HOD CTC users

[MrsMe]

We found Preparing to be extremely full and having a hard time completing it. I hear from some that CTC is the same. Just really full. And frankly I have to say I get tired :) of people saying go at your own pace, but at this rate, we'll be behind for the rest of our lives and dd will graduate hs as an adult. And honestly she likes to chit chat and discuss and I don't want to stifle that.

 

If we were to pick and choose between using a Storytime book and Independent History Study, would we still get a lot out of the program? Would we miss anything vital?

 

As far as Preparing, I'm guessing we wouldn't, but the frustration of always being behind is stressfull. And frankly I'm not sure about needing to use ALL of that. I do know that the economy package doesn't include the History Read Alouds anyway. What are your thoughts on picking and choosing IHS vs Storytime? There's some books I know dd just won't like, so I also thought this way is a good way to keep things more lively.

 

What do you think?

[Alison in KY]

I don't think that will matter. I have my son read the storytime books to himself though..we picked the boy interest set instead of the history. Some of the Independent History will have you writing in the CTC notebook...so there will be blanks if you skip it.

 

Honestly, we only read through the poem...we haven't done any of the painting, or history projects. I didn't like the Genesis book...so we're skipping that part also.

 

My son complains that the Reading About History and Bible selections are so repetitive. They seem to be the same stories all the time, so in a way, you might be able to skip one. I know it bothers my son, but I've still had him doing it. You could probably skip the Bible quiet time and just have your child read some from a Bible at their level...then do the history so it wont' double up so much. Now that I think about it, I might have him stick to regular Bible reading and skip that quiet time.

 

What we DO is the reading about history, independent history, boy interest set books, Bible quiet time, and science (but not the experiments). Then he reads the poem a few times a week. I usually try to do the geography with him also, although I'm greatly behind right now. We do our own math, do not do DITHOR, and I dropped the Write With the Best...for now. I found that I really like using Rod and Staff English, but I didn't like using it half paced, I'd rather do a lesson a day.

 

I know we've cut out quite a bit. I tried everything full schedule for the first few weeks, but our days were going so long and I was just getting to stressed about it. I still don't know how others do it :confused:.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Alison

[Once]

Honestly, we only read through the poem...we haven't done any of the painting, or history projects. I didn't like the Genesis book...so we're skipping that part also.

 

My son complains that the Reading About History and Bible selections are so repetitive. They seem to be the same stories all the time, so in a way, you might be able to skip one. I know it bothers my son, but I've still had him doing it. You could probably skip the Bible quiet time and just have your child read some from a Bible at their level...then do the history so it wont' double up so much. Now that I think about it, I might have him stick to regular Bible reading and skip that quiet time.

 

What we DO is the reading about history, independent history, boy interest set books, Bible quiet time, and science (but not the experiments). Then he reads the poem a few times a week. I usually try to do the geography with him also, although I'm greatly behind right now. We do our own math, do not do DITHOR, and I dropped the Write With the Best...for now. I found that I really like using Rod and Staff English, but I didn't like using it half paced, I'd rather do a lesson a day.

 

I know we've cut out quite a bit. I tried everything full schedule for the first few weeks, but our days were going so long and I was just getting to stressed about it. I still don't know how others do it :confused:.

Alison

 

 

I could have written this word for word. However, I do add in IEW writing for the 5-8 sentence writing assignment.

 

Our Geography will be done this summer as fun school work.

The poetry maybe done then as well.

 

I do like the R&S at the slow pace, but I am not fond of it anyway so doing it slower is OK with me.

 

CTC is full!! People may not realize it until they actually try to get their child to actually do it all in one day. It is a smorgasboard to pick and choose from. Have fun working out what fits for you! Only you know what your son will enjoy and what is most important for you.

[Tree House Academy]

Are you using Preparing with extensions? How old is your dd?

