Eldest dd wants to do Omnibus, 2nd AHL

[Excelsior! Academy]

Eldest dd wants to do Omnibus iv. This would be our first Omnibus year. She is 15 and has a friend that will be doing the same book. (That did not influence her decision at all because she didn't know that when her decision was made.). I have read that Omnibus iv can be done as a starter course, but have recently read that each subsequent year refers to past year's projects.

 

Second eldest wants to do MFW AHL. It is something we have considered from day one for both.

 

1st dd is not interested in MFW and 2nd dd is not interested in Omnibus. While I am the parent and make the final say, I really have no preference either way. I am okay with tailoring to each provided it is not too much work for me. Especially considering the number of youngers I am also juggling.

 

What says the hive?

[cbollin]

very shyly raising my hand...

 

am I reading that as you plan to do AHL with a 12 y.o?

or is it when that child who is 12 now is in 9th grade, do AHL?

 

I know there are lots of ways to homeschool and all of that. I was glad my oldest was 15 when she did AHL.

 

if other words.. I'm babbling and really just bumping this for you.

[Excelsior! Academy]

Yes, she is twelve. She will be close to thirteen when we start. I would have never dreamed doing this with my oldest dd, but I truly think this dd can handle it. I am really am asking for advice, so fire away. Gently please, I have had a really long day.

 

Dh and I are still considering a straight WTM approach. I like tailoring the booklists and plans to the child, but I also like the hand holding and firmer deadlines that come with a purchased curriculum. Part of why I am asking is to lesson the workload for me while still giving my children the rigor they deserve.

[ktgrok]

I haven't used it, but I have heard several people that have say that they wouldn't use it even in 8th grade, let alone for a 12 year old.

[cbollin]

Yes, she is twelve. She will be close to thirteen when we start. I would have never dreamed doing this with my oldest dd, but I truly think this dd can handle it. I am really am asking for advice, so fire away. Gently please, I have had a really long day.

 

Dh and I are still considering a straight WTM approach. I like tailoring the booklists and plans to the child, but I also like the hand holding and firmer deadlines that come with a purchased curriculum. Part of why I am asking is to lesson the workload for me while still giving my children the rigor they deserve.

 

(((hugs))) for a long day yesterday. I hope today is a better one. I've had a lot of those long days recently.

 

lots of thoughts..... if Omnibus is new to you, and MFW AHL would be new, and then using something else with youngers and all of that.... lot of learning curve there. If you decide that route, only advice is to stagger start dates for the 2 high school programs.

 

AHL....

I think with a 12 almost 13 year old, you'll still want to do a bit more hand holding in AHL to discuss material and maybe even more than just the weekly conference. I was glad my oldest, who is my strongest academic child, was 14 going on 15 when she do AHL, so that she had just that much more life experiences to "own" the material and discussion. If I had done AHL with her at 13, she would have gotten the answers right. She would have whined about the workload, but got it done. But there's just this gut feeling in me that says, it wouldn't have touched her heart and shaped her thinking in the same way if we had done it earlier. She's only 16 now.

 

It's a subjective feeling... There's an element of AHL isn't just following the syllabus, or just reading the entire Old Testament, or just doing ancients...

 

You know your child, I don't. Here are thinking points in it that make it hard for this little Hive person to help... but it is stuff I went through with my oldest...maybe it would shed something in your case. might be same conclusions or could be different. No cookie cutter solutions.

 

Is she ready for high school length of day for all subjects? Is she maturity wise already about 9th or 10th grade -- not can she hang out with that age, but are they her peers? Some people who homeschool do a path of graduate at 16 (for lots of reasons). Is she one of those who is on that path? or does she just want to study ancients and Old Testament next year? Is she eager to say "mom, dad... I know I want to graduate young and go into this study or work and I'm going to do it"...

 

When my oldest was getting ready to start 8th grade, I was in the thought process and all of that because cycle wise in MFW we were at the point of "hmm...well... does she do MFW CTG with younger sister, or start AHL in 8th and call her 9th?"

We ended up using CTG and waiting until she was 9th grade age for AHL. I'm glad I did that route for a lot of reasons. Right after I made the final decision of -- nah... let's do 8th grade... well, my dh lost his job and we moved to a new state with new job. Yikes!

So I was glad that the route we ended up to give my academic oldest the rigor she needed was to do a few reports from CTG (the Streams of Civ book was good for that), and electives of her choice, archery, church leadership committee (for students), and she had to do a lot of helping me with the move/life/etc. Our path was to do rigor in life skills and electives, and use the jr. high kick up a notch in CTG. and of course, she did multiple Progeny Press guides, and math and science at jr. high level and had to do all of that on her own. I never felt like she didn't have enough. It was a balance to the day.

 

maybe that's the subjective feel? my daughter needed the jr. high years to do math and science and language arts on her own, then by 9th grade it was easy to just do all subjects more on her own beyond the sense of just get it done and stay on syllabus.

 

oh wow.. I did post it on mfw board... just found it..... oh oh... back when it was fresh in my mind at the end of my oldest dd's 8th grade year, I listed how we planned the extra reports in CTG.

 

http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=4775&p=59996p59996

 

In my case, it turned out well to let my oldest be in "jr high", and work on her own in CTG, and Saxon, and apologia, and the reading, and Progeny Press guides, and Writing Strands and the grammar book..

 

:grouphug:

 

never used omnibus to help there. but that's my MFW journey with not starting AHL in jr. high.

 

coffee!

 

-crystal

[Mallorie]

AHL....

I think with a 12 almost 13 year old, you'll still want to do a bit more hand holding in AHL to discuss material and maybe even more than just the weekly conference. I was glad my oldest, who is my strongest academic child, was 14 going on 15 when she do AHL, so that she had just that much more life experiences to "own" the material and discussion. If I had done AHL with her at 13, she would have gotten the answers right. She would have whined about the workload, but got it done. But there's just this gut feeling in me that says, it wouldn't have touched her heart and shaped her thinking in the same way if we had done it earlier. She's only 16 now.

 

It's a subjective feeling... There's an element of AHL isn't just following the syllabus, or just reading the entire Old Testament, or just doing ancients...

 

 

We've never done AHL, but I received it in the mail on Tuesday to do with my oldest ds, and CtG to do with the younger two.

 

I think Crystal made a lot of good points about AHL, particularly what I quoted. At one point, I had considered starting it early, too, as most of ECC has been review for oldest ds. But I am glad that I have waited, esp. now that I see it. My ds is 14, will be 15 mid-year next year, and I think he's at a place where AHL will speak to his heart.

 

I sought out a package curriculum last year because I was overwhelmed in my first year homeschooling three kids with three years in between each of them. I needed it organized and I needed it scheduled. Last year was really hard, I had days in tears because I just could not get this hs'ing thing figured out and I would pray to God that since He led me to homeschooling, show me how to do it! LOL Enter MFW (and CLE math). I had a peace about it, and just trusted Him.

 

Fwiw, if you have youngers, and want to make your workload easier, I would consider starting them in the cycle, including your 12 year old. We're wrapping up ECC in a couple months. We have learned a lot more about geography, mapping, etc. But... I honestly see the beauty of it as more of a character study. The Hero Tales with the character traits, mission stories tied in with Bible time: I can't tell you how many times they have tied what we learn here into what they've heard at church. The world is now bigger to them than their own backyard.

 

I am anxious to move onto the history cycle as geography is just sort of "blech" for me. But it has had it's fruits and now CtG looks really fun!

 

hth :)

[Di3kids]

When my ds was in 9th he used MFW AHL and in 10th he used WHL, but now with my dd in 9th, I'm using Omnibus. She is 14 and very bright, but we are finding Omnibus III to be quite challenging. Since she is also doing Mystery of History III with younger sister, we are actually only doing the first semester of Omnibus this year, but are including primary and secondary books (that's 15 not-so-fluffy books). Omnibus requires much more of my involvement than MFW did. I really love it, and enjoy how much I am learning, too. The discussions are great, and the writing assignments are quite rigorous (since she has a passion for so many other things like voice, piano, dance, etc. and also has other coursework she does not do all of the writing assignments). My son would not have enjoyed Omnibus, though. Reading "Of Plymouth Plantation" and "Foxes Book of Martyrs" has been somewhat difficult for us. Perhaps we're wimps, but these classic books are not like reading "The Hunger Games!" I think we'll stick with Omnibus, though.

 

Well, I hope that helps.