Our family’s ideal history curriculum is one that moves from Creation to Modern times in chronological order, integrating secular and biblical history while allowing me to teach children at multiple ages the same time period while maintaining a biblical worldview. Though our three girls are still young, I can see the day coming when all of them will be school age, and I’m already looking for a good solution so that I can teach one curriculum to all of my children.  After all, who knows how many more children God will bless us with?  In our family’s ongoing search for a history curriculum that meets our needs and will help us to reach our goals for history, Tapestry of Grace has come up several times as a recommendation.

It was with great enthusiasm that I dug into Tapestry of Grace Year 1, Unit 1 Digital Edition (DE) that I was provided with for review.  (Tapestry of Grace’s (TOG) Redesign is now available in a digital format and a print version, or a combination of the two.)  With thousands of satisfied homeschooling families on-board with TOG, chances are you’ve heard of them before.  If not, here is a brief overview to get started.  Tapestry of Grace is a 4 year classical approach, Christian, multi-age humanities curriculum.  Focusing primarily upon history, the subjects of geography, philosophy, literature, church history, art history and science history are combined with written assignments for language arts credit.

Each of the 4 years is divided into 4 units (one for each semester) and “The Loom” (a supplementary resources filled with foundational documentation) and is designed to be completed three times for each student (in an ideal world where you found TOG at the beginning of your first child’s life). As each child enters your homeschool they join in on the year you are studying, and round and round the cycle goes.  Each year is studied at deeper levels according to the developmental level of each child.  The Sommerville’s have broken down the typical three-tiered classical categorization into four levels: lower-grammar, upper-grammar, dialectic and rhetoric.  It’s important to keep this big picture in mind when considering the cost of TOG, as well as its complexity and initial learning curve.

Tapestry of Grace is not a grab and go curriculum, it requires intensive study to understand the educational philosophy, to customize for your home and to grasp it’s immense size and complexity.  It is also best applied over the long-term in your homeschool, so evaluating it for usefulness throughout the entirety of your homeschooling experience is appropriate in a review, rather than only evaluating content.  Please bear with me as I attempt to convey the basics here.

Each TOG year includes an entire year of study in the humanities at 4 varying levels, considering that, and it’s non-consumable nature the price tag of $170 for the digital edition, or $225 for the print version is very reasonable.  Individual units are also available for purchase at $45 for a DE, or $60 printed.  Combinations of both print and DE will be available in the near future.  If I were using TOG myself, I’d spend the extra for a print edition – TOG is HUGE and is difficult for me to understand onscreen, I printed quite a bit, but Unit 1 is over 300 pages in length.  If you use TOG for the long term, you’ll save a bundle on teacher’s guides, as each child uses the same year plan multiple times.  However, it may be expensive to start with, as supplementary books are required for each level.  If you are near an excellent library system you may be able to find a large number of titles there, but for us – rurally and with long interlibrary loan times, it makes planning book availability impossible.  For those purchasing books the TOG Bookshelf Central makes this process so simple, you simply click some radio buttons (your year plan, unit, level, and subject) and you’re in business!

Each unit is broken into detailed weekly plans where all subjects and levels are laid out in a very organized, understandable method through the “threads” and reading assignments.  Detailed writing assignments, student activities, teacher’s notes, planning tips and supplementary materials are included for each week as well.  The threads, weekly overview, reading assignments and student activities are designated according to level.  Writing assignments are broken into 12 traditional grade levels.

Reading through the extensive teacher’s notes (around 20 pages each week) provides insight and background information into the period studied, while providing questions and guidance for discussions with dialectic and rhetoric level students utilizing the method of Socratic conversation.  Mothers are encouraged to complete as many of the included reading assignments as possible to flesh out their own understanding of history, as they guide their children into developing a biblical worldview.  These Socratic conversations and periods of deep questioning are without a doubt the strength of TOG’s method, but are only used with older students capable of reasoning.

In addition to the plan itself, and the books you purchase, supplementary resources are available that work with TOG. Writing Aids is an essential component that is used together with TOG to form the language arts component. Map Aids are designed by Terri Johnson to dovetail with the geography components of TOG.  Evaluations provide a wide variety of evaluative techniques for your TOG students.  Pop Quiz fills parents in on the broad scope and sequence of each year (specially designed for fathers so they aren’t left in the dark) but can also be used to get mom up to speed.

Lapbooks are designed for each unit of each year plan and provide extra hands-on learning for kinesthetic learners.  I received the lapbook for Unit 1, and I love how the components are broken down to correlate with specific weeks of the learning plan.  For example in week 2 students complete a Pyramid Booklet, Mummy Booket and Pharoahs Booklet while in week 7 they complete a Ten Commandments Booklet, Tabernacle Vocabulary Booklet and Sabbath Booklet.  The lapbooks are formed of folded poster board as opposed to pre-formed file folders.  Most of the activities are fairly simple mini-booklets that require written work from the student, so these are best suited to readers and writers, though they could be completed to some extent through dictation as well.  The cost is $20 per lapbook, which seems high considering the simple elements and artwork – the big plus though is the convenience of having a lapbook that is exactly in step with your studies.  The result is striking; the layout itself is quite impressive.

