Getting ready for Tapestry of Grace Year 2

Part of me grieves the fading of summer. We fill our days with all our favorite things, but then too quickly it is time to transition to the rhythm of normal life again! I always hear comments from other parents about how excited they are that school is fast approaching! How different it is for those of us who homeschool. Truly, my only consolation of summer ending is the fact that my children and I can learn new things together! I love having them home. So often summer takes us in different directions - camp, missions trips, neighborhood pools, times with friends. But when school begins, we are learning together at home!

That is one of the reasons I particularly love Tapestry of Grace. With TOG, we all are learning the same themes and time periods of history at the same time - about the same places, people and events. So many books we will read together and so many things we can discuss together. I love that!

This year, we'll be doing Year 2 which begins where we left off last year, after the fall of Rome. We'll be going through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Reformation and early Colonial America right up to the drafting of the Constitution. What an exciting year this will be! I already know that this will be my favorite TOG year!

I was so pleased to find that most of our books that we would need are in our public library system. Each week, I'll be ordering books through the inner-library loan system to be delivered at our local library. The books that are used for many weeks and the ones unavailable at the library are the books that I have purchased. What fun to have all those packages of books arriving at our house! I love new books! Very exciting!

One of the books listed in the Alternate list for unit 1 is Twelve Bright Trumpets by Margaret Leighton. We have decided to buy that book to use rather than (or possibly in addition to) the assigned literature books for those weeks. I ordered this book from Queen's Homeschool Supply along with a literature-based study guide for all ages to accompany the book. It is part of Queen's Learning History Through Living Books section on their website. I thought this would make a nice addition to our study and the study guide would be helpful as well, especially if we substitute this for the other literature selections for those weeks. I really love the products that the Queens offer and we use their Language Lessons books for grammar.

Yesterday, I printed off the weekly overview pages and student activity pages from Unit 1 and put them into notebooks for Joel and Ivy. Once I print out the maps and add those in their notebooks, they will be all ready to go when we start school! I also printed off the reading assignment pages and put them in a notebook that we will all share. (We are using the digital edition). I may decide to print out teachers notes for my notebook also - I'm still deciding about that. This was the first year that I printed out student overview pages for their notebooks. I think it will help them to have the list of vocabulary words and time chart dates easily accessible every week. Joel will be adding time chart cards in his card box each week. He loves to illustrate those cards!

Joel, still at dialectic level, will be writing out the answers to the thinking questions and accountability questions I assign him each week. He'll most likely write that on the computer, print it out and put that in his notebook for me to check. I'll also have a spot in his notebook for his writing assignments. This will be our first year using the Writing Aids.

Ivy will continue at upper grammar level this year and she will be doing the lapbook for unit 1. She will also do the writing assignments each week and add those to her notebook. We are not using the Evaluations this year.

Once we buy new planners for Joel and Ivy, they'll be all set for another year of Tapestry of Grace!

To help me get ready, I looked over the Loom and read through the teacher information pages again as a refresher. Last year was my first year with TOG, and now I feel much more familiar with what we are doing! But it is good to read over everything again anyway.

I also was able to listen in on some of the TOG webinars which were great at helping me to figure out the features of the digital edition. I wasn't sure how I would like it, but I must say that I LOVE it! It has made printing out things so much easier and it is great to know that I can have a fresh clean copy of anything so easily! No more page protectors! All of the webinars are available to listen to at the Tapestry of Grace website.

Also at the website, which you can click to get there from this page, you can download free three week samples of the curriculum for anyone interested! That is how I fell in love with Tapestry of Grace last summer! I printed out the sample and dove right in!

Next time, I'll write about the other subjects that we will be doing this year. Even though I do hate to see summer end, I can tell you that I am looking forward to beginning school soon!