TOG Scheduling

[Christine]

This is a bit seperate on how you "plan" TOG, apparently. . .

 

I'm very "linear" (read as "check-box-y").

 

TOG seems rather "global" (to a "check-box-y" person this is very "fanciful").

 

I've gone over the 3 weeks freebie "schedules". . .and it seems more like an open to-do list.

 

Which for someone like myself won't work. (Because, I'd get busy with other things and on, say, Friday I'd remember we have to finish this, and I'd try to do it all then -- and that would NOT be good.)

 

For that reason, I've never purchased TOG, because it would require me scheduling it out. The time that would be required for that. . .I don't know that it would be worth the money.

 

So, are there any other "linear" people out there that use TOG, and if so HOW? Are there FREE TOG schedules out there that you use on top of their "let's do this, this week list"?

 

Please understand, I'm not trying to "diss" (to borrow my teen's word), this program, the material looks good. . .I've just gotten old enough to recognize my own limitations and need to find something that works within them.

 

(Oh, and please don't send me a link to the KISS schedule page TOG has. . .I've seen it. . .)

[LisaNY]

TOG was not designed to be a check box program. If you want check box, then you will have to do your own planning. I would say that Sonlight is a check box program, where everything is laid out for you.

 

Many people find the broad, flexible nature of TOG to be a positive. It allows the teacher to tailor the program to suit their particular needs. Also, TOG fosters independence, encouraging the student to play a significant part in their weekly planning. (Hence the blank student planning pages to be filled in by the student - I'm assuming it is the same in the Redesign)

 

I type out all of the Accountability and Thinking questions, and then put them in my dd's binder for her to fill in each week. I also make copies of blackline maps and any student activity pages I want her to complete. We sit down together at the beginning of the week, and I go over all of her student pages with her, so that she is clear on what is expected of her that week.

 

Others can chime in, but I don't think TOG can be done without a fair amount of planning each week. I would say a minimum of 1-2 hours.

[Pongo]

I have to agree with you TOG is very "global". I find that this works well for those with children that eat up books and move through work very quickly. You can always find something MORE for them to do. But for other children (like my ds) it is waaayyy to much for him.

Something like MFW would be perfect for my son, easy goals, quick crafts splattered throughout, but I find it to basic for my 4th/5th grader.

I love how TOG gives me the tools to teach History well. I do read ALL the white pages and several Rhetoric level books to educate myself....yes I was one of those that loved school.

I print out a copy of the books(schedule pages) 1 set for each child. I use a black sharpie on my sons assignment on what I don't want him to do. Seeing ALL that info is overwhelming for him. I keep it simple with just a few check-boxes for him to check off. I redact books I don't want him to bother with, vocab words and anything else I don't want him to bother with. On the other hand I don't touch my daughters. She finds a thrill in trying to read every book even LG ones! She always wants to tackle the toughest project and this allows her to do that. At the end of the day we can all talk about what we learned at different levels.

I stopped looking at it like what "I" needed to. Other than making sure supplies and books are available my kids have taken ownership over what they need to do.

I threw micro-managing out the window because I realized ALL those countless hours I spent making myself schedules, checklists, and planning out the rest of their school lives , changed. Something new would come on the market, someone would get sick, life happened. I do still hold tightly my household/menu schedule but when chicken is on sale instead of a roast that week sometimes my carefully planned menu changes too :)

All this to say, I love TOG I can wrap my brain around it, I use it differently for each child as well as myself. Not sure if I helped much, but I hope whatever you decide it works for ya.

[Karenciavo]

Here's a few things I have done for my check box ds14. One, I make a workbook that includes all the assignments he will cover and nothing more. And two, we schedule specific parts for specific days, i.e., geography is always day 1, timeline is always day 2, government and philosophy assignments are always days 1 & 2, discussion is always day 3, church history assignments are always day 3 with discussion on day four, etc. We try to never get out of our groove, but if we do we can do a quick shuffle and we're fine.

 

Karen

[WTMindy]

I am a box-checker! Here are a couple things I have done to make it work for me.

