I have been homeschooling since 1992.  During those years of homeschooling, there has been no one homeschooling curriculum I have, so far, used Tapestry of Grace for eight consecutive years.

• First, I had struggles with opening the documents I had saved to my computer. I don’t understand exactly how the TOG digital software works. I know that we received an email that the download process has been streamlined. I don’t know if this means I need to reload it to my computer, or if it doesn’t make any difference for me since I already have it on my computer.  All things told, it took me a full 20 minutes to get the introduction opened up on my computer this first time. Don’t know how much of this is because of user unfamiliarity vs. product issues or even issues with my computer being slow.  Anyway, it shouldn’t have to take this long. I’ll keep track of that and comment on it again later.  Day after day I struggled with locating the files to open. I thought I saved them to my desktop, but I didn’t. I need to move them.

• The first feeling of being overwhelmed comes when the Unit Introduction has been opened and one sees that it is 14 pages long.  Now, as one who is familiar with this product, I have to tell you not to panic. Hang with it. This is a rich curriculum.  You really don’t need to read every page of every section word for word, unless you want to.  There are sections that apply to me and sections that don’t.  The best approach advice I could give to a new purchaser of Tapestry would be: 1) Try to buy the curriculum in the Spring so that you have the entire summer to look it over; learn from it. 2) Savor it. 3) Collect the supplemental books you will need (or find out what books your public library has), 4) Take plenty of time to prepare to use it in the fall.

• So many wonderful advantages to having this in digital form.  The disadvantage? Sadly, I believe we all want it in printed form. Print it ourselves?  Well, not likely. First, my ink runs if it gets wet (my printouts would get ruined if splashed with water). Second, it would cost me way more to print at home, at my cost per ink cartridge, than it would cost to print for $25/unit by the arrangement Tapestry has to offer us.  So, I am destined to take them up on this offer.  For what I own digitally so far, that means another $125 to spend.  At least I can space those payments out.

• In reading the Unit Introduction, I am reminded that Tapestry is a very cerebral curriculum.  Using Tapestry we will be teaching our children at a level higher than what we ourselves were taught. We will have to think deep thoughts as we lead our maturing children to think deep thoughts. We parents, the teachers, will ourselves be challenged to learn and grow as we teach. I myself personally like that. But it also means that we need to plan to take the time to prepare to teach, something not all home school teachers do. Part of the reason I have not used Tapestry for the past four years has been an inability on my part to take that kind of time to prepare for my home schooling.

• So, that leads me to another point I should mention about using Tapestry.  BENEFIT:  One of the reasons I used it previously was that I was teaching more than one child.  I am currently using a curriculum that has a different reading plan and subject list for each different grade level.  One of the beauties of Tapestry is its goal to enable families to study the same subject matter, the same historical era, at the same time. So I recommend Tapestry every time I get into a conversation with another mom home schooling more than one grade level using the curriculum I am currently using.  I like this other curriculum, but I would never survive teaching it at more than one grade level concurrently.  With Tapestry everyone is on the “same page” in History, and the other subjects flow from that (literature, composition, geography, art, music, and to a certain extent even science).

• I am preparing to use the curriculum.  Each Unit begins with an Introduction which is separate unto itself.  I familiarized myself with the introduction, during Week 1 (above), and looked over the “Threads” section for each week.  Ideally, I would have liked to have gotten further in my first week, but life is real, and I got busy and bogged down.

• I am now perusing each week’s Reading Assignments.  I am homeschooling a 3rd grader who, in my opinion, falls right between the levels Lower Grammar and Upper Grammar.  I will be using my library extensively, rather than purchasing books. I do this 1) to save money, and 2) because I won’t need the books again, because I don’t have any more children coming along after him, and 3) because I don’t currently have space in my home for more books.

• Before printing out any other pages in each unit, I printed out the Reading Assignment pages, one page per sheet (not double sided).  I hole punched the pages and put them in a 3-ring binder, page 4 facing page 5 for each week’s pages. 

