Jack is wrapping up the tenth grade, which means that we’re entering the window of “make it or break it” for pumping up test scores, curating the perfect transcript, and impressing admissions officers.
So what are we doing to ensure that Jack has the best possible chance at those scholarship dollars? How are we giving him the edge that will translate into more bang for his buck in the college entrance race?
Truthfully?
The same thing we’ve been doing.
Jack will be continuing with Sonlight next year. Not Sonlight and (fill in the blank) … just Sonlight.
Unlike most curriculum for high school, Sonlight doesn’t really need tinkering, in my opinion. As a matter of fact, the only “supplement” we’re utilizing this year is a French tutor. And that’s not because Sonlight doesn’t offer foreign language options, but because I have the absolute best French teacher out there living under my roof and willing to teach Jack for free (i.e., Mary Hannah).
We’ve been more than pleased with the year Jack has spent studying the All-Subjects Package 200. It’s given him ample opportunity to dive into Church History, stretch his vocabulary, read great literature, fine tune his writing skills, progress with calculus (the customization option is awesome!), and mature as a student. He spends his days reading, discussing topics with us, writing, researching rabbit trails he discovers in his work, and playing with math and science. In his free time—which he still has, by the way— he has become an incredible carpenter and continued to progress in Civil Air Patrol. We’ve been confident that he’s doing well without the need for adding anything extra.
Proof of that conviction has already begun trickling in. Yesterday afternoon, the results of the CLtT10 he recently took came in and confirmed that Jack is doing well by any measure. If we needed a sign that we were on the right path, his score did the job beautifully.
So we’ll just keep moving forward, enjoying a stress-free education, spending quality family time together, and not wearing ourselves out second-guessing whether we’re checking off all the right boxes. I’m more than happy to let the curriculum do the heavy lifting and rest in the two short years we have left of Jack’s high school career.
