Tapestry of Grace Qusetions - please help!

[Melabella]

Here's the background:

 

I have one child, dd9, and we will be going into our third year of homeschooling this coming fall. I winged it the first year. This year we are doing SL Core 3. We like it, but it is not as complete a program as I thought it would be. I have been researching other curricula and have finally decided that TOG best fits our needs. However, I have a few questions/concers and am hoping some of you can help me.

 

1.) Where should we start? We did early American History our first year and repeated/continued this year with SL Core 3. It looks like we pick up around TOG Y3 Unit 3, but that is a bit quirky. I could do a summer unit on the Civil War, then start with TOG Y4.

 

2.) If I do that, what is the deal with Y4 Redesign plans? I will want to prep this summer, so should I just order the classic?

 

3.) The Loom - do you just buy one of these that covers all four years or do you have to purchase a separate one each year?

 

4.) The only thing I dislike about TOG is the literature selections I see for Y4. My daughter would be in the UG level and there are a lot of American Girl books listed. I don't mind those, but I don't consider them "school" type of reading. How difficult would it be to add in other literature? Would I lose a lot of the benefits of using TOG (the lit analysis/questions)?

I might be able to move her up to the Dialectic literature. Is it more classical literature.

 

5.) Thinking long term here. If I switch to a chronological history sequence, I would like my dd to complete Y4 in 11th grade. There is a likely possibility that she will graduate then or I want her to have those courses for testing purposes. She will be in 5th grade next year. I can't come up with a plan that logically progresses so that she hits Y4 in 11th. Any suggestions?

 

Sorry this is so long. If anyone has any advice or comments for any of my questions, I would really appreciate it.

[TheCoffeeChick]

I don't really have much help for you except maybe a few brainstorming ideas for your long term goals. The wonderful thing about TOG is that it is very adaptable to meet your own personal needs. Looking at completing year 4 in 11th grade, you could do any of these:

 

5th grade: U.S. Geography

 

6th grade: World Geography

 

7th grade: Year 1 (first 2 units)

 

8th grade: Year 1 (second 2 units)

 

9th grade: Year 2

 

10th grade: Year 3

 

11th grade: Year 4

 

--------------------------OR ------------------------

5th grade: World Geography

 

6th grade: Year 1 (first 2 units)

 

7th grade: Year 1 (second 2 units)

 

8th grade: Year 2 (first 2 units)

 

9th grade: Year 2 (second 2 units)

 

10th grade: Year 3

 

11th grade: Year 4

 

-----------------------------OR----------------------------

This one is the most intense. It would have 6 units each year. It would involve skipping some weeks and condensing some of the week plans to have 2-4 squished into 1 week. You can do this for your first go round because you will be getting back to it in more depth in her final 4 years. It would take a tremendous amount of planning over the summer before to be totally organized throughout the year.

 

5th: Year 1 & Year 2 (units 1-2)

 

6th: Year 2 (units 3-4) & Year 3

 

7th: Year 4

 

8th: Year 1

 

9th: Year 2

 

10th: Year 3

 

11th: Year 4

 

I personally would do this third option, but only because *I* find ancient & medieval history not that interesting -- which I know is almost blasphemous to admit here. ;):tongue_smilie:

 

Blessings on your adventure with TOG -- it is a great and full curriculum.

[Melabella]

Thank you for your response. I'm not terribly excited about ancient history, but I love the medieval period. Not sure I could codense that one. Also, I feel compled to finish US History (1850 - present) next year.

[Hen]

you buy the loom for each year. I've only done yr 1- not quite done yet, I can't answer about the later years. I've found the reading books to be good, my thought with the year 1 was not enough fiction! Some of the books have been wonderful, we loved Black ships before troy, for example.

[siloam]

1.) Where should we start? We did early American History our first year and repeated/continued this year with SL Core 3. It looks like we pick up around TOG Y3 Unit 3, but that is a bit quirky. I could do a summer unit on the Civil War, then start with TOG Y4.

 

Well how important is the Civil War to you? Could you cover it more quickly maybe just with Landmark and then start with year 4? Not ideal but buying units always gets expensive. It is also hard to work with the writing because usually the child works on new skills the first half of the year, then applies them to fun projects the rest of the year. You start writing with fun projects.

