tapestry of grace review

I wrote about our course of study for my eighth grader here. Here is what we’re doing for my first grader, Soleil.

Bible

Tapestry of Grace Bible Survey/Church history selections

I love Tapestry of Grace (TOG) at both ages we’re doing now. We are working our way through the Old testament right now, and I love how it is all connected to our history and literature reading. Also, both girls are in the same time period!

A Little Girl After God’s Own Heart, Elizabeth George

Such a sweet little book! I just got this, and Soleil and I will be doing one character trait each week with our tea.

Scripture memorization

We use the Charlotte Mason system for memorizing scripture.

Daily devotional time

Read a little about Soleil’s quiet time here.

Language Arts

First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind, Jessie Wise. Level 1

People either seem to love or hate this book. I love it! Beyond basic grammar, it includes poetry memorization, picture study, story narration, and copy work. Soleil is always happy to find this book in her workbox. Often, we sit on the couch together for our “language lesson.” I love that it feels like we’re just sitting and chatting.

Abeka Phonics Sounds cards

Soleil reads at a fourth or fifth grade level. I am using these phonics cards mostly so she learns the rules which will come in handy later for spelling. We usually just go through two or three a couple times a week. She loves to be the teacher and go through them with me.

Memoria Press Copybook II

Instead of copying inane sentences about ants on logs, we’re now copying scripture and hymns. Love this book! We do use some of the verses for memorization, and Soleil loves the illustration pages that go with each copy page. Her penmanship has greatly improved with this book. Something about writing out Bible verses just calls for your best work!

Tapestry of Grace Literature selections

Again, perfect books! I have skipped a couple that were based on ancient gods. We briefly covered it and Soleil had a very violent reaction to the whole concept that anyone would worship anyone but the one true God. Another great thing about both girls being in the same time period in history is that Soleil reads her books to Coco and vice-versa.

Tapestry of Grace, Writing Aids

I am supplementing our language lessons with this. So far, we’re making a word bank with the parts of speech. FLL goes a little slowly for us, we’re still on nouns after 8 weeks of school. With this, we’re covering adjectives, verbs, and more.

Various readers

Because Soleil is so advanced in reading, I just let her pick chapter books from the library. She reads daily, and loves it. She loves the American Girl books, but even those can have some older themes. Fortunately, she loves reading the Bible, and that is always appropriate!

SpellQuizzer

I had not intended to do a spelling program this year, but the maker of SpellQuizzer gave me a free copy. It’s so fun, Soleil has been begging to do spelling, so I let her. I’ll write a full review on this soon!

Arithmetic

Math U See Foundations in Math (through Lesson 25).

This is an old version of Math U See I purchased used. It has the accompanying lessons that we’ve come to love, only on VHS . The book is supposed to cover grades 1-3, and I plan to cover first and second grades this year. We’ll hit everything up to multiplication, and cover that next year. We’re also still working on money and time. I do have Soleil watch the lessons with me, then we’ll work on that concept for a couple days or a week, depending on how long it takes her to “get it.” Love homeschool.

World History and Geography

Tapestry of Grace Year 1 Primary history and In-Depth history selections

Oh man, I love this course. The history selections are great! Interesting, fun to read, and I am learning from them, too. My favorite part of this course is our discussions we have before we even start our workboxes. We’ll cover the different threads and discuss the culture, Bible history, and other things I learn in my teacher’s notes. If you haven’t looked into TOG, I highly recommend you do.

Map Aids Geography, Grammar Level

We are doing a very light version of the maps that come with TOG. Sometimes, I do have Soleil label her own, but sometimes I’ll just have her point them out. The geography is pretty comprehensive for first grade. I had to look up many of the terms myself before I could teach them to her. I like to use a children’s dictionary because we can both understand it

Science

Apologia Exploring Creation With Zoology 3: Land Animals of the 6^th Day

This book is for grades 1-6. I only wish I had been homeschooling when Coco was younger so we could have done these! They are absolutely packed with information, and I am amazed at how much Soleil retains. I read this aloud to her, though she often takes over and reads it to me. We love the Charlotte Mason methodology. There’s notebooking, narration, and easy experiments at the end of each lesson. There’s also a cool map-it and track-it section that has me feeling like Kate on Lost. Anyway.

