A Crisis Plan for Language Arts. Lots and Lots of FREE Links.

[Hunter]

My Favorite Free Language Arts Links for Times of Crisis
These resources were chosen because they work well together, and in times of crisis, rather than each individual resource being the "best" available. I tried to find the best of what's out there, that will play nicely together and require as little ink and paper as possible. There are two sets of links–the more triaged plan, and then more that can be added to the triaged plan. I also tried to make sure the triaged plan was friendly to those moving in and out of PS.

Your Mission Statement
http://harvestministry.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/TWGHW2-CH1-FINDING_YOUR_MISSION.pdf

Planning and Scheduling. This ingenious plan uses a large folded piece of art paper, or several pieces of smaller paper taped together.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vzK2LvS6qOY

AO Language Arts Scope and Sequence
https://www.amblesideonline.org/LangArtsScopeSeq.shtml

Blumenfeld Home Primer. This phonics curriculum can be used with this cursive handwriting program to reinforce phonics with an older student, without being obvious that you are remediating phonics.
http://www.donpotter.net/pdf/blumnfeld_home_primer.pdf

http://www.donpotter.net/pdf/af_cursive.pdf

 

Spalding Manuscript Handwriting

http://www.donpotter.net/pdf/shortcut-to-manuscript.pdf
Spalding Cursive Handwriting. Vertical. Easy Transition from manuscript. Good for left-handed.
http://www.americanacademyk8.org/aastaffhome/users/tbostick/downloads/spaldingcursivepractice.pdf
and
http://athlosfifth.weebly.com/uploads/8/3/6/5/8365772/beginner_handwriting_packet.pdf
and
http://www.mychandlerschools.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=14444&dataid=10033&FileName=cursive_practice_sheets.pdf

 

French Cursive Handwriting. Vertical like Spalding, but with longer loops, and fancier uppercase.

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/521733-french-cursive-handwriting/

 

Traditional Right Slanted Cursive Handwriting.

http://www.donpotter.net/pdf/shortcut_to_cursive.pdf

or

http://donpotter.net/pdf/direct_path_to_cursive.pdf

 

MacLean Method of Writing. A vintage curriculum ahead of it's time. Very precise. Beautiful. Appropriate for today. Used in many parts of Canada through the 1970s and later.

Grade 3 and Grade 4

 

Calligraphy Cursive Handwriting

http://design.tutsplus.com/articles/mastering-calligraphy-how-to-write-in-cursive-script--vector-25716

 

Spelling Lists
http://www.susancanthony.com/ws/_pdf/splhnd.pdf
Video Workshop for the lists
http://www.susancanthony.com/ws/spel.html

Spelling Rules

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/Resources/spelling%20rules1.pdf

and

http://www.riggsinst.org/28rules.aspx

75 Ways to Practice Spelling Words

http://www.momto2poshlildivas.com/2012/10/75-fun-ways-to-practice-and-learn.html

Journeys through Bookland Vol. 10 ORAL LESSONS pg. 352-360
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24857/24857-h/24857-h.htm#Oral_Lessons
6 Steps of Narration pg. 14
http://www.childlightusa.org/review/Winter2007_Review.pdf
Narration with Issues
http://simplycharlottemason.com/2013/09/25/narration-auditory-speech-issues/
Transitioning from oral narrations to written compositions
Journeys through Bookland Vol. 10 WRITTEN LESSONS pg. 361-362
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24857/24857-h/24857-h.htm#Written_Lessons

 

Basic English Rules and Composition
http://www.eyedocgreg.com/homeschool/english_rules.htm
Capitalization and Punctuation Rules
http://www.sanchezclass.com/capitalization-punctuation.htm#A

Write On! Teacher Manual, 3 Sentence Report, 3 Paragraph Report
http://www.learn4yourlife.com/support-files/writeoninstructorsguide.pdf
Write On! Intro and Conclusion

http://web.archive.org/web/20100209045138/http://www.kid-friendly-homeschool-curriculum.com/Homeschool-writing-contest.html

Introduction Worksheet
http://jimmiescollage.com/downloads/writing/introduction-paragraph-graphic-organizer.pdf
Conclusion Worksheet
http://jimmiescollage.com/downloads/writing/conclusion-paragraph-graphic-organizer.pdf

 

Use these composition lessons in Harvey's Grammar with the above worksheets. Animals: 40, 59. Plants and products: 82, 99, 105. Metals and elements: 112, 116. Disasters and phenomena of nature: 120.

http://books.google.com/books?id=hB8BAAAAYAAJ&dq=harvey's+grammar&source=gbs_navlinks_s
 

Writing an Effective Title
http://writing.umn.edu/sws/assets/pdf/quicktips/titles.pdf

 

Simple Topic Sentence

Topic + Main Point.

 

Simple Thesis

Topic sentence that states an opinion.

