Beefing up RTR Carrie can I ask now : )

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Beefing up RTR Carrie can I ask now : )

Postby water2wine » Sat Aug 28, 2010 8:25 am

Just wondering if since you have rested for two seconds now :lol: you are ready to share some books you would advise for beefing up RTR for those wanting to give high school credit. We have a plan for some things but do not want to miss any of the great "Carrie pick" books! :D Thanks!
All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13
~Six lovies from God~4 by blessing of adoption
-MTMM (HS), Rev to Rev, CTC, DITHR
We LOVED LHFHG/Beyond/Bigger/Preparing/CTC/RTR/Rev to Rev (HS)
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Re: Beefing up RTR Carrie can I ask now : )

Postby Carrie » Sun Aug 29, 2010 7:59 pm

Water2wine,

In response to this question on RTR, I'll also include some of my previous comments below on high school in general that I made when talking about possible ways of making CTC high school credit worthy. When I'm typing, I'm not purely addressing you as I'm thinking about RTR overall from a high school perspective, knowing that families in all different situations will read this. :D

Making CTC or RTR credit worthy will depend upon what your state requirements are for high school (and also what type of higher education plans you have for your child as to whether that child is college bound, etc). :D

For a distinguished track high school education, most states are moving toward a 4 x 4 requirement for serious college-bound students who wish to compete for scholarships. This includes requiring 4 years of science (with 3 of the years being a lab science and typically including Biology and Chemistry at a minimum), 4 years of literature study/grammar/composition combo. (with American lit. being a requirement for sure and some leeway in the other literature areas), 4 years of history (typically covering geography a year or at least a semester, world history a year, American history a year, and Economics or Finance/Government each for a semester - although you can do various combinations to reach these requirements), and 3-4 years of math (with a bare minimum of algebra and geometry). There are other additional areas that are typically required as well like speech, fine arts, physcical education, computer, 2 consecutive years of a foreign language, etc. however the 4 x 4 requirements will take the bulk of the time. :D

If your student is not college-bound or is headed toward community college, you would have more leeway in the requirements and would instead focus on the basic requirements of the state and on fine-tuning a course of study that will guide your child in training for his/her future goals. :D

As far as RTR goes, in order to count it for high school credit, you'd likely need to add a bit to the history readings to make it credit worthy. There is quite a bit of reading within the history portion of RTR so not a large amount of additional reading or materials would be required. You could add something like Drive Through History DVD: East Meets West for the first section of the study, and add something like The Story of Europe: From the Fall of the Roman Empire to the Reformation by H. E. Marshall (Yesterday's Classics) along with Courage and Conviction: Volume 3 by the Withrows to accomplish this. :D

Another way to raise the level of this study to being credit worthy and still match this time period well would be to do Pilgrim's Progress. You could do this using the Answers in Genesis Study (which we plan to schedule in the last guide of the history cycle before high school), or you could simply have your child do it following along with book and audio instead. The AIG version has study questions and an audio as well. :D Depending on how much time you spend on this, it could be a large part of a literature credit or a Bible credit, or be the only thing you add to raise the history level.

As far as geography goes, there is quite a large amount of mapping within RTR so there would be no need to add anything to that area. The geography within RTR alone would likely be 1/4 credit of your total geography needed for high school, as you'd be doing some geography each year to add together for your geography credit by the time your child is a senior. In that respect, the geography would likely be fine from RTR. The geography portion in our upcoming guides will be strong too, so you'd likely be alright if you kept on this same path of upping each level of HOD for your high school child. :D

You'd also want to make sure your child is reading higher level literature, doing this either through choosing higher level books that match the time period (or any books you choose) to add to DITHR or by utilizing a different literature program instead. DITHR is worthy of high school credit in lit. for grade 9, depending on which books you select for use along with it. Some ideas of a few classic high school titles that would match the time period well may include A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain, A Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare, Men of Iron by Howard Pyle, The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith, The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (although these are sometimes used in middle school), The Prince and the Pauper by Twain, and a tale of Arthur such as Lancelot: The Adventures of King Arthur's Most Celebrated Knight by Chaundler (for its less magical themed telling). Jane Eyre by Bronte and Silas Marner by George Elliot are excellent and are about 200 years ahead of the end of this time period. Both Don Quixote and The Three Musketeers fit here as well but are very lengthy. :D

