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HI there,

My soon to be 13 yo son, will finish with Preparing by the end of this year. We plan to begin CTC in January, BUT I'm pondering moving him into RTR in the fall. What would you suggest we do to make this happen?

Keep in mind a baby is due in March!!

With Joy!
Florence

I just went through this last year but a different curriculum. My baby girl was born in April. Personally (and I think this is what you were asking?), I would take it easy on yourself and your son. The last 2 months of pregnancy were exhausting for me (mid 30's), you may even get bedrest (do you hear the shrieks and inhaled breaths across the board??). Carrie has done such a beautiful and incredible job of writing this curriculum that we have chosen to devour every moment... Don't start CTC until your family is ready whether that be early summer, late summer or fall - and then enjoy every aspect of it for the whole year. Take time to enjoy your new bundle of joy. Allow time for both of your beautiful children. This was my last pregnancy and I am glad that I took it easy the last month and a half (that is how our finish lined up) and then didn't start back to education until the baby was 4 1/2 months and even then we took it easy - and it has been WONDERFUL!!

What do you do in the meantime? Go to the library. Encourage him to explore his own interests. Do a unit study or to if you can't help yourself. I would plea with you not to push and to enjoy the ride - this coming from an academic snob who can't sit still for more than a few seconds (MariaW, you can stop laughing now )

Good luck with whatever you choose.

Are you planning on doing the entire guide? At his age he could double up the history if you weren't doing the science. If I were going to do a guide at double speed for an older child, I would skip science and DITHOR (No gasps please. It is just for 1/2 year!). I would also have him read the read alouds on his own as a reading "program". If you desired to you could read ahead and have him give you summaries or ask him questions. If you use the extension books or the history read alouds this is a good idea due to the great discussions these books can foster. However, I do not know your child's strengths and weaknesses. If one of these is a weakness, that might change my suggestion. If you have testing considerations with science, that might alter my suggestions also. However, personally, (unless it was just really too easy for my child) I would probably just keep going and add an appropriate history and science text if you wanted to up the level and stay at the one guide per year pace. I am not sure of your reasons for wanting to do 1/2 year.

Florence,

Another option to consider would be to do the guide 5 days a week, instead of 4 days a week. While this wouldn't have you done within half a year, it would speed up your progress and still keep the daily workload manageable. You would then complete the guide in 28 weeks instead of 35. Just another thought.

Blessings,
Carrie

These are all good thoughts. I'm leaning to the 5 days a week. In the past I haven't wanted to give up that 5th day, but with a new baby I know we will be close to home, especially in the first 6 months to a year and if we simply keep going that would have us finishing the guide in time to start RTR in the fall. My son is able to do most of the work independently with me just keeping a watchful eye and providing direction. His weakness is grammar, which we will continue to plug away at. His strength is the independent reading, science and history which he is just inhaling.

I'll keep you posted.

I am doing this with CTC right now. We do CTC five days a week and will be done earlier. This works well for our family and my dh's work schedule. I think that this would be a good plan to try, Florence, but if you are feeling overly tired or stressed (which is pretty understandable when you're pregnant), please just give yourself permission to slow down if need be. I will say that for me, it was actually easier TO homeschool when I was pregnant because otherwise the entire day was just free time for the boys. When we stay home with our dc, it's not like the responsibility of the dc goes away when we stop homeschooling - they're still there with us, needing things to do. For us, it was just easier to homeschool - even when I was on bedrest, and then to allow them to have their afternoons free for playtime while I tried to catch some zzzzz's when that happened to work out. I wonder if I had girls if this would have been different - perhaps they are not as BUSY, but having my boys have free time all day just about caused me to have the baby right then and there! After a few days of that, I started homeschooling again. Homeschooling at least had them slowing down a bit for awhile.

In Christ,
Julie

my3sons wrote:I I will say that for me, it was actually easier TO homeschool when I was pregnant because otherwise the entire day was just free time for the boys. When we stay home with our dc, it's not like the responsibility of the dc goes away when we stop homeschooling - they're still there with us, needing things to do. For us, it was just easier to homeschool - even when I was on bedrest, and then to allow them to have their afternoons free for playtime while I tried to catch some zzzzz's when that happened to work out.

Yes, Julie that is my feeling as well. I"ve found that my boys do much better when we're schooling. It provides structure.

I like Carrie's idea better too. But then again, that's why she's the author! Having 4 boys and 4 girls I have to say that it is a much less busy household when the boys are gone. Girls do have a quiet mode even if they don't use it all the time.

8arrows,

I had forgotten that girls do have a quiet mode (which I don't seem to ever have with my boys)! I was just thinking of that the other day, as the house literally shakes as my boys move about it. I can't remember my sisters and I being constantly on the move like that!

Although, with your 8 arrows I'm sure your house has a busier feel than mine!

Blessings,
Carrie

I would take the slower approach as CTC is just sooo good. I'm not in a hurry with my 12 yr old dd, and she's enjoying it sooo much. I'm also expecting, actually any day now, with our seventh. So we're taking some time off to "learn" other life skills as we're also moving. I just don't want to breeze through CTC as it's so rich and she's really excited about it and retaining so much!! Blessings, Jen