Posted by OhElizabeth on 19:35 Mar 9
In Reply to: I was positive TOG was for me, until the past few days and am reconsidering TQ for 5th and 3rd... posted by Magic Wand
If I could suggest, definitely consider CHOW in some fashion. My dd likes SOTW, likes reading topically from it on the side, but she adores CHOW. She's been hearing FMOR and FMOG stories (I think) in her latin co-op class, because when I read CHOW to her she bubbles up talking about how there's more to the story, blah blah. I'm saying CHOW is so delightful that it is NOT to be missed! You'd truly be sad if you did. I'm amazed at the content, how well-written it is, how delightful... (Am I gushing enough?)
You know we've used/tried just about everything you can imagine for ancients. I have the TQ guides and pulled many of our literature selections from there. I would schedule with the VP cards, not TQ, but that's just me. I like the clarity/convenience of the cards. The TQ order/organization is a little different, and VP makes sense to me. The VP songs are very worth doing too. As far as the VP worksheets, well... that's your call. If you want to make sure they memorize the 5 particular facts VP thinks are important on a given card, do the worksheets. If you want to retain your looser, TQ feel,just buy your books, put in order on your shelf with post-it notes for what card they correspond to (what I do), and read them as they apply to the card of the week. It's utterly easy and schedules TQ without being stiff. We don't even schedule tightly, just do a new card when we're ready. It works for us.
CHOW we read a few chapters at a spurt, enjoy, discuss, and don't worry about correlating to the cards. The Calvert workbook (which I have as well as the tm) is outlining and good/worthwhile if you want that. It has simple cut/paste or other such activities in the back, nothing hard to implement. Skip the tm.
Really, I know people keep saying TOG is so wow, but when I looked over the revamp (having bought a unit myself last year to physically look it over), it didn't look like so much more than what we've been doing, just that it made it more complicted, with tons of pages to wade through. Want geography? Do the Geography Songs from Audio Memory. I declare they're the best thing we did this year! We learned the Middle East countries, so now every time CHOW mentions where some ancient country corresponds to in modern-day, she knows! I think this is much more important than learning obscure names of lots of geographical features. (which is what I felt like I was seeing with TOG) At the right age, the TOG geo stuff would be good, but personally, it seemed like a lot of clutter for these ages.
Agreed on MOH. I like it but can see why others don't. Yes, I have it, lol.
What would be really good, especially for your olders, is the Guerber ancients books, oh my... They're going to help you make connections and go to a deeper level. I guess you could save them for the next cycle. Take a look and see what you think. It's mainly your older I'm thinking of. I just don't know if they're too much information for your first time through ancients, or if they will be nice.
SOTW is going to be on the young side for your oldest. I let my dd read it for fun, but I don't read it to her. CHOW is a step up as far as writing style, content, the whole nine yards. You could do CHOW with both of them profitably, especially if you outline.