Skipping a guide?

[blessedmomof4]

I know, I know, even I don't usually recommend it when others ask But my youngest dd is halfway through CTC, with extensions, and she is bored...she does all the written work, all the extension follow-ups, and finishes really early. She does everything well. She will be 13 this September, and I was wondering if it might be better to challenge her with Rev to Rev as written, when she finishes CTC with extensions, or should I just follow with RtR with extensions? Of course, skipping a guide would also have a financial benefit, since I already have it and would only need to replace the consumable items. But RtR looks like such a fun guide...I just want to be sure she is really placed correctly. She is using the first half of Rod and Staff 6 right now.

[netpea]

i guess my first question would be, where does she really fall on the placement chart right now. When people come in from other curriculums they go to the first guide the child falls into, right? So where does she fall today? CTC, RTR, Rev to Rev? Is she placed wrong right now? If so, I might actually change things now into the guide she should really fall into. But it would depend on where she places...

[blessedmomof4]

It's been pretty hard to figure...She did half of Bigger as a 3rd grader, then for 4th grade till the first half of 5th grade she was in public school. For the second half of 5th grade she did half of Preparing as written. for 6th grade, she finished Preparing but needed the extensions added, then for the second half of the year she did a mix of the second half of Bigger with extensions and other add ons because i didn't have the money to get CTC right away. She started CTC at the beginning of 7th with extensions, but is only halfway through because of me-I had a lot of issue with my next older daughter and was having touble managing my own college studies along with their homeschool, plus I was really nauseous and exhausted the first 3 months of my pregnancy (I am now 16 weeks along and feeling so much better).
Anyway, looking at how she is doing right now, and revisiting the first page of the chart, I would say she does fit into Rev to Rev. She has grown so much despite all the changes. What I don't want to do is stop CTC midway, but would rather let her finish it. RtR could be challenging enough with extensions, but I wonder if she would always need extensions then.

[MicheleW]

If you are half-way through, you could just skip the end of the guide. Then you wouldn't miss a whole year (content and skill-building).

Or since she is finishing each day so early, you could start doing a "day" and a half each day (keeping math and LA at regular pace) until you eventually get to where it is taking her longer and becoming more challenging. While doing that, you could even skip the Storytime readers (just doing extension readers) if you want to move more quickly. Then at least you wouldn't miss anything in the history chronology (yes, I am very left-brained and things need to move in a line!) Once she got a "ahead" you could go back to regular pace and continue on from there.

That being said, we did skip a guide once. My first year with HOD, I put my 7th grade DS into Preparing as I desperately wanted to combine with a younger sibling. It was so pitifully beneath him and the next year I moved him up to RTR. It has been a good move. He is properly placed now. It does make me sad that we missed CTC, but Preparing did have a lot of Ancients (almost the first half I think), so he did cover it somewhat. Still I like to do things in order so it was not an easy decision.

Next year will be my first time through CTC (with DD) and I know I will have many moments of thinking "Oh, I wish Jonah could have read this." "Oh, I'm so disappointed that Jonah never got to do this."

[Mom2Monkeys]

I'm in the same boat, and even a super similar story with why we are only this far aling in the guides after these years with hod. Only Im wondering about my 6th grader needing to be in RTR instead of CTC. we are in unit 4 and it's not really challenging her...she places in RTR and almost into rev to rev for some. My only hold up is I really want her to do ancients even though we have done that a lot, though much less formally. and written narrations needing the guiding questions of CTC. annnnd....I really want her to be able to do this beautiful student notebook. yeah....maybe the wrong reasons. so, we know why you want to move your daughter, but what is your "hold up"? What makes you want to keep her back? evaluate her actual skill level and go from there. trying to take my own advice and now feel I need to figure out how to buy RTR. lol

[netpea]

I think if she truly places in RevToRev that you should stop CTC and move on

Kids di so much better when they are properly placed., but that is my opinion, what do you think?

[blessedmomof4]

I guess my holdup is that she really does enjoy what she is doing now, it's more that she is not needing 4 to 5 hours to finish and getting bored thereafter, so maybe the idea of having her do more than one day's worth in a day would be enough? Perhaps as was suggested, as she gets further in the guide she may find a point where she has to slow down again...maybe I'm worrying about nothing-based on the recommendations for CTC, it's still appropriate for students ages 12 to 13 with extensions, and she is doing all the follow-ups...maybe I should just be happy she is a fast worker and suggest other things for her to do when she is done with school for the day, lol. Besides, who can tell what things will be like further down the road- I know some other moms here have mentioned they had a child in the extension range for a guide or two then got to a guide where eventually the extensions were not really needed anymore...I'm not sure...Maybe, with the baby coming, I should be glad school isn't extremely hard...

[blessedmomof4]

After mulling it over and reading a similar post, I will not be skipping a guide at this point. I will stick with CTC till the end and go from there. DD is doing well, and I am just having my own anxieties...I had to remind myself that though she is a very fast reader, she still lacks greatly in maturity, which would probably make Rev to Rev discouraging for her right now. Plus, CTC still offers more opportunity for us to work together, and she likes that very much

[Heidi in AK]

All the best to you, Lourdes! Glad you have peace about your decision. I just noticed in your siggy you're expecting and wanted to tell you "congratulations!"