 

My ds is 11 and this is his first year truly using HOD as written. We are finishing Unit 27 of CTC this week and I have to say that, while it is full and meaty, I have never thought it was "too much" for him at all. This morning, he started school at 7am (his choice) and was finished by 11am with everything including the read alouds and Geog which I had to do with him today.

 

To be honest with you, I can't imagine skipping the story time in CTC. We used what Carrie suggested as History Read alouds and couldn't be happier. They are such GREAT books and my ds has loved every.single.one of them.

 

Independent History Study is not difficult and usually involves listening to a CD or writing in the Student Pages. It takes my son about 15 minutes to complete the box.

 

Poetry is so much fun and not something I would postpone if your child likes to do art. My son loves and looks forward to each time he gets to paint in poetry.

 

CTC is full, but really isn't overly time consuming. My ds is not a genius or anything, and I do require excellent work from him with complete sentences and neat writing, and he still finishes his day in 4.5 to 5.5 hours. We even add in French and DITHR!

 

Have you considered asking at the HOD board and seeing maybe what is going wrong in Preparing that you are not able to get it all done? Are you reading everything to your child? Is she pretty independent with the guide? (to answer those same ques for my son - he is 100% independent in all reading that is supposed to be done by him and I only read storytime, genesis, and geog. to him - which is the way Carrie meant for you to use those books in CTC. Other then occasionally having to go over English with him or read something to him in WWTB, I do very little. Now, French is another story, but that is not part of HOD.

[Tree House Academy]

Hey Alison, I remember you. :) You said you do not know how others do it and I wanted to make a few comments to what you said just to see if it helps at all. It may not. It may just be something to ignore and that is okay too. I just thought I would try to help (if it does, in fact, help).

 

we picked the boy interest set instead of the history.

 

If your ds likes history and wants the stories to change the repetitive nature of the other things, give one of the History selections a try. We have enjoyed these so much this year. They have truly been a highlight of the program for us!

 

Honestly, we only read through the poem...we haven't done any of the painting, or history projects. I didn't like the Genesis book...so we're skipping that part also.

 

I occasionally skip the assignment in Genesis (not often, though...mostly the "make your own map" stuff). However, I am so sad to hear that you skip the poetry and the fun history projects. I really urge you to pick a week that is slow and give them a try if you haven't. A great week for the history project is Unit 26 (if you aren't past there). It was a Roman meal and we had a blast! You can see my pics at the HOD board in the week section. We did it last week. The poetry - I would do the same. Just try one week of doing the guide truly as it was written. I think you will find that your ds thinks it is much less boring and repetitive and much more full and interesting. :)

 

My son complains that the Reading About History and Bible selections are so repetitive. .... I might have him stick to regular Bible reading and skip that quiet time.

 

You are right - the Bible stories do sometimes overlap the history stories. Sometimes there are slight differences in the way they are told. Other times, they are a re-telling. My ds hasn't complained about this except maybe once.

 

The Bible Quiet time is something we cherish here. Ds spends that time highlighting in his own Bible and then has prayer time by himself with the Lord. I just think there is nothing better than that!

 

What we DO is the reading about history, independent history, boy interest set books, Bible quiet time, and science (but not the experiments).

 

OH man! The experiments are THE BEST! We did the one on blood clotting last week and it was just too cool. Sometimes, if the experiments are something we have already done, I will just have ds fill out his lab sheet...but most of the time he will do the experiment just because he gets to do it independently.

 

I usually try to do the geography with him also, although I'm greatly behind right now. We aren't behind, but I would say, out of the entire guide, Geog is probably our least favorite. So.much.reading. LOL But only twice a week, so we have managed to deal with it. Ds usually complains when he has to read geog, but when we start into it, he has all sorts of questions and comments. Go figure!

 

..do not do DITHOR, and I dropped the Write With the Best...for now. I found that I really like using Rod and Staff English, but I didn't like using it half paced, I'd rather do a lesson a day.

