Online co-op using Year 3 of Tapestry of Grace for the 2020/2021 school year has openings at the Dialectic and Rhetoric levels. Our virtual co-op, Virtual Threads, has been in existence for more than 13 years. For 2020/2021, we will be meeting on Thursday mornings for Dialectic & Rhetoric literature classes and Friday mornings for Dialectic & Rhetoric history classes. On Thursday mornings we also offer Art Appreciation class for member families. Exact class times: Dialectic Literature (Thursdays 9-10 am EST) Dialectic History (Fridays 11 am-12:30 pm EST) Rhetoric Literature (Thursdays 11 am-12:30 pm EST) Rhetoric History (Fridays 9-10:30 am EST) Art Appreciation (Thursdays 10:15-10:45 am EST) It is not a requirement that students participate in all classes - a student may be in just history or just literature, but Art Appreciation is limited to families who are in one or more of the core classes - but we do encourage participation in both history and literature, if possible. We encourage students to turn in written homework to that week’s teacher, but we support individual family’s leadership as the homeschool parent for their student. We prefer that new families have at least one year’s experience with Tapestry of Grace, but we encourage you to apply even if you are new to the curriculum . We share the teaching load among the moms and/or dads. We use a team-teaching approach with multiple parents assigned to each unit. This helps provide continuity from week to week as the unit team splits the actual teaching duties and works together to make decisions about which themes to emphasize, which assignments to reduce/add to, which resources to cut, etc. We are not an online class, but a co-op. Our families get to know each other - online and in real life, where possible. We support, encourage and pray for each other as our kids grow up together walking through the dialectic and rhetoric years with a group of friends. We have been using CourseSites as our free platform, both for sharing of information and for classroom meeting space, but are looking at new options for the upcoming year. If this sounds like something that you could commit to and would benefit your homeschool, please complete this application form. In his grace, Carrie

Hi! I'm new to the forum and wanted to share some info. I spent a great deal of time looking last summer and this past week for info on how to align HO with STOW. I quickly discovered there is not much out there. So, I decided to tackle the tedious task of doing so myself. Below are the tables I created using HO Level 2 as the "spine" of our history lessons. The links take you to my web page, HyperHomeschool, and the tables are embedded as a Google Doc. Hope this helps someone! History Odyssey Level 2: Early Modern and STOW Volume 3 History Odyssey Level 2: Middle Ages and STOW Volume 2 Happy Homeschooling!

I am in the process of trying HO Level 1 (Early Modern) with A. -- we are in the second week -- and since neither of us particularly enjoys SOTW, and since it will take a chunk o'time to read the SOTW assignments, I am wondering if we are better served by not using SOTW or by including it? My goals at this point are: to get A. onto a history track that I don't have to personally design; to have him learning some history and developing related skills RE note-taking, writing, &c; and not to spend time needlessly -- we do a generous amount of academics, and his classical piano takes up a lot of time too. My other option is to continue with the AO history rotation, but he really really detests that. He enjoys HO more, but 1. it is more time-consuming and 2. he hasn't had to do the SOTW stuff yet. any thoughts about just these options? thanks in advance!

I'm tempted -- not really sure why -- by History Odyssey, which we've never used, for Early Modern in 3rd grade next year. Anybody tried and liked or disliked it? We're going to start using CHOLL here as we finish out Medieval Ages, and so I don't know if I ought to choose btw. the two or could easily integrate, treating CHOLL as Button's main formal literature analysis. It seems the usual advice is to not use HO for grammar years; anybody use it and like it? thanks in advance!

I'm planning next year's history with SOTW 3 Early Modern times. For 9 and 11 yo boys. What books do you consider must dos? THANKS! Nicole PS I've used the advanced search but haven't found much. I'm sure its there, but I'm not having much luck so if you have links, gimme those too. :)

I have the STOW activity guide and also the Well Trained Mind book but am just feeling a bit overwhelmed to go through an try to figure out what titles. I have also tried to go to Sonlight's website and look at their Core H. So, I am hoping that you guys can just give me some really great historical fiction that fits with STOW 3. My son is a 5th grader. I am planning on just reading STOW 3 to him out loud each day and just finish it up in a few months. Than we were going to read some historical fiction. So I really only need about 5 titles or so. Than we were going to do some of the Homeschool in the Woods Time Travelers. So, what have been some of your favorite historical fiction that matches up with volume 3? Thanks a bunch.

Any notebooking pages, lapbooking pages, ANYthing interesting to go with SOTW3; this fall will be my third time teaching it and I just want something a little different! :)

I don't necessarily need activity/enrichment suggestions. I just want to know what chapters you're combining together. And before anyone asks, I'm not really willing to bend on the 36 week thing. . . I'm having a baby in January and it's going to be rough going just to get 36 weeks into the school year this time around :lol: Thanks in advance!

Does anyone have one? I know someone made a list for SOTW1 and SOTW2. What about SOTW3? Link please?

I do have the AG and plan to look through for lots of supplemental reading, but I was hoping, for those who have BTDT, that you could tell me which books your 8-10 y/o boys enjoyed reading on their own. TIA!

