SnMomof7 Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 I'm always reading about how much we homeschooling moms love TOG, but what about our children? Do they love it as much as we seem to? We aren't using it yet, but DD asks me once a week when we get to start TOG! I understand the philosophy, and organizational benefits, depth of learning etc. but those all seem like MY pros as the teacher. I'm curious to know if your little ones have like TOG as much as you do :). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty in Pink Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 My eldest ds has used it for three years. He likes the living books aspect and he likes the maps. He hates the weekly discussions, literature worksheets, and most of the crafty/hands-on stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 (edited) Adrian has been enjoying both TOG (we are using the LG books) and SOTW. He loves the books and how they all tie in with the topic of the week and loves the activities, maps etc. He also enjoys that the books are at his level and he can read them on his own too. I have had to add SOTW into TOG instead of how we were doing it before (as two separate programs) but it's working well for us. In my case I chose TOG because of my son's learning style (he is a tactile/ visual learner) not for myself ;). I follow the same approach with any curricula I purchase for Adrian (and it will be the same for Malcolm although my boys are very similar in the way they learn) and this is why I am not doing the self education portion now. My focus is on making it interesting and fun for my son. My self education is on my own time, right now the boys are my main focus. Just to clarify here that this is MY opinion and approach for MY family. Edited March 21, 2011 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ange Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 :lurk5: excellent question! I'm all ears :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J'etudie Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Interesting question. I'm not sure my boys realize that we're doing TOG, per se. After two years with MFW, two years with TOG, and lots of WTM and Charlotte Mason reading, I have come up with the way I want to teach humanities to my dc. I took into account what they enjoy and my end goal for them, but it's really my plan and I use TOG to make that happen. TOG has everything I need to create the humanities program I want for my kids. I realized that's what I was doing with MFW, too, and TOG just has more options all in one place from which I choose. If we were doing Sonlight or Beautiful Feet or, well, anything else, I suspect our days would look a lot like they do now. I'd be tweaking the program to fit my kids and my goals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanvan Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Interesting question. I'm not sure my boys realize that we're doing TOG, per se. After two years with MFW, two years with TOG, and lots of WTM and Charlotte Mason reading, I have come up with the way I want to teach humanities to my dc. I took into account what they enjoy and my end goal for them, but it's really my plan and I use TOG to make that happen. TOG has everything I need to create the humanities program I want for my kids. I realized that's what I was doing with MFW, too, and TOG just has more options all in one place from which I choose. If we were doing Sonlight or Beautiful Feet or, well, anything else, I suspect our days would look a lot like they do now. I'd be tweaking the program to fit my kids and my goals. I find this to be true for us too. Before, I was planning everything myself. What my kids like is that TOG makes me stay on topic and prevents me from beating a topic to death. They still cringe if Ancient Egypt is mentioned -- I just got so carried away with how much I wanted to study. They were sick to death of it! My younger (LG/UG) DD likes that she is studying the same history as her older brother and can actually join in our conversations. Shannon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ncmomo3 Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 This is our 7th yr. homeschooling and we have attempted several history/lit. programs. We started TOG 2.5 yrs ago and they prefer history studied in this manner. They all have stated that they like the books (with 1 or 2 exceptions over the years) and now as they are older they enjoy the discussions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXMary2 Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 My youngest enjoys it more than my 14 yo ds. 14 yo ds is a science guy, not a history guy. He enjoys the books, doesn't mind the maps or discussions, but he despises the fine arts stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thessa516 Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 My LG children adore TOG. We had tried SOTW, but they began to not like history (so sorry, Dr. Bauer). We moved to TOG and now they beg to "do" history. They especially like the maps and the lapbooks. Furthermore, the knowledge they have retained blows me (and their Dad) away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omma Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 I What my kids like is that TOG makes me stay on topic and prevents me from beating a topic to death. They still cringe if Ancient Egypt is mentioned -- I just got so carried away with how much I wanted to study. They were sick to death of it! Shannon This is too funny! :lol::lol::lol: I can do the same thing, and really need to think about keeping the topic moving. I