 

Ideally yes you would want to start with unit 3. You can either use an easier level of writing that your child has mastered, or you can take a break for a bit till you get to year 4.

 

I use the classic and don't mind it at all. But redesign really makes all the difference for some people. There are some places where books are OOP in the classic year 3 (year 4 is worse), but now that the re-designed is out you should be able to look up what they are using there and substitute. Though with the literature you wouldn't have the literature worksheet. You would still have the history discussion.

 

2.) If I do that, what is the deal with Y4 Redesign plans? I will want to prep this summer, so should I just order the classic?

 

I just heard that unit 1 of year 4 is almost ready, but that they can't guarentee it will be out by a certain time (ok that probably didn't help a lot). I am really comfortable substituting books, and buying OOP books used. If that would drive you nuts then wait for the redesign, and camp out in year 3 for a while.

 

3.) The Loom - do you just buy one of these that covers all four years or do you have to purchase a separate one each year?

 

Comes with your year, if you buy a whole year. I think if you buy just a unit (or two) you buy the loom separately. And I think when you buy it separately you get the loom for the whole year. Too many I thinks there, you should e-mail and ask TOG. :)

 

4.) The only thing I dislike about TOG is the literature selections I see for Y4. My daughter would be in the UG level and there are a lot of American Girl books listed. I don't mind those, but I don't consider them "school" type of reading. How difficult would it be to add in other literature? Would I lose a lot of the benefits of using TOG (the lit analysis/questions)?

I might be able to move her up to the Dialectic literature. Is it more classical literature.

 

Year 4 with the content issues is trying to walk a fine tight rope. To be honest most of the time I just substitute a Childhood of Famous Americans book (my dd loves those). But there are times when I also go with a D level book, or with a book in a series that was read earlier at the UG level. Also notice they often list more than one option for literature, so sometimes you can take an option from one week and move it to another (which means you will still have a literature worksheet to go with it).

 

Yes you would miss out on the literature worksheets if you substituted a book of your choice. I don't think it is the end of the world to do that once a quarter.

 

5.) Thinking long term here. If I switch to a chronological history sequence, I would like my dd to complete Y4 in 11th grade. There is a likely possibility that she will graduate then or I want her to have those courses for testing purposes. She will be in 5th grade next year. I can't come up with a plan that logically progresses so that she hits Y4 in 11th. Any suggestions?

 

I don't think it matters. Actually if you really want to line things up so she graduates doing year 4 then the best thing to do would be to take a little longer to do the years. There is plenty of bulk in TOG to do that with. In fact some people purposefully take two years to do year 2. In the end I have 4 kids who are so close in age that there is no hope of graduating them all in year 4. I don't overly worry about it. They will have a good education no matter what year they finish on.

 

Heather

 

[Melabella]

you buy the loom for each year. I've only done yr 1- not quite done yet, I can't answer about the later years. I've found the reading books to be good, my thought with the year 1 was not enough fiction! Some of the books have been wonderful, we loved Black ships before troy, for example.

 

 

Thanks, Jen. I noticed the lack of fiction in the Y1 samples, too.

[Melabella]

Well how important is the Civil War to you? Could you cover it more quickly maybe just with Landmark and then start with year 4? Not ideal but buying units always gets expensive. It is also hard to work with the writing because usually the child works on new skills the first half of the year, then applies them to fun projects the rest of the year. You start writing with fun projects.

 

Ideally yes you would want to start with unit 3. You can either use an easier level of writing that your child has mastered, or you can take a break for a bit till you get to year 4.

 

 

I've contemplated both of these options and neither really leaves me excited. Maybe I should just do SL Core 4, then switch to TOG the following year. It's just that I've gotten excited about TOG. However, I wonder if I'm not setting myself up for failure going into a less than desirable situation with it. KWIM?

 

I use the classic and don't mind it at all. But redesign really makes all the difference for some people. There are some places where books are OOP in the classic year 3 (year 4 is worse), but now that the re-designed is out you should be able to look up what they are using there and substitute. Though with the literature you wouldn't have the literature worksheet. You would still have the history discussion.

 

 

I just heard that unit 1 of year 4 is almost ready, but that they can't guarentee it will be out by a certain time (ok that probably didn't help a lot). I am really comfortable substituting books, and buying OOP books used. If that would drive you nuts then wait for the redesign, and camp out in year 3 for a while.

