Many want to know what a typical week looks like and how much time is involved teaching with TOG. Of course with anything, this is true of MY family only. How you plan and teach will look different in your home. I share here so that you can see ONE example. Giving a time estimate is very hard. I do not seem to ever stick to a set schedule. We just start on something and keep moving! Some days we get more done than others. Of course, this is a typical week–whatever that is!

First I will tell you about my oldest child. She is 15 and was considered a ninth grader this year. She is an older 9th grader and actually did 10th grade work in a few subjects as well. I had her at the Rhetoric level this year. It was tough, she enjoyed the Dialectic level more. Usually she would look at my planning page and fill in her student planner on her own. She is a girl and is pretty independent. You would find her off in her room most of the week doing her reading and answering her questions. I would call for her to join us for mapwork together on Day Two. Towards the end of the week I go through the discussion outline with her and her Dialectic brother. I then look at her questions, mapwork, and key people which is all kept in her history notebook. (this is just a composition book, we use a couple of these a year for history…more for other subjects) At this level, TOG is easier on the teacher at the beginning of the week and more teacher intensive at the end of the week. I spend almost no time with her (for history) on Days 1 through 3. Day 4 and Day 5 maybe 45-60 minutes each day.

My Dialectic son is 13 and a typical boy. I must sit down with him and make sure he writes out all the assignments in his planner at the beginning of the week. I show him all the maps, questions, etc. that will be required of him for the week. Day One and Two are spent reading more than anything. Day Three I begin to make sure that he is completing all the other necessary things. He often listens in as I read aloud to my Lower Grammar son and preschooler. At this age you are trying to get them to be independent, if they aren’t already, and get them ready for the high school level. Spending time on character training at this level is just as important as getting the school work done! I feel like I spend the most time on this child with Tapestry. I am sure that each year will be different depending on the ages and stages!

Child #3 just turned nine. He was in the Lower Grammar level this last year and will be moving up to Upper Grammar this coming year. I work with him 30-45 minutes each day as we read, talk, and do mapwork and other notebook work. I try to spend more time with him on Days One-Three so that on Day Four and Five, when I need to spend more time with my older kids, we are only spending maybe 20 minutes each day.

I hope that helped to see what each of my children is doing during the week. Feel free to ask questions if not!

Missed Part 1? Part 2? Part 3? Part 4?

Part 6: My final post on using TOG will look at other subjects and curriculum that we use beyond TOG.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 10:06 pm and is filed under teach. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.