I would love to hear about your experience with LLATL.

[mom2denj]

I recently had the chance to look through this curriculum and I really like it! I would love to hear about your experiences with it. I will have a first grader next year so I guess I would start with the blue book. =)

[katiejane]

I have used Orange LLATL-Gold British LLATL so I might be able to help.

 

I have always used another grammar and spelling program alongside LLATL because I think most kids need a bit more reinforcement. I have used extra study guides for some of the higher level literature books. My son finished all the LLATL books by year 10.

[Caribbean Queen]

LLATL flopped. I used the red, 2nd grade level for first grade. The reading was a stretch because I got the wrong level, per the advice of people on another forum. I (not my child) thought the readers had ugly pictures and were boring. I still groan when I see them. I really wanted something that would ask for copywork or dictation daily. The spelling didn't work, and there were no handwriting lessons. There was a potpourri of grammar topics that were lightly covered and I didn't see the point, but then again, I don't see the point of FLL 1 either. They should have made it so you don't need to buy a Teacher's book.

 

We liked the poetry and literature very much.

[3and3]

I am currently using blue with my 1st grade boy. It is working for him because it moves at a slow pace and has lots of hands on activities. I tried using it with my now 3rd grader dd but she needed to move at a faster pace. It does have handwriting instruction, phonics, and gentle intro to grammer. Red does not have handwriting instruction because it is taught in blue.

 

My oldest was using the yellow, but we switched. I found that she needed a different spelling program. Also, I wanted her to learn to diagram sentences. Finally, I found it teacher intensive and I needed to simplify things for myself.

[UmMusa]

It felt lacking. We dropped it after 4 months and started FLL and WWE plus lit books using zclassical House of .learning recommendations. Spelling Workout for everyone, too.

[Susie in MS]

LLATL flopped. I used the red, 2nd grade level for first grade. The reading was a stretch because I got the wrong level, per the advice of people on another forum. I (not my child) thought the readers had ugly pictures and were boring. I still groan when I see them. I really wanted something that would ask for copywork or dictation daily. The spelling didn't work, and there were no handwriting lessons. There was a potpourri of grammar topics that were lightly covered and I didn't see the point, but then again, I don't see the point of FLL 1 either. They should have made it so you don't need to buy a Teacher's book.

 

We liked the poetry and literature very much.

 

My older kids used Tan thru Gold and we loved it. Their writing skills are wonderful and I credit LLATL for that cuz I didn't have a lick of writing in school. Not one ounce! One of my kids even used to correct the English college professor's papers! ;) I will be honest. We used ONE year of ABeka.

 

Dictation begins in the Yellow level--once or twice per week.

 

Fast forward to our 6 yo (will be 7 in July). I have started her out on the Red and my experience is the exact opposite of the above poster. She (we) loves everything about it. Even the pictures in the readers. We find them very cute. The stories teach morals as well as being fun. We are only on week 5 (I have read thru the rest of the book) and so far my dd has been introduced to contrast/compare in stories, character sketches, action verbs , poetry memorization, common and proper nouns, pronouns, compound words, antonyms, homonyms, context clues, punctuation, order of events in story, writing her own short stories, calendar skills, encyclopedia skills, and more all in a gentle manner. So far it has all *stuck*. There are cool puzzles to make spelling fun. My dd loves the handwriting sheets because a sentence is taken from the story and there is a pic for her to color. I like that they also choose sentences with puncuation that is being covered (ex: quotation marks) and have *tails* on the letters that make for easy transition to cursive. She is beyond the reading and phonics skills so I am using the phonics as additional spelling, and use the reading for practice and fun.

 

I will say that the Blue-which is mainly phonics- didn't work for us as she plowed past the phonics skills faster than they move, but it works for many. We did have fun with the word wheels, flip books and puppets though! We enjoyed the story pages that you cut out too.

 

LLATL's approach is not rigorous or monotonous. It is not like mastery books that have you doing the same thing over and over and over. They take the approach of giving bite size pieces, and letting time do it's work. It worked beautifully for my other kids and I see it's magic working on my youngest as well.

 

From someone who generally hates all things language----I truly appreciate LLATL making learning fun. :D

[Princess Peach]

It was not enough for my kids. We used it for one year and I had a lot of catching up to do the following year.

[Susie in MS]

Oh I forgot, I was also going to mention to make sure you look at the scope and sequence at the cspress website if you haven't already. This way you can see, at a glace, all that is covered.

[khall]

We use and love LLATL. DS11 has used yellow, orange, and is now finishing up purple. DD9 is in yellow.

 

We like the gentle approach, and find that it sticks. I know lots of people find LLATL to be lacking, or not rigorous enough, but we haven't had this problem. We prefer a gentle approach that leaves time for other things, and have no desire to be using multiple LA programs that take hours to cover every day. LLATL teaches what they need to know, at a developmentally appropriate time. You won't find diagramming until the green book (7th grade), and grammar is gentle and introduced through usage. I've watched my kids pick it up gradually, but they are retaining it and it sticks, without beating them over the head with a grammar book every day.

 

Both kids are voracious readers, and read for pleasure several hours a day, so I don't know if that has something to do with how well they do with language arts.

 

Also, I do use another spelling program for both of them, because they stink at spelling and need something more intense for that.