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Accelerating Into High School
by Shirley M.R.Minster
Each spring (and summer) parents and students make plans for the next homeschool year. One consideration is if a child should bypass eighth grade and move right into high school in the fall. Recently one parent told me that she heard that junior high is pretty much a review of all the elementary years and teaching eighth grade is not necessary. My experience has been that skipping this grade is often a mistake because children need time to mature mentally and emotionally and this grade gives them time to rest, grow, and play. Once they reach high school, courses become more difficult, the program tends to become more tightly structured, and careers and the future are more seriously considered. It is a tremendous responsibility for both the parents and the children to determine when to start high school because of these concerns.
Summertime and the Living is Easy... or is it?
by Jane Boswell
Summertime presents us with so many fun opportunities, almost too many to consider. Vacation. Relaxation. No schedules. No deadlines. The outdoors beckon... yummy backyard barbeques, family picnics, long, sun-drenched beach days, the anticipated camping/fishing/hiking trip... playing, playing, playing and sometimes... ohhh.a... just sitting, doing nothing but basking in the warm sunshine and breathing the flower-fragranced air and sipping a tall iced tea. Yes, summertime, and the living is easy, or is it?. Well, itâs just too bad we canât take a vacation from that suppressed, perfectionistic housekeeper inside each one of us.
