Language Arts

[Guest MAG]

Hi Everyone,

I am a bit frustrated/bored/not stimulated myself (so how can my kids be stimulated) with the lang. arts that I am using. Could some of you please tell me what works well for you. I really believe grammar is important but that creativity needs to be fostered and overkill should not be part of this. Right now my three oldest are K, 1, and 2nd grade. Thanks.

MAG

[Tess in the Burbs]

Are your kids bored? I personally do not care for language arts things. I was never a good writer in school even though I enjoyed it. I was not a good artist either, but again, I enjoyed trying.

 

So I have to not let my personal hatred of all things grammar/writing related affect my kids' attitudes. AND surprisingly, my son LOVES grammar. He is also writing more on his own now...little notes to daddy or friends. it's cute!

 

We aren't using anything fun or exciting(IMHO), just FLL and OPG for review. The youngest does 100EL(which I hate, but both kids learned to read with it, so it does work!). I figured out last year that it doesn't matter if I like it. If the program is working for the kids....then go with it. Both kids dreaded 100EL in the end, but we finished. And OPG is just a review for advanced phonics.

 

Again, nothing flashy in our program...just stuff that works. My attitude determines if they will do it or not :-)

 

I am sure there are more fun programs out there, but I also want my kids to know that sometimes you have to learn things that aren't going to be fun to work through. That is life. We add fun where we can, but they don't expect it.

 

So perhaps see what your kids like/dislike about what you are doing and then research their learning styles...and make a choice that may fit them (and you) better.

[Lisawa]

Hi Everyone,

I am a bit frustrated/bored/not stimulated myself (so how can my kids be stimulated) with the lang. arts that I am using. Could some of you please tell me what works well for you. I really believe grammar is important but that creativity needs to be fostered and overkill should not be part of this. Right now my three oldest are K, 1, and 2nd grade. Thanks.

MAG

 

 

Hi Mag.... What is it you want to accomplish for your young ones? These young ones are probably mastering phonics, writing and beginning spelling right?

 

What are you using now? Besides the basics above... maybe you can add some narration and memorization??

 

Im just not sure what you are looking for.... *Ü*

 

Wanting to help....

[Chris in VA]

2nd grade--dd7

Using

Rod and Staff Grammar, orally, and occasionally. I think it's a little repetitive.

Adventures in Phonics C--excellent review (or first look, depending) of phonics principles--can't recommend enough

SWO B and C. Really starting to influence my dd's spelling. We don't do the writing component, though.

Narration in history, some copywork.

Horizons cursive

We don't do things everyday, and I'm not disciplined to do X on X day, and Y on another--we just start with Math most days, and then do some language arts. We do try to cover a phonics page and a spelling lesson nearly every day (or at least one Spelling list a week). We do a bunch of history.

Probably not really helpful, eh? lol

[LindaOz]

Our 2nd grade LA at the moment:

 

Reading lots of books (both aloud and alone)

Lots of oral narration

Written narration

Copywork

Primary Language Lessons (which also uses c'work, dictation and narration reinforcing correct usage)

Read and memorizing poetry

 

I think the interest then comes from the content of the literature/books used to narrate and copy from. You could still cover grammar within the context of the copywork passage.

 

HTH

[8filltheheart]

I don't use a LA curriculum for 2nd grade. I use copywork selections and simple conversations/oral work for grammar. If you have a solid grammar base, it is actually a better approach for leading them to concrete understanding. For example, I might start off with teaching them about action verbs. Then we might play a game of action verb charades. From then on, we would start looking for action verbs in their copywork. (simply circling them) Make really silly sentences with long lists of adjs, etc. Nothing says grammar needs to be dull or from a textbook. :)

[Closeacademy]

Creativity--I give my children access to paper, pens, markers, crayons, colored pencils, pencils, etc. They start making books in preK. They will draw pictures and dictate to me the words/sentences to go along with the pictures.

 

For K--just learning letter sounds and how to print is enough.

 

For 1st--we learn about nouns and verbs but mostly just talk about them in everyday life. Phonics and penmanship is still the focus.

 

2nd--Phonics and penmanship very at the forefront. We talk a little about other types of words but don't do a lot of grammar worksheets. Easy Grammar Daily Guided Teaching and Review for 2nd and 3rd grade is nice for this age if they child wants to do it.

 

We read fables at this age and analyze them according to Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How? Then I have my child retell the story in her own words in a shorter version which I write down.

 

For 3rd--we are going to use the Ruth Heller books for grammar concepts and make our own notebooking pages for the different parts of speech so we have a nice little guidebook. Phonics will change to spelling and manuscript to cursive. I am hoping that she will be able to write paragraphs on her own and not just dictate them to me at this time.

 

Hope this helps.

[mcconnellboys]

Well, I'm uncertain what you are using, so uncertain exactly where to begin.

 

With this age, I would probably use First Language Lessons, but if they're bored with all the repitition, then I'd skip that and move along more quickly. I also like Primary Language Lessons and it includes more copywork/dictation with perhaps more variety than FLL. The follow-up to that, for fourth/fifth, is Intermediate Language Lessons.

 

For a grammar text that will teach the parts of speech/diagramming, both Rod and Staff and Abeka are good and solid. That doesn't mean you have to do every single exercise, especially in Abeka. It doesn't mean they need to write until their hands fall of, either. My younger son is in fourth grade and this is the first year that I'm having him write more of his grammar assignments (and we still do a lot orally). Until this year, we've done more of our grammar work orally, save for copywork, dictation, and diagramming. When the point of an exercise is to have them learn where to place the punctuation in a sentence, what to capitalize, etc., I see no point in making them rewrite the entire sentence; why not allow them to simply insert what needs to be inserted? They then get to work on their editing skills, too....

 

Do you include other language arts things in your question? If so, we like Spelling Workout. If you're using this and don't like it, I don't really know what else to recommend to you as I've always used just this. Learning style of your children would play a big factor in what other program might work for them....

 

Do you include writing? handwriting? I use Getty-Dubay Italics for handwriting. I use a variety of things for writing, and again, style of learners would determine what would work best for them. I do keep lessons short. I try to make that 20 minutes or LESS. With writing for fourth grade this year, my son is moving into writing a little longer than this and I'm allowing it, but trying to still cut him off at the end of a paragraph and let him continue the next day so that he doesn't get sloppy and careless.

 

Do you include reading/literature? I don't like studies, in general, and especially not for younger children. We just read tons of great, living books. Alone, together, aloud, silently. We discuss as we read, after we read, while we read, LOL - so I don't really worry that we're not getting in a good study.... This is our favorite part of homeschooling and I would not ruin it for the world....

 

Regena