at home with Guinever

There is a man who comes to our house 6 days a week who 3 year old Mary calls the mail man (and so does everyone else.)

Every once in awhile there is a man who drives to our house and brings us pizza. She calls him “the pizza man.”

Today there was a new man. He brought us 2 area rugs. She called him the “the carpet man.”

Mary asked if she could have a carpet in her room too. A pink one. I have actually been looking for a little rug for her room, but just haven’t found the right one yet, so the answer to her question was yes. I told her that I would buy her one when I found one. She said, no, that the carpet man would bring her one.

When my oldest was in kindergarten and I was teaching him how to read, I was planning ahead for the future. I knew I wanted a literature based curriculum rather than just a pile of textbooks. I knew I wanted something that was both classical and Christian. As I looked at a few programs that fit this description, I kept coming back to Tapestry of Grace. I thought about it for a year, visited the website every once in awhile, and asked my friend who was already using it a few questions. Then I took the plunge and bought my classic Tapestry which I have since upgraded to the new and improved re-designed.

what I love about Tapestry now that I’ve been using it for 3 years

• I like that for each week, the book lists for different levels are side by side so I can easily choose a literature book from a higher learning level for my son to read.
• Elementary is divided into two stages–lower and upper.
• The books have been ones that I would choose. The staff at Tapestry has done all the footwork for me in tracking down wonderful resources so I don’t have to weed through a bunch of lesser quality books. Tapestry chooses living books instead of twaddle.
• The student activity pages (SAPs) vary in format so my children get practice in different skills like multiple choice, matching, crossword puzzles, word searches, and short answers. Plus, SAPs are quick and easy to print from my computer using the CD or to photocopy from my year plan. I can put everything for one week (or the whole unit) into a folder for my kids to use.
• Writing Aids is a wonderful reference book with CD which my children and I will use now through high school. The pre-writing worksheets help in the writing process and the teaching tips are helpful. Even my husband–who is a professional journalist/editor–was impressed with Writing Aids.
• There is a wonderful online community of other users in the forums and yahoo support groups. I can’t tell you how many great ideas I get from the ladies on the loose threads list (one of the yahoo groups) including planning ideas, sample schedules, making notebooks for each child, and lively discussion about page protectors, plus plenty of fun off-topic things like sharing prayer requests and recipes.
• I am so thankful for the map aids. All the maps for each year are on one CD so I don’t have to go searching for them online or in various atlases. The menu on the CD shows the maps for different levels for each week. All I have to do is click on the maps I want and then print them out and put them in the folder with the activity pages. Very handy!
• The teacher’s notes contain a “heads-up” of content in certain books that some parents may find inappropriate for their children.

reasons I chose Tapestry for my homeschool

First and most importantly, Tapestry of Grace is a Christian curriculum where the teacher’s notes show the hand of God throughout history.

Secondly, it is based on the classical model of learning, so my children will study the same period of history three times–just at different learning levels. For example, we started with the ancients in 1st grade, then we’ll roll back around to the ancients in 5th and then again in the 9th grade.

Another reason I chose Tapestry is because my children will all be at the same period in history. That appealed to me with my growing family. It makes planning and teaching simpler and more efficient. As the years pass and I’m teaching four or more children, it will definitely be great to have everyone studying the same thing.

I find the design of the curriculum very handy. There are 4 year plans. Each year plan has 4 units. Each unit has 9 weeks which simplifies the 180 day school year. If the year weren’t broken down into units, we wouldn’t have the feeling of accomplishment that comes with finishing something nearly as often.

benefits of using TOG with lower elementary

A thought bouncing around on various homeschooling forums is that Tapestry is not suited for lower grammar aged kids. I disagree. It is true that the first few years of school, the emphasis in teaching will be in character development and learning to read, print, and do arithmetic.

By using Tapestry with my young children, I am learning how to use this curriculum and I’ll know it better by the time my kids reach middle school and high school– or to use the classical ed terms, the dialectic and rhetoric levels of learning. Plus, the books my kids read from Tapestry’s book lists are delightful and informative.

