not sure what to do. Four years left of school, five guides

[momof2n2]

Hello.
I am an infrequent poster, an occasional message board reader, but a long time user of HOD.
We were introduced to HOD back in 2008, I believe, when I was looking for a guide for history. We incorportated more and more of the guide books into our schooling over the years. We still do math and grammar on our own timing, but for the most part my oldest children do the guidebooks as written otherwise.

#1) My first problem lies in the timing of the rest of my son's (sons') education(s). Because we have had certain years of me needing to educate multiple kids out of the same guidebook from a practical POV, or because of the independent reader/writing skills necessary, we did not start the Hearts for Him Through Time until grade 6. My eldest is finishing up his eighth grade year this year through Rev to Rev. He has four more years of school with me, but there are five guide books left. Knowing that we don't need the books to match along with grammar or math, does anyone have any recommendations which guidebook I should skip. (This question also serves for my second son, as he is on the same pathway with the guidebooks).

#2) Now, my daughters' are also coming up. My oldest girl is finishing up grade 4 this year. Again, because of timing issues she has not yet done Preparing for His Glory, which I had planned to do with her and my next-in-line daughter next year for their 5th & 3rd grade years (as I had done with my sons). My oldest daughter's reading skills are stronger than my boys' had been and I believe she could handle the reading for CTC next year, but having not done the history writing with her this year (that Preparing offers) I don't know if she could write on her own yet. I could theoretically just help her with the writing the first part of the year in the CTC book and just skip Preparing. That bothers me a bit as I loved the overview offered in Preparing... but it wouldn't be the end of the world. I could then just get my will-be-third grader on the prescribed track and go from there.

I also have two littler girls whom my middle girls need to help with during the day just to paint a more vivid picture of our family.

Frankly, I have been praying for months about what to do about son #1 for next year and I am just not feeling any direction. I think I can talk myself into or out of any plan for my daughter. I could also have her jump from Preparing to Res.to Ref., too, I believe. ... Now I'm throwing other things out there.


SOOO - I guess the big question is those of you who are familiar with the Hearts for HIm Through Time & Hearts for Him through High School... where would you go from here?


I should put out there that I am mostly thinking of the history, science, and Bible components for him. My grammar plans are separate. He and I just started the last chapter of Rod and Staff English 8 this week and we expect he will do R & S English 9 next year and then do classes at the community college in grade 10. I will probably follow the literature focus from whichever guide book we go with. Math will be similar plan. We do on our own and we hope to tap into college classes in grade 10 or 11.

[MelInKansas]

I wouldn't skip a guide with your oldest unless you think he is not challenged enough with what he is in now. I don't see it as a big problem that he wouldn't finish the last guide. There are many threads and people advising how to make the Hearts for Him Through Time guides into High School credits for History, Geography, Economics, etc. Now, how well that matches up with what the High School guides offer I honestly don't know. Only bump him up to the World Geography guide if you know he would be ready for it. If he would, then I would suggest you go ahead and do WG next year.

With the next girl, skipping to CTC would probably work if you want to do that. But you could also continue with them combined, (3rd and 5th) and just plow ahead on that course until she gets up to High School. Or just keep on going with her and she would do 3 of the HS guides instead of all 4. If you choose that route with your oldest you will then know what is needed for that 9th grade year to make the other 3 guides work with the right credits.

[mskogen]

Why skip a guide? There are only 140 days per guide. You could do more than 1 guide a year, doing some 5 day weeks or more than 35 weeks of school. This is if you want to finish all 5 guides. I have not used above Rev2Rev, we start MTMM in a few weeks. But my experience with HOD is each guide grows on the next. If you couldn't do more days a year than I would say don't do the last guide...I hope this helps. Praying you receive the answer you need and peace.

Blessings,
Michelle

[my3sons]

I agree - I'd not skip a guide unless ds is not challenged or at a proper placement level. The guides do build upon each other, and multiple students will follow this path for high school...
9th: MTMM (count as late American History)
10th: World Geography
11th: World History
12th: American History (early)

Of course your younger dd could follow this same above path, or you could evaluate placement each year and possible skip a year if she was up to the challenge (though I'd not skip more than 1 year every in HOD unless placement was way off to begin with as the difficulty of the guide's work will increase to significantly). Or, you could reevaluate at the time that dd is ready to begin high school, and possible skip MTMM and start WG her 9th grade year if that seemed best.

In Christ,
Julie

[momof2n2]

Why skip a guide? There are only 140 days per guide. You could do more than 1 guide a year, doing some 5 day weeks or more than 35 weeks of school. This is if you want to finish all 5 guides. I have not used above Rev2Rev, we start MTMM in a few weeks. But my experience with HOD is each guide grows on the next. If you couldn't do more days a year than I would say don't do the last guide...I hope this helps. Praying you receive the answer you need and peace.

