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We also read the whole series after the first book in Preparing. It was wonderful!
Brenda

We use and like Growing with Grammar. Both my 9 and 11 year olds complete their lessons independently, I check the work and we discuss any problems.
Brenda

I understand what you are saying about you needing the children to work more independently. I have recently come to this conclusion for myself. This is my 7th year of homeschooling and I am losing some of my enthusiasm! I have somewhat entertained the thought of sending them to school, but know in m...

From Preparing my daughters loved Raiders from the Sea - the first book in a 5 book series. We just finished reading the rest of the books as read alouds!
Brenda

My middle daughter did Preparing at 8 years old. She was able to manage the workload fine, but it was a full day for her. She is doing CTC this year as a 9 year old. We started out half speed and once we got comfortable with that (and it only took about 2 hours), I bumped her up to full speed. It ta...

We are not required to test in TX, but we tested my oldest when she was in 4th grade. This was for my husband's benefit, as he wanted to see how she "compared". We were all pleased with the results. We will test again this year, our oldest is in 6th grade and our middle daughter is in 4th. My plan i...

I used and am using Phonics Pathways with 2 of my daughters. We also read easy readers when they are ready, to help them get the "I am reading books" feel. My youngest is easily moving into the Grade 1 Pathway readers (a favorite at our house) after being 1/3 of the way thru Phonics Pathways. I mix ...

We start at 9 am and finish anywhere from 1 to 2 pm. This includes about a half hour lunch break most of the time. We are doing CTC and Beyond this year.
Brenda

For us, we did the left page one day and the right page the next. Math is every day regardless of which page we did.
Brenda

Liz, What a great post! I just wanted to say that I have 2 daughters who are 9 and 11 and we did Preparing together last year. My oldest would get bored and quickly completed her work, while her younger sister still had plenty to do. Before the year was out, I had moved my 11 year old up to CTC and ...

I have a comment. My oldest 2 daughters are in CTC and had really struggled with the written narrations at first, even though we had done Preparing. We found the questions to be confusing sometimes and felt they included too much information. After they read their history portion, I have them orally...

My 3 daughters were having a discussion the other day about the poetry in each of their guides - Beyond and CTC, but it also included Preparing, which we did last year. This discussion included comparing Robert Frost's work to Robert Louis Stevenson's. I was just listening thinking how awesome it wa...

I just started Beyond last week with my almost 7 year old dd. We are both really enjoying it! (We had a hard time getting into LHFHG last year, so ended up not completing it.) We are taking it very slow, as I don't want her to hit Bigger til 3rd grade. She loves the activities and poetry reading - m...

I am enjoying CTC half pace with one daughter, while the other goes at it full speed! Flexibility is awesome!
Brenda

Tracey, I am doing CTC half-speed with my 9 year old dd. We did Preparing last year and it was sometimes (but not often) a bit much for her. I had planned to move her back to Bigger this year, but she really wanted to do Ancient History and not American. She is even having a hard time for now adjust...