Combining grades 2-8 in CTG

[Susan on the Space Coast]

Coming back for CtG

We used MFW for the past 2 school years ('07/08 and '08/09) and completed Adventures and 1st, then K and ECC. Our co-op was focusing on Civil War to Modern Times for History/Literature. Now it's time to decide whether CtG is a good fit for our family next year.

If we do CtG next year my kids would be 2nd, 4th and 5th. How does CtG work for those ages? Are there weekly notebooking assignments? When we got to the end of ECC I realized that we actually did more notebooking in Adventures!!! Are the books going to work well? I'm especially wondering about Streams of History. How does the CtG compare to Adventures and ECC?

RB,

I have a 4th grade DD and a 6th grade DS working in CTG this year. It is working fine with them. There are some notebooking pages, but not every week. I imagine the 2nd grader will be drifting in and out on the history. Don't worry about the Streams b/c it's short or it's marked as Advanced which would be used when your 2nd grader goes through it again when she's in 7th!

[cbollin]

Hey ya RB!

my 5th grader is not super advanced. She's normal or slow or average.
My 5th grader does fine understanding Streams of Civilization. It is scheduled in small enough sections and is read out lout by parent. If you have younger kids you can read the advanced assignments to yourself and then summarize if needed to them. I sometimes summarize the highlights of a paragraph to my 5th grader and read the details to my 8th grader. LIke I said, my 5th grader is average. For the most part, she does fine in that book. It is not the main spine in the program either.

She likes Ancient World. She liked the Pyramids experiments (I'm guessing your 2nd grader will like those). We've enjoyed the feasts.

CTG notebooking --we get vocab from English from Roots Up, we do some map work, and then after key people/events we do notebooking summary page. So it might not be every week, but we just finished up week 28 and my 5th grader has 42 pages in her notebook, WOW! and that's not counting the extra drawings that she did for fun. It does count the finished sections of memory verse work and all of that. wow... It just seems so light sometimes, how could it have been that much already? Some of it is maps that we trace per instructions. Some of it is from appendix pages (well, 2nd edition that will be student sheets). Some of them are "narrative summary" notebook pages. Some are coloring pages. Some are after you finish long sections of memory passages. wow I really didn't realize how much we did until I counted. and none of that is counting any science or God and history of art or the English from Roots up pages. Also not included in that count are pages from of drawings of extras from things like drawing a frog from the plagues or sheep while studying King David, or a mummy. She likes to draw things.

I think there will be plenty for a 2nd grader who is younger sib. Some times some of it in ancient will go over head at that age (like a lot of the Assyrian motives), but the Bible is the main spine in the CTG.

We've enjoyed science (I am the weirdo out here in cyber space who enjoys the science in CTG).

If we're doing all of that, why does this year seem so much lighter than ECC or the other years to me? I don't get it? Maybe God is just holding onto me in ways that I don't fully appreciate this year after my out of state move.

-crystal

[mommyofemni]

I'm doing CtG with an average 4th/5th grade age and a 2nd grade. We have done K, 1st, Adventures and ECC.

The kids are doing great this year. I can't believe how much they are retaining. My older son can do everything assigned in CtG but may not remember quite everything in Streams of Civilization. He really has the bible history down and about 70% of the additional world history info. For all other grade level programs associated with MFW he is on track mostly.

My 2nd grader gets all of the bible history. She soaks it up and is doing great. I don't think she is really grasping the mapping well or the ambiguous world history. When we studied the Olmecs of South America I don't think she retained any of it. That's ok, she'll get it again. Also the vocabulary is hard for her to recall. In fact, I almost let her quit it because we were about 15 weeks in and she would only remember about 5 of the words at quiz time but then I decided just to keep her going forward and now from weekly repetition and playing a game with her brother she has most of the root words down.

I let her slide a little bit with some of the details of the program because in 2nd grade it is more important to me that she read, write, spell and has her math concepts down. Everything else is gravy.

I think there is less notebooking than Adventures but we don't keep a science notebook or a nature journal. We just can't quite do all that writing at our house. We do all the stuff but are not cataloging it. It is ok for now with my children.

My thoughts are use the curriculum as works best for your family. If it is a little too deep, keep reading everything but don't stress if they don't retain it all. If it is a little light for one, make sure that one reads extra library books or is in charge of science experiments. I love the program the Hazells have put together. It is wonderful and I wish I had a perfect family and we could do every single thing on every page and it always worked and no one ever fought and they both had complete comprehension and retention. Hmmm. Since that isn't my family we take the wonderful program and use it the best we can for the special children in our home and their uniqueness, their strengths, and their weaknesses. In the end we all come out ahead.

Hope all that babbling helps a little.

Brenda
mom to ds 10 and dd 7 using CTG

[Julie in MN]

If we do CtG next year my kids would be 2nd, 4th and 5th. How does CtG work for those ages? Are there weekly notebooking assignments? When we got to the end of ECC I realized that we actually did more notebooking in Adventures!!!

