TwoEdgedSword Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 It looks like DD REALLY wants to change plans and do MFW WHL before AHL. Don't want to go into the details, but for now it appears we may just need to put off the Ancients. DD is really excited about beginning 9th with WHL. Is there any problem with doing this out of order and either reversing AHL and WHL, or putting off AHL to an even later high school year? She is a very bright girl with strong comprehension and writing skills. :) Thanks for any and all help! JFG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori in MS Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 (edited) If her writing skills are good, I don't see why she couldn't do that. AHL basically focuses on the argumentative essay. If she does it in a later grade you may want to add to the writing as it might be too easy for her. Reading the entire Old Testament, Iliad, Odyssey, etc is challenging at any age IMHO. Edited July 29, 2012 by Lori in MS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 I hope not - we're going to do WHL and haven't done AHL. It actually isn't in our plan unless ds chooses it as an elective. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoEdgedSword Posted July 29, 2012 Author Share Posted July 29, 2012 Thanks ladies! It seems MFW is coming up a lot on the board these days, or maybe it is just on my brain! Techwife, is your son starting 9th or 10th~ and if he is in 9th and you skip it, what would you fill in with given an extra year? Lori, you may have said somewhere so forgive me, but have you used both AHL and WHL years already? Did you child enjoy one more than the other? JFG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbollin Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 JFB :grouphug: hang in there..... keep praying and waiting another day or two... I think it'll become clearer on the how to avoid/tweak whl in 9th..... Julie in MN gave fantastic thinking points on it on mfw board. just trying to add thinking points to avoid any pitfalls doing WHL as 9th grader... hmmm... I know there are some parts in WHL with writing that seem to presume previous year's skills. so.. if needed... you might have to have an extra resource to go over that here's one http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/685/1/ but definitely read Julie's insights into it. -crystal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donna A. Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 If her writing skills are good, I don't see why she couldn't do that. AHL basically focuses on the argumentative essay. If she does it in a later grade you may want to add to the writing as it might be too easy for her. Reading the entire Old Testament, Iliad, Odyssey, etc is challenging at any age IMHO. Agree. If you're not tied to the concept of doing history chronologically, then go for it. I remember when my dd started WHL that I wished we'd had the chosen book for writing instruction, Writers INC, the previous year. Techwife, is your son starting 9th or 10th~ and if he is in 9th and you skip it, what would you fill in with given an extra year? Lori, you may have said somewhere so forgive me, but have you used both AHL and WHL years already? Did you child enjoy one more than the other? As the mom of a high schooler who did both AHL and WHL, and a rising 8th grader for whom I'm thinking strongly about h.s. plans, I'll go ahead and answer both of these questions. :) My dd enjoyed WHL a lot more than AHL. A big part of the reason for this was just content material, plain and simple. New Testament and church history/Reformation is my dd's favorite time period, and one of her favorite subjects. She never really enjoyed Ancients that much even in the elementary years. I know she's not alone and that a lot of people balk at doing Ancients (for various reasons.... too hard, too boring, too much mythology). However, I wouldn't suggest skipping Ancients if your student hasn't done it at all, because there's a lot of, well, a lot of everything I think our kids need from that time period to have a fuller understanding of theology, politics, law, human life, the character of God, ethics in modern day medicine.... The other reason she preferred WHL is because I tweaked AHL to death and we didn't do the Homer study at all, so I think I took something away from the program itself. (Yes, she's been exposed to Egyptian and Greek mythology. We just didn't want to spend a 10-week concentrated study in it. That said, Marie does do a great job of the student to analyze and criticize non-biblical sources and compare them to what God says in Scripture, drawing conclusions, etc., so it wouldn't have been a terrible thing if my dd did the study. We just didn't choose to.) Anyway, there are several reasons for my tweaking, many of which are just personal preference. We ended up pleased with what we DID do, but I sometimes think that if we'd done AHL *as written* as a 12th grader, she would've gotten a lot more out of it. AHL carries a strong Apologetics theme to it, which I do think is needful for our high schoolers before entering the real world/college/career/potential marriage to someone who maybe doesn't think exactly the same as they do. However, I think that 9th grade is just a bit 'too soon' for all that. For some kids, anyway. MFW already does a fantastic job of building a biblical worldview in our students.... Apologetics is just plain HARD for many people. Now, what MFW does in AHL is a good introduction.... but as Lori mentioned, reading some of the sources used for that is challenging at any age. I just think it would've