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M&M

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Posts posted by M&M

    I'm looking for a curriculum like Sonight, except it would be ...

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    I have explored these options some. They are certainly possibilities. :001_smile: I'll check them out again.

     

    I have a friend who has used TOG (original version). Maybe I'll see if I can see her guides...

     

    I'd really like something that's as open and go as Sonlight, and that the books are scheduled and can be purchased along with the teacher's guide.

     

    It's totally fine if there's not LA component, although it would be nice if Science, History, and Literature were all included.

     

     

    I would advise looking at the online samples of TOG. If your friend has the classic version of TOG, it is very different from the re-designed. I love TOG, but I don't know if I would have been sucessful with it when I had my 5th child.

     

    MFW has a seperate K program, so I would check into sample of that as well. When I was expecting #4 we did MFW, and it was not a sucess in our house.

     

    I would advise a different approach which you may dismiss as completely unacceptable. But, as a Mom who has btdt, I would choose something easy to do for history, literature, and science. For me set schedules written by someone else were not helpful when I had a newborn, toddlers and older children to keep up with.

     

    I would pick read alouds that you want to cover, for lit, history and science and make your own schedule on how you want to cover them. I would read lots of bible stories and pick great memory work to do. If you like hands on, I would pick some things to do ahead of time for history and science. I would get all of the supplies you need together now and put them in really big ziplock bags so that you can just pull one out and do it. I put together some file folders for my youngest children to keep them busy check out Confessions of a Homeschooler's website.

     

    Put your focus on the 3 R's, focus on skills and don't worry so much about content. I found once I start following a curriculum, I start to stress on how we are falling "behind"... not a good place for a sleep-deprived Mama who is juggling a newborn etc.

     

    If you are interested, I would listen to some of the Circe talks and Society for Classical learning. I found them very helpful in keeping my focus on why we are home educating . I now try to remember to keep our focus on our faith, knowing that education is more than filling the mind with facts.

     

    I hope that some of this is helpful to you.

    If you had $5K that HAD to be spent right away....

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I think that you have a lot of great ideas here. Before you start spening all of your money on these things, as a mother with children in elementary,middle, and highschool, I would suggest you think about what you feel is lacking in your own education. What are your weaknesses? I would then find ways to study those things now, purchase with an eye toward the future. If you are not confident in a subject, now is the time to prepare.

     

    For me, TOG has been the best curriculum for my educational growth in history, philosophy, and literature but WTM and WEM have great plans for study as well. I wish I had taken the time to study logic and rhetoric before I had students to teach. I also should have studied chemistry and physics or even had some Latin under my belt. I spent a lot of time trying to find the right curriculum - hours researching, time I could have spent reading some the great books or learning some of the above.

     

    I would pick technology carefully, make sure you have a good printer with lots of paper and ink, get some great hands on things, build a great library, and purchase as much non-consumable curriculum as you can. The My Book House books or some other set of classic books would be a great choice as they start with fairy tales and go all the way through high school level books.

     

    Check out what Homeschool Buyer's Co-op has to offer so that you can stretch your money (Math Mammoth is often available on cd at a great price). Btw I think your math plan is a very good one!

     

    ETA- I would also stock up on science kits and books.

    What do YOU do on the weekends??

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    Most weekends are filled with trying to catch up on housework and laundry, planning school, kid activities and church.

     

    This weekend I attended at Tea to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Predjudice. It was at my friend's house, with her daughters' help they prepared a lovely tea with all the bells and whistles from scratch. I was able to meet new people and talk about all kinds of things unrelated to homeschooling. I think I need more Sundays like that!

    TOG - too much. SL too little. Suggestion for high school history and lit?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    I suppose the question is , "In which direction would you prefer to tweak?" If SL is not enough of what you want and TOG is too much, would you prefer to cut or add to your choice?

     

    I understand your struggle with TOG, I have it I use it and Year 2 was killer for dd. We skimmed through year 3 and now are happily doing Y4.

