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I'm trying to place a 15yo with dyslexia and other learning disorders. I think he will either be in Preparing Hearts or CTC. Am I understanding correctly that CTC history books are read independently? My son reads independently at about a 6th grade level, but with a 3rd grade fluency speed. I actually already own one of the CTC history spines, The Story of the Ancient World. Out of curiosity, I plugged the first page into the link below, which estimates reading level of books. It indicated that this book is a 9th-10th grade reading level. No wonder I have my doubts about him reading this book with good comprehension. I mean, he can read it, but he probably won't be able to give a good narration for it. So what is the point. I could read it aloud to him, and in fact I currently do read most of his history and science books aloud to him. But I would like to work towards transitioning him into independent reading. I also plugged in FOUR 200 word passages from the Ancient Greece book, and it too was estimated to be a 9th-10th grade reading level.

Any one have any thoughts on this?

Link removed by board moderator per board rules.

I am not sure why that tool rates The Story of the Ancient World as a high school book, maybe because of the older vocabulary. Anything you look at about this book says it is 4th-8th grade reading level. In fact the publisher says it can be used as a read aloud for 1st graders. I think the way it is written does take a little getting used to. My ds who tests average on reading comprehension read it at 11 and only struggled with giving detailed written narrations at times, but at that point written narrations were very tough for him. By the end of the book he did fine with the written narrations.

The Ancient Greece: Streams of History book is most definitely not a high school level book. It is actually very easy to Read and Rainbow Resource rates it as 4th-6th grade reading level. I don't even think the vocabulary is that difficult in that book.

I'm finding the same data as the previous poster:

Product Details
Age Range: 6 and up
Grade Level: 1 and up
Series: Story of the World (Book 1)

Also, I am finding that most parent with children at a 1st-4th grade comprehension level are reading the book out loud to their child, as opposed to the child reading it alone. You can totally do that for your child.

Hope all makes sense.

Just for fun I ran the first page of "The cat in the hat" through your link. It came back as third grade level. Every child is different, but most kids can ready "The cat in the hat" by the end of 1st grade I'd wager. So there is a possibility that the site program is off, or looking for specific markers and is not accurate.

julsoliveira,
The book of interest is The Story of the Ancient World written by Guerber (very different than The Story of the World)! The language is much higher and the sentence structure is more complex!

sethers_mom,
I admit that when we used CtC it was much more difficult than is typical in today's 5th or 6th grade classroom. The advanced language is indicative of an 1890's educated child (who was a child of an educated family hearing higher vocabulary in his British home). Many of the chapters are very readable but as details get more specific toward the end of the book, it is admittedly more difficult reading. In my mind, it is an advanced book for a 5th or 6th grader but your 15 year old should enjoy it and be challenged by it. The Ancient Greek book was an easier read. After working through The Ancient World, your son should find it easy and you will easily see how much he has learned and accomplished over the year!

That link came personally recommended from both a trained dyslexia specialist as well as several moms of dyslexic kids. So I trust that it is an accurate estimation. I understand that, by nature, an estimation isn't necessarily accurate, obviously. But I wouldn't expect for it to be *that* far off. High school is quite a significant difference from 5th grade. I believe the tool also takes into consideration the length of sentences. So maybe that's why.

After much frustration, I've realized that if I want him to learn his content rich subjects, the material has to be presented simply. There are probably other issues besides dyslexia. My older daughter would have had no problem with that book. So, either I will read the Ancient History book aloud, or else substitute.

Thanks guys. I really appreciate all the input.

mamanlait wrote:julsoliveira,
The book of interest is The Story of the Ancient World written by Guerber (very different than The Story of the World)! The language is much higher and the sentence structure is more complex!

sethers_mom,
I admit that when we used CtC it was much more difficult than is typical in today's 5th or 6th grade classroom. The advanced language is indicative of an 1890's educated child (who was a child of an educated family hearing higher vocabulary in his British home). Many of the chapters are very readable but as details get more specific toward the end of the book, it is admittedly more difficult reading. In my mind, it is an advanced book for a 5th or 6th grader but your 15 year old should enjoy it and be challenged by it. The Ancient Greek book was an easier read. After working through The Ancient World, your son should find it easy and you will easily see how much he has learned and accomplished over the year!

