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                                                        An integrated, classical approach to educating your children.

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Benefits of Co-ops

Less is more!  Recommended frequency of co-op meetings for various age levels.

Frequently Asked Questions about using TOG with 

Co-ops:

--Do you have to 

Co-op?

--How often do you have to meet?

--What is a "virtual co-op"?

--What IS a co-op? How many families do you need?

--Can I accommodate kids on differing levels within one group?

--Are High School 

co-ops significantly different from younger kid co-ops?

Co-op Discounts on TOG Year-Plans are available!

Co-ops

Tapestry of Grace is ideal for co-ops!

Tapestry is not hard to use, and it is enjoyable. Many families have successfully done this program on their own, tailoring it to their needs and levels. However, the Bible often speaks of the benefits of mutual encouragement, and our need for it. We all get discouraged from time to time; we all get tired. What I have found is that no matter how infrequent or low-level my association with other families is, those associations always benefit us by providing accountability and encouragement.

Benefits of co-ops:

• Group studies keep students (and their parents) accountable.

• Group studies often motivate students to do their best work by providing an audience or socializing context.

• Skills home schooled students often lack are developed, especially those associated with group classes: raising hands, respecting others’ speech, supporting/participating in a discussion, giving a speech, team work.

• Parents can split the load of lectures and hands-on activities, according to mutual strengths, and all benefit!

• One of the essential elements of High School is discussion. By this I mean thinking on one’s feet; taking a position and supporting it out of one’s own thoughts and the evidence one has gleaned from one’s research. This is, to my thinking, an essential element of historical and literary studies, and without a group context, your high school student will miss it, unless, of course, you engage in regular discussion with him.

• Group writing classes give the student the chance to have others enjoy (and critique) his writing. At first, I recommend the instructor do the critique, unless the group knows each other well and can offer constructive and gracious comments.

• Parent-teachers lose a little freedom in this process: they too must be good "team players," agreeing to require the agreed upon work be done in a timely and thorough manner.

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Less is definitely more!

Children in grades K-5 probably don't need ANY co-op experience, so don't sweat the program. They will definitely enjoy crafts, and moms will benefit from the one-another aspect common to all co-ops, but don't strain yourself to co-op if all your kids are in 5th grade or younger! Regular nap times and meals are much more important.

Elementary Level co-ops should focus on fun (like simple associated Hands-on crafts or group projects), group skills (like raising hands to answer questions, etc.), and writing assignments. Keep it light; make it the dessert that rewards diligent independent reading/writing work at home. 

Dialectic Level co-ops can begin to focus on discussion. Once a week for History or Literature discussion, and writing accountability is usually sufficient.  If you want to, you can elect to meet twice a week, once midweek to discuss history concepts and once at the end of the week to read writing assignments and do a craft. Do the history discussion in a half-hour, the writing in another half-hour, then spend an hour on crafts.

Rhetoric Level co-ops are perhaps most rewarding.  Focus is on growing together in discussion skills, apologetics, literary analysis, team projects and writing skills.

Try to car pool and schedule so that younger siblings don't have to be present. Here are some ideas how to accomplish this:

• Use a church building, and have moms divide up: some watch younger kids, who enjoy an unstructured play time, or even a light treatment of the subject of the week.

• Use two nearby houses, and accomplish the same goal.

• Use car pooling, so that moms who aren't teaching stay home with younger children (perhaps one of them baby-sits the teaching mom's toddlers) and meet in homes.

• Meet around the lunch hour, so that kids can use the hour before lunch and the hour after lunch for "work" and still enjoy fellowship and play time together during the lunch break.

If at all possible, generally schedule your upper level co-op in the afternoon so that you don't give up an entire school day to it. (I have found that those co-ops scheduled in the mornings leave little energy for any independent work once kids and moms return home.) Afternoon co-ops mean that those babysitting toddlers can often put them down for naps, thus making their job easier.

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Question: I've heard that Tapestry is best done in co-op groups.  Is this true?  Do I need a co-op setting to be successful?

Answer: No!  Tapestry was developed initially, and serves well, single family households.  However, there are clear benefits to doing Tapestry in groups, and it's been proven effective in group settings.  This being the case, when Tapestry was revised for national sales, components were added so that groups would be better served.  You will notice those components in the charts and assignments, but, of course, you are free to disregard them.

Tapestry is a meaty program, and those using alone, especially at first, can feel overwhelmed.  It's never easy to learn a new method of teaching, no matter how clearly a program is laid out.  To help individual families who may not have near neighbors who want to join them in a co-op, we've worked to develop "virtual co-ops."  These will depend on user participation.  They include

• Our Forum page will offer you significant online support from other moms using the program and from the author, who moderates it.

• Our Gallery Pages (click here for linked page--scroll down to see links) 

• We are providing an online page that helps people organize co-ops in local areas with those they may not now know.  For more on that, click the button above left (Organize Groups) and REFRESH often!)

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Question: How often do most Tapestry co-ops meet? Can you give me an idea of their structure?

Answer: Groups are as individual as the families that make them up.  But, remember, the younger your members, the less often you should meet.  Here are "normal" meeting patterns that I've heard about:

• Grammar: 

  • Twice a month.  

    • First meeting: do a craft related to the general historical topic.  

    • Second meeting: discuss a piece of literature all have read and read aloud a piece of writing they've brought to share.

• Dialectic: 

  • Once a week: either Wednesdays or Fridays.  

    • If Wednesday: discuss the history topic and go over ways to accomplish the writing assignment.  

    • If Fridays: take 2 hours to discuss first History then Lit.  Hand in writing assignments for grading.  OR: 

    • Discuss History/Lit and then read writing assignments aloud.

