Communicating assignments in CTC

[tbarr12]

I have only done one full day of CTC, but am wondering how many of you communicate the independent assignments when you have more than one child using CTC? It seems a bit cumbersome to hand off the book every time to one child, esp. when I might need it with the other (when they are working on 2 different things). I considered making an assignment sheet for each of them for every week, but then when I looked at all I'd need to type out, I realized it was too much. Making copies of every day's schedule for them to have would seem to use a lot of paper and ink, as well as time. I'd like to know if anyone has found a good solution. Thanks.

[Tree House Academy]

If this were me, I would buy two guides (one for each child). I know that sounds silly, but I think CTC teaches so much to independence, it is worth the extra investment.

During the first week of CTC, I went back only to realize that my son had missed portions of what the boxes said to do. Last week was pretty bad in what he had "missed." This week has already been better. It takes a little bit of directing, at first, but I know that, before long, my son will easily be doing everything in the box and rechecking himself - which again, moves him toward the total independence that will be expected in high-school and college.

Hope this helps.

[my3sons]

Assuming they're doing the "S" boxes together and should be fine sharing for those, and assuming that you have the guide in hand for the "T" boxes, I'm thinking these would be the boxes they need the guide in hand to be able to do independently: Reading about History, Independent History, Science, Poetry, Bible Quiet Time. Sharing for Bible Quiet Time should be easy, as the routine of the box is the same from day to day, and they can easily put it open between them and be fine sharing. Since 2 of the boxes are on the left side of the plans (Reading about History taking 30 minutes and Independent History taking 15 minutes), and 2 of the boxes are on the right side of the plans (Science taking 30 minutes and Poetry taking 15 minutes), I'd just make 1 copy of the right side of the plans each week (this would be only 35 copies). I'd have one child do the 2 left side boxes with the guide, and the other child do the 2 right side boxes with the copy. Then, they can swap. The time allotments are the same, so it should work. Come to think of it, you could also use the extra copy you made for their Bible Quiet time, so they could do that separately in different rooms if they wanted to have a more private quiet time. Otherwise, for convenience sake, you could just get another CTC guide as Rebecca suggested. This would be very nice to do if funds allow, but otherwise, making 35 copies is cheap and quick to do. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[tbarr12]

Julie - that is very helpful. Because I'm still pretty unfamiliar with CTC, I just needed someone to break it down for me like that, instead of it just looking like one big fog to me! So I think I will probably implement your plan - I need to tweak my schedule today anyway, so I can plan who'll do what when, and they can switch. thanks so much for clearing it up for me!

[tbarr12]

Julie - in going over your answer just now, working on my planning for the next couple weeks, there is something that doesn't seem right to me. If I made a copy of one side of each plan, wouldn't it be 35x4=140!!! It's not that I object to this, because that is still the way I'm leaning, but I just want to make sure I'm understanding what it is you think I should do. Since every plan is for one day, it would be 35 weeks x 4 days/week - correct? Let me know if I'm right - thanks.

[my3sons]

I'm so sorry - yes you are right. I must have LHTH on the brain or something! Hmmmmm, well that does throw a wrench in that plan. Maybe you'd just want to get another guide then? Really when you think about it, with most curriculums, both dc would need practically all of their own set of things anyway, so an extra guide to make your day go oh-so-more-smoothly may be well worth it. Otherwise, I would have a "home" for the guide on the kitchen table or something during independent work times, a central location that everyone always knows where the guide is when they need to reference it. I'd also have a set of sticky notes and pencils set out there on the table, so they can jot the page numbers down they need to read and take it with them as a reminder. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie