Help choosing LA! ULW, TGATB, or a combo??

My advice would be to stick with what works well enough. You dont have to have perfection for it to be adequate. If your child did well with TGATB despite the length, then stick with that and just divide the longer lessons. The fact that it also includes art AND geography and is so open and go means that there is more time for you to spend on other subjects. Try and make it as simple as possible for yourself….say I who is ALWAYS complicating things for myself!

And children thrive on predictability but more so those kids who aren’t neurotypical, so if your ASD child enjoys it, I would say you have a winner.

Why don’t you do ULW for your mother culture?😉 You may enjoy the quotations and be able to get ahead of the kids grammar.

I would agree that if it isnt broke don’t fix it.  I have never used TGATB, though I have looked and it does look beautiful.  I do use ULW/SW for my two youngest, my oldest used it for a few years and now is in an English class so he has sort of “graduated” from ULW.  What I love about ULW is that you can modify it.  We rarely dictate the whole passage, they are mostly too long for my kids, even in 6th and 9th grade.  My kids don’t always “get” what they are writing, or know anything about the author, but they do appreciate the sound of beautiful language.  Sometimes I discuss with them.  Sometimes, I remind them of when we read something previously from or about the author.  Sometimes I tell them the passage is from something I love and they may get to read it in high school.  It may seem connections are not being made, especially in 3rd grade, but I can tell you that “arms akimbo” is one of our favorite phrases.  From ULW – Sherlock Holmes.  My daughter is now in 9th grade and reading Sherlock Holmes stories, I cannot wait for her to get to “arms akimbo” and have an “aha” moment, I know it is coming.  Just want to encourage you that more than you think is being folded into them as you go through ULW.  We do art and geography as a family subject so I cannot speak to that aspect of TGATB. SCM artist studies and Geography lesson plans are really superb, and beautifully done.  I am one to agonize over curriculum so I totally get where you are coming from.  Just remember that most any curriculum you choose and stick with will do the job, it’s more about you and your kids, not the publisher you use.

I think SCM geography can be used for all ages.  It is mostly copying maps and learning about the people who live in the areas.  My olders study the map and fill in a blank from memory.  My 6th grader is allowed to peek after he has tried from memory.  When they were smaller they were allowed to just copy straight from one map to the other.  The mapwork builds gradually so the first map may only have one or two regions to remember and fill in.  Maybe 3-4 next time.  I did not make my littlest children fill in as many details as the oldest, it is very easy to add or subtract to suit the student. They also included read aloud and picture book suggestions to go along with the area being studied.  We don’t usually get to the longer chapter book suggestions, but I always make an effort to get the picture books.  Even still at 6th, 9th and 11th.  We can still learn so much about people from good picture books.  My kids love to look at the food and furniture common to families in other countries when Hungry Planet or Material World is scheduled.  It truly helps them feel blessed by our abundance.