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I am getting ready to order ctc for my 13 year old. Was wondering if I should wait to start her in the fall or if I can start her now, half way through 8th grade. When I order should I order the history package or the girl interest set, and what about the extension package. If I had to downsize due to finances which one to leave out, maybe try to borrow from the library. I also would like her to do DIHOR, but do you think the book list for 5/6 is enough or how would I find more challenging books.

Hi there! I am not sure about some of your other questions, but as to DITHHR, one of the lovely things about it is that you can select any book that you choose in the different genres. You would probably need to order the 6/7/8 student book. There a number of high school reading lists out there. I'd begin scanning those and looking for what seems right for your daughter. If you select longer, more difficult books you may not complete all 9 genres in one school year. (I guess it depends on how much your daughter likes to read). I'd probably give her some choices too. Ninth graders should begin to have some ownership in their studies. (Not to sound all know-it-all, this has just been the experience in my family.) I hope this helps. We will use CTC this fall and I can't wait!

I just did CTC with my oldest dd so I can tell you what I would do. The disclosure is I am extremely biased, because we love CTC, all of it! But I would go for the history interest package especially for an older child. It was great we loved it, using it again with my 6th graders as well. And I can't imagine not using it with the next too even though they will be hitting it a bit younger. If you must economize I would do it at the extension package and some of those could be found at the library so I would look for those. We did really enjoy the extension package and I do have my younger students using it as well, again can't imagine not using it with the youngest ones either. CTC is such a great program. You will love it!

Thank you, I am so excited to start ctc in a few weeks. I think that I will order the history pack with the extensions and just borrow the dithor books from the library. I will be using ctc with 3 children throughout the years so it really is a good investment!!!

amf1025 wrote:Thank you, I am so excited to start ctc in a few weeks. I think that I will order the history pack with the extensions and just borrow the dithor books from the library. I will be using ctc with 3 children throughout the years so it really is a good investment!!!

Absolutely! Every new program I get each year is used with six kids for a total of three times through the program. It really is a great value to be able to recycle. You might also want to get the Sample Book List http://www.heartofdakota.com/drawn-into-packages.php (on the middle right). This is a list of preselected books with the reading level and genre. It contains some upper level reading ideas for DITHR that I think you might find helpful for getting books in the library.