Rev2Rev - need help w/our 9th grade plans

[Tabitha]

Hi - I'd love some input on our plans to use Rev2Rev for 9th grade. My oldest dd skipped this guide. I want to make sure I take advantage of where my middle dd is and use this for 9th. I didn't with my oldest, and now regret it. I just didn't fully realize then the benefit of the younger guides for high school.

First, I have read all the various "beef up" threads. They are a bit old, and with the new high school guides out I was unsure if things needed to beef up Rev have changed or if there were more options.

Secondly, I do not desire a full credit in American History with this guide. I plan to go for .5 credit with this and also with MtMM for a total of 1 credit in American History. Having said that, I would like to know how to do this for both options of .5 and a full credit. This dd is amazing me all the time and it may just be that she can take on the full credit work load. I wanna be prepared either way.

Subjects and desired credits for Rev, overview:
History = .5 credit
Government = .5 credit
Geography = .25 credit
English/Lit/Comp = 1 credit
Bible = 1 credit, or .5 credit
Science + Lab = 1 credit
Math = 1 credit
Foreign Language = .5 credit...not sure dd can handle full credit
Home Ec = 1 credit
Xtra Science, Botany = .5 credit
Music = .5 or 1 credit, not sure we will pursue this yet


Here is what I have jotted down for each subject as I was making notes from the other threads for the "beefs:"

History:
Add in extension books to receive high school credit (I am assuming reading all history + ext. books is for a full credit)
- what additional is needed/not needed if only going for .5 credit?

One post in the "beef" threads mentioned pairing America: The Last Best Hope Vol. 1 with Rev, and Vol. 2 with MtMM. Thoughts on this in place of any of the extension books?

I have also read on the "beef" threads that narrations need to be adapted. I was thinking of following the WG plans and having a different narration type be done each week. Would something like this be in place of, or in addition to, the narration box for the Student Pages?

Government: going for .5 credit only; is the add on below needed? Any AH1 items?
Add in 5,000 Year Leap and some of The Federalist Papers
From AH1:
I do not what to use The Noble Experiment/Constitutional Literacy items. Can Whatever Happened to Justice still be used?

Geography:
Combining Geography in Rev and MtMM, is this enough as is to count as a total of .5 credit in Geography?
If not, what else can be added to make it .5 credit? Or, best to call it .25 credit and all the remaining .25 credit down the road?

Our state only requires .5 credit in Geography. I do not desire using the WG guide for a full credit for this subject. When the time comes for that guide, I will need to make adjustments, skip it, or sub something else.

Well, more accurately, our state requires this for social studies:
3 credits including: 1 credit American History/geography, 1 credit World History/geography, .5 credit government/civics, .5 credit economics.

English:
R&S 6 - entire book this year (goal to have R&S 8 done by end of 12th)

Literature:
Options are:
DITHOR with high school level books
BJU Lit from WG guide

I used the WG Lit with my oldest. I am not sure about that with this dd. I need to review it again. I have seen LLATL and Smarr's recommended. I looked and didn't like those for this dd. I have looked at 7 Sisters Homeschool and do like their materials. They have courses on Intro to Lit and Composition that I am leaning towards. I honestly like how 7 Sister's spreads out the literary elements and writing styles/types out over a longer span (use this series for possibly 9th and 10th grade to get in all the info the way they spread it out). If I used this, it should take care of Composition as well (see below). Or I can strictly use their Lit items without Comp.

Also, with adding in Literature for 9th grade English credit, are the history read-alouds in the basic package still necessary? If dd can handle extra reading, fine. If not, I didn't want to stress over these. Typically I always buy them, but I just need to know what to expect and how to plan. I see these read-alouds the same as the optional Living Library as in the high school guides. So, optional?

Composition:
Creative Writing as scheduled...is this fine to use as is for the Comp portion of English, or would more be needed?
- I saw the Elegant Essay recommend, and did not like it for this dd.
- (contemplating 7 Sisters resources mentioned above; they also have separate Essay guides)

Bible:
Options are:
Add in Balancing the Sword
or, Add in How Should We Then Live by Dr. Francis Schaeffer (I think I would like to do this with the dvd option)
- will the dvd addition be enough for for .5 or full credit?
or, Add in Understanding the Times by Summit Ministries (I wasn't leaning towards this)

Science + Lab:
Do the Advanced EE kit

We live right down the road from The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. We will utilize this for field trips for both history and science this year. Perfect for the Inventor Study and for History!!!

Math:
Our personal option of Teaching Textbooks...dd does well with this so not changing it on her at this time.

Muisc: (need to decide if we will use this as an elective now or later)
Options are:
Add in Spiritual Lives of Great Composers, and The Gift of Music
Add in Vox CDs
Add in short paper
- what is needed for .5 credit? For a full credit?

She will also be resuming piano lessons this year.

Foreign Language: (dd needs to pick a language so we can decide our high school approach - parents are for German)
Options are:
Intro to Latin or Spanish - same source used in WG guide
Mango Languages (will probably have our whole family use this this coming year)
- I am leaning towards Mango Languages as my oldest also needs something more for her final year of German.
Also, there is DuoLingo...which my oldest has been using. We like it, but I like the additional tracking/testing Mango provides.

Home Ec: This is a definite elective for dd this year.
AOP LifePac Family & Consumer Science
My dd has been DYING to do this. She sews, cooks, cleans.

Extra Science: Botany for .5 credit
Botany in 8 Lesson by Ellen McHenry
- My dd has been propagating African Violets since March, and is now trying with succulents. She is very into plants. I am harnessing this energy now for a .5 credit course.

Just some extra info on this dd. She is slower in math and English, but we are working on catching up. Pre-Algebra will be her 9th grade math and I am fine with that. She loves animals, plants, cooking, sewing. She has a sleep disorder which has greatly impacted her life and ours. We have done a lot of treatment for her on this. We are seeing vast improvements in her focus and work over the last year. Her current work in RtR for the writing in IEW in amazing and far surpasses what my oldest ever did. In fact, this dd uses the IEW writing to stall her other subjects - loves working on her papers. She also loves reading more and more each year. She loves Dr. Quinn, so likes to consume everything like that. This is why I don't want to discount a full credit in History. It's more the assignment load that I worry on vs the reading load. For her plant love, with all she is doing research and experiment wise right now, I do not want to over look that. It seems so easy to give her some additional work in Botany now vs waiting for Biology to come up. Oh, and she LOVES puzzles. She has been a puzzle freak since she was 2yo. She has been waiting for a few years to do the EE science so she can build all the things.

For us college is always an option but not mandatory. We also pursue local schools, no going away from home, and we opt for college placement test and do not utilize SAT/ACT. We pursue a work ethic that you work alongside college, paying as you go, and parents are there for help when needed. I do not know if college will or will not be pursued by this dd. She loves animals so much that I always felt she would do something in that realm. One obstacle for us with this dd has been health issues. We do not vaccinate and her testing shows she should not have them as her system is very over-reactive, so that will impact what she can do with animals...being a vet is not her future. I can very easily see her being a Vet Tech/Assistant. She enjoys volunteering at the local animal shelter.

Down the road, my science plans for her are:

10th = MtMM = Chemistry
11th = WG or whatever we do here = Biology
12th = WH = another science...maybe Marine Biology or something with animals. Time will tell.

Our state requires just 3 science credits: 1 credit Biology, 1 credit Chemistry/Physics, and 1 credit any other science.

I will leave it up to dd if we pursue the IPC science. With EE and Chemistry, I wondered if IPC was really needed...esp. given her animals and plants interests. Suggestions on not doing this, doing this, an alternate?

I hope all of this makes sense. My dd has about 7 - 8 week left in RtR. I was unsure about stopping that now, or just finishing it up at starting Rev in the late fall. We have resumed school, but will have a 2 week break for a trip coming up soon.

[jjn3beans]

I had several thoughts as I was reading through your post. If anything, I have a few questions that might help make decisions as well. We will be using MtMM for 9th grade next year, so some decisions will be similar, and I want to tag along on this post to read what others have to say.

History:
I really like your idea of using the WG guide for the written narrations. I believe you could easily meld the two together. Use the base of the Rev guide and add in the WG instructions. The Rev guide written narrations are the same, 10-12 sentences. I think I'm going to use the WG guide as well next year for that.

Regarding the books. I was looking at the time boxes for each guide, and in MtMM at least, the time for just the basic history books is more than enough for 1 whole credit, but the issue of whether or not the books are high school worthy comes in, I suppose. I was thinking about using all the basic and choosing several (but not all) of the extension books, requiring the assignments in the extension section of the guide for each one. I'm not sure this is advised, though.

