I can pick any of these curricula for free! Please help me decide...

[Cake and Pi]

I visited our public homeschooling charter school's curriculum library and made a list of all the LA curricula I could find (that weren't very obviously for high school).  I would love a little help picking out which ones to request for the coming school year.  

 

DS#1 will be in 3rd grade.  He has dysgraphia (and fine motor delay) and is writing and spelling at a beginning 1st grade level but reads and comprehends at a 8th-9th grade level.  He learns best by hearing and can write very little.  DS#2 will be in 1st grade and is able to do everything DS#1 can do LA-wise (he's noticeably better at writing).  They will have both finished FLL 1 and 2, and I plan to teach them together until I absolutely must split them up for separate instruction.

 

All thoughts, experiences, and opinions are welcome!  (I'll probably eventually re-post this on the k-8 curriculum board)

 

Spelling:

Spellography

All About Spelling

Spelling Power

Spelling Work Out

Spell It-Write!

Excellence In Spelling

Phonetic Zoo

 

Writing:

Writing Strands

Write Source (old, pre-CC version)

IEW - Teaching Writing: Struture and Style

IEW - Student Writing Intensive

Evan-Moor Daily 6-trait Writing

 

Grammar:

Shurley English for Homeschooling

Grammar and Writing (Curtis Hake)

Easy Grammar Program (Paul R. Erwin)

Exercises in English (Loyola Press)

Editor in Chief (Critical Thinking Co.)

First Language Lessons

Step Up to Writing (Sopris West/ Maureen Auman)

 

Vocabulary:

Words Their Way

Wordly Wise

Megawords

Wordsmith

Wordsmith Apprentice

English from the Roots Up

Vocabulary from Classical Roots

 

Great Source Daily series:

Analogies

Oral Language

Vocabulary

Sentence Composing

Spelling

 

Spectrum series:

Language Arts

Spelling

Vocabulary

Writing

 

Junior Great Books (not sure what category to put this under)

[freesia]

I would do All About Spelling. I would not do grammar yet (other than maybe identifying parts of speech. I would choose IEW bc it's wonderful for dysgraphic kids BUT I would watch the teaching DVDs and move very slowly. It's really better when kids are at the end of second grade.

Junior Great books is reading/lit and I enjoyed it when I led a group as a Student Teacher.

 

Is your son in OT? He should use a handwriting program, too.

[PeterPan]

You could try the AAS.  He might do better with Barton, but I take it that's not an option?  Yes to IEW.  I like Shurely.  It's something you can make very streamlined and hands-on with a little imagination.

[scoutingmom]

I agree with AAS

 

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[Cake and Pi]

I would do All About Spelling. I would not do grammar yet (other than maybe identifying parts of speech. I would choose IEW bc it's wonderful for dysgraphic kids BUT I would watch the teaching DVDs and move very slowly. It's really better when kids are at the end of second grade.

Junior Great books is reading/lit and I enjoyed it when I led a group as a Student Teacher.

 

Is your son in OT? He should use a handwriting program, too.

 

AAS it is!

 

So I would watch all of IEW's Teaching Writing: Struture and Style first and then have my boys move slowly through the Student Writing Intensive?

 

DS#1 isn't in OT any more.  Private OT isn't an option for us right now, hopefully it will be after we meet our (ridiculously high) deductible in a few more months, though I'll have to check our benefits.  We're already paying about $500/mo on back medical bills and DS#4 has at least one more big procedure coming up this year... It sucks, but I can't think of a way around finances right now.  

[Cake and Pi]

You could try the AAS.  He might do better with Barton, but I take it that's not an option?  Yes to IEW.  I like Shurely.  It's something you can make very streamlined and hands-on with a little imagination.

 

I've got to stick to our free options for the time being.  If AAS doesn't work, I can plan Barton into our budget... eventually.

 

FLL 1 and 2 have been great for DS#1 since its all verbal (we don't do any of the enrichment copywork stuff).  I haven't seen FLL3, but I hear it's quite different?  Where would one start in Shurely having finished FLL2?  Level 3?  The website says to start at grade level but take into consideration reading level... which is not at all helpful, lol.

[PeterPan]

People usually skip grades with Shurely, so 3/5/7 or 2/4/6/7.  I tried 7, didn't love it.  It's super, super gentle.  If you wanted to go into 2, then go into 4 after that and 6.  With my dd, I used the optional workbooks with the sentences already typed out and we used the whiteboard.  You could make magnets for the different labels and do them on a whiteboard.  My ds' language issues are such that he couldn't answer the Q&A flows yet, so I haven't been able to try it on him.

 

Winston Grammar uses label cards that the kids move around.  Just google it and take the idea and apply it to your Shurley, kwim?  

 

To make the AAS more potent, make up non-sense words and do longer words.  He's older and clearly quite bright, so you're going to need to make it more challenging to get over the hump of what he knows from his memory.  The *concepts* of AAS are fine, so you just want to extend them a bit and challenge him.  Make non-sense words and make them longer and more complex.  So, for instance, if AAS is having the kids spell "cat", you would have him sound out and spell "shraft".  That way he can't rely on his visual memory of cat and breeze through but really has to think and apply the concepts.  You're not going beyond the concept (single vowel, single syllable words), but you're maxing out what could be done with it to push him farther.

Edited April 17, 2016 by OhElizabeth

[Julie of KY]

I agree with AAS.

 

Also agree with watching the IEW teacher videos. They are very worthwhile even if you don't use all of IEW material in the future.