been more meaningful (and useful) to MY dd as a 12th grader vs. 9th grader. Especially when she was still putting a lot of energy into doing high school period.... learning the follow the syllabus on her own, meeting deadlines, planning her time well, increasing her study skills, etc. Perhaps it's my fault that she wasn't better prepared for all that (and I'm working ahead with dd #2), so I guess it was just a big learning curve for both of us. But after having done AHL, WHL seemed easy to us. OTOH, one could perhaps say that the reason WHL seemed easy was because of the challenges presented to dd during AHL, and having been stretched like she was. IOW, she was prepared for WHL by having done AHL. So there's a couple of different ways you could look at it. ;) What would I have my dd do if we skipped Ancients altogether? (Though like I said, I think AHL or something similar during 12th grader would do a lot of good, too.) Otherwise, she'd do either geography & missions (maybe work a two-week missions into it? Some type of "life purpose" course?), or a condensed half-year of Ancients and half-year of geog/missions. OR I would just call it good with the traditional three years of history with World, US, Govt/Econ, and use the 4th year to concentrate on some form of specialized training or apprenticeship for her chosen path after high school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoEdgedSword Posted July 29, 2012 Author Share Posted July 29, 2012 Crystal and Donna, You ladies are amazing. I can’t thank you enough. You have given me so much to chew on... I agree this needs a couple of days of thinking and praying about this. I told DD" “let's agree not to decide just yet†and see if the issue with her not wanting to do Ancients gets worked out before we officially start the school year. Crystal, I'm still letting what you you wrote to me last night and Sue's message percolate, but it is all good and helpful stuff! Donna, I let DD read your reply and she was thrilled, but I told her to note what you said about your DD possibly finding WHL less difficult to transition to BECAUSE of her year with AHL. She's bummed a tad b/c she has now heard twice (once from me and now Crystal I think) that WHL is more textbooky than AHL, but she still wants to roll into WHL. I advised her that beginning with WHL would not be just ramping up and changing our style of schooling (less relaxed CMy), but also would be ramping up even more by virtue of the fact that the courses were designed to increase in difficulty with each year. She seems not to be very dissuaded. And there is something to be said for her motivation, right???!!:auto: I hope to update soon when I know more. Thank you, thank you for your input!!:D JFG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori in MS Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 Lori, you may have said somewhere so forgive me, but have you used both AHL and WHL years already? Did you child enjoy one more than the other? JFG My oldest ds just finished AHL in 9th grade. This year he will do WHL in 10th and my 2nd son will do AHL in 9th. I haven't seen WHL yet except for looking at the samples but hope to buy it soon. My son loved AHL, but he really enjoys ancient history and mythology. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 Techwife, is your son starting 9th or 10th~ and if he is in 9th and you skip it, what would you fill in with given an extra year? He's starting 10th. This is our first year with MFW and we are very excited about it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbollin Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 Techwife, is your son starting 9th or 10th~ and if he is in 9th and you skip it, what would you fill in with given an extra year? He's starting 10th. This is our first year with MFW and we are very excited about it! I hope it's goes as well for you as it has for us. There were times that my dd didn't like Notgrass book (but I think she was just being a teen) and then to hear her talk about Pride and Prejudice... oh it was funny on her essay on that (marriage thoughts)... Her first draft (which she turned in as a joke) simply said.. "After reading this book, I'm staying single." :lol: We enjoyed the year. hope you like it too. side note ... and yes.... 10th graders who haven't done AHL will most likely be fine in WHL as they've done something already in 9th grade for high school stuff. just hoping that assures you from the earlier comment that it'll be ok in 10th. -crystal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 I hope it's goes as well for you as it has for us. There were times that my dd didn't like Notgrass book (but I think she was just being a teen) and then to hear her talk about Pride and Prejudice... oh it was funny on her essay on that (marriage thoughts)... Her first draft (which she turned in as a joke) simply said.. "After reading this book, I'm staying single." :lol: We enjoyed the year. hope you like it too. side note ... and yes.... 10th graders who haven't done AHL will most likely be fine in WHL as they've done something already in 9th grade for high school stuff. just hoping that assures you from the earlier comment that it'll be ok in 10th. -crystal Thanks for the encouragement :001_smile:. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoEdgedSword Posted July 31, 2012 Author Share Posted July 31, 2012 Thanks Techwife. We are too! Just still not sure if it will be AHL or WHL...... Still trying to figure that out with DD.......:toetap05: JFB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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