I LOVE what I have seen with TOG. I have investigated, LOL, SO MUCH of what is out there for homeschooling, as we are planning on hsing our to-be first grader come fall. (I have 2 younger children also). I am stuck with my decision. HELP! A few around me do not want the overwhelmed feeling of teacher preparation but that does not bother ME...I am an anthropology major and everything I have seen with TOG just inspires me so so so much. I would LOVE to teach this to my kids. And beyond that, I look at a couple other curriculums that I think we'd enjoy, but I don't want to be kept in a "box." I am not a "box" person...I need freedom. I have ideas in my own head for a couple extra unit studies, or whatever. I guess I just am still plain ole undecided. I like some of HOD for the basic American history they start out with, and the lit. they include...could I somehow do that along with some of TOG?

I want so badly to do the right thing for us, and to do that, I need to be more decisive, I believe! I have a hard time doing that! There is so much that looks good to me!

Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated!

Hello!

Just a couple of thoughts. I am not a "box" person - - I have a pretty unstructured side to me. I LOVE TOG becuase of the way it allows me to flex and do things differently. Right now I am doing a side study on the Chinese and the transcontinental railroad. I wanted to cover it more than TOG did so we have taken 2 weeks to do that. Yes, it will increase the time it takes to finish. I am planning on just combining a couple of weeks here and there and we will get done sometime. Probally just in time to start Yr 4

I see that your oldest is 5. I started YR 1 when my dd was 5 and my ds was 4. We haven't looked back. The one thing that I did do was to go light. Just the readings, lots of coloring, lots of acting out. We didn't do too much with the vocabulary words. We would talk about geography and things but not too much. My kids love history and beg for me to read more to them (they are 10 and 9 now). They still really love the read alouds and can't wait for lunch to finish so I can read!

I am really glad that I did go light and didn't burn them or me out on trying to do "great" things. We took it easy and really enjoyed it.

I am all for using TOG with young ones, just go light and have it be fun!

Teresa