MOH Illuminations - Help!

[nchser]

I was eagerly anticipating the Mystery of History Vol 3 Illuminations program that was soon to be released. We've already done MOH 1 and 2 and now that my 2 youngers are 8th and 9th grade, I was happy to see that there would be a high school program to beef it up.

 

If you don't know what Illuminations is, it's from Bright Idea's Press, their latest offering to go along with MOH.

In a unique tweakable pdf format, It schedules 6 1/2 credits for HS, leaving only Science, Math and Language to work out on your own. 6 1/2 credits are scheduled in History, Bible, English, Literature, Humanities, Life 101 & Government/Economics.

 

I just got the book lists yesterday, and unfortunately I'm having 2nd thoughts.

My 9th grade dd is a slow and reluctant reader. She is also the most difficult to engage in anything academic, being the free spirit that she is. I have to be very careful not to overwhelm her.

That said, she is going into high school and we need to have a solid course of study.

So here are the literature books (they all include high school study guides) - I bolded the ones I'm concerned about:

Bible

DK Eyewitness Russia

DK Eyewitness Africa

Mosque by David Macaulay

Praise of Folly by Erasmus

The King's Fifth by Scott O'Dell

A Man for All seasons by Robert Bolt

The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope

Queen's Own Fool by Jane Yolen

Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare

don Quixote by Cervantes unabridged version

Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford

Duncan's War by Douglas bond

Robinson Crusoe unabridged

Pilgrim's Progress revised by Barry Horner

 

I should add that my son is 8th grade, but reads much more eagerly. He would be more than capable of reading anything she would be assigned.

His problem would be more the boredom factor if the content is too deep. he hasn't reached that level of thoughtfulness.

He could read Robinson Crusoe no problem, but Don Quixote???

 

My other option is to do the Grade 3-8 level, but every one of those books are older elementary level and the study guides are what you would expect for that kind of book.

 

I don't want to leave out the challenging things, but I also don't want to overwhelm her by throwing her into the deep waters.

 

If I don't go with Illuminations, which would be a disappointment, I would go with Sonlight 7, ditching MOH for SOTW.

 

So what do you literature minded moms think?

[MerryAtHope]

Could you do some of the hardest books as read-alouds instead of having them read them? They could read something easier if you think another reader is necessary. You might look into whether one or two of them have a movie version that's worthwhile, or if you could see a Shakespeare play--even if not Much Ado, if you could see another in lieu of reading Shakespeare this year, that might be a good option.

 

I personally wouldn't be afraid to swap out a couple of books for something easier to give you more time to help them think through the tougher books as necessary.

 

Have you asked on the Illuminations email loop? I wonder what ideas Maggie Hogan might have for you?

 

Merry :-)