More Advanced Topic Sentence/Thesis Ideas

http://content.bfwpub.com/webroot_pubcontent/Content/BCS_5/Stepping%20Stones%202e/Student%20Resources/Six%20Ways%20to%20Form%20a%20Topic%20Sentence.pd

http://campuses.fortbendisd.com/campuses/documents/Teacher/2013%5Cteacher_20130115_1634.pdf
http://chickenscratch.pbworks.com/f/Methods%20for%20Writing%20a%20Topic%20Sentence.pdf

 

Gathering Grid for Research. Fold regular paper into 4x4 grids and use with above Write On! reports.

http://questgarden.com/139/61/3/120608222628/files/gathering%20grid.pdf

MLA Bibliography

http://www.edu.pe.ca/gulfshore/PDFs/bibform.pdf

 

Handwritten Friendly Letter
http://www.nhcs.net/parsley/curriculum/postal/FriendlyLetter.html
Address envelopes in all caps and no punctuation. Double spaces replace punctuation. Very Important new changes!
http://data.grammarbook.com/blog/numbers/how-do-i-write-addresses/

25 Types of Poetry
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/25-Types-of-Poetry-123703
or
http://myteacherpages.com/webpages/jgriffin/files/25%20Types%20of%20Poetry.pdf

Write a Story With a Cinderella Plot
http://www.whootieowl.com/pdf/CIND/Writing-Org.pdf
How to Write Your Own Scary Story
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson407/write-scary2.pdf

 

Classics of Children's Literature Reading List. Short and carefully chosen.

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/508287-a-crisis-plan-for-language-arts-lots-and-lots-of-free-links/?p=5540844

 

THE KNOWLEDGE MOST WORTH HAVING
pages 7-8 from Book by Book by Michael Dirda

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/507794-the-knowledge-most-worth-having-by-michael-dirda/

“Once in a class of graduate students,†recalled the distinguished Canadian Robertson Davies, “I met a young man who did not know who Noah was.â€
What should a person know of the world’s literature? It has always seemed obvious to me that the great patterning works ought to lie at the heart of any structured reading program. By “patterning works†I mean those that later authors regularly build on, allude to, work against. There aren’t that many of these key books, and they aren’t all obvious classics. Here’s the roughly chronological short list of those that the diligent might read through in a year or two. For such famous works you can hardly go wrong with any good modern editions, though the Bible the Authorized, or King James, Version is the one that has most influenced the diction and imagery of the English prose.

The Bible (Old and New Testament)
Bulfinch’s Mythology (or any other account of the Greek, Roman, and Norse Myths)
Homer, The Iliad and the Odyssey
Plutarch, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans
Dante, Inferno
The Arabian Nights
Thomas Malory, Le Morte D’Arthur (tales of King Arthur and his knights)
Shakespeare’s major plays, especially Hamlet, Henry IV, Part One, King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the Tempest
Cervantes, Don Quixote
Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels
The fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson
Any substantial collection of the world’s major folktales
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Lewis Caroll, Alice in Wonderland
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Know these well, and nearly all of the world’s literature will be an open book to you.

Get the unabridged books at
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au

Free Audiobooks
https://librivox.org/search?primary_key=0&search_category=genre&search_page=1&search_form=get_results

View retellings, abridged, and children's versions online at
http://www.mainlesson.com/displaybooksbytitle.php
and
http://www.heritage-history.com/index.php?c=library#folk

Then look for the titles to download at
https://archive.org/details/texts
and
http://books.google.com/books
and
http://www.gutenberg.org
and
http://www.mobileread.com
and
http://www.amazon.com/b?node=2245146011

 

Lit2Go  Read and Listen

http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/authors/

 

 

[Hunter]

The above should be enough, but If you need and have time for more:

 

A one year Ruth Beechick inspired spelling curriculum. Very Nice! Borrow a copy of "The Three R's" from the library if possible.

http://annesschoolplace.com/downloads/spellinglevela.pdf

Daily Grammar
http://dailygrammar.com/archive.html

 

Banishing Boring Words

http://www.sbcusd.k12.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/117175

 

Blumenfeld's Primer was replaced with How to Tutor, and then with Alpha-Phonics. There are free supplements for Alpha Phonics here, that can be adapted to use with Blumenfeld's Primer.

http://www.donpotter.net/reading_clinic.html

 

A Child's Composition Book complements the instructions in the Write On! teacher manual and the AO, CM and Journeys through Bookland methods and scope and sequence above. Integrated grammar is included. This is a very nice book aimed at grades 4-6.

http://books.google.com/books?id=0vUAAAAAYAAJ&dq=a+child's+composition+book&source=gbs_navlinks_s

 

Progressive Composition Lessons complement the AO, CM and Journeys through Bookland methods and scope and sequence above.
Book 1 (grades 3-4)
http://books.google.com/books?id=Ws8AAAAAYAAJ&dq=progressive+composition+lessons&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Book 2 (grades 5-6)
http://books.google.com/books?id=w6ACAAAAYAAJ&dq=progressive+composition+lessons+book+2&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Book 3 (grades 7-8)
http://books.google.com/books?id=2d4AAAAAYAAJ&dq=inauthor:%22Ida+M.+Brautigam%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s

 

Bing, Bang, Bongo Essays

Click on the interactive writing pdfs

http://www.csun.edu/~sspencer/documents/

 

McGuffey's Revised Eclectic Readers. TWTM recommended. The stories are sometimes awkward, but this is an unsurpassed word study curriculum. Reader levels do NOT correspond with grade levels! The 6th reader is high school level. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to find the word list for free; it is only needed for the 6th reader.

