Disclosure: I received a free copy of Tapestry of Grace Primer to review and was compensated for my time. The opinions in this post are based on my own experience using this curriculum with my children. Please see my disclosure policy for more details.
For the past 5 years, my children and I have used Tapestry of Grace as our core history curriculum – the curriculum thread that runs through every child in our homeschool. While each of my children work on their own level for phonics, spelling, and math, history is taught one-room schoolhouse style here at the Hill House!
The beauty of Tapestry of Grace is that you can teach the same time period of history, giving individual attention to each child’s stage of academics. My 1st grader is clearly not on the same level academically as my 5th grader, but with Tapestry, I can tailor assignments so we all learn together.
Over the past 6 weeks, my younger girls – ages 5 and 6 1/2 – and I have enjoyed learning with Tapestry Primer.
Tapestry Primer was just published in the last 18 months, so it was not available when my oldest child was in this age range.
Oh my, how I wish it had been!
I spent hours learning the year-long Tapestry of Grace plan with a 6, 4, 2, and newborn, and while it was just what I was looking for, Tapestry Primer would have been the perfect fit! I’m so thrilled for homeschooling families that can now take advantage of this marvelous curriculum for their young children.
If you’re interested in teaching history to your children which shows God’s Hand all throughout the ages, make sure you give Tapestry Primer a serious look.
It is a doable, practical way to teach your young children about His Story, while using excellent books and hands-on activities.
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What is Tapestry Primer?
Tapestry Primer is a thorough, literature-based, hands-on approach to learning history for Kindergarten and First Graders.
Because it is written with a Biblical worldview, God’s Hand and plan are woven throughout the reading assignments and activities.
Tapesty Primer is a gentle, relaxed way to learn about history, written to use over 1 or 2 school years.
Components of Tapestry Primer
Each set of Tapestry Primer comes with 4 components:
→ Primer Handbook – The Primer Handbook contains each mini-unit already planned for mom. You simply write on your personal record keeping sheet what you’d like to accomplish for the week. Or you can simply leave this page open and mark off items as you and your children complete them.
The Handbook contains reading assignments for history and literature, hands-on activities, simple memory work, and geography helps.
→ Primer Guidebook: In my opinion, the Guidebook is the star of Tapestry Primer! As a homeschool mom who had a pitiful grasp of history prior to teaching TOG to my children, this book is a must read.
The Guidebook is packed with all of the background information needed to teach your children the weekly lessons. It covers the big picture of the time period you’re studying with your children, including all of the main points condensed into a few pages.
It literally took me 5-8 minutes to read the Guidebook section for each week. As a new homeschool mom, this would have been the most important component for me.
→ Primer Activity Book: The Primer Activity Book contains several fun pages for your Kindergartner or First Grader. You’ll find coloring pages and simple activities to aid with memory work.
My girls often worked on these as I read aloud from our assigned reading.
→ Love the Journey: Marcia Somerville, author of Tapestry of Grace and homeschooling mom to 6, wrote Love the Journey after many years of teaching her own children. If you’re a new homeschooling mom, this book offers so much perspective and wisdom that I wish I had received as a new homeschooling mom.
The curriculum choices can be overwhelming. Trying to manage a home, while homeschooling is no small feat.
Mrs. Somerville’s encouragement to love and enjoy this homeschooling journey, despite it’s many challenges, is like a breath of fresh air.
It’s definitely going on my shelf as one of those books I will read yearly to get a shot in the arm of encouragement, and keep on moving ahead with this beautiful homeschool life!
How Tapestry Primer Works
Tapestry Primer is designed to be low-prep for mom, which is an enormous plus for me! I literally could open up the Handbook, find the assignments for the week, and write them on my planning page.
While I did have to initially take some time to wrap my brain around the components of this program, pray over how we would use it in our home, and order the books, the week-to-week planning was fairly simple.
Here’s a glimpse into how I planned our weeks of Tapestry Primer.
Please note that my children recently studied Creation, Exodus, and the Tabernacle in detail, so I chose to start our Primer lessons with Mini-Unit 2, Week 3.
Will We Continue to Use Tapestry Primer?
If my oldest child was in Kindergarten or First Grade, that answer would be a resounding YES!
The layout and method is so easy for a new homeschooling mom, and if I were still in that stage of life, this would certainly be a mainstay in our homeschool.
It has everything I needed in those early homeschool days: a Biblical worldview, easy lesson plans to follow, a comprehensive list of topics to study, living books, and hands-on activities.
Because I greatly enjoy the one-room schoolhouse style for history (and several other subjects!), I will not use Tapestry Primer as it’s written, but supplement our Tapestry of Grace Year Plan with Primer as the subjects correlate.
Samples of Tapestry Primer
If you’re interested in Tapestry Primer, make sure you take a look at the free three-week plan.
Print it out and take some time to ponder how it would flow in your own homeschool.
Tapestry Primer is available in a hard copy version or digital version.
Do you have questions about Tapestry Primer?
I’d love to help you with those! Just leave a comment below.
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Simple Addition Wheels: Math Worksheets
We are just finishing Tapestry Primer, and my daughters (newly 6 and 4.5) have loved it. Most of the contents of the activity books were too simple for them, so I was a little disappointed by that. But we have a great timeline on the wall, and my daughters have retained a lot of what we have covered so far. I am looking forward to diving into Year 1 of Tapestry in the near future, and my girls are already excitedly talking about studying Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome again. We read history at the breakfast table, and they beg me to start reading every day!