We have used documentaries for ancients and medieval/renaissance, but I have a hard time coming up with something the period DS will study for 7th grade: 1600-1850. I have on my list one about Napoleon and another one about the French revolution. Any other suggestion? Thanks

I'd love to see what you read.

Yes, I have the AG, but to be honest, I've noticed that the SOTW1 activities are fabulous, SOTW2 pretty decent, and SOTW3 ones are just not flying around here. :( We love SOTW and I want to stick with it, but I do want to get some craft/art books to go along with this time period. I've looked through the TOG site for some more ideas for books to use but they don't seem to have great books like there were for TOG Y1 and Y2. Is it just a bad time period for crafts? What did your kids use and love or what have you done to bring SOTW3/TOG Y3 to life?

I would like to change the way we're doing this. Right now, we're a history based homeschool--our readings are history based, (and we do outlining from these readings) our music and art study is supposed to be aligned as well. (We get behind and so then I face agonizing decisions about wether to skip certain folks entirly or to fall "behind."--ack.) I'd like to switch over to a more LCC structured homeschool--where we do our skills every day and our "content" subjects once a week. We have done SoTW like this: (and it worked beautifully fo SoTW2. We haven't managed to hit our groove wth SoTW3 yet). 1. One chapter is scheduled per week. 2. We only do one section in one session. When we do it, we do our colouring page while we listen to the CD (usually over lunch.) We do the review questions orally. Then, we do narrations. My son used to go off and write out his own (after narratig to me sometimes, from which I would write an outline). My daughter and I would work together on hers until she had something I would write out and she would copy. (With the first sentences narrated back to her.) This took about an hour with SoTW2. We did this routine for every section. (If there were three sections to a chapter, History would take 4 days (see below).) We wuld do the map, usually at the end of the last section. 3. Chapter tests are a separate day and we do them like open book review excercises reviewing our narrations and our maps. Concern #1: Both kids are floundering in SoTW3. It seems there's just too much information, or something., I don't know. On Friday, we listened to the section and then I started asking uestions. They couldn't remember anything. So, I sat there with the Cd player and started over. I let Weiss read for a bit, then hit pause and asked the question. We were almost finished this laborious way of "reading" the text when we were interrupted. Needless to say, we haven't got to our narrations all year. Concern #2 So, how on Earth are we going to be able to do SoTW in one afternoon? As it is, without the narrations, each "section" is taking an awfully long time. (or rather it should--we aren't quite capable yet of keeping our attention onsometing for that long at a stretch!) I'm wondering if I need to give up the luxury of Weiss reading and do it myself--interrupting myself and asking the review questions as we go--then trying the narrations. What do you think of that idea? I should also mention that I was an absolute stickler for the narrations before Christmas because I had dropped Aesop and wasn't doing any other writing. I have since picked it back up for my daugher who is loving it and have just started Homer A with my son. (My apologies for typos. I have to have the key-board cleaned, soon! Just flipping it over and shaking out the crumbs ins't working so well anymore, lol!)

I'm just looking at the Table of Contents, now (I don't have the book yet). It doesn't strike me as too heavily weighted to American History--but I'm just curious what you did with the American chapters? Study them anyway? Supplement with Canadian (or whatever) during the same time period? Thanks.

We LOVED 1&2...all of us. Maybe it is Jim Weiss instead of barbara ?? Maybe I am not at all familiar with World History during this time period and feel a yearning for more American History (I love when my littlies dress up like Davy Crockett...sigh...) Maybe I just am not interested, so my kids aren't either. Maybe I am tired of looking at wide eyed blank stares when I ask the narration questions or when I try to get them to tell me ANYTHING about what they heard. Maybe I feel like my 5th grader should be doing some independent reading and I don't have a real good comprehensive book list for her to follow with this type of World history and my first inclination is to fall back on BF Intermediate American guide and go from there.... Anyone else?? Tell me what you did to spice up SOTW3 and make it fit. I am using this with my 10 year old 5th grader and 6 1/2 year old (blank stare) 1rst grader folded in. My 5 y/o is just a table decoration who amuses us, but is not condusive to any kind of focused study. OH< I am not trying to get too deep here...just trying to have them follow the gist and maybe have some fun. I am very focused on Math, writing, reading instruction and phonics/ spelling. I want our history to be fun and memorable. Something they ask for and look forward to reading. So far, they really only want to go back to the Greek and Roman stories of SOTW 1 and the Middle Ages Fairy Tales....LOL ~~Faithe (who longs for a cuddly tall tale and some patriotic stories of valor.)

I was wondering if anyone had a list of books they used organized by SOTW3 chapters. I am working on this in preparation for September. I am using the reading list in AG for SOTW3, but I was looking for "older" books to give ds12.5!!

Just thought I'd see if there are any great recommendations. We're always looking for good audio-books that go along with our learning. Our recent ones that were great were: Ben and Me Mr. Revere and I George Washington's Socks However, we're presently listening to "Stowaway" about the boy named Nick who stows away on Captain Cook's ship to Tahiti and then on discovery of Australia. It's an interesting story to me, but it is NOT holding the kids attention. I'm glad we're sticking it out, and glad we're listening to it and not reading it (they would be totally lost!). So, wha'cha got that's good for a 3rd (and 1st grader) to listen to? ;-p Thanks! - Stacey in MA