Reading/Grammar
For the past two years, we have re-vamped our homeschool in January. Last school year it took me until then to find the Language Arts curriculum. We muddled through fall and began in January with Ordinary Parent's Guide to Reading and First Language Lessons. We loved it. And though we were then a bit behind, I pushed through and covered a good bit in the rest of the school term we had. Because we started mid-year we did not complete the curriculum by our summer break. Picking back up in August we are still working our way through some of the lessons. We should finish by the end of February and be ready for First Language Lessons 2 on March 1. I will be pushing them to complete FLL 2 by August so we will be ready for FLL 3 for the new school year.
Writing
What I didn't realize was that I needed to also begin Writing With Ease. So that is on our schedule to begin this month. We'll be a little behind with that but we will strive to catch up.
Handwriting
Ugh. Handwriting is the thorn in my flesh of homeschooling. Both hubby and I have terrible handwriting and our boys both struggle with it as well. We've run the gamete on handwriting curriculum but I think we have decided on Getty-Dubay's Italic Handwriting. We are starting that this month too. I decided on it back in November but didn't want to start it before the holidays.
Today (and each Monday in January) I am linking up with the Virtual Curriculum Fair hosted by Homeschooling Hearts and Minds. This week's theme is Playing with Words: the Language Arts.
Be sure to check out the other participants in the Virtual Curriculum Fair!
Reading on Time by Cindy Horton @ Fenced in Family
Playing with Words: the Language Arts by Christa
Darr @ Fairfield Corner Academy
Reading and Beyond: Language Arts in Our Homeschool by Laura O in AK @ Day by Day in Our World
Language Arts that Work for Us by Melissa @ Grace Christian School
Learning Language at Our House by Jessica @ Modest Mama
Virtual Curriculum Fair: Language Arts by Christine T. @ Our Homeschool
Reviews
The Learning of Language by Dawn @ tractors & tire swings
Reading and Spelling: Modifying the Magic by Pam @ Pam and Everyday
Snapshots
An In Depth Look at All About Spelling by Missouri Mama @ Ozark
Ramblings
Virtual Curriculum Fair: Let's Talk About Words by Debra @ Footprints in the Butter
Why We Love Classical Conversations Essentials (and how I know that is not a complete sentence!) by Nicole @ Schooling in the Sun
Virtual
Curriculum Fair---Playing with Words: the Language Arts by Angie @ Petra School
Whole Language vs. Phonics by Christine @ Crunchy Country Catholic
It's All About the Art of Language by Brenda Emmett @ Garden of Learning
Watching Movies for Language Arts Class by Debbie @ Debbie's Digest
Only 5 Spelling Tests a Year! (Can we do that?) by LP @ justpitchingmytent
Playing
with Words by Chrissy @ Learning is an Adventure
Language Art at Our House by Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory
Virtual Curriculum Fair Week One Playing with Words: the Language Arts by
Leah Courtney @ The Courtney Six Homeschool Blog
Playing with Words, the Language Arts by Cindy @ For One Another
Heart of Dakota- The Fine Details part 1- Language Arts by Lynn @
Ladybug Chronicles
Great post, and thank you for linking up to the Virtual Curriculum Fair. ;0)
ReplyDeleteOn handwriting: how old are your boys? While I'm a big advocate of handwriting practice (we've used Getty-Dubay, too, we also like copywork), I've found with my boys in particular that less is more, particularly when they are young. I think part of this is developmental. My almost 8-year-old daughter would do copywork all morning if I let her. My oldest boy at that age would struggle and struggle just to write a line. Now, at almost 12, he can write very very neatly when he takes his time, but I try to minimize the amount of actual hand-writing he does each day. It keeps him from rushing through it, which equals sloppy handwriting. So if he has a written assignment in history, for instance, I avoid giving him handwriting practice on top of that. It also helps if they are practicing one skill at a time, they can become overwhelmed if they are trying to, say, spell a new word, use proper grammar, organize their thoughts, and write neatly all at once. As they mature, and some of those skills become more automatic, that will become easier.
My boys are 12 and 8 but the oldest has multiple special needs including fine motor development. We basically only did copywork in the fall. I noticed that since the youngest started kindy in pubic school and then came home after learning the modern style, he gradually began mixing modern and traditional (which is what the oldest learned first.) I very much believe in handwriting as a subject and focusing on it only during that particular time (right now anyway, while they are young.) We are planning to start with Book B and work up from there.
ReplyDeleteI'm really enjoying this Curriculum Fair and seeing how other homeschools are changing things up mid year. :)