Thinking of combining 5th/7th grader into CtC & burnout

[AboveRubiesMama]

I used CtC with my oldest during her 5th grade year, and she loved it. But she is a very strong reader and very independent.

This year, I was going to have my oldest son do it, but it was a flop for him--too much reading, and there's simply no way he could have done any of it independently. He's high functioning autistic with dyslexia, and we ultimately needed to shelve it. He *can* read the books, but reading isn't the first thing he goes after.

Next year, my 3rd child will be moving into 5th grade, and while she's not nearly as independent as my oldest, she's typically developing.

I want to be very careful about what I'm jumping into with 7 children, ranging in ages from infant up to 9th grade and avoiding burnout.

My thought is that teaching the 5th grader with my then 7th grader, it may help him to have someone else working alongside him. But since my 3rd child isn't nearly as independent as my oldest, I imagine I'll need to be involved more heavily.

How realistic is this? Am I setting myself up for burnout? The other option I have is to go with MFW, so I can combine my 2nd, 5th, and 7th grade students at one time. But then I'll need to purchase a kit, and I already own the complete CtC and Beyond.

I'll also need to teach my 2nd grader, Ker, and will have the toddler and baby.

Right now, my potential line-up is:
9th grader: HOD WG (Oldest LOVES HOD and thrives with it, but as I mentioned, she's very independent and a strong reader).
5th and 7th graders: CtC but 7th grader wouldn't do the extensions.
2nd grader: Beyond
K: LHTH (he has a late birthday).

I also need to be able to fit in our co-op for the whole family and therapies for my oldest son.

So, realistically, how does this look? If the best thing for everyone is for me to have my oldest move on into HOD high school, while I combine the others into MFW, then we'll work it into the curriculum budget. My biggest concern is that I'll be teaching through 3 guides next year, while also trying to meet the needs of my two youngest.

[StephanieU]

What is the 5th grader doing this year? Do you think she will be able to handle the reading and writing in CtC?

[AboveRubiesMama]

What is the 5th grader doing this year? Do you think she will be able to handle the reading and writing in CtC?

My 5th grader is currently using ACE for Social Studies and Science, CLE for Math, LA, & Reading, and BJU for English.

While she's typically developing, she has a very short attention span and receives tutoring four hours a week. She's very highly distracted. I'm pretty sure that if she had attended school at any point in her life, they would've insisted that she be put on meds for ADHD.

[AboveRubiesMama]

Just continuing from last post, there's a reason why I would need to be heavily involved teaching these two together. She would need me there to make sure they stay on task, and my oldest son just needs a lot of hand holding. I'm honestly not sure if any of the guide would be appropriate for them to do totally independently.

She does OK with ACE, but only does 4 pages in each booklet a day, and I have to remind her to get them and she needs to stay in the "kids study" so that she's not distracted by all of the other siblings. She does very well with CLE's math, because of the short lesson followed up by lots of review. We tried R&S with her first, but it didn't go well at all.

[MelInKansas]

So have either the 5th or 7th grader (to be) done Preparing Hearts before? Because from what you said it sounds like that might be an even better fit for both of them. It's really not ideal for you to have to help them through subjects that are supposed to be independent, and Preparing has fewer that are supposed to be completely independent. It works them up to the independence coming in CTC.

Look at the placement chart and see where each one places in terms of that. Preparing would be a shorter school day, which it sounds like is good for your 5th grader. Also the boxes are good, in a way, she can have breaks and I would encourage you, if you think ADD is something she struggles with in some form, to arrange her day with a sitting subject and then some physical activity, and no more than 2 hours of school work before a break. Also I can imagine it's hard for such a child in a house with little siblings (I know my oldest struggles with getting her independent work done and she is often distracted with her youngest siblings). Try to have her hardest subjects or those that require a lot of focus be during little ones' naptimes. You may know all this already, she's your child, just some thoughts I wanted to share.

WG, CTC (or Preparing), Beyond, and LHTH is do-able. Well I'm not quite that far yet, but I am running 3 full guides with 2 littles along for the ride. I do preschool with my 3 1/2 year old son too just not LHTH yet, we are saving that for next year. LHTH is fast and easy and takes 15-20 minutes each day. You wouldn't even need to do it every day. Beyond is pretty quick too. I haven't done the HS guides yet but it seems to me that as you go up in the older guides your time with the child each day is a similar amount, it doesn't add on for you, just for them.

I pray you have wisdom as to what to do.

[Rice]

Hi AboveRubiesMama,
You can see from my signature which guides I am running, and might assume (and rightly so) that we're dealing with some learning challenges with my oldest 2, as well (thus, why they are in lower guides than the 10yo).

