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I am preparing to start CTC on Friday. I want to make sure I understand the notebook set-up. Am I correct that there are 2 notebooks - 1 3" binder for most of their work, and another smaller one for Science and something else? Does anyone out there use a sketchbook as suggested for Science, instead of a binder?

Also, and this is my biggest question - what are the notebook divisions in the 3" binder? How should I label them?

thanks. Tracey

I couldn't find any one place with the needed items written in the CTC manual. So, I've done a couple days of CTC now and I just had to have some extra items on hand, just in case. So far, I've done the student notebook, a 1 subject notebook for dictation exercises, a notebook for Reading in History answers, and I'm using the same notebook for his English answers (Rod and Staff) and I might need a diff one just to hold his writing...and I think I did a page of the science in there also . I guess I could do like you and use a 3 ring binder to store it all, or you could use those 1 subject notebooks for everything....I don't know whats best long term. I'll be waiting for answers also.

Sorry, I don't really feel like I've helped.

Alison

Tracey,

I am going to try to answer your questions as best I can. I was hoping someone who's done more with CTC would answer you by now, but I see you haven't gotten many responses. I'll just tell you what I'm doing and hopefully it can be of some help to you. We just started about two weeks ago.

I started out by thinking it would be best to have all of my son's things in one place, so I purchased a 2" binder to keep everything in. By the time I had it put together, it was a little full. I didn't want his CTC student notebook pages to get too much wear and tear in the big binder, so I put them into a smaller 1/2" binder. That seems to be working great! So in the big binder (2"), I have 7 tabs: Written Narrations, History Projects, Indep. History Study, Bible Study: Genesis, Bible Study: Geography, Poetry, Blank-Lined-Extra Paper. In the last tab, I've put extra blank paper, lined loose leaf paper, and some paper I printed out that is half blank and half lined. Then he can just take out the papers he needs, and then file them in the right tab, after their completed. The reason I hoped someone more "seasoned" would reply to you is because I don't know for sure if this is too many tabs, or if I'm even doing it right. I always say it's better to be over prepared than under prepared! So, if some of those items aren't needed, I may just take them out later. Time will tell!

Okay, so that's the main CTC binder. As I said, I put the student notebook pages into a littler 1/2" binder and slipped the cover page into the binder cover. I also put together a Science Notebook. It's just a 1 1/2" binder that contains 3 tabs: Science Notebook (he'll put all his finished papers here), Science Lab Sheets ( I made 35 copies of the science lab sheets and put them here), and Blank-Lined-Extra Paper (same as above-extra papers for his assignments). In the front pocket inside the binder, I made copies of the pages you need to print out on day 1 from the Apologia site, pictures of the cougars and deer, and a picture of a world map (all of these are needed for projects at various times). For a cover for the binder, I just printed out a picture of the front of the Apologia Science Book from their website. One other thing you'll need is to put together some booklets of paper folded in half and stapled in the middle. You need a long arm stapler for this. We don't have one, so I put those together and stapled them at the copy store when I made my other copies. It didn't cost anything! I just used colored paper for a cover. Everything came together nicely and looks great!

Oh yeah, I did also go ahead and print out everything we'll need for the geography study. The cd that comes with the geography book has maps and travel logs that you print out at various times, as well. So having those done and ready ahead of time is a big help. I just put all of those in the geography section and then he'll just pull them out as he needs them!

We do a workbox system, so all of the Poetry supplies are in a workbox drawer. It helps having all of those things together in one spot, so he can easily get started. I also purchased a compostition book for his R&S assignments, one for a Common Place Book, and one for Dictation. We also bought a really cheap Bible just for school, becasue he really didn't want to underline and highlight in his nice one! (I think it was like 3 or 4 dollars!)

I pray that this can be of some help to you. Please don't feel like you have to do it this way, this is just how I did it. I may even tweak things as we go through the year!

In Christ,

Lisa

Hi,
We used a individual composition notebook for each of these subjects: math, english, common place notebook, and writing.

We used a three ring binder for the student notebook pages.

For science we used 1 composition notebook for textbook answers and a three ring binder to hold science experiment pages and "sketches" which we used just plain white computer paper for. I also used paper sleeves in the 3 ring binder. I may do something different this year as far as a science notebook. Not sure yet.

We will continue to use the same composition notebooks for math, english, commom place book and writing as we did last year. They still have plenty of paper left in them and it will make for less storage. So for example her english notebook will have her 7th and 8th grade work in there. If we run out of paper, we will start a new composition notebook. Some people may prefer a new notebook each year, but personally I like this. I am sure whatever you choose will work!

I am just finishing up CTC and eagerly waiting to begin RTR. (You'd think it was my education and not my dd!)

Anywhooo......I used one binder for the student notebook pages and another binder for the science and geography. Just two sections. We put our science pages in the order that they were completed so the units could be together and it would be more cohesive as we looked back at our stuff. I liked that method rather than separating the experiments from the questions and notebooking pages. I also created a section for geography so all the maps and 'travels' could be in one place. ( I didn't separate the maps from the travel log)

I then used 1 composition notebook split into two sections: Dictation/English and Write with the Best.

We have a separate common place book which we will continue to use instead of replacing each year.

My personal preference is to streamline things and make things efficient and for me, less notebooks floating around is less time spent looking for the 'right' book and the 'right' divider.

So that is what we did for CTC. I hope you love your year with it!

Jess

We have a 2 inch binder with the CTC Notebooking Pages in it. Then we have 2 more tabs for science notebooking and Science Lab Sheets. (And we have some loose leaf paper in the back of that binder for the days there are questions to answer for science.)

I also got 3 composition books to use for math (when they use the Singapore textbook), English/Write with the Best, and Dictation.

Kathleen

mamas4loves wrote:I am just finishing up CTC and eagerly waiting to begin RTR. (You'd think it was my education and not my dd!)

Anywhooo......I used one binder for the student notebook pages and another binder for the science and geography. Just two sections. We put our science pages in the order that they were completed so the units could be together and it would be more cohesive as we looked back at our stuff. I liked that method rather than separating the experiments from the questions and notebooking pages. I also created a section for geography so all the maps and 'travels' could be in one place. ( I didn't separate the maps from the travel log)

I then used 1 composition notebook split into two sections: Dictation/English and Write with the Best.

We have a separate common place book which we will continue to use instead of replacing each year.

My personal preference is to streamline things and make things efficient and for me, less notebooks floating around is less time spent looking for the 'right' book and the 'right' divider.

So that is what we did for CTC. I hope you love your year with it!

Jess

Jess, My RTR should get here today so I've been thinking about how to set up notebooks for my ds. I like what you did for CTC, but I'm trying to remember from the sample week...do all history narrations end up in the student notebook? or is there a need to have a place for history writing outside the student notebook pages?

Thanks!
Lynn

Hmm...for CTC, we have the student notebook that Carrie created. We also have a 3-ring binder for Science that is divided into "Questions" and "Lab Sheets." We have a Notebook and folder set for History, a small 3-ring binder for Poetry that also holds the poetry paintings, a 3-ring binder for R&S English 5, a composition book for Dictation, and a folder with paper for Bible Study time. We are just starting Unit 2, so more may be added before it is all over...this is just what I have found I needed as we went through the first week. You can do things differently, as it fits your family/child. Hope this helps.

ETA: We do things seperately like that mostly because we do workboxes and I would rather have the subjects divided for clarity in those.

I am glad I found this. Our CTC boatload arrived yesterday. I need to get working on setting things up to start school after our vacation.