can see how TOG can do that for you... you do what you want that week, and then it's on to the next week's theme no matter what. For us, however, MFW is turning out to be a better fit than TOG. This is because we are all box checkers (teacher and students alike) and thrive with the MFW schedule already printed out for us for the week (with ONLY what we need to do that week on it). This is the key to our particular sanity... having more on the page than what we needed to accomplish just made us feel a bit scatter-brained and overwhelmed. This is something you will have to not worry about if you want to use TOG effectively. Brenda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 My LG children adore TOG. We had tried SOTW, but they began to not like history (so sorry, Dr. Bauer). We moved to TOG and now they beg to "do" history. They especially like the maps and the lapbooks. Furthermore, the knowledge they have retained blows me (and their Dad) away. WhY? What aspects of TOG do your children prefer from TOG and what did they not enjoy about SOTW? The narrative? The activities? I'm trying to figure this out for my own children. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karenciavo Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 My ds8 has used TOG since age 4, he likes it. he has liked most of the books and the hands-on projects we do at our co-op. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thessa516 Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 WhY? What aspects of TOG do your children prefer from TOG and what did they not enjoy about SOTW? The narrative? The activities? I'm trying to figure this out for my own children. Thanks I think the biggest difference between TOG and SOTW for my children is in the narrative. They did not like SOTW narrative. Even though I supplemented with library books, they dreaded sitting through the (short) SOTW reading. Now, we read mostly 'real/living' books from the library for TOG. They find them much more engaging and interesting. They reach for the books over and over again during the week. In fact, I just had to renew about a dozen books from the past couple of weeks' lessons because the kids weren't ready for them to go back to the library. How can I argue with that? :D How can the kids give up a book that taught them that a mummy's brain is removed through the nostrils? :tongue_smilie: The kids love our mapwork with TOG. I suspect it's because they feel like they are doing 'grown-up' mapwork. I do a very simplified version - they copy my answer key map and we briefly talk about each location. Sometimes I go online and bring up pictures of a city or location just so that they can get an idea. I'm not a big hands-on activity person, but I try to do a very simple hands-on activity each week from the resources provided by TOG. I asked my children about this - they said the activities are nice, but they really like the lapbooks best. I schedule Thursday and Friday as lapbook days. It provides a great review of the week, plus they're fun to cut, color and glue. For me, I'm finding history with TOG is so much deeper and richer than SOTW. My problems with SOTW were probably due to user-error and/or problems with teacher implementation. :tongue_smilie: (We did use the activity guide along with SOTW, but the coloring sheets weren't much of a hit with the kids.) I am much more excited about TOG, and I'm sure that my attitude plays a part in the children latching on to TOG so enthusiastically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
specialmama Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 My dd insists TOG is her favourite subject. :D Five years strong now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kchara Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 My kids love TOG. They'll tell you they don't, especially my DS, because it makes him really think. But he complains and really starts acting out when we don't do it, which for him is a sign of boredom and a need for getting back to his safe routines. DD, she's absolutely enthralled. She is chomping at the bit to start D work, but she's not quite ready yet. In the meantime, she's having a blast and they're learning a lot. I think the further we get into it, the more they enjoy it, simply because they're tying things into things we see every day, and starting to make basic connections between the civilizations we've been studying. :lol::lol: @ the Ancient Egypt overkill. They really, truly are over ancient Egypt, though. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted March 21, 2011 Author Share Posted March 21, 2011 Thanks ladies! DD is fascinated by the books I've been slowly accumulating for our test run of Y1U1; she also loves lapbooking and hands on activities, so I think she'll really enjoy going more in depth than we are currently doing. Thank you for sharing your children's thoughts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinF Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 THis is our first year and so far they have enjoyed all the books that we have used with TOG. As a matter of fact they were reading books before we studied that time in our assignments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jewel7123 Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Great to hear all the positive responses! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle My Bell Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 YES! 3 out of 4 anyway. My oldest (16), and my 10 & 8 year old girls love it. My 13 year old, not so much, so she does a different program. Works for us! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TracyP Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Yes, my kids like TOG. They don't know TOG from anything else but they are learning, retaining and enjoying what we do. I told them we are going to start history next week (been on baby break) and they were excited. I like what the pp's said about TOG being easy to adapt to your teaching style and your kids learning style because TOG gives so many options. I agree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted March 21, 2011 Author Share Posted March 21, 2011 Oh Tracy, your baby was born the day after ours :)!! Our baby DD was born on December 15th :). I am a bit odd, my oldest knows what we are doing. "Let's do Sonlight!" "When do we get to do TOG?" LOL! Yes, I discuss curriculum choices with my children :O! I don't necessarily let their opinions be the deciding factor though! :P I do still like to hear their input though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TracyP Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Oh Tracy, your baby was born the day after ours :)!! Our baby DD was born on December 15th :). I am a bit odd, my oldest knows what we are doing. "Let's do Sonlight!" "When do we get to do TOG?" LOL! Yes, I discuss curriculum choices with my children :O! I don't necessarily let their opinions be the deciding factor though! :P I do still like to hear their input though. Awesome! We missed the 15th by an hour.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AuntPol Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 (edited) No my kids don't like it. They are very anti-worksheet so they don't like the questions and charts nor the literature worksheets. They don't mind if I do a little bit daily orally but that makes it harder for me because then I have to read everything they read to know which questions go where. Some weeks are overburdoned and some weeks are light so it was very difficult to keep to a schedule. My kids need a consistent schedule. History -Often repetitious. Sometimes it was overkill on a topic and sometimes it seemed to light. -I had to switch Abe Lincoln's World to a read aloud because kids needed more discussion from me to understand what was going on. -I found they tuned me out in the lectures. We do better with immediate discussion of what they read that day over discussion on Fridays. -If you have to substitute a book, then it can be hard to find the answers to the questions. That would frustrate the kids. -Several times a book would go out of print since the schedule was made and there would be no substitute ready on the week I had to teach it. Geography -They didn't really get anything out of the mapwork. They can locate some of the countries on the map but then if I say "what continent Italy is on?" they don't know. Read Alouds -There are better Lewis and Clark books than the one recommended. I don't know why that one is so popular with all the main curriculums. -Across Five Aprils -great book but poor read aloud choice. The chapters are too long, the dialect rough and way too many details about the war for younger kids. -Queen Victoria biography. Boring. Chapters too long and no easy divisions. Do I really care what everyone in the family wore to every single event in her life? -We really liked the rest of them so far but we skipped Commodore Perry because library copy was checked out. Literature -Everyone, including me, HATED The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier. It was a bear to get through. It is first book recommended and set a bad tone of the curriculum for my kids -My kids felt they had to fly through the books too fast. No time to savor. -However -the analysis portion is great. I wish I could afford TOG just to get the analysis portions. My kids just don't like worksheets. -We don't like abridged books and TOG uses a lot of them. Worldview _William Wilburforce book is not that interesting a read. It made my son cry to have to read it. Some of the others are great. We have ended up going to LG for selections because they are more interesting and more available at the library. Music The Music book is not that great. Too long and too much. My son couldn't grasp it and he's a great reader. It had to become a read aloud and eventually dropped. Art -No art and then suddenly a big unit on the Impressionists. I'd rather it be doled out among the year. Projects We had no time to do these with science, math, grammar, latin etc to be added to all that. At the dialectic level, the projects are the same as the rhetoric and often make no sense. One of the first ones was an option to build the Arch of Triumph. That made little sense for dialectic level but fits in with the rhetoric. Edited March 24, 2011 by AuntPol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jewel7123 Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 Interesting to hear, AuntPol. Was this your first year using TOG? Do you feel that the issues you pointed out can be worked around or will you be moving to another curriculum next year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AuntPol Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 We're more of a Charlotte Mason family and did 2 years of Ambleside. I switched to TOG because they used a lot of same books and I wanted the questions and teacher material because my daughter was not trustworthy in reading and narrating (she would make up narrations on key words). Of course, that didn't work out either because we'd get into arguments that she really didn't do the reading since she couldn't answer the questions only to find out that the answers were not in there or she had not developed the skill