger Hearts and was successful with it this past year, then Preparing Hearts will be a wonderful stepping stone to raising the level in all academic areas.

Blessings,
Carrie