     

    Why are we happy now? I have made changes, I am steering this ship, not TOG. I allow dd to choose what she would like to read for lit, we don't do all the TOG analysis. This year we will do a mix of LToW and WTM, and sometimes we will do a little of TOG...and some days we will just read and enjoy. We will cut, trim, skip. Right now dd loves the history books, when she gets tired of them I will pick something else to do, maybe we'll just watch some movies, look at our timeline book, and read the literature. I have changed my focus I no longer care so much about gaps, missing content, my focus is on truth, beauty and virtue. I want to see the light in my dc's eyes because they connect with what they are learning in some way.

     

    I let curriculum suck the life out of our school day, it was not the curriculum's fault, the fault was mine. Life got busy, very busy and I let the plans of others determine what my children's learning looked like. When things didn't work I felt guilty and had trouble determining what was wrong. It has taken many years to feel this confident, and I spent the summer really looking at my options, funny thing is that the books I wanted to use with all 5 of my dc were in fact in TOG already scheduled. Even the FIAR books I wanted to use with my youngest! I knew that I could now use TOG fully with all of my children and not get bogged down. I treat TOG the same way I do my library, there are lots of books I cannot take them all home I pick and choose what I like. I take those books home, some get read, and some do not. I don't let it bother me that some books don't get read, and I don't fret that I left lots of books untouched on the library shelves. TOG narrows down my public library, and gives me a starting point for each week.

     

    If this is not for you, then add to SL or MFW or whatever else you fancy..bottom line is that you must determine what works for you as the teacher, and then you can work out how to present the material to your student.

    Using Tapestry of Grace with The Well Trained Mind

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    Background:

     

    -Like many here, I have been intrigued with TOG since I first heard about it, not too far into our homeschooling journey which began 3.5 years ago when my oldest (then in the middle of 1st grade) requested that I homeschool her. I have spent hours reading most of the TOG threads here and just returned from the Great Homeschool Convention in Long Beach where I heard Marcia Somerville (TOG creator) speak - I went to both of her workshops and that's what renewed my interest in the curriculum. At the same time, I also thoroughly enjoyed Susan Wise Bauer's workshops, and was encouraged to continue with TWTM.

     

    -We just wrapped up our school year and our first four-year cycle of SOTW / WTM (my oldest)

     

    -My children will be entering 5th, 3rd, and 1st grades, so Upper Grammar (maybe some Dialectic) and Lower Grammar

     

    Questions:

     

    (I do know about the buffet concept and that you don't do everything, but still wondering about how to implement it in these ways)

     

    How compatible is TOG with WTM? Does it follow the same question and narration format? (I'm having trouble seeing that with the samples - I see questions only for dialectic and I see writing exercises, but I can't tell if they correlate).

     

    Does anyone use SOTW at the spine?

     

    Whether using SOTW as the spine or the TOG spine, is it helpful to use the SOTW AG questions & verbal narration followed by written or is the equivalent of that in TOG?

     

    Is it realistic to schedule TOG with math, science, grammar, spelling, Latin, Spanish, and intro to Logic? (the latter two just for my 5th grader) If so, how do you do it without taking up your whole day or getting behind in the four-year cycle?

     

    Is there art and music appreciation at the UG & LG level at all? I believe I read that it's touched on in the D level. If so, how do you schedule that in along with all of the subjects listed above?

     

    How much / what do you read aloud to your UG & LG students? Do you read anything aloud to your D students?

     

    ...As it may be obvious, I'm rather attached to the WTM way of doing SOTW, but I also had some real struggles with my oldest and narration (verbal & written), especially in our 2nd and 3rd years. I can't imagine experiencing that with my middle child, while also schooling my oldest and youngest. So I guess I'm looking for some hand holding, but also afraid of losing the benefits of the rigors of going soley with WTM/SOTW. At the same time, TOG seems like more work in some ways - less concentrated and more spread out.

     

    Any input to help me decide would be great - I don't want to inflict the three week sample on my children when we've just finished up our school year (we really need a rest period). I have a coupon that has to be used in the next two weeks, so that's part of why I want to decide soon - if I get the full year program, we can get all the instructional DVDs ($50 value) free or free shipping if we buy the print version. Can anyone comment on how helpful those DVDs are?

     

    I just wrote a very long reply that has disappeared into the vapor! Now I have to put littles to bed so I will try to answer briefly.