 

How long did you try WWTB? I have a degree in English and I truly thought I was going to drop it after the first "underline all the verbs in red, all the adverbs in green..." assignment. The girls at the board encouraged me to stick with it and I have to say, it has been such a great program for ds! He just finished his Folk Tale last week and did a wonderful job.

 

Are you doing a reading other than DITHR? Did you know that your ds could use his storytime books that you are having him read on his own and do DITHR with them too? The genres match up. The pacing would be a little off, but at least it would kill two birds with one stone and your ds would be able to get some kind of reading program in. :) I tried the level 4/5 DITHR last year and didn't love it (lots of teacher help needed to get in the groove) but this year with level 6/7/8, ds is almost 100% independent and he has done GREAT! DITHR is only scheduled 3 times a week, so that helps too.

 

I know we've cut out quite a bit. I tried everything full schedule for the first few weeks, but our days were going so long and I was just getting to stressed about it. I still don't know how others do it :confused:.

 

It took my ds a month to really get in the swing, but they eventually do with a consistent schedule. My ds' biggest challenge was learning how to read the guide and get everything done that the box told him to do. Once he learned the rhythm of the guide and the fact that they do the same thing every week, work-wise, things started to go much faster. Even after Christmas break, it took him about 2-3 weeks to get back in the swing. But, like I said, now he does ALL of the guide, omitting NOTHING, in around 4.5 - 5.5 hours a day.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Alison

 

I hope this helps some, Alison. I know you have really had a rough go this year. Even if just one thing helps, then it was worth it for me to type all that out. :grouphug:

[Once]

Are you using Preparing with extensions? How old is your dd? DD is 11 years old and doing CTC with extension.

 

My ds is 11 and this is his first year truly using HOD as written. We are finishing Unit 27 of CTC this week and I have to say that, while it is full and meaty, I have never thought it was "too much" for him at all. This morning, he started school at 7am (his choice) and was finished by 11am with everything including the read alouds and Geog which I had to do with him today.

 

To be honest with you, I can't imagine skipping the story time in CTC. We used what Carrie suggested as History Read alouds and couldn't be happier. They are such GREAT books and my ds has loved every.single.one of them. We do the story time. Both History and Extension. Just do not do the DITHOR questions and worksheets.

 

Independent History Study is not difficult and usually involves listening to a CD or writing in the Student Pages. It takes my son about 15 minutes to complete the box.

 

Poetry is so much fun and not something I would postpone if your child likes to do art. My son loves and looks forward to each time he gets to paint in poetry.

 

CTC is full, but really isn't overly time consuming. My ds is not a genius or anything, and I do require excellent work from him with complete sentences and neat writing, and he still finishes his day in 4.5 to 5.5 hours. We even add in French and DITHR! I added in Word Roots for Latin.

 

Have you considered asking at the HOD board and seeing maybe what is going wrong in Preparing that you are not able to get it all done? Are you reading everything to your child? Is she pretty independent with the guide? (to answer those same ques for my son - he is 100% independent in all reading that is supposed to be done by him and I only read storytime, genesis, and geog. to him - which is the way Carrie meant for you to use those books in CTC. Other then occasionally having to go over English with him or read something to him in WWTB, I do very little. Now, French is another story, but that is not part of HOD.

 

Not sure if you were asking the OP or me so I answered. Do you think that is enough for a 11 year old? Now am feeling unsure, again.

 

We are doing VP with my son and DD sits in on the reading. We are doing (causually) Mapping the World by Heart.....which we love. We are only a little behind on Geography in HOD.

[Tree House Academy]

Not sure if you were asking the OP or me so I answered. Do you think that is enough for a 11 year old? Now am feeling unsure, again.

 

We are doing VP with my son and DD sits in on the reading. We are doing (causually) Mapping the World by Heart.....which we love. We are only a little behind on Geography in HOD.

