fruitofthewomb Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 I have been (and am still) in survival mode. I haven't even thought about grammar or spelling in over a year. But it's time. I have 2 school age-9 & 6. I think I want something I can incorporate into our morning basket. Just a gentle introduction. No workbooks. But I need explicit instructions. I was thinking of First Language Lessons for grammar but I have no clue on spelling. Is there such a thing as relaxed spelling? And is there something besides FLL? That includes spelling? Anyone else go easy on the grammar/spelling? Anyone out there incorporating language arts in their morning basket with the younger crowd? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 My first advice would be to check out the Brave Writer Lifestyle! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitofthewomb Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 My first advice would be to check out the Brave Writer Lifestyle! Thank you for the suggestion. I am reading up on it right now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamamindy Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 I have been (and am still) in survival mode. I haven't even thought about grammar or spelling in over a year. But it's time. I have 2 school age-9 & 6. I think I want something I can incorporate into our morning basket. Just a gentle introduction. No workbooks. But I need explicit instructions. I was thinking of First Language Lessons for grammar but I have no clue on spelling. Is there such a thing as relaxed spelling? And is there something besides FLL? That includes spelling? Anyone else go easy on the grammar/spelling? Anyone out there incorporating language arts in their morning basket with the younger crowd? Although I have used FLL with my children together, if you are looking for something different, we are really enjoying English Lessons through Literature. I think it would lend itself well to a Morning Time since you could read the literature on one morning, and then do the (short) lesson on the next morning, alternating. (The lessons are meant to be 3x week.) Also, during the lesson there is poetry and a fable, so I think that's nice during Morning Time. The only written work in the lowest levels is copy work, which we do at another time of day anyway. Now spelling, I'm not sure of. I would say we're "relaxed" with spelling here (my girls only seem to need minimal direct instruction). With ELTL, the author has her children do prepared dictation for spelling in levels 3 and up. (We're only in level 2.) She has her children analyze words from their copywork. Maybe you could just look at some words in whatever you're reading during your Morning Time and analyze them then with a whiteboard nearby. I would love to have a Morning Time like this, but with my 1 & 3 yos, it's a scramble in the morning. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitofthewomb Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 Although I have used FLL with my children together, if you are looking for something different, we are really enjoying English Lessons through Literature. I think it would lend itself well to a Morning Time since you could read the literature on one morning, and then do the (short) lesson on the next morning, alternating. (The lessons are meant to be 3x week.) Also, during the lesson there is poetry and a fable, so I think that's nice during Morning Time. The only written work in the lowest levels is copy work, which we do at another time of day anyway. Now spelling, I'm not sure of. I would say we're "relaxed" with spelling here (my girls only seem to need minimal direct instruction). With ELTL, the author has her children do prepared dictation for spelling in levels 3 and up. (We're only in level 2.) She has her children analyze words from their copywork. Maybe you could just look at some words in whatever you're reading during your Morning Time and analyze them then with a whiteboard nearby. I would love to have a Morning Time like this, but with my 1 & 3 yos, it's a scramble in the morning. :lol: I have a 1, 3, & 4 yr old that wreak havoc so I understand! Our morning time is very short-30 min or less. The littles finish breakfast, run wild, or sit 'not' quietly & listen in. But we still enjoy it. I will check out ELTL. I have heard of it... Thanks!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coco_Clark Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 I second ELTL. If your 9 year old has had little grammar instruction I think you could start both your 9 and 6 year old on book 2. You start the older two listening in on the audiobook while you preoccupy the masses. All the books are available on librivox. Then you join them to read the poem and the fable, go over the memory work together, and then do the very short lesson (sometimes a grammar lesson, sometimes a narration, ect). Finally, the copywork can be left to be done independently. It does not include explicit spelling instruction. You could easily do half a lesson each day without falling far behind, like suggested above. Or do it 3 days a week as planned and have 2 days each week off in case of havoc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitofthewomb Posted January 14, 2015 Author Share Posted January 14, 2015 I second ELTL. If your 9 year old has had little grammar instruction I think you could start both your 9 and 6 year old on book 2. You start the older two listening in on the audiobook while you preoccupy the masses. All the books are available on librivox. Then you join them to read the poem and the fable, go over the memory work together, and then do the very short lesson (sometimes a grammar lesson, sometimes a narration, ect). Finally, the copywork can be left to be done independently. It does not include explicit spelling instruction. You could easily do half a lesson each day without falling far behind, like suggested above. Or do it 3 days a week as planned and have 2 days each week off in case of havoc. Great plan! I like it! I looked into ELTL & really think it fits the bill. Now I need to figure out spelling... