classicHSmom Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 (edited) I just logged onto the forum for the first time today and noticed that there are tons of new TOG threads. I almost couldn't sleep last night because I had a few questions of my own, so you're going to have to bear with me. Let me give some background information. I was looking through YR2 and trying to plan for next year. I checked the online loom to see if there were any book updates, which there were. This got me thinking that if the book lists keep changing month after month, year after year, and decade after decade that my curriculum is going to be somewhat out-of-date and that it's eventual going to be hard to find resources. Plus it's going to be hard to keep up with all the updates and my curriculum is going to look terrible after penciling in a million changes. I'm just in YR 1 with my first dc and have two more dc (and possibly more) to follow. I'll be using this curriculum for at least the next 16 years. I haven't actually checked to see if I'll cover all four levels for all four years during that time, but if so I would need access to thousands of books. I started panicking a bit and started to wonder if I needed to start stockpiling books for the future. Finally, here are my questions. Should I just relax and take each year as it comes? Should I start buying books here and there to have for the future - right now I rely heavily on the public library system? Also, what would be your guess as to what percentage of books go OOP? Oh, my experience has been that the literature titles are more necessary than the history or read-aloud because they have corresponding SAP's. Is this your take as well? I'm thinking that I should get the literature selections, the multi-week, and multi-unit books as we encounter them and wing the rest of the history resources when/if needed. Sound like a good idea? If you've made it this far, thanks for reading this through. Edited April 25, 2009 by classicHSmom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karenciavo Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 Should I just relax and take each year as it comes? Yes Should I start buying books here and there to have for the future - right now I rely heavily on the public library system? Also, what would be your guess as to what percentage of books go OOP? I've always purchased books used as I've come across them if they were a great price. Many of the books used in TOG are used in other curricula and are easy to find. I really wouldn't spend a lot of money on books I wouldn't be using for years. I couldn't even guess at the percentage that have gone op over the years. My library system, which stinks by the way, carries a lot of the titles. Oh, my experience has been that the literature titles are more necessary than the history or read-aloud because they have corresponding SAP's. Is this your take as well? I'm thinking that I should get the literature selections, the multi-week, and multi-unit books as we encounter them and wing the rest of the history resources when/if needed. Sound like a good idea? Yes, if I was going to stock up this is how I would do it. ...my curriculum is going to look terrible after penciling in a million changes If you have DE you will get all the updated pages for free. Right now those with Redesign in print get the SAPs for free and can purchase the Resource pages if they like (at least I think that is still the case.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staci in MO Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 I've always purchased books used as I've come across them if they were a great price. Many of the books used in TOG are used in other curricula and are easy to find. This is what I'm doing. There are a few of the rhetoric books that I've noticed are specifically keyed to a certain edition/page numbers. I recently purchased the Spielvogel Western Civilization textbook at a great price. My thinking is that if I don't have one of the primary recommendations in a given week, I will always have that to fall back on. I think the Norton anthologies used in Year 1 would be nice to have as well, but I haven't tried very hard to find them. The books most likely to go out of print are the ones in the lower levels. I think as you get up in the Dialectic, and especially the rhetoric, this is going to be less of a concern. Two of the rhetoric literature books in Year 3, for example, are Huckleberry Finn and Pride and Prejudice. If those two books go out of print in the next few years, homeschool curricula will probably be the least of my worries. :ohmy: FWIW, I'm doing this for financial reasons more than anything else. We have a little extra money right now, but I want to be prepared in case money gets tighter in the next few years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in CA Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 I use paperbackswap.com quite a bit for my book shopping. At the beginning of this year (Y1) I put all of the Y2 books for the next year on my paperbackswap wish list. When one becomes available Paperback contacts me via email, and if I have book credit, I am sent the book for free. I have acquired over half of my Y2 books for next year that way. I also have acquired several Y3 books so far, and many Y1 Rh level books for future use. Other books I purchase used, new, or get from the library as needed. I only have one child left to school. If I had several following him, I would try to get as many of the books for my bookshelf as I could so that I didn't have to worry so much about oop books coming along in future years...or library runs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 I pick up books I know I will like when I find them cheap, but otherwise I don't buy that far into the future. Then again I also have no problem scheduling books myself. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jewel7123 Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Bumping this up because I have been wondering this same thing as well. I have print only and don't plan on getting DE anytime soon, so I've been wondering if I should purchase the books that go with MY print edition as I come across them. Anyone else using TOG print only want to share their thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalGal Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Bumping this up because I have been wondering this same thing as well. I have print only and don't plan on getting DE anytime soon, so I've been wondering if I should purchase the books that go with MY print edition as I come across them. Anyone else using TOG print only want to share their thoughts? Coming from a former TOG Mom, I would purchase books that go with YOUR print edition as you can. Once you've purchased the Year Plan and the books, you shouldn't have to buy them when they go OOP, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluemongoose Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 I have the redesign print version as well. I have been stockpiling books for all the levels and all the years through paperbackswap. I do not intend to go out and purchase all the books needed until I need it right now, but I do list all the books for all the levels on my wishlist at PBS. This way when I get one, I get it cheap, with minimal effort/cost from me. If by the time I get to a level and the book is oop and I do not already have it, I plan to just log on TOG and download the new SAPs for whatever book they have replaced the oop book with and buy that book. I am not too worried about dated material for most of TOG as it is history anyway. Ya, a new piece of info might be discovered, but that even happens with a book that is just a year old. If I feel like my book is so dated as to be unusable, I will just get the updated one to replace it. Getting my books through PBS allows me to be able to afford a few replacements like this. I have several kids who will be using these books, my kids are all young right now, so that also influences my reasoning for collecting all the levels. I figure the chances are high that they will get used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M&M Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 If you look your Loom disk and click on the online updates, you will see that when a book goes oop, there is a replacement shown and a link to print a new page with the changes. There also seems to be a link to print the oop page as well. Since I purchased someone's books from the 1st printing and I have TOG 2nd printing, I can now print schedules to go with the books I have. I have not actually tried printing the pages yet, I just discovered this a few days ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 I would buy as many of the books for the year I am currently in as budget allows. I would not assume I will be using this for Dialectic or Rhetoric, etc. if I am only in Lower Grammar. One year at a time. Heck, some days one day at a time is sufficient. It is WONDERFUL to own a majority of the books rather than relying on the library system. At the same time if my child was seven, I wouldn't want all four cycles at all four levels in my house if I could help it. :) My .02. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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