What's the "homegirl" summary of Tapestry of Grace?

[Camy-7 boybarians 1 lady]

I've watched a few descriptive videos on the TOG website, but my ADD self needs to hear what the daily grind version is.

 

1) How much prep work?

2) Total cost (maybe including reading list)

3) Time it takes to do this program daily

4) Do you like it?

 

After all these years of doing my own hodgepodge, Well-Trained Mind method (which has produced some amazing readers and writers in my 4 teenagers, btw), I am looking at a busy year ahead and needing some guided teaching. My 3 oldest will be playing football and the fall is insane in our house.

 

Thanks for taking the time to give me the info!

 

Blessings,

 

Camy

[melmichigan]

I think this will be very difficult to answer because it will vary for each family. I don't think any two families do TOG the same. It will also depend on the following:

 

1) Which and how many of the reading selections you choose from the primary and alternative listings for each week, as well as any projects

2) How you obtain books, if you own them, if you will use the library, or if you will purchase them will it be new or used

3) The level of the child or children you are teaching which will impact both of the above

4) How you will plan your week, if you plan it dependent upon the level

[Random]

TOG is very individualized, so no two families' schedules will be exactly the same. We mostly do the literature, history and arts/crafts sections. If we are pressed for time (baseball season for us, not football) then I don't fret about getting everything done. I will read aloud the D history selection to everyone or do the craft, and feel fine about it.

 

If you haven't downloaded the three-week sample off the TOG website, then you should. It will give you a good idea as to what a week of work will look like.

 

Here are the answers for us:

1) I prep for about a week in the summer. I print maps, quizzes, reading lists for my students, etc. and place them into binders to use as a workbook. Then, each week, before our accountability discussion, I scan the teacher's notes.

2) For me (one D, one UG, and one LG) I spent $250 on books I didn't already have and that aren't available in my library. I also spent $50 on ink to make the 'workbooks.'

3) My boys read about an hour per day independently (scheduled as literature/reading on their school schedules) and then have activities/discussions/maybe a read aloud for about 1.5 hrs twice a week as a family (scheduled as history on their school schedules). My boys love hands-on stuff and often, the older boys do the craft meant for LG.

4) I absolutely love it. I love the books and the sequence of study. I love having everyone study the same time period at the same time. I love the depth of the teacher's notes. It is labor-intensive, but homeschooling is my full-time job right now, so that's okay with me. :)

[Camy-7 boybarians 1 lady]

I will try the download. It sounds like a lot of work if printing materials is involved. sigh. Darn it.

 

Blessings,

 

Camy

[Quiver0f10]

I don't spend much time on prep work each week. I buy the pre-printed SAP pages from TOG. It saves me a lot of time and is well worth the money. It only takes a few minutes to glance over the reading assignment sheets with a highlighter and highlight what I want them to read each week and assignments I want them to do. One of my teens will print the weekly maps. The older kids have lesson plan sheets that they fill in using the info I highlighted. Before our discussion I read the teacher's pagers and take notes.

 

I read all the books to my youngest 3( I have 2 with dyslexia) and that takes time, but my older kids work independently. All total it probably takes my older kids an hour to an hour and ahalf daily, depending on how much reading there is that week. The younger ones we spend about an hour twice a week.

 

As far as cost, I buy all the books we need because I don't want to have to worry about the library so it can get pricey. However, I buy used when I am able to which helps. The nice thing is that when we cycle through again we will reuse the books.

Edited June 9, 2012 by Quiver0f10

[melmichigan]

I will try the download. It sounds like a lot of work if printing materials is involved. sigh. Darn it.

 

Blessings,

 

Camy

 

I'm not sure what you mean? I print the SAP's for my older DD and maps for all the rest. I just do a unit at a time, it's really fast if you print from the pdf's.

[Hunter]

I've watched a few descriptive videos on the TOG website, but my ADD self needs to hear what the daily grind version is.

 

1) How much prep work?

2) Total cost (maybe including reading list)

3) Time it takes to do this program daily

4) Do you like it?

 

After all these years of doing my own hodgepodge, Well-Trained Mind method (which has produced some amazing readers and writers in my 4 teenagers, btw), I am looking at a busy year ahead and needing some guided teaching. My 3 oldest will be playing football and the fall is insane in our house.

 

Thanks for taking the time to give me the info!

 

Blessings,

 

Camy

 

:bigear: Camy, all your questions lately are interesting to me, and I'll bet a lot of other people too. Thanks for starting this thread. We all need to make sure we tag this one for whatever comes up, that should be tagged.

[Hunter]

Camy, I went through the whole process of installing and downloading to see the samples. It looks very interesting, but :scared: time consuming. The idea of trying to implement all that made ME want to crawl in bed and :crying:

 

I've been reading posts at the Students of the Word (6 year Bible based unit study) yahoo group for about 14 years. TOG has always been a favorite supplement or competition to SOW. It wasn't what I was expecting.

 

At first glance I'm :confused: as to what I would want to prioritize. If *I* did even half of it, I'd be severely neglecting skills.

 

Just looking at TOG has left me feeling anxious :001_huh: I don't know why.

[smgwynn]

Tog can be a bit intimidating at first glance. The beautiful thing about it is that there is a smorgasbord of resources that you can pick from, but you can make it whatever you want.

I have kids at three levels and I spend about 15 minutes planning their weekly reading, printing maps and lit worksheets, and picking through the accountability questions that look interesting. I spend some time over the summer figuring out which lit and history books area available at our library, then ordering what is necessary. It's really not time consuming to plan once you have routine down. We also co-op with a tog group, which keeps me from having to worry about crafts, lit discussions, writing assignments, etc....we do all that with co-op.

 

My family loves it. It's great that the littles are learning the same era of history as the big kids. We all get to do the read aloud together and it helps draw the whole family together.