Need help with planning...

[krazzymommy]

I have no problem with taking a curriculum with "X" amount of lessons and dividing it over 36 weeks. :)

I just got WinterPromise Hideaways in History yesterday. I know it's supposed to be "open and go" but if anyone can make that complicated, it's me!!! :D(Note: this is my first time purchasing something like this) I went into it knowing that I was going to majorly tweak it for a 4/5 year old. That being said, I have some ideas, but wanted to hear from some of you more seasoned hs-ers...

So, it's all pre-planned into 36 weeks. But, what if I don't like every week? For example, just quickly skimming through it, I think I'd love to spend 2 weeks on Egypt, but maybe skip some of the other weeks.

Do you go through the entire year beforehand and decide what you're going to dwell on and what to skip? Do you do it by quarter? I've heard a lot of people say if you come to something you like, camp out there for awhile. Well, my Type A personality is having a little issue with just playing it by ear. (Nothing to do with my little ds, everything to do with my sanity - I know he doesn't need the structure, but I do.)

I know this is the case with a lot of the curricula out there, so I'm just wondering for both now and the future how YOU plan when you get these kinds of things and want to tweak them.

[Narrow Gate Academy]

I don't buy these programs precisely because I would tweak them to death. My suggestion based on how I plan history would be to skim through the topics and jot down how many weeks you want to spend on each one. Then add up the numbers to see how many weeks you end up with. This will give you a framework for the year before you start planning chunks. You'll have a better idea of how you need to adjust and can start tweaking to your hearts content. ;) HTH

[lovelearnandlive]

I'm definitely not a seasoned homeschooler :lol: but, like you, I am type A and need a game plan going in. What I'm doing is deciding what topic we will be on each week, and kind of doing an overall plan for the year so I have something to go on. The details of the lessons I'll plan out quarterly. That way, if something does go off plan, it won't be a huge pain to rework the schedule.

I'm planning on doing a 9-10 weeks on, 2 weeks off schedule and we'll only take a 6-8 week summer break. This gives me time between quarters to plan out the next one in detail, and still feel like we're getting a bit of a break before we start up again.

I'll be checking back to see what other advice you get!

[BramFam]

I am an organizer and planner also, a well laid out chart is an object of joy for me. :D But I also like to tweak curriculum to work for our family :) -- one reason these type of so-called "open and go" curriculums cause me heart ache too.

Last year before starting TOG, I knew this was going to be a problem. I ordered it in March with plans to start it in September, giving me a full 5 months of "tweaking and planning" time. There were weeks that we just plain skipped -- I didn't want to go in depth with my 5 and 2 year olds into false gods of other peoples, so we skipped weeks focusing on Egyptian and Greek gods and a few others. There were also a few weeks that there was just so many fun things to do that we kind of stuck around for a bit longer than a week. The week on the Tower of Babel we made a giant ziggurat and had a few Bible related activities to do, taking up 2 weeks. There were also a few weeks that stayed too long (IMO) in one area, so we combined them (weeks 16-18 for us were condensed into 1 week).

During my 5 month "tweak and plan" session, I diligently looked up all books through our library, even pre-checking them out to see if I'd like them and made charts of what to check out and when. I also looked up colorpages and crafts on the internet and bookmarked them in folders marked with the TOG week they coincided with. Then I made a 2 page chart that had everything TOG related I planned to do each week (yes, 2 pages/week :tongue_smilie:). Now it is truly "open and go" for me, but I put in many late night hours getting it to be the way I wanted.

Whew, it was a lot of work and well worth it. I love our curriculum, but I have found that I do not want (or have the time) to do this for next year and am going with something not so intensive for 1st grade. (Although, we will revisit TOG in high school.)

So, to answer your question in a nutshell: yes, I go through the entire year beforehand and plan everthing. If I didn't do it the summer before, it wouldn't get done. I am not a "on the whim" type of person, so I NEED things laid out for me.

HTH

[krazzymommy]

Okay Jessica.

That's what I was thinking of doing. Well, at least if I am crazy I know that I am not the only crazy one out there! :) I think I'm like you - if I don't plan it, I won't do it. I also don't draw a distinction between TOG & WP/Sonlight when it comes to open and go. In my mind, all those programs would take the same amount of planning, because I want MY hand in everything we do, if that makes sense.