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Critterfixer Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Well, I'm going easy on the spelling with my boys this year, but they are both very visual spellers and don't seem to struggle unduly with it. They are also fifth graders, so I don't know if this would work or not for your guys. They chose their own spelling words from a reading selection. Whatever model I'm using for writing that week supplies the spelling words. They each get their own copy and they highlight the words they have chosen. We talk about them, look for places that could cause difficulty in spelling and talk about the meanings of the words. All week long they work with those words. They copy them daily in their spelling notebook, they use them in sentences and I strongly encourage them to chose words they particularly want to use in their own personal writing (both write fiction stories in their spare time). I don't know if that is relaxed enough for you, though. It might be a bit much to get copies, but it might be doable to have them select words they like and jot them down and work on oral spelling, meanings, then maybe sentence construction and dictation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamamindy Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Great plan! I like it! I looked into ELTL & really think it fits the bill. Now I need to figure out spelling... Do you know what you want for spelling? We use Reading Lessons through Literature (same author) as our spelling program for my two oldest together. DS can also join in on phonogram review or any games we play (we use the LoE game book sometimes) but I chose to use something else to teach him to read. Our lessons are very short: phonogram review (either with flashcards or play a game) and then I dictate spelling words. Sometimes I give a spelling "quiz" where I say the phonogram and my girls write them on a small, lap-size white board. Some days we even just review the phonograms, no words. I find this pretty easy to do in a group setting. I want my girls to know the phonograms and spelling rules so that they can analyze the spelling of almost any word they come across. This program fits the bill. It's easy to use, and very affordable. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rimk3 Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Do you know what you want for spelling? We use Reading Lessons through Literature (same author) as our spelling program for my two oldest together. DS can also join in on phonogram review or any games we play (we use the LoE game book sometimes) but I chose to use something else to teach him to read. Our lessons are very short: phonogram review (either with flashcards or play a game) and then I dictate spelling words. Sometimes I give a spelling "quiz" where I say the phonogram and my girls write them on a small, lap-size white board. Some days we even just review the phonograms, no words. I find this pretty easy to do in a group setting. I want my girls to know the phonograms and spelling rules so that they can analyze the spelling of almost any word they come across. This program fits the bill. It's easy to use, and very affordable. Hope this helps.I I agree with Mindy. RLTL is easy to pace and takes little time. I have two 6 year olds and a 9 year old. We review phonograms together for about 5 min everyday (sometimes we play a game and that takes longer) and then we analyze spelling words. Mine are in different levels and I still think RLTL works well in a group. My 9 year old is in level three and we do three words a day on a whiteboard. My girls are in level one and they do two words a day. This part takes about 15/20 min. If your two start in the same level, your time investment will be less. I will ditto ELTL for the rest of your LA. It's a place to start and it's all laid out for you. However, I do think Brave Writer is another relaxed option that lends itself well to a group setting. It's flexible to meet your family's needs/wants. Don't rule it out just yet. We do some BW lifestyle stuff and my children respond well to it. IMO, ELTL and BW share a similar vibe that I think comes from a CM influence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerileanne99 Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Just as another idea: We are doing sort of an all inclusive, eclectic LA program to consolidate and minimize. But my dd adores the rules-based spelling so we started there and built around it. We do AAS as the backbone. It has practice sentences for dictation, and dd does them on a dry erase board. After the sentence has been written she uses little wooden Montessori parts of speech symbols and simply places them above the words to identify parts of speech. She might use different colored markers to underline a clause, or answer a question about sentence structure. That generally takes less than a minute per sentence:) This also doubled as handwriting practice, and eventually I changed it up so that half the sentences were done in cursive so she could practice that as well. AAS then has a 'writing station' at the end of each step. This is a collection of 6 words from previous lessons, generally unrelated. You can just write a sentence with each word, but I give her journal paper instead. She creates a brief 'story' using all six words correctly. She loves this, and likes to draw a corresponding illustration when done. If time, we might edit and/or diagram her sentences. Adding in poetry and memory work, that was all we did for quite some time. It all flowed together really well and took a very minimal amount of time. I guess we also read the Brian Cleary parts of speech books and those on simple literary devices such as similes and metaphors, and I did make a list of the parts of speech definitions from FLL to memorize. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IfIOnly Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 We do half a grammar book a year here, and the rest of the year is focused on writing. Basically they have to write at least a half hour a day and get to choose their projects. Copywork, letter, story, nature notebook, English notebook (with tabs for spelling rules; grammar rules; reading log with comments section; composition; copywork; and, phonograms) and timeline writing are some options. I'm not doing a formal writing curriculum yet. We tried one once though. :) My oldest is in 6th grade FWIW. Spelling is Rod and Staff without the tests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeacefulChaos Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Well, is spelling a necessity? My kids do spelling on the SpellingCity app (there's also a website if you don't have a tablet). We use Spelling Wisdom, too, about twice a week. I did FLL with my kids for 1st and 2nd grade. I did part of 3 with Link but we didn't like it - it had just become too much. We looked around and tried a few different things after that - R&S (not fans), Growing with Grammar (also not fans), and Total Language Plus. We like TLP okay, and Link is using it for the rest of the year, but Astro did one book and wasn't a fan. It was not his style at all. Now he's doing Language Lessons for the Elementary Child and we like it. He'll move on in the same program next year, and it's what I plan on using with Pink after she does FLL 1 and 2. I gave Link the option of sticking with TLP next year or moving to Language Lessons for the Secondary Child and he chose the latter. We also do WWE, and to get diagramming in we have the Elementary Diagramming Worktext that we do once a week or so. Oh, and they do Daily Grams for all the nuts and bolts stuff. It sounds like we do a ton, but it really isn't. It's just what we've found that works for us, and it's actually way more laid back than it probably sounds. :) I'd have to say that this year, with these things, I feel the happiest I probably ever have with our LA stuff. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitofthewomb Posted January 14, 2015 Author Share Posted January 14, 2015 Do you know what you want for spelling? We use Reading Lessons through Literature (same author) as our spelling program for my two oldest together. DS can also join in on phonogram review or any games we play (we use the LoE game book sometimes) but I chose to use something else to teach him to read. Our lessons are very short: phonogram review (either with flashcards or play a game) and then I dictate spelling words. Sometimes I give a spelling "quiz" where I say the phonogram and my girls write them on a small, lap-size white board. Some days we even just review the phonograms, no words. I find this pretty easy to do in a group setting. I want my girls to know the phonograms and spelling rules so that they can analyze the spelling of almost any word they come across. This program fits the bill. It's easy to use, and very affordable. Hope this helps. I downloaded the samples & I *think* it is what I was wanting. I wanted to go over the spelling rules with some practice-not spelling word list to memorize. Thanks for sharing how you use it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LLMom Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 I loved Bravewriter as well but it is mom intensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitofthewomb Posted January 14, 2015 Author Share Posted January 14, 2015 I agree with Mindy. RLTL is easy to pace and takes little time. I have two 6 year olds and a 9 year old. We review phonograms together for about 5 min everyday (sometimes we play a game and that takes longer) and then we analyze spelling words. Mine are in different levels and I still think RLTL works well in a group. My 9 year old is in level three and we do three words a day on a whiteboard. My girls are in level one and they do two words a day. This part takes about 15/20 min. If your two start in the same level, your time investment will be less. I will ditto ELTL for the rest of your LA. It's a place to start and it's all laid out for you. However, I do think Brave Writer is another relaxed option that lends itself well to a group setting. It's flexible to meet your family's needs/wants. Don't rule it out just yet. We do some BW lifestyle stuff and my children respond well to it. IMO, ELTL and BW share a similar vibe that I think comes from a CM influence. I read through the brave writer samples and while I do really like it (especially the lifestyle type stuff) it seems a bit above my DDs right now. My DD who is 9 has some LDs & handwriting is really a struggle still. I think she could do some of the joy it down stuff but I need to think about that some more... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamamindy Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 I read through the brave writer samples and while I do really like it (especially the lifestyle type stuff) it seems a bit above my DDs right now. My DD who is 9 has some LDs & handwriting is really a struggle still. I think she could do some of the joy it down stuff but I need to think about that some more... We do a lot of the Bravewriter lifestyle stuff - and I totally suggest doing that, for free, and you have a lot of time to add or use any of the programs she sells. Sometimes adding (good) stuff, for us anyway, takes away something that is more important for right now. KWIM? Have fun! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 "Relaxed" language arts definitely makes me think Brave Writer. But... it's maybe not relaxed for the teaching parent. More that the approach revolves around giving a child plenty of time, playing with words and language, letting a routine be enough, letting a little go a long way. Those are all relaxed in terms of giving a child time to grow. But in terms of planning and thinking and staying on top of it, I think it's not always relaxed feeling for the parent to keep coming up with stuff! So sometimes a pared down approach to a laid out program alongside a relaxed attitude is going to be the most relaxed approach for everyone. If BW appeals to you as well as some of these others, I second picking one BW "thing" to try and implement and it could go alongside another program with more hand holding. Maybe a once a week freewrite, or a movie day, or a poetry tea day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotherOfBoys Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 ELTL is great. Especially when you download the free LibrVox recordings for most books. Three days a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitofthewomb Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 "Relaxed" language arts definitely makes me think Brave Writer. But... it's maybe not relaxed for the teaching parent. More that the approach revolves around giving a child plenty of time, playing with words and language, letting a routine be enough, letting a little go a long way. Those are all relaxed in terms of giving a child time to grow. But in terms of planning and thinking and staying on top of it, I think it's not always relaxed feeling for the parent to keep coming up with stuff! So sometimes a pared down approach to a laid out program alongside a relaxed attitude is going to be the most relaxed approach for everyone. If BW appeals to you as well as some of these others, I second picking one BW "thing" to try and implement and it could go alongside another program with more hand holding. Maybe a once a week freewrite, or a movie day, or a poetry tea day. I subscribed to her email & am hoping to implement one thing-I think the free writing. Her suggestions for it were so good! I think my dd would enjoy glitter gel pens & a pretty notebook! I may buy Jot It Down soon just so I can soak in some of her knowledge & maybe start moving in that direction. I like the whole 'lifestyle' approach & I need the encouragement to implement some of the things (like playing around with rhyming). It's not that I don't know to do it-it just gets lost in the shuffle of day to day life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitofthewomb Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 ELTL is great. Especially when you download the free LibrVox recordings for most books. Three days a week. I already have a few of the suggested read alouds as audiobooks! Makes life easier :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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