savmom Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 I have spent the last few days perusing their site and searching old threads here but I am :tongue_smilie: :confused: I really like the way it looks. OK, more than like :001_wub: :drool: I have tried SL (older used core K) & WP (Ancients & Animals) but it was either over my dc's heads or was so disjointed that I had to rewrite the entire guide to make it flow better (and why buy something you have to rebuild from scratch). Soooo, how exactly does TOG work? Correct me if I am wrong: you buy the lesson plan/schedule (digital, print or both) and then buy books for each level/unit? If so, WOW! That could really be expensive! $150 for a cd schedule that cannot be resold or returned? :huh: :sad: Why are the programs that I want so expensive? How does anyone afford to buy TOG? I know I will never be able to afford it! Our library is small & very limited in their selections so that wouldn't help even if I could afford the guide. So now that I have burst my own bubble, is there anything comparable that is not so expensive? Thanks! Cindy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalGal Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 PMing you... :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnandtinagilbert Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 TOG is more than CD lesson planning. Teacher Education Lesson Plans for all levels of education in ALL humanities (geography, history, literature, writing, church history, philosophy, socratic discussion, fine arts and literature) Student assignment provisions, pages, and encourages independent planning maps discussion updated booklists (DE) support from a large community tests/evaluation pop quizzes make great supplement for parents or dc Buy 4 times and have all you need for all school years The benefits of course Unit Study/Classical/CMish styles suited keeping a large family on one page Complete Teacher Resources in one place Student Assignment pages show student what to do, from what resource, and lead toward understanding of materials We're broke. I buy used books. I buy a little at a time for either books or units. It's worth every.penny. If you think you can get a unit at a time, any books from your library (lists available from website if you walk through it), and can snag books used (I generally spend $5-$20 for books), then make it happen. It's so worth it. Remember, grammar stage books for history or easily substituted, it's the D and R books you really want to keep the same (just makes life easier). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
savmom Posted January 11, 2011 Author Share Posted January 11, 2011 TOG is more than CD lesson planning. Teacher Education Lesson Plans for all levels of education in ALL humanities (geography, history, literature, writing, church history, philosophy, socratic discussion, fine arts and literature) Student assignment provisions, pages, and encourages independent planning maps discussion updated booklists (DE) support from a large community tests/evaluation pop quizzes make great supplement for parents or dc Buy 4 times and have all you need for all school years The benefits of course Unit Study/Classical/CMish styles suited keeping a large family on one page Complete Teacher Resources in one place Student Assignment pages show student what to do, from what resource, and lead toward understanding of materials We're broke. I buy used books. I buy a little at a time for either books or units. It's worth every.penny. If you think you can get a unit at a time, any books from your library (lists available from website if you walk through it), and can snag books used (I generally spend $5-$20 for books), then make it happen. It's so worth it. Remember, grammar stage books for history or easily substituted, it's the D and R books you really want to keep the same (just makes life easier). WOW! I had no idea it was so thorough! I mean, I knew by looking through the site that I would like it but MAN! There is much more to it than meets the eye. I will admit, the site is a little confusing & overwhelming. I did save all the samples to my hard drive and read through them when everyone was in bed. But I had a difficult time navigating as links kept leading to an "oops you were sent here by mistake" type page (could just be my browser). I even joined the yahoo group hoping to discover more :D *sigh* I think I have homeschool curriculum brain fog syndrome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 (edited) WOW! I had no idea it was so thorough! I mean, I knew by looking through the site that I would like it but MAN! There is much more to it than meets the eye. I will admit, the site is a little confusing & overwhelming. I did save all the samples to my hard drive and read through them when everyone was in bed. But I had a difficult time navigating as links kept leading to an "oops you were sent here by mistake" type page (could just be my browser). I even joined the yahoo group hoping to discover more :D *sigh* I think I have homeschool curriculum brain fog syndrome. Yes, you may come across some links that don't work. Keep clicking the others and you do get some samples. Also, the 3-week samples work great. I had downloaded one to guide someone through it at some point and everything works there. You get samples for the supplemental resources within it also. Coming back to TOG's website, for the past year or so (at least from what I have observed) TOG has worked really hard at restructuring their website and it is much more user friendly. Prior to that their focus was on completing the Redesign Year plans and I am cool with that :) while also releasing the DE editions at the same time. It is what the faithful TOG users wanted them to focus on, completing Redesign. Anyway, we are new to TOG so Tina's and other long time TOG users posts on TOG are much more valuable than mine could ever be at this point in time. As for the price of the year plans I just think of it this way, my goal is to hopefully use them to cycle through history 3 times. Taking the $150 for the DE year plan the cost then comes down to $50 per time we use it. Not bad if you think about it and comparable to other curriculum providers. Then consider that you can use it with all your children, and it becomes a great investment. Especially since you can use it at the same time instead of having to buy different levels because the age groups don't work. And with DE you get all future updates. Equally, if you look at the print only version (in order to be able to resell it) by using the above logic you see that the cost comes down again. And keep in mind that the TOG Year plans hold their value well. We bought DE because I do not intent to resell the Year plans. I don't sell any curricula/ books that we purchase but even if I did consider selling something at some point TOG would never make it on my "to sell" list :D. Hope this helps you somehow. Edited January 13, 2011 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnandtinagilbert Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 now, granted, I have a huge family, but if I consider the cost and divvy up amongst 8dc...wowza! It's a real bargain! Let me know if I can help w/ other questions. I have 2 favorite home school topics, TOG and PR :) I could sit w/ tea and snacks and talk about the 2 of them all day! Of course, I do have to stop for school every now and then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verity Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 I think ToG has some excellent parts - the teacher education is great and I think that overall it would be an excellent way to do high school history. One thing that may not be obvious from the samples however: The Units do not have a weekly/day type of schedule even though the samples on the site show a sample, that sample is just meant to show you how you could do it. If you really like ToG and want to give it a try I recommend buying one unit to try out. You may love it - but it would be an expensive experiment if you don't. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 now, granted, I have a huge family, but if I consider the cost and divvy up amongst 8dc...wowza! It's a real bargain! Let me know if I can help w/ other questions. I have 2 favorite home school topics, TOG and PR :) I could sit w/ tea and snacks and talk about the 2 of them all day! Of course, I do have to stop for school every now and then. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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