Tapestry of Grace
Oct. 29, 2006 at 9:02 PM
Homeschooling
A while back, a dedicated homeschooling mother of 6 greeted her husband at the door with the statement, "This is where we stop homeschooling," Her older children were moving on to more rigorous high school studies. Exasperated, she was not sure that she could give them the excellent education she had provided when they were younger. There was just one problem, her husband was an attorney with HSLDA!
Thankfully, instead of quitting, this homeschooling mother, Marcia Somerville along with her husband Scott, designed a curriculum called Tapestry of Grace. Our family is very thankful the Somervilles kept going. Their perseverance has been a blessing to us and countless other homechool families.
We were devoted Sonlight users for many years. I enjoyed the literature selections and the well thought out lesson plans. But as the children grew, I began to feel like an octupus in 6 different oceans. The children were each focused on different historical periods and we were losing some of the joy of learning together. I tried to combine levels and use one year for many children. That worked well for a while, but I still found myself growing more frustrated. Finding books and projects for those at a lower or higher level was difficult and time consuming. I began to look for a curriculum that would allow multiple ages to study the same subject, but at their level.
Enter Tapestry of Grace (TOG). The curriculum is designed to teach muliple ages the same time period simulaneously using quality literature. TOG works on a four year cycle. That means, once you have purchased all four years (about $150), you will have a complete curriculum from kindergarten through graduation. Similar to Sonlight, the books used in each year are purchased separately. As an experiement, we made the switch last year from Sonlight to Tapestry of Grace (year four).
It was everything I hoped for and more.
Tapestry of Grace is a classical approach with a Christian worldview. It blends history, with geography, English, Bible and church history, along with several electives. As they children advance in their abilities, they cycle through a chronological study of history. Their website says it this way, the curriclulum is designed for learning "stages" not ages. It mentors parents in instructing Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric level children.
At the request of my oldest daughter, we began our study at the "end" of history in the twentieth century (year four). I was a little nervous starting at the end of the curriculum, but I needn't have been worried. Each year is designed to stand on it's own. There were only a few places where the material referenced previously covered topics or books.
TOG presents a lot of material. It was a little overwhelming at first to see what we were going to cover in one year. But as we plunged into each week, we slowly adapted the suggested readings to our family's learning style.
All the children have been fairly enthusiastic about Tapestry of Grace. The boys found the work load a little more than they were used to, but they have really stepped up and taken more responsibility for their learning. The best part of using TOG is that I feel like we are learning as a family again. When I hear the children conversing with each other about a subject it's not just one "lecturing" about what they have learned. They are all contributing facts and ideas. There are plenty of hands-on projects to engage all types of learning styles and ages. Interestingly, I have found the older children reading many of the "lower grammar" books. And I have seen my younger children peeking into the books of the older children.
No curriculum is perfect. I miss the read aloud suggestions that Sonlight provided. As a replacement, I have chosen books from our library that go along with our study. Tapestry of Grace gives only weekly reading assignments, not daily. So with some of the children, I have to break down their reading into a daily schedule. It's not insurmountable, but when you're accustomed to someone else doing the work, it's a minor inconvenience.
I began TOG last year with a child at each level and a toddler. I knew we had a made a good choice when my daughter told me she wished she were starting high school all over again - just so she could go through all four years!
Stay tuned: Tuesday, I will be giving away a free unit of Tapestry of Grace.
Thankfully, instead of quitting, this homeschooling mother, Marcia Somerville along with her husband Scott, designed a curriculum called Tapestry of Grace. Our family is very thankful the Somervilles kept going. Their perseverance has been a blessing to us and countless other homechool families.
We were devoted Sonlight users for many years. I enjoyed the literature selections and the well thought out lesson plans. But as the children grew, I began to feel like an octupus in 6 different oceans. The children were each focused on different historical periods and we were losing some of the joy of learning together. I tried to combine levels and use one year for many children. That worked well for a while, but I still found myself growing more frustrated. Finding books and projects for those at a lower or higher level was difficult and time consuming. I began to look for a curriculum that would allow multiple ages to study the same subject, but at their level.
Enter Tapestry of Grace (TOG). The curriculum is designed to teach muliple ages the same time period simulaneously using quality literature. TOG works on a four year cycle. That means, once you have purchased all four years (about $150), you will have a complete curriculum from kindergarten through graduation. Similar to Sonlight, the books used in each year are purchased separately. As an experiement, we made the switch last year from Sonlight to Tapestry of Grace (year four).
It was everything I hoped for and more.
Tapestry of Grace is a classical approach with a Christian worldview. It blends history, with geography, English, Bible and church history, along with several electives. As they children advance in their abilities, they cycle through a chronological study of history. Their website says it this way, the curriclulum is designed for learning "stages" not ages. It mentors parents in instructing Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric level children.
At the request of my oldest daughter, we began our study at the "end" of history in the twentieth century (year four). I was a little nervous starting at the end of the curriculum, but I needn't have been worried. Each year is designed to stand on it's own. There were only a few places where the material referenced previously covered topics or books.
TOG presents a lot of material. It was a little overwhelming at first to see what we were going to cover in one year. But as we plunged into each week, we slowly adapted the suggested readings to our family's learning style.