Primer  First   Second   Third   Fourth   Fifth   Sixth  Speller  Manual

 

Journeys through Bookland HOW TO READ FICTION pg.144
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24857/24857-h/24857-h.htm#CHAPTER_VIII

Book Reports grades K-6+
http://www.lovetolearnplace.com/BookReports/BookReport.html

Book Reviews grades 8-12
https://www.forsuchatimeasthis.com/Downloads/Book%20Reviews.pdf

More Reading Lists

AO booklists
http://amblesideonline.org/curriculum.shtml#years

ATA Reading LIsts
https://www.atachoice.org/ATA_Reading_List.html

Robinson and Rosegate Harbour Lists
http://users.gobigwest.com/rosegate/FreeBooks.html

Mensa Reading Lists
http://mensaforkids.com/readeraward/all.pdf

Christian College Prep Reading List
https://www.forsuchatimeasthis.com/Downloads/College_Prep_Reading_List.pdf

How to Read a Book. Reading list starts on page 332
http://crap.sceleris.net/HowtoReadABook.pdf

Free Study Guides
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/
and
http://www.us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/signetclassics/teachersguides.html

Journeys through Bookland
https://archive.org/search.php?query=journeys%20through%20bookland
or
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=journeys+through+bookland

Harvard Classics
Reading Plan
http://www.mensetmanus.net/inspiration/fifteen_minutes_a_day/
Downloads
http://archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3A%22harvardclassicsbound%22%20AND%20%28collection%3Aharvardclassicsbound%29&page=1
Fiction Bookshelf
http://www.bartleby.com/hc/

 

 

[Kristie in Florida]

Hunter, I've been lurking for years and only started to officially home school my daughter (4th grade) this past July. I made an account today just to reply to this post. It is exactly what I've been looking for. Our previous LA curriculum was just so not working and we didn't have money in the budget for more. Things suddenly got so dire I might not have money for next year's schooling at all. This post and others like it are a godsend to me and I just wanted to say thank you! I will stop being a stranger now.  

[TeaCookiesBears]

Hunter thank you for posting this great resource. Love the poetry pdf.

[Hunter]

I'm going to try and post links for each subject. I'm glad these helped!

 

FREE can be SO everwhelming, when it's just a bunch of incompatible and overlapping links, and much of it requiring a ton of ink and paper.

[mom31257]

Thank you so much! I'm in the middle of a language arts plan for the middle school years (ds), and this will be extremely helpful! 

[Kristie in Florida]

Regarding the spelling lists, would the video workshop I haven't had time to watch yet (I'm also a mother of a seven month old that won't nap) teach me how to actually use the lists and a list of common spelling rules? I don't know if I actually know how to teach spelling. I don't want to high jack your thread with our spelling woes so I won't get into them here. 

[Hunter]

Hijack all you want! I have no rules for the threads I start other than people be nice to each other.

 

I need to go out NOW, but will answer when I get back.

[clemota]

This is very helpful, Hunter - Thank you!

 

:hurray: :hurray: :hurray:

[clarkacademy]

Very cool!!!

[tjlcc]

Thank you, Hunter for your generosity.  :hurray: It's appreciated.

[Kristie in Florida]

Okay then, I shall hijack. :) We were doing Spelling Workout Level D because I read that that is where a fourth grade poor speller should start. After awhile though the exercises became busy work, and she wasn't internalizing the rules in order to spell similar words correct in her writing. She would bomb the weekly spelling test most times. She went to public school through Kindergarten to third grade and I was starting to think that she didn't learn phonics rules. In her third grade class they didn't teach spelling at all. I dropped Spelling Workout and we started writing letters back in forth in a notebook, in order for her to write in a fun way that didn't seem like school work, but I don't know how to explain each spelling mistake that she makes to her. I have noticed some improvement. 

 

In case some examples helps:

secrit for secret

grate for great

skreems for screams

wate for wait

calpicated for complicated

exepchion for exception

 

Seeing it on the screen makes me think that she knows the sounds, but not the words. She was getting very exasperated with herself when she saw that she was getting 18 words wrong out of 20 on tests so we dropped spelling as a formal subject. I began to wonder if I had to change how I taught spelling. So far I have narrowed it down to All About Spelling or Spelling Power, but I have no way of buying curriculum for months. 

[Hunter]

The thing about spelling is that almost every study done, shows that spelling instruction has no effect on student daily writing. None!

 

Now we DO know that children with dyslexia who are taught Spalding/O-G by trained instructors do improve their reading and handwriting and to a lesser extent their spelling. And in private schools, students that are red-shirted and cherry-picked and taught with Spalding Language Arts for the recommended 3 hours a day (plus homework), DO score higher than younger mainstream and LD children in PS who spend less time on language arts and are taught by less trained instructors. That is apples and oranges, though, when we are talking about 15-20 minutes of spelling instruction for normal homeschooled children.

