TOG Book Selections?

[Guest]

What do you all think of TOG's book selections for lower and upper grammar? I think a lot of them look excellent, and my dc remember so much from when we did TOG two years ago. But, I can't help but feeling like they are missing out on so many classic read alouds (i.e. sonlight). I know read alouds can be added in, but the reality is after a full day of math, LA, reading, science, history...it usually doesn't happen.

 

Also, some weeks of Tapestry has over 40pages down for history (I am talking just the primary history book), and then other weeks there is barely nothing. Does this bother anyone?

[mama27]

Do most of you actually do all this reading? Am I missing something here since I haven't been? lol

Tammy

[bethben]

I think the book selections for TOG have been wonderful. Ds has enjoyed most of them. He is a strong reader in UG and he does all the reading completely on his own. We just finished year 3 and I am looking forward to year 4 when ds #3 joins the mix for Kindergarten. He is reading (I will read to him) some classic kids books (like Horton hears a who, Velveteen Rabbit...) while his older UG brother is reading things like Winnie the Pooh, the Phantom tollbooth, Wizard of Oz. I love the selections because they are age appropriate and have pictures in the books for the younger groups. I'm finding that a lot of read alouds from Sonlight Core K are popping up as literature for Upper Grammar (that they read on their own). I find that TOG is much more doable than Sonlight in the amount of reading that I need to do. I'm not reading everything to my strong reader and focusing on the one who needs the most instruction. Once my 3 year old settles down a bit more, I'll start doing the suggested read alouds.

 

Beth

[Verity]

We just did Unit 4 Year 1 and wrapped it up this week. My 5th grader (UG) is a strong reader and I had him do the assigned reading - at least the books that weren't OOP. He disliked all of the assigned books but I persevered in making him finish them. I also have some issues with the history read alouds, Peace and Peril and Trial and Tribulation...I found myself editing as I read to my 11 and 8 year old. They are very sensitive boys and every story was about christian martyrs being tortured and killed. I just couldn't make myself read those stories to them everyday. Toooooo much. At this point both of my kids say that they hate the Romans because all the Romans liked was blood and guts. /sigh Now let's learn our Latin kids! :glare: (sheesh)

 

I've bought the UG and some D books for Year 2 because I thought I would love the program but at this point it's unlikely that I will use the whole program. I'm not sure on my history/literature for my older son next year - I might buy the guides but have to tweak them considerably. I dream of being able to use one program for both kids but I can't find one that works for us. Probably I will use SL Core 2 for my younger son and some SL 6 readers for the older son. I think I will probably use HO Middle Ages and Core 2 with SL and some TOG books and have to just make it work on my own.