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Covering the same books twice (7th and 10th?)


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My son is in GC1 at WHA and he is doing fine keeping up with the reading, assignments, and quizzes, etc. However, I think he is just not "there yet" with respect to really understanding the themes of the works (Odyssey, or even in some cases Chronicles of Narnia). He understands the plot lines fine. It's probably a maturity/puberty issue.

I don't feel the class is a total loss as he is benefiting from the discussion led by the teacher and the other students' input and observations. However, I am beginning to rethink our trajectory for great books because of this year. Originally I had thought we would continue with WHA through high school.  Now I am leaning toward a university model school. They cover similar books but later in the sequence. For example, they would cover The Odyssey and the Aeneid in 10th grade.  

Here is my issue.  If we continue with WHA in this present class, and then later do the UM school, he will be re-reading the Odyssey, the Aeneid, the Chronicles of Narnia, and at least a few others in 10th. Is this a negative? At this point I can see him complaining about it, but he is a preteen so that is our status quo sometimes. 

Opinions? 

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I think there is a lot of value in doing books more than once. SWB recommends reading each book three times. Classic books, in particular, are great because they can be reread and different layers released. 

My oldest reread several books to great effect. 

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I think this depends on the level of depth provided in the class & the level of depth the student can get. I could reread the Chronicles of Narnia several times & get something new out of it at each phase of my life. I read a college essay by a senior this year who read the Aeneid first in 7th or 8th grade but had to reread it in the original Latin as part of a Lukeion course. Because of the level of the class and the indepth analysis, she got so much more out of it on her second or third go-through. But if it had just been the same level of discussion or just a reread and no real maturity leap in the kid, I'm not sure it would be worth it. [Likely, however, you'll see a big maturity leap between now & 10th grade. But, it could be that there will be less maturity in 10th and your kid might not get that leap until college. I have brothers like that. :wink: YMMV.]

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I also just remembered that my college freshman just read the Aeneid, which he read and discussed in tenth grade, and Beowulf, which he did in seventh, for his honors program.  He told me he didn't remember reading either of them!!  So, rereading them was great for him. He also really enjoyed the discussions.  

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2 minutes ago, RootAnn said:

 But if it had just been the same level of discussion or just a reread and no real maturity leap in the kid, I'm not sure it would be worth it. [Likely, however, you'll see a big maturity leap between now & 10th grade. But, it could be that there will be less maturity in 10th and your kid might not get that leap until college. I have brothers like that. :wink: YMMV.]

 

I wish there was some way of knowing where we will be in a few years!  In many ways, he is a mature kid. He is very thoughtful and diligent. But in others, like understanding what the author is trying to say in a book (e.g. Chronicles of Narnia), he sometimes completely misses it.  I do think it will come in time, but I have no idea when.

I think this is the part of "planning for high school" that I struggle most with. I am supposed to teach the child I have, but the child I have is continuously growing and changing.  How am I to know what he will be capable of in three years? I feel like the only thing I can truly do is make plans but hold them very loosely.  ?

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2 minutes ago, freesia said:

I also just remembered that my college freshman just read the Aeneid, which he read and discussed in tenth grade, and Beowulf, which he did in seventh, for his honors program.  He told me he didn't remember reading either of them!!  So, rereading them was great for him. He also really enjoyed the discussions.  

 

We read the Rosemary Sutcliff versions of The Illiad and the Odyssey less than three years ago. I remember a lot of the plot lines from the Odyssey from those. My son remembers none of it at all. I remember them being engaged and interested when we read it, and we did discuss the book, so I was surprised.  It is encouraging that it's not just my boys that do this. I often joked that in college I had "etch-a-sketch brain."  I'd just shake out what I memorized and move on, forgetting everything I had learned.  

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Yep, here, too. In fact, when we went to his honors interview weekend and they explained how history, lit, the arts and philosophy would be integrated, he was so excited by the idea. I said, "uh, that's what we did in high school."  He looked completely confused, "Really?" he said. 

