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Hello everyone, looking for your help with these questions: Also keep in mind I will be teaching twins. So think "double"

1. On Preparing to Build English: I received one book, when I was reading thru it I saw where it would say look at the sentences and choose the nouns and write them down, etc. So Do each of my children need their own book? (if so what do I order)

2. In catalog for Preparing to Build English: it reads "Pupil Text: $15.95; with optional Teacher's Manual add another $18.95. I bought the whole Basic Package do I need these other 2 suggestions?

3. I plan to take my Teacher's Manual to Staples and get a spiral bound on it so I wanted to get feedback on what else others do to any other workbooks. Do you do this to DITHOR Teachers manual also? Math workbooks?

I know I already need a 2nd Cheerful Cursive so I want to make sure I missed anything else I order it with it at one time.

Any suggestions will be great! Thank you to everyone for helping me with these questions.

Do you already have one copy of the Preparing to Build Student Text? If so you would only need one because students do not right in the book you have them do all of their written grammar in a composition book/notebook. For that level I do not use the TM but you can get it if you want.

AHH! I wrote a long reply and I don't know where it went.

You don't need another pupil text for the English. That is what you received in the basic package, you don't need the teacher's manual, so that is optional. You could have them write in the text if you'd like and have their own. Sometimes it's worth the money for ease and sanity. Otherwise they just write any answers in a composition notebook. Most is done orally anyway.

I LOVE spiral binding books--but the HOD manuals are great the way they are. Carrie paid extra to have a great binding put on that stays open flat, and it really works. Try it for awhile and see if you like it before cutting up your book. The math workbooks don't need it either. They are thin enough for me. I have spiral bound all of our piano books and quite a few other books, but I like these books the way they are.

Thanks ladies for your responses. Yea I received the one book with the package and I guess I will make them share or invest in a dry erase board (med.size) to write the sentence on and they can do it together on a piece of paper.

I have been reading and reading tonight in the teachers manual. Am I missing a "supply" list for what is needed weekly or do you just read a week ahead and see what is needed?

Also another questions: When I was reading in the Teachers Manual is was stating you could use a 3 ring binder with page protectors or index cards or it would say for Poetry you could use a notebook etc (in that area)..Could I just get a 2 inch binder and use tab dividers with each subject wrote on them and loose leaf paper in the sections and they just turn to that subject versus getting and having 3 different notebooks, and 2 binders etc? I live in a state that we don't turn in the kids work but was thinking this would be easier and more organized?

Lol. You can organize it whichever way works for you. We are doing Bigger this year, and I a m completely doing something different in regards to notebooks, etc. it's tons of work up front, but because I have three in Bigger, it will streamline my day.

I'm creating a spiral notebook for each quarter that contains every page needed, except for the artistic expressions pages we do once a week. Those creations will be photocopied or photographed and glued to a page each week. Each week has a science notebook page, history notebook page, copy of the poem, lined page for copying, science experiment page, lined pages for grammar and spelling. Plus I will have the math workbooks cut apart and hole-punched and those will be included in the spiral notebook.plus ETC and some extra critical thinking worksheets we have hanging around.

@Motherjoy- You are too busy..lol... I read the ages of your kids and think I need half your energy..especially if your doing all this prework. I am so excited to get started after reading thru 2 weeks last night I know my boys are going to love it. I especially love the doing exercises while learning Bible Versus.

I think I need to just go out and get some supplies and start making up their Binders and use tabs to section off subjects and go from there maybe tweak them along the way. I need to look up the timeline as it was little confusing to picture what they are talking about with sections and lines etc. But I think I say somewhere in the land of HOD (blogs, HOD site, yahoo group) someone posted a picture of how they did it. I am a visual person and like to see it and then tweak it to fit me..lol.. I know I will be learning along the way and am looking forward to reading to my boys and seeing the "light click on" when they get it. I just need to get organized first. If I am not organize I will spend my time trying to tweak it everyday and I don't want to waste the time or energy on that.

Thanks for your post. I love chatting with others on here and hearing their ideas.

I did the notebook with page protectors the last two years, and I think that's the best way to go for most people.

But even the 3-5 minutes of transistion between each subjectm, including putting books away, placing work into the page protector, etc, can cause serious slowdown when I'm trying to get everything done before the toddlers go crazy. That doesn't even include lost math books or spelling notebooks...

You don't really need to write anything down for R&S English. Instead of writing the nouns, they just tell you what the nouns are. All that writing doesn't serve much purpose. Instead of re-writing the sentence in past tense, they just tell it to you. If you have 2 students, you should probably get 2 student texts. You can usually find them used. I sit with the Teacher's Manual and ds has the student text and we go through it together. The only thing we write is diagramming.

I had my manual chopped and punched for a 3 ring binder (for me). For my daughter, I got a Better Binder from Staples, along with the 8 pack of Better Binder dividers. The divider tabs are: History Notebooking (printed them from the facebook group FILES tab-but they can just do it on regular notebook or copy paper), Timeline (printed on cardstock from facebook files), Science Notebook (again, printed), Science Lab (printed), Grammar, Dictation/Spelling (depending on which one you are doing), Copywork (printed). I am having her write her bible verses on a notecard book (that is punched in the corner and held together by a metal ring), her vocabulary will be done on notecards and alphabetized in a file box... I hope that is going to work for us, we start on Monday! I found a lot of organizing tips, pics, files I could print, etc. on the facebook page!