New and need help withe language arts!! AAAHHHH!!!!!

[luthernose]

This is our first year of homeschooling and I would SOOO appreciate the wisdom of your more experienced moms or dads and what you think works for this area. :bigear:

 

I need help figuring out language arts. What I mean by that is what are the areas I specifically need to cover and how can I cover those areas without having 4-5 different workbooks. My kids are 6 (1st grade) and 8 (3rd grade). We have been using Modern Curriculum Press Phonics, FLL for grammar, and then this curriculum which I really don't care for called Houghton Mifflin Reading. The private Christian school they previously attended let me borrow the student books for this. It seems to cover grammar (lightly), reading comprehension, spelling (the spelling part is the only part I like), vocab, writing, and structural analysis (whatever that is). I don't have the teacher's edition nor will I (it's very expensive).

 

I feel like we spend SO much time doing workbook pages and they don't always make sense to me. The stories are dumbed down and way below my son's reading level (the 3rd grader). It's confusing having all these different elements of LA to cover. I'm not sure I'm explaining myself well. What I was envisioning is maybe we could just go with a simple but effective method of using high quality classic books and just read, have them narrate for testing comprehension, copywork from passages. This would cover reading comprehesion and writing. I guess I would still need a grammar and a spelling workbook. Is that enough? :confused:

 

I see Memoria Press has some literature guides that claim to cover all aspects of language arts, but when I read through the samples the words don't seem to be systematic for spelling. Seems to me like spelling and phonics should go hand in hand. Maybe it's just me?

 

If anyone has thoughts on this, I would so appreciate it. I feel like there is hardly enough time in the day to cover all subjects and then we have almost no time to read good books and just snuggle and talk about them. It's like we've brought the classroom home and I'm following someone else's agenda for my kids' education, but I'm not sure myself what I need to cover. :confused: Sorry my question is SO long! :001_smile:

 

Bobbi

[Farrar]

Consider reading The Writer's Jungle from Bravewriter. :D It's a different approach that integrates more of the language arts pieces.

[Pen]

.... What I was envisioning is maybe we could just go with a simple but effective method of using high quality classic books and just read, have them narrate for testing comprehension, copywork from passages. This would cover reading comprehesion and writing. I guess I would still need a grammar and a spelling workbook. Is that enough? :confused:

 

...

 

Bobbi

You can do that, yes! !!!

 

You can have back up curriculum options for when something about that seems not to be working or you need help choosing things to copy etc. But if you can do what you say, that would be excellent for LA.

 

You don't necessarily even need the grammar and spelling, you can just work on things that seem to be difficult based on their copywork, or what they themselves try to write and need spelling for or grammar. You can point out grammar as you notice it in the reading books or as part of copywork. You can put in some dictation too, to work on these things, adding just a bit at a time.

 

For sure, I think as soon as they can read, then reading good books at whatever their level, is the way to become a better and better reader.

[MerryAtHope]

Yes, your idea can be a great approach. Definitely switch to something that's worthwhile for reading, I hate dumbed down stories for kids! Look at your child's areas of need and slowly build up your LA program. Here's how I simplify planning for LA.

 

HTH some, Merry :-)

[SnMomof7]

I'm trying CLE's Language Arts this year to see how it goes, it combines more pieces of the puzzle than we've had in one place before. I think we'll still have to teach spelling separately though :).

[Hunter]

LA is such a huge conglomerate and there are so many opinions about what NEEDS to be covered. Not knowing more about you, I couldn't even begin to start recommending curriculum.

 

Do you have an educational mission statement.

 

Are you planning on a selective 4 year college, or thinking more of a junior college?

 

Is your worldview more Hebrew or Greek or something else entirely?

 

Welcome to the board! :party:

[Aurelia]

I really liked the Junior English curriculum by Galore Park. Your elder child could do either level 1 or 2. It includes things like dictionary skills, vocabulary, gentle grammar, composition, and some spelling. I liked that the passages were from real books and are not dumbed down. If your child doesn't struggle with spelling, it could easily be enough. It's not a workbook, though, it's a textbook. Ariel enjoyed using it (levels 1 and 2) and retained a lot, even though some of it was a struggle for her.

[hsingscrapper]

Welcome to the board! While my LA project has stalled, you could download the sample from my site and use it for a couple of weeks while you sort things out. Let me know what you think.

 

That being said, I second Hunter's post and need to know more. FLL (First Language Lesson) is a solid program and Dragon enjoys it.

[cmac]

This sounds similar to what I've been trying to do. My third grader reads above grade level and I feel he comprehends above grade level also. He has been in public school the last three years. I am planning on doing narration, dictation and copywork for reading comprehension and informal writing. I just picked out some books from the Newberry book list at the library and picked out some poetry books by just going through our library's poetry section. We are also using MCT.

 

I am choosing narration instead of workbooks since my main goal is for him to be able to communicate orally and in writing effectively. I thought the workbook approach to reading comprehension would hinder this for him. I also had trouble finding workbooks to cover this that would work for us.

 

Edit: We also do an online spelling list every now and then as he is a natural speller and he picks up a lot from his reading already. MCT has vocab, but we haven't gotten to it yet. I'm not too worried yet as he has picked up a lot from his reading also.