I have some questions about TOG

[gardenschooler]

I can post on their board, but this one is much busier (and homier, to me!)

 

I'm curious about a few things. Here goes:

 

1-How much do you plan in advance? And to what extent? A skeleton for the whole year or unit, extras and other books for just a few weeks, or what? How far in advance do you feel like you need to go, in order to get a feel for the big picture, to see where you're going to end up (at the end of the unit or year)?

 

2-How much would you say you follow the plan? In other words, do you take out 10% or 25% and substitute with your own thing? How much adapting do you do, in what areas, and why?

 

3-What would you say is your #1 sanity saver in how you use your TOG? Is there something that you do that you feel makes it all run more smoothly for you?

 

I'm just curious because I don't think I'm going about this in the usual way. :) That's okay, but I would like to hear from people who have used it. It's hard to glean this info from the other boards and I can't seem to find many blogs (I found them, but I don't know how to search them for their TOG posts - no one seems to be talking about it right now). I want to know what you're thinking, how you process it, what your plan of attack is.

 

Thanks!

[Karenciavo]

1-How much do you plan in advance? And to what extent? A skeleton for the whole year or unit, extras and other books for just a few weeks, or what? How far in advance do you feel like you need to go, in order to get a feel for the big picture, to see where you're going to end up (at the end of the unit or year)?

Workbook, workbooks, workbooks, I'm sorry if I sound like a broken record on this :tongue_smilie:

 

You don't even have to go to the extent that I go with the reformatting, Janice in NJ simply copies the pages as is and binds them. Students answer SAP questions in a separate notebook (unless it was designed for write ins, e.g. lower level literature worksheets.)

 

I have a general overall plan for the year. I am on the same schedule as the Redesigns so I'm limited as to how much I can plan. This summer I hope to make at least the 1st unit workbook.

 

2-How much would you say you follow the plan? In other words, do you take out 10% or 25% and substitute with your own thing? How much adapting do you do, in what areas, and why?

Rhetoric, almost no substitution, I actually can't recall any at this moment. Dialectic, I use The Lost Tools of Writing instead of WA. LG, hmm, I guess I do the most tweaking here. I add in copy work and memory work. I often skip the literature worksheets and have discussions with my son or have him narrate the story back to me.

 

3-What would you say is your #1 sanity saver in how you use your TOG? Is there something that you do that you feel makes it all run more smoothly for you?

Besides workbooks? :D (couldn't resist) I would say having a rhythm to our week. Geography is always day 1, timeline is always day 2, government and philosophy needs to be completed by day 3 because that's when we have our discussion, etc.

 

HTH,

Karen

[Janice in NJ]

His reply? "My mom's too lazy to do all of that anymore. She's making us do all of the work now." He's giggling - big time! :D

 

Karen is right; I made notebooks last year as we worked through year one. Everything ran VERY smoothly. We got a lot done, and the little people learned a TON about planning their work and working their plan.

 

But I'm stepping it up as far as the self-sufficiency factor around here. TOG handles SO much of the administration of my homeschool; last year I still had to do some of it; this year I'm trying to make my kids do MORE of it! I have NO desire to do for them what they can do for themselves. I LOVE Karen's blog and what she has done with the notebooks. I read "gardenschooler's" post with my son sitting on the couch next to me. He read Karen's response and was curious about her notebooks so I clicked on her blog and showed him what she had done.

