We have been using Tapestry of Grace for about 10 years. When I first discovered it, I was on the search for something to use for our upcoming study of the Middle Ages, so I called my friend, Kaycee, and we made a date to get a chai from Starbucks and then head on over to our local homeschool store - one of our favorite things to do together. I was sitting on the floor of the History section of the store, looking things over and reading, when I noticed a binder that looked interesting. I picked it up, began reading, and was hooked.
First of all...the booklists. Not just books to use in the study, but alternate books to use, in case those books were more handy, or even preferred. Secondly...it was a unit study. I love unit studies. I'm pretty sure my love for unit studies came about my last semester in college, when I was taking two English courses that complemented each other. I was able to make connections between the two courses, and it was fascinating! I had never experienced that before, and I wanted more. So to find a curriculum that brought together history, writing, literature, church history, the arts, and crafty things made me happy. I had used other unit studies in our homeschool before, but none ever brought all those subjects together the way Tapestry seemed to do. Finally, it was written so I could teach all our kids together, or I could do some of it with all of them together, and let the older ones...and even my more independent younger ones, branch out on their own if they desired. Tapestry is flexible in every way. I knew I would be able to twist and turn it any way I wanted to make it fit our homeschool, without compromising the integrity of the curriculum. Win-win.
Last year, I was sitting in the living room looking at our three children who are still home. Only one left in elementary and the other two in middle school. The oldest about to move into high school, I thought, "It's almost over." As I thought back over all the years of homeschooling, I remembered a literature based curriculum that had always looked good and gotten great reviews. I had always wanted to give it a try, but once I found Tapestry, I could never bring myself to go to anything else. But that day, I decided to go for it. I bought the study guide for the Civil War era and began to plan. What fun. I love making lesson plans, and I was looking forward to digging-in to ALL the literature that this curriculum promised. But as I was planning, it felt as if there wasn't enough literature. There were lots of links to websites with tourist information about different historical sites and people...yawn. I found myself adding in literature from books we had read with Tapestry when I went through this time period with our older children. I added poems from the time period, interesting documentaries, and folk songs. I knew that with my additions, along with the literature already in the curriculum, that we would have a wonderful study.
Only we didn't. I found myself hungry for the more meaty Tapestry units, and my students seemed uninspired as I worked hard to be enthusiastic. The curriculum we were using used a world history book as its spine, but ignored every bit of the world history and focused on only the American history. We would begin to read, and the chapter would start out with something like, "As you know, so-and-so did this, and it affected this guy here in America..." We had no idea what the book was referring to because we had not been asked to read it. So we would go back, read what we had missed, then continue on. It all felt so...light...and lacking. I finally became so impatient with it that I cut it short and we're jumping back in to Tapestry where we left off in the other curriculum.
Simply planning for our upcoming week gives me a full and satisfied feeling. It was great to come back to the much missed Teacher's Notes, which gives me the background of what we are studying for the week. How nice to be able to have a little knowledge tucked under my belt as we go into our study. And the brilliant Discussion Outline so that I can have a conversation with my children about what we have been studying all week. A great time to discover issues they were confused about, or wanted more information, but didn't mention during the week. The discussion is not simple questions that test reading comprehension. It goes into the issues and thoughts behind what was happening during that period of history, and in the individual lives of the people who were there. This coming week, we are going to study history, geography, church history, read a book written during that time period, and we can't wait to get started again.
Tapestry describes itself as a buffet. You can pick and choose what you want to do each week, depending on how much you might have going on, or what books you have available at home, or from the library. I like to own the books, and have found so many at deeply discounted prices at Thriftbooks. Tapestry's Bookshelf Central also sells the books used in the curriculum. There are so many options. More than anything, I am thankful for how Tapestry brings our family together to study through read-alouds, discussions, and even a way for dads to join the conversation. That time together will never be regretted.
Love,
Becca
Look at
all that Tapestry offers...especially Pop Quiz, that I referred to earlier. That's how dads can get involved in the conversation!