HSMom2One Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 My dd and I completed Unit 1 of Yr. 1 last week, and we are now on to the next unit. I wanted to share this post with the Hive because I'd like to encourage others that may be considering using TOG at some point. I heard about this amazing curriculum here on TWTM forum, as there is a large number of TOG families here. When we first started TOG I had some mixed feelings -- both excitement and nervousness. To be honest, I wasn't sure if I had what it would take to be a good teacher using the curriculum. I'm a college graduate with a fairly high GPA, but because I see Marcia Somerville and the developers of TOG as VERY smart people, I have to admit that I had a fear of failure. Little did I know that my fears were not necessary. The good news is that TOG is quite user friendly and easy to use. It took me a short time to develop an ability to gauge the right amount of information to cover each week and adjust everything to the right pace. Once we got that down, however, it started to be a breeze. Once we realized that we could move along faster or slow down if we wanted to, it made all the difference in the world. As for the curriculum itself: I love, love, love the Teacher's Notes! Not only are they useful for me in teaching, but I am learning right along with my dd quite often. It took a week or two to get the hang of the way they are laid out, but once that happened it opened up a whole new perspective for me. We have found that the amount of reading for UG is very realistic for my dd to handle. In fact, we are adding SWB's SOTW from the alternate reading list to our regular list, and it has been perfect. I had never used SOTW before, and as I read along with dd, I am so impressed. I love SOTW!! All of the choices of books for TOG reading are wonderful, and my daughter is literally eating them up each and every week. I've been particularly amazed at her interest in encyclopedia type reference books! I was concerned at first that she may get bored, but this has not been the case at all. We are using WA's and enjoying it as well, especially since my dd learning to develop her ideas in writing at Level 6. The graphic organizers are new to us, and we've found that they are a great help with pre-writing exercises. I love it that WA is a reference that covers all the age levels and helps me adapt particular types of writing to my dd's level of understanding and ability. Sometimes we are alternating WA with WS for variety and it seems to be working. (This was something I planned through what lI had earned here on the WTM forum too.) If you asked my dd, she would tell you that there are two things she likes the most about TOG. One, she loves the way everything fits together in units. She loves the connections between history, literature, writing assignments, geography, worldview and Bible. Secondly, she loves the hands-on projects with a passion. This was something she had missed from her earlier public school experience, but since finding TOG, I have been able to nurture her creative side along with her learning as I give her projects that keep her hands busy. Some children really need this, and TOG does it beautifully. We do have art class each week, but the hands-on projects within our TOG units are something that she really loves. I could probably go on and on, but I'll leave you with one last thought. Quite seriously, I believe that God directed me to this wonderful curriculum for my precious dd's education. TOG is ideal as a tool for molding character and building knowledge. As I answer to the call to educate my child at home, I am very thankful for having the opportunity to use this rich and wonderful curriculum. I may at some point send my dd to the private Christian school where I work part-time, and if that day comes I know she will be more prepared and ready for it because of the time we are spending with TOG and the other great curriculum choices I've learned about here on TWTM forum. You guys are really the best! Blessings, Lucinda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruthie Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Ugh! Reading your post makes me want to try again! I have Yr 1 Redesigned sitting on my shelf...it's been there for a year cause I've been paralyzed by its sheer size! So, I just ordered my next Sonlight Core and pretend TOG isn't there!! How do you deal with getting all the books? I'm used to it just coming all in one box! When I first tried TOG, I went onto my library's website and put a hold on some books, but they all came at different times and in the wrong order. How do you handle issues like that? TIA! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsmith Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 :iagree::iagree::iagree: I LOVE TOG! I really felt led to this program, and I am so glad I followed! My ds is also UG, and I agree with the amount of reading. He also enjoys the encyclopedia readings, as well as the other resources. We are also using SOTW as a read aloud, because my son loves it. I was happy to see the chapter correlations for each week. I just love how it is all interwoven. Writing Aids has been a blessing for us. Another thing I love about TOG is the ability to modify it, and go up and down between the levels. My son's weakness is writing, so I have him at level 3 in Writing Aids, and it has been a great help. I know that if a reading selection is too difficult, I can move him down to a lower grammar selection. He's not too fond of the hands on although he loves to read the activity books. We do notebooking pages instead, and it is easy to substitute an activity, or add something interesting that one may run across. I love the idea of an end of unit celebration! Definitely something to look forward to. The teacher notes are amazing and I'm learning so much! I am very tempted to go through the rhetoric level while my son does UG. I could go on for hours about TOG! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSMom2One Posted December 5, 2009 Author Share Posted December 5, 2009 (edited) Ugh! Reading your post makes me want to try again! I have Yr 1 Redesigned sitting on my shelf...it's been there for a year cause I've been paralyzed by its sheer size! So, I just ordered my next Sonlight Core and pretend TOG isn't there!! How do you deal with getting all the books? I'm used to it just coming all in one box! When I first tried TOG, I went onto my library's website and put a hold on some books, but they all came at different times and in the wrong order. How do you handle issues like that? TIA! Ruthie, I have opted to purchase the resource books one unit at a time. We will keep the ones we want to keep, and sell the others as used books after our year is complete. I'm going to hold off on doing this because sometimes you want to go back and re-read a book from another unit you've gone through that same year. Anyway, I have gotten them so far from Amazon because I have Prime. We don't have a library in our town and to use the library in a nearby cities would cost us more than an annual membership for Amazon Prime. I've also heard great things on this board about Bookshelf Central, and I think I might try them sometime too. If you order in advance and don't mind waiting longer for the shipment, BC will ship Media Rate and it is pretty cheap. Another thing I'm doing is getting books here and there through Bookmooch and Paperbackswap. I've got all of next year's books posted on my wishlists on both sites, and I've already got at least a dozen of the books collected and waiting on the shelf for Yr. 2. This will save me money too. So for us, its a mixture of new and used books, and its all a joy. We love the beautiful books that arrive in time for our new unit, and place them lovingly on the shelf where they are ready when we need them. This is yet another thing about TOG that we really appreciate and love. Blessings, Lucinda Edited December 5, 2009 by HSMom2One Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janice in NJ Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Lucinda, Great to hear! I'm so glad that TOG is humming along for you. Woo-hoo! Have you had the chance to dip into any of the R level literature? As you head into units 2-4, you might think about working through some of the R level lit on your own if you can make the time. Hamilton's Mythology, Homer, some of the Greek plays, and The Aeneid are all worthwhile. The TOG material is pretty straight forward. Chewing on some of this stuff when my kids were younger has made all of the difference in the world as they headed toward high school. A confidence builder. :001_smile: And it's truly one of the benefits of TOG. You can just plug along at a high-schooler's weekly pace. You don't have to do all of the work; you have the answers. But you can dip in and out as you are able. NO worries if it isn't on your radar. Your daughter will be fine. :001_smile: But that glancing a-head bit can be very helpful as you move along through middle school and consider high school. Even if you decide not to homeschool, your tent-pegs will be wider. You'll understand more of the assignments that she brings home from high school. Peace, Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey P.S. A word of caution - don't made huge, grand plans. Planning can be a huge time-sucker. Just choose one book and try working through one week of the R level plan. And may I suggest that you just do the Lit? The history is good, but you have the teacher's notes. You'll be fine; you have plenty of background info, etc. The lit takes years to simmer. The history can be picked up later and will ultimately make a ton more sense as you progress through the history cycle with your daughter. As I recall the Odyssey is done in-depth while the Iliad isn't. Can't remember and Yr 1 is tucked away deep in the basement. So you might just want to read through the teacher's notes for the Iliad and work through just the Odyssey. We used the Fagles edition with the Audiobook: http://www.amazon.com/Odyssey-Homer/dp/014305824X/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260014987&sr=8-7 Each kid had a copy of the book and we settled in with our books, a pencil, a remote, and the stereo. Cozy times. Homer was meant to be heard. It was great. Lots of underlining and scribbling in the margins. Yes! I wrote a LOT in my hardcover edition with the ribbon. ;) Lots of pausing to discuss. We also used the lectures from this Teaching Company Course as we worked through the book and the TOG exercises. My library had them on DVD so it worked out great. http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/CourseDescLong2.aspx?cid=302 Lots to learn. And painlessly done. NOT trying to overwhelm, just offering up the next layer if you're up for it. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSMom2One Posted December 5, 2009 Author Share Posted December 5, 2009 I love your suggestions and really appreciate your input. So far, I've been concentrating on getting "with the program" and setting the right pace, etc. while I make sure dd gets all of her assignments in a realistic time frame, etc. But I will hold on to your suggestions for sure. I like the idea of adding the rhetoric literature selections to my own reading. That is a wonderful idea. Another thing I love about TOG (and the Hive as well) is the great community we have. Isn't it great to bounce things off each other this way? Blessings, Lucinda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janice in NJ Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 Cool. I hope that it helped. No pressure. Just if you're up for it. This time of year is busy enough, eh? Peace, Janice :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 Lucinda, I love your enthusiasm, keep it up!! Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meet me in paris Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 Lucinda, you've inspired me! I'm looking at TOG now for my 2. We've been using SL, but this year I had to split them up. Now that we're halfway through the year, I'm realizing how much we're missing out on by not working together on *anything*. I love that with TOG I can pull from several levels with only one package (we will not discuss how much I spent at Sonlight last year!). thanks for sharing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thowell Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 I have a few questions? How easy are the reading resources to find? and also is there a specific religious denomination that this program is targeted towards? We are Indeoendent Baptist and dh is very passoniate about teaching from that perspective. I ahve researched this program before and I know the website says the author is from a Puritan background but how is the material presented? Does it have a calvanist look to it or is it just a general view? Does this make sense? I love the look of this program but the religious content is always a concern for us. Dont want to highjack so you can Pm me if you would prefer. thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSMom2One Posted December 12, 2009 Author Share Posted December 12, 2009 I have a few questions? How easy are the reading resources to find? and also is there a specific religious denomination that this program is targeted towards? We are Indeoendent Baptist and dh is very passoniate about teaching from that perspective. I ahve researched this program before and I know the website says the author is from a Puritan background but how is the material presented? Does it have a calvanist look to it or is it just a general view? Does this make sense? I love the look of this program but the religious content is always a concern for us. Dont want to highjack so you can Pm me if you would prefer. thanks! So far, we have not encountered a problem with theology associated with TOG. There is a definite Christian worldview, but it is more general from what I can tell. We, ourselves, are more Wesleyan/Armenian and it has not been a problem to us at all. Do remember that the spine of the curriculum is history and everything connects to that. If theology is problematic, it can easily be adapted to fit the needs of your family. I'd encourage you to try a free 3-wk sample and find out for yourselves how it works. Blessings, Lucinda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
profmom Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 (edited) How do you deal with getting all the books? I'm used to it just coming all in one box! When I first tried TOG, I went onto my library's website and put a hold on some books, but they all came at different times and in the wrong order. How do you handle issues like that? TIA! I'll throw in my answer to this too. Here's what I do: ~ In the summer before we start a TOG year, I go through and mark all the books we already own on the primary reading list (not many on this first time through) -- highlight in yellow. (This year I have a thin binder that only has the reading assignment pages for the year.) ~Check the library to see what they have from the primary list first, and then the alternate reading list. (These are highlighted in green.) ~ For UG (especially), I'll consider using the alternate books if the library has them. My oldest (of 3) is in D, so I know anything I buy could be used by my younger dc. ~ A few weeks before starting a new unit, I place an order for all the books in that unit that my kids will use that I don't already own or that the library doesn't have. I usually buy from either Amazon or Bookshelf Central after comparing prices and availability. (Highlight 1/2 title in yellow when ordered and finish highlighting when received.) ~ Each week, I look ahead and request any books we'll use in the next couple of weeks from the library (online). Moving books between library locations to my closest branch usually only takes a couple of days. ~ Our library started charging for ILL, so I don't really use that option. I didn't like the unpredictability of it anyway, so I wouldn't use it for TOG books. I hope that's helpful! Detailed answer, but still a simple solution. Edited December 13, 2009 by profmom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in CA Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Lucinda, So glad you are enjoying TOG! I am on my 2nd year and still loving it just as much as ever. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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