 

He loved all of the formatting and organization. He was VERY impressed, Karen! "Wow. Those are nice! How come you don't do that, Mom?" he said while laughing - almost in hysterics! (I think he wants to come and do school at your house, Karen! :001_smile:)

 

Instead of making notebooks, I've changed it up AGAIN for this year; we're working through weeks 1 & 2 of TOG 2 during the month of June before we take our break. Here's what I've done:

 

We have multiple Mac computers that are all on an Apple network. I've uploaded the SAP's to a "public" folder. My kids check the "Reading Assignment" and "Overview Pages" as well as the FIRST "blue" SAP page from my main binder. For the first couple of weeks, I have told them that they are responsible for all of the SAP questions, but in the future I will probably send them an email at the beginning of the week so they know which questions I would like them to answer (Accountability & Thinking) AND I will let them know HOW I would like them to answer the questions - short answer, paragraph, report, etc. (Note: my kids know which credits they are working toward so they know which subjects to do. Remember - we did an entire YEAR of TOG Redesign last year. They understand the program, how it works, and how we work it. They're hip to the format.)

 

Anyway - they know what they are supposed to read. When it comes to prepping for our "face time", they log to a computer, pull up the SAP file from the shared "Public folder", copy and paste the questions into a "Pages" document (Word would work too - my kids like Pages) and then they reformat the questions so they can add in their answers. This document is saved into their own public folder so that I can view their progress anytime I want AND they can work on their assignment from any computer in the house at anytime during the week. I've taught them how to use tables in the word-processing program, so it's just easier for them to do their longer tables on the computer too.

 

They will place their writing assignment drafts and finals into their own public folders, so they can work from any of the machines in the house. (Can you guess where ALL of the WA files are? Yup. Shared folder. I told you - I am really trying to PUSH the self-sufficient card this year!) Anyway - drafts in a shared folder... I REALLY hope that this will be an improvement over last year. I can't tell you how many times there were interruptions and SHUT downs because someone couldn't find their work - couldn't remember which computer they left it on - OR needed a file off a computer that was in use by someone else. It made me NUTS!! HOPEFULLY that will be easier to manage this year.

 

Back to TOG - All of the maps are also in a public folder. They print their own student map and then I am having them view the Teacher's Map; they just need to make their map match the teacher's map. I really don't want to spend a lot of time on geography this year, so this works for us. (Please understand - I have already TAUGHT geography; everyone knows how to use atlases. For now I'm content to let geography dribble along the side of our academic plan.) So I don't want them spending hours looking for the answers to their geography assignments in their books and materials - or our many, many atlases. All of their maps will be comb bound into their map book. They know where the comb-binder is, and they know how to use it. Done. Without me. :D

 

We'll do the same with the D level literature worksheets. They'll print, do the assignment, and file them in their working binder. We'll see how that goes... I suspect that they'll want to add them to their map book and then separate them out at the end of the year - maps in one section and literature worksheets in another.

 

Back to the bulk of the SAP's - when it comes time to have our "face time", they just pull up their "Pages" document with their questions and the answers (from any computer); they are good to go. We completed our discussions for week one on Monday; it worked well. I had them add comments and info to their original questions. I will probably have them take notes as we putter along throughout the year. I really think that learning how to take lecture/discussion notes on a laptop will serve them well in college, so I'd like to head in that direction this year. Putter, putter, putter toward those skills. :001_smile:

 

I've also taken the time to add extra "stuff" to the public folder that we are using - maps or articles that I've found through the TOG site - all stored in folders according to week number. Anything that looks interesting. And the cool thing is that it's all in one place for all three of them - AND I can work ahead - dropping things into that week's folder as I find them. My youngest even added one of the maps to one of his SAP answers.

 

And the final thing - as long as we make regular backups, their work will all be saved in the virtual world (except for the maps and D lit worksheets). I finally decided to do this as I sat staring at a box of workbooks last month. I have a TINY house; I have NO place to put this year's workbooks. I certainly won't have any place to put next year's workbooks. BUT I do have a place for a computer disc. If the bulk of their work is in 0's and 1's, we'll be all set.

 

... and as the 11 year-old so aptly mused a few minutes ago ... I'm VERY content to make them do ALL of the work! ;) I'll just to continue to spend my days watching TV and sucking down bon-bons.

 

NOT!!!!!!!

 

Does my proposed "system" make sense?

