Highschool outloud

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  • Amandagwa
    Participant

    What if….

    What if I just read the 7-9 grade book suggestions to my 14 yr old, 8th grader(and younger siblings who are sitting in)? What if I do this for 9th grade too? Is it really that big of a deal?

    She reads all the time and has a variety of interests, but history for the most part is NOT part of that. We’re doing module 6 now and all of the books so far that I would have assigned to her  have been books that she has flat out said, “no, i’m not reading that”. ( Yes, I understand this is a heart issue, and a habit training issue. We’re 6 yrs in to the CM method and I’ve done all I can along the way to help with the habit and heart. I’ve clearly failed, so please don’t come down on me for the habit issue. 😉 She just doesn’t like school)  The book The Yanks are coming, for example,..there’s no way I could assign that to her and expect her to read it herself. It’s not above level by any means, its just super long chapters, even for me, and I know she would get behind, not retain the info because she doesn’t care, (there’s no value in it for her) and it would create an atmosphere of hostility as we would be fighting over me forcing her to read.

    I don’t want to short change her, but I also don’t need to add another thing to fuss/fight over. I’m super worried about how to do high school, middle school and elementary school next year. Mostly high school. I’m even considering a change of curriculum. We’ve been through all 6 history modules and I can’t quite figure out how to continue with the SCM modules with a 9th, 7th, and 1st-ish /2nd ish(not sure what grade she’s in,LOL)

    So, HELP! Is it totally wrong to read the history books out loud for her next year?  Any suggestions on how the heck to not fail her through highshool and/or get her to take more responsibility on the subjects she doesn’t want to do? *If it matters, her goal is to own her own bakery. So, college might be culinary school, but probably not University or anything beyond local CC.

    Monica
    Participant

    My 14YO is the same way about history.  He has always hated it.  I’ve done a couple of things that work for him.

    -make heavy use of audio books that he can listen to while he’s doing something else (riding in the car, tidying his room, folding his laundry, etc.)
    -use interesting documentaries to supplement his understanding of history (America:  The Story of Us is on the calendar for this year, and occasional YouTube videos or documentaries I come across.  Today we watched two brief videos about Henry Ford.)
    -find history books related to subjects he is interested in (in his case, any history related to science)

    I will occasionally read a living history book aloud for my three kids still schooling, but I can’t (and won’t) do all of it.  He needs to have some responsibility for his own education.

    Tristan
    Participant

    If she doesn’t like the books, choose different ones for the same topics/time periods.
    Or let her choose her history topics.
    I think it is totally normal for high school homeschoolers to want more input in what they are studying! My oldest (graduated last year) was the same. Now, if I assigned a book, she read it. But what I did that helped remove the enmity is simple. I gathered book descriptions and had her choose which ones to read.

    I did the same this year for my 9th grader. He asked to step away from the family history studies to focus on the history of science/scientists/discoveries/inventions from Einstein to the present. I gathered a booklist, added descriptions and topic, and put them in roughly chronological order. I even put down how many pages long each book was, and if there was the possibility of an audio book for it. I took requests for topics/events/people when I set out to make this list. Then we sat down over the summer and he chose a certain number of books. He had to select more than one topic to fill the year, and he could not do all audio books, but I was okay with up to 50% audio books if he wanted it.

    He chose his list, I gathered them, and he has been working through them steadily this year, narrating as he goes. He is fascinated. I’m not. But I love his narrations, and the discussions and questions he brings up about the topics.

    At the same time, I have 8 other kids at home and the school age ones (6 kids) all are together in a family history study. We enjoy it.

    Next year I’ll have two high schoolers. They each get to choose if they stay with the family for history or if they choose their own studies. That’s the perk of high school here, they have a lot more input. We were just talking today about what their language art plan was for next year. I gave them options a few weeks ago to browse, and asked for decisions today.

    art
    Participant

    First of all, there is no wrong. You get to choose. I have always read aloud to my kids all the way through high school. And as adults, when they’ve been around during my reading, they’ve still loved it. They’re always reading a book they choose and usually another one I have them read in addition to the one or two (or three) I’m reading aloud. As far as responsibility, sometimes my kids work more willingly when I do the same work (or a group project) along side them like I’m one of them. Because, really I am.

    Tristan
    Participant

    Yes, I still read aloud to my high schoolers as well. BUT not all their books, or even 1/4th. We have family read alouds, besides our daily scripture study together. So far for the 2019 school year our family read alouds have been:

    ·         Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls

    ·         Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat

    ·         Beauty by Robin McKinley

    ·         The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling

    ·         Archimedes and the Door of Science by

    ·         The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis

    ·         Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

    I have also read aloud other books to groups of my kids, but not the whole group including high schooler.

     

     

    Amandagwa
    Participant

    Thank you for all your responses!

    I am not reading all of her school outloud to her, just the books from the History modules. I read all the history books for the benefit of all. Then we have a family literature read aloud. My 14 yrold has her own independent reads, plus reads her science and language arts and whatever else she’s doing.

    She always gets some say in what we are learning and since she’ll be highschool level next year, I may have her do a different program on her own . I’m currently looking heavily at Masterbooks history curriculum. She’s doing a Masterbooks science this year and loves it.  Any experience or opinions on Masterbooks history?

    She currently is very interested in learning about the Holocaust and is angry that we aren’t learning only about that for the year! LOL  Any suggestions on how to study the Holocaust for a full year??

    retrofam
    Participant

    Do you mean the junior high one, The World’s Story? We like that one.

    Amandagwa
    Participant

    I mean any of them I guess. I’ve looked a bit at the Stobaughs stuff and i’m not sure it would be a good fit for us. The reading looks very..um..dry maybe? I know my upcoming 9th grader wouldn’t like them based on the way they are written and the way the questions look.

    What did you like about the Jr High The worlds story?

    retrofam
    Participant

    <p style=”text-align: left;”>We like the writing style of the spine. I add Diana Waring audios, a timeline, and other books. Some are SCM history guide titles.</p>

    missceegee
    Participant

    I have not been on the forum in a really, really long time, but popped on for a minute. My ds16 was schooled very CM K-6/7 grades. He finally got brave and asked for textbooks for history. He simply does not enjoy reading at all on any topic. He will tolerate audiobooks to a point. He takes all of his classes online now and most are not CM in nature, but it works for his learning style. He has used Mystery of History books successfully as well as another which escapes me at the moment. I just found https://www.wildworldofhistory.com/ and even though he has already taken American history, we’re going to use the American History videos as a family. If I like it, we may try other courses from there.  I “think” this will appeal to him.

    All that to say, I’ve four kids – dd19 (junior in college), ds16 (10th), dd12 (7th), ds10 (4th) – and while ideologically, I am almost pure CM I have accepted that not all of my kids learn best the CM way. Ds16 is just a checklist and get it done kid so he can go play ball and that’s ok. Do what works for your kid and family and know that it is really ok.

     

    elsnow6
    Participant

    Hi Amandagwa!

    I came searching the forum for “highschool” and am wondering what you wound up doing for your 9th grader. How is it going?

    I had a whole plan that I gradually implemented over a couple months, and it hasn’t gone horribly, but I feel there is something not working as well as it could. My daughter enjoys reading what she enjoys reading and will basically do anything to avoid reading what she doesn’t like. She loves for me to read aloud and enjoys many audiobooks. What you describe of your daughter sounds very similar to mine, so that’s why I’m specifically wondering what you’ve done and how it is going.

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