The Phonics Road gives us vocab from literature and also a word study based on word roots. It is wonderful! We're learning so many Latin pre/suffixes and word roots that words have really come alive for us.

The Phonics Road Level 3 starts the Latin study. It is wonderful!

How good is your library? I generally get ALL of the LG/UG and most of the D books from the library and choose to buy the R books. I will buy everything for year 4 (TOG materials and supplements) and 2 of most R books and spend about $600. When you have TOG in hand, you realize you won't buy ALL the books, but rather pick and choose. You can save a ton that way, too. There are a lot of ways to save on books w/ TOG, particularly b/c the popularity of the program.

Buy a R&S 5 or 6 and you'll have everything you need. When you come across an area that needs work, simply use the RS index and get some extra practice in.

Tara, Great job explaining! I would encourage descriptive writing from the get go. I'll insert below. That's the general idea of how narration works in our house. We have transitioned to writing summaries with our studies, but if we're really busy one day, I'll type it out and follow this model. I do this as a catechism or drill to get them used to descriptive and intentional writing from the beginning. It's an area I lacked with the first round of kiddos, so now that I know better, I get started on these things right away! Hope it makes sense and helps!

buy some flashcards from either program and begin learning the sounds.

You can even start in a unit within a year! We started at Y1, Unit 4

You're right! We don't and it makes a HUGE difference in our enjoyment levels!

SOrt of off topic, but I can say that our Latin Road Studies do fit in nicely with TOG. I didn't know that was TOGs stance...interesting.

I was glancing at that yesterday. I'll have to check it out from my library and see. I'm gonna sit today with my DE and get moving on the science planning. I can't wait!

Welcome :) :party:

DS7-2nd grade. Adventures in MFW, Horizons math 3 w/RS games, PLL first half, explode the code 8, AAS 1, SL 2 advanced readers. DD5-1st grade. Tagging along in Adventures in MFW with brother, MFW 1st, Singapore 1A, & OPGTR with explode the code and AAS 1. 2nd grader rotate between Horizons and games (who cares if it takes more than a school year to get through 3). Drop AAS. Cut back to minimum in MFW and continue the reading. 1st grader - Don't give any work from Adventures; drop OPGTR and AAS1 and work through ETC. Follow a loop schedule, so if you don't get something done on one day, you pick up with it the next.

YOur post resonates with me pre-TOG. I spent so long putting it all together and could still find missing pieces to our education. TOG makes the extras available, but b/c I am choosing from an extensive book list, I'm not trapped and can focus where I'd like. Having the family in the same time frame helps a lot, too b/c I can study for the top and easily get through the rest from the R knowledge or their read alouds. I use the book basket idea and have more reading available for anyone who wants it; plug in memorization (lots of ideas on yahoo groups); include lots of writing from our work (Very WTM style or CM style for the lower grammar stages). TOG is easy to adjust and offers quality I would be choosing from anyways. I'm very happy with it. Lots on my blog, which is in my siggy. I've been a TOGger for nearly 6 years and an affiliate since last fall.

:iagree: We love TOG for all grades over here. I currently have 3 dc in LG; 1 in UG/D; 1 in D; 2 in R I'm pleased at every level and my dc learn so much. TOG is right as rain for our house, for all our ages, learning styles, and even suit our needs so far as who gets "how much" history. *I* love learning from TOG, too!

It makes perfect sense.

Sounds like a worthy option. Best wishes on fitting spelling!

Thank you for the b-day wishes. Yup, Netflix science is just that way. We even have been pausing and doing Beakman's experiments. It's been fun! A quick narration, etc. and we're in the money....love the co-cart from Myth Busters! The show is in our que, too. :)

The markings in PR make it great for those easily distracted by the tiles. Apples and Pears is workbookish, me thinks!

My blog is a real help for all things TOG (in my siggy). Not much past the first few weeks so far as grammar, so I suggest a grammar program. We spend about 30-1hour on grammar stages; more the older they get. My D and R students probably spend about 1.5 per day on TOG, but that is a TON of reading, questions, maps, etc. We use the fullness of TOG, so it covers a lot of ground around here. My blog will really give you an idea.

I think her gc may find EFTRU very boring. Lively Latin. If she has the whole summer, the Bridge to the Latin Road may be nice. It is everything she asked for. What's that one....Gallore Park, maybe?

