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Posted: **Sat Jul 11, 2009 6:55 pm**

Sooo, the TM for CTC is written basically to the student. The assumption being that the student will at a minimum read their independent assignments and complete them. I love this! I think it's a great idea. I can't wait to implement it but...

Has anyone stopped to think about how this will work?

My almost 10yo daughter will be touching MY TM. Gasp.

Sticky fingers.

Smudges.

Crinkled corners.

Now she isn't nearly as hard on books as her brother but still I wonder how will my poor TM survive 9 months of such treatment?

Anyone thought up any solutions?

Posted: **Sat Jul 11, 2009 7:18 pm**

I know the feeling. My daughter will be using Preparing but there are parts for her to do on her own. I alreay have my FLL1/2 stained with kool-aid but it was more my fault than hers. No drinks near the books! or food.

Posted: **Sat Jul 11, 2009 8:02 pm**

I've read that some people have the bindings cut off and then put each page in a page protector in a big binder.... (this way they can use a marker to check off completed boxes too)

Posted: **Sat Jul 11, 2009 8:26 pm**

I think you have to take it to a place like Office Depot or Staples (or other store that does copying) and have them cut the binding off. I haven't ever done it, but I'd think that it would be pretty cheap. The main expense would be all those page protectors!!!

Posted: **Sat Jul 11, 2009 8:33 pm**

The only other thing is the size and cost of the 3 ring binder to put them in. I haven't done it with an HOD guide but tried something similar with another curriculum and you have to get a 3 or 4 inch binder and the sheet protectors are costly.
I am going to get some contact paper (clear) to cover my books. I used to do this in private school (back in the dark ages) for my Bob Jones English books and such. I remember doing it for English and Spelling. It really works and holds up to a 10 yr old at least for the cover.
Val

Posted: **Sat Jul 11, 2009 8:37 pm**

Contact paper on the cover is a good idea.

My daughter is neat but stuff happens. I hate having ratty looking TM's and I don't even resell mine.

Uh-Oh, my type A is shining through.

Yeh, cutting the spine and doing page protectors is too labor intensive for me.

I think I am going to buy stock in post-it notes though. We'll be using plenty probably.

Posted: **Sat Jul 11, 2009 9:03 pm**

Last year I took my children's math and english books to Office Depot and had them cut the binding off, laminate the covers, and put a ring binding in it so they would lay flat and be protected. It worked great! It wasn't expensive either. I can't remember how much it was but I know this is something I wouldn't have spent more than 15 bucks on. The laminating material is nice and stiff, not like contact paper.

Posted: **Sat Jul 11, 2009 9:10 pm**

BTW we weren't in HOD last year. It was Modern Curriculum Press Math and A Beka English. So they were fairly big books. Hope you find the solution that's right for you. I know exactly what you mean. I hate when the curriculum gets ratty too.

Posted: **Sun Jul 12, 2009 5:19 am**

I have cut the binding off my HOD TM's and the Office Depot I did it at had never done something like that before, so they did it free of charge. Then I put it in a 2 or 3 inch binder. I did not use page protectors since that would increase the price by quite a lot. Though if you were concerned about it lasting through many children, I might consider if it would be cheaper to buy the manual again or use the page protectors.

Posted: **Sun Jul 12, 2009 12:51 pm**

8smiths wrote: Do you mean like a spiral bound notebook? That sounds like a great idea, but I might be a little afraid of the pages ripping out. But, obviously, you haven't had that problem, or you wouldn't have said it worked great! .

In this case, only the cover is laminated--not every page. Am I "seeing" this correctly.

These are great options to consider. I'm going to have to make a trip to Office Depot and just see what all they can do . (We live in a rural area--I guess I don't get out much--I didn't even realize they could do stuff like this )

The Math pages I have not had any problems with the pages coming out. The English A Beka books I have had occasional problems because I didn't realize the pages were perforated so you can remove them. So sometimes the holes were punched right down that perforated line which of course made it weaker. Only the covers are laminated. I didn't realize they did this stuff either until my sister told me.