Government:
I'm not familiar with the resources you chose except the book you'd like to add from AH1. It is a short book, similar to Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? in MtMM, and should easily be added in for your government. I am going to save government for when dd is in 11th grade and do economics and finance in 12th. I have heard that kids need to mature more before doing these courses, but I'm all ears as to whether people agree here.

Geography:
The Geography in Rev to Rev takes my girls 15 minutes to do this year, once a week. I think this is stretching even 1/4 credit each year. If your half credit is 60 to 70 hours per year, it wouldn't be enough I believe. Maybe you could award a 0.5 credit over all 4 years of high school? My state's requirements are exactly like your's, and Geography isn't necessary, but an either World History or Geography type of thing. Is that how you read your requirements?

English:
Good to go.

Literature:
I don't really have any comments here. In my opinion, I think if you do the extensions and the basic, I tend to agree with you that the read alouds aren't necessary. I'll wait for other opinions on this. I was hoping to read them still to my dd . She likes me to read to her, and since her 8th grade sister will be doing MtMM, I will be reading them aloud anyway. Maybe you could get as many as possibly on audio to let her listen to them? Make it easier?

Composition:
If you look at the description of this book, HOD recommends for 7-9, and publisher recommends for high school. I think this would be fine. The 7 Sisters material would seem to cover literature, though, so I think that is a good option for that reason if you don't want to do BJU.

Bible:
I'm not familiar with your choices. I have decided for the girls to do a daily Bible study scheduled in guide, but not sure about the Bible credit yet. We may not do Bible credits. I suppose it would be nice if they entered a Bible college.

Science:
I like your science ideas. They will learn a lot in the inventor study.

Math:
Good

Music:
I wish I were musically inclined!

Foreign Language:
DD13 has decided on German for her language, and I've looked through DuoLingo and Mango. I am shying away from it because of a few bad reviews. I'd love to hear more opinions on this, though. One thing I did find through Easy Peasy is a free online course through Georgia Virtual Learning, so it is complete. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to link here, but if you google "Easy Peasy Foreign Language," then scroll down to German, you will see the link. The link is the older version that GVL put out, so be sure to look for the updated link on the left hand bar. One thing about this, it looks a bit confusing, and I need to look at it better. It looks difficult to keep track of what she's doing. It does look confusing, but I know dd would become used to it should we go that route.

I like your Botany idea. How many credits do you need in total for your state? Our state requires 22 credits, each 1 being 150 to 180 hours. One thought I had is you have a lot of credits scheduled for this 9th grade year. If your dd can handle that, that is excellent! I am going for about 5-7 credits a year. At least, those are my thoughts. I am a complete high school homeschooling newbie! I'm following for more advice myself

[Tabitha]

Thanks, Julie. It helps mulling over things with someone in the same boat.

I had some thoughts others shared since my post. Going back through all the old beef ups threads for the younger guides for high school is the basis of some decisions and the other resources I mentioned, some of which you shared you did not know of.

Old threads say the geography is adequate for both Rev and MtMM combined for .5 credit. I think adding a little to it to ensure the time/work load is up to par will be adequate.

For history, adding extensions as my dd chooses keeping in mind those also used for AH1. Then adding the WG narration style to round out the work.

Government, adding Whatever Happened to Justice? seems enough.

I will figure out Bible, whether she goes for .5 or full credit.

Our state site only requires 16 merit credits for graduation. Our local high school adds to have 22-24 credits. Looking at local colleges, I see what they look for in high school college prep for credits they suggest in science/history/English, etc.

My thing is we only need 3 credits combined for social studies. My girls, if they go to college, will start at the local community college. They are open enrollment, state no requirements or guidelines. If I use our local University of Michigan Dearborn campus info, it's also 3 credits they look for. So if my girls want to go gung-home and delve into history earming 1 credit each year, fine. However, they have outside interests and talents they desire to pursue. I would much rather a lighter workload going after .5 credit to ensure their talents are pursued and trained.

There is mention in the younger guides on how to beef up for high school pursuing a credit pending your desires. What is adequate for .5 credit? To me things imply in the younger guides you could earn either, pending what you add or don't add. Then, in the actual high school guides if you don't need the full credit, how is best to tailor it for. 5 credit?

