Questions about read alouds in CTC and economizing?

[Momtoamayalilal2]

I am planning on using the Ancients program w/ science next year with my up and coming 5th grade son, but my budget is not agreeing with me in this... I am trying to find ways to economize but want to do the program as written. If I don't, I will end up over-planning/overwhelming myself trying to supplement here and there. My questions:

How long is one read aloud scheduled? (I noticed on the weekly sample one book was scheduled for 16 days..are they all similarly scheduled?)

My library has all of the boy-interest read alouds, and a couple of the history-interest ones. Do you think it would be too difficult to utilize my library for these books(I can check out for 2 weeks and renew for another 2..so total a month)? I prefer to use the history-interest ones and still may purchase the ones that my library doesn't carry, just so that I can go that route. I love the idea of having all of the history integrated with the read alouds, but if my budget isn't allowing me to, I will go with the boy-interest ones.

Is there any way I can get a list of the books needed per semester? If those two options aren't going to work then I may need to just purchase what I need for now, and then get the rest later in the year. I have made up my mind to use this program and will figure out whatever way necessary to do it!

I'm sure I will have more questions but I think that will get me started in the right direction for now! Thanks,

Amber

[Mom25]

Hi--I used my library a lot while using Preparing this year. Before I ordered the package, I went to my library's web site and found out which books they carried, or which ones I could get through inter-library loan. Then I only ordered the books the library didn't carry. Then, once I had the guide in hand, I went through, week by week, and wrote down in my manual which books I needed to get from the library coming up. For example, the ones my library had, I would write in my manual (the week before I needed the book) that I needed to get to the library to pick up the book. For the inter-library books, I gave myself two weeks. So as I went through the year, I would see the notes in my manual reminding me to go get them. This worked great, and it only took me about half-an-hour at the beginning of the year to go through the manual and pencil in the notes. The books were usually only needed for about two weeks, and if I needed them longer, I just renewed them online. We plan to do the same thing with CTC this year. HTH!

[Carrie]

Amber,

The history interest set is scheduled by page number to correspond to the time period being studied within the Reading About History portion of the CTC plans. So, those books will vary as to how long each book is read.

The Boy Interest books will each be used for four 4-day weeks or 16 days of reading (with the exception of the FolkTale which is read for three 4-day weeks or 12 days of reading). The Boy Interest books are used in the order that they are listed on the website.

Blessings,
Carrie

[Momtoamayalilal2]

Hi--I used my library a lot while using Preparing this year. Before I ordered the package, I went to my library's web site and found out which books they carried, or which ones I could get through inter-library loan. Then I only ordered the books the library didn't carry. Then, once I had the guide in hand, I went through, week by week, and wrote down in my manual which books I needed to get from the library coming up. For example, the ones my library had, I would write in my manual (the week before I needed the book) that I needed to get to the library to pick up the book. For the inter-library books, I gave myself two weeks. So as I went through the year, I would see the notes in my manual reminding me to go get them. This worked great, and it only took me about half-an-hour at the beginning of the year to go through the manual and pencil in the notes. The books were usually only needed for about two weeks, and if I needed them longer, I just renewed them online. We plan to do the same thing with CTC this year. HTH!

Thank you so much for explaining how you've been able to make it work this way It does help a lot!

The history interest set is scheduled by page number to correspond to the time period being studied within the Reading About History portion of the CTC plans. So, those books will vary as to how long each book is read.

The Boy Interest books will each be used for four 4-day weeks or 16 days of reading (with the exception of the FolkTale which is read for three 4-day weeks or 12 days of reading). The Boy Interest books are used in the order that they are listed on the website.

Blessings,
Carrie

Thank you Carrie! That helps a lot in seeing how the books are scheduled...it also helps me to see the importance of having them here instead of getting from the library , I think. The time I have to check out books may not be best for checking them out as needed and need to possibly rethink this through. Thanks