 

The spelling lists I linked to are short. The words are easy. They are the words most commonly used and misspelled by children. Asian children have to learn a comparable amount of pictures for their "alphabet" to be able to read and write in daily life. Children CAN learn to memorize the words in THAT list. And the words in that list are the ones they need to know most.

 

Most other spelling curricula skim over those words and move onto "better" ones. Better means harder. Harder is always better, right? Wrong. Not if it means focusing on what we need less.

 

Because I needed to CHOOSE a spelling curriculum instead of just post multiple links, I agonized over this. I thought about the time limits in the schedule, mom's time to self-educate, the pages needed to be printed, and so much more. The lists and the silly ways to practice them are DOABLE for most families, and for many families they will accomplish as much or more than if they invest heavily both financial and time-wise in something "better".

 

As for rules. Applying rules is a higher order thinking skills that many young children are not ready for. They are more efficiently covered at an older age. English Made Simple is OOP, but widely available at libraries and at used booksellers for pennies. You can photocopy just a few pages along with some spelling lists meant for older children and adults.

 

Spelling and phonics overlap a LOT. Copying the phonics curriculum linked above for handwriting, will also drastically improve spelling.

 

If you want to purchase an O-G spelling curriculum cheaply, look for an OOP copy of Writing Road to Reading 4th edition. Beat up copies can be purchased for pennies. Even if it were $200.00, I'd still says it's the best O-G curriculum. O-G takes TIME, though. LOTS of time!

[Snow]

Thank you!!

[Hunter]

I am so excited about a literature list I'm working on. I'm trying to collect several editions of "Classics of Children's Literature". It's an anthology of NOVELS rather than the usual excerpts you find in anthologies. It has gone through 6 editions. It's an undergraduate textbook, so the current edition is VERY expensive and any new changes from the 5th won't be included in my list.

 

But since the 1980s professionals have sat down and had to come up with a LIMITED list of novels to publish in the textbook. Obviously copyrights play in to the choices, but for those of us living in crisis, we often are facing the same challenges to obtain copyrighted books, so their triaging is positively applicable to our situation! Yippee!

 

I adore the Michael Dirda list as my triaged SCHOOL list to prepare students to be ADULTS, but I also want a separate NURTURING list for CHILDREN in the NOW.

 

The Intro to the textbook talks about how children's literature is a NEW thing. The concept of children not being little adults is a new thing. For children living in crisis, they are not experiencing this NEW thing to the degree that others their age are, but usually they at least PARTIALLY experience it, and will have the interest and time to also read from a triaged children's list.

 

I like having the lists separate. The Dirda list for extreme crisis, and both lists combined for long-term lesser crisis. Or maybe just the children's list alone in the worst crisis imaginable, when things are too bad to even worry about the future more than the now.

 

I own the 4th edition. The library copy of the 2nd arrived today. I am just waiting on the 5th to arrive, and I think that will be good enough without the 1st and 3rd. It looks like every book I wanted to include in a list is in one of these 3 volumes, and none of the books I didn't want. I'm feeling confident to trust what was chosen. This list fits like a glove as much as the Dirda list did when I found it. The lists just make sense to me.

 

So, the children's literature list is coming soon. :-)

 

I added a couple letter writing links to the main list above. And I spent HOURS looking for a quick lesson on writing a funny story, but couldn't find anything. I'm still working on that.

 

That poetry pdf is awesome isn't it? :-) So much spoon fed information on so few pages. I like the more babyish version. It's so cute.

[Vanchy]

Hunter, thank you so very much!

 

[Mommyfaithe]

Wowzers!

[mamamindy]

Yes, thanks!!!! :hurray:

[quietchapel]

Regarding the spelling lists, would the video workshop I haven't had time to watch yet (I'm also a mother of a seven month old that won't nap) teach me how to actually use the lists and a list of common spelling rules? I don't know if I actually know how to teach spelling. I don't want to high jack your thread with our spelling woes so I won't get into them here. 

 

You might watch the teacher training videos at Logic of English. They helped me so much!

Also, I wanted to respond to your post about financial constraints. We are having a similar crunch on our homeschool budget, and Hunter has provided many links on a thread titled 'rigorous on a budget' (sorry, I don't know how to link!). There are other great suggestions from many moms.

 

[quietchapel]

I'm going to try and post links for each subject. I'm glad these helped!

 

FREE can be SO everwhelming, when it's just a bunch of incompatible and overlapping links, and much of it requiring a ton of ink and paper.

 

Awesome!! Then we can have full curriculum options for crisis mode (or regular mode if regular happens to always resemble a crisis!)

 

I have been searching public domain texts the past few days. I am shocked by how much is available, but have no idea how to pull it together into something that works.

[Hunter]

You might watch the teacher training videos at Logic of English. They helped me so much!

Also, I wanted to respond to your post about financial constraints. We are having a similar crunch on our homeschool budget, and Hunter has provided many links on a thread titled 'rigorous on a budget' (sorry, I don't know how to link!). There are other great suggestions from many moms.

