Whew, just finished first week with CTC and

[Alison in KY]

it was good . So far I really like what I've seen in the program. It does make for an extremely full day. At this point we are not finishing anywhere near the projected time of 4.5 hours (plus we are skipping the painting until Friday)..we're finishing between 5.5 and 6 hours this week. This is with my easily distractable dependent guy, so I'm hoping we'll pick up speed the further we go. Honestly, as much as I've enjoyed this week I don't know if I can keep up this pace, but there is so much going on that I could easily drop or skip a few things and possibly cover them on Friday's.

Thanks for writing it Carrie.

Alison

[basesloaded]

We just finished our first week with CTC. It was a long but enjoyable week for us, too. It has been really hard for me to adjust from a lazy summer routine to a full school day routine. I was very, very tired every evening this week but I know as we get accustom to the routine it will get better W we do a couple other curr. things on Friday, too, and this week we saved the Science Experiment ti Friday and that went goo for us. Best wishes to you for a great year - I know it will be with HOD !

[Tabitha]

Oh, wow. I am glad you ladies shared this. Our CTC arrived yesterday. I still need to clean the school room, which the children have trashed, to get us ready for the new year.

This is gonna be quite a change for my oldest. Normally her work last year was done in 3 hours. Maybe 4 if she was slacking off. I'm sure the first few weeks will take a bit getting use to the new schedule, materials, etc.

We will be doing a weekly co-op this year on Tuesdays. These are more fun classes, and for them to meet other children.

I just can't decide if we should start HOD before our vacation, get a week in to know what we're up for. Or wait until after we get home.

I am adding in Bob Jones Handwriting 6 to our work. My dd feels writing nicely is totally useless, and she writes worse than my kindergartener. She needs that fully modelled/scripted copy to look at.

I'm now feeling very thankful that we bought the extension books for history. She LOVES to read. And if she wants something to read at night, I'm gonna use these books as my incentive for her getting her work done in a timely manner, without mommy harrassing her, and without complaints from her. I wish she was more of a self-starter than she is. I'm trying to find out things to encourage her with that.

[Alison in KY]

My son's handwriting is really bad also...manuscript or cursive. I'm thinking maybe I should look at Bob Jones now . He also just doesn't care how it looks, unfortunately, his momma doesn't have the best handwriting either...but I can when I have to. He still can't when I tell him to. His writing in the student notebook is pretty rough...my 7 year old would be neater than him.

[my3sons]

Allison - I'm glad your first week went well with CTC. It is a full program, but I just wanted to encourage you that the boxes are planned in a routine way, so eventually the dc seem to get into more of a rhythm with them. I know our first week of CTC we had to go after lunch to finish too. I think around a month in or so we were finishing in 4 - 4 1/2 hours. I pray the same happens for you! Thanks for sharing!

In Christ,
Julie

[Tabitha]

My son's handwriting is really bad also...manuscript or cursive. I'm thinking maybe I should look at Bob Jones now . He also just doesn't care how it looks, unfortunately, his momma doesn't have the best handwriting either...but I can when I have to. He still can't when I tell him to. His writing in the student notebook is pretty rough...my 7 year old would be neater than him.

I looked at a few things. I liked a review I read on the BJU Handwriting 6. It does cursive and calligrahpy! The mom said after her child did both she saw a nice change in the child developing their own handwriting style between those two. It just made me think that perhaps adding in something a bit different, and new, might do the trick for my dd. When I told my dd what the book taught, she got super excited. She's never done that over handwriting before.

I still need to get a calligraphy pen. For me, with how horrible her penmanship is, it was worth spending the extra money on this this school year.

I also looked at the Memoria Press cursive copybook. I wanted her to be able to read/understand all she was writing, so wasn't too keen on the latin. Then I found the BJU one, and didn't look back.

[Carrie]

Alison,

I know what you mean! Last year, my first week of CTC went a bit long too, but I was also trying to balance it with RTR, Beyond, and LHTH. So, it took a bit to get everyone into their routine. Plus, I was having an adjustment for me in realizing that summer was over!

