Been lurking awhile, and have a question...

[treyes]

I don't have high schoolers yet, heck I'm not even homeschooling yet! But God willing I will be next school year.

 

When I'll start I'll have 1 staying in ps and 3 I'll start to homeschool and 1 teeny tiny.

 

My homeschoolers will be in 7th, 5th, and 2nd. My plan is to take it easy the first year, math, english and some fun unit studies just to de-school them.

 

My question is this if I wait until my oldest homeschooler is in the 9th to start the 4 year history rotation and have the others on the same rotation, I know the others will be "off" on the 4 year cycle and that's ok.

 

BUT....where I'm a little confused/concerned is this.

 

If I stay on the 4 year cycle and the younger kids are "off" on the rotation (example my 2nd homeschooler will be doing 9th rena, 10th modern, 11th ancients, 12th middle ages) they will be doing gov/econ in 9th and 10th grade.

 

Will that be above their maturity/comprehension level? (I hope this makes sense)

 

Tina

[JennW in SoCal]

Hi there, Tina, and welcome to the board!

 

You can do government and econ whenever you want. It doesn't have to coincide with what you are doing in history and literature, even though it could tie in nicely. Also, your second child doesn't have to do those subjects in the same year as the oldest. That said, I don't think there is a maturity issue for either topic so it may well work out as you have planned. But, if when the time comes you think the second homeschooler isn't ready, put it off.

 

Sounds like you are doing the right thing by starting slowly into homeschooling. Hope it doesn't take too long to "find your feet"!

[treyes]

Another option I have considered is a 2 yr world history/world geography for 9th & 10th, ameri hist 11th, and gov/econ 12th all using a spine for each subject.

 

I know I have PLENTY of time to figure this out. Just like seeing what you guys are having success with. :001_smile:

 

Thank you so much for your reply!!

[Alyce]

Your plans for High School sound great but what you may not realize is by that time much of what your high schooler does will be done independently and will only need some supervision on your part. This will allow you to do your 4 yr cycle with your younger one at his level. I think it would be a bad idea for you to expect your youngest to work at the same level as your older child. There is quite an age difference between them and I doubt both will have the maturity to handle the same level of instruction. You are new to homeschooling and we do have a tendency to make distant plans but try to take it one year at a time. So many things will change between now and the time for you to do high school that even the best intended plans will change.

[treyes]

I have considered all the things you mentioned.

 

My high schooler would be working more independently, and I wouldn't try to have them working at the same level, just the same time period.

 

And I haven't set anything in stone, I'm just in a researching stage looking at all my options.

 

Thats why I'm here now, asking questions and getting advise from you guys who've been there done that. :001_smile:

[Tullia]

Hello, and welcome! I hs'ed an only child, but we were part of a small co-op which included a wide range of ages. We occasionally met at a local church, but most years we rotated among our homes. It can be challenging to separate all the different age levels, but we used the old one-room school model to help us juggle all the different elements and it worked pretty well--except that as the mom of an only child sometimes all the activity overwhelmed me.

 

I especially enjoyed the idea we borrowed from a large family for an informal afternoon meeting where each student contributed something; a narration, presentation from a nature journal, poetry recitation, read an essay to the group, or sometimes a recital if a student was preparing for a musical performance. There was always a Q & A time for each student. For the younger children the focus was on recognizing their efforts and offering encouragement. Older students were expected to field questions about their essays, and not be put off if someone asked for clarification of something that wasn't clear. The adults participated to help evaluate the students' work, model proper discussion etiquette, and make sure that outside disagreements or personality clashes were left outside ;).

 

Those afternoon meetings on co-op days or just the two of us on "at-home" days made some of our best home school memories. Now that ds is in college, he's finding that the experience helped him with formal presentations to the class, leading a class discussion, or general class participation. All the classes he's taken through the humanities/social science department (and some in the math/science category) have included those things in the grading structure.

 

I don't think there's any single correct answer to what parts of history to cover at any particular time. There are lots of good options, but in general it's much easier for you (IMO) to have students working on the same era. It sounds like you're on the right track, but I agree with a pp who said that expect things to change before you get there.