I always hated history when I went to school, so I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to teaching it when I decided to homeschool. We had lower elementary aged kids when we started homeschooling. I knew that any history they would learn at this age would be unnecessary but an added bonus.When my friend showed me Tapestry of Grace, I knew that this would be the history curriculum that would work for our family.

Tapestry of Grace was created to be used by all ages. It is chronological and we cycle through all of history every four years. The kids will progress to different stages of learning as they grow, but will be learning the same parts of history together.

There are many advantages I have found in using Tapestry of Grace. Here are some of my favorites.

• Great books. Tapestry of Grace uses real books, as opposed to text books, to go with each week and area of learning. You get the books and read them to your children, or if they are able they can read them. Not only are they learning history, but Tapestry of Grace also has literature included that goes along with what you are learning. The selections they have are books that both you and your kids will enjoy.
• Projects. There is a plethora of projects available. Most kids love doing the hands on learning. You will be surprised with all the different ways you can do that with history: salt maps, cooking, making models, art, etc.
• Gaining a worldview. Another great thing about this curriculum is that you are learning about the whole world. There is more to life than what you see around you. There are people living in these distant lands that we’re learning about and this is their culture, history, and religion. We can pray for them as we learn about them.
• Writing. This is a young stage to be doing writing, but as with the whole curriculum, you start with little doses of what they will be perfecting throughout the years. It is really exciting to see how their writing changes as they learn more.
• Biblically sound. I love reading through the teachers notes and seeing how you can show how God’s sovereign hand was guiding a certain people group or what the Bible has to say about a particular thing we’re learning about. Best of all it all starts in the beginning.There is no question who’s story this is – HIStory, God’s Story.
• Learning together. It is so beneficial to have a curriculum that can work so well for all three of my children who are at different learning levels and have different learning styles. My child who loves to learn from reading I can load with books, another child can do a project while I read to her,  and  my son can listen, then go build it out of legos or draw it on paper. Here is the “Trojan Horse” that my kids built together out of an Erector Set after learning about Troy and Greece.

 
This list does not encompass all that Tapestry of Grace has to offer. It is a curriculum that offers a lot of options, so you can choose different ways that you want to teach history. I have been using it for two years now and plan on using it through high school. My kids enjoy learning history in this way and so do I. I actually feel like I am learning it all over again, but enjoying it this time.