The day has finally, finally come.
After two years of biding my time and patiently preparing…
I am finally unpacking my first year’s plans of Tapestry of Grace.
I first discovered Tapestry when my son was just getting ready for K4, and immediately knew that this was exactly what we wanted from our homeschool experience: the classical education, the whole-family learning approach, the strong emphasis on Bible and church history. I drooled over every free sample they posted, and we waited for the day when my son could read—k4, kindergarten, and now first grade approaches.
Eek! My heart absolutely raced as I opened the box with all of our lesson plans. And then I realized what I was embarking upon. This wasn’t just a year’s worth of plans. This was a year’s worth of plans for four levels of learning, or in essence 1st-12th grade. But I paused before I panicked and took a moment with my “Teacher Training” CD, which began with a session titled “Out of the Shrink Wrap.” It was exactly where I needed to start.
As simplistic as it sounded, I didn’t dare open the shrink wrap until I knew what to do with all of the material. Marcia Somerville, founder of the program, suggested one of two methods. First, you could purchase six 1″ binders: four for the teacher plans (1 binder per unit); one for the student activities; and one for you the teacher to actually plan from. The second option was to purchase two 3″ binders and two 2″ binders, splitting the teaching plans between the two larger binders.
I went for the second option. Since it’s our first year, we opted for both the DE or digital lesson plans as well as the printed plans. My intention is to take out three weeks worth of plans at a time for my actual teaching notebook and leave the rest of the massive volumes on the shelf. For quick reference back and forth, I’ll make use of the computer; for the actual day-to-day planning, I’ll go to the plans I’ve pulled for that purpose. However, I will say this, if you do intend to be referencing the written plans exclusively, the 1″binders are probably a good idea, since there is not much room in my 3″ binders for turning back and forth a lot.
So, with a 100% rebate in Staples rewards on notebooks, I stocked up (for free!) with the notebooks we’d need and bravely peeled off the shrink-wrap. It’s a monumental moment. Our Tapestry journey has begun.
Want to keep following our Tapestry journey?
This post contains affiliate links to Tapestry of Grace.
