Carrieann Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 I have made up my mind that we will indeed be using TOG next year and since we have read through the first two books of SOTW, we are going to begin with year 3 lower grammar. I looked at the book list of over 90 books and I am tempted to buy them all because I would have a hard time picking and choosing. When I see the $700 plus price tag for the books I can't help but think that it's in my best interest to scale down! I don't want to have to depend on going to the library for resources and worry about them not having what I need. The number of books is not intimidating because we read hours a day in this household (we check out at least 30-40 books every library trip, and yes we read them all!). My question is how do you pick and choose between all of the books (do I have to) ?? Has anyone bought all the books that go with a year? This is new to me so I would appreciate any input! Thank you!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsrevmeg Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Our first year we bought everything. This past year we have made use of the books available online, on The Baldwin Project, and we have shared books between levels (especially the hands-on project books). For next year, since it is going to be our first year dipping into high school, we are scaling back on the sheer number of books. I am going with less of the in-depth history books, as well as not doing all of the literature and read alouds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluemongoose Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 I do buy the all the books because I live in the country, far from the library, and I also have more than one child, so the books will be used more than once. I have not paired down the LG, but I am in Year 1, and honestly if I paired them down there would be weeks of not much at all to read! I am sure this is not the case in all of the year plans, but in year 1 LG a lot of the reading is from the bible with only occasional books thrown in. If I were trying to pair it down, I would be sure to get the art book and all the books used for more than one week. Since I do buy all of the books, I buy them used from paperbackswap.com, goodwill, and powells. I plan ahead and buy as much as I can this way. When I am ready to start a unit, I figure out how many books I still need and then I buy those new at Rainbow Resource or Amazon. I also take advantage of Amazons 4 for 3 whenever I can. This cuts way back on how much they cost! I never pay full price until I am down to the wire and just cannot find it used first! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AStableBeginning Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 We are starting with Year 1 in August and I plan on buying all the books, well at least the ones we don't already own. I have 5 children so they will be read and re-read for quite some time. Plus, you can never have too many good books! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kchara Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 I'm in the same situation as bluemongoose, so, yes, we buy all of the books. I buy them a unit at a time, though, so I (or DH...usually DH) don't freak out over the price tag. Next year, for 2 levels, our book purchases will be somewhere around $1350. More or less. I check Half Price Books a lot whenever we're in a town that has one. (We don't here, but we travel a lot on the weekends.) I've found quite a few books there. Also, for DD, she's getting a Kindle for her birthday. She'll be going into D in a couple of years (planned on doing a UG/D transition year this year, we'll see...), and I'm hoping to start being able to get more of her books on Kindle to save some money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tarahillmom Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 I have just purchased 3 levels of books for TOG 3-3 that we will start in August. Buying by the unit will help me greatly!! We live 35 minutes from the nearest library, so we have to purchase. I purchased all of the literature books used that I couldn't find at relatives homes. The other thing is I have a list of all of the literature books for the next couple years and when at used book stores or garage sales I check the books against the list. I have gotten lots of books that way. The history books are numerous for LG/UG in year 3, but I am going to be reusing most of them at some point so worth the investment. Also when you are done with them, people are happy to buy them used:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelBee Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 If funds allow, why not buy them all? ;) We can not. We are in YR 2 and using free ones online, supplimenting SL books we already have, and using the library. :) So far, I have purchased none. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracy Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 There is no way that we could possibly buy all of the books. I buy SOTW to use as a spine and anything that is scheduled for more than 2 weeks. Then I check the library to see what they have and what I can get through ILL. I make a list of the books that are not available, and I give that to my library's Children's Dept. Director, and she orders those books for the library. Occasionally, I buy a book after we read it. During the school year, I always order my library books online at the same time each week, and then I plan a trip to the library the same time each week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grateful for Grace Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 We can not afford to buy ALL the books for a level. Even if we weren't doing 3 levels. I would buy all the books