Why can't TOG sperate the levels to make it more affordable?

[Blossom'sGirl]

I am starting to browse my choices for Ancients next year. I am definitely doing SOTW with my 1st grader but am not sure for my older 2 who will be in 4th and 6th grade. Right now Biblioplan is at the top of my list because I like how it reorganizes the Sotw lessons into units but sometimes I think "well I could just do that myself" and use the books I want but it really is a pain.

I like the looks of TOG but not the price. I like that TOG has some additional stuff to go with the literature reading but I don't need all the extra that comes with the Rhetoric level. DH wants the boys to go to high school.

Why am I even thinking about this in October??? I guess the whole point of TOG is to be usable for a range of ages but am I missing something? Why would you spend so much on it for the lower levels?

[Trivium Academy]

It's actually cheaper the way it is instead of buying all the different levels for each year. It'd be almost the same as buying Sonlight cores for multiple kids- ouch. I bought in 2nd grade TOG comfortable knowing that if we homeschool high school, we'd use it and that both my kids would use it, let's see:

Ds4: 1st-8th= each year plan 2x
Dd8: 2nd-8th=3 year plans 2x, and 1 year plan once

That's worth it to me, even if they were to go to high school. I'd be scared they would be bored in high school after using TOG through 8th.

[Blossom'sGirl]

You say it would be cheaper than SL cores but with SL you actually get the books. Do you get the books with TOG or just the schedule? This is the part I'm struggling with. I felt kinda bad spending $70 on the WP schedule for the American studies, even though it was worth it but to spend almost $300 on a TOG schedule is a lot.

[siloam]

I buy used to save $$.

Beyond that I am a big picture person, so seeing where I am going and pre-reading is fun, so I enjoy the Rhetoric even through I don't use it.

Heather

[WTMindy]

If you buy it used (which is a large up front chunk) you can turn around and sell it when you are done for about what you paid for it. I try to do that with all the books.

[FunnyFarmMom]

I'm using 2 different levels (sometimes 3 depending on the day!) but even if I wasn't, I would still want all the levels. I really like being able to switch up and down in levels depending on the child, subject, topic and even time of year. The flexibility of having 4 levels all in the same book was the biggest draw to make me switch from Sonlight to TOG.

[Hen Jen]

I like having all 4 levels there on the page, too. For my 11 year old, I often choose different levels- I make the choice looking at the book suggested and decide which is a better fit for her. (funny thing too, my two older girls ages 11 and 13 also love to sit in on my read alouds to my lower grammar students- I don't assign those books to them, but they don't want to miss them)

I am pretty sure you can buy TOG a unit at a time, for example- Year 1 Unit 1, which would stretch out the price and make it easier to swallow- but in the end you will be paying the same price.

I made it a lot easier on our wallet by purchasing the year and only a couple of books used for multiple years or through the whole year core. The rest I am able to find between two different libraries in our area.

[Tarheel Heather]

I am starting to browse my choices for Ancients next year. I am definitely doing SOTW with my 1st grader but am not sure for my older 2 who will be in 4th and 6th grade. Right now Biblioplan is at the top of my list because I like how it reorganizes the Sotw lessons into units but sometimes I think "well I could just do that myself" and use the books I want but it really is a pain.

I like the looks of TOG but not the price. I like that TOG has some additional stuff to go with the literature reading but I don't need all the extra that comes with the Rhetoric level. DH wants the boys to go to high school.

Why am I even thinking about this in October??? I guess the whole point of TOG is to be usable for a range of ages but am I missing something? Why would you spend so much on it for the lower levels?


History Odyssey (http://www.classicalhomeeducation.com/cart.php?target=category&category_id=68) is in levels.

TOG works for us since we will go through it 2-3 times again.

[Blossom'sGirl]

I can see how it would be really good to have the grammar through dialectic levels together. The rhetoric is so much more. I really like the layout of TOG and the book selections. I think I will just stew my choices for a few months and start back to deciding after the new year.

I am looking forward to ancients again no matter what we use.

[Shari]

I haven't read the other replies, so forgive me if I'm repeating. The multi-level aspect of the program is the very reason for buying it! There are plenty of great programs that you can use to combine grades that are close together -- the elementary levels, the middlers, the high schoolers -- but there is no one good curriculum that allowed you to teach all the kids together, K - Mom.

So, it seems to me that splitting the levels to have available for individual sale would defeat the whole purpose of the curriculum.

[Cadam]

MFW schedules SOTW with related books and activities but doesn't include lit study until High School. Their main program is usable for 2nd - 8th grade and I used it for my reading first grader by leaving out the stuff that was too much for her.

It is reusable like TOG but separates out the High School levels.