Mama2Three Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 My 4 yo will start kindergarten in the fall (she turns 5 in April). I plan to use MFW K teacher's guide to follow the letter of the week schedule and do the fun activities, memory verse, etc. I would add in phonics with ETC and PP, but I'm not sure about other LA. (I'll also add math, but I'm more comfortable with my plan for that subject.) DD is getting ready to start ETC 4, likely by the beginning of March. I don't require any workbook time from her, but she lately she has really picked up speed with them. I am wondering about the spread between her reading level and other language arts topics. For example, I was looking at Sonlight LA 1 (the level at which she is currently working) and in addition to phonics, they do other language arts skills like contractions, homonyms, synonyms, can/may, its/it's, alphabetizing, etc, etc. For early readers, do you teach other LA along with phonics, or do you hold off? If you hold off, how do you make sure you don't miss anything? I almost feel like we couldn't use Sonlight LA, even though it's a curriculum I keep eyeballing. Thanks for your help as I try to wrap my head around this. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelia Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 We do some LA with reading, but mostly I want Ariel to be reading well before I start pushing the other stuff more. I think it's an individual thing. Does your daughter want more LA activities? If she's handling what you are currently doing without a problem, then you might consider the other stuff. My current plan is to just discuss different aspects of LA (onomatopoeia, alliteration, rhyme, etc) as it comes up in our read alouds until we finish the current level of our reading program (supposedly she will be reading at a 2nd-3rd grade level by then) and then start FLL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 If you have the time (and money, this is an expensive route, though less expensive than private testing by far), a great way to figure out where your child is in the various strands of language arts is to enroll her in whatever K12 LA course she places into. Then do everything in the course for 4 or so months and see what is easy and what is more difficult. When my son was in K, I enrolled him in LA2 and the information I got from that experience was extremely valuable, much more valuable than a testing report could ever be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VanessaS Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 We're just doing letter writing and copywork. It's actually very good practice and FREE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeegal Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 My oldest was an early reader. I pushed him ahead in all LA and in comparison to his younger brother, who was at grade level, I regretted it. He struggled to understand alphabetizing, homonyms, etc. What took 30 minutes to explain to a barely 7 yo, took 30 seconds to explain to a 9 yo. With my youngest ds, who is a strong reader in K, I'm keeping him in kindergarten level LA. I leave lots of good picture books around the house and encourage him to read. Otherwise, he's doing K level work, it's good review and a confidence booster, if nothing else. Lessons tend to be short and sweet, and I have a wiggly but eager student. As far as missing material, much of LA is repeated each year at a more difficult level. Older children can handle the more difficult level, even if it's the first time they've seen the topic. Maturity plays a big part in comprehension. There are also many good programs, just as Analytical Grammar or IEW writing, that teach from the beginning for an older student. There's no need to push ahead unless you wish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama2Three Posted February 13, 2009 Author Share Posted February 13, 2009 Thanks for all the replies. It's interesting to hear the different thoughts. coffeegal, your comments really resonated with me. I don't want to push forward too quickly, and I appreciate the alternatives you mentioned. Nice to have something that I can cross off my list. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.