Spreading out a year of high school into two years?

[Loowit]

Next school year I am down to just my youngest at home for school.  He has been struggling with depression and anxiety for years, and it has been worse during the pandemic.  We are doing what we can to help him, but it is a slow process.  He has an early fall b-day, and he is ahead a grade of where he would be at in a public school.

DS is currently a 10th grader.  I am considering spreading out his 11th grade year over two years, which would have him graduate at age 18 instead of 17.  I think this is a better choice, and he just agreed to it this weekend.  I was wondering if anyone had done something similar to this and what it looked like for you.

I was thinking of doing science (online chemistry), finish Geometry (he is struggling with it right now), some sort of writing course (probably Byline by clearwater press), a couple days of history a week, Bible, and maybe a careers elective (he has expressed interest).  Then the next year he would do another science (probably Physics), Algebra II, research paper, financial literacy, Bible, and history/literature.  His senior year he could either do running start (DE) or we would get back on track with a full schedule like I did with my older two, including some electives of his choice.

Even looking at that I wonder if I am trying to do too much next year, but the idea is to stretch them out and not do a full credit of every subject in one year, like with history it would be a couple days a week rather than every day and spread it out over the course of two years to cover Roman empire through the Reformation.  I also wonder if block scheduling would work better for him.  I have never liked block schedules, but if it is what would work I am willing to give it a shot.

By doing this would I be putting him at a disadvantage for college later on?  Am I expecting too much work?  Honest, gentle replies would be appreciated. 

[EKS]

Some things to think about:

Can you present his educational record without indicating what year things were done?  On your end, you can arrange his transcript by subject, but are there outside transcripts that will have a grade and year on them?  If so, you're going to have to explain the situation to colleges.  

Will he be significantly older than the cohort for his new grade?  This is not necessarily a deal breaker, but it may raise some concerns during college admissions.

What will you do if it becomes very obvious that a fifth year of high school is not a good idea?  I'd have a Plan B in case this happens.

My older son was attending a private IB school when halfway through 11th grade he decided to withdraw to homeschool/do DE (he had homeschooled up until the end of the first semester of 10th).  He has a summer birthday and was younger (by a good 9 months) than all of the other boys he knew in his grade.  We decided to have him do two years of DE instead of one at that point, and he thought it was a good idea as well.  

Fast forward to the end of what would have been his second junior year.  I'm talking May.  He had matured an enormous amount and was pretty much done with high school.  We decided to graduate him at the end of the DE term in June.  He then did a gap year, which was a great thing for him.

[Loowit]

Thanks for the things to think about.

If we kept on his current course, he would graduate when he was 17.  He would turn 18 in early October.  If we spread it out then he will be 18 when he graduates and turn 19 in the fall he entered college.  So that would put him on par with what our public schools do.

I was thinking I could just do a by subject transcript, although this is different than how I have done his siblings' transcripts.  The online science class would be recorded through us as homeschooler, so not a separate transcript.  If he did DE it would be its own transcript, and would only indicate the one year he did it, his senior year.  None of my other two have done DE.

I am guessing that he will do two years at our local community college, and earn his transfer AA like his sister has.  In which case, while some of the schools she applied to asked for a transcript from high school, not all of them did.  They were all more interested in her CC transcript.

 

[Farrar]

I want to say that there are colleges that block schedule. So that's not necessarily setting him up poorly for college. You should work the way that he'll find the most success. And that might really be that. You'll have to try it and see.

[Lori D.]

(((((hugs))))) So sorry for the hard time right now.

I'll just add that, rather than thinking in terms of taking 2 years for 1 grade (and certainly NOT presenting it to the student that way), I'd frame this as "going at the pace that allows us both to school in the best way that works for us in this season." Or something along those lines.

Whatever will help take pressure off and allow you both to be flexible as life situations and mental health changes (which may mean being able to speed up or add on academics sooner than expected). And it will also give yourselves permission to spend time on recovery and learning / practicing good mental health techniques (nutrition / supplements, relaxation techniques, establishing good routines for sleep and regular exercise, seeing a therapist if needed, etc.) that help get back on track.

BEST wishes for a good recovery to full health soon! Warmest regards, Lori D.


ETA - PS
re: block scheduling
We did not have additional stressful life circumstances in high school, and found that it worked well for us to do a sort-of block scheduling -- 90 min. to 2 hours 2 days a week for History, and the other 2 days a week for Science. We did complete a credit of History in 1 year doing it this way, but only completed about 3/4 of a credit of Science each year that way. Since neither DS was headed into a STEM field at that time, they each graduated with 3.5 credits of Science rather than 4.0 credits. And, many colleges only require 3.0 credits of Science for admission, so if you do spread out and do a little less overall, it will likely not be a problem.

Also -- just adding to be sure to include something of high *enjoyment* to DS during this time. So maybe work on just 3-4 "academic credits", and then an elective of high interest? Or project or extracurricular he'd really enjoy working on in a relaxed way?

Edited May 25, 2021 by Lori D.