Sometimes I want to beat my head against the wall. But we keep keeping on. Lol

 

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1 hour ago, cintinative said:

 

I wish there was some way of knowing where we will be in a few years!  In many ways, he is a mature kid. He is very thoughtful and diligent. But in others, like understanding what the author is trying to say in a book (e.g. Chronicles of Narnia), he sometimes completely misses it.  I do think it will come in time, but I have no idea when.

I think this is the part of "planning for high school" that I struggle most with. I am supposed to teach the child I have, but the child I have is continuously growing and changing.  How am I to know what he will be capable of in three years? I feel like the only thing I can truly do is make plans but hold them very loosely.  ?

If you asked my oldest kid, she'd say I've been planning her homeschooling since before she was born. That's not true! But, I do like to plan ahead. I have several on paper & on computer layouts of science rotations, history rotations, what curriculum or books I'm going to do when for each kid, etc. When I run across one later, I laugh -- sometimes hysterically. (I *did* plan once for a kid before he'd arrived -- before I even knew he was a boy. He's on the chart with the other four kids K-9 or so...)

Now, I do my planning very, very loosely. I'm not really sure what the next year is going to look like for my dd#2 who is in 10th this year. She's going to need some US History in the next two years. She'll do the 'next thing' in math. She'll read some more books & keep working on her writing. What will that look like? Where will she end up? No clue. Bugs my planning self, but it is the reality of homeschooling the kid in front of you. I'm starting to learn to deal with it. Maybe I'll have accepted it in another 8 years ...

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We intentionally covered some works twice. Cantebury Tales, Inferno, Paradise Lost, Beowulf, Gilgamesh, and some others. And of course most students wind up with some repeats or three-peats in college. 

Don't even bring it up with him now, and it likely won't be a big deal at all in three years. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

My daughter also took GC 1 at Wilson Hill.  It was a great class and she did well...and she remembered very, very little of most of the reading.  I decided to switch things up, and we did something different in 8th and then switched to Roman Roads Media for 9th.  She did end up rereading some of the same books in 9th that she read in 7th and it was a completely different experience.  I believe that had to do with maturity and also the slower pace of RR compared to TGC which allowed for a closer read.  She didn't complain about any of the rereading except for Virgil.  I'm personally a fan of rereading books, especially the classics, so I see only benefits in doing so. 🙂

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57 minutes ago, jjeepa said:

My daughter also took GC 1 at Wilson Hill.  It was a great class and she did well...and she remembered very, very little of most of the reading.  I decided to switch things up, and we did something different in 8th and then switched to Roman Roads Media for 9th.  She did end up rereading some of the same books in 9th that she read in 7th and it was a completely different experience.  I believe that had to do with maturity and also the slower pace of RR compared to TGC which allowed for a closer read.  She didn't complain about any of the rereading except for Virgil.  I'm personally a fan of rereading books, especially the classics, so I see only benefits in doing so. 🙂

 

Thank you so much for this.  Was Roman Roads another online class or how does that work? We are looking at a local university model school that would have him read many of the same books in 10th.  

I feel a bit upset with myself that I didn't account for maturity in understanding the works when I signed him up for GC1. However, I have never read most of the books and am just reading them this year for the first time. I made an assumption since they offered it as a 7th grade class that he would be fine, and he really is doing fine, but I just think he is missing a lot from the texts. Thanks again for your encouragement!

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  • 1 month later...
On 11/26/2018 at 7:26 PM, cintinative said:

 

Thank you so much for this.  Was Roman Roads another online class or how does that work? We are looking at a local university model school that would have him read many of the same books in 10th.  

I feel a bit upset with myself that I didn't account for maturity in understanding the works when I signed him up for GC1. However, I have never read most of the books and am just reading them this year for the first time. I made an assumption since they offered it as a 7th grade class that he would be fine, and he really is doing fine, but I just think he is missing a lot from the texts. Thanks again for your encouragement!

Cincinative - my apologies for not replying sooner!  I haven't been on the forum since Nov and just realized I had a notification.  Oops!  The RR materials we use are DVD lectures with study guides.  They do have online classes as well.  I believe it is a top notch curriculum!  The teacher, Wes Calihan, is phenomenal and pulls you right into the material. 

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