So...my questions for you now are - when is your 5 year old's birthday (new 5 or almost 6?) and how is TOG going with a 5 year old? I've heard so many people say they wouldn't do it with a dc that young, but I'm curious to hear from someone who IS doing it.

[BramFam]

Okay Jessica.

That's what I was thinking of doing. Well, at least if I am crazy I know that I am not the only crazy one out there! :) I think I'm like you - if I don't plan it, I won't do it. I also don't draw a distinction between TOG & WP/Sonlight when it comes to open and go. In my mind, all those programs would take the same amount of planning, because I want MY hand in everything we do, if that makes sense.

So...my questions for you now are - when is your 5 year old's birthday (new 5 or almost 6?) and how is TOG going with a 5 year old? I've heard so many people say they wouldn't do it with a dc that young, but I'm curious to hear from someone who IS doing it.

I guess we could make a WTM Crazzies Club! :lol:

My 5 year old will be 6 in April. TOG has been going fairly well for K. History is actually his favorite subject. But as you can see, it is a lot of work to get to the point where I like it. There is so much to choose from with TOG. I really love it. We WILL be using TOG in high school. Things I am not too crazy about:

1) All the planning I had to do. Worth it? Yes. Want to do it again? Not really! :)

2) Price. We are on a pretty limited budget, so TOG just doesn't fit right now. Pretty expensive for how pared down we do it. If money was not a concern, I'd probably get year 2 for next year. You got to look at it as if you are paying for 4 years of schooling curriculum per year. For just using the simplest level, it is expensive for us right now. For the upper levels (jr. high and high school) it would be worth its weight in gold. (And believe me, it is heavy!! I have it in 4-3inch binders, all beautifully page protected;))

3) The focus on other religions and false gods. I know I am not going to have my kiddos live in a bubble their whole lives, but I just don't want confusion right now at such young ages. In upper levels, no problem.

Also, and it is not a TOG specific thing, I have decided not to do history in the lower grades in chronological order. I know, GASP!! :001_huh: I want to go through American History over the next year or maybe 2 years. So we are going to use Beautiful Feet guides for 1st grade. (Maybe, haven't firmly decided.)

Oh, and if you were looking for how we use TOG ...

Geography: We do map work most weeks. Even if it is only going over the continents and oceans when there is not a specific country we are going over or have been in the same country for a few weeks.

Literature: I don't use the TOG suggested books (or at least have not used most of them) but I do make sure we have plenty of fiction on hand that is from or about the culture/country we are studying. Even if he doesn't actually make the connection, I'm not worried, it is just for fun.

Writing: For the lowest level of writing TOG suggests to do "draw and captions". We draw a picture of an important person we have learned about during the week (sometimes we do more than 1) and write the name under it. At the end of the year we will have an "Important People of the Ancient World" book that I plan on getting spiral bound at Staples.

History/Bible: Since it is Ancient times, most weeks are Bible intensive, so I just group these together this year. We read some books suggested by TOG, some I found on my own, and the Bible passages that go along. I normally have 1 or 2 color pages that he colors while I read. Otherwise he would get too fidgety to sit through some of the readings. On Fridays we do a hands-on project to coincide with our studies. We've made Fig and Date balls while studying foods of Ancient Egypt (they were absolutely gross!), made pinch pots, and constructed our own replica of a tabernacle. Sometimes our projects are simple paper crafts, like a donkey puppet when we learned about Balaam's donkey, or a lion mask for Daniel and the lions, or just painting a picture ... Something hands-on and fun is the idea for Fridays. I do go over some of the questions for the LG level, but only orally, and very informally. He has no idea I am actually "testing" his knowledge. Oh, and we did a lapbook to go with the first unit, not the one that TOG sells, but something much more simple.

Sorry that got long ... hope it was what you were looking for. :)

[krazzymommy]

Exactly what I was looking for. That's how I was thinking we would do it, too. I am trying to be very patient for the older grades when I know it will be great. Interesting food for thought - thank you.

[lovelearnandlive]

Thanks Jessica! We're using TOG next year and your post was helpful for me too! :D