heartofdakota.com

I am very excited to find HOD. A friend is using this curriculum and raves about it. She has younger children. I think this would work for my son who just turned 12. He is in 6th grade now and we have used Sonlight and My Father's World. HOD looks exactly like what we've been looking for in a Charlotte Mason education. I am thinking about CTG. Since he will be in the 7th Grade should I use a different science? I am looking at Apologia General Science or could I use what is recommended with CTG which looks interesting.

I'm no expert on 7th grade (my oldest is just in 3rd!), but I'm an HOD fanatic. I would think that in doing CTC with a 7th grader, you may choose to add the self-study extension package if he's a strong reader or if you think he would want more for the history. From the sounds of it, it's pretty meaty already! For science, I'd imagine what's in there is enough but I'd encourage you to consider adding more living books about the subject you are studying if you feel it needs more. I would expect more from him with the assignments as well.

I don't see extensions for science for olders, so my guess is that it's pretty meaty, too!

Like I said though, I'm no expert! Just thought I'd toss out my 2 cents Someone that's btdt will have more input for you soon I bet!

I thought it must be enough since an extension package for 7th grade is not available, but I wanted to make sure before I ordered. I'm excited to start this with my son and may even order and go ahead and start before the end of this year since our curriculum isn't going well this semester. My son says that he just wants to do textbooks, but I am not sold on that direction. I think he has just been overwhelmed with the amount of reading in the other curriculum we have used. He is an exceptional reader and always loved reading until this year.

homemom719,

This past thread may be of help to you as you ponder. Link: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3442

Blessings,
Carrie

We are using CTC with my 7th grade dd. We use a different science and that is an option. I would not if she were not really wanting to do biology and looking toward ultimately a science oriented field. Anyway CTC is really working great for us. Last year she did Bigger for 6th grade with extensions and that worked really well also. It is very easy to beef things up if you need to a little. I think CTC is great for 6th grade or 7th grade. I have four more coming through CTC next year and we will use it just as written for them. It is a very full program. If you wanted to do a higher level science the program still flows really well that way as well. Just wanted to share our experience.

Thank all of you so much for the replies. This helps me so much in my decisions. It helped to read the thread and to hear from someone who is doing CTC with their 7th grader. I am excited about this curriculum and the helpfulness of the group.

I started out my 7th grader last year with Apologia General Science, before we were doing HOD. It's a great textbook, and I love it. But, it was just a little too advanced for her and she wasn't enjoying it or getting much out of it. I shelved it for her, and she is now doing HOD science as written in CTC. It ignited her love of science again, and she always comments to me how much she loves the Land Animals book - she even takes it into her bedroom and reads it for fun. My 9th grader is doing both the HOD science in CTC and the General Science book, and she loves the CTC science as well and is getting a lot out of it.

My 7th grader is a girl though, which might have had an influence. The first third or maybe even more of the General Science book is on the scientific method and physical science type stuff that might be of more interest to a boy.

Monique