Placement Help with 9th & 10th Graders

[jhperry]

I'm wondering what to do for next year when my son will be in 10th grade and my daughter in 9th. They have both done HOD together all the way until this current year when my daughter has taken a year off (from HOD) because I didn't want her to start World Geography in 8th grade. Now I would really like to combine them again for as much as possible. So if my son does World History, would it work to let my daughter skip World Geography and jump into World History? I would like her to do the Logic package from WG, maybe instead of the Fine Arts (do the Fine Arts in her 10th grade year)? She has done Spanish with my son this year so she'll be ready for that. They will have their own Math and Grammar. Would it be ok if she did Biology in 9th, Chemistry in 10th, Physics in either 11th or 12th?

[Carrie]

Jamie,

Honestly, I wouldn't recommend that a 9th grader do World History unless she had first done World Geography as an 8th grader. This is because World Geography is a step up from MTMM in so many ways. This makes the leap from MTMM to World History really huge!

If you were concerned about your 8th grader doing World Geography, then the jump up to World History in grade 9 would be even bigger. At the high school level, it is so important to take kiddos' ages, maturity-levels, skill levels, independence levels, and number of hours they are able to hang with school into account. So if a student could handle the level and length of the World Geography guide as an 8th grader, he/she would be well-poised to do World History as a 9th grader. But, if the student did a more typical 8th grade program rather than a freshman level program (like World Geography) in 8th grade, then to jump into a sophomore level program (like World History) as a freshman would be setting that child up for a tough year!

I would be more inclined to place your 9th grader in the World Geography guide and your 10th grader in the World History guide. With the rigor of the high school day in mind, being well-placed matters so much! For example, depending on how many hours your daughter did school in 8th grade, the switch to World History (at 6 1/2 - 7 hours a day, 4 days a week) could be a fairly significant one! The quantity of reading and the level of writing required also jumps up. Without having the year of BJU literature/novels in the World Geography guide first, the literature in the World History guide could be a significant challenge for your daughter. Of course, it will make a difference what your daughter did for her 8th grade year in this area as to how much of a step up this would be. Doing Biology without first doing IPC could be another area of challenge as well, just because biology is such a terminology heavy subject with significant output required. Doing IPC gives the student a segue of sorts to a higher level of expectations content-wise and lab-wise before diving into Biology. Depending on what you daughter did for her 8th grade year, she may or may not have a similar segue in place. Another subject area that could pose some challenges is Total Health. This is because it contains many sensitive topics that are better discussed individually with one student at a time (and with a more mature student). So, doing Total Health with one student rather than with a pair of students allows for more free sharing between parent and child.

Even if you did combine your kiddos, your kiddos would still have to read their material on their own and do their written work independently. They would also have the added challenge of sharing all of their school books. So, this also presents its own challenges.

On the other hand, if your son did World Geography last year, he will have much he can talk about with your daughter this year during off school hours. We share a lot about our school day at the dinner table. We also have a half hour family reading time where we all read silently in the living room after supper. Often, our boys will read their living library or their literature books from their guide during this time. After the half hour of reading, we go around and share something from our book (i.e. a brief summary, a narration, a quote, or passage, etc.). This is a great time for the family to learn about each other's readings! There are many ways to encourage sharing without having kiddos doing the same guide.

I will also say that we have enjoyed the private meeting times with our boys even more as they have entered the high school years. It has kept us plugged into their joys and their struggles. Many private discussions have taken place during our meeting times with our boys individually. This wouldn't have occurred if we had met with our boys together. I have been glad for the opportunity to be alone one-on-one with each student. We meet daily with each student for 30-45 min. to go over their work. We have also found that it is good for our older boys to own their age and be held to a higher standard from their younger siblings. This is harder to do if two students of differing ages are doing the bulk of things the same each day.

The last thing I will share is that my advice to you will differ some if you are in a situation for the coming year that is significantly challenging. If you are experiencing debilitating health issues, or if someone in your immediate family has a health crisis, or if you have suddenly become caretakers for your parents, or if you are headed back to work, or if you are facing any other life altering circumstances, then we can definitely discuss other options. This is because in these situations your students are going to have to keep each other accountable and possibly even check each other's work due to the fact that you are facing some of these time-consuming, life altering circumstances.

I look forward to hearing back from you if you have a moment to share your thoughts!

Blessings as you ponder your options!
Carre

[jhperry]

Carrie,

Thank you for your insightful reply, I really appreciate you taking the time to explain your advice. My daughter is young in her grade (turned 13 this past November during her 8th grade year) so my reasoning was based more on her age and wanting to get a handle on high school grades/credits with just one child at a time, than being concerned she couldn't do the work in WG. In fact, she has always done the same guide as her brother and, honestly, it has worked out beautifully! This year she is doing America the Beautiful by Notgrass for history and MasterBooks General Science...just to give you an idea of her workload. You might like to know she designed her own notebook pages and followed the HOD plan for her history. So she came up with her own rotating plan for copywork, timeline, draw/copy quote, and written narration for history.

As far as science, it seems pretty common (around here, anyway) for 9th graders to take biology so I didn't think that would be too much of a challenge although I haven't looked at your particular selection in detail yet. I also thought it would be more efficient for them to be doing the same labs.

I do work one day a week and it does overwhelm me a little to think of running 4 different guides. Having two different 30-45 minute meetings to go over work, plus helping with math and other subjects as needed, plus having one in Rev2Rev and another one in Beyond... But I get that having them correctly placed with skill level is key to their success and an enjoyable year! I certainly don't want to do her harm by making too big of a jump between what she is doing now and WH. I guess I just thought it worked so well before, it might work well again.

You've given me some new things to ponder though, I'll give it some more thought.