• With my notebook in hand, I went downstairs to my own home school library to see what books I have (or can substitute) on the lists. I like highlighting my pages, and I like color-coding my highlighting.  With my light-blue highlighter, I highlighted all the titles listed that I already own.  (I also keep these books filed a certain way: Year 1 books on the top shelf, Year 2 on the 2nd shelf, etc. I put a different color sticky dot on the spine of each book, different color for each year, and mark on the dot what week the book is for, such as 2-21 for Year 2, Week 21. Then I tape over the dot, with packaging tape, to hold it on the book better.)  If I have a book that I want to use as a substitute title, I highlight my Reading Assignment page in pink, and write the substitute title in where it will fit, with an arrow to the replaced assignment, which I circle.

• When I was done looking over my personal library, I got onto the Internet and went to my favorite online sources for public domain titles.  I searched Books.Google.com and Bartleby.com for titles.

• Next I went to my library’s database online. I searched for the titles that are assigned.  I highlighted titles I needed that the library has in light green.  I immediately put a “Hold” on the library titles for weeks 1, 2, and 3. My library system will ship the book to my local library, where I can walk in and pick it up off the “Hold” shelves. 

• Now, I let my library work for the rest of the week getting my titles to me, while I read up on Week 1 Teacher’s Notes and all other pertinent material.  If it is summer break when you do this, it is wonderful to be able to go to the local swimming pool and have your swimming age kids play in the pool while you sit in the shade reading your PRINTED copy of the Year Plan.  (::sigh::)  So, I guess now is when you print out week 1 (using the back-sides of pages 4 and 5 of the Reading Assignment pages), hole punch your copy and put into your notebook so you can read at the pool.

• Well, actually I am going to start this on Saturday, if I can.  First, I went on line to my library’s database and ordered the titles needed for Week 4.  I always order books three weeks in advance to allow for lag-time. Sometimes I need a book that has a waiting list. Sometimes I get the book right away. It can take 7-10 days for the book to arrive, and then it can be held at the library for 7 days before they reshelve it.  That “buys” me two weeks of time where I haven’t checked the book out yet, if I want to check it out closer to the time I will be using it.

• I like to keep a certain shelf on the bookshelf, or a milk crate, or a basket where I keep Tapestry-related books that are checked out from the library. That makes it easier to find them when it’s time to do the assignment.

• Next I ask hubby to watch my boy while I take a trip to the library to pick up my library books.  Now, whether you go with kids or without is entirely up to you, but I am in a season where I go alone.  Son is a reader, but when we get to the library he goes directly to the video/dvd shelves trying to find movies to beg me to let him watch.  I don’t like to offer him that opportunity too frequently.

• Now is the time to make sure you are finished reading through all the notes for the week.  On Saturday I also like to finalize any plans for hands-on activities. I might need to make copies of maps, purchase art material, or get materials all to a central spot so that when it comes time to hand-dip candles, for instance, I am not hopping in the car to buy parafin and wick, for example.

• I am actually planning to begin implementing the curriculum in Week 4.  I spend the rest of Week 3 becoming very familiar with the Week Plan that I will be covering next week. I also quickly glance over as much of the rest of the unit as I can.

• I like to keep a Daily Lesson Plan book. For me, it is my home school’s accountability partner. It helps me to comply with State Law, which in my state requires that I teach regularly and diligently in eight subject areas (Math, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Art, Music, P.E., and Health, and my “Umbrella” requires Bible).  So, Week 3 is when I plot out my Daily Lesson Planner, and make sure that I am covering all my required subject areas, instead of doing ONLY Tapestry assignments, which I could very easily slide into.

• The “Big Day” is finally here!  We started our day with prayer, a Bible Reading, working on a memory verse, and singing a hymn.  Then we snuggled down on the couch and began reading about Jamestown (Social Studies).  Being right on the hinge between Lower Grammar and Upper Grammar, I selected books from both sections. If I find an UG title too difficult for my son, I don’t just “forge on ahead”, but rather I close the book and pick up a LG book for him instead. 

• Each day of the week we read an installment from William Bradford, Pilgrim Boy.  JD was slow to warm up to this book, but by the time it ended he wanted more chapters, or to start over and read it again. Now, I won’t keep him from reading it again himself if he wishes, but I won’t be reading it out loud to him again. I just can’t manage that.

