Home » Tapestry of Grace » Exploring Tapestry
Tapestry of Grace is a homeschool curriculum: a plan
of study that helps parents provide a Christian, classical education
using a guided unit study approach, with the history of the world
as the core organizational theme. From Grades K–12, all
students cycle through world history every four years,
with all ages studying the same slice of history each week, each
at their own learning level. Detailed lesson plans and discussion
outlines enable parents to be their children’s primary teachers
and mentors and shape their students’ biblical worldviews.
Tapestry covers the humanities: history, church
history, literature, geography, fine arts, government, philosophy,
and writing & composition. Tapestry does not include
a phonics program, science, math, grammar, spelling, or foreign
language. Lampstand Press
does, however, recommend complementary logic, spelling, and grammar
programs.
Week to week, Tapestry integrates all subjects:
people, events, and movements are studied in the time period in
which they were most influential. Lessons are presented
from all modalities: visual, auditory, and tactile. For younger
children, a variety of hands-on ideas are provided each week. A
range of educational options are presented, from which students
and parents choose the best content and quantity for their unique
families. Although the teacher is in control of the students’
assignments, rich weekly studies are always provided for each individual
family.
Cyclical education means using the 12 years of education to their fullest by revisiting eras of history multiple times as your students mature, so that they can learn more each time.
Everything you want to study happened somewhere between Creation and the present day, so history is the main highway of your homeschooling journey. Tapestry divides history into four sections that your whole family can study in a single school year. These are called “year plans.”
In Year 1 of Tapestry, your family studies ancient Egypt. A young student will learn basic facts. As you continue studying history, your child will keep a mental picture of Egypt. And over the four school years, he will build up a vocabulary of basic knowledge about everything from Egypt to the present.
After journeying through the whole history of the world, your family will cycle back to Year 1. Your young child will be four years older, and he will not only remember information from his first time studying Egypt, but he will also be ready to make connections and learn more facts this time around. Revisiting the same era of history multiple times allows for deeper understanding each time and making more and more sophisticated connections between facts of history and events of today that add enjoyment to any area of study!
An integrated approach means that kids study concurrent topics in different school subjects and with different learning styles, but all in a related way. Since this holds their interest, they tend to retain what they learn longer as different disciplines inform and strengthen one another.
Using this proven method, core assignments in history, literature, geography, and fine arts are all interrelated. A student might study ancient Rome, the Aeneid, Italian geography, and mosaics in the same week, for example. Related electives are also offered for upper-level students in government, philosophy, and Bible survey/church history (the last is also included for lower-level students in many weeks). Each discipline reinforces and stimulates the others to deeper, more memorable learning.
Not only are the subject matters of these different disciplines related to one another, but Tapestry also offers a variety of approaches to the week’s one topic — visual, auditory, and tactile. Week by week, you choose each child’s approach to the topic, and how many ways he will approach it.
Older students especially benefit from integrated writing. Their analytical skills are strengthened as they read, discuss what they have read, and then write about what they have read and discussed. Seeing these interwoven subjects, both up close and as part of the big picture, shapes students’ worldview and builds their faith — and yours!
Multilevel learning makes Tapestry the right fit for families of all sizes because all of your children learn together. Though they study differently, and on different levels, they can all focus on the same main topics and thus learn together.
We use four learning levels:
Lower Grammar: non-readers who love facts (grades K–3)¹
Upper Grammar: independent readers who love
facts (4–6)
Dialectic: students who connect & discuss (6–9)
Rhetoric: students who analyze and synthesize
ideas (9–12)
Other curricula that have each of your students studying separate topics divide students and hinder your ability to teach. Tapestry offers K–Mom education, providing weekly Teacher’s Notes that allow you to read in summary what your children are learning in detail. Finally, you can stop merely administrating your homeschool and start being your children’s primary teacher.
Though the learning levels differ, because you are all on one topic each week, a wonderful family conversation develops as you learn together. Even Dad can be included with the use of the Pop Quiz² audio summary and question card sets that will get him up to speed on each week’s topic.
¹ Grade levels and learning levels don’t fully correlate, and vary from child to child.
² Available separately from Lampstand Press.