Blessings,
Michelle

Oh man - never in a trillion years would I add to my son's work load.
We need that "day off" per week for CBS and Spanish tutor.
And we don't take days off of math & grammar.
It's an interesting suggestion, but not at all a good fit for us. <3

[momof2n2]

I agree - I'd not skip a guide unless ds is not challenged or at a proper placement level. The guides do build upon each other, and multiple students will follow this path for high school...
9th: MTMM (count as late American History)
10th: World Geography
11th: World History
12th: American History (early)

Of course your younger dd could follow this same above path, or you could evaluate placement each year and possible skip a year if she was up to the challenge (though I'd not skip more than 1 year every in HOD unless placement was way off to begin with as the difficulty of the guide's work will increase to significantly). Or, you could reevaluate at the time that dd is ready to begin high school, and possible skip MTMM and start WG her 9th grade year if that seemed best.

In Christ,
Julie

Julie, if we just plugged along like that how would you suggest covering economics? I can see omitting advanced science as that is not his forte and we do apologetics elsewhere ...

[my3sons]

...Julie, if we just plugged along like that how would you suggest covering economics? I can see omitting advanced science as that is not his forte and we do apologetics elsewhere ...

Here are some good suggestions that I think would help...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11286&p=81879#p81879
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13201&p=94973

In Christ,
Julie

[momof2n2]

...Julie, if we just plugged along like that how would you suggest covering economics? I can see omitting advanced science as that is not his forte and we do apologetics elsewhere ...

Here are some good suggestions that I think would help...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11286&p=81879#p81879
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13201&p=94973

In Christ,
Julie

Thank you! My husband and I can look into these & pray!!!
<3

[my3sons]

For science - you can just add the Chem 101 DVD's on the fifth day for MTMM to beef it up for high school. Just thought I'd mention that too, as many are successfully enjoying that route!

In Christ,
Julie

[momof2n2]

I agree - I'd not skip a guide unless ds is not challenged or at a proper placement level. The guides do build upon each other, and multiple students will follow this path for high school...
9th: MTMM (count as late American History)
10th: World Geography
11th: World History
12th: American History (early)

Of course your younger dd could follow this same above path, or you could evaluate placement each year and possible skip a year if she was up to the challenge (though I'd not skip more than 1 year every in HOD unless placement was way off to begin with as the difficulty of the guide's work will increase to significantly). Or, you could reevaluate at the time that dd is ready to begin high school, and possible skip MTMM and start WG her 9th grade year if that seemed best.

In Christ,
Julie

Julie - I'm just rereading this thread. Why would you suggest skipping MTMM for my DD and start her in WG in 9th grade, but not consider it for my son?
I'm trying to follow up on the links and great suggestions you offered. Thank you.

[my3sons]

I agree - I'd not skip a guide unless ds is not challenged or at a proper placement level. The guides do build upon each other, and multiple students will follow this path for high school...
9th: MTMM (count as late American History)
10th: World Geography
11th: World History
12th: American History (early)

Of course your younger dd could follow this same above path, or you could evaluate placement each year and possible skip a year if she was up to the challenge (though I'd not skip more than 1 year every in HOD unless placement was way off to begin with as the difficulty of the guide's work will increase to significantly). Or, you could reevaluate at the time that dd is ready to begin high school, and possible skip MTMM and start WG her 9th grade year if that seemed best.

In Christ,
Julie

Julie - I'm just rereading this thread. Why would you suggest skipping MTMM for my DD and start her in WG in 9th grade, but not consider it for my son?
I'm trying to follow up on the links and great suggestions you offered. Thank you.

Good question! I will try to explain my thinking here. Your eldest ds is currently finishing up RevtoRev now for 8th grade, and that has seemed like a good fit. You'd mentioned that reading/writing skills were a factor in his placement, and there is quite a jump in reading/writing skills in the WG high school guide. You've also mentioned that from a practical point of view you've taught multiple dc from the same guidebook (I can totally understand this!), which makes me think that your ds needs to just move on to the next guide, as he will be most successful with this independently, and require less time from you, which will free up needed time for you to work with your younger dc. Since 9th grade is just around the corner, placement is probably quite accurate now and probably won't change much in that short amount of time. Not to mention, MTMM is a terrific guide!

Your dd, on the other hand, (you'd mentioned) is a stronger reader and has quite a few more years before reaching high school. Much can change in that amount of time, and placement could be revisited as she is preparing to enter high school to see if skipping a guide (which is something we don't usually suggest, but with the amount of time between now and then for her could be a possibility) is feasible. So, based on what you shared, that is the line of thinking I followed. Of course, this is all completely up to you, as you will certainly know best! I will say this - I think a student doing all of a guide as he/she is assigned to do it successfully with the parts he/she is to do independently, independently, can be more of a challenge level for a student than doing a higher level of a guide but skipping things or having a parent help with things or modify things that are meant to be independent. So, I'd place him where he places best now, and I think from what you've shared here, that would be MTMM. HTH explain my thinking a little better, but here is a post by Carrie on this same topic that will probably better explain this...

Choosing RevtoRev or MTMM for high school or bumping up to World Geography guide for high school:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13690&p=97830#p97830

In Christ,
Julie