HOD CTC LA - use theirs or substitute?

[Evergreen Academy]

I finally bought the HOD CTC instructor's guide and most of the materials, but I'm still undecided on the LA. I like that the guide has dictation and poetry built in, but I'm not sure I want to use Rod and Staff and know very little about Write With the Best. We've used Serle's Intermediate Language Lessons for three years with ds13 and for one with the two ds who will be using CTC, and I hate to give it up; love the gentle instruction and great writing practice. We also require written narrations for writing practice.

 

However, I'd like to instill some more formal grammar this year, and R&S might be a key - but I know nothing about the writing program CTC schedules and don't want to toss out something that works for an unknown. Does anyone have experience with CTC's LA, who can chime in on this?

Thanks so much!

[SorrelZG]

:bigear:

[MrsMe]

I finally bought the HOD CTC instructor's guide and most of the materials, but I'm still undecided on the LA. I like that the guide has dictation and poetry built in, but I'm not sure I want to use Rod and Staff and know very little about Write With the Best. We've used Serle's Intermediate Language Lessons for three years with ds13 and for one with the two ds who will be using CTC, and I hate to give it up; love the gentle instruction and great writing practice. We also require written narrations for writing practice.

 

However, I'd like to instill some more formal grammar this year, and R&S might be a key - but I know nothing about the writing program CTC schedules and don't want to toss out something that works for an unknown. Does anyone have experience with CTC's LA, who can chime in on this?

Thanks so much!

 

My dd likes R&S grammar because we can do it orally, which means quickly. Plus, it all is a cohesive program using R&S Grammar the writing and her dictation.

 

My thought is if it's not broken don't change it. The only problem I've found changing out the LA is that the dictation, writing and LA and even some copywork end up to be duplicated somewhere else and you're doing redundant work. HOD will end up doing picture study in the later guides and there's light writing in R&S and Write with the Best evens it out. Serles I know did some copywork and picture study which will be duplicated at some point in HOD.

 

So if you do decide to change it, which I've done, that other subjects in HOD were affected too. Since my dd likes R&S we're just going to do it as written. And so far WWTB is going fine as well. It's a good step by step writing program, that works well along side of R&S.

 

If what you have works leave it alone. Otherwise, I can swear that it's all covered in HOD. :) Unless you're looking to possibly save time, I'd just leave it. There is a post on the forum about CTC vs FLL (not ILL) but it does mention the reasoning behind it all. You may want to search FLL and you'll find out why she uses R&S. It may also be in the "sticky" at the top of the page. But I will say by using Serles you will end up duplicating narration as well as copywork and dictation plans HOD has within their guide. HOD sticks it not just in grammar, but uses those skills in all areas.

[Evergreen Academy]

Thanks for sharing that. I wish I'd been able to pick up a used copy of R&S 4 so I could get a better idea of what it might look like. We are pretty committed to a CM way of doing things, and I don't know enough of what the R&S will look like as scheduled in CTC, or anything about what Write With the Best would incorporate, to know whether this would totally clash with the way I like to "do school." I can imagine that you're right about the duplication; in years when I've tried to add in formal grammar or other writing programs with ILL, I did feel we duplicated efforts at times.

 

Might you be able to share a bit about what the WWTB program asks of kids?

 

Thanks for helping me think this through!

[AmyinMD]

We're not going to use all of the LA for CTC. I'm going to use the poetry and dictation. For grammar we are using GWG 5 which we were already using. For writing I'm still undecided. Dd is taking a writing class this fall from a fellow homeschool mom. Last spring when she took her class she got quite a bit of writing so if we do writing here it will probably not be a lot. I'm thinking of doing some IEW when we have time because dd may do CC Challenge program next year and they use IEW.

[Evergreen Academy]

Amy, thanks. I've never used a writing program to teach my kids, and have had good luck with having them start written narration at about age 10, increasing my expectations when they get older. That said, the LA programs I've used in grades 2-6, Primary Language Lessons and Intermediate Language Lessons, do introduce writing gently and incrementally, but not in the same way as a more packaged program in which you'd learn more formulaic writing and terminology. I'm not sure which camp WWTB falls more toward. We may just use the CTC poetry and dictation as well, adding in ILL and narrations. I'm also still debating whether I need the student pages, or whether I can have them do the sort of work suggested in hardbound blank books, which leave lots of room for illustration. Hmmmmm.

[MrsMe]

Might you be able to share a bit about what the WWTB program asks of kids?

 

Thanks for helping me think this through!

 

We're only on Day 4 with it and frankly I've not looked through the book. :001_huh: I just haven't had time. It's on my "To Do" list. :tongue_smilie:

 

But so far it takes a blurb of a classic, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and has them find adjectives and adverbs, then the next lesson goes on to explain descriptions, and the 3rd has them find synonyms for words through a thesaurus. Day 4 has them find a real descriptive paragraph in a book they've read, write down the descriptive words, then we dictate one of those sentences and figure how many of their senses they use for the description.

 

So it's very incremental so far. I'm happy dd could pull out a real descriptive paragraphy in a book she read. She went right to it. :D

 

I have Serl's book and so far we really do all these things in HOD. We just do some of the rest in history or science, or poetry or Bible. R&S really, is strictly grammar with a tad of writing and thesaurus/synonym, etc. work towards the last chapters.