Need help with Language Arts Curriculum

[chaite]

I am looking into language arts programs for my kids for next year. What are your recommendations?

 

My daughter is 6 and finishing up K and my son is just about to turn 9 and finishing up 3rd grade. I'll be homeschooling in the fall.

 

Thanks!

ps. I have no idea what the abbreviations mean, so if you don't mind spelling out the full names, that would be great!

[Hunter]

Welcome :grouphug:

 

First tell us more about YOU, not your students, yet. TEACHING is first about the TEACHER. What is your basic personality like? Yes, tell us about homeschooling books you have read recently that wowed you, but I'm more interested in the type of PERSON you are. We have all been wowed by a book, and too often that book is the OPPOSITE of who are. We are often wowed by that which is the most unlike ourselves.

 

There is no one size fits all best curriculum. And you don't need to have it all figured out the first year. If you are scheduling time to do good things, good things will happen. They might not be what is listed in any book you are reading, but that doesn't mean they are not as good as what is suggested in that book.

 

Some of my favorite how-to homeschool books are:

How to Tutor

TWTM first edition 1999

Guide to American Christian Education

Hearing and Reading, Telling and Writing

Simply Charlotte Mason Mathematics

African Waldorf Pdfs

Eclectic Manual of Methods

Train Up a Child

Waldorf Essentials Kindergarten and Early Years

How to Write a low-cost/no-cost Curriculum

The Complete Home Learning Source Book

No Regrets

Teenaged Liberation Handbook

The Three Rs

Homeschooling for Excellence

 

I started back in the mid 90s and some of these books are out of print and a bit dated, but they are often my favorites compared to the newer more complicated and expensive methods.

[Aurelia]

My personal favorites are:

 

4th grade: Galore Park Junior English 3

Writing with Ease (take the assessment test for placement)

 

 

1st grade: Dancing Bears (learning to read)

Apples & Pears (spelling)

Writing with Ease 1

 

I like these programs because they are "open and go" - there aren't a bunch of pieces to assemble, etc, you just open the book and do the next lesson. They are also extremely easy to use for a novice teacher. A&P and WWE cover handwriting and basic grammar for your 1st grader, so you don't need separate books for those. GP's English books cover everything except writing instruction, and WWE does an excellent job of teaching basic composition.

[Mandylubug]

First Language Lessons and Writing With Ease used with All About Reading for your youngest.

 

Michael Clay Thompson's Grammar Island is a good program for your oldest.

[alisoncooks]

nm

[happypamama]

I felt like Writing With Ease 2 was a good fit for my second grade son this year, so we'll be continuing with it for next year, using level 3; I like that it incorporates a lot of language arts components, like handwriting, dictation, narration/summarizing, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and literature. We used WWE4 for our fifth grader; it wasn't quite as good a fit, but it was okay, so we'll be moving on to the next book for her next year, which is Writing With Skill Level 1. The biggest problem with WWE4 is that DD had to read a passage before I could do the exercises with her, and with several littles, sometimes getting all of that to line up was tricky -- she'd read the passage, but I wouldn't have a chance to sit down with her, or I'd have a chance to sit down with her, but she wouldn't have read the passage.

 

We've also had pretty good success with the BrainQuest workbooks for the younger grades, to hit specific grammar and spelling and such.