 

 

Rigorous on a Budget thread.

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/507532-rigorous-on-a-budget/?p=5527646

[Hunter]

Classics of Children's Literature 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th.

John W. Griffith and Charles H. Frey

 

Charles Perrault (1628-1703)

The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods

Little Red Riding Hood

Blue Beard

The Master Cat, or Puss in the Boots

Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper

 

Mme le Prince de Beaumont (1711-1780)

Beauty and the Beast

 

John Newbery (1713-1767)

Mother Goose Rhymes

I won’t be my father’s Jack. Three wise men of Gotham. There was an old woman. Ding dong bell. Little Tom Tucker. Se saw, Margery Daw. Great A, little a. High diddle diddle. Ride a cock horse. Cock a doodle doo. Jack and Gill. Hush-a-by baby. Little Jack Horner. Pease-porridge hot. Jack Sprat. Tell tale tit. Patty cake, patty cake. When I was a little boy. This pig went to market. There was a man of Thessaly. Bah, bah, black sheep. There were two blackbirds. Boys and girls come out to play. Dickery, dickery, dock.

 

The Brothers Grimm

Jacob (1785-1863); Wilhelm (1786-1859)

Snow-white. The Frog Prince. Hansel and Gretel. Rumpelstiltskin. Mother Hulda. The Bremen Town Musicians. Aschenputtel. The Fisherman and His Wife. The Brave Little Tailor. The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids. Rupunzel. The Robber Bridegroom. The Almond Tree. The Sleeping Beauty.

 

Hans Christian Anderson (1805-1875)

The Snow Queen: A Tale in Seven Stories. The Little Mermaid. The Princess and the Pea. The Tinder Box. The Little Match Girl. The Swineherd. The Emperor's New Clothes. The Steadfast Tin Soldier. The Ugly Duckling.

 

Peter Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe

(1812-1885); (1813-1882)

East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon

The Three Billy-Goat's Gruff

 

Edward Lear (1812-1888)

A Book of Nonsense

There was an Old Man in a tree. There was an Old Man in a boat. There was an Old Person of Philoe. There was an Old Man of the Dee. There was an Old Man who said, “How.†There was an Old Man who said, “Hush!†There was an Old Person of Bangor. There was an Old Man with a beard. The Owl and the Pussy-Cat. The Dong with a Luminous Nose.

 

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

A Christmas Carol

 

John Ruskin (1819-1900)

The King of the Golden River

 

Carlo Collodi (1826-1890)

The Adventures of Pinocchio

 

Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)

Little Women Part 1 only,

up to chapter 23 Aunt March Settles the Question.

Part 2, the later chapters were originally another book.

 

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

 

Mark Twain (1835-1910)

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

 

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924)

The Secret Garden

 

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

Treasure Island

A Child's Garden of Verses

 

Joseph Jacobs (1854-1916)

Tom Tit Tot

Jack and the Beanstalk

The Story of the Three Little Pigs

The Story of the Three Bears

Henny-Penny

Molly Whuppie

Lazy Jack

Johny-Cake

Master of All Masters

 

L. Frank Baum (1856-1919)

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

 

Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932)

The Wind in the Willows

 

James M. Barrie (1860-1937)

Peter Pan

 

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

The Jungle Book

Just So Stories

 

Beatrix Potter (1866-1943)

Peter Rabbit

The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin

 

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957)

Little House on the Prairie

 

L.M. Montgomery (1874-1942).

Anne of Green Gables.

 

Jack London (John Griffith) (1876-1916)

The Call of the Wild

 

Margery Williams Bianco (1880-1944).

The Velveteen Rabbit.

 

A. A. Milne (1882-1956)

Winnie-the-Pooh

 

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

 

E.B. White (1899-1985).

Charlotte’s Web.

[Hunter]

Awesome!! Then we can have full curriculum options for crisis mode (or regular mode if regular happens to always resemble a crisis!)

 

I have been searching public domain texts the past few days. I am shocked by how much is available, but have no idea how to pull it together into something that works.

 

It's really hard to pull all the free stuff together. I got the courage to do an LA list, after finding the Journeys in Bookland guide. It filled in the holes of understanding I had in some of the other resources, and suddenly I had a full package as good as many expensive ones I've seen. And then I found the Dirda list and someone in another thread told me about the antholgy. So I figured I'd post it as ONE package that will work for SOME people.

 

I think I can save people, especially newbies, hundreds of hours of looking. Then they can START where I leave off, and go further than I ever did, and probably ever will.

[Hunter]

I'm not ready to post the full science and social studies lists, but here is a quick peek, to get people started who have nothing to use in the meantime.

 

K-8 Scope and sequence for history and science

http://www.judsonschool.org/our-approach/the-international-christian-curriculum

 

AO geography

https://www.amblesideonline.org/geographysch.shtml

 

I don't think rigid labs are important, but don't we all go through phases where we think something catastrophic will happen if we don't do them? :lol: This is best spoon feeding I have ever seen for labs involving variables.

