Part II: Tapestry of Grace and the Elementary Student

Tapestry of Grace and the Elementary Student

I love it when I am asked these questions because then I get to share with them how easy Tapestry is to use and how much fun it brings to our home!    Let me start by showing you what Tapestry looks like in our home with my three older children.    Mary is 8 and in 2nd grade, Nathan is 7 and in 1st grade and Savannah is 4yo and doing Pre-K.   Our youngest is Lyra- she is (almost!) 2yo and spends her time climbing anything in sight and generally being very BUSY.  

Can You Really Use Tapestry With Young Students?

Tapestry of Grace is the living core of our homeschool!

In my opinion, Tapestry combines the best tenants of classical education, unit studies and literature based learning.    The reading selections have been rich, varied and in-depth, as would be appropriate for any literature based program.   Tapestry uses the classical four year cycle for history and it has the flavor of a unit study since all of our content areas relate to the history period we are studying.    Each week our assignments in literature, church history, geography, fine arts and crafts, vocabulary and writing all tie into the history assignment.    This makes our study of each time period so much richer and fuller!   The children are really saturated in that topic and it shows up in their play and discussions.

Daily Routine:  We begin our homeschool day by moving quickly through the skill subjects such as math, phonics, grammar, etc. while the 2yo is taking her one hour nap.    Since I have a struggling reader, it is important to get these subjects done first, while she is still fresh, and when there is the least amount of noise and distraction.   Once the skill subjects are finished, I get the 2yo up from her nap and bring her into the school room with us.   We have created a baby/toddler area with quiet toys for her to play with so that she is not such a distraction- she toddles around the room playing with her toys while we settle down on the couch to do our Tapestry readings.   We usually spend 30-45 minutes a day on our Tapestry work.   Here is the schedule we use for our Tapestry assignments:

Day 1:  History Core readings  (Kids usually sit next to me on the couch while I read these- I think the *visual* aspect of the books is every bit as important as the content and I want them to form a picture in their brain of who/what we are studying.)

Day 2: History In Depth readings (Kids working on geography assignment while I read)

Day 3:  Literature (Kids are doing quiet free play either with some type of building set or a history themed play set that ties in with our readings)

Day 4:  Church History  (same as above)

When we have finished our Tapestry time, the children are sent outside to play.   After lunch and a rest time, we use the afternoon for any hands on projects or crafts.

In her book, A Charlotte Mason Companion, Karen Andreola wrote that children need:

“something to love, something to do and something to think about.”

Tapestry’s beautiful, rich reading selections provide my students with “something to think about” on a daily basis.   Nearly every day that the weather permits, they are released from our morning studies to have several hours outside playing.   Each day the children rush out because they are anxious to “do our show”.    They spend many, many hours acting out what they have read about during our morning Tapestry session.

            *All* of our Year 2 LG books for Tapestry!

Tapestry includes numerous choices for the fine arts and crafts elective, thus providing our children with “something to do”.    Truly, there are many more hands on projects listed than one could ever accomplish.   However, since I know that Tapestry was designed to be a buffet of choices, I do not worry myself with trying to do it all!   I simply pick one or two projects to do.    Because Tapestry utilizes the four year History rotation, I have the comfort of knowing that we will be coming back to this time period 2 or 3 more times.  I don’t have to do it all right now.  This takes the stress out of my decision making and allows me to relax as a teacher.

Here are some of the highlights of our past Tapestry studies, with pictures!

Year 1:  (Mary, 5, Kindergarten and Nathan, 4, Pre-K)   They spent weeks acting out The Old Testament stories under the shade trees in our backyard.   They built little lean-to structures, with my extra tablecloths as their tents, and spent many hours as Abraham and Sarah,  Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael, etc.  We did several different fine arts activities centered on the Byzantine mosaics.   The children made salt dough maps of Egypt for geography and we mummified a potato!    As we finished our study of Rome, we watched several documentaries about the Roman aqueduct system and built our own aqueduct out of cardboard boxes, paper towel & toilet paper tubes.

June, 2010 Nathan, 5 years old. We were studying Byzantine Mosaics, so the children made mosaics for their snack with graham crackers, vanilla frosting and mini m&m’s.

November 1, 2009 Mary, 5 years old, working on her Egyptian salt dough map.
       

October 17, 2009-  Mummifying a potato
       

November 1, 2009- Mummifying a potato (still!)
      