Daily Grams is great. It's a daily review of skills. If you have a nice primer in case you need to teach, it will fill in nicely.

Here it is:

Jesse, You brought a huge smile to my face. It's my birthday today and I've gotten so much love. What a beautiful blessing our Lord has placed upon me. I guess, I got to thinking, why do I need to plan out the materials I own that already have a schedule? It's so unnecessary to actually write out Singapore math since it's essentially, "do the next lesson" and since it's my 5th+ time around, I already know how to teach the stuff. It seems a 2 minute glance in my teacher's book really is enough! I don't need to type or write what is obvious: if you just finished lesson 46, finish lesson 47 next! The only planning I do for math is to sit down and place a post-it on the exercises that will come after the Practices from the Text. I place a capital "T" when they need teacher time. It took me about 10 min. per child to write out the info in their workbook. Planning done. PR is the same. Since there is already a daily schedule, I just chose which subjects to do each day. Now that I'm confident in the depth of PR, I know I have no hurry to get 'er done and since I watch the DVD in advance, I'm confident I'm finished planning. M-grammar + lit T-Spelling + lit. W - grammar Th. Spelling + Lit. F - Spelling + grammar I pick up my book and do what's next. The pre-planning Dvd-a-thon makes it grab and go. TOG is grab and go at this point, too. I have our days planned out so far as choosing books and projects, so I do glance for supplies, but for the most part, I pre-select projects that include materials I have on hand. I chose the books last summer by first looking in my own library, then checking local availability. I put a check mark and write down their location. It doesn't take long...I spent part of one day doing this for all 4 TOG levels. I do the same for the writing assignments, but save choosing the discussion ?? for the week b/c I like to base those on our discussion, needs, and preferences (all of which change regularly). Science has become do what we like (We're still enjoying Netflix science right now) and then we do whatever recent skill from PR writing to complete our notebook (outlining, paragraph, narration, lab sheet) etc. It's really an extension of PR, using science studies. This makes me Very happy and creates an easy balance in our science. We're actually spending more time on science b/c the videos are longer, yet I get no complaints! Since I have our memorization in place from summer planning, it's also a "grab the folder and practice" skill. I insert this between subjects to break up the monotony. I teach first and let the boys go off independently thereafter. This has Really motivated them to get their work done so they can go and play. Somehow, it all works out well. Here's what our day looks like. My day looks like this, starting at 8: Math with Ax Man/assigned reading for The Ant Ax finish math/Math with The Ant/Playtime for toddlers and Alexander the Great 5 min. memorization or 10min computer drill time in lieu of family memorization PR & Math w/ Darling yet Diva; Both boys finish their math and assigned reading while I do PR w/ Ker IF they finish, they have free time Breakfast which I do limit to 30min total time PR w/ Ax & Ant/; AtG practices addition math facts using a Holey Card (w/ no timing) Snack for littles and I meet with the Elders (who have 45-1hour subject slots for the day. I set the timer and just tell them to move along) while the Little League watches a science video. Writing skills for science family memorization time Lunch + family bible History (read, video, map, activity, whatever for the day) the Little League is finished, so I take a break, clean up, then meet with the Elders for the day to review Latin and go through science or history discussions as necessary. I don't watch the clock (except for memorization sessions) and we work until it seems we've done enough. Some days that means simply "the next lesson" other times, it means breaking PR grammar or lit. into 2 days. Whatever feels right. Some days, we won't write in science or history, so on the next day, we'll review what we learned. I have even tried a few different things. Two weeks ago, we watched a video and they took notes during the video (according to ability, I assigned how many they were responsible for). Then I had them stand up and form complete sentences from their notes. The next day, we took their notes and wrote a paragraph and colored a picture for their notebook. It is really that simple. Hanging on the wall where I can see it, is a piece of paper that has: PR Math History Science Memorization Bible I make sure I hit each area, each day, and we're good. No times. No colors. No 5-zillion columns. It Can be that simple b/c I'm settled in what we use. It's so, so, so freeing! We do so much schooling, we read so much, we have fun, and I am no longer the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, running around crazy b/c "I'm late! I'm late!" What a wonderful world!

OH!...a girl can dream....NO FINES! That would save me enough for math books each year!