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Exploring Tapestry

What is Tapestry? How does Tapestry work? How do I get started?

The Big Picture of Tapestry

Tapestry is a guide through a full K-12 humanities education. It includes weekly assignment sheets for 6 subjects, work pages, discussion questions & answer guides, activity & craft instructions, and more!

tog (Tapestry is a guide which recommends weekly supplements and assignments, but they're purchased separately.) Below is a chart of all that is included with Tapestry. We think you'll like it.

Tapestry works by dividing history into four eras, each of which can be covered in a single school year. We call these year-plans. You can start in any one of them, depending on where in history you recently left off.

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4

Each year-plan has 4 units, that walk you in sequence through a year-plan.  A unit is one quarter of a year-plan: it typically includes 9 week-plans.  You can purchase and teach a unit at a time or save money by buying all four at one time. Along with these come documents on the Loom, that you’ll find useful throughout all four units.

Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3 Unit 4 The Loom

Each unit has 9 week-plans. A week-plan is the set of assignments, student questions, teacher notes and answers, and extra goodies that make up Tapestry. This is the guide to your family’s homeschooling journey, week by week.

weekplan weekplan weekplan weekplan weekplan weekplan weekplan weekplan weekplan

Each week-plan has 8 sections consisting of assignments, questions, answers, notes, and extra resources. Some are for the student, and some are just for you, the teacher, but all of them work together to guide you through a great week of learning as a family.

Please note: No one student or family does all listed assignments.  Think of Tapestry as a buffet of dishes from which you must choose each week.

Threads Reading Assignment Charts Teacher's Notes Weekly Overview Writing Assignments Student Activity Pages Pageant of Philosophy Supplements Click the pages above to see a description of what each section contains!
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Threads

Threads provide your index and goals for the week ahead.

Threads are divided by subject, so you can quickly see your goals for each discipline.

Colors on the left show learning levels: red for lower grammar, yellow for upper grammar, green for dialectic, and blue for rhetoric.

See a free sample: click here for an annotated copy of Year 1, Week 1 Threads.

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Reading Assignment Charts

Reading Assignment Charts show you the week’s readings for all four levels at a glance.

Note the color at the bottom of each column, indicating the learning level.

Reading assignments are divided into rows by subject. Use only the rows and columns you think best for the students in your unique family.

See a free sample: click here for an annotated copy of Year 1, Week 1 Reading Assignment Charts.

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Teacher's Notes

Teacher’s Notes are your next stop each week.

Background information summarizes what your children are learning in detail.

Discussion outlines for dialectic and rhetoric students help you to bring biblical analysis to history, literature, and church history, and optionally, to government and philosophy for rhetoric students only.

Teacher’s Notes enable you to be a knowledgeable teacher for your kids.

See a free sample: click here for an annotated copy of Year 1, Week 1 Teacher's Notes.

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Weekly Overview Charts

Weekly Overview Charts summarize all suggested approaches (besides readings) to the weekly topic.

These charts include vocabulary, time line dates, craft ideas for groups or individual students, and summaries of geography and history topics.

Older students read these pages so that they can participate in choosing their week’s activities, with your guidance.

See a free sample: click here for an annotated copy of Year 1, Week 1 Weekly Overview Charts.

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Writing Assignments

Writing Assignment Charts give you specific genres and topics each week for 12 levels of writing competency.

From unit to unit, you can adjust assignments either up or down a level depending on your student’s unique writing skills.

For extra support, you can use Writing Aids (sold separately at the Lampstand Press store) — a custom-designed handbook that assists you and your students in completing all writing assignments.

See a free sample: click here for an annotated copy of Year 1, Week 1 Writing Assignment Charts.

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Student Activity Pages

Student Activity Pages offer each student a variety of level-specific activities.

For grammar and dialectic students there are work pages that reinforce literature readings, as well as ideas for hands-on projects.

Questions prepare dialectic and rhetoric students for discussions with you in history, literature, and church history. Additional questions for government and philosophy are available to rhetoric students.

See a free sample: click here for an annotated copy of Year 1, Week 1 Student Activity Pages.

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Pageant of Philosophy

Pageant of Philosophy is an elective for rhetoric students.

This entertaining series of skits lead students through the history and ideas of world philosophy.

In the context of their history studies, students meet a new famous philosopher most weeks.

Discussion outlines help you lead your child in analyzing philosophical arguments biblically.

See a free sample: click here for an annotated copy of Year 1, Week 2 Pageant of Philosophy.

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Supplements

Supplements don’t appear every week, but when they do, they contain extra materials we think you’ll find helpful, such as...

Craft or event instructions for optional activities

Detailed information on literature or worldview topics,

Short articles pertaining to the weekly subject matter

See a free sample: click here for an annotated copy of Year 1, Week 1 Supplement.

 

What is the Loom?

Loom discThe Loom is a crucial Internet & CD resource that serves as a framework for its year-plan. On the Loom, you’ll find...
  • Summer reading list: assignments for students to complete before starting the first unit of each year-plan
  • An important Year-Plan Introduction, with in-depth information about our philosophy of education and many useful tips for getting started with your new curriculum
  • Digital copies of all the Student Activity Pages (which are also in your year-plan), so that you can print out work pages, instructions, or student questions as many times as they are needed week to week or year to year
  • Digital copies of all Supplements: print and use as needed, or access digitally
  • Digital resources to provide important helps for teaching rhetoric-level Literature
  • Extra hands-on activity helps for some projects
  • Writing Level Overview: a helpful tool for placing your students in the proper writing level at the start of the year
  • Detailed information for figuring out how to give high school credits for Tapestry work, or write a transcript
  • The Book Updates Index, which offers information on replacement books in case the ones listed in your curriculum become unavailable, as well as updated reading assignment charts.
Please note: the Loom for Year 3 has not been released to CD yet, and is only available online. Click here to visit it now!

What are learning levels?

Most Tapestry assignments are divided into four distinct learning levels. These levels roughly correspond with certain age ranges, but are broad enough that you can adjust your student up and down as suits his individual development.

The overlap of grade levels is intentional. Students develop at different rates, while traditional grade levels are tied to chronological ages. Remember, Tapestry is designed for stages, not ages.

Lower Grammar

  • Non-fluent reader
  • Approximately grades K-3
  • Enjoys learning basic facts

Upper Grammar

  • Independent reader
  • Approximately grades 3-6
  • Enjoys memorizing concrete, sequential facts

Dialectic

  • Reads to learn
  • Approximately grades 6-9
  • Enjoys making connections and learning to debate

Rhetoric

  • Reads the Great Books
  • Approximately grades 9-12
  • Enjoys analyzing and synthesizing ideas and arguments

Flexible Education

Tapestry of Grace is designed to offer a flexible education, meaning that we offer a variety of educational options and allow you to choose the options that suit your family best. You shouldn't try to do everything in Tapestry — every homeschool is different, so just use what works well for yours!

Remember, you are the teacher! Tapestry is your tool, not your master. Each week-plan presents a veritable educational buffet of options: reading assignments, activities, questions to answer, writing assignments, and more! What does all this mean? As with any buffet, you simply can’t eat it all. You must customize this curriculum to your unique family. No one student will do all the suggested reading and activities.

This is the same reason that Tapestry offers weekly assignments. We do not break up assignments by day, as we trust you to know best what fits your family's schedule. However, if a little help to get started would come in handy, please feel free to take a look at these sample charts, filled in for Tapestry of Grace Year 1: