SewLittleTime
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Posts posted by SewLittleTime
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Today in the grocery store I was helping my kids do some comparison shopping. Then some skip counting with ds2 as we counted cans. This lady says to me, "You must be a teacher."
Um...well, yeah...but I'm his mom and I'd really like to teach my kids how to be responsible shoppers. Thinking to myself: Shouldn't all parents be doing this...not just teachers?
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p. 6 at the bottom in the 3rd edition
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I agree it's a lot of grammar, but I think you would be throwing out the essence of the program if you didn't require that part to be done. To me, that's where the true understanding of Latin comes from. Otherwise it would would just be translation, and I don't see the point of studying Latin for that.
:iagree:
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Thanks for the pictures. I love to see how others organize and pick up little tricks along the way. I've done most of my filing for the year. I've set up subject notebooks to put finished work in, but I'm yet to get student planners worked out. This helped a lot.
Great job, BTW!:D
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OK, Ladies, I'll play!!!
I guess it would depend on how old your kids are when you start TOG; my first year, I had a 9th grader as my oldest. But for now, I'll address my advice to moms starting with elementary school kids. :deep breath:
Here goes!
Philosophical:
Before you start, write down in a safe place WHY you decided to use Tapestry. What was it that attracted you? Teaching all your kids on the same topic? The Biblical focus? Teaching them responsibility for the education? The hands-on projects? Write it down, and review it every month - this keeps your focus on the big picture, and on the days when it seems hard, it will remind you why you are using TOG.
On the flip side, knowing the why will help you in two other ways:
First - you can decide what to focus on. Are you using it because you wanted more hands-on projects for your littles? Then plan more of those into your weeks. Are you more interested in the whole family being on the same topic? Then use TOG to integrate your kids together, and use the family dinner discussion time to further those goals. Do you see where I'm going with this?
Second - you can also have a more rational way of deciding when TOG isn't working for you. If one of your goals isn't being met by TOG, then you can pinpoint that and move on from there.
Enough philosophy. Some practical stuff.
Practical:
1. Ease into it. I encourage new Tapestry moms to start their first week of school with just TOG, if at all possible. The first planning meeting you have with your kids - where you sit with their reading assignment pages, and tell them what to expect - well, it's kinda like the first time you tried to go somewhere after you have a baby. You feel like you're all thumbs, and you're sure you forgot something!!
2. Ease into it. Again. Start with just history & literature the unit or two. If that goes well, THEN try to add in Church History or Fine Arts. If you try to do the whole thing, your. head. will. explode.
3. Remember, TOG is designed for you to learn how to teach your kids. It's a big paradigm shift for a lot of moms. Be patient with yourself, be patient with your kids. You can do it. Really.
4. If you print up worksheets ahead, do it by unit. That way, if you realize, "Gee, I didn't need these pages after all!" you won't have wasted time & ink. Also, on the printing subject - I print up all my kids worksheets (SAPs, maps, evals, writing) and put them in a folder. That helps a bit with organization.
5. If you haven't already, watch the Tapestry Teacher Training videos on their website. Purchase them if you need to. They are worth every penny.
6. Relax. Enjoy your children. Enjoy the journey. Learn with them, wonder with them, laugh with them, marvel at the mighty had of God with them. It's not the curriculum. The curriculum is a tool. Use this precious time to build your relationship with them, and your relationship with the Lord. Let your homeschooling days be a testimony of joy in the life of your family.
Alrighty then. Probably too much info, or not helpful at all. I'll come back later if I think of more things!!!
You can do this, ladies. You really, really can. :grouphug:
This was excellent! Thank you so much for taking time to post!:D
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I'm in the midst of planning right now. We've only done 1 unit so far, so please take that into consideration as I post. I'm still fairly new to TOG. The block schedule is a huge help in getting started, but the thing that has helped me is to plan one thing out for one kiddo for the whole unit. Then plan the next thing.
Here's what I've done: Last weekend, I planned writing for my LG on an excel sheet and printed out all the WA materials to complete those assignments and filed them. This week I planned out Geography for the whole year (you could do it by the unit though) and printed out all his maps and the teacher's maps. I also planned out all the read alouds and how much to read each day. Then I planned out all which arts/activities we will do. I pick one or two a week and that is it. It's all we have time for.
When I finish all that planning for him, I move to my UG student and do the same thing taking one thing at at time. It really helped me see the bigger picture of where we are headed and the progression for the year.
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I spent this past weekend looking in depth at the writing assignments on level 1 and 4 for my kids for the entire year. If you start at the beginning of the year with WA, it builds on skills each week for the year. It offers lots of practice in level one in sentence writing and writing a very simple paragraph. I don't think it is asking too much on the 2 levels that I look at. In fact, I was rather impressed with it. :D Now, we'll see how I feel about it after putting it into practice this year.
