Tapestry Tea

A fun, creative way to share Tapestry of Grace with your friends in the comfort of your home.

Invite a few of your friends over for tea (or coffee), and use your choice of our promotional flyers, videos, sample week-plans, or other online aids to help you explain what Tapestry is and how it works.

When you share with friends in this way, it’s a win-win. They get to hear about an award-winning way to breathe new life into their homeschools, and you can receive cash benefits if they order using your affiliate code. (See more on this on the tab above: “How do I benefit?")

If you need to know about Tapestry itself, click here.

About Teas

If you love the idea of sharing Tapestry, or have ever wanted to start a co-op in your area, then a Tapestry Tea may be just right for you.

In this Tapestry Tea resource center, we offer you variety of aids from which you choose the ones most helpful for you in holding your Tea. Here are some of the things you will find:

• Learn about the benefits to you and to your friends in holding a Tea
• Print any or all of the Tapestry Tea materials that we have created to help you share about Tapestry with your guests.
• See planning aids and a suggested schedule for your Tea.
• Watch short video sessions that explain various aspects of the curriculum, and consider sharing one or more of these during your Tea.
• Easily send links to free samples to your guests before or after your Tea.

In order to get credit from your Tea, make sure you that you’ve signed up with our Affiliate Program. (See more on this on the tab above: “How do I benefit?")

If you don’t have high-speed internet, or if your computer is not handy for use during your Tea, then you may want to order these same materials already printed. We can ship these to you for a small fee. Click here to order the printed materials, and please choose your shipping method with your Tea date in mind.

Before you have your Tea, you will want to sign up for our Tapestry Affiliate program (see the above tab: “How do I benefit?” for details). Any orders placed by your guests using your email address will result in a payment (via check or PayPal) for you. (You do not, however, get any credit for your own personal purchases.)

When considering holding a Tapestry Tea, the first things you might want to think about are these: Whom do you want to invite to your tea? Where in your home do you want to host the tea? And what are you going to show your guests? Ideas for this last question include samples from your own copy of Tapestry, videos that run on your computer, and some promotional materials from this site that you print out for your guests’ use. Below are a few of the printable resources that we offer:

Each guest packet contains brochures and flyers that you’ll want to point out to them briefly, and they can take them home for further perusal.

• The Simple Start Guide is succinct overview of the contents of Tapestry.
• The Journey Brochure is an overview of Tapestry and unfolds into a beautiful full-size Map of the Humanities.
• The Scope & Sequence gives a big-picture idea of what you’ll see in the landscape of history for each year-plan.
• The Lampstand Press Products Catalog describes our supplemental products and gives information about resource books.

Introduction Videos: On the list of possibilities are a number of short videos which explain various aspects of Tapestry. If your home’s layout allows it, consider showing one or more live online during your tea. See a growing list of videos under the “What do I show my guests?” tab above.

In preparing for your Tea you’ll want to think through a few key details.

• Consider your seating arrangements, especially if you plan to use a TV or computer monitor. Will all the guests be able to see what you show?
• What refreshments will you serve? Remember, keep it simple and neat—finger food is better than gooey delights for this event!
• You can also plan to set out whatever of your own Tapestry materials you’d like to show your guests. Remember to make your display manageable: this is not the time to overwhelm guests with all the fantastic work your kids have done. Consider setting out only small samples of various aspects of the curriculum to give guests the gist of how the curriculum works for your family, and emphasize that all families implement Tapestry differently!
• Plan to visit our website (or give us a call) to see what sales or specials we have available (and for how long they’re active). This will be very valuable information to pass along to your guests.

During your Tea you have a great amount of flexibility in how you run things. However, we do have some specific recommendations:

• Make sure to share your own experience with Tapestry!
• Use some or all of the videos online (or on the purchased DVD) if practicable.
• Go through the material you’ve printed briefly, and let guests know that they can take them home for further perusal.
• Specifically highlight the curriculum supplements (MapAids, Writing Aids, etc.) and resource book information in the catalog.
• Feel encouraged to show your own copy of the curriculum, supplements, books we use, and a few of your children’s projects to the guests. This is a chance for them to get a hands-on look at Tapestry products!
• You may want to highlight certain parts of our website that you’ve found helpful, and show them the great support available to them at the Forum.
• Keep your talk short: no more than a half-hour is our strong recommendation.
• Give guests a chance to ask questions and feel free to direct them to our friendly customer service staff for anything you’re not sure about. If your tea is during the daytime, you could even call us right then!
• Make sure that your guests have your affiliate code, and remind them to use it when placing their orders, so that you get credit. Your guests will want you to be rewarded for your time and effort in letting them know about such a great homeschooling resource!

After the Tea you may also want to consider using the direct links in your Tea Resource Center and via your Affiliate aids to follow up with your guests.

• Many moms will want to talk to their husbands before making such a large buying decision, and may have new questions after doing so.
• Be sure to contact each guest at least once to make sure they are clear on their options with Tapestry products and specials.
• There is no time limit on guests’ orders in terms of your affiliate credits, so encourage them to take their time, and assure them that they can call you at any time.