 

1. I plan each unit ahead of time and decide exactly what I want to focus on, which projects we will do, which topics I will make sure we cover, etc.

 

2. I stole Karen's idea about the notebooks (you can read about mine here) This comes from my unit plan.

 

3. I do certain things on certain days. Wednesday is always map/timeline day. Monday we write the outline of our narration. Monday we also do quite a bit of reading outloud, Moday afternoons is project day, etc.... This helps me ensure that we don't get to Friday with everything still not done.

 

The more I use TOG, the more I love it. I have found great freedom in all the choices and in finding exactly how to best use it for our family.

[siloam]

Christine,

 

Yep I check each box on my schedule!

 

What I do is go in a make a SL type schedule for a quarter at a time. When I run out of schedules I take a week of and plan the next quarter. If you take summer off (I hs year around), you could do a whole year of schedules then.

 

Heather

[Trivium Academy]

Thank you Mindy for linking your post, I really needed to SEE something to understand it! I get it now and understand how to do it.

[Christine]

Well, it looks as if I'd be stuck scheduling, and I can't quite fathom why it would be worthwhile to buy the program if I'm going to have to schedule everything out anyway. (This is especially true, as I was only wanting the history portion of it anyway.)

 

Thanks for everyone's input.

[daisychics]

Thank you Mindy for linking your post, I really needed to SEE something to understand it! I get it now and understand how to do it.

 

:iagree: I'm a visual learner as well. I need to see an example for my brain to process it. Thank you Mindy for sharing.

[siloam]

Well, it looks as if I'd be stuck scheduling, and I can't quite fathom why it would be worthwhile to buy the program if I'm going to have to schedule everything out anyway. (This is especially true, as I was only wanting the history portion of it anyway.)

 

Thanks for everyone's input.

 

Christine,

 

Well I can tell you why, but agree that TOG probably isn't the program for you. In other words, I am not trying to change your mind, so this is just FYI.

 

I have done SL and Winter Promise, who's schedule is just like SL's, and I always re-wrote the whole thing to add and subtract...just make it do what I wanted it to do instead of what it was written to do. TOG gives me all the tools to make my own schedule, and make it right the first time, tailored to our goals.

 

If you can open and go with another program and be happy with it, then do so! I never could. :D

 

Blessings,

 

Heather

[Christine]

If you can open and go with another program and be happy with it, then do so! I never could. :D

 

Can't! Never been able to, and I've redone many a SL schedule myself.

 

 

TOG gives me all the tools to make my own schedule, and make it right the first time, tailored to our goals.

 

The problem here is I don't "see" what tools TOG would offer me to make my own schedule. . .

[siloam]

 

Can't! Never been able to, and I've redone many a SL schedule myself.

 

 

 

The problem here is I don't "see" what tools TOG would offer me to make my own schedule. . .

 

Hmmmm... It is basically a unit study. Each week is a new topic and TOG coordinates all the areas it covers into that topic.

 

For example we are covering South American this week.

 

1. I have the TOG reading suggestions with comprehension questions. At the LG/UG level I am using it probably isn't that much different than SL. At the D and R levels, especially the R they move into thinking/logic questions while SL sill does comprehension questions.

 

2. World View of South American is covered with the cousin to Windows on the World (though I just use WOW because I have it from Core 2)

 

3. Mapping is of South America, and not just finding a place here and there that is mentioned in the reading, but taking a blackline map and labeling the oceans, major land forms and the major points of interet. This was one of the big pulls for me, is that mapping is done every week, and with a lot more detail, but still directly relates to what is being studied in history. I love that the Map Aids have both the maps needed to do the mapping, but also has the ANSWERS. Oh and the places to map do come with check boxes! :D

 

4. Lit that at the LG UG levels I am using are generally historical fiction (comparable to readers in SL). TOG does have comprehension questions for the lit. What TOG has that SL does not is the literature worksheets. At the LG and UG level they are more comprehension focused, but at the D and R levels they are lit analysis. Also TOG will use original works where SL doesn't.

