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Asynchronous Language Arts curriculum or techniques advice


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Hi!

 

I am wondering what some others of you might have done for LA... I have a kiddo who desperately

seems to want more advanced LA in terms of understanding, concepts, narration, etc...

 

BUT who seems to still need phonics and handwriting support...

 

I am thinking of going more pure Charlotte Mason (basically not using a single darn workbook) so that our discussions, narrations, passages, literature, etc... can all be more advanced, without him thinking that he is working on the other skills "behind"... It complicates things because his younger sister is ahead in what he is behind, and he is VERY sensitive and I don't want him to lose confidence...

 

The only problem is that my schedule is insane, I have no support or child care, and I had literally just decided to use workbooks more so that I could have a bit more time that want quite so one on one with them...

Any curriculum recommendations or ways you all have done this? Especially if you had a full plate or youngers at the time...

 

:) thanks!

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From an output standpoint, I have treated my AL based on their physical age/development level.

 

This meant a lot of oral work on their part, and writing on mine.

 

MCT is easy to do orally, on a white board or paper. It takes very little time, from a grammar standpoint. From a writing standpoint, I stopped making my younger children write original compositions about 6 year ago my kids were then 11, 9, 8, 2, and newborn. Having more assigned written work had not developed great writing in my oldest. I didn't prevent them from writing, I just didn't assign book reports or essays. I did provide things like Story Cubes, story starters, write your own novel things, which they could choose to do.

 

My oldest is now in high school, and able to write solid essays, papers over 10 pages, with proper citations, and do so without worrying. My oldest daughter is in 8th, and writes better than anyone in her class. My 12 year old is just in WWS 1, and doesn't pitch fits about assigned short essays.

 

I used to think that because my kids were highly capable, they should be doing more, both from an input and output level. My oldest was proof that more writing didn't equal better writing. My younger ones have a much better attitude towards writing, and still find ways to fill notebooks.

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It's hard, but separating input and output is the way to go. MCT Language Arts has been great around here with the caveat that I don't require the writing assignments. We may do them orally together, or not at all, or I may give a writing assignment from a previous level. There are interactive iBook versions of MCT levels now.

 

Also, we use worthwhile literature, with rich and beautiful language, to read aloud and discuss. So much teaching/learning happens here without a pen or paper.

 

So separate input and output and separate those both from skills. Work on the skills needing remediation in isolation for now. As soon as you hitch the remediation to something they love you're apt to kill their love for that something.

 

As far as where to spend your limited teaching time, spend it on remediation first, language and math skills second, and all else last.

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