July 18, 2010- Building Roman Aqueducts

One of the play scenes I set up for my elementary Tapestry students.   I set up our Egypt books from Tapestry as well as the Playmobil Egypt set that we already owned.

Year 2:  (Mary, 6, 1rst grade and Nathan, 5, Kindergarten)  Nathan and his dad spent hours making a suit of armor out of cardboard and tin foil.   One of my favorite quotes from that year was from Nathan.   I was cleaning his room and found a small container of whole cloves on his dresser.   When I asked him what in the world he was doing with my cloves, he replied, “Mom!  I’ve been pretending to be the man who searched for the spicy food!”   (he was referring to Ferdinand Magellan)  We did some fun field trips that year that tied into our studies- we visited a Renaissance Faire in the fall and in the Spring we went to see replicas of Christopher Columbus’ ships.  We also visited the Rembrandt exhibit at our state’s art museum.     After reading about the miserable conditions on the Mayflower, we made hardtack for a snack one day.  The kids’ response to the hard tack was as follows:

Mary- Mom!  It tastes like… nothing!

Nathan- Can I have frosting on it??  (Me- NO!  They didn’t have frosting on the Mayflower!)

Savannah- Can I have a drink of water?

They were pretty tasteless- I can’t imagine eating them for such an extended period of time!

October 30, 2010- Studying Medieval Times- Nathan with the suit of armor he made with his dad!

October 9, 2010- Jousting tournament at the Renaissance Fair
        

January 26, 2011- making hard tack like they ate on the Mayflower!

March 2, 2011- Lacrosse game (Iroquois Indians)

April 24, 2011- Boston Tea Party- This was on Easter Sunday.   We had spent the week prior to this reading about the Boston Tea Party.   Mary & Nathan decided that they would paint themselves up to look like Mohawk Indians the way that the colonists did, except they used a Sharpie marker!  EEEK!

May 19, 2011- Visiting Columbus’ ships

Outside the Rembrandt exhibit

Year 3: (Mary, 7, 2nd grade and Nathan, 6, 1rst grade.  Also Savannah, 4, Pre-K)  One of the first things we did this year was visit Colonial Williamsburg to wrap up our study of the colonial era.   The children did a very fun pictoral narration of our readings on Daniel Boone.   We visited our local zoo to see geysers, buffalo & grizzly bears after reading the first encounters that early explorers and trappers had with them!    We also went to see an exhibit of John James Audubon’s beautiful paintings of birds.   They have enjoyed working on the cumulative map project that Tapestry assigns this year- working on it a little each week and seeing the nice progression they are making!

It really is amazing how much kids soak up just from listening in to great literature being read out loud.   I happened to overhear this conversation between 6yo Nathan and 7yo Mary one day this past fall .    Nathan said to Mary, “You know, Mary, first God created the world.  Then there was Abraham and Sarah, then there was Noah, then there was Moses and Ancient Egypt.   After that was Rome.   Then came the explorers.   Then the Pilgrims came to America.  A little while later they had the Revolutionary War.”      I think this is a pretty good BASIC timeline for a six year old!!!   I was amazed at how much he remembered from the early years since he was only 4 years old when we started Tapestry.

July 23, 2011- Daniel Boone Narration pictures

    October 12, 2011- Acting out the Alamo on a rainy day

Colonial Williamsburg- learning how the Native Americans made canoes using fire.

                     In front of the ships at Jamestown.

Grinding corn in the Native American village.

Geysers, Buffalo and Grizzly Bears at the Zoo!

Isn’t Tapestry A Lot of Work to Plan?

Honestly, nothing could be further from the truth!   I think we all remember being assigned lengthy research papers to write, don’t we?    You’d spend hours and hours and hours of time researching your topic and then, when it came time to write, the bulk of the work was done.   Putting the ideas down on paper wasn’t so hard because you had piles of research already finished and assembled.    Essentially, Tapestry has done all the research for you!   All you have left to do is “write” or, in our case, plan, your year!