 

5. Timeline is similar in both. TOG looks to have a lot more timeline figures, but I only did levels K-2, so the upper levels of SL might rival TOG.

 

6. Writing in TOG is much more intense, leaving more room for choice, or working in weak areas. To be honest I haven't tried the new SL LA, but the old left me lost as to where we were going and if we were doing it right. TOG has 12 levels of assignments, which can coordinate to grade level but are more about mastering specific skills. The Writing Aids gives you not only an explanation of the different writing forms, but often gives you a sample from a TOG student (where possible) and teaching hits. The Writing Aids CD (which comes with the book) gives you printable sheets for the child to read on the different forms (like a paragraph is a topic sentence, supporting detail and an summary sentence), but also gives you graphic organizers for pre-writing and rubric that guide you through HOW to grade your child's writing paper. Very concrete, so it makes sense to me (like most of TOG).

 

7. People study-Each week highlights specific people who are important, so if you like you can do notebooking or additional reading in them. I understand that in the redesign the Evaluations CD have a biography on each person that you can use as a resource.

 

8. Activities-these are anywhere from things to do as a group, cooking, displays (lapbooks and such) to simple crafts. Each week is different.

 

9. Compared to SL the integration of Bible with history is a big difference. You will see it the most in year 1 and 2 where you have Bible then Church History. In year 3 and 4 the focus is more on missionaries (right in line with SL) and world view.

 

10. The Evaluations CD has more worksheets and project children can do and rubics to grade them with.

 

11. Philosophy. This is one of my favorite parts. To look at the different philosophers and what their influence was on history as well as to view it from a Christian perspective. Almost every week covers a different philosopher, and TOG writes a play where a man seeking truth talks to the philosopher. They quote many direct words of the philosopher, so you get a good feel of what they believed and were about.

 

12. In general TOG is more flexible because the discussion questions are more about the weekly topic, so you can substitute books you already own on the topic and still be covered.

 

13. Vocab is picked out for you, relates to what you are covering that week, and definitions are on the Evaluations CD. This was another biggie for me as Wordly Wise was a total flop here and I wanted vocab integrated with what we were studding.

 

14. There is a strong emphasis on training the child to independence, so that they manage their own time and workload. To this end TOG provides tools and suggestions (schedule papers, and the student sheets to work from).

 

15. The teacher notes are for the teacher who does have their students working independently. This gives the teacher the overview they need in a condensed format so they can still do the discussion with their child without reading all their student's books.

 

If you only want to do the history portion of TOG then there really is no benefit, the benefit is in all the coordination that is done for you, so you can pick up whatever pieces that interest you and use them at will. Weekly there is a schedule that has all these pieces coordinated. You have to decide what to do each day. Most people who hs classically do it in blocks. Read the history in Monday, Tuesday read the Lit and any other areas covered that week (Fine Arts/Worldview), Wednesday cover mapping, timeline and start an activity, Thursday finish the activities and do the writing and Friday do the discussion and wrap up anything else that needs to be done. If you schedule this way it isn't that tough to do TOG. Given my dc are younger I make TOG look like SL, so I schedule reading daily, mapping daily, timeline every day...little pieces. That requires more thinking/time, but isn't that bad. The biggest learning curve is the same with SL. Just becoming familiar with everything, where it is and figure out how I want to use it. After that it is pretty easy to manage.

 

Does that make sense?

 

Heather

 

[happygrrl]

Hmmmm... It is basically a unit study. Each week is a new topic and TOG coordinates all the areas it covers into that topic.

 

For example we are covering South American this week.

 

Does that make sense?

 

Heather

 

:iagree: Wow, Heather, that's a great post! It mirrors my experience perfectly.

[SophiaH]

Heather,

 

Thank you for your post! It was very helpful to me as one who has just received my Year 1 bundle and trying to figure out where to start planning! (even if that wasn't your intention! :) )

May I butt in and ask a question? I, like you, only have youngers and I will be doing only LG. I was under the impression that the Evaluations CD only had tests on it; therefore, I wasn't considering buying it. However, it sounds like from your post that it contains others things as well. How helpful has the Eval. CD been to you? How do you use it?

