This Is My Guinea Pig…

Becky asked me to look over her high school plan for 9th grade, as she is trying to prepare her son for college, adding “This is my guinea pig…my first of 4 to go this far so I’d appreciate advice from those who have been here. “

Dear Becky,

Be brave!  Your plan sounds wonderful to me, but you know best – you really do!  Sonlight 100 is great, Apologia Biology is wonderful.  Reading and writing is critical, just be sure he is challenged but not
overwhelmed (it should be hard, but not impossible.) Teaching Textbooks Alg 1 is great – if it doesn’t work for him, try to find something that does.  Just a couple lessons into it, though, may be too early to tell.  It could be just some “rust” from the summer, you know?  Rosetta Stone Spanish sounds wonderful, too.  With foreign language, it’s important to make sure you do it every day for at least 15 minutes – probably more important than what curriculum you choose.

You asked me, “is it enough to have him just read. Should he be writing about what he has  read, or answering the questions in writing. If he is just reading  the  material is that enough for high school credit?”

I have written extensively about my failures in literary analysis, LOL!  I always WANTED to be good at it, but I never was.  Here is my series of blog posts, so you can read and decide for yourself:

This all sounds like a GREAT college prep plan.  I hesitate to sound like a commercial, but you DID put my name in the subject line, right?  LOL!  You seem to feel a little insecure, and you seem to want to prepare your son for college.  You may be a good fit for my 3 hour DVD on “Preparing to Homeschool High School.”  It can help you with a LOT of these questions you’re having.  I’ve heard that the video will also calm the nerves of husbands, too

Are you on my newsletter list?  Remember that you can call me once a week, during my free office hours, with little questions like these. No worries, you can do this, Becky!  And I’ll be glad to help in any way that I can.

If you need more help getting ready for high school, check out my “Preparing to Homeschool High School” DVD.  Nearly three hours of instruction on all of the key high school issues, including planning courses, assigning grades and credits, and preparing for college!

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