The ESP lab worksheets

http://www.eequalsmcq.com/BlankLabSheets.htm

The instructions are in the introduction of the free life science teacher manual.

http://www.eequalsmcq.com/parent%20lf%20Intro%20plus%20chap%201.pdf

 

Living Science books, experiments and so much more. Click on "English". Scroll a little past half way down to the Isaac Asimov books.

http://www.arvindguptatoys.com

 

 

 

 

[Tanikit]

In case some examples helps:

 

secrit for secret

grate for great

skreems for screams

wate for wait

calpicated for complicated

exepchion for exception

 

The first four words you list are spelt phonetically by her - she does know the rules, but she has not been taught that a word must also "look right" - and this can only come from reading and reading and reading and reading - she needs to see the words - and then she needs to know that there are multiple ways to make the same sound.

 

trane train trayn treyn trein are all possible ways of spelling train - however she should know that "ay" is used at the end of words so that rules out trayn and the same with treyn. Then she would need to try the rest and say: which looks correct - this is sight memory and there is nothing you can do about that except keep your child reading as much as possible and help her to try all options when she doesn't know which is right.

 

"calpicated" could have happened for a number of reasons - maybe it is a vocabulary issue - she does not know the word and therefore heard it pronounced incorrectly. She knew it was a long word and panicked or the way it is pronounced in your dialect is not as clear to hear. You might also need to check blend spelling since pl should have been heard in the word complicated. Also does she know syllabification.

 

"exepchion" is phonetically spelled. The "tion" ending needs to be taught - and at some point also cian which sounds the same. Except would probably be a better word to start on before moving to exception as if they know the base word it makes it much easier and then that could be followed with exceptional.

 

I think a lot is expected of children when it comes to spelling without good enough teaching - hence all the list learning and then they teach long difficult words without teaching roots, suffixes and prefixes or why syllables work as they do. (m - ma- mag - magi - magic - magician all change the sounds because of the rules relating to open and closed syllables and the different sounds of "a" and "i")

 

 

[Kristie in Florida]

In case some examples helps:

 

secrit for secret

grate for great

skreems for screams

wate for wait

calpicated for complicated

exepchion for exception

 

The first four words you list are spelt phonetically by her - she does know the rules, but she has not been taught that a word must also "look right" - and this can only come from reading and reading and reading and reading - she needs to see the words - and then she needs to know that there are multiple ways to make the same sound.

 

trane train trayn treyn trein are all possible ways of spelling train - however she should know that "ay" is used at the end of words so that rules out trayn and the same with treyn. Then she would need to try the rest and say: which looks correct - this is sight memory and there is nothing you can do about that except keep your child reading as much as possible and help her to try all options when she doesn't know which is right.

 

"calpicated" could have happened for a number of reasons - maybe it is a vocabulary issue - she does not know the word and therefore heard it pronounced incorrectly. She knew it was a long word and panicked or the way it is pronounced in your dialect is not as clear to hear. You might also need to check blend spelling since pl should have been heard in the word complicated. Also does she know syllabification.

 

"exepchion" is phonetically spelled. The "tion" ending needs to be taught - and at some point also cian which sounds the same. Except would probably be a better word to start on before moving to exception as if they know the base word it makes it much easier and then that could be followed with exceptional.

 

I think a lot is expected of children when it comes to spelling without good enough teaching - hence all the list learning and then they teach long difficult words without teaching roots, suffixes and prefixes or why syllables work as they do. (m - ma- mag - magi - magic - magician all change the sounds because of the rules relating to open and closed syllables and the different sounds of "a" and "i")

Thank you!

 

She reads all the time. She is currently reading Little Women and Princess and the Goblin. She'she is ten. She is also exasperated when words don't spell the way that she thinks they should, and she wants to know why. She wants to know, for example, why secret, forget, and other et ending words don't end with it. Her dad told her yesterday that it is because we took the words from other languages, kept the spelling, but changed how we said them, so now it makes sense to her. We also started having the dictionary on the computer pronounce the trouble word instead of me, because sometimes my pronunciation sucks.

 

Having all of these free resources is amazing. I'm just learning how to use them. Our library is also pretty good, I also have family that will help as soon as I ask for help. I think the asking is the worst part.

[Hunter]

Okay, if she WANTS to know why, I might try to do a little more than just memorizing words IF you have the time and money. But I'd be careful to prioritize. She probably has other why questions too, and you can drive yourself crazy trying to be the perfect one-man show who solves her EVERY question NOW.

 

It's not a bad thing for a child to be left with SOME questions. It creates a hunger in them to self-educate.

 

Phonics fascinates me, and my spelling is improving as I study more about it. But I had decent spelling as a child because I read a lot. If I'd been drilled on the free list, I have no doubt I'd have had even better spelling. Even without any phonics instruction and discussion of rules.

 

O-G spelling is ONE way to tackle spelling, but it's not ALWAYS the best option for ALL families. Spelling is just a PIECE of a HUGE curriculum, and too much emphasis on any one piece of the curriculum can harm the WHOLE. Especially when crisis hits.