Blessedly, my sweet sister had started school 2-3 weeks before me, and she assured me that it was just the "getting into the routine thing" that took time but that once the kiddos got the routine of CTC down... time literally fell of the schedule! It was so true! For me, as the year progressed, CTC just got smoother and smoother, allowing for much more time with my Beyond child! It was a true blessing to me to see my second little guy really take flight in CTC and for me to cuddle up with my two littler ones and devote more time to them. It truly blessed my momma-heart! We pray the same will be true for you.

Heading back to school is always an adjustment around here too!

Blessings,
Carrie

[Alison in KY]

Thanks ladies.

Julie, I nearly laughed out loud at you saying you went past lunch early in your CTC walk...we were so much past that it wasn't even funny. My husband was coming home from work and he couldn't believe we were still sitting at the kitchen table doing school

I can see the repetition in the program, and I know that will help. I have to admit, I am worried about getting through these written narrarations and writing assignments, but it'll work itself out.

Tabitha, I'm going to look at samples of BJU. Thanks for the idea.

Alison

[Carrie]

Alison,

Oh my! Our days in CTC never went much over 5 hours even in the beginning weeks and with doing absolutely every part of the program. Within a month, we were at 4 hours or less a day routinely. I'm not sure what's happening there with the time you're mentioning. If you'd be willing to post your schedule, we could take a peek at it and help you find where the time is going. Are you adding anything to CTC that adds time to your day? On a sidenote, there's no need to add an extra handwriting program like BJU, as copywork is built into the program and required to be well-done within the Student Notebook and Common Place Book. I certainly wouldn't go looking for something else to add to your day, if you're already schooling much too long.

We'd be glad to help if you can share a bit more about your routine. CTC shouldn't take that long! One other thing I'm wondering is whether your child is doing the readings himself/herself and whether you were coming out of Preparing Hearts or have already been through some training in the skills and independence needed to be successful in CTC? If you get a chance to pop back with some of the answers to these questions, we could all help so much better.

There were quite a few ladies on the board last year who did CTC, and none of us were schooling as many hours as you're mentioning, so I know our CTC time allotments aren't just because I happen to have amazing children. We'll work to get your time down so you can enjoy CTC too.

Here's a link to the thread with the time allotments for CTC:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7031&p=51200

Blessings,
Carrie

[Carrie]

Alison,

I came across Kathleen's schedule for doing CTC this year with Grant too that may be of help to you. It's looking like she's done by lunch, while doing LHFHG and LHTH too, so take heart that this can work for you too. Looking at her schedule may help! I've pasted it below (I hope Kathleen won't mind):

I can share what we're doing, too - if that helps you at all. I'm using CTC, LHFHG, and LHTH this year.

My oldest plays piano & violin. (I teach the piano, and Grandma teaches violin - so we don't have to travel or pay for lessons! Only way it could get done, but it does take a lot of practice time.) He's been used to getting up and doing these 1st thing in the morning the last couple of years. This year, I decided to have him start with piano and then move on to his Bible Quiet time and put violin in the afternoon. It's going well!!

7:30 - Grant Quiet Time (CTC)
8:00 - Family Breakfast w/ Family Devos with Dad
8:30 - DITHOR (I start Grant with the lesson & listening to him read a little)
- Allison Math & Fine Motor Skills (LHFHG)
9:00 - Grant Dictation & Math (I do dictation and the math lesson & leave him to finish)
9:20 - LHTH with Garret
- Allison practices emerging reader
9:50 - Listen to Allison read
10:10 - Allison & Garret have a snack & watch a video for 30 min.
- Storytime with Grant (with snack)
- Geography/Genesis Study with Grant
10:50 - Grammar or WWTB with Grant
11:15 - LHFHG with Allison (left page + storytime)
- Grant works on Poetry, Independent History, or History Project/Written Narration in whatever order he chooses
12:00 - Piano & Violin with Allison
- Grant Science
Then we have lunch at about 12:45 or 1:00 - and we're DONE! Grant still practices his violin in the afternoon sometime when Garret (and mom! ) is taking a nap. They usually all play outside for at least an hour after lunch - before nap time.
Kathleen

Blessings,
Carrie

[Alison in KY]

LOL, definitely things are different here. It's 3:23 now and we are still not finished, although I did make bread and let everyone sleep in this morning, so we didn't begin until 10.