My oldest is going to have about 32 credits when she graduates. She has art and music every year in addition to everything else. Colleges can grab what they want for her credits. Those are her talents, and I definitely want to include her work/training/publications in those areas on her transcript.

Anyway, we will be tweaking as we go. All my plans might not work, and maybe resources will be saved for another year. I like having Bible classes, but don't necessarily need full credits. Things like that are what I might switch up. In famity life, at church, they get a lot of Bible. As a school subject, .5 credit is okay with me.

Oh, I showed my dd the BJU lit. She loved it, getting all giggly over it. I think I will start with that, and maybe focus on changing the novels. I will decide that later. My oldest did not like Pride & Prejudice. This middle dd might be too immature for it.

I am drawing a blank on other helps I got. Thinking.... Oh, it was suggested by one person on using ABeka Biology over 2 years. Use the first part + labs to make a Botany semester course. Use the rest + labs for Biology. I might pursue this. I need to look over the material first.

I look forward to seeing how you work things out, and what others might come to share.

Thank you again for your insight.

[Carrie]

Tabitha,

Whew! I finally worked my way through your thoughts in this post and made notes as I went. I love the way you are thinking through your daughter's needs and searching for the best plan for her as she heads into high school. It is obvious that you put much care and thought into your children's education. They are blessed to have you as their mother. I'll share my thoughts below and maybe it will help as you ponder your options.

First of all, in reading through your post I can see the reasons why you are choosing to place your daughter in Revival to Revolution instead of jumping her up to the World Geography guide. However, in looking at the additions and changes that you are considering adding to Rev2Rev, it honestly looks heavier than what her schedule would be if she simply did World Geography as written.

So, in knowing that you feel World Geography would be too heavy of a load for your daughter at this point in time, we need to take care not to make Rev2Rev too heavy too. With this in mind, I will share that doing the history in Rev2Rev as written is worth one full high school credit in US1. Due to it being your daughter's 9th grade year, your daughter should read the extension books but the Storytime books can be optional at her age. I wouldn't entertain options of cutting the history back to .5 credit, nor would I want to give advice as to how you should do so, as you will lose the flow and needed skills wound within the plans. You do not need to add America: The Last Best Hope to the plans (as it would be far too heavy). I can say this with all clarity now that I am actually planning and scheduling that particular resource in US1 and US2. When I originally made beefing up suggestions, we were erring on the side of having too much rather than not enough. Now as we are at the end of our high school guide writing, I can easily see that the history in Rev2Rev and MTMM are each worth a full-credit in history for high school as written. There is also no need to add or change the written and oral narrations in Rev2Rev. Simply doing them as planned in the Rev2Rev guide would be best. Each guide is a stepping stone to the next in line and to jump up to the level of narrations required in WG and above would be a leap. The stair step approach up to a skill always works better, gently moving kiddos toward their goals rather than leaping too far and leaving them floundering.

With your daughter's needs and special interests in mind, I would advise waiting to do government until her junior year of high school. Adding Whatever Happened to Justice? to the government parts already in Rev2Rev would not be nearly enough for .5 credit in government. Doing government later would allow your daughter to mature before tackling that particular subject.

As far as the grammar portion of the English credit goes, I would do Rod and Staff English 6 at half-speed as scheduled in Rev2Rev. Then, you would do the other half of English 6 in grade 10 in MTMM. For the final two years of high school, your daughter would then do Rod and Staff 7 spread over 2 years. In this scenario, she would not get to English 8 before graduation, however she would have less tweaking and would just be able to follow the the guide's plans in this area then. The other option to do English 6 daily in Rev2Rev which would work too. However that would be a heavier load for her, so this will only work if you add very little to Rev2Rev outside of what is planned within the guide.

For the literature portion of the English credit, it would work to BJU Lit for grade 9 with Rev2Rev, or you could do DITHR with level 7/8 books. If you do use the BJU lit from WG, I would drop the novels from WG and just do the BJU lit so the schedule is not so heavy. You would then do BJU lit. 3 days a week all year in Rev2Rev whenever DITHR is scheduled. This would help keep the balance of the Rev2Rev guide. If you do go this route, be sure to keep the BJU lit lower key, just reading and then alternating discussion days with written answering questions days. It will be very important that she do all of her own reading, so if the BJU lit is too heavy, then DITHR with 7/8 books would be better.

