CTT--Anyone still using it? Other History options?

[RhondaJK]

I am desperately looking for something different for History. Here's the background. We have tried STOW 4 with Activity guide and have made it to Chap 6. It is not working here. DD9 is not retaining or interested in it. I have looked at HO but feel it would not hold her interest either. Last year we were doing K12 for 3rd grade and it went much better but still was only tolerated. We have not done ancients or medieval.

 

In my search for something secular I found CTT. I did a search here on the boards and see that a few people have tried it. I like the "thinking for themselves" aspect and that it has a way to teach kids to do their own research and evaluate the truth of the information. I would really like to ease into DD being more self directed and taking more ownership of her learning.

 

On the downside, I am not sure about the not grading of work, but I do think she would write more if she did not have to worry about it being graded or evaluated for grammar or spelling. We would continue with FLL4 for grammar, Megawords for spelling, Math Mammoth, and our current Science and Latin. I am also using Writing Skills book 1. WWE2 is also on the shelf right now, she is able to narrate and do 2 sentence dictations but it moves so slowly that we are both bored with it. I loved the concept of writing across the curriculum and including Literature as part of history but it is not happening here.

 

I am really not interested in any of the other parts of CTT at this point, but only the history and possibly some of the elective courses for LS. I would like to see how she does with history before we add anything else.

 

For those who have used CTT: Are you still using it? Why or Why not? Is this a reasonable plan?

 

For those who have not used CTT:

Any feedback on other secular options for history?

 

Thanks,

Rhonda

[RhondaJK]

Anyone? :bigear:

[JenneinCA]

What is CTT?

[RhondaJK]

CTT is Connect The Thoughts.

http://www.connectthethoughts.net/lower.php, it's a different history program not classical but chronological. This level is for 9-10 year olds.

Edited January 12, 2011 by RhondaJK
spelling challenged

[foxbridgeacademy]

I would be interested in opinions of CTT

It looks very interesting.

[RhondaJK]

Bump one more time :tongue_smilie:

[CyndiLJ]

Rhonda, sorry you have had no responses to this thread. Our family has used CTT for about a year, and it is my kids' absolute favorite subject. We tried it out with the manners program, using it as more of a discussion guide so I could get a feel for it myself, then I decided I liked what I was seeing with it so picked up the history for elementary kids (7-8 year olds). This was far younger than my 5 kids ages of 8-12 years old, but I have English language learners in the group and felt this level was most appropriate. I did print out the lower school version for my then 10 year old, but he overheard what we were doing with the other 4 and asked to do it together, so he joined us so we all do the same thing.

 

Don't let the lower age level fool you, I know of no other curriculum that introduces such deep level thinking about philosophers, world religions, and big ideas in history. I am actually glad my one son bumped down to this level, as we are learning such key information and digesting it at such profound depth that it was perfect.

 

The writing component has been a super sneaky way of getting our kids to write tons and tons of material without having a clue it is actually writing!! hahaha! Totally fooled them! While they don't hate writing by any means, they would not give me this much at all if I asked them to sit down and write. But this curriculum is very different in that it truly seeks to have the student provide their opinions and perspectives, and everyone loves to give their opinion about a topic! As suggested, we do not correct it, and it has done wonders for their desire to write, therefore giving them a lot of practice without feeling cramped by being judged over it. I figure we have enough arenas in our HSing to work on correcting writing, but this has them practicing over and over again, and it has made a huge difference.

 

I have asked the kids about this now that we have used it for 6 months, and they all agree they only want to do CTT history all the way through HS, and I think that is a fabulous idea. It is well thought out, balanced and does the job quite well without being textbookish at all.

 

As for the religiously neutral piece, I am Christian but homeschool secularly. I am not bothered as some are by the mere mention of anything Christian, just as I would not be at the mere mention of other faith's components either. Proselytizing is another story, or presenting faith matters as fact is big no no for me. I find that CTT is extremely neutral and appears to have no religious or atheistic agenda either, instead presenting the world's religions from a reasonable perspective and using it as a necessary piece in the framework of understanding events in history. So much of what has happened in the past was motivated or driven by religious beliefs, and it is important that we all have some basis for understanding such things. The CTT author does an admirable job, and in fact the way the material is presented is perfect for us...not ignored completely as many secular programs do, nor passionately pushed towards Christianity as others do as well.

 

Hope this helps! Ask any other questions should you need to! :):)

 

Cindy

[sassenach]

I believe Peela used CTT. You might want to pm her, or do a search.

[Peela]

I am not longer homeschooling. But I liked CTT.

Its not very classical though :) It doesn't involve any memorisation at all- not even comprehension type questions. What it does ask for is discussions and your own perception of what you read about, and sometimes even to translate that into your own life. It brings it all back to you- which may well be the antithesis of classical, especially in those early years of grammar stage when classical encourages memorisation :) However I do believe CTT would still create those memory pegs, but in a different way- as long as the child was engaged. Any program the child is actively engaged with and enjoys is going to be better than one where they are not.

Not grading can be great for some kids and writing their opinion or perception rather than a narration can be great for others- like my son. We had spent years on narrations however, and continued them in other areas- but with CTT I allowed him to write what he wanted and just read it rather than graded it. It did encourage him to write freely.

He did get bored with it and found some of the questions meaningless for him. We only did the Upper Level courses however- and we didnt try it till the last year of our homeschooling where he was quite resistant overall anyway.

If I were to homeschool again..I would be torn between the methodology of CTT, which I did find huge benefit in, and the methodology of classical, which I also found huge benefit it. Yet they are quite different approaches.

I found I wanted to rewrite CTT myself and ask different questions at times. I even thought of using the CTT methodology and write an Australian History program, but include narrations as well :).

We however did love SOTW and went through that twice before starting CTT, so we were coming from a different place. I felt we had done plenty of history but I liked how CTT approached it- for us- it was refreshing.

[kristinannie]

Are these unit studies? Are there samples online? Do you do all 10 in a year or just pick and choose? Thanks!