LA like Masterbooks but not

[ktgrok]

I am working on language arts for my rising 2nd grader, and also considering what to use for my rising 6th grader (who has dysgraphia).

I really like the way Language Arts for a Living Education from Masterbooks handles grammar and writing for elementary and was excited to see they had a level for 6th grade now.  What I like is that the grammar is taught by writing sentences more than circling things or mutiple choice - so they see a reason for the grammar and actually use what they learn. And I like that it is short and sweet and not a ton of work. I knew it didn't line up with my beliefs theologically and we never did the Bible "reading comprehension" lessons when I used it in the past, and instead did our own religious stuff and reading/literature. But then I saw the sample and one of the  grammar lessons used sentences about marriage only being between a man and a woman and now I'm just not willing to hold my nose and buy it. (we are progressive Christians who attend an LGBTQ affirming church and have at least one LGBTQ family member - this isn't negotiable for me). 

I like CLE okay but lessons can be a slog and I feel the amount/depth of grammar is overkill and not what my kids need. I'd rather have them writing sentences than working on deep grammar terms most people don't even ever hear of. Again, I know it is conservative, but they are not sneaking in stuff in the lessons beyond a God is good, do the right thing type stuff, which I'm fine with.

I'm considering Catholic Heritage Curriculum's language of God, even though we are not Catholic, as it is also gentle, even though we no longer attend a Catholic church. 

Other thoughts on elementary level language arts that are later on introducing a ton of writing, simple and not overhwhelming lessons, that preferably don't have me juggling 4 different workbooks? (I can use a different book for spelling, that's fine, and phonics is covered for the younger one that still does phonics.)

I'm looking at Treasure Trove of Literature from CHC for literature, or doing some Brave writer singles for the 6th grader, and with 2nd grader we will just read and discuss books, so lit isn't a worry, bt always open to other ideas if there is a program that integrates it all in a good way. 

 

 

[HomeAgain]

Well, here's my take on a few we used between my oldest (delayed writing ability) and youngest.

Learning Language Arts Through Literature - this was fine.  Short lessons.  The book studies were poorly integrated, but as long as we ignored those it went okay.

Moving Beyond The Page lit units - oldest LOVED these.  I was also a fan.  I pulled from 2-3 age levels, books he would enjoy.  The worksheets provided had enough variation and many of them also came in two levels so that we could adjust on the fly to what my kid needed at that moment.  However, I tried one from the 7-9yo (or 6-8yo, maybe) group and it was dull, boring, and killed the story.  I never thought we could hate Charlotte's Web, but we nearly did.  I still have most of that packet undone.

Writing Tales - great!  Short, integrated lessons.  One workbook.  Games to play if we wanted to.  Unfortunately, there were only two levels.  They suggested Classical Writing next along with Harvey's Grammar.

Classical Writing - nope.  Hate you with a passion.  Cumbersome.  Not user friendly in the least. (but we did keep the Harvey's Grammar which we did like)

English Lessons Through Literature - Lovely.  Short lessons, good books. One workbook.  Easily adjustable.  Not as detailed in writing instruction as we needed, so we added @8's Treasured Conversations.

Climbing to Good English - the books aren't pretty.  BUT, short lessons, one workbook, easy to follow instructions.  All parts of language arts in one.  Goes through 8th.  It's a git-er-done program that works.

[almondbutterandjelly]

I'm just going to throw out some things we used back in the day.  Dd was a visual spatial learner and also was not able to do a lot of writing yet in the sixth grade.

We enjoyed the Language Smarts series by Critical Thinking Company.  I know it says lower grade levels (really tiny in the top corner that you can black out), but mostly the levels read A, B, C, D, E.  We used Level D in the sixth grade.

We also have used Seton books, English 6.  

Those would be my recommendations.  For grade 7, we enjoyed The Adventures of Genius Boy and Grammar Girl.  We also did some of I Laid an Egg on Aunt Ruth's Head.  And Writing with Ease 3.

YMMV but I thought I'd throw those resources out there.

[Clarita]

It doesn't seem very Masterbook like to me; 1) it's not all-in-one open and go and 2) it's not colorful and fun looking at all. 

I've liked Writing Skills (Book A) for my rising 2nd grader. I got to even borrow the teacher's guide (not really needed to do it). It handles grammar by alternating exercise of "showing" (that's your circle, sort, etc.) and an exercise where you compose related sentences. The nugget that you need out of the teacher's manual is that she never meant for anyone to just go through the workbook doing all the exercises. She meant the workbook to show a scope and sequence you can follow and the exercises as examples, not as those you have to do all of it word for word or else it's not doing the program right.

I really like it for my son because I can use the workbook sometimes as inspiration for an exercise I could have him do with sentences he's reading out of his reading work. Also days when I could just plop the workbook with premade stuff right in front of him.  

[ktgrok]

Thank you all. I think Climbing to Good English and Writing Skills both look like possible options!

[JennyD]

Every year I look at different LA programs and then I come back to Voyages in English.