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I think it depends on your kid. But I didn't know this until I actually put TOG into practice. For my UG, he will devour every book I put out for him. My LG is good with just the core reading. He's young and really doesn't need or want that much in-depth. My time is better spent reading aloud good books to him.
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Looks great!;)
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Found this EXCELLENT one and I'm posting in hopes it will help someone else too:
http://highland.hitcho.com.au/tog2.htm#week4
Scroll up or down once you get there; it's specific to Mid Ages/Ren/Ref but if you go to the home page there is Ancients, etc., too.
This is fantasitc! I would love to see something like that for year 3!!! OMG!!!!:drool5:
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...I did it...printing right now:001_smile:.
I would not have done it with an ink printer, but with laser it shouldn't be too bad...
To limit costs, I am using duplex printing and using the lowest print quality (less dense).
And, yes, I am printing in color...:tongue_smilie:
I am still wondering whether I should put every unit into one big binder, or spiral-bind by week...???:confused:
Feels good to hold in your hand, doesn't it??? ;)
I spent the weekend doing some planning, and I just loved seing the big picture of the whole year and flipping through the whole year. I hope to have a little more time to plan Unit 2 today.
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a friend of mine just did that very thing...printed out the whole first unit of year three on a laser printer. She did an analysis of the cost and found that the printing / shipping costs were more than if she prints it herself.
I had the opposite experience. But I have an ink jet printer. I printed out U1 of Y3. I used 2 ink cartridges to do it. Plus my printer died. So, that one unit also included the cost of a new printer.:glare: To print the next 3 units, I figured it would have cost me $200 to print based on the amount of ink my printer uses. To have Staples print it for me, $1.17 a sheet. :eek: TOG to print my DE version out for those 3 units was only 5 cents a sheet. Much less expensive!!!!
Maybe I need to invest in a laser printer. Sound like I'd come out better. Are you printing in color or B/W?
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We have begun Cores F and C, and I feel completely overwhelmed. There is a lot of reading, especially when you add in all other subjects. Are there any suggestions to make it more "doable"?
Hope you find something that works. We switched from SL b/c I just couldn't keep up with 2 cores. :glare:
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We used SL for 4 years, and my kids learned a lot. However, as our family grew, our needs changed. We aren't using SL any longer, but we have fond memories of the years we did.
They do have the 18 week love-to-learn guarantee that is unique. Might be something to think about.
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I ordered print version of my DE, and it took about 2 weeks to get them. I was told over the phone when I ordered that it would take at least 2 weeks to print and then they would be shipped from Georgia. They arrived by UPS exactly 2 weeks after I ordered. I considered that fast. TOG sent me no notice of tracking numbers or anything, but when I spoke to them on the phone, I was told they'd ship by UPS.
I agree they could up the communication on their shipping. I loathe being in the dark about when to expect my curriculum. I have found their customer service to be helpful though.
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Ds1 hit a wall in the same place. It was the place values that keep him from getting it. Graphing paper helped him tremendously in putting each number in its own box. Only then could he could line up the numbers properly. We also did problems out on our back porch in sidewalk chalk. Something about being in the problem helped him finally get it. But it.took.forever. FWIW, we hit another wall with multiplication in Delta when upside-down multiplication was introduced. But that one was much easier to work through--just a few days.
I also went back and retaught ds how to do multiplication the traditional way that I learned it. He now prefers Mr. Demme's method. It just makes sense in the way his brain sees math.
I'd take a while off and just come back to it. Play some games and have some fun for a while..
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Anyone??? :bigear:
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Figures...those VP cards keep calling my name.;)
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Anyone create a schedule for this? I'm wondering which stories line up with which chapters in the primer book and when exactly we should start the history reader.
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Child's age/grade: 9 (4th) and 6 (1st) My 9 yr old started in 2nd grade at age 7 and my 1st grader started in K at age 5 and has been taking a year now.
teacher's qualifications (degree, etc.): Master's degree in piano and music composition
Lesson length 1 hour private lesson each
Lesson frequency(once/week?): 1/wk
Monthly cost: $ 60 (per child)
Region where you live: Texas
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:lurk5:
I'd like hear what others say as well.
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Can you either point me to the thread I'm looking for or help me with names of the software?
:bigear:
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Thanks for this thread! You guys just saved me some money. DH will be pleased about that! ;);) I have thought about getting SSL for my middle ds to use, but after your reviews I'll stick with our original plan of starting with LFC in grade 3.
HELP! TOG users please!
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
:bigear: Listening