Please share your experiences with us.

[Mom of Three]

Pray for me tomorrow! We're starting CtC with a very reluctant learner. The first day of school is always so depressing for her and frustrating for me!

[Mom of Three]

Today we jumped into Creation to Christ.

And we had a great day! Dd had a good attitude and so did I.

I adapted a couple things. We are not going to start dictation til next week. I just can't introduce everything at once. I also chose a different poem. The first poem has a "summer is over, fall is here, the leaves are falling" theme. In the desert we welcome fall! Fall is a new growing season! And the poem had this phrase "headless aftermath" describing a mowed field that just made me feel creepy every time I read it. We haven't read a lot of poetry together recently and this was just a bit heavy for a first week poem. So I chose a poem about August that is more cheerful and more on her level.

(I was very depressed getting ready for school last night and that poem was just too much for me.)

The Rod and Staff language was a little overwhelming. The introduction day had dd flipping through the book looking up things 100 pages in. She knew what a noun was, yes, but not a helping verb. And then there were Scriptures in KJV to unscramble and we haven't used KJV yet, so those were hard for her. "Study to shew thyself approved unto God" is very confusing when its scrambled and you don't know the verse!

It was a good day, though, and dd did her independent reading this afternoon and narrated the main points to me. She was impressed that everything went together--it was all about Genesis and creation and dinosaurs.

Next week we'll add dictation, and in a week or two we'll add Drawn into the Heart of Reading.

Dd is really looking forward to painting tomorrow.

[Mom of Three]

2nd Day: all done except for the independent reading (Dd does that in the afternoon).

Good day, good attitude, and dd loved the painting project. I had her do almost everything else first, then paint, then have a break, then do math. She rushed through math to get back to the paints. She wanted to experiment with those paints and do another picture.

I noticed a painting in the Ancient World book that was by Benjamin West. Dd read Benjamin West and his cat Grimalkin a couple years ago, so she remembered him. We looked up the paintint on line to see the colors; it's beautiful!

In Write with the Best, we read about a cutterfish. We googled that and found a 30 second video. Fascinating creature!

I want to find some Turkish food or at least make some Turkish coffee while we are talking about Turkey in geography. The geography book was a little confusing because I really don't have a good map of Turkey and we couldn't find one of the seas mentioned. The section from the book was a little wordy for reading outloud, but my little kids were listening in so I was trying to make it work for all the ages in the room.

[Mom of Three]

Day three: another great day!

I see there is more geography reading tomorrow. I think I will have the kids draw pictures of what they are hearing about. I wish I had time to go to the library and get photos of Turkey for them to look at while I read. I need a more detailed map of Turkey too.

There is also a writing assignment tomorrow. I think I will have dd dictate it to me, since it's the first one of the year and I know it will be difficult for her. She is an artist, not a writer.

[Mom of Three]

Day four! M&M experiment day!

Again, dd read her Bible quiet time early in the morning. And as soon as breakfast was over she asked to do her math!
I have a verrrry reluctant learner. Usually school time begins with an "oh no, do we have to?" But today she asked to start, and earlier than I was quite ready to start! Math wasn't the first thing on the list but I said, "sure you can start math!"

Today she was supposed to do a written narration about Noah's flood. Writing is not easy for her, so I had her dictate to me. She hit all the main points in order, and then we went back and looked at the questions in the curriculum guide to be sure she'd answered all of them. I showed her how to indent to make paragraphs.

And now it's 10:10 and we're done with everything except the independent reading dd does in the afternoon.

So...four days into Creation to Christ and there's been no horrid attitudes. Don't misunderstand me, she isn't jumping up and down about every subject (what kid does, though? LOL), but so far the experience has been pleasant.

[Mom of Three]

We're starting Unit 2 today so that we can take Monday off.

I told dh about the poem (I was trying to picture what a pasture spring might look like) and he started singing it! I found a musical version on Itunes and downloaded it.

I noticed gaps in dd's student notebook and I see I missed a few things she was supposed to write there this week. Oops.
Note to self: read curriculum guide carefully to see which narration assignments include writing in the Student Notebook pages.

I wish I'd found the cd in the geography book earlier in the week. It has a detailed map of Turkey and it would have been helpful the first day we read the geography book.

We bought hummus and pita chips for a snack while we looked at a library book about Turkey.