 

Peace,

Janice

 

Enjoy your little people

Enjoy your journey

[michaeljenn]

I am very new to TOG Y2, but thought I would chime in here too. I took Karenciavo's advice and made notebooks. However, I just 3 hole punched them and stuck them in a binder. That way I can add to it if needed. I can already see this making all the difference in our house.

 

I do not plan to substitute any books at all. We will stick with the primary sources because I have already bought them all. If they don't like them, I really don't care right now. They will just need to learn to get through it.:lol: I have looked through all of the Y2 U1 books and I do have to say that they really look fabulous!!! (ok everytime I say the word fabulous, I can hear Sharpay singing it from High School musical....yes, I have a few girls here!!!;)) I really do think they will enjoy them.

 

I have an UG and 2 D students with an almost 4yo and 20month old running around. I will be expecting them to plan their own work, and getting it done. If it is not done by Friday, well then guess what they will be doing on the weekend. I will be getting them a planner so that they can plan our their week. I am so hoping for a very smooth year. I have spent too many years trying to pull together what TOG already does for me.

 

I hope this helps some?? It is nice to see so many TOG'ers here!

 

Blessings on your school year.

[Kim in SouthGa]

I'm not substituting any books, although my 7ds and 9dd will do the same activities, even though one is reading UG books and one LG. I am making workbooks as well, and will have them bound. I was worried about leaving something out, but not everything is copied front and back, so if I need to I can glue papers to the backs of some pages. I am also adding some of the free notebooking pages from the TOG loose threads group. I am planning one unit at a time. I would like to start planning the next unit when I am 3-4 weeks into a unit, but we'll see. We are planning to take a week off between units also, to help with that. I think being organized is the key. I know if I don't get all the copying and planning done, it will easily get left behind during our hectic week. I'm still on the fence about having my kids plan out their week themselves. I have, um, control issues... in this area. I like my pretty little planner pages with everything nice and neat. I will probably sit down with the kids on Thursday night and let them pick the activity they want to do, so I'll have the weekend to get supplies. My kids really like knowing what they need to do each day and checking it off, so I think telling them to get this amount of work done in so many days might throw them off. We'll see.

HTH

[jananc]

Does my proposed "system" make sense?

 

 

 

Wow, Janice! I'm liking the sound of your system! I'm going the workbook route this year (thanks, Karen, for the step-by-steps!) but your computer-based system might be in our future. Please keep us posted on how it works out.

[LisaNY]

I used TOG yr. 2 Classic, which I began during the 2nd half of last year, and finished the first half of this year.

 

I followed a fairly simple plan.

 

Each week, I would prepare myself by reading through the Teacher Notes. I would usually begin doing this on Thursday, and finish by Sunday. I would then read through the Student Pages, to get an idea of what was expected of my Dialectic-stage dd. On Sunday, I typed the Accountability/Thinking Questions in Word, along with the Geography Activities/Questions for that week. This allowed me to make my own additions/modifications to the questions. For geography, I made copies of outline maps from various sources. I made heavy use of the Walch US/World History Map Activities books. All of these pages were then added to my dd's binder for the week, within the appropriate sections.

 

On Monday, I would go over all of the activity sheets w/my dd, so she was clear on what was expected of her. We would discuss these activites at the end of the week, along with our literature discussion.

 

I did some planning ahead for each Unit by reading the overview notes, and making lists of the assigned books. I would check to see if my library had them, and if not, I ordered them from Amazon's used book section.

 

I also printed out copies of timeline figures from History Through the Ages, and placed them in my dd's timeline binder. I would assign specific days for timeline activity.

 

I make a weekly plan for all subjects, and list all history activities on that week's plan. I did not use TOG's assignment sheets.

 

We did not do many hands-on activites. I did follow some of the writing assignments, but also created many of my own.

[gardenschooler]

Thanks, everyone! This is very helpful to me, to see the different ways people go about it.

 

Keep the great ideas coming!

 

I promise I'll post mine this time next year. :)