that are used for 2 or more weeks, if I could afford it. If not, then 3 or more weeks. The library for the others. For LG, it's usually a lot of picture books. It's hard to justify spending that much. Don't pay full price unless you have to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SewLittleTime Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 I think one area you can scale back on is the the activity books. There are plenty of hands-on suggestions in the week plans without having an additional activity book. You can also have your UG and LG students use the same activities rather than do separate ones. My kids prefer to work together on their own project, but doing the same thing. I check my library to see what they have, and then purchase what they don't. It turns out to be quite a few books that I still need to purchase. We love the picture books for LG, and I find my UG ds reading them in his spare time. He's afraid to miss out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 For Year 1 LG we bought all the books and SOTW Vol 1. The books were less than the other year plans since there's a lot of Bible reading in Year 1 and less than half the cost of the Year 2 books. Year 2 LG is a different story. For Year 2 after going over the book list and Year plan twice, finding some of the books at our library (very few), replacing some books and also looking at how much SOTW is used (Year 2 uses Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 of SOTW) I have scaled down. I am taking out SOTW and leaving it for UG. We cannot be doing 5-6 or more chapters of SOTW in a week while keeping up with the other books and since my son still likes picture books I decided to just go with the TOG books. I am adding CHOW though. Adrian enjoyed the narrative language used by Hillyer while reading the passages included in WWE 1 from A Child's Geography of the World, so I am getting CHOW for him to read on his own if we don't have the time during the day. As for the books, personally, I have decided to keep all the RA's, activity books and worldview books. I am getting most of the literature books but have cut some to include some UG books to transition Adrian to UG work and I am getting some of the History books that I want to have at home. Some of the literature and History books I did find from the library and so if I did not care much about owning them I just decided to use the library books or equivalent ones. Overall, I was able to cut about 1/3 off the total cost of the books buying new books. Oh... I was able to get two used books at our library for 10¢ each. The one is in mint condition and with library binding and the second is in very good condition hardcover :D. Those were a great find! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelBee Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 For Year 1 LG we bought all the books and SOTW Vol 1. The books were less than the other year plans since there's a lot of Bible reading in Year 1 and less than half the cost of the Year 2 books. Year 2 LG is a different story. For Year 2 after going over the book list and Year plan twice, finding some of the books at our library (very few), replacing some books and also looking at how much SOTW is used (Year 2 uses Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 of SOTW) I have scaled down. I am taking out SOTW and leaving it for UG. We cannot be doing 5-6 or more chapters of SOTW in a week while keeping up with the other books and since my son still likes picture books I decided to just go with the TOG books. I am adding CHOW though. Adrian enjoyed the narrative language used by Hillyer while reading the passages included in WWE 1 from A Child's Geography of the World, so I am getting CHOW for him to read on his own if we don't have the time during the day. As for the books, personally, I have decided to keep all the RA's, activity books and worldview books. I am getting most of the literature books but have cut some to include some UG books to transition Adrian to UG work and I am getting some of the History books that I want to have at home. Some of the literature and History books I did find from the library and so if I did not care much about owning them I just decided to use the library books or equivalent ones. Overall, I was able to cut about 1/3 off the total cost of the books buying new books. Oh... I was able to get two used books at our library for 10¢ each. The one is in mint condition and with library binding and the second is in very good condition hardcover :D. Those were a great find! I use CHOW for LG too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSMom2One Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 I'm in the same situation as bluemongoose, so, yes, we buy all of the books. I buy them a unit at a time, though, so I (or DH...usually DH) don't freak out over the price tag. Same here. I buy bit by bit in advance, always planning ahead and sticking books away as I find them free or for cheap. I keep running lists going and check off books as I get them. Quite often I'm looking for books that we'll use a year in advance, but by doing this I save a lot of money. By the time we are nearly ready to start a particular unit, I put the ones I don't have in my Amazon shopping cart and make good use of my Prime membership. Blessings, Lucinda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 I use CHOW for LG too. I know and I fully intend to pick your brain when the time comes :D but I haven't decided yet if I want to incorporate it with TOG or just read/ have Adrian read it separately. We will not finish TOG Year 1 before the end of the year anyway so you will probably hear from me just before then ;). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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