RB,
I had two thoughts about your worries...

(1) Maybe someone has already said this, but notebooks are going to look different in each home. I am really a fan of notebooking as a method of learning, so our notebooks are full every year. I had an older dd who was very artistic and a youngest ds who is very savvy on the computer, so they have created lots of pages. I also use notebooking as a part of "writing class" -- and reduce writing in other areas. In CTG, there are plenty of notebooking pages assigned, but if you're a big fan of notebooking it's easy enough to plug in extras, such as having the kids make a page to match each timeline piece. My ds also made pages about each feast and about a few more Biblical figures than were assigned. That is just us

But MFW was not written to force every family to be like mine. If you look at the notebook samples in the MFW convention booths, they are very do-able for all families, even those who don't like notebooking ( ) or with tons of kids or other challenges that would make too much notebooking a strain.

(2) The other thing I was thinking about is that notebooking is not the only method of learning in MFW. ECC uses a game as a major method of learning. CTG uses reenactments to bring home the events of the Old Testament, including the 10 plagues and the major feasts. There may not be 50 states sheets in these years, but there are still great methods of learning that help enormously with retention. However, if you would like a record of the experiential learning, you can always slip photographs into the notebook -- or have the kids write or draw their experiences.

Hope that helps you think it thru,
Julie

[my3boys]

I have a fifth grader doing CtG this year. He has done great with it. He does all the assignments including the notebooking (I scribe and then he copies a good copy for his notebook and illustrates). Originally I had been hoping my 8yo would join in, but it is way over his head - granted that he is just learning to read this year though. I switched to using a story bible instead of reading straight out of the bible which helped to bring the younger kids along (we still use Victor though). So my younger kids have joined in on Bible, Jewish feasts, and read-alouds. I think you could actually drop Streams for younger kids and it wouldn't make that much of a difference - it's not used that much.

[RB]

How nice to see your familiar names Thanks for helping me process this decision. Each and every one of you said some very helpful things. I'm starting to feel like returning to MFW would be coming home.

When we first discovered MFW there were several things that really appealed. The overall philosophy and the bible focus, of course, and the general progression from American history to Geography to 4 year History cycle. Another big one was that it provided a wonderful framework (which kept me from doing hours of planning) and yet offered some flexibility (especially with book basket). I think last year I lost sight of that a bit and felt like a failure for not doing everything perfectly, especially not even trying to tackle the Geography packets. I forgot that with a multi-age curriculum it is OK to tweak a bit to fit the needs of my individual family.

I'm starting to think that CtG would really work well for our family. I hope to get a look at it at a convention next month, too. What I really miss is the feeling that our family is on a journey of learning and growing and seeking God together.

I may be back later with more questions. Thanks again!!!!

Oh, and we decided to switch my current 1st grader to MFW 1st last month. He's doing great, and it will certainly carry over into his 2nd grade year a bit, which is OK, right? Reading and writing are still a challenge for him. Anyway, it will probably work nicely for him to finish 1st and join in for parts of CtG.

[RB]

I appreciate that I can still teach my children together and adjust things as needed.

Hi Rachel!
That is exactly what is drawing me back to MFW. Thanks for sharing about your ECC year. It sounds great! I think our ECC year was actually just what it should have been, too, and my dc still have great memories. They are actually asking to return to MFW, which really says something.
Blessings,

It is so good to see you here again! I hope you do Creation to the Greeks next year. We could then do it together! Mine will be in third and fifth, and we are all looking forward to it.

Hi Tammy!
That would be fun! I'm really feeling excited about CtG--- I've been carrying last year's catalog with me everywhere for the past few days to re-read it when I get a minute or two I can't wait to look at the manual next month, and i expect to feel even more certain about it.
Looking forward to sharing ideas and stories

[klewfor3]

Hi! I'm new to this board and planning to homeschool in the fall. I've used other curriculums in the past and my boys have been in school since 2011. I really like the look of My Father's World and am considering combining my boys (grade 5, grade 3, and grade 2) with Creation to the Greeks. Has anyone combined these ages? Is this possible? Thanks!

Hello!

I combined 4th and 2nd for CTG with a Kindergartener tagging along. It is doable and enjoyable! It was one of our favorite years

My best tip is to just follow the Teacher's Manual! There is a sample schedule offered in there that we followed and it worked for us! Also, the combined subjects (Bible, History, Science, read-a-louds etc.) allow you to blend the ages easily. I found that there is enough independent work to allow you time to work with each of your kiddos individually on Math and Language Arts. It really works so well.

Melissa posted that MFW recommends doing ECC first. We did and it did work nicely for us. If you have questions call the MFW office or maybe check both curriculums out individually and see what you think might work best for you.

Either way I think you'll be very happy!
Kathy