Trail Guide to Learning vs TOG?

[shanezomom]

Can anyone give me a comparison b/w Trail Guide to Learning vs TOG American years?

 

I've got a rising 6th grader who is very interested in Paths of Settlement. I think he might be liking the pleasing graphics and great booth we saw at a convention. He says he likes the idea of having everything organized in one book. As you can see from my signature, I've been eclectic.

[shanezomom]

Anyone??

[Abbeygurl4]

They are two VERY different curriculums. I would suggest going to their websites and downloading samples. TOG has a 3 week sample you can download and I think Trail Guide has 1 week of plans to download.

[mom&nana]

I agree with Abbeygurl4. They are very different. Downloading samples would be a good idea, so you can see just how different they are. TGTL will be a lot less reading than what is scheduled in TOG. I believe that TOG also has more ideas for hands activities than TGTL. TOG is definitely more chronological than TGTL. TGTL is based upon themes. So in Paths Of Exploration you study some early American up to moving west, the Oregon Trail, etc. However, not everything is covered during that time frame. So Paths Of Settlement will go back in time and study the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Gold Rush, etc.

 

TGTL is supposed to be All in One except Math. If I end up using it again, I will supplement both the Language Arts and the Science. I didn't feel like it was enough in those areas for my goals. I used it with an older child (one year out of the age range), and I think possibly that's why I had as many issues as I did with it. If I use it again with my younger children, they will be on the bottom end of the age range. I think it will work much better that way. However, I still plan to supplement.

 

I do like the history portion. We enjoyed some of the books and some were just ok. I loved having copywork and dictation all planned out for me. I like that you are reading a few books for history and then there is also scheduled free reading time. For the free reading time, you can add in some classics or just have your child read whatever they desire. The Geography was very good, it's a strong point of the curriculum. Having everything woven together is really nice, the pace is a little slow, but I saw the best retention with this program than any other we have tried.

 

I have never actually used TOG, bought a unit and tried to make it work. I just couldn't get it off the ground, too much planning, too much decision making from me, and too much money for books. It was hard trying to reserve books from the library and then trying to plan without seeing the books was impossible for me. There is also a LOT of reading in TOG. I think my child would have struggled to do all that reading for history and still have time to do her core subjects.

[AngieD]

Trail Guide to Learning was a wonderful fit for us! I have not tried TOG, but I have looked at the samples online. Yes, the reading appears to be quite intense with TOG, though I am sure the materials are very quality. We will be doing the Paths of Settlement now and are very excited about it!!

If you decide on TGTL, Paths of Exploration, I have the set for sale. I have the Teachers Guides- Volumes 1 and 2, the Student Resource cd and the Assessment cd in excellent condition for $85 pp.

The books required for POE were readily available through our inter library loan.

 

I hope you have clear direction on the right choice for you and yours!

 

Blessings,

 

Angie

[AngieD]

Oh, sorry! Just re-read your post and see that you are interested in Paths of Settlment...:tongue_smilie:

[PeterPan]

You're wanting to do that on top of the VP Explorers to 1815 you have listed in your sig??

[Guest LittleJo]

Kelli, since you've actually experienced this curriculum, would you mind giving your input on a few of my questions about it? I recently bought it and have been evaluating it ever since, without actually using it yet.

 

-I'm concerned that the science, being tied to the history, is disjointed and therefore never goes very deep into any area, just touches on a topic then moves on. But you said the retention was very good, which is also important.

 

-The same copywork/dictation/narration exercise is done day in day out with a new paragraph each day, and it wasn't apparent that the selections were anything especially worthy of copying. (i.e., is there anything to be gained in the way of values, linguistic excellence, or other?) Also, I wonder whether the exercise would get monotonous to the child?

 

-I see there are writing exercises, but is there any teaching (e.g., HOW to summarize, construct good paragraphs, etc.)

 

-Did you find the reading selections to be of high quality & sufficient quantity for the age-level you had? I didn't see many books that are on other common reading lists I've seen (but that doesn't necessarily matter, just wondering what your opinion was since you read them.)

 

Thanks so much!

 

Jo

[mom&nana]

Kelli, since you've actually experienced this curriculum, would you mind giving your input on a few of my questions about it? I recently bought it and have been evaluating it ever since, without actually using it yet.

 

-I'm concerned that the science, being tied to the history, is disjointed and therefore never goes very deep into any area, just touches on a topic then moves on. But you said the retention was very good, which is also important.

 

I did not care for the science portion of TGTL. You are right that it is very disjointed and does not go into depth in any area. When I was talking about the retention, I should have been more clear because I meant the History not the Science portion. I had the feeling that the science was extremely light in TGTL and I had to supplement. If I use it again, I will probably skip the Science all together in favor of a complete Science program. I think the Science in POS was more focused and did go a bit deeper than the Science in POE. However, with POS we really disliked those Pocket Science books- Weather and Rocks....too much crammed on a page with much too small print.

