Matching TOG with Classical Conversations

[k3bzr18]

We love CC and I keep being drawn to Tapestry of Grace. Can they match up?

[G5052]

FWIW --- you can use any history/lit curriculum with Classical Conversations. It is less common now, but when we started seven years ago about 1/4 of the people involved on our campus used A Beka, and the others used mostly Sonlight and TOG. Most didn't work to line up the content exactly then. I used the Sonlight Core that approximately lined up to the time period and didn't worry about the week-to-week.

[Another Lynn]

Another question to consider might be Can you do TOG in 4 days per week without feeling that you didn't use "enough" of it or that you aren't getting "behind."

[k3bzr18]

Another question to consider might be Can you do TOG in 4 days per week without feeling that you didn't use "enough" of it or that you aren't getting "behind."

 

 

Great point . What do you do with Sonlight, TOG, or similar?

[Another Lynn]

Great point . What do you do with Sonlight, TOG, or similar?

 

 

Well, for this year I haven't used a program like that, but I believe Sonlight offers 4 day plans. HOD's guides are 4-day starting with Preparing on up. For us this year I just read aloud from various spines and added a literature read aloud when I felt like it and assigned period-related literature to my 4th and 5th grader. They also had history related writing from Essentials. For us, I feel it has been enough this year. I've known of lots of folks using the VP self-paced online course - I suppose they double up on lighter days. As far as TOG goes, it kind of goes back to whether TOG is a good fit in the first place - it's a buffet with lots of choices, not intended to be entirely consumed in any one pass. If you're a "box checker" or a non-unit study mom it may not work well for you AND only having 4 days to use it would increase the stress. If you're okay with a "unit study buffet" just know you may have to cut back 20% more from the buffet than you would otherwise have done - and then decide if the cost of both programs is still worth it to you in that circumstance.

 

Also, as far as lining TOG up with CC, I can't imagine doing it in Cycle 1 because of the civilization/geographical organization of the history sentences. You could use it without lining up specific content - just have overlap of time periods. But, remember that CC has 3 cycles while TOG is 4-year. I think you could determine to use TOG year 1 during CC's cycle 1 (with above caveats about only having 4 days). You could use TOG year 2 during CC's cycle 2. But when you get to cycle 3, there's no way you can cover 2 years of TOG during 1 regular school year unless you're just leaving how lots of stuff.

 

Just my .02.

[k3bzr18]

Your .02 is excellent, thank you!!

[G5052]

When we used Sonlight with CC, I schooled some subjects year-round, so we did Sonlight until we finished. Usually we'd take most of August off, and then start the new Core and other subjects when CC started.

[FlyingMOm]

We tried to do this one year & found it to be impossible for our family. In something like three weeks, their History sentences covered Columbus-the Revolution. Tapestry spends an entire semester doing this. In order to match History study at home the the CC History sentences, you really can only touch on the subjects. It is difficult, imo, to cover History with any depth if your doing it at the CC pace.

[bethben]

CC's history sentences don't really match any curriculum since they don't do history sequentially through the year. They do it in sections such as world history, American history, etc. You either have to do CC with TOG and let the kids make their own connections, do CC alone and just follow their suggested reading that can be found on a forum (for a cost), or do TOG and match up CC history sentences with what you're learning (which means you can't join a community). I'm doing TOG and using all three years of history sentences to match up with what we're learning. For year 1, only 9 sentences really matched up with ancient history. The rest didn't really have anything to do with what we were learning or were beyond the scope of the ancient times. I think TOG is a much richer program overall. Its like swimming in the lake vs. skipping rocks over the surface (which is CC not spending real efforts to teach the history behind the sentences).

 

Beth

[fourisenough]

I have no experience with TOG, though I just received their sample CD & some info in the mail at my request (hoping to have an opportunity to browse it thoroughly this weekend).