Since we've used DITHR for years for my oldest son, we are still deciding whether to move into something else in high school for lit. study. We have looked long and hard for one that we like for our own son and have been having a tough time finding one that meets all of our goals. We are considering Smarr's Intro. to Lit. course at this point, however we prefer something else for grade 9 comp., rather than Smarr's writing lessons (at the 9th grade level anyway). Updated to add that we did do Smarr's Intro. to Lit. with some substitutions and did do Smarr's comp. and liked it quite well. :wink: Another option you could consider for literature study would be to do Peter Leithert's Brightest Heaven of Invention (which uses entire Shakespeare plays along with a Christian study of them). This is definitely high school credit worthy and would work well for this time period for the literature study. As a stand alone literature credit or combined with a read through the book English Literature for Boys and Girls by H.E. Marshall (85 chapters) it would give a full year or more of high school literature instruction. The English Literature book could also be spread out over several years instead, jumping off at the end of various chapters to read the full length suggested works as desired for credit. We like this plan ourselves. :wink:

IEW's Medieval History-Based Writing Lessons as scheduled in RTR with Extensions is enough for the high school composition part of the English credit. When combined with literature study and grammar instruction it will equal a full english credit. :D

For grammar, we would recommend continuing with Rod and Staff, doing English 7 during grades 9-10 (half each year) and doing English 8 in grade 11-12 (half each year). These two levels are definitely high school worthy in their Table of Contents and in their coverage. You could use any grammar option with which you feel comfortable, although I'd lean toward doing some grammar every year as many sections of the SAT/ACT are a reflection of what is covered under the "English" umbrella. :D

You would definitely need to add or use something else for science as earth science is typically not enough in high school. Much of your decision-making in science will depend on whether your child is continuing on to higher education after high school and if so in what field. Some families may consider using Signs and Seasons along with the provided labs in the Appendix of Signs and Seasons for credit. This would work if your child is not likely going on to higher education after high school. For ninth grade, we are leaning toward either PAC-works Integrated Physics and Chemistry or Biology and Anatomy and Physiology. The Biology would need labs on Day 5 each week, possibly with Castle Heights Biology labs. Or, you could use any other program you feel suits your needs (i.e. Apologia, BJU, Abeka, etc.). :D

For Bible credit, you could add something like Balancing the Sword to the Bible Quiet Time readings within RTR. This would add time to that component to make it credit worthy and raise the level of the material, while giving some good thought-provoking questions to go with the Bible reading. We are planning to use this with our own son for high school Bible study at some point. Or, you could simply add some additional Bible reading and journaling (along with the Philippians study and Boy/Girl option devotional scheduled in RTR) to earn the Bible credit this year since RTR has some of this already taken care of for you.

For a fine arts credit, (in addition to the once weekly Looking at Pictures study in RTR) in the area of art appreciation, you could add Short Lessons in Art History by Phyllis Clausen Barker along with Exercises and Activities for Short Lessons in Art History. It does include some nudity, and we have not previewed it thoroughly yet but it is a possibility. Or, you could add Calvert's A Child's History of Art course (which includes Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture). We have used this one with our oldest son doing one section each year, or it could be done all in one year. Either way it would be credit worthy. We enjoyed this one quite a bit. :D

Just a few thoughts on RTR. :D One last thought I had was that for those of you possibly thinking of using HOD's younger 4 year sequence of guides for high school instead, it would likely work (with some beefing up as suggested) to give 1 full credit of world history for CTC and RTR together. Then, you could likely give one full credit of American history for the last two guides in the history cycle together, also awarding 1 full geography credit upon completing all 4 guides (with 1/4 credit awarded each year). That would only leave you to add a semester of government and a semester of personal finance or economics to complete your "history" portion of the 4 x 4 plan. Another option would be to just give a history credit each year that you use HOD in high school (as you would definitely have the time needed to earn one credit each year) and just make sure that you cover all needed areas (i.e American, World, Geography, Government/Economics or Finance) within the 4 credits that you award throughout high school for the history portion.

