Tapestry of Grace users...

[michaeljenn]

Ok... So I am starting to plan a bit here and I have to admit that I am getting a bit overwhelmed. Tapestry is not overwhelming me, but all the other subjects that need to be added to tapestry is the problem. It just seems like there is not enough time in the day.

 

Here is my plan:

13yo:

TOG Dialetic Y2

IEW Co-op; we will be utilizing Writing Aids at home too.

Apologia Physical Science

Saxon Alg 1/2

Spelling Workout G/H weak speller here;)

Rod and Staff English 7

Latiana Christiana 1 (just beginning Latin)

Rosetta Stone Spanish

The Fallacy Detective along with Critical Thinking Skills book 1

 

12yo

TOG Dialetic Y2

IEW Co-op; we will be utilizing Writing Aids at home too.

Apologia General Science

Saxon 87

Spelling Workout f/g

Rod and Staff English 6

Latiana Christiana 1 (just beginning Latin)

Rosetta Stone Spanish

The Fallacy Detective along with Critical Thinking Skills book 1

 

9yo

TOG Y2 UG

Saxon 54

Rod and Staff English 4

Spelling Workout d/e

Latiana Christiana 1

Rosetta Stone Spanish

Apologia Zoology (have not really decided on this yet)

 

I just feel like there is so much to accomplish each day, and not enough time to accomplish it. I also have a 4yo and a almost 2yo to chase too. Oh, and my 4yo just started Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. Maybe it would help to "see" how others get it all in. Please share your method?? Or how long a school day takes you. Keep in mind though, that at this stage in my life it is very difficult to sit with each child on each subject. I have trained them so far to read their math/english and just get it done. It was rocky at first but now they do it with minimal error rate. Poor guys, they have learned to learn:tongue_smilie: Anyway, please share any advice or opinions. Maybe I am just feeling guilty that they will be working the majority of the day!!!!!!!!

[Chris in CA]

Honestly, that is why we dropped TOG, history was taking too much time, but now we just read, do mapping, timeline figures. I think if I thought of TOG as more of a cookbook to choose from rather than an instuction manual of "have-to's" I would have stuck with it. There's always next year :001_smile:

[M&M]

Ok... So I am starting to plan a bit here and I have to admit that I am getting a bit overwhelmed. Tapestry is not overwhelming me, but all the other subjects that need to be added to tapestry is the problem. It just seems like there is not enough time in the day.

 

I just feel like there is so much to accomplish each day, and not enough time to accomplish it. I also have a 4yo and a almost 2yo to chase too. Oh, and my 4yo just started Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. Maybe it would help to "see" how others get it all in. Please share your method?? Or how long a school day takes you. Keep in mind though, that at this stage in my life it is very difficult to sit with each child on each subject. I have trained them so far to read their math/english and just get it done. It was rocky at first but now they do it with minimal error rate. Poor guys, they have learned to learn:tongue_smilie: Anyway, please share any advice or opinions. Maybe I am just feeling guilty that they will be working the majority of the day!!!!!!!!

 

 

Here is what I think

 

First, ease yourself into this year. Don't try to start all subjects at once. We started Tapestry in the summer, so that we could get past the 4 week fog before we started everything else.

 

I would not plan to do every subject every day. Spread things out some, 3 days latin, 2 days spanish for example.

 

Remember that Tapestry encourages independant workers. You want your older children to plan their work and work their plan. Give the older ones weekly goals for Tapestry, writing, spelling, and even grammar and math if that works. It took most of the year, but my 9 yo ds knows to pull out his planner and plan out his subjects for the week. He may not choose to do all that I would like him to do, but he gets that he is responsible to cover x# of subjects each day. This year we will work on him getting enough of that work done.

 

This has been a learning/transition year, but my older children have learned how to work independantly and now I have more time for my younger children. And that is why Marcia wrote tapestry, so that the older children get what they need and the younger children don't miss out on Mom teaching them.

 

If you can get Marcia's cd Teaching a Houseful. I have listened to over and over (I just got it last month). She has some great tips in it.

[ruth]

What I did that really helped is I made a schedule for each child that we would follow each week, and a schedule for which child I would be working with.

I did this over a few days, moving things around as needed. I also included lessons, co-op, church activities on the schedule.

This was very helpful to see where everything was going (it is much more overwhelming on paper then really doing it).

 

Then, about 2 weeks before we really started school we began easing into the TOG schedule. Doing week 1 over a course of 2 weeks. This gave me a really good idea of what worked and what had to be shuffled around.

 

Once you get this figured out you can follow the same plan every week all year. It truly saves your brain!:thumbup:

[momee]

I would also add a comment about the spanish and latin - looks like alot to cover.

We had high hopes to do the critical thinking logic stuff with TOG but never got to it.

Don't overdo it with your TOG subjects. If you're sure you're using it, start them off doing a few topics well then add others in later. Shoddy work is a hard habit to overcome and for some reason with TOG I felt so rushed with all the stuff to do, I accepted their less than best and we regret it.

We didn't end up sticking with it for various reasons but that's my best btdt advice...