Bonnie, this one's for you. :)
When we decided to homeschool we knew right away that we wanted to do it classically. Classical education uses the "trivium" methodology of matching educational approach and subject matter with the child's developmental stage. It was popular hundreds of years ago and has found a growing audience since Dorothy Sayers' 1947 article "The Lost Tools of Learning." Douglas Wilson took it further and applied it to Christian education with his book
"Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning" which I recommend for anyone interested in classical education for their child.
Veritas Press prints a helpful pamphlet called "Classical and Christian Education" by Gregg Strawbridge. I will summarize it here to help explain what the trivium is.
The trivium has three parts to it:
1. It is an approach to learning - Basically, you can break down a child's development into three stages: Kindergarten through about sixth grade (Grammar Stage), seventh through ninth grade (Dialectic Stage), and tenth through twelfth grade (Rhetoric Stage). During the Grammar Stage, kids are like sponges. So use that to your advantage and fill them up with facts, lots and lots of facts. During the Dialectic Stage, kids are developing reasoning skills. Just imagine your typical questioning and arguing junior higher. This is a great time to add Logic to the curriculum and challenge them to develop their ideas. During the Rhetoric Stage, kids are interested in self-expression. This is the time to put all the facts and reasoning together and help your kid develop communication skills with wisdom and persuasion.
2. It is an approach to each subject - Each subject has facts, principles, and application. Focus on the facts in the Grammar Stage...things like key people, important dates, major events. In the Dialectic Stage focus on the principles by debating the motivations, ideological differences, and economic forces behind the facts. Finally, in the Rhetoric Stage focus on the applications and help your student wisely, effectively, and clearly communicate what they have learned to discern about the subject...things like social responsibilities, evaluation of national futures, etc.
3. It is a set of subjects - Traditionally, the trivium included Latin in the Grammar Stage, Logic in the Dialectic Stage, and Rhetoric (speaking/writing clearly and wisely) in the Rhetoric Stage.
There are a few Classical Christian Schools in America right now and we were VERY privileged to be in
one for Joshua's Kindergarten and First Grade years. We saw the trivium in action and we loved it. We wanted to apply what we learned at Cary Christian School, to our homeschool. So we started looking for classical Christian homeschool curriculum. Below is a list of what we reviewed. (Note: There may be more. I do not claim to know all the curricula out there!)
What all three have in common:
They split history into four-year cycles, but they split them in different places.
They have a Bible history or Church history component.
They use the Whole Books or Living Books approach vs. textbooks for history and literature. Some people call this Literature-based curriculum.
They weave other subjects around the chronological history cycle. For example, if you are studying the 1800's in history, you are reading books that were written in the 1800's in literature or books based on major events in the 1800's. In art, you are studying native american art that was discovered along the Oregon Trail or cowboy art from the early prairie settlements. In music, you are studying composers from the 1800's. You get the idea. It's all woven together. Beautiful.
At first, I really liked Sonlight. I knew a few people who were using it and I liked the books on their reading lists. But I had a hard time figuring out how to make the most out of my money since, at the time, you could either buy the curriculum without the books or buy the curriculum with all the books. (I believe that has changed and you can now customize the curriculum.) It was going to get pricey. Also, I wanted more in-depth science. Still, I was headed toward Sonlight and excited about it.
I hadn't heard much about Veritas Press and that in itself scared me away. Although, the things I have seen since have impressed me.
Ultimately, I met some lovely ladies who were using Tapestry of Grace and invited me to join them. We could meet once a week to "do history together" and despite the huge age range (first grade to eighth grade) it would work. That is because in classical curriculum, history is split into four sections (creation to the fall of Rome, 450AD to the US Constitution in 1667, 1667 to 1899, and 1900 to now) and that cycle is repeated three times if you homeschool K-12. What that means for us is that everyone studies the exact same thing at the exact same time, just at different levels of difficulty/detail. The Grammar Stage kids focus on names of Presidents, key dates, basic geography, etc. The Dialectic kids read more difficult books and write papers about the influences behind the Founding Fathers, etc. But each week on Thursdays, we all talk about it together and do an activity or field trip that relates to the subject. It totally works. And that is one very wonderful thing about classical education. If you have a large family with kids in lots of different stages, then classical could be a life-saver.
So, finally Bonnie, yes, I love Tapestry of Grace. One thing to note, and this is huge, is that TOG has just gone digital. Which means, to get the most current book list and the most current historical events (especially in Year 4) I still only have to buy the curriculum once. In the past, you would have to buy it each time you cycled through or buy an update. Now, I buy it once and I always get the updates. They just get sent to my computer when I log on. Lovely!
I love their book choices. And, since I have an advanced reader, I love that I can pick harder books from the Dialectic list without having to buy a different curriculum. It's all right there. Each week, I can see the booklist for Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric. I can choose to have him read all the book in his list or just some. I can choose to have him read some harder ones or some easier ones. I can even choose to have him read from a textbook...they have that too for those of you who prefer texts. Hey, I totally understand that sometimes life is just out of control and a textbook is a solid option to make sure you cover what needs to be covered.
I can also get ideas for activities from their online component, the Loom. Or I can ask how other homeschoolers are tackling an idea or problem by going to their bulletin board/groups area, the Forum. Also, they have very in-depth teachers notes. If ever I'm unfamiliar with a topic (like always) I can read those and then later I can feel really smart when I can answer one of Joshua's questions.
They, like the others, have add-ons. My favorite is Map Aids. Their maps are beautiful! And they make a map for every assignment so I'm never left scrambling trying to find just the right map. The add-on I like least is Writing Aids. I much prefer
IEW.
The flexibility of TOG is really what I love most.
Hope that helps, Bonnie. :)
