TOG where and when to start question

[3babiesmommy]

So I really like the looks of TOG. My only concern is that it will be too much for us. However, I like it enough so that I know I have to try it at some point or it will drive me nuts forever! My question is this: when and where do I start? I have a 3rd grade 8 year old and a 1st grade 6 year old. We are doing a skeleton of WP AS1 this year (kids didn't like all the paper crafts, I didn't care for the organization of their readings). My original plan was to finish this year, do MFW ECC next year, and then start the 4 year rotation the following year (5th, 3rd and the little one would be in K). The more I looked at TOG, I started to think maybe ECC would be redundant with all of the geography and missionary inclusion in TOG. So maybe I just try TOG year 1 in the fall? THEN, to complicate things even more:), I realized that where we are in our history studies right now would put us right at the beginning of year 3. Since I feel like we are just kind of killing time for the rest of this year's history anyway, why not try a unit of TOG now? If I did that, would you start at year 3 to continue where we are now, or would you start over at year 1 (we have not done Ancients yet)? So,

 

Option 1: finish this year, ECC next year, TOG Y1 the following

 

Option 2: finish this year, TOG Y1 next year

 

Option 3: start TOG now (Y1 or Y3?)

 

The other reason I thought trying a unit now might be a good idea is because both kids would be LG still, which would be pretty low key, but still give me a chance to get us all used to the flow. If you have hung in reading this long, THANKS! Any suggestions welcome:)

 

Coleen

[lcelmer]

I would lean toward continuing the history flow by starting tog 3 when you complete this year. :001_smile:

 

But, you may want to take into account some states have specific requirements for highschool history credits. You may want to make sure the rotation allows for the right credits when your kiddos get to that point.

[TracyP]

If you really want to start now here is another idea:

 

Yr 1, Unit 1: now

Yr 1, Unit 2-4: next year

yr 2, Unit 1-2: oldest 5th

Yr 2, Unit 3-4: oldest 6th

Yr 3: oldest 7th

Yr 4: oldest 8th

back to Yr 1 as 9th grader

 

Year 2 has soooo much for kids that age. Sorry if I only confused you but this way you could start now and get your oldest on a "regular" path.

[3babiesmommy]

No Tracy, that doesn't confuse me at all! It really helps to know that Year 2 has so much going on like that, I never would have known otherwise! The other bonus is that I have the 1st 3 weeks of Year 1 free:)

[3babiesmommy]

Any other opinions? :)

[siloam]

So I really like the looks of TOG. My only concern is that it will be too much for us. However, I like it enough so that I know I have to try it at some point or it will drive me nuts forever! My question is this: when and where do I start? I have a 3rd grade 8 year old and a 1st grade 6 year old. We are doing a skeleton of WP AS1 this year (kids didn't like all the paper crafts, I didn't care for the organization of their readings). My original plan was to finish this year, do MFW ECC next year, and then start the 4 year rotation the following year (5th, 3rd and the little one would be in K). The more I looked at TOG, I started to think maybe ECC would be redundant with all of the geography and missionary inclusion in TOG. So maybe I just try TOG year 1 in the fall? THEN, to complicate things even more:), I realized that where we are in our history studies right now would put us right at the beginning of year 3. Since I feel like we are just kind of killing time for the rest of this year's history anyway, why not try a unit of TOG now? If I did that, would you start at year 3 to continue where we are now, or would you start over at year 1 (we have not done Ancients yet)? So,

 

Option 1: finish this year, ECC next year, TOG Y1 the following

 

Option 2: finish this year, TOG Y1 next year

 

Option 3: start TOG now (Y1 or Y3?)

 

The other reason I thought trying a unit now might be a good idea is because both kids would be LG still, which would be pretty low key, but still give me a chance to get us all used to the flow. If you have hung in reading this long, THANKS! Any suggestions welcome:)

 

Coleen

 

Coleen,

 

I would go with option 4. I would try out one of the 3 week samples now. That will let you know if TOG is for you without having make a small investment, then you can make an informed decision about next year and beyond.

 

The one red flag I see is TOG is structured topic wise very much like WP. Both are basically weekly unit studies. It isn't like SL where you will have a spine text and the topics wrap around that. With TOG you will read sections of the book out of order because that is the order they present the topics in (which I am sure is delegated by the R level spine text). You can re-arrange weeks if you like, but you still aren't going to get around the fact that it is a weekly unit study, and thus sometimes doesn't flow through history as smoothly as other programs.

 

Heather

 

[3babiesmommy]

Thanks Heather. I thought of how it might be somewhat like WP, but the thing I really didn't like about that program was not that it was like a little unit study each week, that was actually fine with me. The problem was that there were several times where you would read about an event, and not do the MYO history page on that event until a few days later. That just did not make sense to me. From what I understand about TOG, I am the one who would schedule such things, so I could put whatever is there for that week wherever I want. I am really a compulsive tweaker/scheduler, so I was thinking that TOG would lend itself well to that. Do you find that to be the case?

[bethben]

I would vote for starting year 3. We started with year 3 after doing a year of ECC. I should edit that to say we did 3/4 of a year with ECC because the redundancy of the books we were using made me condense two weeks into one just so we could be done with the program and move on. I like TOG MUCH better. I have a 3rd grader who is doing a combination of UG and LG. It's been a good year and a lot easier for me. i don't get bored with the material like I did with ECC (ds didn't mind so much, I got bored).

 

Beth

[siloam]

Thanks Heather. I thought of how it might be somewhat like WP, but the thing I really didn't like about that program was not that it was like a little unit study each week, that was actually fine with me. The problem was that there were several times where you would read about an event, and not do the MYO history page on that event until a few days later. That just did not make sense to me. From what I understand about TOG, I am the one who would schedule such things, so I could put whatever is there for that week wherever I want. I am really a compulsive tweaker/scheduler, so I was thinking that TOG would lend itself well to that. Do you find that to be the case?

I didn't do the MYO pages, but I seem to remember they were always scheduled on a Friday, no matter when you read about the topic it decided to pick up on. AW has that problem too, but I didn't use the MYO pages there either. :D

 

Yes with TOG you decide when things happen.

 

I also a compulsive tweaker, and love TOG because it gives me more options to work with. I do still teak a lot. Some weeks we cover really quickly because I am not interested in them, and others we spend a month in because I love the topic. In year 1 I also plan to use MOH, so I scheduled that in, and might schedule Guerber as well. I love the flexibility.

 

Heather