Story of the World, a very popular homeschooling resource for elementary age children is listed as one of the alternative resources. In other words, SOTW has been broken down week by week with the pages corresponding with the TOG plan.

A lot of moms describe Tapestry as the dessert for younger kids, and the main course for older kids. Because I’m partial to dessert, TOG is just right for me. I’m just trying to get all my dessert in before we’re loaded down with the meat and potatoes and lasagna which I also love, by the way.

Tapestry is not curriculum in a box

Tapestry is a plan. It is a buffet with lots to pick and choose from. I don’t get everything I need in a little box and it doesn’t tell me every move to make. There are no checklists. I like this, probably because I don’t like to be told what to do. (I can just hear my husband and dad nodding in agreement with this comment) Even Marcia Somerville, author of the curriculum, says that she doesn’t do everything.

Because Tapestry is a plan, more resources–mainly books–are needed to use Tapestry. Books can be purchased through TOG or elsewhere, borrowed from the library or from friends, and sometimes I even discover a needed book already on my shelves.

I have found it’s best to buy the year plan first–and I like the bundle package with the “extras.” I look it over for awhile and then decide what additional books I will need to purchase after checking to see what my library has available.

Tapestry of Grace saves me money over other curriculum

Instead of having to buy 12 separate years of curriculum, I will only need to buy four with Tapestry. The year plan is everything I need to teach all my children from kindergarten through high school. And it’s so much more than just history. By using the chronological study of history as a guide, Tapestry integrates church history, literature, writing, fine arts, and geography, all with a biblical worldview. Plus, Tapestry offers government for high school.

Where else can I get everything I need to teach all my children these five core subject for such a low price? A year plan costs $225. And I’ll be coming back to it again and again. I don’t think I’ll ever sell my Tapestry, but for those who do, it has a great resale value.

Plus, Tapestry sells so much more than their year plans at the bookshelf. One of the main differences in the redesigned curriculum and the “old” classic is in the book lists. There are fewer book choices in the re-design. All of the “primary” resources are on one page and so it is so easy. These are all books that are in print and they can be purchased directly from Tapestry. On the opposite page is a chart of books called alternative resources. These are great books, some of them are out of print and they are not sold at Tapestry’s bookshelf.

Tapestry’s website is growing and improving

In the four years that I’ve been using TOG’s website, it keeps getting better and better. A new design was just launched and it has made finding things easier. My absolute favorite section of the website is the power search tool at the bookshelf. This is a search engine that allows me to pull up all the books used for each level in each unit or I can narrow the search by subject if desired. I print the list of books so I can have it for easy reference. Plus, I can save the books that I want to buy to a planning list at the bookshelf.

looking ahead to the future

Although I am enjoying the grammar years, I do look forward to the dialectic stage that is coming soon with my oldest son when he will start making connections and we will have discussions, guided by the teacher’s notes. The worksheets for him will be deeper and require a lot of thought. I don’t even want to think about the rhetoric stage and high school yet! It seems so far away, but it will be here before I know it and Tapestry will serve us well as my children prepare for life after high school.

try Tapestry of Grace for free

You can download a 3 week sample of TOG or request a CD. You can choose between Ancient Egypt or Colonial America or if you can’t decide, try them both! These sample mini units contain everything that Tapestry has to offer.

Don’t be overwhelmed if you print off all these pages from your computer. Remember this is absolutely everything that Tapestry has to offer for all grades. Unless you have children in all 4 learning levels, you won’t need all the information.

The samples include all the “extras” as well as the weekly plans contained in a unit. You’ll be able to see the map aids, pop quiz, evaluations, writing aids and lap books.

So try it, ask questions on the forum or in the yahoo groups.

How was that for a headline? Yes, our little Jackson managed to get locked in my bedroom today with no one with him to unlock the door and get him out. I called Todd at work and asked him for the best course of action. I had already tried the credit card, nail file and screwdriver tricks that always work on primetime TV in mere seconds. I couldn’t take the door down because the hinges were in the bedroom, not on my side of the door.

Todd told me to take the door knob off. Alex went to find a philips screwdriver for me while I talked with Jackson. I wanted him close to the door so I knew he wasn’t opening drawers and emptying them in the bathroom.

