Looking ahead to high school, should my son skip a guide now?
My oldest two are combined in Preparing Hearts for His Glory (PHFHG). If I want my oldest to complete the four years of high school guides, then he has to skip a guide somewhere. My younger son could really be slowed down some. So, I was looking at bumping my oldest up to Resurrection to Reformation (RTR). Then, my younger son would do Creation to Christ (CTC). My oldest son is a strong reader, good writer, and very motivated.
The only concern is not having formal writing instruction. He does well with PHFHG’s creative writing – he loves it! But, I know it is not as much writing as CTC’s Write with the Best would be. Also, I am worried about splitting them up. I also have two younger kids. I am not sure if it will be too much. But, to be able to slow my second son down to stay on his level would be great. He needs some time to mature in his reading skills. So, what should I do? I know high school seems so far away, but I love Heart of Dakota (HOD)! We have used only HOD from the beginning.
Sincerely,
“Ms. Looking Ahead to High School, Should My Son Skip a Guide Now?”
Dear “Ms. Looking Ahead to High School, Should My Son Skip a Guide Now?”,
As we look toward high school, it is so easy to get worried that as parents we’re not going to cover everything that is needed or get through everything. However, I want to encourage you that it is possible to gain all the credits needed for graduation without actually completing all the HOD High School level guides. So, it isn’t necessary to skip a guide in order to prepare your child well. Families have used the upper levels of our Hearts for Him Through Time series of guides for high school already. So, there are ways to make that path work. We’d be glad to help you with that, if that path shows itself to be the best for your son.
The path through high school might look different for each child.
When looking at the important decision of which path to take with your kiddos, you may find it is different with each child. With this in mind, it is really necessary to take a good look at each child to see if the placement fits him/her well at this point in time. If your two kiddos are well placed together, then I wouldn’t look at jumping your oldest forward at this point in time. It sounds like he is thriving in his current placement from what you’ve shared so far.
I would recommend proceeding forward with him into CTC.
The jump from Preparing to RTR is absolutely a huge one. I would not recommend that type of a jump unless you are finding that your oldest is severely underchallenged in every way in Preparing. If not, I would recommend proceeding forward with him into CTC as planned. As you get closer to high school, you can evaluate again each year. The early years would be the time that would be much less likely to be a place to fast forward your child, as there are so many important skills being taught during that time.
You can slow down your second child if he needs that.
On the other hand, if you need to slow down your second child that can easily be accomplished once you get underway with CTC and see if he needs that. You could just slow him down to half speed and keep going full speed with your oldest. There is so much independence built in CTC and so many writing skills practiced that I wouldn’t want your oldest son to miss out on those! Jumping forward seems easy, but going back is very hard. So, we definitely don’t want to catapult a child into the deep end of the pool too quickly. It’s better to wade in more slowly!
Blessings,
Carrie
