Next year our children would be (if in public school) in grades 7 and 9.  We have decided that for their high school years our children will do Ambleside Online's Years 7-10.  AO is an advanced curriculum and they will have a better education just finishing Year 10 than either their father or I had when we graduated from public school.  We placed them in the appropriate Years this year based on where they were academically, what they could handle.  For this year our son is doing Year 4 and our daughter Year 6.  So, they are already lined up to do the Years in order and graduate after completing Year 10.  Which means for next year our 14-year-old daughter will be doing Year 7 and our 12-year-old son will be doing Year 5. 

Organization

For next year I have organized card files for both children.  I am wanting them to learn to work more independently - to learn on their own without having a teacher to stand over them.  Our daughter is usually very good at getting her work done on her own but our son has a tendency to dawdle. 

My daughter is currently working from a card file - I posted about that earlier - so she knows how to work with it.  My son has requested a card file rather than a binder for next year.  Since he has a tendency to "forget" some things and to dawdle, one of the cards that I have added to his card file is a "Meeting with Mom" card that will be done daily.  When he gets to that card at the end of the day he will be sitting down with me and going over everything he has completed during the day - showing his copywork, math assignment, turning in written narrations, etc.  This way I will know exactly what he has done before he goes off to play. 

I have created a checksheet for me to use during our meeting.  (I'll be doing this with my daughter as well since she will be working on more meaty subjects next year.)  I have the sheet set up so that I can use it for the whole week.  It's done as a chart with the books listed down the left side, divided by subject, and the days of the week across the top.  Then I have shaded the blocks for the days that each book is to be used.  Science is done every day so the entire row of blocks is shaded.  I require one composition (written narration) from him each week so there is only one block in that row shaded.  When we sit down for our meeting I can run down the column for that day and see quickly exactly what he was supposed to do for that day.  I have color-coded the checksheets - my daughter's has red blocks and my son's has blue - so that I don't get them mixed up.  I'll put these in page protectors and use these sheets all year.  I won't be writing individual assignments on them because those are listed on the cards. 

I also have a checksheet for the subjects that we do together so I don't leave anything out.  We do things like Shakespeare, Plutarch, Nature study, Artist, Composer, Art, and Latin together as a family.  I have the shaded blocks on this sheet as well so I know which things I want to cover that day - which helps me to not repeat the same thing or leave anything out during the week. 

Reading

We always do a read-aloud together as well.  I expect to choose one book for each child that I will read with that child.  I haven't chosen those since I intend to do the book with which they are having the most difficulty.  I'm also planning to choose one book from their additional reading lists to read-aloud to both children during our together time (called General School Meeting in our house). 

I am also assigning them to read a certain number of books from the additional list each term this year.  I want to encourage my son, especially, to read more difficult books.  He tends to choose easy books that he can easily read in 30 minutes.  I'm hoping to encourage him to read longer books that he can't read in one day. 

Everyone in our home sits down with a book to read for 30 minutes at 9:00PM.  This started out as being a time of sitting and cuddling while reading bedtime stories and has evolved into everyone reading for a while right before the children go to bed.  We continued it after they were "too big" for bedtime stories as a way to help them wind down before going to bed and it's now something we all look forward to. 

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