TXMary2 Posted December 28, 2012 Share Posted December 28, 2012 I am thinking about doing something "radical" this second semester. We spend a lot of time doing "Language Arts" - spelling, vocabulary, phonics, reading and always end up behind on science, history and geography. DS rarely gets less than 100% on an assignment, except for spelling. I was thinking of cutting out most of our LA for a while and just doing math, spelling, history, science and geography everyday. I would squeeze in health and latin two to three days a week. My thinking is that we can get "caught up" with history, science and geography if we let go off the daily drills and workbooks for LA. I could use the history, science and geography to do writing (which we don't do enough of) and continue to center our literature around those subjects. My son likes hands on projects too, which we could do more of if we weren't spending a big chunk of our day on LA. I know LA is important, but I think we are at a place where he has a solid foundation and it wouldn't be a big deal to cut it out temporarily. Has anyone else done this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladydusk Posted December 28, 2012 Share Posted December 28, 2012 This is the big, radical change I'm working on for the 2013 school year. I'm hoping to integrate all the LA stuff into the reading we do for History, Science, and Geography. I'm going to use the WWE Strong Fundamentals book and am trying to work out using FLL 2 & 3 as a "spine." Spelling will be the real trick for us, but so far I have natural spellers, so I'm thinking we'll cross that bridge if it becomes a problem. I'm doing this partially so we do the "fun stuff" of content and partially because teaching all my children separately wasn't fostering the family culture we hoped to. Now that everyone can read, it's time for a big change! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted December 28, 2012 Share Posted December 28, 2012 We spend a lot of time doing "Language Arts" - spelling, vocabulary, phonics, reading and always end up behind on science, history and geography. I am assuming you are referring to your 8 year old. How much time are you spending now on Language Arts? My 8 yr old spend on average spelling (10mins), vocabulary (10mins) ,grammar worksheet (10mins), phonics (zero),independent reading (1hr) per day. My boys are in a virtual academy. Literature takes an hour daily. We get science done everyday in the afternoon as they have their own projects running. So that takes about an hour daily or more if they want. History and Geography together takes us about an hour daily. We do reading and writing in History and Geography. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXMary2 Posted December 28, 2012 Author Share Posted December 28, 2012 I am assuming you are referring to your 8 year old. How much time are you spending now on Language Arts? My 8 yr old spend on average spelling (10mins), vocabulary (10mins) ,grammar worksheet (10mins), phonics (zero),independent reading (1hr) per day. My boys are in a virtual academy. Literature takes an hour daily. We get science done everyday in the afternoon as they have their own projects running. So that takes about an hour daily or more if they want. History and Geography together takes us about an hour daily. We do reading and writing in History and Geography. Yes. He's 9 now so I guess I should update my siggy. Anyway, currently we do spelling daily with Rod & Staff Spelling 3 (10-15 mins), Rod & Staff English (20-30 minutes), Wordly Wise Vocabulary (10-15 mins), Explode the Code Book 5 (5-10 mins), and we do a read aloud or book on CD (about an hour) in addition to his free reading (30-45 mins). Usually, with our read aloud we do a literature unit (like Progeny Press or Teacher Created Resources). I really like doing activities with the literature so that is something I don't want to cut out, especially if it can coordinate with our history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2squared Posted December 28, 2012 Share Posted December 28, 2012 Yes. He's 9 now so I guess I should update my siggy. Anyway, currently we do spelling daily with Rod & Staff Spelling 3 (10-15 mins), Rod & Staff English (20-30 minutes), Wordly Wise Vocabulary (10-15 mins), Explode the Code Book 5 (5-10 mins), and we do a read aloud or book on CD (about an hour) in addition to his free reading (30-45 mins). Usually, with our read aloud we do a literature unit (like Progeny Press or Teacher Created Resources). I really like doing activities with the literature so that is something I don't want to cut out, especially if it can coordinate with our history. You do have a lot of separate LA there. Does he need a separate spelling program? If you like R&S, I would keep spelling and English for a total of 30-45 minutes and add in writing with content areas for a total of 1 hour/day. If you aren't smitten with R&S, I would cut all the LA you are currently doing and add in grade leveled daily dictation with writing in the content areas for a total of less than 1 hour/day. Either way, I would cut vocabulary (aren't you getting this through the reading anyway?), explode the code, and literature units (you are adding in activities in history and science, right?) and I would move his free reading to bedtime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted December 28, 2012 Share Posted December 28, 2012 ......and we do a read aloud or book on CD (about an hour) in addition to his free reading (30-45 mins). Usually, with our read aloud we do a literature unit (like Progeny Press or Teacher Created Resources). I really like doing activities with the literature so that is something I don't want to cut out, especially if it can coordinate with our history. Last week my kids did Greek mythology for Literature, Greek civilisation for History just to give you an example of co-ordinating the two subjects. Now we are doing Trojan war for History and Literature. We did Roman mythology with Roman civilisation. We also did Renaissance period for Science and History together, for example we studied Leonardo Da Vinci from a historical, art and science perspective. You did not mention Art, but I thought I'll just mention that we did art appreciation together with History. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trilliums Posted December 28, 2012 Share Posted December 28, 2012 I think it is a great idea. :) We did a modified version of this in the elementary years and my kids developed strong vocab and grammar skills without years of specific LA programs. Focusing on developing analytical and critical thinking skills at an early age helps their writing skills in the middle school and high school grades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXMary2 Posted December 28, 2012 Author Share Posted December 28, 2012 Thanks. We do Art, but as of now it isn't tied to history - we are using Artistic Pursuits. We do Explode the Code because my son wants to. I tried to dump it but he dug it out and told me he wanted to finish it. I guess we don't need the Wordly Wise Vocabulary, but he likes that too. I think I am just going to put it all aside for a while and see how far we can get with history, science and geography before adding it back in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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