I will keep this in mind as we start our HOD journey. Actually, I started out this year with exactly that goal and hope in mind, that I would try to challenge him a bit and see if we could transition to high school. It was too much, and he wasn't comprehending or retaining the information from his books, not even when I read aloud. I will keep coming back and trying to stretch him again though. I think the intermittent challenge is good for him. And we may try this book and just see how it goes. But I don't think I want to sacrifice his comprehension of the historical content for the sake of a good reading challenge. There are other ways I can challenge his reading, ya know?

The history reading in CTC can be a challenge especially if a dc hasn't been accustomed to reading older style books. I don't think the books were chosen to challenge the dc with their reading level but were chosen because they are excellent living books on the time period. I think most of the children who have gotten used to some of the older style of writing through some of the previous books in HOD like the Eggleston books and are reading and comprehending at grade level are ready for that book when they get to CTC. I was concerned that my ds might find it too challenging, but he ended up enjoying that book with no difficulties. I have seen it mentioned before that The Story of the Ancient World can be a challenge for some children when starting CTC. It's definitely something to consider when looking at placement. Some moms have gotten around that by reading that book aloud or alternating between reading aloud and having the dc read it independently. If you decide to do that though, you will increase the length of your day by reading the book aloud. It is an option though if that is the only thing that seems to be holding a dc back from excelling in CTC.

Sethers-mom I think you have a unique situation. Since your dc is reading at a 3rd grade speed/fluency, the length of the readings as well as the complexity of them might be too much for him. How is his comprehension when books are read to him? It's possible you could do CTC with you reading the history spine(s) if he would be able to comprehend well, but it would make for a longer day. If you are wanting for him to be independent you might want to try Preparing instead. I highly recommend Preparing. It has been my favorite guide that we have done so far. It really puts all of world history in perspective.

Everyone has given such good responses here already! This board is full of such encouraging ladies that are so gracious with their time. I can see why you would ask this question, sethers_mom, and I am glad you did. "The Story of the Ancient World" is the most difficult book dc read along with CTC, but I would never consider it to be a high school level history book. I have found that reading level formulas can be helpful, but they can also be misleading. It was actually something we studied quite extensively in our master's program. Reading level formulas do not take into account the font size (which is quite large in "The Story of the Ancient World"), the number of pictures in a book (which there are a fair amount of in "The Story of the Ancient World"), the amount of space between lines (which there is quite a bit of), nor the number of pages in a section/chapter (the chapters in "The Story of the Ancient World" are very short, usually around a few pages each). Reading level formulas also cannot take into account the familiarity a student has with the subject matter of the book, which makes a big difference in reading comprehension. Many students are somewhat familiar with the content in "The Story of the Ancient World" as much of it is Biblically-based. Reading level formulas also cannot take into account whether a book is written narratively, in a 'living book' style or not, and "The Story of the Ancient World" is written quite narratively. Two of our dc have read "The Story of the Ancient World" within CTC at 10 yo and enjoyed it very much. It did take them a few weeks to a month to be able to narrate well upon their readings, as it is 'older-worldly' sounding, however, dc are meant to grow into the skills of a guide over time, so I looked at that as something to practice and work on improving throughout the year. Happily - they did improve! For all of these reasons, "The Story of the Ancient World" is an excellent choice for this age range and time period, and I think you would find this to be true as well. If you print off a portion of "The Story of the Ancient World" for your ds to read and he has a bit of a struggle with it, that is probably about the right place for him to be starting off with it in CTC. If he tries to read it and is very frustrated and struggling quite a bit with it, then Preparing Hearts... might be a better placement. I hope something here has helped, but thanks for asking this question!

In Christ,
Julie