Home Grown Homeschool - Tapestry of Grace-Starting Out

Jun. 14, 2008

Tapestry of Grace-Starting Out

Your TOG volume arrived, and with great excitement and anticipation you open the box and...WHEW...information overload! It happens to all of us! It is alot of information to digest...so much so, that some set it aside for a few days/weeks...not me, I dug in! After your nerves settle a bit, you will begin to look through your volumes and notice the need for binders. I bought 4-2″ binders at the Staples, and organized the TOG Units with the weekly tabs.

So here’s my Let's-Get-Started list:

Step One: Put the units in binders. Some TOG users are page-protector-"crazy", and while I see them as useful, they would be a HUGE expense for us, and I just keep my TOG units up away from the children. As for the binders, we like the presentation-type binder with the clear pockets on the outside of the binder.

Step Two: Get out your Loom CD, and save the Resource List onto your computer. I played with the file a bit to make it more user friendly for me. Some edit and delete all but the info for the levels they are teaching at the time, to make it a tad less stressful, and then save it with a descriptive title, such as “TOG Year 1 LG-UG Resources”, for those with only Lower and Upper Grammar students. I chose to print it all off, with 7 (soon to be 8) children, we will hit all the levels soon enough!

Step Three: The only books you absolutely MUST HAVE are the ones on the Left-hand side of the resources page in your TOG manual...aka Primary Page. The Right-hand pages are Alternative Resources: additional reading, additional projects, movies that tie in, etc. The Alternative Pages also can be used for alternate resources if you cannot find the books on the Primary Page list. For instance, we already own Story of the World Volume One, so although I am planning on using the other books, I also have this book to use either as a backup, additonal reading, or my spine if I think it would fit the lesson better. There are a few others which I plan to use, mostly the videos, which I think would be a fun thing to tie in when we can. The Primary Page list is VERY FULL and I doubt we’ll need much else. Many TOGGERS dot their books with colored dot labels (also available at Staples) that correspond with the TOG Year color...such as Year 1 is red, so they put red dots on the Year 1 books. I have become a dotter!

Step Four: Finding books. Ohhh this is a big, multi-step project in itself. Print out your resources list and begin searching for the best deals on books. Here are a few ideas to get you started on your book buying:

A. Your bookshelves. Surprise, surprise! Some of the titles were on my own shelves. This was due to my many years of using Sonlight, and my zeal for buying books! Check your own books first!
B. Public and Church Libraries. Get online (if your library has their catalog online) and start typing in titles. We live in a small area, but with a couple larger libraries close by, we can check into them too. I put a small note next to the titles which I can get at the library, alerting me to which library carries the book. Keep in mind that if you need a book for many weeks or off and on the entire year, it is worth it to put on your To Buy list. Honestly, I buy all the Primary Page resources, must have books, and do the library thing for movies or Alternative Resource page additional reading.
C. Online booksellers. For me, I checked Amazon.com first, and compared prices between Amazon and The Bookshelf Catalog at the TOG website. Then, I checked Rainbow Resource, because they generally have the best prices. Because The Bookshelf Catalog had comparable prices to Amazon, I ordered MOST of my books from the Bookshelf. Anything that I could get cheaper at Amazon, Rainbow Resource, or used, I did. When it comes to buying used, you have to factor in the shipping to the price, to see if it is worth it! Also, many of the "out of print" (OOP) books can still be found used online.