 

Your daughter is asking "why" but for students that aren't asking questions, O-G is even less effective. They just cannot fully apply the why's to the word being discussed and not at all to new words.

 

Applying spelling rules isn't that different from making the jump from using numbers in arithmetic to using formulas and x in algebra. It's fascinating to some children and entirely overwhelming to others.

[texasmama]

What a valuable thread!  Thank you, Hunter!

[Nicholas_mom]

Hunter--- How did you know that I am in a bind about writing compositions :)   Thank you, thank you!

[Hunter]

Are the Riggs 28 Spelling Rules useful as a stand alone list?

http://www.riggsinst.org/28rules.aspx

 

I'm trying not to post anything that will act as teasers to an expensive and time consuming curriculum. But I think the Riggs rules could be used to answer questions that come up using the spelling lists linked above.

[Hunter]

Hunter--- How did you know that I am in a bind about writing compositions :)   Thank you, thank you!

 

You are very welcome! There is always at least one person on the forum in a bind with compositions. The Write On! method is a gem. It is so efficient. And gradually I have collected supplements for the free Write On! pages.

 

It is really helping ME, to organize all my links and thoughts and CHOOSE just ONE plan to follow. I tend to do this  :willy_nilly: when I don't have a plan. I tend to look for a plan to buy and just about everything written after 1999 does NOT work in even a minor crisis. Y2K might not have taken the computers down, but I swear some sort of gas got sprayed on the world that changed everything. All the pre 1999 stuff is OOP or so highly edited as to be unrecognizable. Everything now is HUGE in every way.

 

It was SO much easier pre 1999. I swear it was. Hmm…I think I might be on the verge of a new signature or funny thread title.

[Hunter]

Okay, I added the Riggs Spelling rules to the 1st set of ultra-triaged links. And I added this to the secondary set of links.

 

How to Teach Your Preschooler to Read, was replaced with How to Tutor, and then with Alpha-Phonics. There are free supplements for Alpha-Phonics here, that can be adapted to use with How to Teach Your Preschooler to Read.

http://www.donpotter.net/reading_clinic.html

 

There are videos, O-G type phonograms flashcards, and more. This all takes ink and time, though, that might be best spent elsewhere, so beware.

[PaulainTx]

Thank you Hunter!

[Kristie in Florida]

Thank you, Hunter. We are saving up for the curriculum  that she really really wants and Language Arts was pushed into the pile of "I can figure it out for free because my degree was in Middle Grades Reading and Language Arts." Heh. She is am amazing reader and writer and truly really wants to learn and self educate. Her spelling issues really threw me for a loop and I didn't know how to help her. She LOVES diagramming, algebra, and thinking through things. Spelling just wasn't making sense.  

[Nicholas_mom]

 

You are very welcome! There is always at least one person on the forum in a bind with compositions. The Write On! method is a gem. It is so efficient. And gradually I have collected supplements for the free Write On! pages.

 

 

Hunter - This is EXACTLY what I needed--- The Write On.  I am using Paragraph Town but I do not know how to get started for him to write the 3 paragraphs.  I LOVE the 3 sentences about a topic and going from there to write the paragraphs.  This is soooo awesome.  I cannot thank you enough :)

[Hunter]

Thank you, Hunter. We are saving up for the curriculum  that she really really wants and Language Arts was pushed into the pile of "I can figure it out for free because my degree was in Middle Grades Reading and Language Arts." Heh. She is am amazing reader and writer and truly really wants to learn and self educate. Her spelling issues really threw me for a loop and I didn't know how to help her. She LOVES diagramming, algebra, and thinking through things. Spelling just wasn't making sense.  

 

You might like Writing Road to Reading 4th edition. Nasty copies are quite cheap.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Writing-Road-Reading-Spalding/dp/0688100074/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395251833&sr=8-1&keywords=writing+road+to+reading+4th

[Hunter]

Hunter - This is EXACTLY what I needed--- The Write On.  I am using Paragraph Town but I do not know how to get started for him to write the 3 paragraphs.  I LOVE the 3 sentences about a topic and going from there to write the paragraphs.  This is soooo awesome.  I cannot thank you enough :)

 

I have had wonderful success with this method with LD and ESL students. With a Spanish speaking nurse I used children's books on diseases. She read a book each day and then wrote an essay. The formula was enough to provide structure. but wasn't too tight to be limiting. She was so happy to do the SAME thing each day, over and over, but with a new and interesting book. She had just a few pages of worksheets she used over and over and over, and that she felt some ownership of.

 

Little by little, I added another worksheet and then another. Then I added some punctuation lessons. I didn't want to discourage her long sentences and interesting thoughts, but showed her how punctuation could really make the difference in breaking up awkward English, to make it more understandable.

 

Once they are writing those 3 body paragraphs, then you can add everything else one at a time. And the intro and conclusion worksheet is ingenious to show how to just outline the body paragraphs, so the student can just focus on the new skill of an intro and/or conclusion. You don't want to always include ALL the past skills while working new ones.

 

The whole free teacher manual gave me a lot of good ideas for teaching composition in general. How to just grade a few things instead of everything. How to repeat lessons. And how to gradually increase difficulty.

