Move Up to CTC or ?

[ncmomof5]

I need a little advice, and though I looked through previous threads, I couldn't find exactly the answer I needed for this particular child. I have a ds 12 who is a struggling learner. He is currently finishing up Preparing (on Unit 32), and I have CTC all ready for him to start. However, I am really unsure that he should move up to CTC right now. After working and helping him through the guided steps Preparing provides for written narrations, this child still cannot write a written narration independently. He can barely write one if I help him. I am really concerned about this.

I know that if I were to step back and look at the placement guide, he would fall into Preparing (again) because of his lack of writing skills. What can I do?

Thanks for listening and I look forward to your answers.

In His love,
RuthAnn

[MelInKansas]

Can he do oral narration? Is it the narration that is difficult for him or more so the written part? Maybe you could take a few months and do English, Math, Dictation, and just have added work on narrations to get him going. (or do CTC 1/2 speed and add in extra narration). Go back through and continue some exercises from Preparing or read through a couple of storytime titles and have him reading through something else and narrate, narrate, narrate? Would he see that as punishment?

Would typing help?

[ncmomof5]

Melissa,

Thanks for your response.

Yes, he can do oral narrations most of the time. It depends on the kind of book he is being asked to narrate.

The process of writing is the biggest problem here. He is physically able to write, and I don't think that is a hindrance. But the process of mentally organizing his thoughts into words that go together on paper is overwhelming to him. We have done the whole narrate to me while I write it on the white board and then he copies it thing. I have tried to give him bullet points to write sentences from which was not very successful. He can dialogue to me about what he has read, but taking it and putting it into an organized paragraph is a different story.

I really feel like he needs more time to work on this skill before we jump into CTC. I know CTC is a big step up from Preparing and I don't want him to become overwhelmed and shut down. KWIM?

This child tends to take longer than your average child to acquire a new skill, learn a new concept, etc. And once he does learn something, he has to review it and review it and review it or else he will forget it.

Oh, and I have typing on the docket, but I'm not sure how much progress he has made on becoming proficient in this area.

Thanks for your thoughts and encouragement. I appreciate your helping me think through this dilemma.

In His love,
RuthAnn

[LynnH]

How has he done with the creative writing based on the poetry in Preparing? Is this a challenge also? I wonder if you took a little time and worked on writing using something like Igniting Your Writing and just really focused on writing good paragraphs if that might help and carry over into the narrations. My ds struggled some with written narrations although his issues are linked more to some short term memory issues he has. With CTC some of the narrations were easier for him because the readings were bible stories he was familiar with, however with the stories that weren't bible stories it was really tough for him due to the difficulty of the reading. The language in Story of the Ancient World is advanced. How is his reading comprehension? That my be a factor also.

[Kteni]

I have a reluctant writer. She is 11 and just starting Preparing. I am not afraid to take a curriculum and tweak it for my child. if need be! I would take bigger for her and add in where she is in R&S English, DITHOR, and her own math level if that is what needed to be done to give her more foundational time. Then roll with it and enrich it where it needed with having her do more reading and notebooking. But that is me.
I firmly believe in Charlotte Mason's methods for teaching and that some children need longer exposure to copywork and dictation than others. And that written narration is not as easily attainable for some and takes more time, BUT it DOES come. I am new to HOD but think it so flexible, just amazing.
So, pray, wait, listen. Then let us know what you have decided to move forward with. hugs and prayer

[chillin'inandover]

RuthAnn,
My ds is 11 and in RTR. I spent a year between Preparing and CTC addressing my ds poor writing skills. I created a curriculum using resources from MFW, Sonlight, and HOD. It was a LOT of work on my part and I missed the open and go of HOD. My ds benefitted from this as he honed several skills he missed because I didn't fully utilize the foundation/ground work building skills in Bigger and Beyond. If you have completed those programs as written I believe you will be successful with CTC. If you haven't I would just start CTC at half speed. It really was a fun year for my son and he learned so much from the Write From the Best writing program. He surprised me! My ds struggles with the physical aspect of writing And getting thoughts onto paper and remembering what he said he was going to write even if I write bullet points, so I can totally relate to the issues. Moving forward will give your ds a fresh start and fresh air-more advanced expectations as he is older and more mature. The writing from WWTB in CTC expects creativity from their life not a retelling of someone else's life. Those ideas & experiences will come tumbling out.
Has he done R&S? There is plenty of writing in that too! I see going back as stifling his creative writing. I don't believe he will drown in CTC expectations. It is a great year with just the right amount of expectations. Your ds will learn different skills that he can put in his writing toolbox. My ds LOVES the writing in RTR on science written narration days- who knew! That is because he loves science so he remembers everything he read, not so much on history written narration days. My ds has really enjoyed IEW in RTR and the skills he is learning in outlining has helped his history written narration Tremendously. My ds so far will not be a writer because of his disdain for writing days in HOD but since this is such an important skill he "suffers" through his assignments with a literal SIGH when completed. His 8 sentence paragraphs are taking 30 minutes or less when before each sentence might take 10 minutes. I say press on! The skills in each guide do build upon the next. Our ds may not enjoy the writing but they do have many stories to tell just waiting to be told in written words. We need to give them the skills to write well. Slow and steady up the hill. I say go on to CTC,written
narration is only 1 day out of 4 AND only 1 box out of 9, so don't be afraid of the whole guide. I spent the first few weeks going over each box to make sure he understood the directions and that really helped. It was a fun year for my ds. Praying for your peace in making decisions for your son.

[ncmomof5]

Thanks for all your helpful replies.

Lynn,

He is not able to write a good paragraph. He can write a string of sentences, but organizing them into a cohesive paragraph is torture for both of us. Because of this, I have avoided the weekly creative writing assignments in Preparing, and focused on getting a good written narration from him instead.
Also, his reading comprehension has been very low, but I do believe that is getting better. We discovered that he needed vision therapy, and we are in the process of doing that.

Kteni,

I am definitely not afraid of tweaking things to make them work for my son (especially this particular one). He is currently using R&S Grammar 3, because when I tried it a couple of years ago, he was not getting it AT ALL. Now, however, we finish a lesson and he says, "That was easy".
This ds, however, has already done Beyond and Bigger. Although I still did consider combining him into Bigger with his younger brother, I really don't think that is the answer.

Chillin'

Thanks for taking the time to answer. Your idea of doing CTC 1/2 speed is definitely on option to consider. I really do think I need to take time either to just focus on basics and not do HOD during that time. Or else try to move forward slowly in HOD. The hard part for me is that I have 2 older ones in high school and 2 younger ones in separate guides. If things don't go well for this middle son, it makes it very hard for me to get to everybody and everything. I need to work him toward independence, but I have to do it carefully and prayerfully.

Thanks again for all your helpful thoughts.

In His love,
RuthAnn

[my3sons]

Writing can take some time for dc to become comfortable with, and different dc respond better to different aspects of writing. The creative writing in PHFHG really is a different avenue for dc to practice writing, as it is short, quite directed, creative, yet done in the framework of Robert Louis Stevenson's poetry. The creative writing in PHFHG really does help dc slowly prepare for the increased writing using WWTB in CTC. I am wondering if ds did "Drawn into the Heart of Reading" last year? If so, what books did he read, and how did the writing portion in the Student Notebook go? If he didn't, that will be important to add.

What about taking a month or two and doing the creative writing lessons, one a day, from PHFHG? You could also during this time focus on doing "Drawn into the Heart of Reading" to get him used to this, or if he has been doing that, to give him a chance to really focus on it fully. You could also read aloud a book of high interest to him, that is a wonderful living book, and have him write a written narration on it each day. I'd start small and be extremely encouraging! Maybe with 1 sentence - and accept whatever he writes, helping him edit it focusing on one thing at at time, working through the editing list one thing each setting. By the end of the month or 6 weeks, perhaps he can have worked up to a handful of sentences. One thing that you mentioned stands out to me - writing a bulleted list for him to include in his narration. It stands out to me because I did this for several years at the start of my dc doing narrations - both oral and written - only instead of writing a bulleted list out for them, I had the bulleted list in my mind. I was waiting for them to say the things on my list so I could call their narration 'good.' This is when my loving sister pointed out to me that this was not what Charlotte Mason intended, and that this was a summary instead of a narration, and that I needed to stop that. It sounds like you are like I was, searching for certain things in ds's narrations, and if it's going anything like it did for me, your ds is probably feeling totally frustrated like he just can't get it right, and why don't you just write it for him?!? My ds felt that way. Anyway, if you can, try to accept whatever he writes with encouragement. Try to encourage him to write one thing successfully at first. Then, two things can be written in sequential order. Then, three things can be written, preferably something from the beginning, something from somewhere in the middle, and something from somewhere toward the end. Eventually, try to have him work up to 5 things. Have him imagine he's a VCR (or DVD these days, I guess ) rewinding to the beginning of what was read, and telling you the highlights of the "movie" he just read. THis helped my ds.

Then, after this, I do think I'd start CTC half-speed, and work through it together, skipping nothing, and taking the time needed to build those skills slowly and steadily each day. If it takes you switching off on the reading for his history until he can take it over, that's ok at the start. I'd definitely keep doing DITHOR though, as well as WWTB, and all other writing components. This will increase his writing stamina, give him different avenues to practice his writing, and work to prepare him for the next guide. There is no reason to rush to the next guide - it is far better to do a guide to it's fullest. In fact, if you can, I'd suggest going half-speed at the close of PHFHG, and working all the whole guide's assignments as you do. I hope something here has helped, but keep at it - you will see growth little by little, and then your ds will be able to narrate more and more comfortably - even enjoying it - in the days to come!

In Christ,
Julie

[ncmomof5]

Guess what? My ds did a written narration on his own yesterday!!

He asked for a little help with the spelling of a couple of words, but otherwise he constructed the narration on his own. We were both so excited! He said, "That means I can do CTC now." He knows that CTC is going to be more independent (which he desperately wants), but he understands that he needs to be able to do written narrations without so much of my help.

Julie,

Your response gave me some things to ponder. Thank you. Just so you know, he did not do DITHOR last year with Preparing. He was in a literature class in our co op. We are not in a co op this year, and I have the DITHOR guide, but I have not been able to implement it, yet.

Thank you for taking the time to answer in the midst of all you are going through with your Dad. I'm sorry to hear that he is not doing well right now. We will add you all to our prayer list.

Thanks, again, to all of you, for helping me talk and think through this. It's so hard to know how to best proceed with this particular child, at times. But God is faithful and He continues to guide and provide progress.

In His love,
RuthAnn