• The Core titles for this week were difficult for me.  The New Americans seemed slightly below JD’s level.  From the UG titles, The Awakening of Europe was not available at the library or free on the Internet, and I didn’t wish to purchase a copy.  Making Thirteen Colonies doesn’t do real well as a read-aloud, and my son’s reading level is just not quite there yet for him to read it by himself.  So I worked for substituting.  The Title for this week (Week 20, Year 2) is “Early New World Colonies and Eastern Europe.”  I found in my personal library a book called The Thirteen Colonies, and that was a good fit for us!

• For In Depth, we read The Jamestown Colony (LG), and did some readings from Colonial Living.

• I picked up, from the library, suggested titles on Gallileo, but we did not get to them.

• Wanting to do something “Hands-On” next, I looked at the week’s suggestions for activites.  Well, Week 20’s ideas didn’t look too appealing for a little boy: work on a long-term project (not sure yet where the ideas for this are…), make a doll, or draw a picture of Pocahontas…  So, I pulled out Colonial Living to get ideas.   For a long-term project, I’d love for us (him) to make a miniature model or diorama of either a Colonial settlement or house, or of an Indian Long House or something, but not ready to start that yet.  I decided to give him the opportunity to make butter from cream, by shaking it in a small jelly jar (baby food jar, if you have one).  It was a big hit.  We also made home-made cornbread for him to spread the butter on. It wasn’t very appealing, and I like to think it gave him a new perspective on how tasteless and bland some of the colonial food must have been. (They didn’t have the luxurious quantites we have of things like salt and brown sugar, which is in the corn bread we are accustomed to buying at a favorite fast food store…)

• We made a salt map of North America, and began memorizing the original 13 colonies. We are not finished; we will work on it some more in Week 2.

• I really need to get started with working on my son in the area of Writing Assignments, but I opted not to start that this week.  With everything so new for him, and my introducing so many new things, I decided that one subject could be ramped into on a different week.

• It is definitely overwhelming to open up material this massive, and try to find your way around. 

• You absolutely have to allow yourself time for a “Learning Curve”, if you are decided that this is the curriculum you want to use.  Don’t beat yourself up for the things you don’t get to. Don’t feel like you’re not using the curriculum to its fullest when you decide not to do something within the materials. 

• Curriculum is a tool, not a slave-master.  Begin with the material provided as a spring-board, but allow yourself freedom to make changes. Remember, I had my 9-year-old boy make butter instead of making a doll.  I may have robbed myself of a future-suggested-activity by doing that. If so, later I will make another substitution, like I might have my son carve (whittle) a pine boat or a soap duck when the curriculum says to have him make butter…

• Count the cost.  The material is highly cost-effective over the long run, especially for a large family.  Decide on your personal approach.  Some families have a school room larger than my living room, and plenty of space and funds to purchase every book suggested, and store them where they will be able to get to them when they want them.  I find it easiest when my library owns the titles I want to use. I can’t tell you how frustrating it has been on weeks when there was an assigned title I knew I had purchased, but I could not find it when it was needed. (Like a little pamphlet by Jonathan Edwards called “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, which was so small that I just couldn’t find it. We had to scurry to get our hands on some other copy of something I knew I owned but could not find.  What a waste of time and effort. But now my bias toward library use is showing again, and I know not everyone feels that way…

• Allow time to plan.  This is not a curriculum that you can decide on Sunday, “Oh, I think I’ll start using my Tapestry tomorrow!”  At least, I’ve never met a person who could pull that off! If you are going to use this material, it is best to allow yourself about a month to get up and running, if you can. If not, at least a week, at a minimum!

• Try to find support.  I didn’t mention this in my review, because I didn’t get support myself. I’ve used this curriculum before, for eight consecutive years, so I am my own support, so to speak.  But for most users, it will be really helpful to get outside support.  There are many Yahoo groups available. There is also a forum, accessible through the Tapestry of Grace website.  There is the Tapestry Loom. You can form a co-op with other families. This can help you stay on track. I found it helpful, because my kids were required to have their assignments completed or they were not allowed to attend class.  This is reverse to most situations, because home-schooled kids WANT to go to class, because they yearn for the social setting.  It was true motivation for my kids to scramble to finish their assignments.