Are you still with me?

Okay, deep breath, there’s more.  We’re through the overview, now it’s on to my conclusions.

With a nearly six year old, my main focus while reviewing TOG was on the lower grammar, though I kept my eye on the other levels, as I’m evaluating for long-term use for our own family. The unit I received to review “The Books of Moses” covers Creation, Egypt and Exodus. The book selections for lower grammar are such fun.  Strangely though (for all levels) Unit 1 starts with Egyptian history before studying Creation.  TOG follows the order in which the books of Moses were written in time, rather than the order in which the events occurred.  Parents wishing to study creation first will have to switch the Creation weeks around to the beginning of the unit.  There are activities for hands-on learners provided, extensive reading selections at older ages (not quite as many for younger children), and the history is integrated with Bible readings at this level (not a complete Bible study though).

After reading through the supporting documentation provided in “The Loom”, the philosophical papers, the large scope and sequence overall for a twelve year program and the aims that Tapestry seeks to fulfill, I came to the conclusion that this well-organized program is not a good fit for our family.  I so appreciate the Somerville’s heart for homeschoolers which is evident throughout in their teacher’s helps, their sharing of the struggles they’ve experienced in educating a large, multiple age family, the many teaching tips, scheduling and implementation suggestions.  I love the Socratic method they use to build a biblical worldview in the vital final stages of homeschooling.  But in order to invest such a large amount of money, and even more valuable – time – into a program, it needs to fit us very well.

Tapestry includes a heavy emphasis on secular literature in the later levels, and mythology is also given a very strong emphasis (as is the case in my classical programs).  While an abundance of recommended resources and activities are provided in order to include minimal mythology in the younger years, the secular readings in the later years seem to be essential to the program.  I’ve read many of these works in my own high-school years, and vowed never to require reading of them for my children.  Some are profane, violent, and I just can’t buy into the justifications for including these selections.  Sadly, the time during which the deep thinking takes place, so many of the reading resources and recommendations are not rooted in the word of God.  I’d rather my children sat out on the “Great Conversation” as it’s termed in classical homeschooling, rather than engage these titles.  While I could ostensibly customize the program (the Sommerville’s require customization in every family), the major modifications and research available would better be spent pulling together a program from scratch in my opinion.  I would always feel pulled to doing it the “Tapestry” way, rather than following the call God has placed on our own homeschool.

However, families that follow a traditional classical model in their homeschools, and desire an academically rigorous program will find TOG a joy!  Marcia Somerville must be an incredible woman to have pulled so much information together in one place

So, what should you do if you feel Tapestry of Grace might be a good fit for your family?  Here are my suggestions.

First – download the free three-week sample available here.  It’s a digital edition, so don’t worry if it doesn’t all make sense as far as fitting things together goes.  What you’ll want to do is read through almost everything in “The Loom”.  Take a look at the philosophy, see if it meshes with the goals your family holds. 

In all honesty, as a Mac user I haven’t found an easy way to access the files as they are on a disk image (which I don’t really understand), but the PC process is apparently quite simple.  The technical support team is fast, friendly and extraordinarily helpful, so don’t hesitate to ask if there is a problem.  What you’re looking for though isn’t so much the format (if digital products work for you though, that’s great), but dig in and see if this will work for you.

Take a look at some Yahoo Groups, there are Tapestry discussion groups for each year plan, as well as general support groups.  Here is a handy list.  Get in there, ask your questions about implementation, obstacles, customization, scheduling – you name it.  These dedicated TOG moms are more than happy to help.  Tapestry of Grace also hosts help chat rooms, chat rooms for families and their own forum here.

Go look at the Map of the Humanities, available free for download.  This is an excellent, visual representation of what Tapestry teaches in all of it’s threads through all the years.  Is this what God has laid on your heart for your particular children to learn?

If the digital products just don’t work for you, order a free Exploring Tapestry folder (shipping fees apply).  The weekly plans are still on CD, but there is introductory literature, a scope and sequence and printed Map of the Humanities to help give you an overview.

New users of Tapestry often report a “four week fog” getting used to the format and understanding the big picture.  Honestly, I feel like I’ve been in a two-month fog trying to grasp the overarching plan and determine if it’s right for us.  The time invested in test-driving the curriculum is well spent when you consider the many years ahead of you as you raise your children for the Lord.

May God bless your family richly in all of your homeschooling journeys!

Don’t forget, you can find additional reviews at The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew blog!