FLL - when to start

[Punchie]

I know this question has been asked to death, but for some reason, I cannot find the threads that relate to it. I'm short on sleep with three sick kids, so that might have something to do w/my lack of skills at the moment.

 

At what lesson in OPTGR does one normally add in FLL1? WWE?

 

I should have done this long ago, but I want to put a sticky on the specific lessons so I don't have to fruitlessly hunt for the answer again.

 

Thank you!

[MeganW]

I have in my notes to start FLL after OPGTR Lesson 140, and to start WWE after OPGTR Lesson 140 IF:

- age 7 minimum

- basic handwriting is solidified

- solidly in 1st grade

[Punchie]

Thank you! I have stickied lesson 140 for FLL. DD5.5 has completed through lesson 68, but my method is to do around 10 lessons, then go back and repeat the ones that haven't stuck. I'm sure it will take us the rest of K and part of 1st before we get lesson 140.

[MeganW]

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/frequently-asked-questions?___store=default

 

My child is using The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading. At what lesson number do I begin a spelling program, a penmanship program, and First Language Lessons Levels 1 and 2 (the grammar and writing program)?

 

Jessie advises teaching reading, writing, and spelling separately from one another, as they are three separate skills. You don’t want to slow a child’s reading progress just because her fine motor skills are not yet fully developed. And a child always does better spelling words he can easily read and recognize. Reading instruction can begin before spelling and penmanship. Most four- and five-year-olds can learn to read.

There is no set lesson in The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading at which the child should begin her spelling and penmanship instruction. Generally, the child should be about half-way through the lessons (around Lesson 115). At that point the child can read words with the most common patterns for short-and long-vowel sounds. The words in her spelling and penmanship program will therefore be familiar to her.

 

You need to be more precise when deciding to start First Language Lessons, since the child is asked to do copywork exercises. The Ordinary Parent's Guide is structured so that the child applies most phonetic rules to single-syllable words (Lessons 1-177). Lesson 178 and following in The Ordinary Parent’s Guide are all multi-syllable words—these lessons reinforce the patterns taught earlier. A few new phonetic patterns are introduced in multi-syllable words, but those patterns are not as common as the patterns taught in earlier lessons. Once the child has completed Lesson 181 in The Ordinary Parent’s Guide, he knows how to read most phonetic patterns, how to sound out the parts of multi-syllable words, and he has been introduced to the schwa sound. He is fully capable of doing copywork.

 

First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind (Levels 1 and 2) is mostly oral work, although copywork exercises begin in Lesson 42 (and dictation exercises begin later). So by the time the child reaches Lesson 42 in FLL, he should be on or past Lesson 182 in OPG. If you are looking for a lesson by lesson comparison (and you do the same number of grammar and reading lessons per week), you can start FLL when the child in on Lesson 140 in OPG.

 

Following this suggestion assumes that the child has been practicing penmanship enough to copy names, words, and short sentences. If she can't do the copywork at the end of Lesson 42 (and subsequent lessons where she copies short words and sentences), delay beginning First Language Lessons until her penmanship skills prepare her for this.