razorbackmama Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 (edited) Why did you do it? HOW did you do it? What did/does your student think about it? How did you handle grade-segregated activities (youth group, AWANA, Sunday School, sports, etc.)? How did it affect relationships with friends, particularly when it came time for everyone else except your student to graduate? ETA: I'm referring to a gap between 8th & 9th grades, to allow for the student to mature/progress before beginning high school level work. Edited February 7, 2011 by razorbackmama Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razorbackmama Posted February 7, 2011 Author Share Posted February 7, 2011 I'm going to be cross-posting this. I tried to indicate that in the subject line, but the server did NOT like that at all, for whatever reason! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen in VA Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 I'd also be interested in hearing how people handled health insurance. I know "relatively" cheap health insurance is available for those kids with perfect health, but what about the ones who do have health issues -- is a gap year an option? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razorbackmama Posted February 7, 2011 Author Share Posted February 7, 2011 I'd also be interested in hearing how people handled health insurance. I know "relatively" cheap health insurance is available for those kids with perfect health, but what about the ones who do have health issues -- is a gap year an option? The new health care bill requires health insurance companies to cover children up to age 26. But I'm sorry for any confusion - I'm referring to a gap year between 8th grade and high school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen in VA Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Oh my -- I think I need more coffee! Sorry! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razorbackmama Posted February 7, 2011 Author Share Posted February 7, 2011 Oh no - it was I. I had attempted to put that specification in the title, but the board didn't like it for whatever reason. I got "fatal errors" every time until I took it out, and by then I was too frustrated and forgot to specify in my post LOLOLOL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yolanda in Mass Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 You might want to change the title of thread as the term 'gap year' refers to post-high school time. I know it sounds onerous, but what you're referring to is repeating a year for purposes of delaying entry into high school and lots of people do it. Homeschooling is about tailoring the education to the student. Having said that...a friend of mine delayed exit from high school by adding a year to it when her son was about to hit senior year. He hated it then and was pretty angry, but realized later that it was wise and he benefited from it tremendously. How did she handle the age-segregated stuff? If I recall, there weren't any activities he was in that distinguished between 11th and 12th grade as it would 8th vs 9th. That could be tricky. Maybe some other moms can help out! Yolanda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razorbackmama Posted February 7, 2011 Author Share Posted February 7, 2011 It won't let me edit the subject.:glare: Sorry about the confusion - I've always heard what I'm talking about called a "gap year." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yolanda in Mass Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 (edited) I can comment on how holding a student back affects sports. Many recreation departments are increasingly using date of birth, not grade, to determine placement and eligibility. Makes more sense.Three-four years ago, my then 13/14yos showed up for a summer baseball game and the opposing team's pitcher had a beard! Pretty funny and pretty absurd. The league changed their rules after that year. Yolanda Edited February 7, 2011 by Yolanda in Mass grammar/clarification Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in MN Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 ETA: I'm referring to a gap between 8th & 9th grades, to allow for the student to mature/progress before beginning high school level work. I'm not sure how that would be any different than just starting school later. My oldest started at age 6, graduated at age almost 19, spent another year in Army Reserves training, started college at age 20, graduated in exactly 4 years, and is now a working engineer. There weren't any problems with health insurance or car insurance (or scholarships, which many ask about), although he transferred over to college insurance and his own car insurance somewhere in there. Many recreation departments are increasingly using date of birth, not grade, to determine placement and eligibility. In our area, that's long been the practice. My oldest is now 26, and even when he was playing elementary school hockey we had to produce a birth certificate every year. I still have a pile of them here... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razorbackmama Posted February 7, 2011 Author Share Posted February 7, 2011 I can comment on how holding a student back affects sports. Many recreation departments are increasingly using date of birth, not grade, to determine placement and eligibility. Makes more sense.Three-four years ago, my then 13/14yos showed up for a summer baseball game and the opposing team's pitcher had a beard! Pretty funny and pretty absurd. The league changed their rules after that year. Yolanda :lol: Makes total sense!!! My currently 8th grade son has some learning issues, we've had to back up a few times, etc., and he just IS NOT ready for high school work (he's on about a 6th grade level academically due to language processing problems). I would love to really work intensely on those things, but I keep seeing NINTH GRADE looming at us, and I feel like we're running out of time. I'm thinking if we had an extra year to really knuckle down and work on getting the kinks out, high school will go a lot more smoothly with him. But then I run into all the questions I listed in my OP.:tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Photo Ninja Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Are you doing it primarily for academic reasons or for social maturity reasons? If for academic reasons, then I would let my child continue onto the next level of Awanas, etc. with friends. Very few extra curricular activities are based on an academic grade level. Your child can then be in the program for a 'super senior' year, or two 12th grade years. It would be sort of like doing 5 years of high school. It shouldn't matter in the long run as far as youth group goes. With Awanas your ds may complete the program when in 11th grade, but that is not really a problem. If the reasons are so your ds will mature socially, then I would have him stay in 8th grade activities again in order to be older and allow time to mature and possibly learn some leadership skills because of being older than the other 8th graders. But many times this backfires because the student wants to stay with friends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razorbackmama Posted February 7, 2011 Author Share Posted February 7, 2011 Are you doing it primarily for academic reasons or for social maturity reasons? If for academic reasons, then I would let my child continue onto the next level of Awanas, etc. with friends. Very few extra curricular activities are based on an academic grade level. Your child can then be in the program for a 'super senior' year, or two 12th grade years. It would be sort of like doing 5 years of high school. It shouldn't matter in the long run as far as youth group goes. With Awanas your ds may complete the program when in 11th grade, but that is not really a problem. It is for academic reasons. LOL most of his friends right now are in high school.:lol: His AWANA program is based on grade levels, but I could easily talk to the commander and director - they both homeschool.;) If you were to do it, would you go into it with him KNOWING that he was going to be doing high school for 5 years? I just don't want him to be totally bummed whenever he gets to his 1st senior year without graduating. How would you indicate all this on a transcript? Or I guess this would be a good reason to do a subject-based transcript vs. a grade-based one.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 If you were to do it, would you go into it with him KNOWING that he was going to be doing high school for 5 years? I just don't want him to be totally bummed whenever he gets to his 1st senior year without graduating. How would you indicate all this on a transcript? Or I guess this would be a good reason to do a subject-based transcript vs. a grade-based one.... The Common Application (accepted by several hundred predominantly private colleges) requires that the student state what course work has been done in the past four years. You might take a look at the college applications of some colleges to which your son is likely to apply since a subject-based transcript would not help if he were limited to including only four years of coursework on an application. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razorbackmama Posted February 8, 2011 Author Share Posted February 8, 2011 The Common Application (accepted by several hundred predominantly private colleges) requires that the student state what course work has been done in the past four years. You might take a look at the college applications of some colleges to which your son is likely to apply since a subject-based transcript would not help if he were limited to including only four years of coursework on an application. Thanks! I'm not exactly sure why I even asked that question. He won't be doing 9th grade level work for a couple more years, so it would be a non-issue.:tongue_smilie: He'll most likely be going to community college or something like that. We can't afford to pay for his college, and he will not be able to get a scholarship. We do not qualify for financial aid, etc. Plus with all his learning issues, he won't be able to get into some prestigious college. He's not even sure what he wants to do - he may want to go into the military after high school. So college may not even happen, but I certainly don't want to limit him by not preparing for college. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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