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Quite frankly, both my son and I find it boring. Further, the language leaves a lot to be desired. I was an English major, and even I find the writing difficult to understand at times. My son is pretty lost and zones out easily, as the writing is just so dull.

I need another option. We went to page 48 today, and the thought of having to read this book to the end is torturous. Any other ideas?

I wish I could help you more. I dont know what program you are doing. I am doing Bigger hearts and Little Hands. A resource that might help you find a substitution is All Through The Ages. It is a resource very worth having. It is a book that is a booklist covering each time period, and the booklists are for the most part "living books." Sorry if you already know about this or already have it. Hope this helps, and I hope I'm not breaking any of the message board rules by telling you this!!!

Sincerely,
Liz
dh of 11yrs
dd9,ds7,ds3,ds8 months

That is the History spine in CTC.

I hate to hear that you dislike the book. I have an English degree too and I LOVE that book. Guess it all depends on how much you like History too, huh?

Have you thought of reading it first and paraphrasing the parts that are losing your son? I am sure there are other history books you can use, but I am not sure how you would be able to tie it in so nicely with everything else you are studying.

The only other question I have is, how old is your son? My son is 10. By the time we get to CTC, he will be a 6th grader and I think this book (as long as I read with him) will be fine for him. I can see how it would be tough for younger child, though.

Yes, I'm curious to know what age/grade your son is as well....

Cynthia,

The ladies are doing a great job of helping and are asking wonderful guiding questions. A couple of areas to check right away are whether or not the reading level is appropriate for your son. That can make a big difference on how well a book works for a child. Another thing to check would be whether or not your son is reading the book independently as assigned. With the pacing of the book and the activities which follow it, it works best as a reader and is scheduled for the child to read on his/her own. This is why it makes a big difference as to whether or not the reading level is appropriate for your child.

As far as the book itself goes, in all of the research that we did prior to choosing it as a spine, we've never heard anything negative about it. It definitely is a reprint of an older text, which can take some getting used to, so that may be one more thing to consider. It was written a long time ago and uses a definitively different style of writing than the style used in modern texts. This is one of the things that drew us to the text, but may be one of the things that isn't positive in your eyes.

As Rebecca already pointed out, The Story of the Ancient World is one of the spines, around which ALL of the left side of the plans for CTC function. With that being said, I'm thinking that since you aren't very far into the book, it would be a good idea to perservere with a positive attitude and see whether it grows on you. Some older books take time to learn to enjoy, but as time passes you may discover a gem in disguise.

For the flip side on this particular title, here's a recent thread about this same book: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4792

Blessings,
Carrie

I am sorry...I guess I should have given that info. My son is in 5th grade and he just turned 11. He is not a strong reader, but he is certainly an "on level" reader. For instance...the story of Jed Smith (which is his DITHOR reader for Biography that we got from HOD)...that I can't take out of his hands. It is just that both of us really find SOTAW so dull and dry. I may give it another week and if it does start clicking for us, switch to Mystery of History or something like that...and have to tweak the curriculum a little.

Carrie, thanks for your response. I understand that it is meant to be an independent reader, but he really struggles with the language, so I am guessing that it may not be on level for him. However, even when I sit and read some of it to him, both of us find it dry. I have read ahead and paraphrased for him, but if I do that, then it will never be an independent reader to him. See my problem?

