Would first language lessons be too much for this kid?

[bethben]

He's reading frog and toad, just finished HWT 1st grade level (still working on forming letters correctly) and is trying to spell out words. I'm not big into grammar for younger than 3rd grade, but am interested in getting him starting to memorize that stuff and am interested in the narration/copywork that FLL holds. I don't want to push too much too soon. What do you think?

BEth

[sagira]

FLL is very scripted and although a good program, I think it has the potential to bore a five-year-old or simply be wasted. Maybe 2nd grade would be better. We're starting Primary Language Lessons by Emma Serl in 2nd, and ds will be 7 years old and already have a pretty good foundation reading, copywork and some spelling. It's a gentle introduction, with many oral lessons, in grammar.

[Doodle]

I started it with Doodle mid way through this school year. He really enjoys it. He loves to memorize the poems. I make them into booklets for him. We are proceeding at a slow pace and have only completed up to lesson 38.

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

I don't think it would be too much. The biggest question would be, does it fit his learning style? Oldest dd, despite my thoughts otherwise, actually asks to do FLL. We do skip some lessons, as it is quite repetitious. DS, however, would be incredibly bored.

[Diana B]

Definitely not too much. But I agree with sagira that depending on the child, it could be 'boring'. My ds is 6.5 we started FLL1 at the beginning of this year and it's almost too slow and too easy. I've found myself skipping and/or combining a lot of lessons. It only takes 5-10 minutes a day - max. Some lessons are not even that long! Could EASILY be done by a K'er, imo - but whether you feel a K'er NEEDS to do it is another matter.

 

Oh - and my ds really enjoys it. It's so simple and easy. He loves the stories, the poems, etc. He's just finding the repetitiveness of the actual grammar part (ie, learning about nouns) to be boring. He's ready to move on to something else in that respect.

[FlockOfSillies]

It wouldn't hurt to try for a week or two. It's like phonics -- if there's not even a glimmer of understanding, wait a few months and try again.

 

Personally, I'll have to disagree with Sagira about FLL 1&2. I think it's better to treat it as "late K-early 2" grammar, rather than 1&2. By the end of the book, we're usually itching to move a little faster. There's so much repetition that you shouldn't have any trouble speeding up by skipping lessons/doubling up, and it should be sufficient practice for a kid that needs to go more slowly.

 

You can also adjust the amount of copywork. If "Ben had a seed" is too much, just start with having your dc do "Ben had", and work up his stamina from there.

[bethben]

I'm not totally sure what kind of kid he is. He thinks a little more on the creative side of things and can repeat verbatum adventures in odyssey conversations he hears on tape. He's really an out of the box thinker.

Beth