Twin Help

[doliver]

I'm the mom of twin 11 year old boys who are technically going into 7th grade next year. We tried starting CTC halfway through our 5th grade year, but we struggled immensely with my difficult work from home schedule and the output and independence required of CTC. We put it down and only came back to it a couple of months ago. We started slowly, doing a lot of the blocks together, so I could teach each boy the expectation of the work required. We are now slowly weaning the independent squares into actual independence. This is a much better fit for them this year. As we continue down this path, I see one of my boys being more successful with the content and moving forward at a faster rate. He can do the majority of all of the boxes independently with ease at this point. My other son still struggles with any kind of independence, and though he is capable of what is being asked, he fights work of any kind and it all requires me to sit with him and do and redo assignments because he doesn't choose to follow the directions the first time. I'm sure it could be a phase that will pass, but my question comes for what to do in the future. I was planning to continue to use CTC until the end of the summer and then start Res To Ref at the start of 7th grade, but now I am wondering if it would be better to keep my struggling son in CTC and only bump him up when he is finished. Yet, I'd like to follow my original plan with the son who is excelling. I think that he will be ready to handle the workload of Res To Ref long before we complete CTC. Do you guys think that would be smart or do more harm than good by separating the boys?

[my3sons]

I'm the mom of twin 11 year old boys who are technically going into 7th grade next year. We tried starting CTC halfway through our 5th grade year, but we struggled immensely with my difficult work from home schedule and the output and independence required of CTC. We put it down and only came back to it a couple of months ago. We started slowly, doing a lot of the blocks together, so I could teach each boy the expectation of the work required. We are now slowly weaning the independent squares into actual independence. This is a much better fit for them this year. As we continue down this path, I see one of my boys being more successful with the content and moving forward at a faster rate. He can do the majority of all of the boxes independently with ease at this point. My other son still struggles with any kind of independence, and though he is capable of what is being asked, he fights work of any kind and it all requires me to sit with him and do and redo assignments because he doesn't choose to follow the directions the first time. I'm sure it could be a phase that will pass, but my question comes for what to do in the future. I was planning to continue to use CTC until the end of the summer and then start Res To Ref at the start of 7th grade, but now I am wondering if it would be better to keep my struggling son in CTC and only bump him up when he is finished. Yet, I'd like to follow my original plan with the son who is excelling. I think that he will be ready to handle the workload of Res To Ref long before we complete CTC. Do you guys think that would be smart or do more harm than good by separating the boys?

It sounds like your sons have been making good progress in CTC now, which is wonderful to hear - congrats! Age is really just one determining factor in placement within HOD, so even though your sons are twins and exactly the same age, they could place in different guides. If you look at the placement chart totally separately for both, where do you find each one places for reading, writing, grammar, and math? I'd love to hear that!

https://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

I know your twin who is struggling more seems to be struggling with taking on independence and following directions. However, much can happen in these skills within the summer months. Is this son having trouble writing 5-7 sentence narrations? Reading his history and science independently? How does he do with being able to orally narrate? How long does his work take him - about 4 1/2 hours a day or much more? I also wonder how the two work together? Even when brothers are twins, it can be healthy to separate them if them doing a guide together is not a good thing skill-wise and relationship-wise. I also wondered if your work from home schedule is still difficult, or if that has eased up a little? I work part-time as well, and there are seasons when I am busier, and seasons when I am not as busy. Makes a big difference in my homeschooling, and I plan our homeschool year around it as much as possible! Just want to be careful about overloading you too!

If you get the chance to share answers to these questions, I'd feel so much better about giving advice!

In Christ,
Julie