 

I was asking the OP, but I will be glad to help you too, if I can. :)

 

I think you are doing too much. When my ds started CTC, I went to the board and asked the ladies there about the extensions. They said that, at 11, extensions were NOT necessary (even though he is in 6th grade). I went with that advice and did not use them. I bet if you allowed yourself to cut the extensions and use the guide as written for a week or so, you would see a BIG difference. Those extensions REALLY extend it and the child needs to be a pretty voracious reader to really enjoy those. I would not use extensions unless you absolutely HAVE to...as in the case of placing say, a much older child in Bigger with a sibling. For a child that places so closely to the age recommendation for the guide, I would only add extensions if he/she were not being challenged enough in the regular, daily work.

 

I hope this helps!

[Once]

I was asking the OP, but I will be glad to help you too, if I can. :)

 

I think you are doing too much. When my ds started CTC, I went to the board and asked the ladies there about the extensions. They said that, at 11, extensions were NOT necessary (even though he is in 6th grade). I went with that advice and did not use them. I bet if you allowed yourself to cut the extensions and use the guide as written for a week or so, you would see a BIG difference. Those extensions REALLY extend it and the child needs to be a pretty voracious reader to really enjoy those.

 

 

Thank you, that does help. I am in a perpertual state of imbalance. First I think I have it covered. Then I do not. The Extension can have some pretty mature themes in the books.....I am thinking of war mostly.

 

My dd is finishing 6th but she is still 11yrs old. She works the journaling well on her own but when I read the Extension books out loud to her she is not interacting much with the content (she hears it but does not work with it). We selectively leave out some of the Science, Bible, Geography and the Poetry. I intend to get back to the Geography though. :blushing:

 

I really have enjoyed seeing her bloom with the independence!!! That has been worth every cent to me.

[Tree House Academy]

I have seen a lot of growth in my ds as well this year. :) I would really encourage you to do a week with everything that is scheduled and leaving off the extensions and see if that changes anything for you. Maybe even give it two weeks. My son is the exact same age as your dd (turning 12 Aug. 5 and finishing 6th grade) and I truly can't even imagine adding the extensions with him. The extensions are meant for the child to read on their own too...and if she isn't doing that, then they probably aren't doing her much good anyway.

 

Good luck! And let me know how things go if you decide to give it a try. I will be in prayer that you can find peace with whatever decision you make. :)

[Alison in KY]

Hi again Rebecca, and thank you so much. We did everything as written until around week 6. That's when I dropped quite a bit. Well, come to think of it, we only did about 3 of the art projects.

 

Oddly enough, I've gotten over my frustration and I am enjoyed our school so much more now. Before, I was so busy cracking the whip and keeping my son going from one box to the other...now it's like a breath of fresh air. I have no idea how your child is able to do it all in 4 hours...wow. Now my son can do the BQT, RAH, IH, and science easy enough...but not the other. He's not really motivated to jump in there and get things done. He also likes to take his time on the reading, which is ok, I want him to enjoy reading.

 

One thing I have really liked about HOD are the book selections from the readers. We've been very happy with the boy interest set. I thought about the history readers, but he's a very vivid kid and intense stories tend to bother him, so I thought I'd leave those alone.

 

I can't tell you what one thing makes HOD go so long for us, but I know that I've always felt like it was really meaty. Now that I think about it, if I had one child doing school..then we could probably come close to being done in 4 hours...although the history projects would not be liked by my son. But it's a matter of also schooling my other two and devoting one on one time to each of them.

 

Thank you so much for caring! I just got to where I felt like I was on him all the time (no time, patience, or fun) and that I also was so busy trying to get him to move on to the next thing that I didn't have time to calmly talk to him about what he'd just read or what he was doing. Now things are much more relaxed. I am so much more at peace than I was the first half of the year. It just took dropping and re-arranging to get there.

 

I thought I'd stick with HOD from here on out, but I'm not so sure. I really love having my kids study together on history...so I don't know what I'll end up doing.

 

Thank you again!

 

Alison

[MrsMe]

Are you using Preparing with extensions? How old is your dd?