Kingfisher 1^st Animal Encyclopedia

This is just a fun photo-filled supplement. I was unhappy with some of the evolution references, but we just skip those for now. I like to stick this in one of Soleil’s workboxes in between some of the heftier science reading days.

Nature Study Handbook, by Anna Comstock

This is more of a reference for me. We are still getting the hang of nature study and this book is invaluable!

Latin

Memoria Press, Prima Latina DVD Course and student book

Another lesson I am doing alongside Soleil. This course is for up to third grade, so we are taking our time with it. I watch a small portion of the dvd with her and we do lots on the whiteboard. I plan to finish about half the book this year. We take a few weeks per lesson, absorbing the vocabulary, English derivatives, and prayers.

Arts

How Great Thou Art: I Can Do All Things

I wasn’t sure about this book when I saw the pages. It’s a little cluttered-looking, but we are loving it after all. I am having fun going through it with Soleil. There are hundreds of lessons, and we skip around from drawing to painting to markers. She has taken to drawing during much of her free time and has a sketch book nearly filled.

TOG fine arts and activities selections

Fun stuff! I combine our arts and activities for both grades, and the craft books recommended by TOG have come in super-handy. One of my favorites, Old testament days, I got free at our park day.

Classical Kids Music Cds

These are fictional CDs about different composers with their music throughout. They rock! My kids have started listening to classical music while cleaning their room and playing, and can identify several composers. We’ll be studying composers more in depth when we come to their time periods, but this is a great way to get their interest going. Not that we don’t still rock out to Hannah Montana once in a while. ‘Cause we do.

PE

Swimming, volleyball, workout videos, bike riding

I started Soleil out on a point system this year, like her big sister, but I’ve already let that go. She is naturally very active, and I just decided not to worry about grading PE for this year. If I find it becoming a problem to get her moving, I might rethink that. But I don’t see that happening. The girl is always moving.

These are just my main resources. By using workboxes, I can actually fit in many more books, games, and learning activities. It seems like a lot here, but we do very short lessons. One of the Charlotte Mason ideas I just love. We get to cover so much in a week, and short lessons are a good fit for my busy girl. Using narration and just every day conversation, I am very pleased with how much she remembers!

I’m not sure that would be the case if we were spending thirty minutes per subject. That being said, we do read for over thirty minutes aloud sometimes, but that depends on the subject. If it’s a pleasing story, she could listen for hours. If it is lots of new information, like science, I will read for no more than fifteen minutes.

Bible Study/Character Training

Daily devotional time (Prayer, reading, journaling)

Scripture Memorization (using Charlotte Mason’s system)

A Young Woman After God’s Own Heart, Elizabeth George

Coco reads this on her own, a little each day. We discuss it each week at our tea time.

Tapestry of Grace, all Bible selections

TOG Year one covers the books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy.

Tapestry of Grace, all worldview, church history selections

We’re doing a couple of very interesting books on Jewish holidays, religions around the world, and Church history.

Holman Bible Atlas

This can be used with all levels of Tapestry for geography and Bible!

Language Arts

Daily Grams, Junior High through High school level.

Daily grammar warm-ups. These take about five minutes and reinforce grammar concepts learned last year.

Basics of Diagramming, Christian Light Education

A handy little guide I picked up at Rainbow Resource for two bucks. It gives step-by-step diagramming in manageable chunks. Though it’s meant to be a reference, I am teaching straight out of the book once a week. We cover about half a page, or two concepts and do a few sentences on the board. As much as we loved Abeka grammar last year, diagramming was something I did not feel we fully grasped. And by we, I mean we. It is impossible to teach something you don’t understand. This book has made it all better.

