CTC--Share what you love/don't love

[Mom25]

Just curious how others are doing with CTC. What resources are really working/not working. We love the Story of the ANcient World and the Genesis book. Still not sure about the geography. Kids enjoy the history projects. I'm hoping many will share!

Mom25

[Daisy]

My daughter is loving all the books; every single one. No complaints. The workload is perfect for her.

She was struggling a bit to do so much Bible reading (multiple chapters) each day but we compromised and I allow her to follow along in her Bible while she listens on audio. Much better.

And the only other thing we changed up some was the painting in poetry. She enjoys the painting but wanted more variety & more freedom of expression. So she occasionally changes around the assignment a bit. For example, one week she used pastel chalks. Another week she added some tissue paper leaves. I'm fine with that. She enjoys learning the various techniques though.

There have been a couple DITHOR books that she didn't like but that was more MY selection rather than DITHORs. I just allowed her to pick a different book (Gone Away Lake wasn't a hit).

[patekake]

This is our first year with CTC and we just finished week 8. It has been an amazing year!!!!! My daughter and I have gone from disliking History to absolutely loving it. We look forward to school each day with excitement.

Every book has been excellent. We loved Golden Bull and Boy of the Pyramids. It was really hard to not read ahead, but we kept on schedule. We have loved the Geography. We have had several moments during our reading that we looked at each other and said "Wow, that is so neat!" It has been fun for my dd since her sister is studying Turkey in one of her graduate studies class at Baylor University. She loves to call her sister and they compare what they have learned. (This does a Mom's heart good.)

Also, my daughter started the year out with a groan when I would tell her it was time for Poetry. Just the other day she told me that she loves Poetry and it may be her favorite. She memorized the first poem during the first week of school. In fact, she has memorized most all of the poems.

Honestly, I did not know how she would respond to the Philippians Cd and it, too, has been a hit! We both find ourselves singing it all day long. She has memorized through verse 24, yet she is suppose to be on verse 8.

I have noticed a boost of confidence in her, too. She announced to me last night that she wants to sing a solo in church. It has been about 3 years since she has done this. As I lie in bed at night, all I can say is "Thank you, Lord" for such an awesome year!".

I know this is a lenghty answer to your question, but I just had to share. I will say that I love the flexibility of chosing our own Math and Language Arts because although we started out with R & S English, we put it aside and will just use the writing portion of it. My daughter absolutely loves grammar and wanted more each day. However, I do like R & S, though.

I just wish everyone could experience at least one year of HOD.

Patti

[water2wine]

We love it all. I am using it with my oldest. We are loving the intimate study it allows us. She is loving having some independence. She loves having her own Bible time and time with me as well discussing aspects of God's Word. She loves the CD memorization and wishes we had more to use. She loves the projects and that she gets to do them really on her own. Sh4e loves learning about the prophesies of Christ. I am so glad that was put into the program. It is something I always meant to teach but never got to do. I love that it is very flexible and even when I am sick we are able to get her school done. It has been a blessing. I am actually looking forward to doing it again next year with three of my other children. It is one that I could go through twice in a row with no problems. It's a hit for us. We can't wait to see what the next HOD program is like!

[8arrows]

We are really enjoying it. My daughter's cursive skills have really improved as well as her narrations. Poetry (with painting) and the history project are her favorites. Golden Bull and Boy of the Pyramids were both hits! The geography book is beyond my expectations. We have always liked the Fulbright science ones, but Zoo 3 is so much fun to read. Even my older children will grab it. The notebook pages are going to be a great review and keepsake. We struggle the most to get Write with the Best and DITHOR in, but not because we don't like them. The Genesis book has been different from what I expected; we are still finding our groove with it.

[my3sons]

My ds and I are loving CTC! The way the history and Bible are woven together is pretty amazing. My ds loves doing his own Bible quiet time first thing in the morning, and The Illustrated Family Bible with its neat pics and extra information in the sidebars keeps him learning more and more. The Philippians music CD has made it easy and fun for him to commit a lot of Scripture to memory. He sings with gusto each morning - it's neat to hear! Genesis Finding Our Roots also takes our discussions to a deep level, and he did very well with his assignment of how he'd defend his beliefs to an Atheist. It really made him think, and we had a great discussion about a friend of a friend of mine that is an atheist, and a gal in my Bible study group who was an Atheist, and just how this is not so uncommon and will be something he'll need to know about.

He is really enjoying his history book The Story of the Ancient World, and I can tell his written narrations have grown leaps and bounds since last year. He is very proud to do his Independent History box - and especially likes that "lady who is really excited and talks a lot and knows sooooo much" (Diana Waring). A favorite so far as been The Golden Bull - we're reading a fair portion each day, and we both STILL want to read more. The science Land Animals... book has got him learning all sorts of new things, and his oral narrations from that are showing he's remembering a LOT.

Not surprisingly, my son's favorite things are the history projects, the DITHOR projects, math, and the science experiments. He also is really liking the different types of oral narrations he's doing now - especially the Proverbs one. The poetry painting is one of my favorite things because my ds is finally beginning to be proud of his paintings and is starting to branch out and do more artistic things in his free time (something he never was very interested in before). We are both very proud of his Student Notebook. It is just beautiful. It is creating a lovely keepsake of the year, and it is neat to see his skills growing.

We had a slower start with Write with the Best because writing creatively is not my ds's favorite thing to do - it does not come naturally to him. In fact, he's the kind of kid that loves copywork - the constant of it is reassuring to him. So, the writing was what I was most worried about for him this year. He was hesitant to get into it at first, and didn't want to try very hard to express himself. BUT, his first descriptive piece was the best thing he's ever written!!! We got out the thesaurus to change out some words to make them more descriptive, and he was reluctant to do this. However, once we'd changed a few words, he got really excited and changed about 5 more on his own. I shared his rough draft about his 3 wheeler in an earlier post (and I'm so proud of him - now with his editing the changes made it even better).

This brings me to the geography - WOW! It's written as if to make him feel like he's on a trip with the author exploring the Bible lands. I'M learning so much as we do it too. The reason I thought of geography after writing about Write with the Best is he wrote 3 descriptive paragraphs about places he'd learned about in Turkey in geography (for his travel log) - and they were awesome! He followed the steps he'd learned for writing a good paragraph in Write with the Best (I know because he listed them off for me, putting up one finger for each of the five points as he said them) before he even began. I love the carryover between subject areas I see. He also loves the "press record" interview type discussion at the end of the geography reading - we pretend we really have a microphone, and I try to sound like a reporter as he tries to sound like a real person being interviewed. Too fun!

So - CTC has been wonderful for us! Just the right balance in so many ways! For all of you doing the previous guides, keep helping your dc work on developing those skills like - oral narrations, written narrations, grammar, research, vocabulary, notebooking, science lab reports, etc. - there is a HUGE payoff to honing these skills and creating good habits as you move through the guides. Having spent the time with my ds on these skills as they were written in the previous guides' plans has made this year an incredibly smooth transition! We can't say enough good about CTC!

In Christ,
Julie

[mskogen]

Boy it sounds great!!!! I am encouraged and inspired! I can't wait to get to CTC (1 1/2 years). Thanks for sharing everyone to keep all of us motivitated to stay the course. The reward is there.