 

My ds is 11 and this is his first year truly using HOD as written. We are finishing Unit 27 of CTC this week and I have to say that, while it is full and meaty, I have never thought it was "too much" for him at all. This morning, he started school at 7am (his choice) and was finished by 11am with everything including the read alouds and Geog which I had to do with him today.

 

To be honest with you, I can't imagine skipping the story time in CTC. We used what Carrie suggested as History Read alouds and couldn't be happier. They are such GREAT books and my ds has loved every.single.one of them.

 

Independent History Study is not difficult and usually involves listening to a CD or writing in the Student Pages. It takes my son about 15 minutes to complete the box.

 

Poetry is so much fun and not something I would postpone if your child likes to do art. My son loves and looks forward to each time he gets to paint in poetry.

 

CTC is full, but really isn't overly time consuming. My ds is not a genius or anything, and I do require excellent work from him with complete sentences and neat writing, and he still finishes his day in 4.5 to 5.5 hours. We even add in French and DITHR!

 

Have you considered asking at the HOD board and seeing maybe what is going wrong in Preparing that you are not able to get it all done? Are you reading everything to your child? Is she pretty independent with the guide? (to answer those same ques for my son - he is 100% independent in all reading that is supposed to be done by him and I only read storytime, genesis, and geog. to him - which is the way Carrie meant for you to use those books in CTC. Other then occasionally having to go over English with him or read something to him in WWTB, I do very little. Now, French is another story, but that is not part of HOD.

 

I was doing Preparing with a 10 yr old; late June b-day. We too didn't like the repetition of the Bible and the History, so I too would skip the Bible portion. If I did CTC, then I'd may do that and the verse or the verse and Quiet time. But I'd do that first, then see how the history readings tie into it.

 

We could never finish storytime. Tirzah at week 10 or so early on we just couldn't finish. 2 Chapters a day and we were already doing storytime in the evening. I also didn't want to hand her the book as it was somewhat complicated and hard to read with the print and all. If I knew she liked the book she could read them on her own, but I know Storytime is set up for the parent to read and with Tirzah, I see why. She liked OSS books and liked the Dinosaur and Ice Age, in fact read them several times later. But with the Storytime, they tend to be more complicated so I don't hand them to her.

 

We use other Math, Reading and LA. So that adds time. I didn't use/buy all the extensions, but I knew dd would love the Draw & Write Through History and she did. We did all the projects and all the experiments. Poetry if I liked the poem and knew she would we'd read it and do the art element from it.

 

It would be perfect for 5 day. It's 5 days crammed into 4 IMO. I really needed a 4 day as this year was the first year of co-op, which we will not continue. But it just added to the stress load.

 

We dropped it for MFW ECC because next year's choice would be ancients anyway and I just couldn't deal with the work load anymore. However, ECC while enjoyable, really is for encompassing other ages and we find that is a detrement to us, because we don't need to. But it seems light and seems too advanced all at once, and we miss the easier experiments and artsy stuff from HOD. I just worry if I go with CTC that we'll be frustrated because it's so full.

Edited March 23, 2011 by alilac

[MrsMe]

Thank you, that does help. I am in a perpertual state of imbalance. First I think I have it covered. Then I do not.

 

:iagree: I have NO IDEA where to go next year.:001_huh: Perhaps I should have dd look at it with me and have her choose the books.

Edited March 23, 2011 by alilac

[abrightmom]

:glare: This thread is NOT helping my HOD decision . . . but it does help to read real life stories about it.

:001_smile: HOD is a beautiful program;rich;full;literature rich. But we are facing some of the same challenges here... I going to keep :bigear:.

[MrsMe]

Alison....thank you for your posts. They helped me too!:001_smile:

[Alison in KY]

Glad to hear it. Like you, I don't know which way to go. I do think HOD is a great curriculum, but it's just a bit much for me. Now I can keep tweaking, or find something that will work better. The only thing I can figure out is HOD, MFW, MOH, or maybe just listening to Diana Waring and reading some great historical fiction and non-fiction.