  • Some Dialectic groups can meet twice a week and follow the Rhetoric pattern below.

• Rhetoric: 

  • Once a week, following suggestions for Dialectic level above.  OR

  • Twice a week:

    • Wednesday afternoons: discuss History for two hours.  Make mini-reports, discuss, debate, etc.

    • Friday afternoons: discuss Literature for an hour and then read writing assignments aloud.

    • Alternately, on Friday afternoons: discuss Writing/Literature for an hour and then do a group project/craft/activity for an hour.

These are ideas for "physical" co-ops--for those Tapestry users who actually live near each other.  There are also ideas below for virtual co-ops done over the Internet.

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Are you FAR from any other Tapestry users? Do you wish your kids could have the benefits of a co-op? Do you and your kids struggle with motivation and isolation?  If the answer's "Yes!"...

Why not start a Virtual co-op?  Here's how it can work:

• Using the Forum, find others:
  • Who are using your Year-Plan
  • AND are going at your pace
  • AND have kids your kids' ages
• Contact them privately, and ask if they'd be willing to join a small, PRIVATE group using the same Yahoo group software that we use for our big support loop.
• Agree on the purposes for your group.  Some might be:
  • Your child will post his writing every Friday, and receive others' comments on it.  He can embed his writing in emails to the group, or attach it in Word files.
  • Your child will partake in a live chat about the week's topics (you can type for him if he's slow right now, but be assured, if he starts chatting about Tapestry, he'll speed up in touch typing as a side benefit!)  Each week, some adult in the group will lead a live chat on the given weekly topic.  Say you're studying Explorers.  Maybe your assignment will be that each child comes as an expert on that explorer, and gives a short report?  Maybe, with younger children (Upper Grammar), as you type for them, they can share the neat facts they've learned this week.  With Rhetoric level students, they can hold lengthy and meaty discussions on the history or literature, or both!
  • You can attach pictures of your PRIVATE group members, and exchange phone numbers as well.  Then, the kids can build social relationships as well as academic ones.
• Agree on rules.  Some might be:
  • To retain membership, each person MUST post his writing every...? (you decide).  This is a means of accountability, one of the strong draws of co-opping!
  • Agree on times you'll meet for chats, and how students will conduct themselves in them.  Perhaps different moms can take turns moderating them?
  • Agree on graciousness in comments on work, or pictures.  Talk about how to interact positively with a group.
  • Size: how big will your group be?
  • Ages: what ages can participate?

That's all you need to know!  Forming a group may just give your child the accountability and social contacts he needs to excel in his Tapestry studies this year!

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Question: What constitutes a co-op? How many families do you need?

• The term "co-op" can apply to as few as two families, or as many as a hundred. The term simply means that families join together for mutual support and accountability, and that each contributes time or other supports to the group effort.

• Each co-op needs a leader, who serves the group by making sure all the members work together well and remain informed. She need not do all the administrative work, nor all the teaching. She simply serves by leading.

• Co-ops can meet any number of times, but regularity is the key. Some meet weekly, some monthly, some 2 or more times per week. A lot depends on the purpose for your co-op. One thing to establish early on is a statement of purpose so that you can figure out how many times to meet.

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Question: I'd like to co-op sixth grade with a couple of other moms. One of the kids is a bit behind and will only be doing fifth grade work at the time. I think he has some trouble with school work and gets freaked out if things go too fast. Would we be able to co-op the material together, but not demand as much from him?

Answer: ABSOLUTELY. My philosophy in co-oping is that the co-op agrees on a pace, and certain requirements. Parents, and parents only, remain responsible for the direction and implementation of their children's daily activities, and the methods they pursue towards co-op goals. The younger the kids in the co-op, the looser the requirements can be.

For instance, the co-op should agree that they will all do certain week-plans of Tapestry during certain weeks. Let's say we're in a co-op together, and we agree that we'll all do Week 23 next week. We (the moms) agree that when we meet next Friday, the kids are going to read aloud their writing and talk about verbs for the first hour, then they'll all do a hands-on project for the second hour. (This is my suggestion for a co-op at your level, by the way: lots of hands on and a focus on reading their writing aloud. You could add a 1/2 hour discussion of the topic of the week if you wanted to, but to me, it's optional at this age. Lots of hands-on and group socializing is the dessert reward for hard work at home in independent reading, writing, and other work.)

Now, for the group's sake, all children have to bring a writing assignment (or it won't work), but that's all. The assignment itself, and the quality thereof, is left strictly to the parents. (In real life, of course, the children end up excelling because of wanting to have something good to present. Thus we harness the sin nature for good!) Alternately, if you're having any kind of discussion, again, the kids must have some idea of what's being said, but they don't all have to have read all the same selections, or even the selections at grade level, especially at younger grade levels. At the 6th grade level your goal is simple reinforcement of main ideas, so the slower student will feel right at home no matter what he's read.

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Question: What differences occur at the High School level co-op?

Answer: At the High School level, there's more need for discussion. This means that you should structure your co-op such that there's time for discussion and then time for reading you writing assignments aloud. 

Extra time can either be devoted to Hands-on group projects or discussion of Literature (this depends on the group, its resources, the orientation of the students, and the Year-Plan.)

In our co-op, we felt that Year 1 does not have much literature that requires lots of discussion, so we incorporated lots of Hands-on work. Year 2 has TONS of literature that really needs discussion, so this year, our co-op dispensed with group Hands-on and devoted the entire time to discussion of literature.

To learn about discounts on Tapestry of Grace Year-Plans for co-ops, click HERE!

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