 

 

I am absolutely fine with buying used books. 90% of my SL books are used.

 

Comes with your year, if you buy a whole year. I think if you buy just a unit (or two) you buy the loom separately. And I think when you buy it separately you get the loom for the whole year. Too many I thinks there, you should e-mail and ask TOG. :)

 

I'm still confused. Is the Loom still necessary with the DE Redesigned units?

 

Year 4 with the content issues is trying to walk a fine tight rope. To be honest most of the time I just substitute a Childhood of Famous Americans book (my dd loves those). But there are times when I also go with a D level book, or with a book in a series that was read earlier at the UG level. Also notice they often list more than one option for literature, so sometimes you can take an option from one week and move it to another (which means you will still have a literature worksheet to go with it).

 

Yes you would miss out on the literature worksheets if you substituted a book of your choice. I don't think it is the end of the world to do that once a quarter.

 

 

 

I don't think it matters. Actually if you really want to line things up so she graduates doing year 4 then the best thing to do would be to take a little longer to do the years. There is plenty of bulk in TOG to do that with. In fact some people purposefully take two years to do year 2. In the end I have 4 kids who are so close in age that there is no hope of graduating them all in year 4. I don't overly worry about it. They will have a good education no matter what year they finish on.

 

Heather

 

 

 

 

Thanks, Heather. I have read many of your posts about TOG (including those on the SL boards) as I have been researching, and have found your input very helpful.

[pixeldog]

I've wrestled with the same sort of questions, and have decided to slow down and only do two cycles of history. I'm just making sure that we start with the Ancients again in 9th grade (or you could start in 8th if you want to graduate early). This way we get to linger where we're interested and move on when we want to. Something about spinning around history three times had me stressed out. I feel much better now that we have the time to *enjoy this ride*:001_smile:!!!

 

Nancy in NC

[Karenciavo]

Year 4 is being Redesigned, perhaps the literature will change.

[Omma]

I wonder if you bought TOG classic Y4, if you could upgrade to the redesigned in 4 years time? Just thinking out loud here. Otherwise, I could see where you might want to just go ahead and use SL Core 4 or perhaps even WP AS 2 for this coming year. I was lucky enough to find someone who is loaning me their TOG classic Y4 this year (while they do Y1)! I can say that we've enjoyed doing Y4 with all that is happening in the U.S. right now (being compared to the 1930's).

 

Brenda

[Melabella]

I wonder if you bought TOG classic Y4, if you could upgrade to the redesigned in 4 years time? Just thinking out loud here. Otherwise, I could see where you might want to just go ahead and use SL Core 4 or perhaps even WP AS 2 for this coming year. I was lucky enough to find someone who is loaning me their TOG classic Y4 this year (while they do Y1)! I can say that we've enjoyed doing Y4 with all that is happening in the U.S. right now (being compared to the 1930's).

 

Brenda

 

Thanks, Brenda. Did you have to substitue a lot of the books? One of my main reasons for switching from SL to TOG is the literary analysis/literature worksheets. If I have to substitute a lot, that would negate that benefit, right?

 

If I do decide to go with TOG Y4 next year, I'm thinking it is safest to go with a used or borrowed Classic edition. The release dates for Redesigned seem very up in the air. They don't even guarantee that they are going to complete the Redesign Y4.

[Karenciavo]

If I do decide to go with TOG Y4 next year, I'm thinking it is safest to go with a used or borrowed Classic edition. The release dates for Redesigned seem very up in the air. They don't even guarantee that they are going to complete the Redesign Y4.

 

They don't guarantee it because they fear the Lord, as far as they can tell today they will complete it, as much as it depends on them they will complete it. They were thrown a curve ball in 2008, they are simply being cautious.

[Jackie in AR]

I just heard that unit 1 of year 4 is almost ready, but that they can't guarentee it will be out by a certain time (ok that probably didn't help a lot).

 

Marcia posted on The Forum yesterday that they just started compiling YR 4, Unit 1 this past week, and that it might be ready by the end of May. Their anticipated supported start date is the week before Labor Day.

[Melabella]

Marcia posted on The Forum yesterday that they just started compiling YR 4, Unit 1 this past week, and that it might be ready by the end of May. Their anticipated supported start date is the week before Labor Day.

 

 

That is reassuring. Thanks!