 

TIA!

 

-another Heather :)

[siloam]

Heather,

 

Thank you for your post! It was very helpful to me as one who has just received my Year 1 bundle and trying to figure out where to start planning! (even if that wasn't your intention! :) )

May I butt in and ask a question? I, like you, only have youngers and I will be doing only LG. I was under the impression that the Evaluations CD only had tests on it; therefore, I wasn't considering buying it. However, it sounds like from your post that it contains others things as well. How helpful has the Eval. CD been to you? How do you use it?

 

TIA!

 

-another Heather :)

 

Heather (love your name!),

 

I am still doing the classic, so I am not using the Evaluation CD's at all. On the 3 week samples it does show samples of the Evaluation CD's, but the samples have questions and little activities (from what I remember). It didn't show any vocab or people, but I have been assured they are there on the real thing.

 

The idea of doing notebooking for the people study sounds great, but i have pencil phobic kids, so until I am ready to fight that battle, or I can make some sort of form they can type up and print out, it isn't happening. :D

 

For the vocab I just sit down with dictionary.com and write them up by hand. I don't think it is that much more difficult than the CD would be.

 

The rubics sound great as well, but until my kids are working more independently I don't feel the need to grade. We just deal with things immediately.

 

In short, no I don't think you need them.

 

Heather

 

[TMarie]

Christine,

I too am very "check-box-y" and have found a simple way to make TOG manageable for me. Since I don't like to reinvent the wheel or "re-plan" a whole units worth of work, I've made a generic check-list of things to do each week. I don't do it all every week, but that gives me a chance to check off an item with no effort. ;)

 

You can see it in this thread http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1361

 

By the way, I put together this list from reading all the "how-to" suggestions I could find that where put out by the TOG folks. So none of the ideas, except maybe the hot chocolate, are my own. I am glad we stuck with TOG because it has given me the resources to teach in a style outside of my own skills. After many enjoyable years of SL and similar work my kids are loving and thriving with the unit-study approach.

 

(p.s. the check list has evolved over the year, but this was my original starting place.)

[choirfarm]

Well, when I did SL, I had to create my own tests, find more plain nonfiction books and completely redo the schedules not to be so piecemeal. On one page of TOG, I can pick books for all three of my kids instead of having suggestions for one and spending time on the computer or looking at other cores tosee which ones fit the time period and age level. The maps are there on my cd for me to print and they have assignments already made and not the just find them on your map...where of SL as you read...like we ever did it while reading our readaloud. The teacher's notes are MUCH more extensive. I thought the history notes for SL were worthless...just giving you a quick summary of the material. The discussion questions are PRICELESS!!! I love having the worksheets for the literature already there instead of plain old questions, to lit analysis for SL that I have to retype because there are answers on it. But they were just recall questions, not higher level thinking. They have links to websites to explore more and I no longer spend hours finding my own. I always tore up my SL schedule and completely redid it, so I could never just open it. If you can, then TOG is not for you. I will definitely be able to reuse this as I am only mining the surface of what is in there.

 

Christine

 

Can't! Never been able to, and I've redone many a SL schedule myself.

 

 

 

The problem here is I don't "see" what tools TOG would offer me to make my own schedule. . .

[Kim in SouthGa]

I really struggled with the decision between TOG, MFW, and SL. I was all set to purchase SL, but I just kept being pulled to TOG. I printed out a couple of the weeks, and the brochure that explains it all. I sat down and went through it. I prayed. I talked to my dh-I showed him the big stack of pages that was one week of TOG, and the small stack of pages that was one week of SL. I told him SL was all planned out for me, but I would have to buy two cores because of the age differences of my kids. TOG is 4 years, and that's it for K-12. It has everything I need to plan for all the kids. He said it was a no-brainer!:001_smile: MY TOG arrived yesterday, and I have been looking at all the loom materials. Two of the Bible verses in the year intro were scriptures that the Lord has really been using in my life lately. And the last line of one of the paragaphs was to the effect of we want to teach our children to love the Lord with all their heart, all their soul, all their mind, and all their strength--which is my whole goal for my children's lives!! So, all this to say, I really feel the Lord has led me to this progam. I would suggest you pray and talk to your husband before making any decisions. Ultimately, they are all good programs and your children will receive a great education either way.