“Tapestry is really a curriculum that allows moms to plan without also making them do all the research.” (-B)

This article, by Marcia Somerville, really is ESSENTIAL to understanding Tapestry and their concept of the “buffet”.   The title is “Homeschooling in Hard Times: Money and Books, Part 1“.   The entire article is excellent and I really believe everyone who plans on using Tapestry should read it.   Near the end of the article, Marcia writes:

What does this history lesson about Tapestry mean to you? Well, understanding how we got to the current organizational framework for Redesigned Tapestry of Grace should give you an “ah ha” moment! It should say to you, “Oh! I guess I don’t really need every book listed on page 4 after all! I have real choices, and they’re all good ones!” You can buy new all of the Primary Books for all learning levels and ride in a Cadillac on your homeschooling road, but you don’t need to feel like you’re sacrificing quality if you don’t. Using used books, or library Alternates will get you just as far, and often with richer scenery along the way! Taking the by-roads that unlisted books afford your family, and teaching students to do Internet research when answers are “not in the book” can develop important skills and self confidence to tackle upper-level assignments in college.

Tapestry has always been designed with as much flexibility as possible, because as a homeschooling mom myself, I knew that none of my fellow teaching moms had the exact same values, approaches, or goals for homeschooling  as I did. We all taught our kids to the best of our ability, but made very different choices as to the vehicles we used. Furthermore, I noticed that all of us have different gift mixes: some of us loved crafts; others couldn’t stand ‘em. Some families love to read; others get reading done as fast as possible so as to leave lots of time for sports.  Some of us actually liked field trips (gasp)! Some of us loved having someone tell us what to do each day; others wanted to tinker with whatever curriculum we bought, no matter how great it was when we started. As with our Christian walks, we share the one Spirit, but He gives many kinds of gifts. The beautiful thing is the unity we share as we take our homeschooling journeys together. My goal in writing and supporting Tapestry is to make the trip easier for as many moms as I can.

With these words of wisdom in mind, I start my planning by spreading out my Tapestry manual, Tapestry books that I’ve purchased and any extra books or supplements that I already own and think would be fun to include.    I open a word document on my computer and as I go through my Tapestry of Grace manual, I am making lists of assignments for each week.   I list which History In Depth, History Core, Read Alouds, Literature and Church History selections we will read each week.   I write down the assignments for Geography and Vocabulary and which dates & events will be added to our time line.     Then, I pull out the assigned arts & crafts book and choose an activity or two for the week.   I note the chosen activity and page numbers on my list and, on a separate piece of paper, I keep a running list of required materials.     I work a few hours each day over the course of 2 or 3 days and my list is finished!

When I finish my lists, I print them out and put them in my “working binder”.   Then, using my Map Aids CD, I print out all of the maps needed for year and add those to my working binder.   Because my oldest is a struggling reader, we have delayed beginning Tapestry’s writing program, in order to focus our time on improving her reading skills.   As we start year 4, this coming July, the plan is to add the writing assignments to her load.   I will print out her writing pages and add those to my binder as well.   Finally, all I have to do is shop for the year’s arts and crafts projects using my supply list.   THAT IS IT!!!    Just working a few hours a day over the course of 4 or 5 days and I have my entire year planned for all 3 of my older kids.

As a former public school teacher, I am someone who is always interested in curriculum.  I find it fascinating and love to look at other curriculum.    While I can certainly understand the draw that a “boxed” curriculum offers with its neatly planned day-by-day assignments, what I have observed is that these often require lots of “tweaking” throughout the year to make it fit for your children.   The boxed curriculum was not designed with *your* specific children’s strengths and weaknesses, interests and talents in mind.   It is designed for the “general” student.   And especially for moms who are teaching multiple students at different levels, this becomes difficult.      While there is nothing wrong with making changes here and there, it becomes exhausting to have to re-evaluate the curriculum, constantly trying to fit it to your child’s specific bent.   The beauty of Tapestry is that YOU are doing the planning, with *your* specific children in mind!   This is not a weakness of Tapestry, it is one of its greatest strengths!  

I love how Tapestry is DESIGNED for multiple ages & stages of children to study the same historical topics together.  Because we are all learning about the same topic, we read the history and literature books together, we do fine arts assignments and craft activities together and take lots of fun field trips that everyone enjoys!

With Tapestry, there is so much to work with- you can customize Tapestry to fit the special needs and interests of your children while still promoting family unity through a shared study of History and Literature!

