Good afternoon! We will be starting TOG-Y2 (we are also new to TOG) and I am not sure where to place my DD, who will be 7 in Sept. and would be 2nd grade in the school system.

Currently DD (1st grade) is doing mostly 2nd/3rd grade level work. She read at a very early age and loves just about everything we do, except for spelling (and she is very good at that, LOL).

I just unwrapped U1 and have no real idea where to start in making my book list. Should I stick with LG selections since she is the right age for LG (and has a tag-along little sis), or look at UG since she will be working at a 3rd grade level next year?

Any thoughts?

If it were me, I think I would start with LG. Tapestry does not generally need beefing up for gifted students - if she wants more, I'd give her more of the extra readings, rather than jumping her up to UG, especially for your first year.

Of course, as long as you don't buy books for more than one unit at a time, you can always adjust up a level during the year, if it seems that would be appropriate. Or, you can add in some UG books and make a combination.

It seems to me that it would be safer to start with lots of easier, colorful, interesting LG books and move up if necessary, rather than starting with UG books that might be discouraging.

Beth

My daughter is similar to yours. What I did was the LG work, but used many of UG books because she was able to read and comprehend them. Beth's suggestion matched what we did. I used LG as my guide, and then beefed up when needed. But, how often did I beef up? Not often. You may be a lot better at this than me, but we have had a chaotic life, moving all the time, etc., since my daughter started homeschooling, so it's been hard to get a pattern going. Once I'd have a pattern/routine, life would get topsy-turvy. I tried to focus on the main elements of lower grades, which to me was reading, writing, spelling, and math. All the other stuff of TOG was done after those were accomplished. And, even before you cover any of those, they should be learning about knowing and loving the Lord. That is often hard to squeeze into a busy day, too, and often gets totally pushed to the side in the rush of "things that have to be done."

For me, going to all UG wouldn't have worked. My daughter was a 1st grader and couldn't physically write well enough to do UG work, so dictation and LG work was fine. She was mentally above her grade level, but was just like any other first grader as far as motor skills and her own work took time to finish. This year she is 2nd grade, and I do the same thing: shoot for LG goals, but use many UG books.

How blending LG and UG levels worked was interesting, especially in hindsight. As an example, you will often have worksheets for the literature selections. The LG worksheets cover the very basics of literary skills: What is the setting, main characters, plot, some cause and effect, etc. Sometimes if it's a poetry section they have the child search for rhyming words. Even though we did the UG books, looking back I see how we would have benefited had I done the LG lit books also and used those worksheets to lay the foundation of literary characterstics (whatever the official word is, I can't think now). Also, I wasn't too successful at doing all of the Level 1 Writing Supplement activities. Now that we're writing paragraphs, I see how we would have benefited had I REALLY done the cluster diagrams, etc., suggested at Level 1 WS (NOT the same as WRiting Aids--if you don't know the difference, ask because it can be a little confusing at first). Having more practice in the cluster diagrams, etc,. would have made the pre-writing part of our paragraphs easier to do this year.

Also, remember that TOG provides a GREAT DEAL OF MATERIAL, and the mom at the LG level is to pick and choose what will work for their child. Don't be surprised if everything can't be done!

To end all of my suggestions, which seem to be rambling a bit here, if you're daughter has the writing skills appropriate to her age, stick to LG. BUT, if she is also above grade level in her ability to write AND how fast she writes, then I'd pick and choose between LG and UG. Look at the LG work, and if it is covering the very basics of something, consider whether that's something you're child would benefit from. Sometimes you'll see stuff you can skip. I.e., if she already knows the parts of speech, no need to cover that again unless she just needs a reminder. If she can accomplish her work quickly, UG may work for you.

I'd really like to write more if what i"m saying is helpful. I have to go at this particular moment. Ask more questions if I've been helpful but you need more info.

Deanna

laurie-
I have an advanced dd going into 2nd and this will be our second year with TOG. Last year I did a mix of LG and UG books. Some UG worked fine and others I put away till next time. My dd loves to reads fun chapter books but often the TOG UG content was just too much (ie. Egytians gods and goddesses in a novel.) We read a few chapter books as read alouds, and I was glad that I did. I enjoyed the books, and also it gave more opportunity to talk through what was going on in the story. Again, I found that although most of the vocabulary she could read, the names were tough (even for me) and keeping up with the story line more challanging.

As I look at TOG YR2 list I will mostly pick LG books with a few UG mixed in. I found my dd like being able to complete a book in one setting. Also, although the core books were typically easy she was able to get the key points of the week without having to muddle through tougher vocab and so on. One thing I did find with the LG books is that I needed a lot of them since she went through them fast. Mixing in one UG book at a time for challange is about all you need. TOG is challenging and you may find it hard to get through all the material you have planned if the reading list is too hard.

Hope this helps.

I am also open to anyones recommendations for a few top choice easier UG books that are good for advanced LG from Y2.

Joy

In our case, my dd was a 2nd grader (she turned 8 in January), and I did almost exclusively UG with her. Of course, I should also mention that I have a ds who is a year older and was also doing UG. They did all the reading (literature) by themselves, and we did the core history aloud together, although we didn't always do all the maps. I also had a LG ds who was a kindergartener, but he had little attention span to go beyond the basics, so we really did very little LG with him. It worked for us.
Michelle