TOG with several children (x-post from K-8)

[Susan in TN]

Do any of you with, say, 4 or more children in school use TOG? (Quiver?)
How long do you spend with the TOG on a daily basis?
Do you feel it really helps save time/organization/brain cells with children in different levels?
What other subjects do you add in, and how do you coordinate all of it? (I feel strongly about teaching Bible, Latin and music lessons, and then obviously there's science, math, grammar, etc.)
How teacher-intensive are the rhetoric/logic levels? Lower levels?
Do your older students help the younger ones? And then how do they finish their own lessons?In 3 years I'll have a rhetoric, logic, upper grammar, and 2 lower grammar. (and that doesn't take into account any other little ones that may be forthcoming). Makes my head spin. I envision us doing lessons from 8am to 2am every day. :tongue_smilie:

I'm starting Omnibus with my oldest this coming year - I love the Omnibus curriculum, but I wonder if it would be too much to have 2 different Omnibus years going, along with the younger ones using SOTW and whatever else needed for the 2 "gap years" between SOTW and Omnibus (5th & 6th grades). I know I can use Omnibus as a resource along with something else like TOG, but I hate to change gears so dramatically and then find it wasn't worth it in the end, KWIM?

Or, maybe I can just continue with Omnibus for my oldest and work the younger ones into TOG?

Thank you for your input - I know you've answered these questions a million times. (I did search the boards, really!)

[Karenciavo]

I only have 3 children at three different levels, but since no one else has bitten I will. :D

Ideally, you will train your rhetoric and dialectic students to plan their own weeks and work on their own. My D & R students have history and church history discussion together. I work with my LG son in the AM when the older two are doing independent work.

My advice is have a set schedule (Monday - geography, Tuesday - hands-on, Wednesday - people to know, reading everyday, etc.), train older students to be independent, work with LG & UG together, and have discussion time during naps. I also highly recommend purchasing the Evaluations for those weeks when discussion just isn't going to happen, at least then you can hand a test to your D & R students and go over it when convenient.

HTH,
Karen

[Susan in TN]

Oh, I was just looking through your TOG workbook blog - those are fantastic! I do the same kind of thing with some subjects like Latin - copying all the student word lists, worksheets, quizes, and tests, and then putting them all in order in a binder. I usually spend about 3 hours in front of a copier at UPS or Office Depot, but it is so wonderful to have all those things ready to go. I love your color pages,too. It makes the workbooks look so much more inviting!

Is there a reason you like to spiral-bind them as opposed to putting them in a 3-ringed binder?