     

     

    You can do a TOG/WTM mix, you must not let either dictate what is best for your children. Pick the gems and leave the rest behind. Do narrations and read alouds with your little ones, read and discuss with your older one or just read aloud and discuss. Have him write something, sometimes you can use the SAP's sometimes use the WTM logic stage questions. Don't jump into D level too soon, don't overwhelm your children by doing too much. Don't make yourself crazy worrying that you're "not doing it right"!

     

     

    Use TOG like you do the library. When you go to the library you browse, you pick the things that will work for your children. You never try to bring the whole library home with you. The books will be there the next time you visit, just so TOG will be there for your next round of history and you will pick up the threads you dropped this time.

     

    I am making a concerted effort to follow my own advice :lol::lol:.

     

    The DVD's are great, so are SWB's talks, I use them often to keep me on track. If you really want to try TOG, I say take the plunge! I have put off buying things I really wanted and just drove myself crazy until I tried it.

    Visual Latin users...a few ?'s

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I'm just getting started with VL with my oldest. I really like the teaching style he has. I read somewhere that his emphasis is on reading the Latin, and not doing vocab. memorization. Can't remember where I got that from. I think he says do 2 lessons a week, but I've seen where others are stretching the A, B, and C pages out over 3 days.

     

    I'd love to get some feedback on how you schedule VL in your day (do you do it all at once, spread it out, etc). Also, do you make vocab. cards up with the words and go over them every day? We did Latina Christina 1 last year with a co-op and used our vocab cards daily. As much as I didn't like doing it, I think it really helped learn the new words. IF you don't study the vocab. words, how is it working for you to just watch the videos and do the worksheets? Anything else I've left out?

    Thank!

     

    My oldest ds has been using Visual Latin at his own pace for the last year and he loves it. This is the first latin program that has stuck in this house. I don't have to push ds to do his latin. He does about one lesson a week, and uses Quizlet to work on the vocabluary. As he has gotten further along in the program, the vocabulary has increased and he works toward mastery in the vocabulary.

     

    I was as Spanish major and I have to say, I don't know how you could study any foreign language and not study the vocabuary consistently. If you don't really know the vocabuary, you will most certainly get to a point where the student cannot progress.

    LToW/TOG users, how do you do your lit studies?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    So, all LToW I persuasive essays examine an action by a character. We only used literature for our essays, which is the way Circe teaches LToW I, because using a literature book means that we didn't need to do research for the essay. Doing research is wonderful, but it will add time and complexity to your life as a mentor, especially if you are still working on how to teach the curriculum. If your goal is to finish LToW I in a year, using literature works well.

     

     

    I will keep this in mind. I find I try to do too much and then don't accomplish much at all.

    LToW/TOG users, how do you do your lit studies?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    Could you give me an idea of how your week was structured? Did you use the SAP's? Did have discussions ala TOG using he discussion outlines? We have never used TOG's writing either I am happy to see that I don't need to start.

     

    We will be doing Y4, I am excited to see that was what you did last year! I like the example you gave about WWI.

     

    This is so helpful. I have been overwhelmed trying to learn how to teach LTOW and plan for 5 children (my youngest starts 1st grade this year).

    LToW/TOG users, how do you do your lit studies?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    I don't know what types of literature papers are assigned by TOG, but if you use both TOG and LToW, your student would write two papers about the same book. It is probably better to focus on one or the other for literature. Every LToW essay is written about the book the student is reading. Also, while LToW may not cover literature analysis; i.e. theme, characters, plot, etc. in the form of an analytical essay, your student covers those elements with the 5 Topics and other parts of the essays. Paraphasing an idea from Andrew Kern, the student has to consider those elements as he works through LToW essays. We did not analyze literature during the year that we worked with LToW; i.e. 7th grade. We used just that for composition, grammar and literature, and our LToW usually filled our daily time slot for English; i.e. one hour. The first few essays are easy (deliberately so), so they don't take much time, but during the week, the student is either reading or working on a new invention, arrangement or elocution technique.

     

     

    There are not a lot of literature assignments in T OG there is a lot of literary analysis. Your post has helped me think about how I can take some of the questions in the lit section and use them with LToW.

     

    I think I am just going to have to start to teach this to see how it's really going to play out in our home. It has been hard work trying to see things in a different way but I think our studies will benefit from it. Thank you for your help and I welcome any more advise!

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