My "Tapestry of Grace" arrived!!!!

I was so excited when I saw the brown truck pull up yesterday! Yes, my Tapestry of Grace Year 1 curriculum arrived - and earlier than I expected! So guess what I did last night.... yes, I put all the pages in the first unit in sheet protectors! I've been reading on the TOG forums the pros and cons of sheet protectors and decided that I'm one of those 'page protector" people! And I could not believe how many pages are in each unit! I've got a huge binder for just the first 9 weeks! Thankfully my mom was able to come up with a lot of large binders for me from the bank. She works in several bank branches and has "rescued" them from going to the trash bins! I guess I will be investing in sheet protectors - I used all I had on the first unit and I'm guessing I'll need 3 more boxes at least to finish the year.

I ordered the Map Aids and the Lapbook Kits and also evaluations for Joel who is in the dialectic stage. Ivy will enjoy the lapbooks and that will do for her evaluations this year as an upper grammar student. I browsed through the whole thing and I know that I will be learning so much this year! I feel a bit overwhelmed by it all, but I am really looking forward to this new direction in our schooling.

So we will be studying "The History of Redemption" this year beginning with ancient Egypt and the books of Moses concluding with the fall of Rome. There is so much packed into this curriculum - world history, biblical history, church history, geography, philosophy, fine arts, writing and even some science. (We are continuing with Math-U-See, and doing Language Arts and Science separately.)

My next step will be ordering all the books we need. This curriculum is literature based so all the books that Joel and Ivy will be reading must be ordered for each unit. A LOT of books! Thankfully we use our library extensively - it is almost like our second home. And we can get books we want through the inter-library loan which means that if any of the 13 libraries in our county have the book we want we can have it sent to our library for us to pick up. And the books are ready for us usually within a couple days. For books that aren't in our county, I can order books to be brought in from outside the area. There are still many books that I will need to buy because we'll be using them very frequently over the next several units or even years. Thanks Mom for my amazon.com gift card for my birthday!!!!!! What a great gift that was!

For the first 7 years of our homeschooling, I've been able to go without a curriculum for the humanities subjects and we have always used books, especially biographies, from the library to study history. But with Joel being in 7th grade this year and high school looming on the horizon, I really felt the need for something more for us. After much research, investigating, ordering a 3 week sample, and of course last but not least - praying about this, we are very happy with our choice to go with Tapestry of Grace. It is a leap of faith for us because it is very expensive initially. However, it is actually very affordable because it is a 4 year curriculum that you can use all 12 years of schooling - cycling through it every 4 years. Joel will be able to do Years 1-4 and then Years 1 and 2 again. Ivy will do Years 1-4 twice since she's in 5th grade. Jaden, assuming we stay with Tapestry of Grace, will cycle through the four years three times. I really like that!

Because Tapestry of Grace (TOG) is designed so you can teach all different ages the same subject, they will all be learning the same period in history at the same time - but on their own level. For example, Joel is in the dialectic level which is usually 6-8th grade and Ivy is upper grammar (4-6th grade) so they will be reading different books and doing different projects based on their own level but both be studying Ancient Egypt, for example. That way our discussions and read-alouds will be all on the same topic for everyone to participate. And the next time they cycle through the Year plans, they will be on a higher level so that when they come to Year 1 again, Ivy will be at the dialectic level and Joel would be in the rhetoric (high school) level.

After I buy all 4 years of TOG, that is all I will need to buy (except for their books). Ivy will be able to use Joel's books from previous years and Jaden will be able to use Joel and Ivy's! So even though the 4 years are expensive they will be used over and over again so it really is very economical. And since I am putting the whole thing in sheet protectors, it will be kept in very good condition for little Jaden for all his schooling! : )

On this blog, I'll be writing about all the new things we learn this year with TOG. I'm really excited! I hated history when I was in school because it was taught in such a dry, boring, textbook way. I have always used real books, not textbooks, when teaching our kids and history is something that we all enjoy very much. And now it will be even better!