to parse them out so I ended up having to read all the same books so we could do everything orally each day. This defeated the point of me getting TOG. I bought it to free up some time for me. Anyway, I do love the literature analysis part and I feel we gained from that but not $170 worth of gain. I also liked the way Abe Lincoln's World was broken up topically. I thinked that was better than the way Amblesdie does it (straight through). The economy is hitting us hard and I just can't afford that price PLUS buying map aids and the books that my library doesn't have. I was going to go back to Ambleside and pick up with where we are but we will be at 20th century next year and they don't spend that much time on it. I want to do a whole year of it, not 12 weeks! So I have took their format for 7th grade and plugged in my own books based on my kids interests and what my library has and go at our own pace. We will do a major portion as read alouds/audio because it keeps me involved and we tend to have better discussions than when they each read it themselves. So Per 12 week term: 1 Literature Read aloud w/analysis discussions (3 times per week on average) -Right now it will be Anne of Green Gables, Animal Farm, and the Hobbit as I have analysis options for those already. 1 Shakespeare Play per term or term and a half (depends on what play is being performed locally that year) Read from Bulfinch's once a week How to Read a Book once a week (rotating w/Charlotte Mason, Ourselves) Poetry weekly Spine w/outlining weekly -round out with some NF books from library/Baldwin 1 Historical Biography read aloud per term (Helen Keller, FDR or Churchhill, and ?-MOther Theresa or Reagan perhaps)- twice a week 1 Science Biography read aloud per term (GW Carver, Einstein, Goodall) Geography Book read once a week (360 Longitude) -once a week Worldview book once a week (Not sure whether it will be a missionary bio or apologetics type book) Plutarch once a week Current Event -read daily from site I select (I'm perusing them now from Ambleside choices to see what fits our family worldview, etc.) 30 minutes free reading: Select from Historical Fiction, biographies, and other Classics of that time period that I list out based on what is available from library . They can read multiple books at a time or one book at a time until it's done. This is to accommodate their interests and speed. (I have one that likes to fly through one book at a time and get the "gist" and one that likes to go slow and savor multiple books at a time) Art and Music Study-Simply Charlotte Mason module 6 (w/allowances to change to fit any exhibits or performance opportunities that arise, skip Norman Rockwell because we did them year due to exhibit). Shakespeare, Geography, and Poetry wll be done at "tea time" once a week each. (the other two "tea times" are "math game and munchies" and "nature study picnic" in case you are wondering). Composition -work on written narrations, various papers needed for Scouts and weekly Druidawn -incorporating various writing skills as needed (my kids are just too extreme in ability to teach together). This block will be individualized handholding time with each child while other works on other independent lessons. I've given up on "curriculum" as it just doesn't fit us. I think between Charlotte Mason, TWSS, SWB lectures, and Writing Aids, I can create my own thing. (Copywork, Dictatation, and other language arts will be done separately). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AuntPol Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 (edited) oops -to answer question. Yes, it was our first year using it. I never felt a "fog". We got it all done but it just wasn't enjoyable. If I were to continue using it, I would do one year over a year and a half to keep it a pace that our family would be comfortable with. Sub the real books when it calls for abridged. Take out the poetry week and spread it out over the quarter. Our major reasons for not continueing: 1) $$$ -I can use Ambleside or WTM format with our resources (there are so many good books, can never do them all, so just use what you can get for free or cheap. I figure if God wants me to use a book, then he will provide it for me) 2) Time -Oral/written narrations and a socratic question/discussion here and there are more enjoyable and less time consuming than writing out all those dialectic questions and answers plus lecturing. We haven't done as much science as we would like as it takes so long to read. My kids are science and math oriented so I really need to capitalize on that! 3) Ease of use- so much easier to plug into a format w/ what you have than trying to buy or get ILL a certain book, slogging through a book that no one likes just because it's on the schedule (yes TOG says you can sub -but then the questions and analysis stuff doesn't fit so I feel like I wasted money and time because I then have to figure that out for the new books). 4) Homeschooling for my family not anyone elses! We are unique as as a family and my kids are unique as people and I'm unique as a teacher so I want to get back to why we homeschool in the first place -to not be a slave to someone elses system. I fancy myself rather intelligent and my husband and kids are even brighter so I just need to trust my instincts more. Edited March 26, 2011 by AuntPol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jewel7123 Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 Thank you for taking the time to write all of that out! If I were to continue using it, I would do one year over a year and a half to keep it a pace that our family would be comfortable with. Sub the real books when it calls for abridged. I plan on spreading out at least Year 2 since so much is packed in there....I'm not sure about the other years yet. I definitely agree with you on the real books vs. abridged. I abhor abridged books and I will wait to read the originals if we need to. As for the answers not being in the reading.....I have heard of this problem enough times that if I continue with TOG by the time we get to the D stage, I will definitely upgrade to DE so I can have the latest updates (which will have fixed this issue hopefully!