Tapestry Tea

Hostessing a Tea is 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 win-win for both you and your friends. They get to hear about an award-winning way to breathe new life into their homeschools, and you may receive cash benefits if they order using your affiliate code. (See more on this on the tab above: "How do I benefit?")

If you would like to learn more 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 hostessing a Tapestry Tea may be just right for you.

In this Tapestry Tea resource center, we offer a variety of aids from which you can choose the ones most helpful to you as a hostess.

• Guest packets for easy printing (or you can order them already printed)
• Short streaming video sessions that explain various aspects of the curriculum
• Links to three-weeks samples of a year-plan and its supplements
• Longer webinars that give specific homeschooling and co-op assistance

In order to get credit for being a hostess, make sure that you've signed up with our Affiliate Program. (See more on this on the tab above: "How do I benefit?")

Before you have your Tea, sign up for our Tapestry Affiliate program (see the above tab: "How do I benefit?" for details).

As a hostess, think about the following questions:

• Whom do you want to invite to your Tea?
• Where in your home do you want to host the Tea?
• Are there Tapestry assignments from your children that you'd like to show?

Prepare Guest Packets that contain brochures and flyers that guests can take home for further perusal. Items to include in your Packets are listed in the tab above called “What do I show my guests?” If you prefer to purchase these items, they are part of the Tapestry Tea Kits that you can purchase from the Lampstand Press Store.

Prepare for your Tea by thinking 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 the screen?
• 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 some of your own Tapestry materials. 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 at the time of your Tea. This will be very valuable information to pass along to your guests.
• Peruse the tab above called "What do I show my guests?" to see the resources available for your Tea.

During your Tea you have a good deal of flexibility in your demonstration and explanations. 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.
• Briefly go through the Guest Packet, and let guests know that they can take it home for further perusal.
• Specifically highlight the curriculum supplements (Map Aids, Writing Aids, etc.) and Bookshelf Central information in the catalog.
• We encourage you to show your own copy of the curriculum, supplements, books Tapestry recommends, 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!
• You may want to highlight certain parts of our website that you've found helpful, and show them the great support available at the Forum and at our Help Center.
• 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 at 1-800-705-7487!
• If any of your guests would like to make a purchase, encourage them to use the Buying Guide at our Store. This way, moms will not miss out on a supplement they will need later.
• 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 Follow-Up Links in your Tea Resource Center.

• Many moms will want to talk to their husbands before making a buying decision, and may have new questions after doing so.
• Be sure to contact each guest at least once to make sure they understand the available options for 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.

What do I show my guests?

The idea is simple: We have provided a host of resources using various 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!

Hostess Letter

Access here or order as part of the Tapestry Tea Kit.

Guest Packet

Access below or order as part of the Tapestry Tea Kit.

Simple Start GuideThis is a succinct overview of the contents of Tapestry. Journey BrochureThis is a visual overview of Tapestry that unfolds into a beautiful full-size Map of the Humanities. Year 1 Scope and Sequence Year 2 Scope and Sequence Year 3 Scope and Sequence Year 4 Scope and SequenceThese give the big-picture idea of what you'll see in the landscape of history for each year-plan. CatalogThis describes all of our products and gives information about where to purchase resource books.

Short Streaming Videos

The 3 Big Ideas of Tapestry Exploring Tapestry Digital Edition

Longer Webinars

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 three-week samples of the Tapestry curriculum to access and print as much of the content as you wish. Learn the benefits of Tapestry for your family by working your way through these guided samples. You'll discover that there are also samples of the supplementary products: Map Aids, Writing Aids, Evaluations and Pop Quiz.

Follow-up Links

Exploring Tapestry Free Digital Edition Trial Help Center Buying Guide

How do I benefit by holding a Tea?

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.

• Affiliate payouts are only credited to orders that others place and associate with your affiliate code or email address.
• This program is designed as a reward for spreading the word about Tapestry, not as a buyer’s discount program. You cannot gain credit on your own personal sales.
• You can use this program 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 as they check out.

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 on this page 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 affiliate program is our affiliate management software, which can provide 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 visited 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 the ready-made affiliate hyperlinks outlined below will 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!

Many homeschool moms don't have a blog or website, so we'll start this introduction to power tools 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. We 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 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 code, 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 at all, you can change the color, width, or text in the ad box.