Galloping the Globe Users...

[krazzymommy]

Has anyone spread it over 2 years? How did it work? I think it looks like a lot of fun, but 2 years of anything is normally too much for ME.

Anyone?

[Trivium Academy]

I would think it would be fun, something like a country each month...you could make authentic food and make costumes for a few countries (yeah, this is the type of homeschooler I *wish* I was!)

I think it depends on how you want to spend the time on whether or not two years would be too long, if there isn't hands-on fun stuff happening, then yes 2 years is too long. Otherwise I think it sounds like a fabulous way to start homeschooling, on a worldwide travel adventure!

[krazzymommy]

Thanks, Jessica!

[AnnetteB]

We plan to work through the book pretty quickly. We read from the Kingfisher Geography Encyclopedia and borrow a few Globe Trekker dvds from the local library to give an overview. We also borrow and read through a series of states books from our local library.

[Hazelt"nut"]

I'm planning on using this next year for K and 2nd grade. Wish I had done it this year but a co-op history SOTW3 led me down the path of American History which is going great so I can't complain. I don't have the book in hand yet but I only want to use it for a year. I think I will be tweaking it as I do most anything it seems so some countries might get more time spent than others. Like Jessica said,..if we cook, make costumes, projects etc then that country may get more days/weeks. I just want to finish in a year but have fun. My kids love hands on stuff as well as learning turned into make believe play. The second really seems to make things stick..so I'll probably throw in some puppet shows we create, some outdoor adventures make believing we are in a diff. country etc. Sorry for the rambling. Also...with your kiddos so young two years makes since and you could pull books from FIAR that match the countries as well.

[mrsdash]

I just started using it and plan on spreading it over the next 2 years. I also bought the book "eating your way around the world" to use with it. So far, my girls are loving this and I think if we take our time by using that book, books from the library, the internet, etc., we can take our time and make this as interesting and memorable as we would like.

[coffeefreak]

I really think 2 years is too long. It was written for one year, not quite one country a month. Some of the countries you could spend one week on, some you could spend a month on. It moves at a really nice clip and my oldest really enjoyed it! I'll be doing it with my youngest next year and we'll only spend that year on it. She would get tired of it if I tried to spend more time on it than that.

I looked into "Cantering the Country," and it is meant to go over two years. I have no idea how you would do that one in one year. I have a friend that went from GTG to CTC and they really like it. You could try that!

HTH!

[coffeefreak]

Also...with your kiddos so young two years makes since and you could pull books from FIAR that match the countries as well.

Actually, one of the things I love about it is, it uses all the FIAR books! All the books from foreign countries are listed as recommended under the country you're studying!

[Sarita]

We used GTG last year when my girls were K and PK3. We had a great time! I didn't do as many fun projects as I would've liked, and we didn't cover all the countries, and we still managed to make it last a year. So you could certainly make it last two full years IF you were loving it and wanted to keep going with it. The Christmas Around the World section can easily fill a month, so I'd plan on that between Thanksgiving and Christmas (or more). If you have any more questions about it, I'm happy to answer them--just PM me!

Sarita

[jenniferlee]

We used it last year and didn't get through the whole thing. I think if you were supplementing it with something else you could do two years. Although, I have to admit I was tired of it by the end of the year.
Jen

[Amanda_Jo]

We are using GTG this year. At lower grade levels (we're doing K) I think it would be easy to do GTG for 2 years. We're spending one week per country and will not be able to get all the countries in during the school year due to taking a month to study Thanksgiving and a month to study Christmas. Between the GTG guide, internet, and library I've found more books, activities, crafts, cooking etc than we could possibly hope to do per country in just one week. I've chosen to simplify and pick and choose to make each country take only one week-I could easily spend a month on many major countries and 2 weeks on the others, plus a week per continent to begin each continent unit.
I know that my attention span for the program will not last more than one year plus we'll have a newborn in our family next year which will make all the planning and library trips GTG takes much harder.- otherwise I'd spread it out through 2 years. I love pulling together the units and doing the things that interest us most and are at my dds ability level-at the same time I'm finding that we are not spending the time on science, music, and Spanish that I had planned due to the amount of planning and preparation that GTG takes (which is totally my fault, not GTGs!). I do hope to continue using the guide for fun until studies in the summers and as interest and time allow during the year to complete the countries we've missed for the next several years.
Hope this helps, you can check my blog to see the countries we've done so far for an idea. You'll notice that when mom is on top of planning, supply gathering, and library trips the units are great-but when mom is dealing with morning sickness and general busyness it's easy to end up not doing much!

[melissel]

We did GTG and FIAR as our core for K, and I could easily see the combo going for two years. We didn't finish (I kinda took a lot of K off to get accustomed to working and HSing and dealing with a strong-willed 2-year-old :willy_nilly:), but the way we did it (aiming to finish GTG in that combo in one year), I feel like we went too fast and didn't enjoy it enough. We didn't do a lot of the more experiential stuff that I wanted to do (the recipes, projects, field trips). When my little one hits the K year, I plan to bring them both back through GTG more slowly and really enjoy it more. My DD5 (at the time) had fun with what we did do, and she retained a good amount. Depending on your goal and teaching style, I think taking two years, or even a year and a half, would be really nice.

HTH!