TOG-- what books do you buy and which do you check out?

[Marie in Oh]

Alright, I am back to looking at TOG. I was going to use SL, but I would have to vere from our roadmap of studying history in order. We are due to start the cycle over-- we just finished SOTW 4. So, I am back to doing TOG-- I will have two upper grammars and two lower grammars, though one of the two lowers would only be K and would only get so much.

 

OK- so I added up all the books plus the schedule for upper and lower and a few dialectect that I thought I could use as read alouds and it was 1000.00. Yikes. Obviously that is not possible to spend on just history, Bible and Lit.

 

So, do you only buy books you can't get at the library, or are there some you buy but not others. How have you decided this? I would love some input.

 

Thanks.

[Aunty Social]

Marie,

Boy, can I sympathize! We are just finishing up our first year with TOG and if you buy everything, especially if you have different levels, it can be expensive. What I did was take a LOOOOOONG look at the book list and the bookshelf listings; copy or print out all the books, authors, copywrites, etc; and then go to my library's online catalog and search for them. A surprising number of them were available, and it really helps keep the cost down. Next, I went to Rainbow Resource and searched for the rest. RR usually has things at a better price than anywhere else. Anything that I couldn't get at the library or through RR, I bought from the bookshelf.

 

I would recommend buying the books that are used all year, and the ones that are used multi year. We did that, and when I was looking at the first Q books for next year, my cost is way down because I already own a lot of them. Another way to ease the pain is to buy the books one quarter at a time. I really recommend that, because you'll find yourself tweaking things here and there, or omitting this or adding that. Buying by quarter means you won't have books you didn't use after all sitting on your shelf.

 

Just a word of encouragement - my husband almost choked when I told him how much the books were going to be, but he is glad we went with TOG. It's a really strong program.

[M&M]

I purchase the books that I want to use all year "spine books". SOTW for my youngers and some sort of history encyclopedia for the olders or another historical narrative like the Guerber books. I choose what literature books I want my UG and D children to read and look for them used.

 

Any books that are used all 4 years in TOG I purchase. Then I pick and choose those books that I want to have for all my children. The classics, those titles that you see repeated over and over in curricula (like Sonlight), and books that are Christain themed and would not be in our library.

 

Remember that TOG is baised on topics and you can fill in with any books for each unit. That makes TOG very flexible!

 

I would not purchase books for the whole year at once. I would just work on one unit and see how TOG works for your family. Some weeks we do very little supplimenting and some weeks we have piles of books from the library and the UPS man is delivering books from Amazon every day.

 

I find TOG to be very much like using WTM. I choose what to use, TOG is the tool that I use to implement my vision.

[LisaNY]

I only buy books that I cannot get at my library. I will buy a book if I intend to use it long-term.

[Paisley Hedgehog]

..

[Lisawa]

Its such a hard call... but by chance... do you have your year in front of you?? The actual guide?? This makes it easier....

 

I always by books that are spines and used for an entire unit and more than 1 unit. These especially because they are used so often. After that... decide how much of the literature you want to use..... will you use it as is, or will you go slower and chose a few each unit?

 

History is easier... although I like to have the actual book suggested.... I look to see what I aready have on my shelves that can fill that need.... after that I see what my library has and how many of that book... if they only have 1 or 2, I try to buy it.... if $$ is tight, I risk it...

 

I know In the redesign (and some classic)they have the call number near the books... for instance... if you look at your overview page(yellow) under history core it will read the title of the book and (J930) If you then went online to your library or went to the library you could look for books in 932 section for something smiler.... on topic... skim the TC and see if they have the topic in the book... kwim??

 

This does not have to cost an arm and a leg... I know Jessica @TA uses bookmooch, the swap boards here can be used... post a WTB list.... or look at places like amazon.com, alabris, or bookfinder.com.... they are also great resources....

 

I realize this can take leg work....but I cant afford to buy new, so this is how I approach it.... I like to have what I need and rely on the library as little as passable....

 

Buying a unit at a time helps to spread it out too..... also the share and save codes are a blessing too.... once $300 of material has been purchased then you qualify for this. Every time you or someone else uses your code... you get %% of $$ to use towards the book shelf. This helps a lot.... I was able to buy year 1 redesign and all the books I wanted for the entire year (for D and R) for free.... That's a lot of $$...but was worth it.

 

HTH~

[Trivium Academy]

This does not have to cost an arm and a leg... I know Jessica @TA uses bookmooch, the swap boards here can be used... post a WTB list.... or look at places like amazon.com, alabris, or bookfinder.com.... they are also great resources....

 

My resources include:

 

- checking Bookmooch.com

- check Bookscloseouts.com

- compare Amazon prices to TOG's, sometimes there is 4 for 3 deals on the titles

- use Share & Save, when I buy the Year Plan (after you spend $300 you can sign up for S&S) I can use the money (in gift certificates) I get back for TOG books. Using Share & Save, I've been able to get $500 in books free. They DID have it set up so that you could get money back from buying their books but that just changed to only TOG-created products, it seems others weren't using S&S to its' fullest potential. I was, I bought Unit 1 books and got 3/4 of Unit 2's books free. Lol. I was only buying one level.

 

I buy by units, if I had to pay for it all upfront, we wouldn't buy either. We couldn't. The library system has proven unreliable and the frustration just isn't worth it to us, so we budget for books.

[susie in tx]

So far, I've been very successful using the library.

 

I buy books that we are going to be using for more than 3 weeks, most of the time. If my library does not have a book, I will buy it, or I will try to ILL it. Sometimes, I have skipped a book my library did not have and then used something else that followed the same thing. One of the great parts about TOG is that you *can* easily substitute books.

 

I'm beginning to think about our next unit and what books I will buy and/or get at the library. So far, it looks pretty good, though the church history books are quite expensive.