Blessings,
Carrie
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Re: Beefing up RTR Carrie can I ask now : )

Postby water2wine » Sun Aug 29, 2010 8:24 pm

WOW! Thank you! Really appreciate all your suggestions. I know others will too. We are very excited to do RTR this year! Thanks for taking the time on this! :D We feel really blessed to be able to use HOD for high school. Thanks so much for helping us with that! :D
All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13
~Six lovies from God~4 by blessing of adoption
-MTMM (HS), Rev to Rev, CTC, DITHR
We LOVED LHFHG/Beyond/Bigger/Preparing/CTC/RTR/Rev to Rev (HS)
water2wine
 
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Location: GA

Re: Beefing up RTR Carrie can I ask now : )

Postby GracieMarie » Sun Aug 29, 2010 10:55 pm

Wow! Its awhile away for us but thank you so much for taking the time to give such a thorough and personal response.
Blessings to you and yours and thank you again for all you do!!!
Beyond ds 2nd grade and dd 4th grade (with LA portions of bigger)
CTC dd 7th grade
little guy with down syndrome starting LHTH soon.
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Re: Beefing up RTR Carrie can I ask now : )

Postby deltagal » Mon Aug 30, 2010 5:10 am

Oh my...this is alot to chew on. :!: W2W post back your HS plan once you've sorted it out (and anyone else that has a plan using RTR) I would love to see what you're picking and choosing. All Carrie's recs sound great, it's just discerning how to spread the workload. Love, love, love the insight she's given on rewarding credit of the various components of RTR. HS is coming fast!

Oh, and I've added this link to the "beefing up" sticky!
With Joy!
Florence

Began HOD 1/2009
ds 16 PHFHG, CTC, RTR w/ ext., Rev to Rev w/ext
ds 14 BHFHG right/Beyond left, PHFHG, CTC in part, RTR w/ext
ds 12 Beyond, BHFHG w/ext., PHFHG w/ ext., CTC w/ext
dd 8 LHTH, LHFHG, Bigger
dd 3
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Re: Beefing up RTR Carrie can I ask now : )

Postby water2wine » Mon Aug 30, 2010 3:26 pm

deltagal wrote:Oh my...this is alot to chew on. :!: W2W post back your HS plan once you've sorted it out (and anyone else that has a plan using RTR) I would love to see what you're picking and choosing. All Carrie's recs sound great, it's just discerning how to spread the workload. Love, love, love the insight she's given on rewarding credit of the various components of RTR. HS is coming fast!

Oh, and I've added this link to the "beefing up" sticky!


Florence keep in mind Carrie is covering all the possibilities. One thing that has really helped me is to look at the whole 4 year plan by subject. This allows you to see where you could cover things and sort of break it down. HSLDA has a good thing in their high school section where they break down college bound vs not college bound. http://www.hslda.org/highschool/HTHS4YearPlan.pdf It helps to break it down just to see that you do not need to cover all the extras every year just the core plus some extras that can be spread out over the 4 years. :D
All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13
~Six lovies from God~4 by blessing of adoption
-MTMM (HS), Rev to Rev, CTC, DITHR
We LOVED LHFHG/Beyond/Bigger/Preparing/CTC/RTR/Rev to Rev (HS)
water2wine
 
Posts: 2738
Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2007 7:24 pm
Location: GA

Re: Beefing up RTR Carrie can I ask now : )

Postby water2wine » Tue Aug 31, 2010 9:42 pm

Carrie can we stick this thread with the other beef ups so it does not get lost. :D
All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13
~Six lovies from God~4 by blessing of adoption
-MTMM (HS), Rev to Rev, CTC, DITHR
We LOVED LHFHG/Beyond/Bigger/Preparing/CTC/RTR/Rev to Rev (HS)
water2wine
 
