Homemama2 Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 Looking ahead to next year... I was wondering if I could get some opinions on these two. I think after all of these years of picking all my individual subjects, I want to go with something "pre-planned" for next year. Something where I don't have to spend so much time and energy on planning school and pulling things together and I can just open the book and go. (We're going to most likely be building a house next year and I'll be too busy.) Is TOG a curriculum where I have to plan out a lot and invest a lot of time? I love the looks of what I've seen on-line, but I'm afraid it would be just as time consuming as what I'm doing now (pulling together our own history program using BF, AO, and TQ.) Sonlight looks pretty good (I've looked over my friend's copy). We would be coming from Ambleside Online readings for most subjects, which are pretty challenging... and we would be looking at Core E for 4th and 6th. I guess I'm wondering if it would be challenging enough for 6th grade? I know the age range includes 6th, but my friend used it for 4th and I've bought several curriculums in the past where I didn't agree with the recommended age levels. Is Sonlight pretty accurate on their age ranges? I don't mean so much for the history; I'm meaning for the Language Arts (reading, grammar, writing etc.) Or if there is something else you'd recommend, I'm all ears. :bigear: I do have science purchased, which is why I've kind of eliminated MFW... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethben Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 I use TOG and plan the whole year out in the summer. It does take a bit of time (can't remember how much), but I do all the print-outs, plan all the activities that look doable - we do an activity every other week - and put all the books we plan to do on a 36 week schedule. I also buy all the supplies for the activities during the summer also. This way, all I have to do is find the craft supplies for that week, write the books to read in ds's schedule, and put the print outs (map and literature response sheets) in ds's folder. It becomes very open and go for me during the year and takes about 5 minutes a week of planning. I also do this for my 12 year old, although he is doing a TOG online class. He has a workbook with all the questions he needs to answer along with his maps and timeline figures for the week. He has to write his own schedule so his workbook is all the planning I do for him. I literally don't have to plan during the year. I did appreciate Sonlight for that open and go factor so I created open and go myself. I like TOG better than Sonlight because I didn't want to do the two core thing. It has a better "tweakable" level for me because it has more than enough to choose from. We don't do everything, but I find I can tweak it differently for each child and still have plenty more to choose from. Beth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 I haven't had a 6th grader yet, but I think the readers would be too light. The main history books would probably be fine, and the read-alouds might make good readers. I'm using core D with advanced readers with my third grader, and I think the levels are similar between those two cores. The readers are VERY easy for him. He likes them, but a 6th grader would probably find them babyish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homemama2 Posted October 20, 2012 Author Share Posted October 20, 2012 I haven't had a 6th grader yet, but I think the readers would be too light. The main history books would probably be fine, and the read-alouds might make good readers. I'm using core D with advanced readers with my third grader, and I think the levels are similar between those two cores. The readers are VERY easy for him. He likes them, but a 6th grader would probably find them babyish. Thanks! I was afraid of this. I haven't read many of the titles, but he's already read some of the read-alouds, so I was worried about that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homemama2 Posted October 20, 2012 Author Share Posted October 20, 2012 I use TOG and plan the whole year out in the summer. It does take a bit of time (can't remember how much), but I do all the print-outs, plan all the activities that look doable - we do an activity every other week - and put all the books we plan to do on a 36 week schedule. I also buy all the supplies for the activities during the summer also. This way, all I have to do is find the craft supplies for that week, write the books to read in ds's schedule, and put the print outs (map and literature response sheets) in ds's folder. It becomes very open and go for me during the year and takes about 5 minutes a week of planning. I also do this for my 12 year old, although he is doing a TOG online class. He has a workbook with all the questions he needs to answer along with his maps and timeline figures for the week. He has to write his own schedule so his workbook is all the planning I do for him. I literally don't have to plan during the year. I did appreciate Sonlight for that open and go factor so I created open and go myself. I like TOG better than Sonlight because I didn't want to do the two core thing. It has a better "tweakable" level for me because it has more than enough to choose from. We don't do everything, but I find I can tweak it differently for each child and still have plenty more to choose from. Beth Thanks! I think I'll look into this further. It's good to know you can get all the planning during the summer. I don't mind that, I just won't be able to do it every week like I am now. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristi26 Posted October 20, 2012 Share Posted October 20, 2012 We are using TOG for the first time this year and if you only take it week by week, then it IS a lot of planning. I have gone through the entire year and figured out where all the books are. Most of them, I've found either in one of the libraries nearby or in free ebook form. I have a Nook and we have the Kindle App on both computers. I've bought very few of them. One of the things I really like about TOG is that you don't HAVE to use the books they recommend. You can get others on the same subject and still do the same thing pretty easily. We have a 7th grader, a 4th grader, and a 1st grader this year. The dialectic level seems just about right for the 7th grader, though he doesn't always love the lit choices. He's reading "Sword in the Stone" from "Once and Future King" right now. HTH... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chicagoshannon Posted October 20, 2012 Share Posted October 20, 2012 Have you looked at Veritas Press? It might be a good compromise between the 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted October 20, 2012 Share Posted October 20, 2012 Have you looked at Biblioplan? It is a cross between TOG and SL to me... BP offers lots of options like TOG but it is all on one weekly grid like SL so you can pick and choose, make it fit your wants and needs without a lot of planning. It is super easy to combine as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted October 20, 2012 Share Posted October 20, 2012 I haven't had a 6th grader yet, but I think the readers would be too light. The main history books would probably be fine, and the read-alouds might make good readers. I'm using core D with advanced readers with my third grader, and I think the levels are similar between those two cores. The readers are VERY easy for him. He likes them, but a 6th grader would probably find them babyish. I used D with 3rd and 5th graders, and I agree there were a couple of readers that were babyish that I deleted for my 5th grader. Otherwise it was fine and very enjoyable, and I didn't have that issue when he was 6th grade doing E. Sonlight always does a mix of readers--different styles of writing and different difficulty levels--they like to put in a few really challenging ones, and to mix up easier and harder books to give a breather after a tougher book. But they are usually high interest books and the kids will really learn from them. And if you have a student who reads quickly or likes to read, it's easy to let the student add on other books they are interested in. You may find a couple of books you want to swap out, but for the ease of the schedule and to know that most of the books will be just fine, it might be worth it. I like the looks of TOG too, but just find SL easier to use, and I know that we enjoy 95% of the books they choose. Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted October 20, 2012 Share Posted October 20, 2012 I like the looks of TOG too, but just find SL easier to use, and I know that we enjoy 95% of the books they choose. :iagree: We've been very happy with the book selection. One book was a bit slow, but we still learned from it (once we were done making jokes about it :lol:). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Keeper Posted October 20, 2012 Share Posted October 20, 2012 My oldest two (11 and 9) are doing Core E together this year; both boys have a high reading/comprehension level. The book choices have been very good for both of them--I do take some of the read-aloud choices (which are usually at a higher reading level than the readers) and turn them into readers for the boys to do themselves. Especially since you are coming from AO, I think you will enjoy the mix of books in SL. I can't speak to the level of the Language Arts in SL; I prefer to use something else for grammar/writing (WTM picks suit us better). No matter what revision of SL's LA I've seen, it always seems too scatterbrained to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homemama2 Posted October 20, 2012 Author Share Posted October 20, 2012 My oldest two (11 and 9) are doing Core E together this year; both boys have a high reading/comprehension level. The book choices have been very good for both of them--I do take some of the read-aloud choices (which are usually at a higher reading level than the readers) and turn them into readers for the boys to do themselves. Especially since you are coming from AO, I think you will enjoy the mix of books in SL. I can't speak to the level of the Language Arts in SL; I prefer to use something else for grammar/writing (WTM picks suit us better). No matter what revision of SL's LA I've seen, it always seems too scatterbrained to me. Ahh....good to know. I already have WWS, so maybe I could just use that and keep going with Rod and Staff and then I wouldn't need to worry about the LA for the 6th grader at all.... It's so hard to decide b/c I think they both look great! I guess I still have some time to think about it. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homemama2 Posted October 20, 2012 Author Share Posted October 20, 2012 Have you looked at Veritas Press? It might be a good compromise between the 2. Actually, I've looked at it a lot and that is another choice I've been thinking about. I don't know anyone IRL that uses it, so if you could give me an opinion on it, that'd be great! Do they do a lot of worksheets? For some reason I got that impression, but I might be totally off base. I've looked at Omnibus for 7th grade, but not sure if it would move too fast for my oldest (it seems like they squeeze an awful lot of tough books into one year between the primary and secondary ones.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homemama2 Posted October 20, 2012 Author Share Posted October 20, 2012 Have you looked at Biblioplan? It is a cross between TOG and SL to me... BP offers lots of options like TOG but it is all on one weekly grid like SL so you can pick and choose, make it fit your wants and needs without a lot of planning. It is super easy to combine as well. I had considered BP for this year and ended up with Truthquest. I didn't realize (or had forgotten) that they use the weekly grid... Truthquest has great book choices but I really want that grid format to save my sanity for next year. Thanks for reminding me about it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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