You know when we first started Bigger the older History spines took me a little bit to first get into also for my kids but they did click after not too long at all and we got used to the writing style to see the beauty of the book and why Carrie picked it. Do you know those same books after we have finished Bigger my kids would not let me pack away becasue now they want to reread them on their own. I was shocked. They ended up loving them. Now SOTAW I have had to hide from my child doing CTC and the rest because my oldest picked it up after me and started reading it and was loving it. The problem is we have not yet started school this year. Honestly because I started reading it after the post about it and I was blabbing about how much I loved it. I think the older style writing just may take a bit to get used to but the content is beautiful. We're sued to the older style writing and have grown to love it from our tour through Bigger. I love how they explain the literal meaning in such a way that you can't help but get the magnitude of what the Bible is actually saying. I would give it a few weeks, maybe even a month and see how it goes with all that is connected with it. If you end up not using it, MOH1 I think would be a hard connect. It is something we have used and enjoyed connected to our Bible reading but not as a history spine and though we liked it the way we used it connecting it to Bible only I would not want to try to connect it to CTC. It is all over the place. We read just the parts that connected to where we were in the Bible or by Bible character and skipped all the secular stuff which made it easy because the Bible kept the flow. I would think trying to get that to flow would to CTC would be a very frustrating task because it was written for the other book and that is where the flow of the program is going to be. You may be better at that kind of thing than me but I would give HOD the way is it is written a little bit more of a chance before taking on that kind of task. I think the style may grow on you and the content really is wonderful. Never in a million years when we started Bigger did I think at the end they would be fighting over who got to read the older spines first. But they became entertained by the content and the writing style became secondary. I think that is actually a good place to get in learning really. Lot's of writing styles will be in their future but fascination with content will really serve them so perhaps that is something you could help focus on and see if that does not make a difference. Praying for a solution for you that brings you peace!

Cynthia,

Is it possible that your son may fit better in Preparing Hearts overall? CTC has history and science books that take a strong, independent reader and are designed for the student to complete independently due to the way the texts are written. This is because the history books in CTC would be tough to follow as read-alouds to or to internalize much in that fashion. Any book that is too difficult for a child is likely to fall into their least favorite category, making it hard work for them just to get through it. You may want to take another peek at the placement chart to see if Preparing Hearts may work better for your guy. Then, when he is another year older, you could head back to CTC. I'm concerned that if the books in the history portion of CTC are tough for him, then the following year when you head into our next guide in line the books will be way too tough, as the reading level continues to go up and the content and expectations rise too.

If you do think that CTC is the best fit for him overall, then I'd definitely give it at least another month or more to allow him to grow into the books as a reader. I'm also not sure how many weeks you are into CTC? Another thing to check is to see that you're not having your son read too much from the Story of the Ancient World each day, as it is a book that is meant to be savored in little bite-sized pieces each day. So, only two segments a session are scheduled from the book each day. Pacing can make a difference in how well a book works too.

If on the other hand, you do find that Preparing Hearts would be a better fit, you can easily return any books from CTC that are new and in saleable condition for a refund to apply toward Preparing if needed. I'm just trying to brainstorm any options here that may be of help.

Blessings,
Carrie

After reading your last post, I was also going to ask if he may fit better into Preparing....is that an option at all? Preparing definitely still works for his age...especially with the extensions. My 10 year old is doing bigger with extensions and having a wonderful year!

Carrie:

Thanks so much for your kind offer and for brainstorming for me.

The thing is this. I went back again and looked over the placement chart. He really does fit into this placement. Everything else that we are doing, he places wonderfully. It is just this book in particular. I am wondering this. Do you think maybe I should try the history book that goes with Preparing and see if that works into this?

Cynthia,

I'm not sure if you got a chance to read this part of my post above, but that may be of help to you since you are thinking he fits best into CTC overall.

If you do think that CTC is the best fit for him overall, then I'd definitely give it at least another month or more to allow him to grow into the books as a reader. I'm also not sure how many weeks you are into CTC? Another thing to check is to see that you're not having your son read too much from the Story of the Ancient World each day, as it is a book that is meant to be savored in little bite-sized pieces each day. So, only two segments a session are scheduled from the book each day. Pacing can make a difference in how well a book works too.

Another thing to consider is how independently your son is able to do any boxes labeled "I" in the CTC plans? I know it takes some time to grow into the skills in CTC, but that may make a difference as to how well-suited he is for CTC overall too.

Using the spine history books from Preparing Hearts along with CTC wouldn't work, as the plans on the left side of the guide for CTC are all keyed to match the history spines from CTC exactly each day. If he fits better into the spines in Preparing Hearts, it's likely that it would be a better fit for him.

Blessings,
Carrie

Okay, we tried it for another week and it is just not working for us! It just bores us to tears. So...starting Monday we will switch to MOH Vol. 1 and I will tweak it where necessary. Also, with a little preparation on my part, I think I can work it in. I will let you know how it works out!