TOG

[mom2agang]

Can someone explain this to me? It seems like just hands on history. I looked at the webpage but didn't really understand what TOG was.

[choirfarm]

TOG is much more than history. What ages are your children? For my dialectic children it has history, literature, writing, maps, questions and discussion time, fine arts, and church history. For the rhetoric level there is government as well. We are really enjoying it. I like the flexibility it offers with having all of the reading, assingments at different levels so I can pick and choose. If I have an upper grammar strong reader then they can also read the dialectic, but just do questions for upper grammar if I want. If I want to do a hands-on, then the suggestions are in there. There is a whole page with alternate reading suggestions. A lot of the work I was doing to beef up Sonlight was already done for me in TOG. Have you downloaded the 3 week sample and printed it out??

 

Christine

[Janice in NJ]

Start here on their web site.

 

http://www.tapestryofgrace.com/explore/

 

After you've traveled through the initial explanations, take a look at the three week samples, then come back here and try some searches to dig through old discussions or ask you questions directly. There are lots of TOGgers on this board with lots of info. :001_smile:

 

Peace,

Janice

 

Enjoy your little people

Enjoy your journey

[siloam]

Can someone explain this to me? It seems like just hands on history. I looked at the webpage but didn't really understand what TOG was.

 

TOG coordinates topics, so you are seeing how one effects the other in history. It covers: History, Government (older kids), mapping, timeline work, Art History, Philosophy (older kids), Music History, World view (year 1 Bible, year 2-4 church history and missionaries), ect...

 

TOG has 4 different levels. Lower Grammar (LG), Upper Grammar (UG), Dialect (D) and Rhetoric ®. Lower grammar is intended to be read aloud to the child, UG and up is chose to be read independently (though many people choose to still read them aloud).

 

So this is the reading assignment page. First note that on the bottom it shows which of the 4 levels you are dealing with. Next notice that on the left hand side it breaks down what topics you are dealing with. History Core is your main reading. In depth is optional reading for the advanced child, or a child who is not quite read for the next level, but a little too advanced for just the core readings of the level they are in. Also note that the Government study is listed in the In-Depth section. Literature would take the place of readers in most other programs. Fine Arts and Activities is where they will list Art history, Music history and activity books. This is considered optional. Worldview is as I stated above Bible in year 1, and in years 2-4 church history and/or missionary biographies. Also note the philosophy assignments are listed with the Worldview section. The left hand side of the page is the main side. MOST people will just use that side. For those of us who have formed previous attachments to other texts, they also include the right side, which lists other texts you can use instead of the main ones they list on the left side. You are free to totally IGNORE the right side. :D

 

This is the overview page. Again note first the 4 levels listed at the bottom. You are always free to totally IGNORE any level you do not currently have children in. In other words if you just have the 6th grader you would either be doing UG or D level work, look just at those two and ignore the rest. On the left it tells you what is being covered. Student Threads is a summary of what you are going to learn this week. People are the major figures for the week. This week doesn't have any. Vocab/Timeline is pretty self explanatory. This weeks list of Timeline figures must be long because it is not printed there, but refers you to the student activity pages (more on those later). Activities are just suggestions of things your child might enjoy, if you don't like them you don't have to do them. Group activities are for co-ops and other groups that use TOG. Geography gives the overview of the goals for the week. The actually places are often listed in the student activity pages.

 

These are the Student Activity Pages. Also called SAP. These are to print out and hand to the student. They include a summary of what will be studied, background information, geography that needs to be covered, timeline figures, activities they can try and it includes their literature worksheet. Almost all the literature has a worksheet to go with it, with the possible exception of the R level work (though I haven't looked at it that closely to say for sure). Each level has its own set of SAP sheets, starting with LG and working to R, so a lot of will look like it repeats because it does. Like mapping will repeat with more detail for each level.

 

This is the writing overview. TOG has 12 levels of writing to choose from. Generally at the beginning of the year you work on new skills and the second half you work on projects where you apply the skills.

 

These are the teacher notes. These include all the teacher needs to know to teach the week, without having to read the students books. Then it moves into the discussions for History, Literature, Bible, philosophy and Government. Most of it focuses on D and R level, but lower level literature is included.

 

That is the main pieces of TOG, though there are several add on products and other pieces I haven't addressed. I hope that is enough to give you a feel for TOG.

 

Heather