ToG-Moms: How do you Prepare for your School-Year?

[sahm99]

We will be starting Year 2 in the fall (LG/UG and D).

After starting ToG Year 1 in the middle of our last school-year, I never really got my act together to create a well-prepared structure to our ToG-studies...

 

I want to do better this year, and use my summer wisely;)!

 

So, how do you prepare?

I am lucky to have the books all ready on my shelve, but where do I go from here?

 

Any special tips?

[Guest Cherry Limeade]

I'd love to hear about this as well. We start our first year with ToG on Tuesday. :001_smile:

[specialmama]

1. Pray.

2. Print out SAPs and Maps. Organize per student per unit, some organize per week or subject. Your call. I found making notebooks very helpful, so I organized by week.

3. Read through the first 4 weeks of Teacher Notes and get a good understanding of what you're doing. Eat it, live it, breathe it. If it's going to work, you need to really be familiar with how everything is laid out.

4. Figure out the book thing, which includes last minute updates from the Loom, any orders, any library books. Make notes in your planner when to get those books.

5. This is optional, but I like to print out the first 4 weeks of Writing Aids helps and assignments.

 

If you're in a crunch and don't have time for all of the above, do #1 and #3. Over and over again. :001_smile:

 

ETA: have you listened to Marcia's Foundational Sessions? They're very helpful.

You should also spend some time planning on how to guide your D level student to more independence and responsibility so they take ownership of their learning. Marcia does a fantastic job of explaining this and calls it "Training with Liberty" and it is found on her talk, Teaching with Tapestry of Grace.

Edited June 29, 2011 by specialmama

[Camarell]

how does everyone organize their notebooks? and keep themselves organized?

I didn't use TOG last year, but the year before I started with TOG and got off to a good start, but then when I needed to get the next unit prepped it seemed like I didn't have time to get prepped while still working. It's easy to get everything prepped when you don't have other things to do, but I find it hard to maintain that momentum... Tips? Tricks? Tools?

[mamato4girls]

Keeping an eye on this thread as we will be starting TOG for the first time, next month.

[TXMary2]

I am actually working on a blog post for this very topic. I hope to finish and post it today.

[Kipling]

I print up all the maps and SAPs that the kids will need to the year and file those in an easily accessible place. I have a folder for each child for each week (so, 3 kids x 36 weeks = 108 folders), and I put each week's pages in the corresponding folder and store them in a filing cabinet in my school room. That way, every Sunday night, I can pull out that week's folders and have everything I need. However, you don't need to do that many file folders if you don't want to. You could have one folder for all the maps for the year and one folder for all the saps for the year, etc. Just pull out what you need for each week. Basically, it helps to have everything printed and ready to use before you start (for all 4 units).

 

I agree with pp that if i try to organize units in mid year, I fail miserably. I really need to get everything lined up ahead of time. The only thing I don't have ready to go at the beginning of the year are books. I buy those one quarter at a time. If I had money to burn, I'd buy them all in the summer to have them on hand, but oh well. So, a few weeks before the next quarter, I print off the book list and figure out which ones to buy and which ones to check out from the library.

 

Personally, I don't like to make notebooks ahead of time because I end up not always using some of their maps or saps, and I may choose to add things of my own as we go along. As the kids complete the weekly pages, we file them into notebooks. But other people like to print everything ahead of time and have the papers spiral bound into a personal TOG workbook for each child.

 

I also agree with reading up on tapestry's guides about how to set up and teach and whatnot. Marcia has some good suggestions even if you're familiar with TOG.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing TXMary2's blog about this to get more ideas.

HTH

[Hedgehogs4]

I'm a new TOG user, so I'm only hoping this system will work, but what I have started doing so far is:

 

1. used a plan grid to write out from the guide what books we will be covering each week (I know it's in the book, I just wanted them at my fingertips, so I can pull them and put them in the book basket each week.

 

2. I plan to (as the pp said) print the maps, writing aids, and memory work and put them in with the SAP pages into a week-by-week notebook, along with any lap book or other study helps. I suppose that this is a kind of "filing system" as has been discussed here in the past, but I like notebooks better.

 

Along with that I will also insert their math work and any other worksheets we need to cover.

 

3. We are doing Y3, which begins with the presidency of John Adams, so I am listening to a biography of Adams (David McCullogh) on my ipod, and I have been reading things to the kids this summer that will prepare them for the year. My DS 9 just read Johnny Tremain to gain some additional background and excitement about the Revolutionary period. I have already read The Story of Napoleon, which is one of the texts for unit one.

[Hedgehogs4]

 

Personally, I don't like to make notebooks ahead of time because I end up not always using some of their maps or saps, and I may choose to add things of my own as we go along. As the kids complete the weekly pages, we file them into notebooks. But other people like to print everything ahead of time and have the papers spiral bound into a personal TOG workbook for each child.

 

 

 

I love the idea of the spiral bound notebook for each child (even though you said you don't like it...) but wow...that could be handy!

[Karenciavo]

It depends on the age of my child. My oldest used DE on his laptop - no prep other than to make sure I had the books. My middle son will not be doing TOG next year (it's not a good fit for him), but I made workbooks for him and my youngest in the past. As I am making workbooks and making decisions about what we will be covering I find making them helps me get an overview of the unit.

 

This year I'm only planning for my ds9 (UG) and I'll make the spiral workbooks for him. I print out all the SAPs, assignment sheets, maps, etc., but I only bind one unit at a time. I like to add extras (a summary of facts I want him to know, copy work, memory work, extra reading) and this way I don't have to make all those decisions in the summer. We are in a TOG co-op so I do zero projects with him at home, but when I did do them home I would loosely pick them out ahead of time and make a supplies list.

 

We're doing Year 2 next year too. I love Year 2.

[Kipling]

I love the idea of the spiral bound notebook for each child (even though you said you don't like it...) but wow...that could be handy!

 

Here is a blog post by another WTM mom. http://homeschoolblogger.com/karenciavo/526536/ It's a great post with lots of pictures and explanations.

This is where I first learned about the spiral bound student notebook. I agree that it has a lot of merit.

[TXMary2]

I finally finished my blog post about how I use and plan TOG. You can read it HERE.

[baybedaul]

I really appreciate all of the advice. We're getting ready to start Year 1 in the Fall and I'm so excited (and just a wee bit nervous!). I've been looking over the paper copy, but have yet to install our DE yet. It's great to hear from people who have been there as I begin to prepare for our first year.