I unscrewed the doorknob without too much trouble. I pulled half of the doorknob out and then carefully pushed the other side off into the room. Now I had a little hole where I could peer at Jackson through the door. He thought this was hilarious. He was lying down with my toothbrush in his mouth which is harmless enough (much better than emptying the contents of my jewelery armoire onto the floor). He hadn’t cried at all during the 15 minutes since he had been in the room alone.

Jackson took great fascination in his half of the doorknob that appeared quite suddenly in the room. He picked it up and tried to put it back on the door while I was trying to unlock it with a screwdriver. Then Alex got a pencil and tried to figure it out. Jackson took possession of the pencil during this ordeal.

I called Todd. I couldn’t figure out how to unlock the door. If it were any of the other kids, I would just have them wait in there for a few hours until Todd got home. I could shove cheese sticks and beef jerkey through the little hole in the door. He reminded me that anyone else would have been able to unlock the door and get out. Yeah, right.

Todd told me I would just have to look at it and figure it out. I tried that. I was stumped. Todd didn’t want to come home. He decided to call one of our neighbors. The nice gentleman came and quickly assessed the situation. At this point, Jackson started making some noise. He sounded worried to see a strange man fooling with his peephole, so I talked to him and then he got quiet again. My neighbor asked for a screwdriver and then about 10 seconds later, the door was open. I was really thankful that Jackson was safe and that Todd didn’t have to bike home for a 10 second job. That wouldn’t have gone over very well.

Jackson didn’t really do much “damage,” which is quite out of character. He had my toothbrush which I already mentioned, my makeup brush was on the floor and all 3 drawers were opened in the bathroom but nothing else was out of place. He had emptied a tissue box so there were kleenex scattered on one side of the room. That’s all. Not too bad for having free reign for about half an hour.

I don’t know exactly when the Dillards at Turfland mall on Harrodsburg is closing but there is a big banner out front saying that it is, and there’s a big mess inside indicative of a store closing. When I say a big mess, I just mean it looks like a warehouse store rather than a department store.  There are no pretty displays.  Cardboard boxes filled with slippers and bras and belts and who knows what else line tables throughout the store.

I went today and only had time to look at the kids’ clothing and the shoes. Clothing is marked 75% off and then you take an additional 20% off of that. I wasn’t impressed with the girls’ clothes at all–either the prices or the styles, but I found some hooded sweatshirts for Alex and Caleb for under $5.  All the winter hats and gloves are $1.99 so I got 2 pairs of gloves (nice thinsulate) and put them away with our winter coats. My boys rarely wore gloves this winter. I’m not sure if it’s because all their gloves were too small or because it only snowed about 3 times and when it did, the snow had melted by noon.

I plan to go back and look at the women’s clothes and send Todd to look in the men’s department.  I glanced at the domestics but everything still had hefty prices on them. I did find a cute little $2 Easter hat for Mary.

If you go, go alone (no young kids) and give yourself plenty of time to dig through things and search. Even though the racks are well-organized by size, it still took time to find anything. I’ll let you know when the prices go lower. Seventy-five percent may seem like a big discount, but when you’re starting out at Dillard’s full price, that’s not very low on most name brands there.  If you find something, please tell me all about it.

A new grocery store opened in Lexington a few months ago and I’ve been there several times. It’s definitely worth the drive from the south side to the north side of town. At the right time of day, it only takes 15 minutes which isn’t bad at all.

It’s Aldis. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. They’re been around for awhile–just not in Lexington. Before, I had to drive to Danville to go to Aldi which I haven’t done in a few years. Most of the food there is their own brand made especially for Aldi, but they do get name brands sometimes too. I’ll just list a few things from today’s receipt:

• 5 pounds yukon gold potatoes $1.89
• Freschetta brand pizza $3.99
• 1 pound butter $1.89
• 1 pound bag of baby carrots 69¢
• 1 gallon milk $1.99
• can of whipped cream $1.39
• 9.5 oz. can of cashews $1.99
• 200 oz of ultra liquid laundry detergent (like Tide) $6.99
• 1 dozen eggs 99¢
• 50 count ibuprofen 99¢

tips for shopping at Aldis

Take a quarter with you. You’ll need it to get a shopping cart. If you forget your quarter, maybe someone will be nice enough to give you their cart in the parking lot; I’ve never tested this. Alex thinks they should charge more than a quarter. I like the carts because there is room for two little ones side by side. I need this!