[birchbark]

If we were to pick and choose between using a Storytime book and Independent History Study, would we still get a lot out of the program? Would we miss anything vital?

 

 

No, you wouldn't miss anything vital, but you would miss some fun stuff, such as Diana Waring's audios and Draw and Write Through History.

 

We are doing CTC and if I were advising someone on how to cut down the day I would suggest dropping the Geography/Bible Study Box and SOME of the Independent history. I also let my son decide if he wants to do the history projects. I figure that is supposed to be a "fun" box and if he's not having fun, then it's really not important. He chooses to do it maybe half the time. Storytime could also be done on the side as free reading, however you'd be missing out on a bit of narrating.

 

We do not do DITHOR or Bible Study, but otherwise complete the guide as written. It takes about 3 1/2 hrs. It took us a LOT longer than that when we first started, but then it quickly got better as DS got into the groove.

 

One thing I am wondering is if your DD is placed ideally. In addition to having a hard time getting it all done, you mentioned the storytime books being complicated for her. HoD is very rich and you are not losing ground to back up a level, esp since you can do math and grammar at your own level. Or you could just wait a year before attempting CTC.

[MrsMe]

No, you wouldn't miss anything vital, but you would miss some fun stuff, such as Diana Waring's audios and Draw and Write Through History.

 

We are doing CTC and if I were advising someone on how to cut down the day I would suggest dropping the Geography/Bible Study Box and SOME of the Independent history. I also let my son decide if he wants to do the history projects. I figure that is supposed to be a "fun" box and if he's not having fun, then it's really not important. He chooses to do it maybe half the time. Storytime could also be done on the side as free reading, however you'd be missing out on a bit of narrating.

 

We do not do DITHOR or Bible Study, but otherwise complete the guide as written. It takes about 3 1/2 hrs. It took us a LOT longer than that when we first started, but then it quickly got better as DS got into the groove.

 

One thing I am wondering is if your DD is placed ideally. In addition to having a hard time getting it all done, you mentioned the storytime books being complicated for her. HoD is very rich and you are not losing ground to back up a level, esp since you can do math and grammar at your own level. Or you could just wait a year before attempting CTC.

 

DD is placed correctly. She didn't have a problem doing any part of the program. Just duration. Some storytime books were too complicated in a way that I knew she wouldn't pick it up on her own. Tirzah; small print, strange book, too much for a day. Good book, but not something I'd hand over and expect her to complete it. We already did Bigger & Beyond without issue as well. I can't imagine doing it in 3-1/2 hours though. I think as far as narration, there's plenty in the History and Science. Some just seems overkill to me!

 

I see some don't like the Geography. No doubt we could drop that and the vocabulary as we do that with our Reading program. But reading 2 chapters a day in addition to the rest of the program seem also like overkill. Mmmm.

[birchbark]

She didn't have a problem doing any part of the program. Just duration.

 

I see some don't like the Geography.

 

Is there too much writing for her? Is it taking a long time to complete the assignments? When we started our year and it was taking DS so long to finish the day, I would frequently cut down on the length of the writing. For instance, if three verses were assigned for copywork, I would only have him do one. Instead of five sentences in his narration, I only required three. Then as he got into the swing of it and sped up, I added more until he was doing everything assigned.

 

And for the record, since I mentioned dropping the geography, it was not because we don't like it. It is another delightful HoD pick. I just think that the program can stand very well on its own without the Geography. It doesn't particularly tie in most of the time and there is some mapwork already included in the the history assignments. Another way to speed up your day is to make Geography an independent reading, and just have the student narrate.

 

CTC does make a full day, and when we first started it, I often had the feeling that there was just one box too many! Esp since they sometimes seemed redundant. But as I said, DS sped up, then we dropped the Bible Study and an occasional history project, and found those tweaks were what made the program right for us. DS really didn't complain about redundancy, it seemed to bother me more. :001_smile: But I have found that hearing the same story from the Bible, from a book, from an audio, has really reinforced what he is learning. I am finding a lot more retention with HoD than we had with other programs.