 

-The same copywork/dictation/narration exercise is done day in day out with a new paragraph each day, and it wasn't apparent that the selections were anything especially worthy of copying. (i.e., is there anything to be gained in the way of values, linguistic excellence, or other?) Also, I wonder whether the exercise would get monotonous to the child?

 

In POE, the copywork probably isn't anything special. However, in POS they are more relevant to the history being studied. For example, you copy parts of the Declaration of Independence, George Washington's Rules of Civility, Patriotic Songs, etc. I find value in copywork, just the act of doing it though, so I had my child do all of those exercises. You can also use dictation instead of straight copywork. Dictation works on various other skills that I also find important.

 

-I see there are writing exercises, but is there any teaching (e.g., HOW to summarize, construct good paragraphs, etc.)

 

No I don't remember any of those things, but I did skip some lessons, and some units in POE and POS. It's possible I missed something but I don't think there is much actual instruction for writing. The Language Arts is another area that I find disjointed and light.

 

-Did you find the reading selections to be of high quality & sufficient quantity for the age-level you had? I didn't see many books that are on other common reading lists I've seen (but that doesn't necessarily matter, just wondering what your opinion was since you read them.)

 

We liked some of the books, and others not so much. Some of them were not sufficient for her age. I was using this with a child 1 year older than the recommended age range in each guide, but the lower level books were extremely babyish for her. Due to that fact, we skipped books like Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims (she had read that years ago), the Matchlock Gun, The Courage of Sarah Noble (also read before), Clara Barton, and the Mumford books were also skipped because they seemed way too easy and on the babyish side. Often we added in the Middle School Reader in place of those lower level books. The Sower series of books are ok, they are written by different authors so some are good and others not so much. I think this program probably works out best when you use it at the lower end of the recommended age range. If I use it again with my younger children, I will begin POE in 3rd grade.

 

Thanks so much!

 

Jo

 

I answered above in Green. I hope you find it helpful. :)

[mom&nana]

I also wanted to add that I'm actually looking forward to trying this program again next year with my dd (currently in 2nd grade). After looking over it again, I think it will be a good fit for her. From reading my responses above it may seem that I have a negative opinion about this program. I did find things that I thought were weak- Science and Language Arts. However, there is still very much to like about TGTL. It is very comprehensive in the history department. I love how they have you reading a book about the topic and also your child reading a different book about the topic. Reading two different books on the same topic like that gives ample opportunity for discussion, comparing and contrasting, etc. For example, when we were reading the Columbus books, one would have more information than the other on a certain event, or one would be a slightly different account of the same event. That gave us plenty to talk about, pointing out that history can be biased depending on who's telling the story, and showing that sometimes we may never really have the full picture of what happened in the past, etc. I loved the Geography portion of this program. A lot of literature based history programs have geography tied in, but with the ones I tried, I always felt like it was tacked on. This one has a much different feel.

 

I've used/tried many different programs in the past--- SL, WP, VP, MFW, and Bob Jones history. I found this program to have the best retention out of all of those we tried in the past. I had to really think what set this one apart and I came to the conclusion that it was the pace of the program. At first, I really disliked the pace of spending 6 weeks on one topic. I was frequently frustrated by the slow reading schedule, and I tried to speed this up quite a few times. I suppose it was because I was used to a much faster pace with programs like SL and WP. However, I really feel that the slower reading pace gives time for the information to simmer and sink in. There are many activities in that guide that tie all this information together and you can tell it is a well thought out and planned curriculum. When I tried to speed it up, I always found that the retention wasn't nearly as high as when we just worked through the program as is.

 

I already have a Language arts program I really like, so I will be using that. We might also do some of the LA activities in TGTL too. I really like what they do with the vocabulary words in POS, for example.

 

I just do not like the Science. It feels much too disjointed and all over the place. I want a more natural progression of Science topics instead it being so heavily tied in with the history. So it's very likely, that I will skip the science in TGTL altogether.

 

I think the majority of my issues with the program was the fact that I was trying to do this with an older child. I feel like the recommended age ranges are best, with the mid to lower level being the preferred age range.

We even tried adding in the Middle School Supplement. While I felt like that added in terms of quantity of work, I didn't feel like it was adding to the quality of work.

 

Anyway, I just didn't want you to think that I hated this program. I have often said that I have a love/hate relationship with TGTL and I think that's pretty much how I feel. I think it's a great program, but I feel it needs supplementation in a few areas. I'm a tweaker, I don't think I could ever do a program completely as is anyway.