Take cash or a debit card. That’s all they take. No checks or credit.

When it’s time to leave, you have to have all your stuff out of your cart before they’ll start checking you out, so be quick! And watch out. They scan and get the groceries back in your cart so quick, you won’t know what just happened.

Take your own bags. I usually leave them in the car and then just bag out in the parking lot (if it were freezing or raining, I would do it in the store and they have a long table ledge at the front of the store for doing this). You can buy bags at the store or just go bagless. I see people with boxes sometimes too.

the prices and quality at Aldis

I think the best savings for me have been from dairy products–butter, eggs, milk,and cheese. I wish I could say the same of cereal, but I buy whole grain cereals and they just don’t have any of those. Ditto for breads. All white.

I have been pleased with all their meats–both fresh and frozen. We had some great pork shoulder steak that was $1.99 lb. The very perishable fresh produce doesn’t look appealing (grapes, strawberries, bananas), but the hardier items like potatoes, apples, onions, carrots have all been fine and the prices have been great. You really can’t beat 69 cents for a bag of carrots except when they were 44 cents when the store first opened.

I have never been happy with an off brand of laundry detergent and trust me, I’ve tried them all since I do 15-20 loads a week and I’m trying to find a cheaper way to do laundry. But this one gets the clothes clean, the smell doesn’t give me a headache, and no one is breaking out in skin rash (my rules for laundry detergent). My preference has been ALL for many years, but about a year ago, they drastically raised their price so I’m very happy to find a new laundry detergent that costs less.

The only thing my family has not liked is the frozen fish sticks.

I have two friends who have been keeping me updated on their adoption journeys. One family has been waiting to adopt a daughter from China. Another family has been waiting for a baby through open adoption in Kentucky but also applied for an open international adoption.

On Friday, just an hour apart, I received e-mails from my two friends. Both have received the news that yes, the adoptions are going forward. My friend has a daughter in China who they will hopefully bring home this Fall. My other friend has 2 sons in Haiti who they will go visit in May but they won’t be able to bring them home for about a year when the adoption finalizes. So the waiting continues for both of them.

I pray for them peace and grace and safety in their travels and much joy once their families come together.

My dear Alex is thankful that spelling season is over. That’s what he told his dad. Back in January, he participated in the Fayette county homeschool spelling bee. He won for his age group. There were only 2 third graders so I tried to not make a big deal out of it. We attended the county wide bee to cheer on the homeschoolers who made it to that level (next year Alex will be old enough to move one) and we also met some other friends there who were competing for TCA. I think Alex was more interested in the snack table than watching the spellers.

We continued to study the words because we had another spelling bee with our co-op in February, but it was snowed out or was that rained out–I forget which. It was rescheduled for last week. Somehow, I got recruited to pronounce the words. The last two first graders standing exhausted their entire word list and we had to move onto the 2nd grade word list. One of the judges whispered to me to move on to the 3rd grade list so there would be some words left for the 2nd graders when it was their turn. But it didn’t get that far.

Alex was the last 3rd grader standing.  Woohoo

We came across this picture the other night. Mary opened a frame and here I was. This photo had been foisted on me by my aunt when she was going through my grandmother’s belongings a couple years ago. Who else would want this picture of me?

Mary asked who it was. I told her. Then she said, “You look like a boy.”

The reason I must look like a boy to her is because this was taken in my pre-eyebrow plucking era. It certainly can’t be because of the hair. All the men and boys in our house have short crew cuts. The next morning, Mary found the picture again, and still all she could say about it was, “You look like a boy, Mom.” That from a 3 year old.

I like the sweater. My Aunt Beth gave it to me and I wore it constantly.

I can’t wait to show you the picture that I found under this one when I took it out of the frame to scan it. It is much worse.