Last year was a most
interesting year in our pursuit of History and Literature.
Leaving our well-loved Tapestry of Grace (TOG) curriculum, my children went their own ways.
My oldest to My Father's World 9th grade Ancient History My 6th grader to Critical Thinking's’ World History Detective My 3/4th grader to Creek Edge Press Geography Task cards.
The year went smoothly with these mostly grab and go curricula, but something was missing. Namely the plethora of living books, multiple activities and the collective learning of the same time period but at each individual’s level. Mostly we missed the unity TOG provided our family.
.....So while the pre-made schedule of My Father's World was heavenly, there wasn't enough reading for my 9th grader.
.....And The World History Detective was challenging for my 6th grader and wonderful to just pull off the shelf, ready to go, it was still 'just' a workbook.
.....The Geography Task Cards were a wonderful find for my wiggly, kinesthetic learner. But we were still learning separately.
What we ALL missed was being “on the same page” in history, sharing meaningful discussions on the time period, its' literature and creating family activities with purpose.
To understand a a little more about TOG, it’s a 4 year program spanning 36 weeks for each year. This program enables you to teach all your children, K-12, all together. History, literature, geography, writing, hands-on, and fine arts are broken down into 4 approximate levels with a Biblical Worldview. These levels can overlap and need to be followed by the child’s ability:
Lower Grammar K-2 Upper Grammar 3-5 Dialectic 6-8 Rhetoric 9-12
The strengths of TOG is also its’ weakness: (+)Flexible (-) There’s no pre-made schedule
(+)There’s so much to choose from (-)Choices can be overwhelming
(+)Utilizes living books (-) Hunting down/buying books can be time consuming/costly
Last year, we made the decision to leave TOG after an exhausting year of continually being behind the ball, searching for library books and then praying they’d be there when I needed them. Couple this with a very demanding baby…and it wasn't pretty.
Though our original reasons for leaving TOG hasn't changed, I feel more confident to deal with these challenges by purposefully scheduling this curriculum ahead of time in order to get in front of the ball instead of running behind it.
In part 2 I'll share how I went about this.
This post written and property of Homeschool Circus and can be found at: www.upatdawnreadytowork.com.