Vocabulary From Classical Roots, Book B

Coco is a word-freak like me, so we both happen to love this curriculum. Greek and Latin roots are given for memorization, and words that are derived from those words are assigned each week. We include a drill time each day for about five minutes, and Coco’s vocabulary has greatly increased. After the initial lesson is given each week, which I usually do on Mondays, we spend about 15 minutes a day on vocabulary.

Tapestry of Grace Literature selections

Literature selections for TOG are living history books, all based or written in the time period studied.

Spelling Power

Spelling power has been a favorite of ours. We spend 15 minutes a day working on spelling words that Coco has misspelled, instead of memorizing words she may already know. Love the methodology of this program, for ages 8 and up.

Write Shop I (this is an outside class she is taking)

I am not teaching Coco this class, but I’ll talk about it anyway. I just love this book! Last year, I went to a workshop with Kim Kautzer, the creator and knew I would one day use her product. I did not plan on having someone else teach Coco, but this class was a great opportunity for her to be with some homeschool friends and a great opportunity for me to have someone else do that subjective grading. Coco already loves to write, so it was a natural choice to encourage her in this area.

Arithmetic

Your Teacher.com Complete Pre-algebra course

This site is like a math tutor online. It has step-by-step directions for thousands of problems in their database. You can follow a complete course, as we are doing, or you can supplement it as tutoring for math. You can even enter a page number from a Saxon or other math textbook and it will direct you to tutoring for that lesson. Each lesson contains a video, practice problems, self test, notes, and printable worksheet. Coco’s favorite part is the applause she gets when she answers a self test question correctly. At $2oo a year, it’s a little pricey, but cheaper than hiring a tutor. You can try it for one month for $30.

World History and Geography

Tapestry of Grace Year 1, All Primary and In-Depth resources

We’ll be studying from Creation to the fall of Rome, via some very interesting books. Coco said she never liked history until this year, and I am sure it has to do with TOG and the books they suggest. They are so interesting to read, and instead of lightly covering many topics, she is able to dig deep and learn so much about ancient civilizations. The bonus with TOG is it’s all tied into our Bible readings and God’s hand in history is in all lessons.

TOG Geography, Map Aids year one, Dialectic level maps

This is the subject that scared me the most. I had no idea what all those geography terms meant! Five weeks into TOG, it is now one of our favorite times. I usually schedule two sessions a week where both girls work on their maps and we discuss geography. I have taken to using a children’s dictionary because it puts terms in a way I understand.

Science

Apologia, Exploring Creation Through Physical Science, 2^nd edition

I was so excited to try Apologia this year, and i have not been disappointed. Coco is loving the experiments, and reading in her science book daily has been no problem since it is written to her, in a conversational manner. She has become quite independent with this program!

Foreign language

Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version Spanish I

I absolutely love this program! It includes a headset where you can not only hear the words being pronounced, but also speak them and the program judges your accuracy. Amazing! In the homeschool version, there are worksheets, quizzes, and tests included.

Fine Arts

Legacy Series: Learn and Master Piano DVD Course

This DVD course came very highly recommended. I got it on a half off sale from their site, and made three payments. The nine dvd’s and __ CD’s, and instructional book were well worth it. Coco is progressing quickly, and the teaching is great. You take as much time as you need in between each lesson to master the concept.

How Great Thou Art, Feed My Sheep

What a great resource! There are hundreds of lessons here covering drawing, painting, colored pencils, and more. I am doing the lessons side by side with Coco and am finding that it is not just enjoyable for her, but i am learning as well…which seems to be a common theme this year.

Tapestry of Grace Year 1, Arts and History activities

A few things we have done so far, we have made Egyptian clothes, cartouches, and studied Egyptian art. We have a variety of art and project books that will take us through all of our history studies.

Swimming, volleyball, workout videos, bike riding…anything else we feel like doing!

Both girls are on a point system for PE this year, they have to accumulate a certain amount of points each week by being physically active.