Which level: Preparing or Creation to Christ

[Kathleen in NJ]

I am seriously considering switching to HOD. I was hear this same time last year and didn't switch. I have used another literature based curriculum for 13 years (my oldest son is graduating in June). My other son is 10. The other curriculum is very heavy with the book load. Now that I look back on it, I feel like we were speeding through books and checking boxes. I am just not sure that I want to continue doing that with my other son. It is hard to say that I don't want to read good books.....I do. I just don't think that I want to do it at breakneck speed. I have been drawn to HOD for some time, their book list appeals to me also. I keep thinking about how everything ties together with God. I feel like that is so much more important than how many books we read.

Now I need to figure out which level is right for HOD for my 10 year old. (He will be 11 soon and technically would be going into 6th grade in the fall). He was a struggling reader for a long time. He reads fine now but he really just started reading two years ago. He doesn't like to write at all. With him I prefer to have him at the older age of a level so that he is not struggling.

It would appear that Preparing would be best for him to start with. My problem is this: he has already read ( I read- he listened) 6 of the books for that level. (He just this year read A Child's History of the World) He also read: Hero Tales, Aesop's Fables, The Family Under the Bridge, Ten and Twenty and the Little Riders). It seems like it is silly to do a level where he has already done so much in especially with CHOW being the main history spine. (He did love this book but I don't really want to read it two years in a row).

So if I start him in Creation to Christ is that going to be to hard for him? He is going to be the only child I am homeschooling so I am not concerned about him doing it independently. I would be fine with sitting and reading the books to him, I am more concerned about the writing. He really doesn't like to write anything.

Any advice?

[Jennymommy]

It may be, if you follow a traditional schedule starting in August or September, that he will be quite ready for CTC. And there is the option of taking it slower for a bit. The other consideration is that HOD schedules so many activities beyond just reading that it may seem new Also, the extension readers for Preparing are really fun

[momxnine]

Did you look at the placement chart for the skills that he would need to know? My thoughts would be to go with CTC and then if he doesn't quite know how to do the oral or written narrations, just slow down a bit until he gets those skills. That would also keep you on course for the high school years so you won't have to try to beef up any of the levels (like a lot of us end up having to do) and you can just go with the guides as written.

We started with CTC when my son was 12 and he was on the older end of the guide and he did fine without knowing how to do any of the narration things. But I wish I had known about HOD a couple of years before so we would be ready to start the WG when he's 14 (which isn't going to happen).

[LynnH]

I would only do CTC if you think he can handle the reading that he is supposed to do on his own, so that means the history and science boxes. The Story of the Ancient World is a tough read. Maybe have him read one of the sample chapters and see how he does. For the writing you can work up slowly to that and maybe have a goal of him being able to do all the writing as instructed in the guide by the middle of the year. If you have to help him at first by writing his thoughts down for his written narration and then letting him copy it into the notebook that is fine to do at first as long as he knows the goal is for him to do it all on his own at some point.

You might want to start at half speed and then work up to full speed. This will give him time to get used to the assignments.