I happen to agree with MelInKansas; that if your kids aren't ready for some independence, that Preparing would be a great place to start learning some of those skills and foster some independence. If they surprise you at some point, you can always give them more to do independently than the guide suggests. But if you start with CTC then one of two things is likely to happen: either they (one or both) of them will end up frustrated and overwhelmed with what is expected in CTC or you will be required to adapt what is expected to a point where the ease of HOD is lost a great deal. CTC is not an easy guide. Preparing is a great intro to HOD's methodology and expectations and prepares them well for the skills needed in CTC and the guides beyond.

We went through this last year. My 12yo started in CTC but the work load on top of his emerging Executive Functioning issues was way too much. My then-10yo DD started in Preparing but because she could not yet read well she couldn't keep up to the work load. Both of them switched guides after 10 units and things went so much better! We didn't have almost-daily tears or yelling matches out of frustration, they finally felt that they were able to accomplish what was asked of them, and I found that it was easier to run 4 guides with my kids well-placed by their skill level than it was to run 3 with 2 kids struggling to keep up every day.

After our previous experience I caution parents not to choose the highest guide they think their kids might be capable of doing, but to put them where they truly fit - which can be difficult from a list of skills. I really WANTED my 12 yo to be able to handle CTC, but it took 3 months of failure and frustration for me to acknowledge the need to place him where he could feel some confidence in himself.

Blessings as you decide,

[Motherjoy]

Hey there. I agree that Preparing is a great guide to start with, and is one that is very easy to combine. CTC is very difficult to combine. We tried to this year, and some of it is going fine, but there's is so much tweaking that is hasn't been worth it. If you want hod to work for your family, then you have to get to the point where each kid would do there own guide starting in CTC. Combining before that is easy, but it's not afterwards unless the kids skills are similar.

[AboveRubiesMama]

CTC is very difficult to combine. We tried to this year, and some of it is going fine, but there's is so much tweaking that is hasn't been worth it. If you want hod to work for your family, then you have to get to the point where each kid would do there own guide starting in CTC. Combining before that is easy, but it's not afterwards unless the kids skills are similar.

This is exactly what I was wondering. Thank you very much.

[Nealewill]

As long as your kids that you are combining fit the placement chart, then I do think you can successfully combine easily and I do think it will save you oodles of time. I was running 3 guides earlier this year but because I work from home and my son has started therapy again, I decided to combing my two younger kids. My two youngest children are both similar in abilities and they were only one guide apart. Combining has been perfect. A lot of the reason I decided to combine them was because I could see that as they got older, it would benefit my time in the long run and I no longer felt like I needed to make sure my middle child did all of the HOD levels. Plus, my son was recently tested and officially diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder. He started therapy again and that takes quite a bit of time each week. Since APD is a language disorder, I also felt like him being on the highest end of the age range would benefit him best. So as I move forward, I am actually elated that my two younger kids will be kept together.

Since you asked about CTC, I think the places it will lighten your load in doing it together will be storytime, teaching writing, doing the alternating geography and bible box, DITHOR, and I did help my oldest with the poetry box on painting days for the first half of the year. I also had decided a while back to keep my two youngest in the same grammar level. In the end my son will not complete the final half of level 8 in R&S but I am okay with that too. I like teaching this box together because it saves me teaching time and that is what I need. Also, if you are anticipating that your kids won't be as independent, having them work on the same subject at the same time will help tremendously. As I looked to the future with my own two who I combined, I know my son will probably need more clarification that my oldest did when she completed this guide due to his APD. I don't know how long this trend will continue but think it would benefit him and me to do the same thing as my youngest and at the same time. I priced out buying duplicates of the books that my kids would have to read at the same time for Preparing through MTMM - basically the history texts and the science texts. You wouldn't have to buy duplicates of CDs and such because they can listen to them together. But in the end, It added between $150-$250 to my school year. For me, that was fine. I don't plan to buy each child their own guide since those two kids actually share a school desk anyways (it is a longer desk table made for 2 work stations) and then this way, I can order their day and they will do things in the same order. If either or both needs clarification, I can take care of both of them at the same time.

I do actually think that teaching both of these kids will make a huge difference in my day. And even with R2R this year, I can see where me teaching both of my two younger kids at the same time will have a huge benefit too. I will save time when teaching Looking at Pictures and Poetry. I will also save time teaching writing, grammar, and storytime together. I already teach DITHOR together for all 3 kids and that has been wonderful. And for my two youngest, I will have to teach the boy/girl studies separately but it will still save me tons of time by teaching those other things together.

IMHO, I think you can very successfully combine those two kids and make it worth your time and that you will really like it. I don't necessarily think you need to buy the extra books but wanted to share with you how I plan to run my school day in hopes that this may give you something else to think about.