He is not independent in the least, so I am walking him through some things. However, he's also my one child that get's distracted by....EVERYTHING...including the thoughts in his head which have nothing to do with school. He can definitely focus while he's reading, but when he's copying or doing math, he just gets sidetracked. He is probably mildly ADD, plus bored with school in a way. I don't think he's severly ADD because he can pay attention to a lot of things, especially the stuff he cares about. He also needs things to be fairly quiet when he is working.

I'll pay more attention to our times tomorrow, plus post my schedule later.

[Kathleen]

One thing that I didn't have on my schedule was that after Grant does math, he moves on to the Reading About History box on his own. I forgot to add that while I was typing what I was doing.

Kathleen

[momtofive]

Kathleen,

I don't want to hijack this thread, but thank you so much for putting up your schedule (in a round-about way)!!

I am doing CTC, Beyond, and LHTH. It all worked out on paper when I made a schedule, but in the day-to-day of using it, things were taking a lot longer. I know we have just started, and it will take time for us to get into the swing of things, but seeing your schedule helps a lot!

I am most likely going to implement a similar plan for my bunch. Just wanted to say thanks! It helps so much when more experienced ladies help out us newbies!!!!

And, since, I'm on here directing a thank you in your direction, please know that I'm praying for you and your little one as your time approaches. Blessings on a safe delivery and recovery to follow! Have fun loving on that precious little one!!!!

In Christ,

Lisa

[Alison in KY]

Here's my schedule:

1) Sentence Family or memorization (10 min)

2) Handwriting (5-10 min)

3) Carson - math (should take 30 min)
Adison - science, Bible, Pathway reading
Molly - T4L

4) Carson - Bible Quiet Time (should take 20 min)
Adison - math
Molly - phonics and WWE

5) Carson - piano (20 min)
Adison - T4L, math facts, typing
Molly - math

6) Carson - Reading about history, typing, independent history (30 - 40 min)
Adison - grammar, writing, spelling
Molly - piano

7) Carson - English (1 hour for all, I'm using R and S, WWTB, dictation as written, and reading detective instead of DITHOR)
Adison - piano
Molly - break

Carson - Poetry Copywork, story time (reads to himself from Boy Interest set) (30-45 min depending on what the girls have to do)
Adison and Molly - MFW (history, reading, Bible, drawing, etc)

9) Carson - narraration, Bible study or Geography with mom, science, history project (saving this for last so I can give him help when needed, not sure on time here...written narrarations take us forever!...so 1 hour at least for this block)

[Alison in KY]

On a sidenote, there's no need to add an extra handwriting program like BJU, as copywork is built into the program and required to be well-done within the Student Notebook and Common Place Book. I certainly wouldn't go looking for something else to add to your day, if you're already schooling much too long.

We'd be glad to help if you can share a bit more about your routine. CTC shouldn't take that long! One other thing I'm wondering is whether your child is doing the readings himself/herself and whether you were coming out of Preparing Hearts or have already been through some training in the skills and independence needed to be successful in CTC? If you get a chance to pop back with some of the answers to these questions, we could all help so much better.

Blessings,
Carrie

Well, my son's handwriting is pretty bad. Even when he goes extremely slow and tries hard, his handwriting is still pretty bad...and trust me, we've done handwriting every year since he was 5. I've decided that handwriting is like spelling, there are those that are natural spellers, and those that naturally write better. My youngest of the bunch beats my older two hands down on writing, and she's obviously had fewer years of handwriting experience (her handwriting is wonderful). So, we are starting our day together at the table doing some memorization or reading through a cute little story about the sentence family, then we're going into a group lesson of handwriting,where I'm writing the letters out on the dry erase board. And lol, I might tell him to do his best work in his student notebook and common place book...but that happening are two different things...as I said before, he's just not that neat of a writer. However, I can read his writing, so there is a bonus....maybe he'll be a doctor one day .

Yes, my son is doing the readings himself and he does a great job at doing that. He doesn't however follow directions very carefully, so I do not hand him the TM and say "here you go" every morning.