In Christ,

Kim

Also, on a practical note, one of the big sellers for me was the Pop Quiz cd...whoever came up with that idea needs to get a gold star!:thumbup1:

[Christine]

Also, on a practical note, one of the big sellers for me was the Pop Quiz cd...whoever came up with that idea needs to get a gold star!:thumbup1:

 

Okay, I just have to comment on this one.

 

I met Scott at a Senate Hearing this year. He and I had about an hour or two to kill before the hearing and got to talking.

 

He was talking to me about the Pop Quiz CD ideas, and he was stressing about how to do it, what it should entail, etc. I'm not sure who's idea it was, but I know his wife gave him "limits". It had to be something that Dad could put into the car and listen to and be under 10 min (I believe). It also was supposed to help dad come up with questions to ask, like at the dinner table, so he could be involved in the schooling.

 

He asked ME all sorts of questions regarding it. I felt like such a dope too, because here he is a partner in such a program, asking ME (lil' Miss Never-Know-What-I'm-Doing-Next).

 

I think part of the appeal of asking me, is that my husband is military, and had just gotten back from deployment. . . How's a dad deployed keeping up with his children's education? How much time would he have to be kept abreast? How much is he missing out on by not knowing what the kids are learning? etc.

 

Scott was terribly concerned about how to do it. . .and more concerned about what would happen at the table based on what he said.

 

He speaks in word pictures (which I SO "GET"). And he was concerned that by doing the CDs he would be giving dad's a "runway" to go into a thread all their own. (i.e. a political rant, or if they are "buffs" of a certain period of history, going down that road)

 

I told him, that based on my experience with homeschool dad's, his bigger concern should be just getting them to the "airport", and if they were to take a "runway", that would probably be invaluable to their kids education.

 

All that to say, that he's the reason why I've been considering TOG. . .and now that I'm hearing more, it's no longer off the table.

 

WHICH is not making my life any easier! :tongue_smilie:

[Janice in NJ]

But I think many people tend to forget that there are TWO two-page spreads that are overviews for scheduling/choosing options for each week.

 

There is the two-page Reading List spread.

And there is an "Overview" spread.

(And then the Writing Pages - that's not an overview document but it represents the third part of TOG's overarching methodology of read/think/write)

 

See sample here:

http://www.tapestryofgrace.com/newworld/pdf/Week%2021%20Weekly%20Overview.pdf

 

TOG is designed to help you train your children to eventually take responsibility for their education. That's one of the reasons that they DON'T offer a check-box schedule. The introduction to the program clearly lays out a plan for sitting with your children each week so they can plan their week and then work their plan. (The goal is to have a high-schooler who understands how to turn large projects/goals into doable daily parts.) BOTH the reading list and the overview lists offer you the "big picture" for each week. You start with those first and then help your children see what their choices are so they can read/think/write. (This third step is where you use the writing pages.) You direct the choices of the little ones with an eye toward having a high-schooler who will know how to plan their work and then work their plan.

 

Each of the "Overview" ideas have more info/direction provided in the following pages for the week. D and R stage students are primarily preparing for your weekly meetings in History/Literature/Other Electives. Their "Overview" choices are focused toward that meeting.

 

It takes time to train your kids, but I can honestly say that it pays RICH dividends! It flows over into their other subjects. My kids are starting to see their work in terms of years, quarters, and weeks rather than a box that says, "read this chapter." They take large projects and break them down into smaller do-able assignments that they schedule them into their planners. Then they have to work their plan! Lots of stories to tell there! Yikes! But they are picking up the clue-phone. The momma doesn't WANT to be in charge of their life. I want THEM to take charge. I only have to step in when they FAIL to do that. I'm on their side. Big time! My kids are starting to see that.

 

Peace,

Janice in NJ

 

Enjoy your little people

Enjoy your journey