I have been researching TOG, printing out samples and reading a lot on this Forum to better understand it. I am trying to get a better idea of the total estimated cost per year for buying the books. I know that everyone is likely different, some using the library more than others. But I was hoping someone might be able to give me an idea of approximate cost per year (ball park) just to give me an idea.

Also, I have read a lot about the Bookshelf, although I have not seen a link to it. I did run across a link to the power search for the book lists and am wondering what the prices in read mean? I read that one can go to the Bookshelf and order a packaged set of recommended-to-purchase books but have not seen that yet.

Thanks!

I have an only child, currently in LG, and I have spent almost nothing on books this year(year-plan 3). I use the library for virtually everything, substituting books quite easily when necessary. Between that and inter-library loan, I've ordered 2 books online that I couldn't find and couldn't find adequate substitutes for, and I've bought a few other books that I've found used for $1-$3 used at various places (sometimes by sheer luck). Ironically, of the 2 books I ordered, we didn't finish one and never read the other one!!
Now, I don't imagine we'll be that fortunate every year, but I'm reluctant to buy books for the LG level, when I know we'll never use them again and I can usually get the same or similar information elsewhere. As my daughter grows older, I know I'll need to buy more of the specified titles, but I'll have all 4 year plans purchased by then, and can use the money I'm using now to buy Tapestry curriculum to buy Tapestry books. The books I've found it most necessary to buy are the ones on Church History and Worldview, but sometimes a good Church Library can fill that need.
HTH,
Robin

I forgot to add that I've also been able to find the complete texts from a couple of books online, such as "In the Days of Queen Victoria," and "King Solomon's Mines." That's been quite helpful also.
Robin

Here's a direct link to the Book Shelf, but you should see a "Store" link at the top of most pages at Tapestry of Grace, once there you will have link to the Book Shelf on the first page.

http://www.bookshelfcentral.com/

Pat, Thanks so much. That was exactly what I was looking for and I happened to find it while searching through other posts last night. I had visited the Store site but did not see the link to the bookshelf. I must not have looked closely enough.

This bookshelf site is perfect. I was able to see all of the books broken down any way I wanted them basically. I looked at all books used for Year 1. It displayed them by unit, while also separating out any books used in multiple years and also those used in multiple units. I was able to add up the cost of those, as they would be the ones used the longest, and I was able to start looking up the ones used in only one unit at our library's website. This is exactly what I needed to figure out what the cost of books might be.

Cost-wise what I found is that, if I wanted to purchase all books for Year 1 (as of 4/16/09), it would be approximately $326.00. If I only wanted to purchase those books for Year 1 that will also be used in other years or multiple units and then get the others from our library, it would cost approximately $42.36 for Year 1.

It is great that, in the younger years (LG and possibly UG), we would be able to substitute more if the library did not have the exact book. And it is also a good thing that, in the later years (D & R), when we really need more of the exact books, we will no longer have the cost of the curriculum, as that is paid for in the first four years.

I am writing all of this just in case someone else might be wondering and searching for some of the same answers for which I was looking. Hopefully this can help someone else too.

Thanks again for your help Pat no Pattie!

I think to get a more realistic cost, you might wish to buy books used for a long period of time (say longer than you could keep them from the library). You will also want to remove from buying some books that are used for a few weeks at the end of one year and then again for a few weeks at the beginning of the next year (in 1/2 year there is a book on Celts that fits this, and in 2/3 a book on Lafayette).

Thanks Pat. Actually, that was what I was trying to do. It seems I probably made a bad assumption, namely that those books listed under the unit heading were only used for a short period. So, how could I go about finding out for how long each book will be used? Is there another search function that provides number of weeks used next to each book? Thanks again for your help.

On each book's individual product page, in the description, there is an indicator of how many weeks the book is used.

That's great; just what I was looking for. Thanks Marcia.

I went back to the Bookshelf and reanalyzed this. I almost hesitate to put amounts in here because it is clear that everyone's situation would be so different. Some will get many books from the library, some will find many of them used, some of the books may not be needed (because of the pick & choose ability of the product - not sure if this applies to books that will be used for more than 3 weeks or not??) and this will, of course, lower the cost substantially.

That being said, I am sure there are others out there in my situation, who really like the product, are considering using it but want to get a better feel for the cost of books. So I will list the assumptions I made, when adding up cost.

First of all, I assumed that I would buy all books used for at least 3 weeks or more (as mentioned above, this is not necessarily a great assumption, so keep that in mind). Second, I assumed the following levels per grade:
1st grade - LG - $77.40;
2nd grade - LG - $218.24;
3rd grade - UG - $258.34;
4th grade - UG - Not Avail;

Remember, all 4 years of TOG have been purchased at this point (in my scenario).

5th grade - UG - $148.09;
6th grade - D - $430.87;
7th grade - D - $332.18;
8th grade - D - Not Avail;
9th grade - R - $488.04;
10th grade - R - $534.91;
11th grade - R - $147.15;
12th grade - R - Not Avail.

If those of you with experience want to explain why these numbers are way too low/high to be used as a ball park, that would be great. I am sure anyone who is considering this product would be interested in hearing more detail on this, since it is the big unknown. Thanks for helping to narrow this down, so it is not so much of an unknown.

LealnOK,
I see you haven't gotten any responses to you estimations so I dug out my receipts from the 08-09 school year to share with you.
First here's a glimpse at where I'm coming from. We have 2 kids using TOG Yr 3 redesign this year. For history we began in UG & D levels and have moved to D & R levels over the course of the year.I try not to depend on the library very much because even if they have a book I need, it is invariably not avaiable for one reason or another the week(s) I need it. We have typically bought books used for 3 weeks or more for history(some new, mostly used).We already owned a few titles from last year. For literature, we used some the the D books(no R level), but we've probably only used half of that part of the curriculum. We also took a 2 month break from TOG in the middle of the school term so we will only finish units 1-3 this year. Having said all that, we've spent a total of $440 this year. I believe that your estimates for 7th & 11th grades combined are very near that number.
HTH!
Christie

Hello,

My comment about cost of books:
Are you buying for every category? Sometimes you really don't need to buy all the books from every category- I often don't(or I substitute something else from my shelf). The books I make sure I have are the ones from the Literature block and the History block. I only buy In-depth if its used more than 3 weeks. Also it is true that as you start the Rhetoric years and buy the Anthologies the price does drop drastically - since you'll have a big
percentage of your lit books sitting in those big books.

Bookshelf really does have good prices- be sure to double check their prices before buying. Their shipping costs are quite low - so don't forget to add those costs into your used book sales. I was pleasantly surprised....

So I can't really weigh in on your estimates because it really depends on each person's personal choice of what books they want to buy and what deals they can find. I have used TOG for over 7 years(with 4 kids) and the cost has greatly diminished - its fun to see how many books I get to use over and over

Thanks, LeaInOK! Those estimates are SO helpful!! I, too, am considering TOG for the first time. Thanks again!

Amanda