Lucy Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 Hi! My daughter is entering 7th next fall and I can't decide what to do! We have finished SOTW (loved it with the activity book) and I'm wanting to choose something that will go from 7th through high school that has good literature as well. I've ruled out Sonlight, but I've heard great things about MFW. I like the look of Omnibus by VP, but worry that it's too heavy. I want to do some great books, but 50 a week might overwhelm us! ;) I want to be able to interact with her on a deeper level, but still have 3 (maybe 4 soon) littler ones to teach so it must be a bit self directed. Nothing too teacher intensive. I've heard Bob Jones' stuff is complete, but is it a bit dry? And I long for her to read great books. And finally, how in the world do you find something that meets all the credit requirements for high school / college bound kids? Do any of these cover all the different subjects required like world, us, econ, gov? As you can hear, I'm a bit freaked out as the older years look like a gaping pit of unknowns looming before me. I'd soooooo appreciate any advice, comments, or prayer you want to throw my way. Just for extra info, we'll be using: MUS, Writing Strands and IEW, Apologia Science, Rosetta Stone, Spelling Power, Easy Grammar, and Who knows What for Logic or Vocab. Please tell me what you use and what you love about it. Please? Rondi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janice in NJ Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 Hi Rondi, I would recommend Tapestry of Grace. Lots of hand-holding for you. Great books. Your family still learns together. (SOTW is scheduled as an Alternate Title in case you still want to re-use it with some of your younger kids.) Start here: http://www.tapestryofgrace.com/explore/ Click here and scroll to the bottom of each page for a Scope and Sequence document for high-schoolers. You can see at a glance which great books are covered in which year plans. http://www.tapestryofgrace.com/year1/ http://www.tapestryofgrace.com/year2/ http://www.tapestryofgrace.com/year3/ http://www.tapestryofgrace.com/year4/ Click here to see high-school credits your child can earn with the program along with course descriptions. http://www.tapestryofgrace.com/loom/year-all/drhelps.php You can start the program next year with Year 1. Your daughter will be in 7th grade and will probably work at the Dialectic level. She will continue with Year 2 in 8th grade at the D level. She can begin high school by studying the 19th century (Year 3) at the R level which is high school level. In 10th grade she can study the 20th century (Year 4) at the R level. Then in 11th and 12th she can cycle back to the ancient (year 1) and Medieval/Renaissance (Year 2) at the R level. This is actually not a bad way to run through this program as many of the forms of the Great Books in years 1 & 2 are tough. Year 2 Literature is currently the most challenging year for most people. Attacking it as a senior instead of a sophomore is probably going to be a good thing. :001_smile: You just fold your younger kids in as you go. Everyone studies the same period of history at the same time - but at different levels with different books. And your face-time with your daughter is limited to once a week. You train her to work during the rest of the week on her own; she preps for the face time with you much like a college student preps for class time with her professor. Have fun, Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucy Posted December 24, 2011 Author Share Posted December 24, 2011 Janice, Thank you so much for the info and links! I've never heard much about TOG. I'll look into it. :) Hand-holding and great books sounds reeeeally nice. Merry Christmas! Rondi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted December 26, 2011 Share Posted December 26, 2011 If my son stays home for high school next year, I plan on using SWB's History of the Ancient World and The Well Educated Mind to help me do a great books study. I'm also using the ancients portion of a Spielvogel text.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamakim Posted December 26, 2011 Share Posted December 26, 2011 If my son stays home for high school next year, I plan on using SWB's History of the Ancient World and The Well Educated Mind to help me do a great books study. I'm also using the ancients portion of a Spielvogel text.... This is what we do. Spielvogel/SWB for the first two cycles and Paul Johnson's History of the American People to supplement Spielvogel for the second two cycles. I did try TOG but I am another huge admirer of the program who just never was able to make it work here. We also have Omnibus here, and I use the materials as teaching aids but don't assign the stuff to my students. We do some of the same texts and I like to use the discussions, quizzes, writing topics at times. But that's more lit and less history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candid Posted December 26, 2011 Share Posted December 26, 2011 I might hurt some feelings by saying this, but... <deep breath> It's my opinion that TOG is teacher-intensive. I have looked at it time and time again, but every single time I am just overwhelmed at the thought of how much prep time goes into each lesson. If you are trying to find something that's not too teacher-intensive, then TOG might not be the program for your family. (My apologies to all the TOG-loving families out there!) Have you