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lcelmer Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 I'm always reading about how much we homeschooling moms love TOG, but what about our children? Do they love it as much as we seem to? We aren't using it yet, but DD asks me once a week when we get to start TOG! I understand the philosophy, and organizational benefits, depth of learning etc. but those all seem like MY pros as the teacher. I'm curious to know if your little ones have like TOG as much as you do :). Mine do! My oldest never liked reading or history much until we used TOG, last year he actually asked for DK Eyewitness books for Christmas! The mulititude of good, informational yet easy to read books were just what we needed. They like doing the activities together, and are pretty happy about using it again this year. The first year we did TOG we had a Ancient Grecian school outside one day, complete with costumes, food writing, etc, and they still talk about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melmichigan Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 It is usually a fight if I want to start the day with something else. My oldest DD has really excelled since we moved to literature based history and it sometimes hard to keep her in books so we use all the lists from all the literature based programs that I have found. I let TOG run the show and coordinate four students, over 6 grade levels into one time period but I do tweak it to make it work for us as a family and for my DC's individual learning styles. As was said, I have learned how I want to teach my DC and TOG is the best tool for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 Yes-they do enjoy TOG. A great selection of readings and map activities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AuntPol Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 As for the answers not being in the reading.....I have heard of this problem enough times that if I continue with TOG by the time we get to the D stage, I will definitely upgrade to DE so I can have the latest updates (which will have fixed this issue hopefully!). I have DE version and when I use the books in the main reading list, I haven't had that many problems with finding the answers. It's only when you have to sub. If you can afford to buy all the books, then it's no issue. There was one question with David Copperfield that was not answered in the teacher notes. I did ask on the forums and about a week later finally got a response to look at a past thread. I had searched before I post but it didnt come up in my search. I find the forums there very slow in response but then maybe I'm spoiled with these boards. I don't want to come across as anti-TOG because I think it's great in many respects. It would have been perfect for me as a child but it doesn't fit my kids at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honey Bee Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 Augh! I should not have read this thread! :lol::lol::lol: This is actually a very good question! Thanks for asking! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedgehogs4 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 so happy to have found this thread. I am starting TOG next year and think it will be a perfect fit for my family! It's great to read so many positive responses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kchara Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 I haven't read all of the replies, but my kids love TOG! To be honest, they'd love it more if I'd get around to the projects more, but they do love it. We're waiting to order our next unit, and they've been bugging me to death wanting to know when they'll be able to get back to it. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
profmom Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 My ds loved the lapbooks we did with TOG (in 4th grade). Both he and my dd (6th grade at the time) loved the literature books, but they got bogged down in the history reading. Maybe I shouldn't have assigned all the primary reading? We used TOG for two years and then the kids asked me if they could have a history text book instead (but asked to continue with TOG lit). We may still go back to TOG and/or I may still use it with my youngest at some point. I'm keeping my years 1-3 and may use year 1 the year after next, but I have other plans for an American history year next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsrevmeg Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 My kids love it. Tonight The Farewell Symphony (scheduled in-depth history reading for week 27, lower grammar, year 2) was what my youngest son had for a bedtime story, followed by listening to the music. My kids are known to read more of a book than just what was called for, or re-read something because they liked it so much. They love the hands-on crafty projects, too. It is amazing to see the difference in their geographical knowledge, also, verses what they knew before TOG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.