 

I am planning to join a CC community this fall for Foundations (4 & 8 year olds) and Essentials (older only). We will continue SOTW with Volume 3 when we finish Middle Ages in the next month. I know that I'll be out-of-sync with CC (seems like everything is), but am hopeful that the sentences or timeline dates that concern topics we've already studied via SOTW will be familiar and already contextualized. Those that are new to us will be briefly explained and will form pegs for topics we'll hit more in-depth with SOTW at a later time.

 

Couldn't you do something similar with TOG? Especially if you're open to schooling year-round and possibly hitting the TOG a little harder on non-CC weeks?

[k3bzr18]

That's what I am thinking too. I am hoping to find a few people in the area to get together with too. :-). I am also getting with a few people in the area that already TOG. :-)

[Hedgehogs4]

I left CC to do TOG. It's not that CC isn't great. It's a lot of work. TOG is also a lot of work. Just keep in mind that you cannot do everything well. Both are expensive and time-consuming. IMO, I would feel that I had wasted my time and money on one or the other. The two programs have completely different aims in mind and both are rigorous. I wrote about the switch in my blog, and wrote about the co-op that we formed and pursued hard for a year ( and consequently burnt out ). This year we have settled into a lovely TOG year with a partial co-op. It has been the perfect pace for our family.

 

Simple analogy - It's never a good idea to go to a buffet and try to eat everything, no matter how gourmet. After a while nothing tastes good.

[Hedgehogs4]

We tried to do this one year & found it to be impossible for our family. In something like three weeks, their History sentences covered Columbus-the Revolution. Tapestry spends an entire semester doing this. In order to match History study at home the the CC History sentences, you really can only touch on the subjects. It is difficult, imo, to cover History with any depth if your doing it at the CC pace.

 

I absolutely agree, and this is the reason we switched.

[LisaD]

CC's history sentences don't really match any curriculum since they don't do history sequentially through the year. They do it in sections such as world history, American history, etc. You either have to do CC with TOG and let the kids make their own connections, do CC alone and just follow their suggested reading that can be found on a forum (for a cost), or do TOG and match up CC history sentences with what you're learning (which means you can't join a community). I'm doing TOG and using all three years of history sentences to match up with what we're learning. For year 1, only 9 sentences really matched up with ancient history. The rest didn't really have anything to do with what we were learning or were beyond the scope of the ancient times. I think TOG is a much richer program overall. Its like swimming in the lake vs. skipping rocks over the surface (which is CC not spending real efforts to teach the history behind the sentences).

 

Beth

[LisaD]

Hi bethben.

I am preparing to start TOG year 3 with my kiddos. We did CC two years ago (c2) with a community, then opted to do c3 last year on our own. This year I would love to begin just lining up the history sentences (and geography) with TOG in order to reinforce the content my kids learn from TOG, as it appears you have done (with the history). Would you be willing to share your findings of what history sentences match what year/week in tapestry? I have been searching the internet, checking Pinterest and posting in the TOG yahoo and Facebook groups but haven't found this info yet. I would so appreciate any info you would be willing to share! :)

 

Thank you!! :)

 

 

CC's history sentences don't really match any curriculum since they don't do history sequentially through the year. They do it in sections such as world history, American history, etc. You either have to do CC with TOG and let the kids make their own connections, do CC alone and just follow their suggested reading that can be found on a forum (for a cost), or do TOG and match up CC history sentences with what you're learning (which means you can't join a community). I'm doing TOG and using all three years of history sentences to match up with what we're learning. For year 1, only 9 sentences really matched up with ancient history. The rest didn't really have anything to do with what we were learning or were beyond the scope of the ancient times. I think TOG is a much richer program overall. Its like swimming in the lake vs. skipping rocks over the surface (which is CC not spending real efforts to teach the history behind the sentences).

 

Beth

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

If you want things to line up and mesh...no. If you want to do CC for fun memory that may or may not relate to their other 4 days a week and social benefits, sure. For me, the inability to use the CC cycle with anything else, and the lack of depth and context in CC with the three year cycle ultimately made my decision not to join CC, and we are looking at TOG for next year. I prefer the four year cycle. I also love that TOG spends more time in the last 200 years than other programs.