Using what you have?

[momoften]

I have 20+ bookcases full of books -- some of which are referred to in the TOG Y2 Classic and Redesign, but most which are not. Just how hard is it to use a lot of books on the same topic but that are not specifically mentioned? For example: I have no less than 10 biographies on Columbus at various levels - only the lower grammar level one is one recommended in TOG. How much am I going to mess up my 4 kids if I assign them different versions of Columbus' bio? Same goes for other biographies and general info books... Can I just hope that they'll get what they need and ask my dialectic age daughter to do extra study to answer questions she may not have found the answer to in her readings?

[BLT]

TOG assignments are not book-specific. You will never be asked (except for literature), "What happened at the end of chapter 3?" Questions will be more like, "Discuss the character traits of Columbus. How did they affect what he did?" So you can use other resources than the ones recommended. If I had 10 biographies on Columbus, I think I'd have a hard time buying another. You can use what you have.

Having said that, though, there are definite advantages to using the recommended books. For one thing, if you use the books recommended in the Redesign plan, you always know that the number of pages assigned to a student is reasonable. If you substitute, you might be taking out a 30-page book and adding in a 150-page book without realizing it. So you'll need to keep an eye on the size of their assignments yourself.

Also, although the questions aren't designed for a particular resource, still not all questions will be addressed in other resources. Your resources might focus on other aspects of a topic, and not give your students the answers they need for their assignments. In these cases, you'll either need to encourage them to look through other resources to find the answer, allow them to look through your notes, or allow them to leave those questions unanswered.

I would also consider buying those books, like the LG Usborne Internet-Linked Medieval World, which are used over many weeks and cover a variety of topics. It's much easier to tell my LG son to read that book, than it would be to search through my books to find an appropriate 4 pages for him to read. Older students might be able to do some of this searching for you, but younger students can't.

So in this case, you're losing some ease of use, but you're gaining some financial savings and some bookshelf space. There's a definite trade-off, but it's definitely do-able. Where the best balance lies for your family, only you can say.

The good thing is that you don't lose much by trying to use your own resources. You can always change your mind as time goes on. For myself, for example, I didn't buy the R spine for Unit 1 (I checked it out from the library), but I'm now realizing that I'm going to want to buy it for my younger kids because it's used over so many weeks.

[momoften]

Thanks for your detailed info!

[BLT]

One thing I would add: With so many kids, you'll definitely want to make notes about your experience with the books you assign. You will learn a lot about each unit as you do it, but you'll forget that before you return to it four years later with other kids. I would think that if you keep good notes about what you learn to use and not use, by the time your youngest kids are progressing up the levels you'll have a pretty nice, completely customized plan.

You probably already know this - any mom of ten has got to have learned the value of record-keeping - but it makes me feel better to write it.