cintinative Posted December 21, 2017 Share Posted December 21, 2017 How do you make the call that your rising 7th will be ready for Great Conv. 1 or if you should wait until 9th and do the Great Conv. 1-4 class? I'm sort of intimidated by the book list for GC 1 but I don't have most of these books in hand, so maybe the translations aren't too bad. Thanks in advance for your help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omma Posted December 21, 2017 Share Posted December 21, 2017 Just wondering what your goals are...do you like the looks of GC 2 and GC 3, or are you content in waiting until high school to begin? I only know about GC 1&4 because we came in late to the program. My dd loves it as she has Mr. Etter for an instructor and he is truly amazing! Would you do the class self-paced on your own, or in a live setting? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted December 21, 2017 Author Share Posted December 21, 2017 Just wondering what your goals are...do you like the looks of GC 2 and GC 3, or are you content in waiting until high school to begin? I only know about GC 1&4 because we came in late to the program. My dd loves it as she has Mr. Etter for an instructor and he is truly amazing! Would you do the class self-paced on your own, or in a live setting? I was planning on doing it live, but this would be my son's first online class. Do you have any thoughts on that? I love the discussion based nature they describe. The WHA rep said they will be posting example class videos in January. Maybe that will help me decide? I love the looks of the GC2 and GC3 courses, which is why I was hoping to start him next year. I am just not sure how to evaluate if he is ready for it. I have heard fabulous things about Mr. Etter! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omma Posted December 21, 2017 Share Posted December 21, 2017 My dd raves about the class and enjoys the discussion format. I even started watching the recorded classes as they are so entertaining and informative. I love the passion of the instructor for the subject material. Yes, there is a lot of intense reading, whichever way you choose to go, but I feel the instructors at WHA know how to get the students intrigued to want to read more, and they do a good job in 'setting the scene' and developing the story-line so that everyone is motivated to stay current with the material covered in class. My first exposure to WHA was viewing the Open House they had in late January last year, plus researching archives to watch older information meetings. I found it very valuable and I think you will, too. I will have to leave it to others to describe what it is really like for a young middle schooler to work through the early GC years. Blessings on your decision, Brenda 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted December 21, 2017 Author Share Posted December 21, 2017 Omma, could you help me find the archives? TY. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted December 21, 2017 Share Posted December 21, 2017 My boys took Omni I/GC1 w/ Bruce Etter when he was at VPSA and when they were in 7th grade. I am very glad they did for several reasons..... 1) Bruce Etter was a great instructor. The reading load was heavy, but they enjoyed the classes. Bruce definitely brought the material within their reach as 7th graders, and he omitted the sections that were most objectionable. Sure, there's a lot that a 7th grader is not going to pick up that a 9th grader, or a 12th grader, or a college student, or an adult might pick up, but there is a lot that a 7th grader CAN pick up. And, some experience with the texts is better than no experience with the texts, imo. If they re-read the texts later, great! They'll have a step up and be in position to get more out of them the second time through. If they never re-read the texts, they'll at least have experienced them once. 2) They had much more time in 7th grade than they did once they started high school, so, I think, they spent more time on the reading than they do now for the GC6 course in 12th. More time in the sense of being able to slow down & absorb rather than whip through. 3) I had a crisis of confidence when we hit high school & I bailed on Great Books for 9th & 10th. Stupid, stupid, but there it is. We're in CA &, never having taken a student all the way through graduation to college admission, I wasn't positive what we needed to do. I didn't know what colleges my oldest would apply to, nor what fields of study they would want to pursue in college. I succumbed to the idea that I needed to fulfill all these a-g requirements or at least standard high school requirements. ("American History", "World History," "US Gov,"....) Great Books didn't fit neatly inside those boxes, and I wasn't confident to do what some had done to show how they could fit. Now I know that was a mistake. 4) In high school, time and flexibility was much more constrained for us, not only because we wanted to hit the standard high school subjects, but also because the boys got interested in other, outside activities (speech & debate primarily) in which they wanted to spend more time. Having done GB 1&2 in 7th & 8th allowed us to at least get those in. This year, 12th, my boys are doing GC6, to sort of round off the GB sequence. YMMV, obviously! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsutsie Posted December 21, 2017 Share Posted December 21, 2017 My 12-year-old son is currently in GC 1 with Mrs. Bailey. This is an amazing class! I was also pretty intimidated by the booklist, but it has been wonderful. DS is not an over-enthusiastic reader or history-lover but has been fine with keeping up with the amount and content of the books. He has listened to some books as audiobooks since we spend a lot of time driving every week. Just last week DS told me that he is interested in history again, and that reading fiction is actually "pretty fun." Looking at the materials your son is currently using - I don't think he will have a problem. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoCal_Bear Posted December 21, 2017 Share Posted December 21, 2017 I can't wait until DS is finally old enough for GC1. Living in CA, I totally get the dilemma of opting out of the a-g hoops and being worried about getting into the UC schools. I am mulling over my "loose" long term plans and really want to strongly consider GC all the way through...but the uncertainty really kills me. I think we are going to aim for admission by examination to just avoid the whole a-g hoop jumping. I am reluctant to give up our flexibility and interest-led path. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted December 21, 2017 Author Share Posted December 21, 2017 I can't wait until DS is finally old enough for GC1. Living in CA, I totally get the dilemma of opting out of the a-g hoops and being worried about getting into the UC schools. I am mulling over my "loose" long term plans and really want to strongly consider GC all the way through...but the uncertainty really kills me. I think we are going to aim for admission by examination to just avoid the whole a-g hoop jumping. I am reluctant to give up our flexibility and interest-led path. stupid question-- what is "a-g hoop jumping"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted December 21, 2017 Author Share Posted December 21, 2017 Thanks prior posters--I am very encouraged. I really do *love* the look of this course. It fits well with the period based history and lit we have already been doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted December 21, 2017 Share Posted December 21, 2017 I can't wait until DS is finally old enough for GC1. Living in CA, I totally get the dilemma of opting out of the a-g hoops and being worried about getting into the UC schools. I am mulling over my "loose" long term plans and really want to strongly consider GC all the way through...but the uncertainty really kills me. I think we are going to aim for admission by examination to just avoid the whole a-g hoop jumping. I am reluctant to give up our flexibility and interest-led path. We tried to work w a-g in 9th grade and soon realized there was no point in home schooling if we were going to do that. The hoops were too onerous, even w a homeschooling charter. The exam route is much, much better for us. Wish I’d known that up front. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoCal_Bear Posted December 22, 2017 Share Posted December 22, 2017 (edited) It's discussed on the high school board...though anyone who is remotely thinking about homeschooling and high school and lives in CA is thinking about this. Here are some threads for you to look through... http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/507407-a-g-requirements/ http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/623873-if-you-plan-to-apply-to-uc-schools-list-your-courses-here-another-a-g-thread/ http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/601993-ca-a-g-requirements/ Edited December 22, 2017 by calbear 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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