[MrsMe]

Is there too much writing for her? Is it taking a long time to complete the assignments? When we started our year and it was taking DS so long to finish the day, I would frequently cut down on the length of the writing. For instance, if three verses were assigned for copywork, I would only have him do one. Instead of five sentences in his narration, I only required three. Then as he got into the swing of it and sped up, I added more until he was doing everything assigned.

 

And for the record, since I mentioned dropping the geography, it was not because we don't like it. It is another delightful HoD pick. I just think that the program can stand very well on its own without the Geography. It doesn't particularly tie in most of the time and there is some mapwork already included in the the history assignments. Another way to speed up your day is to make Geography an independent reading, and just have the student narrate.

 

CTC does make a full day, and when we first started it, I often had the feeling that there was just one box too many! Esp since they sometimes seemed redundant. But as I said, DS sped up, then we dropped the Bible Study and an occasional history project, and found those tweaks were what made the program right for us. DS really didn't complain about redundancy, it seemed to bother me more. :001_smile: But I have found that hearing the same story from the Bible, from a book, from an audio, has really reinforced what he is learning. I am finding a lot more retention with HoD than we had with other programs.

 

Thanks. That could be it. She takes a while to write. I think HOD caters to all learning styles and she covers them all. I do know that if I compare it to MFW, that there's less writing, so we could really just pick and choose. I know the science she'd rather just answer the questions than do it on paper. I certainly wouldn't drop the fun stuff, but only things that were redundant. I just didn't want to drop something that was sneakily way cool, then I'd be going, "huh?" because we missed it.

 

But you were very helpful. Thanks.

[thood]

This post has been very helpful to read thru. This was our first year HS and our first year with HOD. We have been doing bigger with our ds 8 and dd 9. I see the extensions and wonder, when does one use them? Do they use the guide a second year and add extensions to it? I am thinking of doing Preparing for DS this coming fall and Creation for DD- we have not really used the extensions, and not sure how or if the curriculum is meant to be used two years in a row. I just love reading all the info here and on the HOD board too! So, thanks for sharing your stories everyone.

[MrsMe]

This post has been very helpful to read thru. This was our first year HS and our first year with HOD. We have been doing bigger with our ds 8 and dd 9. I see the extensions and wonder, when does one use them? Do they use the guide a second year and add extensions to it? I am thinking of doing Preparing for DS this coming fall and Creation for DD- we have not really used the extensions, and not sure how or if the curriculum is meant to be used two years in a row. I just love reading all the info here and on the HOD board too! So, thanks for sharing your stories everyone.

 

 

For me, I didn't get extensions for any other reason than I knew dd would like something, such as the Draw & Write. If I go with CTC, we'll get Ben Hur audio, Diana Waring's audio, but not much else. But they're mainly used for older kids that's not in the age range or for kids who can't get enough. So for storytime, if I knew dd would hate the book, then I'd do one of those extension books instead.

[jer2911mom]

We do not do DITHOR or Bible Study, but otherwise complete the guide as written.

 

I, too, am really appreciating this discussion because it is hard to find information about the upper levels since they are so new. Birchbark, why is it that you don't do the bible study in CTC? Can you please comment on it? Thanks!

[birchbark]

I, too, am really appreciating this discussion because it is hard to find information about the upper levels since they are so new. Birchbark, why is it that you don't do the bible study in CTC? Can you please comment on it? Thanks!

 

Mainly for time. I feel happy with the amount of Bible work in the Bible Quiet Time box and the rest of the program. Genesis Finding our Roots is an interesting book though and we have enjoyed reading it on the side. If I had an older student doing CTC I would probably go ahead and include it.

[birchbark]

Oh and I wanted to mention that most of the oral narration in CTC is found in Storytime and Geography. There is a weekly narration in Science. History does not contain oral narrations, but there is a written narration once a week.

 

HTH!