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February 2012 Newsletter

Happy Winter!

We aren't far into the year, but here at Lampstand Press, we are busy planning for spring and summer! We hope to get to know many of you at conferences, through the Lampstand Learning Center, on our new forums, or even through blogs, phone calls, and emails! Read below to learn some of the things that we are working on on your behalf.

Love TOG Drawing Will End February 14!

Many of you have entered your names in the Love TOG drawing that ends on February 14. You still have time to enter as either a new customer or a veteran mom and win FREE Tapestry products! Our goal for this giveaway is to share our love of a great curriculum with those who may not yet have had the chance to check it out, so please help us! You'll find all of the details about the drawing—how to enter and the fabulous things you can win—on our website.

Mid-March Contest: Love TOG Blog

We are excited to share news about our March contest, called the "Love TOG Blog" contest! First place winners in each of the five categories detailed below will each win a FREE fully-loaded DE year-plan. Second and third place winners in each category will win $50 and $25 of free, digital Tapestry products of your choice respectively.

In order to enter this drawing, write a substantial blog post (or review) between now and March 15 and submit the URL to sharon@tapestryofgrace.com.

• You may enter as many categories and as many times as you wish, but you may not submit old posts that were posted before today.
• All entries MUST include at least one graphic image or digital photo, since we are planning to organize our Reviews page using your image(s).
• Specificity and an eye towards serving those unfamiliar with Tapestry are the key element that the judges will be looking for.

By entering this contest, you agree to allow us to re-post your post (or review), or print it, and also to link back to your blog. We plan to feature all approved blog posts that are submitted for this contest on the new Reviews page on the TOG website, to be unveiled in late March or early April. This collection of your reviews will be a great help for those trying to decide whether or not to use Tapestry in the coming year. Newcomers will so appreciate your willingness to share your experiences! Guidelines for content are given in the category descriptions here:

TOG Unit Celebrations:

This includes a detailed post about one of your Unit Celebrations. It should include information about how you planned the event, supplies and foods that you chose, and what you think your kids and guests got out of it.

TOG with Grammar stage kids:

Many newcomers wonder about TOG with littles. This category winner explains how Tapestry aids you as a mom in educating your young children. What feature of TOG do you most use/like? Have you had any special moments that you'd like to share?

TOG with Dialectic and/or High School students:

This is a broad category. We'd like newcomers to have answers (from veteran moms) to typical, basic questions about teaching with TOG at these learning levels. These include aspects of TOG that your students find helpful, challenging, or delightful. It includes your growth as a teacher, and how Tapestry has given you more confidence to teach these grades. It can also include information about how TOG helped prepare your high school graduates for life experiences.

Hands-On with TOG:

This post or review explains in detail either one of the major craft ideas that are present in the curriculum (like salt maps, using our lapbooks, time line work, or display boards). It contains descriptions of the project, pictures, and an account of how the hands-on project was beneficial to you, the teacher, and your kids. Alternately, you can simply overview the hands-on aspect of TOG in a more general way, explaining its uses and benefits in your home, both to you as a teacher and to your kids as learners.

Why I love TOG books in general and Bookshelf Central in particular:*

We'd like newcomers to know that Bookshelf Central carries all the books they need, thus making planning easier, as well as being a resource to answer many of the questions about our books. We'd also like them to know what you think of TOG's book recommendations. Be sure to include some pictures of your kids reading their favorite books!

*Reviewing this category will also enter you in a drawing for a gift certificate of $20 to Bookshelf Central!

Online Tapestry Courses for 2012-13 Opening Soon!

The Lampstand Learning Center offers online classes that support families using Tapestry of Grace. We provide Socratic discussion courses based on the popular Tapestry discussion scripts for both history and literature. For those needing support with writing, we also offer writing courses based on Writing Aids.

This coming year the LLC will be offering courses for rhetoric and dialectic students for all four year-plans in history, literature, and writing. Watch our website in late February for specific dates for registration for returning LLC students and siblings, and open registration for newcomers.

Please contact Barb Spanier (bspanier@llc.tapestryofgrace.com), Director of Lampstand Learning Center, for more information.

This Month's Featured Freebie

Did you know that we offer a variety of free aids to using Tapestry? This month, we're highlighting the covers. Download any of the covers and spines for your year-plans from our online Loom. These are great to create teacher or student notebooks in which you store any materials that you decide to print, or for students' completed work.

2012 Conference Season

We are continuing to recruit hostesses for our booths at conferences for the 2012 season. Helping out new homeschoolers who visit our booths is both rewarding and profitable! You gain the opportunity to mentor others and receive a FREE, fully-loaded DE year-plan of your choice. If you are interested, please send an email to conferences2012@tapestryofgrace.com for an introductory letter and further information.

Tapestry Teas

Are you looking for an easy way to share Tapestry with your friends and acquaintances while earning a little extra money towards homeschooling supplies for next year? Are you thinking of starting a local co-op? Consider hosting a Tapestry Tea in your home. We have lots of helps for sharing and you can take advantage of some cash rewards for sales that result from your Tea. As a bonus, becoming a Tea hostess also signs you up for ongoing cash benefits as a Tapestry Affiliate. And, those that host Teas in February and March of this year will be entered in another drawing: one of these hostesses will win a FREE fully loaded DE year-plan! Read here for more detailed information about holding a Tapestry Tea to share the love with friends in your area.

Global Updates

Recently we released "Global Updates" in which all of the Book Updates since the last Global Update in May 2011 have been incorporated into the curriculum. If you'd like to, go to the Download Center and work through the steps, but remember that updating will REPLACE your current DE year-plan. The books that have been replaced are also archived on our Book Updates Charts, however, and these remain perennially available to you, even if updating changes the pages in your DE curriculum.

Share the Love on Pinterest

Some of you are familiar with Pinterest, which is a fun and fast-growing network (largely of women) who pin their favorite ideas visually to a series of custom-designed online bulletin boards. Not only can you thus have visual bookmarks of your favorite ideas from the web, you can also share these ideas with others, and glean ideas from their pinboards. It's tons of fun, and Marcia wants to invite you to partake! You can access Pinterest through your Facebook account or directly from their website. Before you join, be warned: it's addicting! You can find and save great recipes, tips on building a home (or remodeling a farmhouse!), how to take great photographs, what to wear, how to organize your homeschool, and more! Consider joining Pinterest and follow (among others) Marcia's "Homeschooling" board to find other helps for your homeschool!

Marcia's Blog

Marcia has been faithfully posting blog entries on three great Christian books for about eight weeks. Recently, she's begun to also add posts on the subjects that most interest new moms when considering teaching with Tapestry. Check out these gems of discipleship here

February Sale at Bookshelf Central

Are you following Marcia's Book Club? Bookshelf Central has all of these titles available from the "Book Club" tab on their home page, or you can click here! Plus, plan to take advantage of 10% off of Unit 4 books from any year-plan during February!

We continue to pray for you as you labor to teach your students about the grace of our wonderful God. We pray that your teaching will be like showers on new grass and abundant rain on tender plants. (Deuteronomy 32:2-4)

The Lampstand Press staff