TOG - do you buy all the books or use library?

[sted]

Just curious, do most of you TOG users make the plunge and buy all the books or try getting most from your library. I can see where owning them would make things much easier but I guess cost is a factor.

Thanks,
Shannon

[Elinor Everywhere]

I am starting Year 1 with 2 10yo's, and I am using a mix of library and buying my own books. At this age, I would prefer most books to be from the library, because they will not be read repeatedly and I don't have any younger kids coming up who will need them later. A few books (like Henty & Sutcliffe) I'm buying just because I believe they are worthy to keep for years. Also, if a book is used for more than a few weeks I'm buying it, mostly for convenience sake.

As we move into the Dialectic & Rhetoric stages I will tend to buy more of the books, because many will be kept by my kids in their own personal library.

[Trivium Academy]

Instead of stressing about getting books through interlibrary loan and wondering when they'll come or when they are due back especially when you have 20-30 books out at a time...yeah, having the books on the shelf is wonderful!

I have dd7 and ds3. He will follow the same path as dd7 b/c they are four years apart

TOG1: 1st/Dd, 1st/Ds
TOG2: 2nd/Dd, 2nd/Ds and so on.
This means if I buy Lower Grammar books for dd, ds will use them.

Whatever books I buy will be used again and if I want I can sell them afterwards because they are great books. Now I only use the library for books *I* want to read instead of the kids' reading selections. I do plan for them to use the library for their own "free" reading.

[susie in tx]

We switched midstream from SL to TOG, so I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on books. I have purchased most of the core and in-depth history books that will be used for several weeks. Everything else comes from the library. If our library doesn't have it, I buy it. Or, I use something on the alternate list. I'm borrowing everything my library has for R level for ME to read. If our library doesn't have the R level book, then I don't read it. My children are in D, UG, and LG levels.

[Pongo]

We buy them. Currently I have, Year 1,2 and 3 books Ug, LG and D on the shelves. They are on 5 long shelves dotted by year with the unit and week on them. I love being able to pull them off before planning, expensive but worth it :)

[Jackie in AR]

Just curious, do most of you TOG users make the plunge and buy all the books or try getting most from your library. I can see where owning them would make things much easier but I guess cost is a factor.

Thanks,
Shannon

I use the library for whichever of the books they have; the others we buy.

My library is very, very easy for me to use, though. I reserve/renew online.
When we reserve, they have them ready and waiting and dh just pulls up to their drive-thru window (which is about 2 blocks from his office) and picks them up. He takes them back the same way.

If it was difficult or a chore to use the library I would probably try to purchase more.

[Zee]

I only buy the books that are not available at my library.

[M&M]

I buy the spine and the books that are used for many weeks and the books that are used more than one year.

I add in library books and try to remember that as long as I have a main spine (SOTW, BJU history etc.) then I don't have to own so many books for each week. I can just buy the best books that we will use over and over for the younger children.

[Tarheel Heather]

I have three kids 2, 6, and 10, so we will definitely go back through them again and again. Easier for us than having to figure out the library thing, and less planning on my part.

[WTMindy]

I use the library for whichever of the books they have; the others we buy.

My library is very, very easy for me to use, though. I reserve/renew online.
When we reserve, they have them ready and waiting and dh just pulls up to their drive-thru window (which is about 2 blocks from his office) and picks them up. He takes them back the same way.

If it was difficult or a chore to use the library I would probably try to purchase more.

Yup, this is the same for us. We have a great library where I can reserve online. This takes care of about half the books. The others I buy. I find they have good resale value on the TOG boards.

[Holly IN]

We used the library system for the books however we will be doing somethign different this year. We are starting Yr 3 next month. We will buy the core books. I will pick one book in each section to buy. If we have time then we will see if library has them. I had so many late fees due to books being lost and then found later as well as forgetting to return them incrued massive late fees. I decided that from here on out we will buy used what we want to use and just resell later or keep for grandkids as my kids want to homeschool their own children. Kind of a two one punch investment.

Let me use my money wisely instead of on fines from library. You can buy many used TOG books for a very good price and get most of your money back when you resell. I like this idea much better and will be doing that for most of my books.

Holly

[Hen Jen]

I have a great library system, can reserve books online- so I find that I am buying a little less then half...mostly books used more than 1 or 2 weeks or books the library doesn't have but I thought a book would round out our studies. I already own Story of the world and Streams of civilizations, I am using those as spines...we love listening to SOW on audio. We just started out with TOG this year, so far I am buying books one unit at a time- to see how I do and to spread the cost out. I try to remind myself that we don't need to read all the books covered...for instance when we covered Jewish OT customs, I settled on one book suggested for all levels and resisted ordering others.

[Shari]

My rule of thumb is to buy any book that is used for 3 weeks or more. There is a stress factor in having to put library books on hold, wait, pick up, put more on hold, wait more, etc, etc.

I've had my year plans for a long, long time, so I'm thoroughly familiar with what books I will need and pick up things that I find used, at Goodwill, at garage sales, in bargain bins. One year, I did buy all the books for the year at one time, using Amazon's 4-for-the-price-of-3 deal. It was nice to have everything lined up on the shelf waiting to go, but then I got behind, had to skip ahead to catch up, and many of the books ended up going untouched :(

I keep a running wish list at Amazon and Half.com and regularly check to see if anything I need has turned up used. I think that this year I am going to go unit by unit, deciding every 9 weeks what books I need, then making my purchases. It not only spreads out the cost, it also keeps the excitement level high by having new books coming in! ;)

[Quiver0f10]

I used TOG a few years back and used the library, but I didn't like not having the exact book recomemnded and I am not good at pulling stuff together, so this time around I bought all the books. I figure we will go through each level a few more times so it is worth it to me.

[siloam]

Just curious, do most of you TOG users make the plunge and buy all the books or try getting most from your library. I can see where owning them would make things much easier but I guess cost is a factor.

Thanks,
Shannon

I buy them and a lot of them used.

Heather

[MelissaMinNC]

If there is a little more room in the budget for next year, I may buy a few. But there probably won't be with the price increase of TOG and with some other curricula stuff we need. So, I will probably continue to get books from the library. I do/will buy if I find books at yard sales or the used book store, but I just can't afford to buy the books in addition to the year plan right now.

I have a GREAT library system though. I can reserve books from any branch of our city's library and have them all sent to the branch that I prefer to visit. I pick them up and return them there. I renew online. My library has a ton of books available, so if the exact TOG book isn't there, it's easy to find something to substitute. I don't worry at all about this at this point because dd is 6 and is going to revisit this same year plan 2 more times before graduating. I don't know if I could use TOG on our tight budget if my library were not as good as it is.

Right now I am investing in the year plans. When we hit the ancients again, dd will be in 5th, ds will be in 1st and I will own all the year plans. So then I can start spending that money on books. God willing.

HTH,
Melissa

[Melora in NC]

I'm getting ready to use TOG Yr 1 with a (then) 5th grader & 1st grader next year, and we are buying only what I can't find at the library. Our library system is small, so in many cases I am simply looking for something Similar to the suggested titles. I purchased things that aren't available through the library and which are used pretty heavily. Even doing it this way, the program is expensive, by our standards, but I am really looking forward to beginning to use it!