TOG Question

[Sahamamama]

We plan to study Geography (1st/Pre-K), then two years of US History/Geography (2nd/K and 3rd/1st). After that, we plan to begin our chronological world history studies, taking 4-5 years to go through it the first time (4th through 8th/2nd through 6th).

 

We've been looking at TOG. I mostly like what see, but I have one question:

 

Have you ever heard of people taking TWO years to do Ancients with TOG? Would that be too slow of a pace, or would it be okay for 4th/2nd, then 5th/3rd graders? We'd like to take our time and really enjoy two years with Ancients. Has anyone tried this? Advice? Tips? Warnings? :D

[siloam]

We plan to study Geography (1st/Pre-K), then two years of US History/Geography (2nd/K and 3rd/1st). After that, we plan to begin our chronological world history studies, taking 4-5 years to go through it the first time (4th through 8th/2nd through 6th).

 

We've been looking at TOG. I mostly like what see, but I have one question:

 

Have you ever heard of people taking TWO years to do Ancients with TOG? Would that be too slow of a pace, or would it be okay for 4th/2nd, then 5th/3rd graders? We'd like to take our time and really enjoy two years with Ancients. Has anyone tried this? Advice? Tips? Warnings? :D

As long as you are fine with not following the 4 year cycle, take as long as you like. It took use 6 years, Ok 6.5 years to get through our first history cycle. About half of that was with TOG (started with year 2 Unit 3). I am hoping the next section will go a little faster, but I am still planning on taking 1 full year for the Middle Ages/Renaissance.

 

That said you might consider doing Ancients at normal pace and stretching year 2, or stretching both. Year 2 covers Middle ages and the Renaissance in half a year, then spends half a year on exploration and beginnings of the US colonies. That is a little compact at the beginning.

 

Speedy I am not, but I am loving it!

 

Heather

[Kipling]

Have you ever heard of people taking TWO years to do Ancients with TOG? Would that be too slow of a pace, or would it be okay for 4th/2nd, then 5th/3rd graders? We'd like to take our time and really enjoy two years with Ancients. Has anyone tried this? Advice? Tips? Warnings? :D

 

We did TOG year 1 last year, and I don't know that I would recommend drawing it out for 2 years. The pace seemed OK to me. Most people seem to agree that TOG year 2 is the "fullest" year. We are going through it right now, and I tend to agree. There are definitely several weeks we could have slowed down in order to delve deeper into the topics. If you are simply looking to expand the TOG program to 5 years, you might look at expanding that year 2 instead. Or, consider doing TOG1 for 1.5 years and TOG2 for 1.5 years.

[TracyP]

Another vote here for stretching out Year 2 instead. Everyone is different but I could easily see cutting about 6 weeks out of Year 1 with younger kids so you can delve deeper into ________.(whatever it is you want to spend more time on) Year 2 is packed and could easily be done at half pace.

[Leanna Tomlinson]

 

That said you might consider doing Ancients at normal pace and stretching year 2, or stretching both. Year 2 covers Middle ages and the Renaissance in half a year, then spends half a year on exploration and beginnings of the US colonies. That is a little compact at the beginning.

 

 

:iagree: Year 2 has so much content it could easily be spread out over 2 years.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

If I were to take more time with TOG I think it would be with years 2 & 3. I might do year 4 over 2 years but only at the dialectic or rhetoric level. I think year 4 has too many difficult topics to expand on with younger kids.

 

Use the program as you see fit. It works as is but is also easy to tinker with and easy to add more to if you want to expand readings or add more to topics like art (ie during the Renaissance).