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I am having the hardest time deciding between the Girl or History interest set for CTC Storytime!!! UGH!! They both look so good! Which did you use:)

My son and I used the History Interest and really enjoyed the books. It really helped paint a picture of the things he was learning about in the history box. For my son he retains the history better if he has characters from books that he can relate to.

To be honest, I don't even look at the Girl/Boy interest books unless there's one in the History pack that my kids have already read/heard or that we already own; then I might bring in one of those as a substitution. They can read all the books they want as interest books ("free reads"), and if I have any from those lists around I'll point them out, but for school I like to provide as many different contexts, views of culture, characters, writings, etc. for them to scaffold history's events upon as I can!

Though this is our first year with HOD, that's always been my view with the other curricula I've used, too. That said, my kids have loved the CTC History ones so far - our 9yo is done week 11.

Blessings,

I don't know how it is in CTC but in Preparing the History Interest is the one that's scheduled right in the guide during the week. There may be other schedules for the other books in the appendix, I don't know. I highly suggest History interest unless for some reason you don't want to use those books. It does add more interest and layers to your History study. They are wonderful selections! (I already have the CTC stuff and have been reading through it).

We chose the history books. I love the story time box when it aligns with the historical time period. For us, that makes that time period really come alive. But I also ready to my kids at night every night before bed. We have used several of the girl and boy interest books from the various book packs for that ready as well.

One other thing to think about is that DITHOR recommends the boy or girl interest pack from CTC for student reading for the level 6/7 books if you don't choose them for CTC. You could definitely have your dd read them on her own for lit study in the future if you chose the history pack for this year.

We also chose the history books for CTC. We're only half way through, but I think that they have really helped my ds to "see" the history that he's been learning about. Also, if you're following the history "path" for Storytime, you will also read through the OT books of Ruth, Jonah, and Esther - which my ds enjoyed. I agree that the boy/girl choices also look wonderful, and we are planning to use the boy choices next year as our 6th grade DITHOR books.

We read the history interest books. They were SO good!! We are currently using the Boy Interest selections from CTC with DITHOR .

We read the history books as well, and we really enjoyed them! I felt like we got to know the time period so well because we 'met' so many amazing people (via characters) that gave us a window into what it really would have been like to live then. We learned to overlay gold with Jomar and sing for alms with Zefa as they struggled to survive in Mesopotamia in "The Golden Bull." We tried to catch the thief who stole some jewels in Egypt with Kaffe and Sari in "Boy of the Pyramids." We labored over laws and choosing the right ruling with Jashub in in "Jashub's Journal." We built cities in Rome in "CITY," traveled the Way with Cleon in "Traveling the Way." And - well, you get the picture! These books are near and dear to our hearts, and even I remember them just like yesterday. However, that being said, I did eventually order the boy interest set AND the girl interest set too, just for awesome free reading books for the kids. They're allllllll good!

In Christ,
Julie

Last time I did CTC, I taught my oldest son and daughter together. I mix and matched the boy and girl interest. I think I had 1 or 2 history. Now I want to do all history next time!

I just ordered the history interest pack for my 10yo son who will be starting CTC in just a couple of weeks. He loves History and is in the upper age range of the guide, so I felt confident it was the right choice or him. My daughter will get into this guide at a younger age, so I'm thinking about the girl pack for her. She is a strong reader but not a History lover. I also think she and I will just enjoy reading those books together!