TOG and HST
I’m going to copy and paste most of this post. I was over at 5 Kids and a Dog and I read where she mentioned I was going to comment about how I do this. This being how I input my TOG (Tapestry of Grace) lessons into HST (Homeschool Tracker Plus). Well, I didn’t forget, I just didn’t get to it as quickly as I promised her. Ooops. Sorry, MommaKnows.
OK, on to TOG.
First a few tips and tricks:
I plan what I hope to do/use as a weekly schedule; TOG is huge. It offers way more than anyone can really go through.
Then once I know who/what/where/when/why/how (heehee) I copy as much as I can to save time and finger usage - call me too busy to type it all, or just lazy. ;) Now, I don’t know how much help I am giving to any Classic TOGers because I use Redesigned. For the purposes of this explanation of what I do we will assume everything is from TOG Redesigned Year 1 (TOG Y1).Last year I had two levels to work with (three children, 1 UG, 2 LG). This year I have three levels (1D, 1UG, and 1LG) so my typing is going to be more too.
With my TOG, I use these subjects:
History (if it’s also Bible I leave it here because I am teaching them from a historical perspective and giving them a Biblical World View. What I have labeled as Bible work for my children is usually verse memorization, catechism, and Bible study.)
Literature (Because I have other literature books included in our literature study, I just add a note to the TOG books that it is used in TOG.)
Geography (mostly TOG map work, but also some other things too like my most-est favorite-est Leagues and Legends book)
Fine Arts (I have a fine arts subject anyway and I just do the same thing here - add a note that it is a TOG activity.)
Worldview (mostly just for TOG stuff, but occasionally I find something else that will work here too that goes along with something we are already studying. This is also where I put our Time Line work. I didn’t want to create another LP for just the time line and I figure seeing the big picture of time is part of a solid worldview.)
Language Arts (I’ll be adding this from TOG this year as I didn’t use it last year. I’m still playing around with this one a bit, but what I think I’m going to do is add the Writing Aids here. I don’t have a copy/access yet so this could change.)
As I said before I break it down (hmm, sounds like a song).
I have TOG broken down into the different levels. I haven’t typed in the info for the levels I haven’t gotten to yet, but I do have them entered as place holders (I’m anal like that). I don’t want to see TOG Y1 LG and UG and not see TOG Y1 D and R (even though no info is entered).
TOG Y1 LG
TOG Y1 UG
TOG Y1 D
TOG Y1 RPutting those two steps together I have:
Subject - History
Course (when I use them) - HTOGY1 (History TOG Year 1)
Subject - Literature
Course - LTOGY1 (Literature TOG Year 1)
et ceteraLesson Plans - this is where I have the hardest time myself. I tend to have files within files and those files have files and therefore over-organize to the point that I make it harder on myself than it needs to be. Having said that I do basically this:
- TOG Y1 LG History Core
- TOG Y1 LG History In-Depth
- TOG Y1 LG Geography
- TOG Y1 LG Literature
- TOG Y1 LG Fine Arts
- TOG Y1 LG Worldview
- TOG Y1 LG Writing (?)
- TOG Y1 UG History Core
- TOG Y1 UG History In-Depth
- TOG Y1 UG Geography
- TOG Y1 UG Literature
- TOG Y1 UG Fine Arts
- TOG Y1 UG Worldview
- TOG Y1 UG Writing (?)
- TOG Y1 D History Core
- TOG Y1 D History In-Depth
- TOG Y1 D Geography
- TOG Y1 D Literature
- TOG Y1 D Fine Arts
- TOG Y1 D Worldview
- TOG Y1 D Writing (?)
- TOG Y1 R History Core
- TOG Y1 R History In-Depth
- TOG Y1 R Geography
- TOG Y1 R Literature
- TOG Y1 R Fine Arts
- TOG Y1 R Worldview
- TOG Y1 R Writing (?)
I enter into these lesson plans what is on the grid of the Reading Assignments pages only for each week. I do list everything the Reading assignment grid has listed. When necessary I use the notes from the overview pages to add what may be needed to the LPs, but this is a bare bones minimum. I type as little as I can get away with typing into the LPs, so my additional notes are truly bare bones. If I need more I have my binder - that’s what it’s there for. I did not do separate LPs for the different Units, I just added as I received them and labeled the week with which unit it was. I know that each unit is 9 weeks, but marking them that way made it easier for the ‘at a glance’ technique of seeing where we were when I looked at the LP.
The reason I take the time to input each item from the RA Grid is that I don’t know ahead of time what we may actually do or not do that week; as life happens, things change. And life changes from this year (last year) to the next time we roll out TOG Y1 Redesigned (in three years). The children will be different ages and stages and if I get it in now I don’t have to later. Most importantly I don’t have to remember just how I did it four years earlier - it’s already in there. *big cheesy grin*
OK THANKS!! You have things laid out differently than I thought…. and differently than I’ve done so far. But isn’t that the best part about homeschooling? Everything we use is a tool! We USE the tools, they don’t use us.
I am glad to see you enter all the RA’s from the grid. I was thinking about doing that too, but haven’t gotten to the actual lesson planning yet. So you list all the weekly overview assignments, and then you just designate later? What does it look like when you submit it to the assignment grid? Do you print a weekly assignment list for each child or do you just tell them what they’re expected to do? (Aahhh you didn’t expect me to have QUESTIONS, did you? *VBG*). Oh, I have more. I’ll wait to hear back on these…. ;)
Yes, presactly.
It looks a little busy on the assignment grid, but not unbearable to look at. My children like to have things to tick off on a list. It lets them see what they have already completed. It helps me to have each item listed individually for the changes or differences in children the next time around (the pick and choose affect). I print out a daily assignment list for each child - this is their preference. I give them a week’s worth of assignment reports on Monday and they have to get it done by the end of the week. I do stay on top of them and they are required to give me each day’s work daily.
OK, more questions? Ask.
Okay…. Regarding daily assignment lists. I’ve never actually USED HST, just entered things, so I’ve never printed a list or anything. Do you do an assignment list in Word or some other program from your TOG weekly list, or does HST give you the option to break it all down when you submit it to the grid? (I know, seems like basic dumb questions, but like I said, I haven’t used it yet.) My 13yo is a great planner and I get her a good student planner every year. She enters her assignments for the week on Monday, and checks them off there as she does them. If HST has this feature I may be able to bypass buying her another planner.
Another planner question: When you submit to the assignment grid, are you submitting an entire lesson plan, or can you pick and choose which items of the plan to submit? (In other words, do I have to have all those readings listed if she’s not going to do all of them?)
THANKS!!!
Back to you! :)
Hey, I just happened by here in my leisure. This was SO helpful to me. We will be attempting TOG 1 this year. You can probably count on a few questions this upcoming semester. We really should get together because I haven’t seen you since…
Hope you and the bitty are doing well. I hope we can go two weeks in a row being in town. If we do, I’ll give you a holler.