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Hi ladies,

Need some help from those of you who have used this with one child. I have two part-time jobs, not by my choice. It is just needed to stay afloat financially right now. I am home in the middle part of the day and was wondering the time committment for Creation to Christ. I want to do it justice without shortchanging my daughter.

How much of this can she do on her own and do you think this is doable in my situation?

Thanks in advance,

I have no idea about CTC, but I will keep you in my prayers that the Lord will show you how to make things work for your family! Sure enough someone will chime in who has experience with CTC
Success

How old is your daughter and how well does she work independently?
I drive a school bus and am therefore gone morning and afternoon, also. My 12 year old does almost all of it independtly. Though we haven't been doing certain aspects...(poetry, painting, hands-on). We could. And, she could do them on her own. But, she is SO artistic that she felt doing these activities as "School work," was causing her not to enjoy her art as much. So, we dropped them and my artist lives on.

Sidenote: Her father is a very talented painter who can paint anything I've seen put in front of him. He started her painting on canvas at about age 3. In addition, I have always had a constant supply of odds and ends as well as "Real" art supplies available to her for her to create at her leisure. She loves to use all types of mediums, sew, bake (if it's something sweet she wants to eat), and has now moved on to an active interest in photography. So, for us the hands on things were redundant.

The things we do together are Genesis: Finding Our Roots, A Child's Geography, and Storytime titles (but, not everyday or even every week sometimes). I will say, we are not using the program as well as intended, but I never have with any program. I'm just not a "Keep a schedule" personality. Well, I plan well, but don't follow through so well. Not to mention we have lost 3 close family members in the last year and a half, have had 2 more grandmas in the hospital, and my hubby has been away serving in the Armed Forces. So...life comes before schoolwork. But, despite me, my daughter is learning and doing well.

I must say, I absolutely LOVE the history in CTC!! In fact, my daughter has not done as well getting her studies done this year as in all the previous years (Partially my fault), but she ALWAYS does the Bible and history portions first. I think it may be because the history is Bible centered. Carrie has truly done an awesome job of not only weaving everything together so well, but of pointing our eyes constantly back to God.

After 10 years of homeschooling and using or at least owning a huge portion of curriculums that are out there, I can honestly say of all the things I've ever owned HOD is the easiest to implement without using dry, boring, fragmented material. And, the richest, most God-centered I have ever seen, as well.

CTC has the following parts independent, meaning your child should be able to read directly from the guide and do these parts with no help: Reading About History, Science Exploration, Bible Quiet Time, Poetry. The following are Semi independent, meaning your child may need help getting started, or a little interaction with you: Language Arts, Math, History Project. Lastly, the rotating box Bible Study/Geography and the Storytime box are teacher directed, meaning you are reading aloud and interacting directly with your child. The two teacher directed boxes should take about 20 minutes a day each. The time you spend with her in the semi-independent parts will vary by subject and day. She may even be able to do the History Projects independently.
It will depend, as the previous poster said, on your child's age, how well she places into CTC according to the placement chart, and how well she can work independently.

Hi! If you can give us a little more info about your daughter, we might be able to answer more accurately! Does she work independently? Is she able to easily follow directions? Looking at the placement chart, does she have the skills for CtC? If the answer to these questions is yes, then from my experience, I think you'll be fine. CtC is VERY doable! And, the kids work on their own so much at this level that she will be able to accomplish most of school on her own.

As a reassurance, here is my experience: I too work 2 part-time jobs out of necessity (prayerfully waiting for my dh to find full-time employment -he was bumped to part-time 18 months ago). Anyway, I have one in CtC this year (11yo ds) and one 2yo who loves to be involved. We complete CtC, pretty much as written, except math, and he is VERY independent. Even the Semi-Independent boxes are pretty self-explanatory. If your child is able to follow directions easily, then she should be able to do most of these on her own. My ds does complete the history projects, poetry/painting on his own. He really only needs me for Storytime (about 15-20 minutes - she could do on her own, if necessary), Bible Study/Geography (about 15 minutes - again, these could be done on own if necessity required it), Language Arts (about 20 minutes) and Math (less than 10 minutes). In fact, although it is a great relief with my work responsibilities now, I some times MISS being involved more! HTH

Thank you for your replies. My daughter will be 13 at the end of summer, so she would be on the high end of the age range. She works pretty well independently, especially if she has boxes to check off! I feel better listening to your responses. I am excited to actually see the curriculum, so I am saving to buy it in the fall.

I really want something I can use through graduation, so when I heard that HOD was going to go through High School, I thought I would take a second look at using it. I just didn't want to invest the money into something that I wouldn't be able to do justice to because of my work schedule.

For those of you who have used a different language arts program than Rod and Staff, what have you used? And what made you decide to use something different?

Thanks