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TOG for High School when we went thru SOTW cycle


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I have upcoming 9th and 10th grade students as well as 3rd and 5th. The olders have been through the SOTW cycle. The youngers have not. I am wondering if TOG year 1 would be a good fit for all of them. Perhaps the 10th grader will use something else-she is very independent and self driven. The 9th guy not so much 😡

Is TOG much more meaty than SOTW? I am very torn as to putting my 9th on the 4 year cycle or doing standard cycle as the 10th grader began. How can I get my 10th grader on track if I want her to do the classical cycle? I want to slap myself for letting her get off and taking normal standard coursework for her 9th grade year. :(

What does WTM recommend for high school? Is there a set curriculum available?

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I'm in a similar situation only I have an upcoming 7th and 9th grader finishing their first four-year cycle this year. (We found SOTW late.) Then I have an upcoming 1st grader just starting his first cycle. I'm seriously considering Trisms for my older two kids, who are working at the same level almost across the board. I'll use the activity guide from SOTW with the 1st grader. I have to check the storybook again; I'm not sure if he's ready for it or if I'll just use the activity guide to glean activities, literature, and library books. All three of them will be doing ancients.

 

BTW, how are you doing with that four year age gap you have between your 2nd and your 3rd? I'm finding it difficult to manage what is basically two sets of kids...everything from getting it all done to doing field trips is difficult. I can't leave the youngers home to do field trips that are appropriate for the olders. The olders don't like field trips geared towards younger kids. We love field trips, but that problem is just making them less and less frequent and enjoyable. Have you found this difficult? Or do you have some magical solution I haven't found?

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From your description, your oldest is a good fit for Tapestry. An R level student needs to do all their work on their own, decide their schedule do it, etc. Then be ready to discuss with you on discussion day.

 

I think you may find Tapestry a big jump up from SOTW which as I understand it is written for grade school students. Tapestry uses significant literature and a lot of it and they use books written by individual historians on specific time periods.

 

I think in terms of the history cycle you may wish to evaluate what you want your daughter to cover before college and then enter the Tapestry program in a way to do that. I think if you worked really hard you might be able to cut out enough weeks in the overall four year program to do it in 3 years but it would be a lot of work and defeat the purpose of the program which is to allow you to use it for all your children.

 

For your 9th grader, you might consider a blended D level with R level for his first year in the program. Also, depending on what you decide about your oldest you might decide starting in the middle of the cycle is a smarter plan. My opinion on lit difficulty level is that the year plans go from hardest to easiest in this way: Year 2, Year 1, Year 3 and Year 4.

 

So if you decided to skip Ancient History with your oldest and begin in Year 2 (probably still using one of their lit cutting plans), your youngest could do a blend of D and R level, so he reads some R level works like Shakespeare, but not others. The following year your oldest would be ready to tackle the full R level program and your youngest could do a cutting version to further aid him. The following year they would both do the full program, she would graduate and he would finish with Year 1 the following year.

 

For your oldest, I'd add on the government piece to get a government credit in all 3 plans and give her a credit for world history for Year 2, and American History for Years 3 and 4 (although there would be some world history in both those years as there is American history in Year 2). This should satisfy most colleges.

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This is super great info....thanks so much! Please forgive me I haven't figured out how to "quote" people using the mobile app version of this site. I am going to chew on this info for sure!!!

 

As to the age gap between my 2 sets-it is definitely challenging. It is sad to say but my olders have not gone on any field trips lately. Luckily, they aren't opposed to younger minded things as I try to channel them into a leadership role and that helps. We don't live in an area where there's much to see-and financially are not able to take trips too far away. I have a hard time scheduling field trips and staying on top of lessons. We do take family trips and usually the week before I'm cramming extra work in to cover days we are taking off and I often feel I'm contributing to the quantity over quality phenomenon.

 

I wish I had a magic wand for this issue! My solution if at all possible would be to hire someone, ask hubby or ask a friend to help teach the youngers or take olders on a field trip if you feel it's an integral part of their education.

I have been in a tight spot like this when my youngest daughters co-op art class went to the pumpkin patch the same time as my olders co-op math classes started/stopped. I had to juggle all sorts of things to make sure everyone was where they needed to be when. Add sports, music lessons and whatnot on top of that and 4 kids can really be challenging. I've learned to whittle our activities down to what really matters and find ways to satisfy all. It's not easy!

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