ever used it? I do and I teach R level lit at a small coop. When I was just using it by myself, I really did no more than an hour of prep time each week and that was mostly reading the history pages. I would then spend at most another hour with my oldest on the discussions, now with two at upper level it might be more like two hours on discussion, but again just once a week. I spend lots more time teaching things like math to youngers than on tapestry. Even with the additional responsibility of the lit discussion (which I now read, high light, and reread) my prep time is probably at most 1 1/2 hours a week. We don't do many crafts, I imagine that would take more. But I think anything that involves crafts takes time and probably about the same amount. Tapestry helps by suggesting books and projects each week so you don't spend time finding a project. But the bonus is that the younger children could be part of this prep time and the middle school student should mostly work on their own and intersect with mom for the discussion which are exactly what the OP says she wants. To the OP: Discussions take time, they are by their nature teacher-intensive. Tapestry gives you the answers to those discussions though so you don't have to read everything your student does to handle the discussion. Will Tapestry take some time over your first summer to get used to? Sure, but its doable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucy Posted December 31, 2011 Author Share Posted December 31, 2011 Thanks to everyone for responding! I feel like I've been researching myself silly!:tongue_smilie: Tapestry looks awesome, but I'm a bit concerned about finding all the books and planning the lessons well. My local library is not very helpful. What do you all think of My Father's World for high school - it uses Notgrass and seems to have more step by step lesson plans than Tapestry of Grace. I could use something else for Jr. High (like just repeat SOTW but add in more depth for her? maybe?) and then move into MFW when she hits 9th. What do you all think? Rondi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbollin Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 I answered briefly on the other thread....but... I'm using MFW. I'm liking it fine for high school. My oldest can follow the MFW syllabus. We have our daily and then weekly conferences, but she needs to be reading and doing more on her own. MFW gives us the structure. You had asked earlier in the thread about getting everything done in high school... lots of ways to do that, but mfw has a 4 year plan on that. I don't know if you've seen that on their website they have this http://www.mfwbooks.com/inc/pdf/HS_Course_of_Study.pdf and http://www.mfwbooks.com/inc/pdf/HS_Planning_Guide.pdf You can use those forms even if you don't use MFW. What to suggest in jr. high? a year of geography/cultures and current events a year of jr. high electives (without pressure of transcript) and current events, intro to civics, maybe State History -crystal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janice in NJ Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 Hi Rondi, Lots of folks love MFW for high school. Check out this thread. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=333216 These gals have been using the program and sharing their positive experiences for a while on these boards. Crystal is right; there are lots of good programs that plan the 4-year cycle for you. :001_smile: Don't get stressed. Enjoy this process! And rejoice with us that there are so many great options. (Nothing to stress about!) You'll find your way. Just think about your family. What makes you guys tick? When do you feel challenged and excited? What bring tension and misery into your home? Choose a program that fits your strengths and minimizes your chances for crash-n-burn failure. Don't try to completely remodel your homeschool for high school. The tweaks and the nudges will yield the strongest outcome. And finally, give yourself time to allow the options to settle in. It's not even January. September is still nine months from now. Getting that plan nailed down and ready to go early is not always the best plan. You can end up with a lot of expensive books that just sit on your shelf and collect guilt. Be patient. Be calm. Allow good things to float your way. Peace, Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucy Posted January 1, 2012 Author Share Posted January 1, 2012 Oh, I really love you ladies! It's so good to have a group give out such wisdom and experience and assurance that all will work out to God's plan. Today I have ceased stressing out. My hubby looked over all my research and he likes the looks of MFW. A tenative plan is nice. Suddenly, things look much more manageable. Happy new year everyone! Rondi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kentuckymommy Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Thank you so much for asking this question. I am in a similar boat. I have a daughter going into the 8th grade next year. We are drawing up a plan for the next 5 years currently and want to choose wisely! We want to pick something and stick with it... We are leaning towards MFW again, but are also considering Tapestry of Grace and Heart of Dakota followed by either MFW high school courses or Notgrass history. Our end goal is CLEP testing during high school and equipping our children for college as best as we can... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.