Using only the History in RTR?

[mom@home]

I went back and looked at the placement guide. For the most part both children place in CTC. The skill they are weakest on is probably written narration. My son grasps grammar concepts better than my daughter right now, but she's not far behind him. I know it wouldn't be ideal, but could I do the history/science/Bible from one guide (RTR) and everything else from another? It may be helpful to know that we use MUS and All About Spelling so we wouldn't be using those parts of the guides anyway.
Thanks!
Robin

[Carrie]

Robin,

Thanks so much for sharing a bit more about your kiddos. It really helps! One thing I will share is that while the history cycle may seem very important to us as adults, the more important thing to consider is where our children are at skill-wise. This is because developmentally the guides will be a much better fit for years to come, should you decide to stay with HOD, if you place your kiddos based on their skills now. I know this is very difficult to do, as you don't want to repeat a time period you've just done. I had to do this with my own oldest son one year when I switched programs with him, and in truth it bothered me more than it bothered him. If you are very against going through the ancients in CTC, then I would instead recommend Preparing Hearts. The jump to RTR is large, and the guide is very meaty. Without having CTC as a stepping-stone, I wouldn't place your 5th grader in RTR, and I'd never recommend for your 4th grader to do RTR. This has as much to do with the maturity of the issues in that time period as it has to do with the difficulty and higher level thinking required in the assignments in RTR.

Blessings,
Carrie

[mom@home]

After having some time to think things through a little more I thought there was really no way for us to use HOD next year, but here I am...still trying to find a way to make it work . Carrie, I liked the idea of going back and putting both kids in Preparing. I think that would give us time to really work on my younger dd's skills so she can be ready for CTC and I would not be just dragging her along. The only reservation I have in doing that is that my ds will not be able to complete all the guides before high school. I think they both could do CTC, it's just the history cycle thing .
Thanks for any help!
mom@home

[my3sons]

Hypothetically - let's say for one year the history cycle progression would be messed up, but then for every single year after that, you could happily skip through the tulips through the guides, enjoying your journey along the way and have great joy as both ds and dd smell the roses as you journeyed along - wouldn't that be soooo worth that one year of transition? I think so!!! Just a thought m'dear.
Love in Christ as you ponder this!
Julie

[blessedmomof4]

Just wanted to add my dd used Preparing for the second half of 5th grade to the first half of 6th from age 10 to 11, and it was appropriately challenging, not overwhelming, and gave her a great foundation in skills. I think it would be a great placement for your kids It is for ages 8-10, with extensions for ages 11-12, so your kids fit in the range just fine, and you can add extensions for your older one if he needs more challenge.

[mom@home]

Oh, Julie, you make it sound so simple . What about my son? If we started with Preparing next school year then "happily skipped" along the guides from there, my son would do "The Age of Exploration and Invention" guide in the 8th grade and would not get to Modern Times. Modern Times is the one area we would not have studied AT ALL.
mom@home

[momtofive]

Robin,

In reading through this now, some similarities to our own situation come to mind. At the beginning of this school year (Aug.), my 10 yr. old fifth grade son started CTC. After making it through three units we were both having a hard time, because he just wasn't ready skill-wise for that guide. This was our first year with HOD. So after a chat with Carrie (via email), she recommended placing him instead, in Preparing. At first I was challenged, because that's not where "I" wanted him to be. But after accepting that he would really flourish there, and develop a firm foundation in his skills, I began to realize that this was really the best choice for him.

This year has gone so wonderfully! He just loves school, and has really learned so much and had such fun while learning. And now I'm confident that he'll be ready for the skills needed to do the CTC guide!

This did present a problem, when I found out about the high school guides. Of course we were all just beyond excited, as we just love HOD!!! But, I also didn't want to skip guides or miss guides. So, for my son, I came up with a new plan. He is going to have five day weeks, just like my younger kiddos, and complete the guides just a little faster. Then when he finishes a guide, he'll just start the next one right away. We will still have our normal vacations and time off school here and there, as usual. But because we do about a 180 day school year, and typically the older guides (Preparing on up) have 140 days of work within them. This means that he'll work through all the guides and be ready to start the high school guides for 9th grade. At that point, we'll go back to the four day weeks, at the suggested pace of the guide. Of course, this is just our plan, but thought maybe you'd want to consider that as a possible option, too!

Either way, you'll know best how to teach your children, as you are the best teacher for them!

Blessings!

[Mom2Monkeys]

Oh, Julie, you make it sound so simple . What about my son? If we started with Preparing next school year then "happily skipped" along the guides from there, my son would do "The Age of Exploration and Invention" guide in the 8th grade and would not get to Modern Times. Modern Times is the one area we would not have studied AT ALL.
mom@home

Actually, you wouldn't skip Modern Times at all! You'd move on to that guide after RevtoRev then continue through the high school guides using the extensions, and you'd only miss the last one. You don't want to skip over guides b/c the skills build from one guide to the next. You may choose to add in some of the "extra" from the last high school guide to be sure you get it all in, but you definitely won't miss modern times! Just keep on happily skipping through guide by guide

[mom@home]

So it would be the 4th high school guide my son would not get to use?

[Mom2Monkeys]

So it would be the 4th high school guide my son would not get to use?

Yes, that's right. That history will be covered in his 9th grade year instead of his 12th grade year by using the Modern Times guide with extensions. So it all gets covered one way or another! Other moms have gone before you and used the current guides for high school including CTC. So it's very doable! Just follow through the guides, one by one, so he builds those skills up each year in an incremental way that is intended by the Carrie's plans. He'll be solid in those skills even though he won't get the last guide in (and more solid in them by not skipping any levels!)...and he'll be a very well-educated young man!

[8arrows]

My daughter will do Modern Times with extensions in 10th grade. It is just a better fit for our family without rushing children. It all works out! Enjoy!