The idea is simple: We have provided a host of resources using different media. Choose the ones that work best for you and your guests! During the half-hour that you talk, simply share some of your own experiences, then use the brochures and videos provided below to explain more detailed points. Most important of all: have fun!

View and Print Documents

Tea Hostess Letter Journey Brochure Simple Start Guide Lampstand Press Products Year 1 Scope and Sequence Year 2 Scope and Sequence Year 3 Scope and Sequence Year 4 Scope and Sequence

Videos

The 3 Big Ideas of Tapestry Exploring Tapestry Digital Edition

Pre-recorded Webinars

To view: Right Click on link below and Save file to your computer.

Tips for Teaching a Houseful Writing Workshop Session 1 Writing Workshop Session 2 The Nearness of God is my Good Considering Co-op Options What Is a Virtual Co-op? How to Start and Run a Virtual Co-op

Free Samples

Use these 3-week, printable samples of Tapestry curriculum to access and print as much of the content as you wish. See the benefits of Tapestry for your family by going on a 3-week mini-unit study.

Tutorial Trials

See how Tapestry and its supplements work together to provide one great education with these guided samples.

• 3-week samples not just of Tapestry, but also of supplementary products: MapAids, WritingAids, Evaluations, and PopQuiz.
• Includes digital sticky notes throughout the sample that explain better how you use it in different situations and with different family members

Digital Edition Trial

Full 3-week sample of Tapestry DE Year 1 (without supplements)

• See how the DE interface will work on your computer.
• Check out useful features like searching, printing just the sections you need.
• Save money by viewing pages onscreen - no need to print unless you want to!

When you hold a Tea (or share about Tapestry in any context) we seek to reward you with cash that is credited to you through our Affiliate Program. Please note: cash awards are only given to orders that others place and associate with your email address. You cannot gain credit on your own personal sales. This program is designed as a tool for spreading the word about Tapestry, not as a buyer’s discount program. Our affiliate management software provides a whole set of "power tools" that make it easy to share about Tapestry online, by email, or in person. You also can use it when you share person to person (such as at Teas or conference booths) by simply asking people to use either your email address or your affiliate code. Once you sign up to be an affiliate, you’ll have access to a personalized control panel. The information is an overview of the control panel that you’ll be working with after signing up.

Start by signing up for the Tapestry Affiliate Program.

The heart of our redesigned Affiliate Program is our new affiliate management software, which provides a whole set of "power tools" that make it easy to share Tapestry of Grace online, by email, or in person. Let's take a look at your personalized control panel to see what you have to work with!

Affiliate Tools

Start by clicking the "Affiliate Tools" tab or icon. (It's the middle tab, and it's also the picture with the little wrench.) When you click it, you should see a set of icons for the various "Marketing Tools." These include:

• Email Ads
• Banners
• Text Links
• Text Ads

All the Affiliate Tools are designed for a single purpose: they exist to give you credit for introducing people to Tapestry of Grace. This only works for new people who haven't previously been to our website. (If your friends have already been to our website, they should already be registered as a "lampstand" contact. We've been working for years to let people know about Tapestry, so it's only fair that we should get credit for the people we have reached on our own!)

Most of our hyperlinks jump to the "Exploring Tapestry" page on our website, here. That's our most complete introduction to Tapestry. We can link to any page we want, so just let us know if there's something special you'd like to promote!

Most homeschool moms don't have a blog or website, so we'll start with "Email Ads." They're perfect for anybody with email. The rest of the tools are intended to work with blogs or websites.

Email Ads
Email ads contain suggested text with an all-important link. I would strongly encourage you to test out each ad by sending it to yourself first—just copy the suggested text (including the link) and paste it into your own email program. Send it, receive it, and try clicking the link to make sure it goes where you want it to go. Once you like the results, start emailing it to friends who might be interested.

Got your own email you'd like to send to invite people to the link we've provided? That's no problem! Replace our "ad" text with your own. Just don't change the hyperlinked bit—that needs to remain the same for you to get credit for your sale.

Banners
The first Affiliate Tool listed is "Banners." If you don't have a blog or other website, you can cut and paste the html code we provide to link your page to our site. If you have a blog, you probably already know how this works—each person who clicks the graphic image will be redirected to one of our pages, and you'll get credit for the click if your friend hasn't previously been to the Tapestry of Grace website.

Try it out in a blog post—if you like the way it looks and acts, add it to your sidebar. (Email scott @ lampstandpress . com if adding stuff to your sidebar scares you—we'll work it out!)

Text Links
"Text Links" are just like "Banners" without the pictures. They're very short and very straightforward. Each one shows a little bit of text with a hyperlink to the TOG webiste. (If you know how to read html, you can change the text we've provided. Don't change the hyperlink, though—it's the only way our system knows how to give your credit.)

Text Ads
Text ads are also designed for websites. They combine a hyperlink with a little explanation in an html table. If you know html atall, you can change the color, width, or text in the ad box.