blondchen Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 I am looking at LOE for DD5 (almost 6). I saw the Essentials curriculum at a convention last Friday and I bought Uncovering the Logic of English and read it over the weekend. DD is reading pretty well (she is more than halfway through OPGTR) and has very good manuscript handwriting, which she practices with copywork now. We also plan to start FLL very soon, and we'll do WWE starting this summer (for first grade). So, I don't need the reading, grammar and handwriting portion of LOE, but I absolutely love how the phonograms and spelling rules are done - I want to give my children these tools for figuring out our language rather than taking a pragmatic approach to spelling in particular (ie, memorizing lists with minimal rules). I'm a linguistics freak and enjoy getting into how it all works, and as much as I've been pleased with the results of OPGTR so far, it is - by design - lacking in that regard. I just feel like the all-encompassing method of WRTR, SWR and LOE is overkill for what I want, though LOE looks like it does a great job of organizing the method. It's quite impressive! I am also planning to start teaching DD4 to read soon, but I don't want to mix up reading instruction with handwriting and spelling, so I doubt I'd be interested in the LOE Foundations series for her. I prefer SWB's philosophy of teaching reading as early as possible, and teaching handwriting and spelling as separate skills, though of course the thorough, rules-based phonics will be helpful for reading as we go along. Since I have such a good handle on it myself, I think I can use the detailed phonogram and rules instruction for reading as needed, and save the more intense phonics for spelling. So, does anyone use LOE for spelling only, especially for a younger child who is already reading and handwriting well? Would it be easy to extract or adapt the spelling portion? Is there a way I could make this work with the phonogram and spelling rule cards, plus the spelling lists and games book, without buying the method book and doing the whole shebang? Any advice on incorporating this concept into what we're already doing would be great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbmamaz Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 i am using it for everything pretty much (well, not reading, but i dont see it as teaching reading). but yes, its easy to skip sections you dont want to do. you can just go over the phonograms and the spelling rules and do the spelling tests and skip the grammar lessons. I wouldnt skip the dictation, tho, as that is also spelling practice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondchen Posted March 19, 2013 Author Share Posted March 19, 2013 I wouldnt skip the dictation, tho, as that is also spelling practice. Yes, I would definitely do the dictation as part of spelling. So, you're saying that I could go through the lessons in order, as written, and just extract the spelling and dictation part? That's something I'd be interested in for sure. Could I do that with just the teacher manual and a notebook? I'd rather not buy the student workbook if it's not absolutely necessary, since it has a bunch of stuff I wouldn't use (especially the D'nealian-ish manuscript font). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorisuewho Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 I am using Foundations with my four year old. My kindergartner and first graders are both using LOE Essentials for spelling only. We do not do the grammar. I felt it worked fabulously for us this year. I believe we are at about lesson 29 or 30. My boys now have a great grasp of the phonograms and spelling rules. Next year I'm planning to do dictation with them and have us continually review what we learned in Logic this year. The program is indeed impressive and extremely well done. We could definitely go through the program a second year and gain even more from it, but for us, I believe once was good enough for what I wanted to accomplish. However, it is quite a bit of money to use just for spelling. If money is not a huge concern and you are looking for an excellent spelling program, I believe that LOE is among the very best and I'm so glad we did it. However, if my budget was tighter I would have used the Writing Road to Reading and made that work. I believe that is also excellent and meets the similiar goals, however a bit more confusing to get started in my opinion (which is not the reigning opinion always). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondchen Posted March 19, 2013 Author Share Posted March 19, 2013 However, it is quite a bit of money to use just for spelling. If money is not a huge concern and you are looking for an excellent spelling program, I believe that LOE is among the very best and I'm so glad we did it. However, if my budget was tighter I would have used the Writing Road to Reading and made that work. I believe that is also excellent and meets the similiar goals, however a bit more confusing to get started in my opinion (which is not the reigning opinion always). Yeah, it's a lot of money just for spelling, and I'm loathe to fork it over, but I looked at the WRTR manual at the convention and about fainted. I know, I know - there's just a big learning curve at the beginning, and I'm sure I'm capable of figuring it out, but I don't want to, frankly, especially if I have to wrap my head around the whole program just to use it for spelling. The LOE method/lesson format looks very straightforward, and I think the extra expense would be worth it for me in that regard. I'll be using it for three kids eventually, and right now I want as user-friendly as possible while I'm still getting used to homeschooling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorisuewho Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 I'm using it for multiple children and I agree that it helps to make the cost seem less. Plus since you have seen Essentials in person you know it is PACKED with information. I definitely feel I got what I paid for! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorisuewho Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 double post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monalisa Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 I think it is too expensive to use just for spelling. I bought it in the fall, used it for a while, and sold it. It was overkill for my dd 10 and was taking too much time for what it was gaining her. If you want just spelling, have you looked at All About Spelling? Same phonograms and rules for the most part. If you don't like that, I'd relook at WRTR or SWR. You could get How To Start A Spelling Notebook by Mari McAlister (it is only about $10 and goes with WRTR - it doesn't stand alone) to help get started with WRTR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbmamaz Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 i think if you get the pdf of the manual and dont buy the student book its probably reasonable. you might still want the phoneme cards - i really like those. and they have a bunch of training videos on youtube, too - just search for logic of english, they have a channel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 I've been considering how to do this as well for ds. I have LoE Foundations for dd and HTTS as well, it seems I should be able to figure it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deerforest Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 The writing part isn't part of Essentials, and I don't really understand what you mean by the "reading" part. Grammar lessons are included but they are clearly segmented and identified as such. The grammar is all review for DD for the most part because we used MCT so I skip most of it. So, I have used it as a spelling program. We started last June when DD was 3 months shy of 8. She is an accelerated reader but not a natural speller. We switched from AAS which was killing us both for many reasons. We are at lesson 30 now and we have not done it weekly. We did it haphazardly over the summer and fairly regularly this year. I set aside 1 week per lesson but we finish in about 3 days now. We let holidays, field trips, and sickness dictate our school schedule. The retention and spelling skill improvements for DD have been nearly miraculous. I can't even tell you how vastly different her spelling ability is this year compared to last. Even she admits that it was completely the right choice for us. Honestly, if I knew we would have been this successful, I would have easily spent double. It has been that critical to her confidence and pride. She is a perfectionist who wanted to write and wouldn't because of her lack of confidence with spelling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlessedMom Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Deerforest, thank you for sharing your wonderful success with LOE. It is encouraging to hear that it has work so well for your DD. I am inspired & may have to give it a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirstenhill Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 We have used LoE for just spelling this year with excellent results. If it is the "right" program for you and your child based on method/technique/ease of use, I definitely don't think it is too expensive. My DD struggles so much with spelling and I tried other programs that don't give clear day by day, step by step instructions and that just didn't work for me. She has improved tremendously with LoE this year and it is so easy for me to teach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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