When I went in there and asked them to do it they didn't even blink twice. Just asked what color I wanted the ring binder to be.

Here are some pics to give you an idea. My children are Very tough on their books. The fact that these still have their covers is amazing. This is something I'm working on with them this year.

Posted: **Sun Jul 12, 2009 1:16 pm**

Daisy,

You've got me laughing here!

Maybe you can picture your TM more like...a baseball glove. You know, the more "broke in" it gets, the better it works. And the little smudges can be reminders of your school days in years to come. (Like the ones on the walls and windows.

) My mom used to intentionally wait a few weeks to wash the sticky prints and "kisses" off her sliding glass doors after the grandkids were there because she liked to remember the visits.

I really think the guide will survive multiple kids well, as is. I'm going to quote an old post from Carrie about why they bind the guides the way they do (just in case you didn't know this - like me at this point last year).

Our guides are holding up great, and they've been loved, carried, and dropped by all of us.

Carrie wrote: You know I used to be with you on this one! We actually did have the manuals come in spiral binding for the first several years they were available, but over time the covers tore off from the bindings which made them less durable in the long-run. I was frustrated with using spiral bound guides that were coverless after awhile. We also contemplated having the guides be 3-hole punched and binder ready (which is much cheaper to do by the way), but any guides I've had this way often got dropped and the pages fell out in a big mess. (I have boys who drop these guides in transport, can you tell?)

One other consideration for us is also that many retailers do not like to stock large, spiral-bound books as they get caught on everything, don't pack easily or stack easily, and slide off the shelves. So, we ended up switching to a lay-flat perfect binding on our books. We actually pay extra to have every book lay flat. You can bend and crease them without having them fall apart. We haven't had any of our books come apart since, and we have dropped them and lugged them everywhere. We figured for those who prefer a spiral bound or in a binder guide, you can still have it if you take it to a copy place and cut off the binding and do what you wish with it.

So, there's a little background on why we do what we do. That being said, we may go back to a spiral-binding someday if our guides get a little less hefty

Blessings,
Carrie

Hope that helps!

Kathleen

Posted: **Sun Jul 12, 2009 2:55 pm**

Nice to hear the thinking behind the binding choice.

I just wish I had the money to buy two copies.

The pp was right. I'll have to view it as a loving testimony to our fantastic year!

Posted: **Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:01 pm**

I was amazed at how well ours held up last year as is. We tend to be hard on manuals around here with 8 kids (even if I try really hard to keep them out of little hands or the range of food and drink). My spiral teacher manuals have not held up as well.

Posted: **Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:07 pm**

My sister covers every book she buys with somethign like these: http://www.shopbrodart.com/site_pages/bjc/ they are plastic libaray book covers. All her manuels look great even the one the baby spitup on. I'm not endorsing this brand BTW it was just first up on the screen. Contact paper adhesive gets sticky over time and stuff like alchole/cleaning supplies can make the adhesive soft. It's not really meant to protect books. When you put a nice plastic cover on if you do it right the adhesive on the tape doesn't touch the paper or binding and keeps the book in very nice order.

As for sploches and spills maybe just 2 of those page protectors would do the trick. Cut off the ring binder part (buy side fill ones) and slip them over the pages the kiddos are working from that day.

Posted: **Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:41 pm**

We have been super hard on ours too, and there still looking good - even DITHOR, and I've had that since it came out - almost a decade!

i do totally get what you're saying. I only let my ds put a tiny pencil checkmark in the corner of each box. This works well for my oldest ds, who is quite neat and a Type A personality like me - but oh, I am a bit fearful of my second ds using it. I'll have to have some repeated chats with him about tiny pencil marks I'm sure. Large marker scribbles would be more his style!

Other than that though, I wouldn't worry about the upkeep. I shudder to think how many times we've dropped our guides - and they're holding up well.

And I agree with what Kathleen had to say - the guides looked like they've been loving used - and my next ds thinks it's pretty cool to see older brother's "been there before him".

In Christ,
Julie

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CTC TM and sticky fingers

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