Posts: 2738
Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2007 7:24 pm
Location: GA

Re: Beefing up RTR Carrie can I ask now : )

Postby deltagal » Wed Sep 01, 2010 5:19 am

W2W,

I added this post to my post in the sticky!
With Joy!
Florence

Began HOD 1/2009
ds 16 PHFHG, CTC, RTR w/ ext., Rev to Rev w/ext
ds 14 BHFHG right/Beyond left, PHFHG, CTC in part, RTR w/ext
ds 12 Beyond, BHFHG w/ext., PHFHG w/ ext., CTC w/ext
dd 8 LHTH, LHFHG, Bigger
dd 3
deltagal
 
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Re: Beefing up RTR Carrie can I ask now : )

Postby Carrie » Thu Sep 02, 2010 1:10 pm

Sounds good! :D It may help to print the post and just go through it subject by subject deciding what you think would suit your child best in each area (one subject at time). :D By the end of that process, you'll have a good idea which route to go for each area. Just a thought. :D

Blessings,
Carrie
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Re: Beefing up RTR Carrie can I ask now : )

Postby water2wine » Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:32 pm

Carrie wrote:For a fine arts credit, (in addition to the once weekly Looking at Pictures study in RTR) in the area of art appreciation, you could add Short Lessons in Art History by Phyllis Clausen Barker along with Exercises and Activities for Short Lessons in Art History. It does include some nudity, and we have not previewed it thoroughly yet but it is a possibility.


Just wanted to comment that I have decided to add this book. There is some nudity as Carrie said. Most of it is typical of babies and I do not find it offensive. Really non of it is to me but there is one picture in there that makes me uncomfortable. On one hand it shows the depravity of the scene and on the other hand just more than I want my son perhaps seeing in the future. I would say it would fall into super picky though. However I thought of an easy fix that I do not think hurts the program. The picture in question is by El Greco and called Christ Cleansing of The Temple. And online you can find more moderate versions of it but I for my purposes the printing out of a similar one called Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple by the same artist is a wonderful substitution and still gets the same point across. So if you are wanting to be super cautious about that one picture that could work as a substitution. In this case a simple print out and a glue stick is your friend I find it does not hurt the section to do that at all. The only other one I think could be of issue to me shows no detail but you can look it up for yourself it is Eleven A.M. Edward Hopper. It's sort of a non issue for me but everyone is different in their convictions. It seems to be there only as an example. I am finding the content to be good and oriented to art history instead of getting into weird details of the artist's personality etc. My dd is really pretty mature emotionally but I am still pretty careful with content. I have not read every page but some that I thought maybe could get into some more mature content and I am finding the text to be pretty wholesome and nothing anti Christian in there to my eye so far and I can find no reviews that say anything but positive comments about content. So all that to say I think it is a great fit for us and we are going to sneak it in there this year even though we have already started the program. Hopefully this helps others. I think the content would be acceptable to most families and trying to just list what super picky people like me might want to look at as potential objections with some solutions. :D My guess is most families would be fine with it as is.
All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13
~Six lovies from God~4 by blessing of adoption
-MTMM (HS), Rev to Rev, CTC, DITHR
We LOVED LHFHG/Beyond/Bigger/Preparing/CTC/RTR/Rev to Rev (HS)
water2wine
 
Posts: 2738
Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2007 7:24 pm
Location: GA

Re: Beefing up RTR Carrie can I ask now : )

Postby Carrie » Fri Jan 28, 2011 4:17 pm

water2wine,

Thanks so much for updating this thread. :D I'm so glad that you have gotten a chance to go through the book with a careful eye. We have it on our shelf but have not gone through it as needed to really know if it would be a good fit for art appreciation. I do know that we have discarded many other art appreciation options for our older son already, due to the pictures/nudity/or content. So, this is still one possiblity we will ponder too. :D

Blessings,
Carrie
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