 

There is nothing on the market for any price that gets a reluctant writer writing an essay/report so quickly, and involves so little prep and self-education by mom/instructor. It's downright heady to watch everything come together so quickly.

 

You can ask the student 3 questions, instead of letting them make up their own 3 sentences. I usually do that with the LD students. For animals, you can do this same lesson over and over and over. What does the animal look like? Where does it live? Why is it useful/interesting to man?

 

The 3 subtopic idea has become a default for me in dumbing down too difficult texts, that I will just retell instead of reading aloud or use directly with students. I basically use this technique to write a lesson plan.

 

Good luck!

[genny]

Thank you Hunter! :hurray:

[Runningmom80]

Bumping this because it's awesome.

[Kareni]

Very nice indeed!

 

Regards,

Kareni

[MotherOfBoys]

Thank you Hunter! I was looking for spelling and reading!

[HappyClassical]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

[Murrayshire]

I'm not ready to post the full science and social studies lists, but here is a quick peek, to get people started who have nothing to use in the meantime.

 

K-8 Scope and sequence for history and science

http://www.judsonschool.org/our-approach/the-international-christian-curriculum

 

AO geography

https://www.amblesideonline.org/geographysch.shtml

 

I don't think rigid labs are important, but don't we all go through phases where we think something catastrophic will happen if we don't do them? :lol: This is best spoon feeding I have ever seen for labs involving variables.

The ESP lab worksheets

http://www.eequalsmcq.com/BlankLabSheets.htm

The instructions are in the introduction of the free life science teacher manual.

http://www.eequalsmcq.com/parent%20lf%20Intro%20plus%20chap%201.pdf

 

Living Science books, experiments and so much more. Click on "English". Scroll a little past half way down to the Isaac Asimov books.

http://www.arvindguptatoys.com

I am definitely following you with science! LOVE those free lab sheets on Mr.Q's site! I have been on that site a million times within the last month and have not seen them. Thanks a bunch for the incredible amount of links. I may have to add some to my Free Page on my Blog. 😉

[FO4UR]

It's really hard to pull all the free stuff together. 

 

 

 

I think I can save people, especially newbies, hundreds of hours of looking. Then they can START where I leave off, and go further than I ever did, and probably ever will.

 

 

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! :hurray:

[Alessandra]

Good heavens!

 

Thank you for doing all that work and for sharing it.

[lovinmomma]

.

[vaquitita]

Ooh I like the spelling links. Thank you for posting these. I'm going to have to check them all.

[dsmith]

Thank you, Hunter! I guess I know what I will be doing this weekend. ;-) Every time I open one of your threads, my reading and to-do lists increase dramatically, lol. In fact, I'm currently in the middle of re-reading some Ruth Beechick while tackling the guide for JTBL.

[abrightmom]

Hunter, This thread is AWESOME. Thanks!  :coolgleamA:

[Hunter]

I've been going through this list the past couple days. A lot of this is better than what I have paid quite a bit of money for. I said I was shopping my bookshelves, but what I really needed to do was shop this list.

 

I found my printed out copy of Blumenfeld's original reading program. It looks like I had been color coding it as well as the pencil notes. I want to see if it works to apply the Ruth Beechick phonograms to the lessons. Reading Spalding WRTR 4th gave me ideas for dictating a lot of the lessons, so the student can then use their notebook as their reading primer. That really only works well with a manuscript first approach, so I'm dead set of using manuscript first for the next couple months. If the student can use their notebook as a primer that saves money and the weight anyone needs to carry.

 

A lot of these links require very little paper and ink to use. I really like the idea of being able to jump straight from reading from a student created notebook to Kindle books. Right now I have the reading program printed out, but I think I can just take some handwritten notes and use it from a tablet. When I am really broke, I create "notebooks" for my notes, by just folding some printer paper into booklets, and then writing teeny tiny in my "notebooks". 

 

Also these resources are quick to teach. Students experience immediate success. They might not always lay the thickest foundation, but RB has convinced me that just because we pour a thick foundation, often doesn't translate into equal student performance. I've experienced equal or better student performance using these resources than I have the "better" ones.

 

My computer sounds like an airplane and the printer smells like it's burning, but I'm pushing them to reprint some of these links, that I no longer have.

 

I have decided to try AO untweaked this year, for better and for worse, and to see which of these links and RB complement AO, and try and turn all this into a cohesive whole.

 

As for math. Good grief, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm sticking with Saxon for Algebra 1 on up, but before that…I just don't know. I want it to fit into AO as best it can, but I just cannot afford most of the AO math suggestions, never mind like them. MEP takes too much paper. And the video courses are pricey. I've never seen Ruth Beechick's Ray's teacher guide. I don't think Ray's is listed as an option at AO, but it's not frowned on at the forum, either. Obviously I don't need AO approval, that's not it. I just want to settle down, if you know what I mean. I want to stop always planning and switching and tweaking and combining. And I like using things that people of all incomes and countries can use and discuss; it just seems more fun that way.