). Skills wise, he fits very solidly in high school. He has completed CLE's 8th grade grammar and literature, and read the literature books in SL's Core 200 this year (a high school level core). He is using one of IEW's theme-based writing guides this year and doing very well. He has started Algebra already. He is using Tiner's IPC science this year already and making A's. He is very self-directed and independent in his work, doing it well and in a timely fashion (most of the time
). He is spiritually mature, doing his own Bible study these days without prompting (thank you, Preparing, for instilling that skill in him!). He has always used the extension books in the guides without complaining, as he is an avid reader. So, it seems like a no-brainer to just put him in the Geography guide, right?Except....
We moved to SoCal year before last, and it has not been a good fit for our family, especially this past year. We are currently (praise God!) in the process of moving back to the Seattle area, which is wonderful, but it does involve some business and stress. There are tons of activities for my boys to get back into once we get back, including a co-op that we loved before we left. The idea came to me yesterday that maybe we should just pick up the guides where we left off instead of jumping into the Geography guide, even though I am certain he could do it without an issue for the following reasons:
1. It picks up history where we left off, which makes both of us happy.
2. It works fine in WA to use Rev2rev as .5 credit of American history his 9th grade year and MTMM as the other .5 credit for 10th grade, then doing Geo in 11th and World history in 12th.
3. He loves the extension books and is going to want to read them, even though he won't be in the extension range if he uses the Geo guide in 9th, so if we use it a little later, he will be older and the extensions, which he wants to use, won't be as much of an increase in his work load (as he will be more mature and used to the heavier work load of high school by 11th grade).
4. Next year will be LOADED with extra activities as there are so many opportunities there. I know we don't have to do everything, but we want to let him get some cool life experiences, and so he will be involved in Sea Scouts (a division of boy scouts) and in Search and Rescue training, along with his usual piano and martial arts training. He will also be joining the high school youth group.
5. I like Carrie's choices for writing and worldview and logic, but....He is really interested in doing the One Year Adventure Novel curriculum next year, and he is taking a worldview class at the co-op. If we waited on the Geo guide, we could still use Carrie's choices at a later date. Also, we've already done The Fallacy Detective, but not the Art of Argument, so by waiting a couple of years, he could do the entire logic course as written and it wouldn't seem like a repeat. (I'm not worried about counting credits for things like fine arts and Bible....I just want him to do the courses and learn from them).
6. Science doesn't matter, as he has already used what's scheduled in the Geo guide, and will likely take science at co-op anyway.
7. The "lighter" load of Rev2Rev, with extensions, gives him a chance to get settled into all his activities and back into friendships and such, while still giving him room for the high school load of more demanding English, science, worldview, and math (which is a bit of a struggle. It may take us this year and next to get through algebra
).So, if you made it reading this far, thank you!
Anyone have any thoughts?