2009-Mar-11 - Tapestry of Grace~Curriculum for multiple levels/ages!

Tapestry of Grace Digital Edition is the latest version of the curriculum by Marcia Somerville. Known for many years in the homeschooling community for her thorough and in depth distinctly Christian curriculum that she designed as an answer to teaching her large homeschooling family of multiple levels, she has gone on to offer other products and accessories to complement TOG and now a totally digital down loadable version to your home computer. 

Tapestry of Grace is a multi-level curriculum that can be used year to year as your family matures.  Levels are lower elementary, upper elementary, dialectic (middle school) and rhetoric (high school).  Each unit within each year covers all four levels.  There are four years, four units and four levels. 

Year One covers Creation to Rome and the Early church.

Below is the Table of Contents for Year One Unit Four: Rome. 

Included are lesson plans, worksheets and supplements for the subjects of history, arts & activities, writing, church history, government, geography, Bible~a complete humanities study.  I want to mention that there is also a field trips board where members can list a field trip suggestion to use with the unit they are studying.  For example you will see that someone suggested for the Punic Wars to go to the zoo to see the elephants and interview a trainer.  I think this is very cool and is actually a hallmark of TOG where they have a place for online communication in the message boards for networking so that shared info and ideas flourish.  It's a Tapestry of Grace family you can join. 

 Also the message boards  are where parents join to support and ask each other questions as well as share!  Mrs. Somerville has been noted to frequent the boards for questions!  Go HERE to see The Loom which will give you an idea of the resources to help you navigate the whole curriculum.

The Lampstand Bookshelf, an online store carries many of the books and products needed for the studies.  On resource is Pop Quiz which the Somerville's created to give a listening overview of the week's lessons to Dad (Pop) so that he can be up to speed to freely discuss the subject matter at the dinner table or anywhere with his kids. There are Map Aids, a Writers book as well as other resources.  Visit their Lampstand Bookshelf store HERE!

I reviewed the first year unit four: Rome.  I was sent a series of downloads which placed a security system called the Lock Lizard which prevents any copying and pasting of the materials into customized chunks for ease of use.  The materials are copyrighted,  and under the user agreement only personal copies can be made.  The Lock Lizard assures that you have the user code so that copyrights are secure. 

I had no problem with the down loading process.  I did contact and received prompt response concerning desk top storage from technical support.  It's good to know they are there to help!

One of the benefits of the Digital Edition is that it is always upgradable with no extra cost. Already since receiving it, the curriculum has been upgraded with new improved accessories to the curriculum in The Loom. I found these to be somewhat helpful to me. 

I like unit studies with a classical approach, and Tapestry of Grace is truly classical.  Much of the Teacher notes are World Book Encyclopedia resources, and I have generally used other resources that either I found that were written by Christian authors or in the library or internet free domain.  Much of the work that I have done myself in creating the unit study has been  done for me in TOG .  There is a suggested book list, but some are out of print, others are readily available in the Lampstand Bookshelf store HERE. Included is an alternative book list as well.

THIS Curricula IS HUGE covering multiple levels all at once! 

I have struggled to fully put it all together partly because of its digital nature.  TOG offers for an additional fee and shipping a printed version of this curriculum. I have never seen a printed version myself, so in this way I am disadvantaged.  Some of my Crew mates are more familiar with TOG than I.  Be sure and read all the reviews...I found that the Digital Edition was overwhelming to me with all the levels, although I can see that a large family of multiple learners who are at different grade levels would definitely benefit. 

The Somervilles really stress teaching excellence!  They discuss what is high school credit for the transcript.  I found this insightful and helpful. 

Overall, I am conflicted over a total thumbs up with TOG.  I love the teaching material, the books used to teach from, and much of the resources, but. . . 

My difficulty is really multi-fold.

1.  I like to be able to recycle my materials and with the Lock Lizard, while you own it indefinitely and it's fully without additional cost upgradable, I can't sell or recycle it like I could with a printed version. 

2. The cost. I found this to be high for my pocketbook, but if I were not looking at the last four-five years of schooling for my children, and I were beginning, it would lessen the cost per year becoming a better deal for my money.  Also if my family were large with multiple levels within, Tapestry of Grace could be a better deal.
 
3.  The lack of copy and paste features in the Digital Edition leave me printing things I do not want to print that may be on a page.  I would like the advantage of printing out just certain excerpts so that I can save on ink and paper.
 
4.  Overall the Digital Edition was hard to navigate.  When I read the pdf file pages, my navigation wanted to jump between pages.  This was irritating.  I also found that there was loads to read to try to wrap my mind around within the material.  Perhaps I prefer something simpler or not as detailed.  Tapestry of Grace Digital Edition is really detailed and has loads of resources, but I found it overwhelming.

5.  When I discussed the cost, I did not mention before that not only is it unrecyclable, but that the difference in cost between printed version and digital is not very much.  I would like to see the cost of the digital lowered because of the savings of printing, shipping and others such as storage are not being to be passed onto me.   I'd pay ALMOST just as much as a printed version as the digital, and I still have to print and use paper, ink and my time. I'd almost prefer to pay a little more to purchase the printed!  Digital should reflect  savings and be passed onto the customer.

  TOG offers a ton for large families of various levels. 

The Crew has reviewed Tapestry of Grace too, some in print, but most in the Digital Edition to review.  Go see their reviews HERE!

If you are looking for a curriculum that's very very thorough for a large age span, and will use it over the years of your child's classical education, then TOG will be a wonderful resource for you. 

Blessings,
SisterTipster

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