Once again, we have not finished TOG. We haven't finished unit 4 of year 3. Any ideas for a good overview over the summer? Full school won't work for us in the summer. 1 child working, one in gymnastics 24 hrs. a week, various vacations. I just want a working knowledge of the material so when we start back up in August, they won't have completely lost the flow.
All ideas and suggestions welcomed!
Thanks,
tonya

just popping in to follow this thread. I have a baby due in less than 3 weeks and i can't quite get geared up to even START U4. *sigh* so i'm looking to condense it, too, with hopes of actually making it manageable for my DD to do even with me preoccupied with a newborn.

So, hoping others will reply!

What levels are your children Tonya?

Hi Tonya,
I don't have anything particularly helpful to say except I feel your pain. In past years, we were never able to complete the year in the allotted time. This year, however, we are part of a virtual co-op and my two high school aged sons will complete week 36 this Thursday!!! Woo Hoo! I would so recommend a co-op, either live or virtual, especially if your students are D or R levels, just so you can get to the end of the year and feel like you and your students have done the whole thing!

As Karen asked, what levels are students? IF they are R level, I will ask my guys what they thought was most important to cover from that unit.

Just a thought, but could you just have your students do the reading for unit 4 over the summer without tests or big discussions? Perhaps they could read the discussion notes themselves (assuming they are at least D level students) to make sure they are getting the big ideas. They may find themselves interested enough in some of the topics to do some outside reading - my 9th grader was reading about the Boer War on Wikipedia today - just because he wanted to! You might be able to find some documentaries about important topics from this unit at your library to help cover some of the big ideas in a less stressful way. Or maybe the History Channel or Netflix if those are options for you.

Hope something in this rambling is helpful for you!
Blessings,
April

I suppose the levels of the kids WOULD have been helpful....
I have 2 rhetoric, 1 dialectic, and 1 upper grammar.
For the UG, I was thinking just have her read the SOTW assignments over the summer. Dialectic I'm not sure about; maybe her Queen Victoria book. The Rs I am totally lost on.
Sheesh. I need to finish next year...
tonya

Hi Tonya,
It's hard to stay completely on schedule for 36 weeks....and that's ok. Marcia said once in a conference that we get covered what God wants us to cover. I found such freedom in that thought! I do really well for the first 3 units each year, but by the time spring comes here in OHio, our lives take on some new twists with farming and 4H. I also have a daughter in college and I like to follow her schedule as much as I can so that when she's home, we can enjoy that time. Basically we do really great, intense, on target school from Sept. 1 until May 1. I keep a schedule that has us finishing all of our math, science and grammar by May 1. Then the month of May we only do Tapestry. Last year I just did 4 or 5 weeks and then we just read some of the books over the summer. However, this year I took the unit and made 2 mini units on what I thought was the most interesting/important. I chose Africa and immigration this year. My daughter is an 8th grade dialectic, getting ready for rhetoric next fall. We took a day and did all the timeline, states, presidents, etc. There wasn't much geography. Then I just made a couple of 2 week units. Both are less "intense" than the other 3 units in that we didn't do formal discussion or questions. Instead we did a lot of hands on stuff. For our Africa unit we made a poster board size map of Africa with all the geography assignments (this led to impromptu discussions!) and went to the zoo, taking pictures of all the AFrican animals. DD put this into a power point presentation. Our immigration unit culminated in dd creating an immigrant character of her own, dressing up like her, and presenting to us about her trip to the new world. I just chose some interesting books on both mini-units for her to read. This was fun, gave us more time, and was not a chore to do when so many other tasks outside also had to e done. I am planning to follow this type of plan each year. It works for us! Maybe you can adjust it to work for your family.
Debbie

I would definitely have the rhetoric students focus on Europe, specifically the Alliances being formed, the Balkans, Wilhelm II's decision to get rid of Bismarck, his naval build up, and his philosophy of Germany's role on the world stage. Do you have The Age of Nationalism and Reform? Chapters 7 & 8 especially would be good.

Thanks so much, April, Debbie, and Karen. I think those are all things I can realistically implement over the summer with each child. I will keep that in mind - we cover what God wants us to. Words to live by.

tonya