All the children have been fairly enthusiastic about Tapestry of Grace. The boys found the work load a little more than they were used to, but they have really stepped up and taken more responsibility for their learning. The best part of using TOG is that I feel like we are learning as a family again. When I hear the children conversing with each other about a subject it's not just one "lecturing" about what they have learned. They are all contributing facts and ideas. There are plenty of hands-on projects to engage all types of learning styles and ages. Interestingly, I have found the older children reading many of the "lower grammar" books. And I have seen my younger children peeking into the books of the older children.
No curriculum is perfect. I miss the read aloud suggestions that Sonlight provided. As a replacement, I have chosen books from our library that go along with our study. Tapestry of Grace gives only weekly reading assignments, not daily. So with some of the children, I have to break down their reading into a daily schedule. It's not insurmountable, but when you're accustomed to someone else doing the work, it's a minor inconvenience.
I began TOG last year with a child at each level and a toddler. I knew we had a made a good choice when my daughter told me she wished she were starting high school all over again - just so she could go through all four years!
Stay tuned: Tuesday, I will be giving away a free unit of Tapestry of Grace.
There are lots of questions and comments over at my other blog as well. (Click here.)
UPDATE: Here is the link to enter to win a free unit of Tapestry of Grace.
11 Comments and Trackbacks
posted by babymakers on Oct. 29, 2006 at 9:30 PM
Does this cover math too? How much time is put into one day?
posted by chickadee on Oct. 29, 2006 at 11:20 PM
thank you for posting that review. i have been interested in that curriculum.
posted by PatinTenn on Oct. 30, 2006 at 7:48 AM
this works out for high school and the electives that are required for graduation. I am also interested in the "Math" question asked above, Do we add in our own, I am guessing?
I have been looking at this for the past 6 months or so, but need to make sure it is do-able before I jump in.
Thank you for your reveiw.
Pat
posted by spunkyhomeschool on Oct. 30, 2006 at 9:43 AM
Math and science are not part of the curriculum. We use Saxon and Apologia respectively for those subjects.
posted by Peter Wilson on Oct. 30, 2006 at 10:02 AM
I have been greatly blessed by the Tapestry of Grace curriculum. I began it in 8th grade with and finished it in 11th.
I can't tell you how boring this curriculum made my summers. Every summer I would lament the fact that I wasn't learning anything about history at the time and I would eagerly look forward to the next school year. (I am not joking.) This curriculum, in the hand of my much-loved teachers, taught me the joy of using my brain.
The workload was never overwhelming: about 1-3 hours per day, depending on how much research my mom decided that I'd do. Neither was the workload too easy. The thinking questions always gave me something for my brain to chew on and they helped me to solidify my thoughts and my faith.
I also had the distinct privelege of being in the history co-op taught by none other than Mrs. Somerville (I just can't call her Marcia after all that she's taught me.)
As I look back from my senior year of high school, I am so grateful that I took all four years of this curriculum. They were instrumental in the constructing of my mind and my faith.
posted by creativehsmom on Oct. 30, 2006 at 11:54 AM
I appreciate the review. I've heard good things about Tapestry. I usually get stuck when the time comes to locate all of the books that are part of the required reading so I like that you said you used some books from your home library and that the reading pace is set weekly rather than daily. Building an educational foundaition on reading is always a wise choice!!!
God Bless you!
Cathy =0)
posted by KayinMaine on Oct. 30, 2006 at 3:28 PM
Tapestry of Grace is ideal for families with several children at different levels. We are on week nine of Year 3, and I and my children are absolutely loving it! I just wish I had found TOG seven years ago when I first started homeschooling. It is exactly what I was searching for all those years. I love it so much, I convinced three of my homeschooling friends to use it, too!
posted by AmoScribo on Oct. 30, 2006 at 5:45 PM
I purchased Tapestry last year after looking at Histories for 8 years. I never felt I could buy the others. I was writing out our chronological history with Timetables of History until I found Tapestry- right here at HSB. I appreciate the literature lists. I can purchase or request ahead at the library. A good friend of mine has switched to Tapestry now, and she is a real history buff.
posted by Anonymous on Oct. 30, 2006 at 9:24 PM
I would love to be included in your drawing for the free unit of this curriculum! We just graduated our oldest (Jake) in May but flip-flopped several times in these other subjects; I'd love to find something that works for the different levels that we could stick with for everyone. We already use Saxon and Apologia too. I ordered Notgrass for Kirsty to use this year but we haven't used it long enough to know if we'll continue with it. I'm hopeful but would sure try another one if given the opportunity for FREE. :) Thank you for your consideration! ~Karen in OK
posted by spunkyhomeschool on Oct. 30, 2006 at 9:37 PM
Karen, great to hear from you. Congratulations on graduating Jake. The drawing will start tomorrow. Entering will be easy. I'll post the all the details in a post sometime on Tuesday.
posted by Keer on Oct. 31, 2006 at 5:07 PM
We use it too. :-) I too somewhat struggle with breaking down the weekly reading assignments, but that's OK. I'm also struggling with the beginning weeks of the reading assignments, but I'm learning my way around that as well. :-)