For the composition portion of the English credit, you would keep the Exciting World of Creative Writing as scheduled in Rev2Rev.

For Bible, you could use what is scheduled within Rev2Rev and add additional Bible reading from her quiet time one hour each week to it to earn .5 credit in Bible. Perhaps her extra quiet time reading could be done before bed, or maybe on the free 5th day and Saturday and Sunday (outside of her Bible done during her school day). I wouldn't add another whole program for Bible though or again the guide will get too heavy.

In looking at adding Home Economics to your daughter's program, I would consider adding the program on her free 5th day and perhaps Saturdays only. Then, you could spread the Home Ec. Program out over 3-4 years this way, listing the credit on her transcript during the year that she completes the course. This will keep Rev2Rev from becoming too heavy and will give her something she loves to pursue weekly on her free days. I would not add it on top of her daily school schedule.

For science, it will work well to do the EE Adv. Version. Be aware that this means she will be doing science 4-5 days a week. As you look down the road, I do think it will work to do the Chemistry with beef-ups in MTMM for her 10th grade year. For 11th grade, it would work to do Biology, and then for her 12th grade year, we can look at her options to see what would fit her best at that point in time. She can skip the IPC if desired, due to doing EE from Rev2Rev and the Chemistry from MTMM in high school (and due to the fact that she is likely community college bound first rather than 4-year college bound right out of high school). This gives us a bit more leeway.

As far as adding Botany from Ellen McHenry goes, I would consider adding that into her summer schedule. It would fit well there due to the program only being 8 weeks long. Adding more science onto her already full Advanced EE year in Rev2Rev would be heavy. Another option would be to do it on her free 5th day or on Saturdays, however it is likely that Ellen's course works well done on consecutive days to keep the flow going, making it better suited to a summer pursuit.

As far as adding to the composer study within Rev2Rev goes, if your daughter is pursuing approximately 30 hours of music study outside of the composer study in Rev2Rev, then she can add those hours onto the composer study to earn .5 credit in Music Appreciation. Typically, music lessons are not listed for credit but instead are listed as extracurriculuar activities on the transcript. However, if you are adding the music study to the more formal music appreciation curriculum already scheduled within Rev2Rev, then it can count toward that credit. I would not add anything else to Rev2Rev's music outside of that. Only one credit of fine arts is required for the high school years, and your daughter will already earn that credit when she completes the Fine Arts study in World History. So, technically she would not even need to earn credit in Fine Arts in Rev2Rev unless desired.

I would definitely add .5 credit in foreign language to Rev2Rev, simply to be able to spread foreign language study out each year (earning .5 credit each year of high school to total 2 full credits in the same foreign language by graduation). You can do that easily by adding Getting Started with Spanish and doing a lesson a day (doing two lessons a day in the early part of the year when the lessons are short). Or, if you prefer to pursue a different foreign language, I would strive to keep the study to 30 minutes four days a week, so as not to get too heavy with this first .5 credit of foreign language.

In looking through what I've outlined above, you can see that sticking closely to the Rev2Rev guide's plans with fewer changes and additions makes for a more manageable school year. It also helps your daughter know what she needs to do each day and builds independence as she can work right from the guide close to the way it's written.

As I close out this post, I will share one final thought for you to ponder. In looking down the road, I would encourage you to consider doing the World Geography Guide when it comes up in your daughter's sequence simply because it is an excellent stepping stone to the heavier material and workload that comes with entrance into the full-fledged high school level guides. Jumping over that particular guide from MTMM to World History would be a huge jump. You can always revisit that decision again after MTMM though, as there is always the potential that things might change by then.

I hope this helps, as you ponder a plan.

Blessings,
Carrie

[Tabitha]

Oh, Carrie, thank you so much for the wonderful and detailed info on how to proceed using Rev for high school. I poured over all the beef up threads I could find. I knew as the high school guides came out that this info might not be the same. I am a bit relieved that it has changed. I was worried about fitting it all in. Now I can go back, reaccess things and get things ordered in the next month.

I do agree that there would be a huge jump from MtMM to WH. My oldest struggled a lot with WH. I am using that experience with my oldest to help plan what to use and change when our middle dd reaches that guide. Being able to better prepare for her path makes me appreciate the struggles with the oldest. It shed tons of light on even using Rev for 9th. I almost looked over the blessing that guide offers in being used for 9th.

Thank you! All this is truly a relief!