Part I: Choosing to Homeschool and Finding Tapestry of Grace

Part I:  Choosing to Homeschool and Finding Tapestry of Grace

I have a dear friend who is currently reconsidering her curriculum choices and during our many talks I’ve had time to reconsider everything I love about Tapestry.  I don’t think I’ve ever written an in-depth post about Tapestry- how and why I chose it, how I use it for our planning and what it looks like in our home.  I’m going to write a three part series covering all of these topics.  Links to parts two and three will be at the bottom of this post.

How I Came to Homeschooling

First, I thought a little background information might be helpful in understanding how I came to homeschooling and eventually settled on Tapestry.      During my own school years, History was my favorite subject.  I think I read every biography, historical fiction and non-fiction book that our library had on the shelves!    Although I did not know the term “living books” at the time, that was what I naturally gravitated towards when given free reign in the library.   This love of History eventually led me to get my B.A. in History and in Political Science.  From there, I went on teach History at the middle school level and eventually obtained my Masters in Middle Grades Education.  I spent several years teaching History at a local middle school and while I *loved* teaching my experiences in the public school left me convinced that there had to be a better way to educate children.

I eventually left teaching to stay home with the first of our four children.      When my two oldest children were 2 years old and 1 year old, we spent some time visiting my cousins in another state.   My cousin was also a public school teacher (now principal) and they had recently started homeschooling.    They generously shared some homeschooling books with me and answered my many questions.   By the end of our week I was converted!   I spent the next three years reading about various teaching methods, researching curriculum and even attending a homeschool convention.    

     Based on my past experiences, I came to homeschooling with some very definite ideas about how History should be taught and the type of curriculum I wanted for our children.    Here are my criteria and some of the reasoning behind them.

1.   Christian:  Because we are a Christian family, I wanted a curriculum that was distinctively Christian.    It was also important to me that the curriculum teach Church history alongside secular history because this is an area that is  weakness for me.    I wanted to see these two woven together so that I could learn, and the children alongside me, where Christian history fits in with world history.

2. Core:  I wanted History to be the core subject of our homeschool with the other subjects revolving around it.  In other words, if we are studying the Civil War, I wanted our Literature selections to be from or about that time period.  I wanted our geography lessons to center on Civil War topics and the same for writing, fine arts and church history.   Tapestry does a beautiful job of integrating all subjects!    We are currently studying the Civil War for History and our literature, geography and fine arts assignments this week all reflect that time period in History.    Doesn’t that just make good common sense?  I think so.   We are reading the Classic Tales of Br’er Rabbit for literature (which is a gem of a book and just gorgeously illustrated), we are working on a map that shows the Union vs. Confederate states, we are reading about the life of William Booth for Church History  and we have several hands on projects selected to complete that reflect this time period.

3. Living Books:  Simply Charlotte Mason defines living books this way:

Living books are usually written by one person who has a passion for the subject and writes in conversational or narrative style. The books pull you into the subject and involve your emotions, so it’s easy to remember the events and facts. Living books make the subject “come alive.”

I remember when I first started reading about the Charlotte Mason method and especially her ideas about living books- this is exactly what I had been reading all through my school years and what I wanted for our children!   It was very important to me that whatever curriculum we settled on be one that used living books and not dull, dry textbooks.

4. Four Year Cycle:  When I was in school we tended to study history by geographic location- one year might be European History, another year American History or State History, etc.   I don’t ever remember studying Ancient History.   History seemed scattered to me- there was no cohesiveness to our studies.   I had no idea of where events in American history coincided with other events in World History, much less Church History.   I love the idea of the four year cycle.    This method of studying history in its natural progression makes so much sense to me.   Students will experience each level of history at least three times- once in the elementary years, again during the middle years and the final time during their high school years.

5. Integration of various ages and abilities: I am a long term planner by nature, I can’t help it!   (My husband finds this to be a vastly irritating trait! hehe!)  In all seriousness, looking ahead I could see a time when I will have children in 9th grade, 8th grade, 6th grade and 4th grade- what a span of ages and abilities!    From high school to middle school to elementary school- I could not imagine having each one of the children studying different topics for their History, Literature and Geography studies.     When I first began researching curriculum, I looked heavily at another popular living books curriculum but I just could not see having 3-4 different levels going at once and since it was not designed to combine students, it would be difficult to do so without heavy amounts of adjusting on my part.   I knew I needed something that was *designed* to teach multiple students at different levels.

Why I Chose Tapestry

We are now finishing our third year with Tapestry of Grace and I can say that it is the perfect fit for our family!