Just wondering how many of you cover all three everyday? I have read some recommendations that say to do the reading and writing daily but you only need to do the grammar (parts of speech, diagramming) every few years. I am having a difficult time finding a LA program I like and the kids tolerate well. Any ideas or suggestions?
It is rare for us to cover all three in a day. Our schedule is a bit different so no days look alike, but my 7 year old will probably read about 3 times a week, write 1-2 times per week, and do a little grammar (Mad Libs) about once every 10 days. My 8 year old will probably read about 2-3 times per week, write 1-2 times per week, and do grammar about 3 times per week. Hope that helps.
We do Christian Light so we cover grammar and a little handwriting daily, and DS also does silent reading every day, with me reading to him from a good literature book about 3-4x a week. What curriculum have you tried so far? That can help us know what to suggest.
We combine these subjects. They often have something to read and then they write a response, a continuation, a review or something. As we proof read and go over what they have done we managed to learn a lot of grammar. We will pull out the grammar book when it is a rule we haven't covered before and learn about it together.
We will be doing grammar for the first time this year. The program I bought has short daily lessons. We do reading a 2 - 3 times a week but she does her copywork everyday.
We do all 3 every day. He has a pleasure reading book that he will read 5 days a week (sometimes weekends too depending on whether we are doing anything else.) I also have him read the worksheet directions aloud so I can hear him read. I also read to him at least 3 times a week. The grammar is covered through his language arts (Abeka) and we do one lesson a day. The writing I incorporate from the other classes like science or history. What ever class we will be doing that day I will have him write out the questions and answers instead of just filling in the blank. This also has him use the skills he is learning in grammar.
Reading is every day in some capacity or another. Ds reads a short piece on something, dd and I read together. The majority of our 'reading' block is concerned with learning phonics, though. Grammar- we hit this occasionally, but nothing I stress about. Last week the lesson was on quotation mark use, and it was a discussion lesson. Writing- copywork every day consisting of one sentence. Both kids get the same sentence, dd prints and ds does cursive. Reading is one subject for us, LA is the other (which includes both grammar and writing). So in LA last week we also covered Fact or Opinion in statements. I do math and reading every day. The rest of it is more negotiable, and usually includes a lot of discussion of concepts.
I think it depends on the ages of the kids and what their plans are for the future (as they get older). We study grammar and vocab. several times a week. I am trying to encorporate more writing this semester. It depends on what type of writing. For young kids I would have them practice writing letters/words/sentences (maybe) several times a week or everyday. But I wouldn't expect sentences from very young kids. For older kids, I would want them to write a paragraph every couple of weeks and edit it and maybe type it up. Some people have the older kids write a lot more often than that. I also think that some grammar is necessary and some not so necessary. Do all kids have to diagram? I liked it, but my son does not. So, if he does well without it--why do it? There are so many variables it is overwhelming. I am so glad I only have one child to worry about.
read always, at least every day at some point sometimes book form sometimes other. Magazines come he can read cover to cover in one sitting. We make it bedtime reading a lot of times for pleasure. Then Grammar and Vocab are nearly every day, plan is every day but doesn't always get both done.
Grammar and handwriting everyday. Creative writing is done on his blog just "whenever". Reading is done only in the summer (for comprehension practice and picking up new vocabulary words). Free time reading is done whenever he wants, usually every day.
My student Ben - I have plans for him to do R&S English every day, but sometimes we don't get to it, and sometimes we do 2 lessons. He has a Pentime cursive writing book, which we may or may not get to, but in his Bible and reading workbooks I remind him to use his best handwriting when they require sentence answers. I'm working composition into his R&S science 3 pretty often (yesterday it was "Why Build a Dam?"). We don't do freetime reading much at school, but his mother has him reading chapter books and such at home.
You have all made me feel better. I am having a hard time getting it all in but now I see that it will all be ok if I relax a little. As for curriculum we have used lifepacs, Landmark, and another I can't recall the name of right now but this year I am using a grammar book I stumbled across and then supplementing as needed. I think next year we will go back to Landmark at least for LA.
We do a little of each every day. Writing is a daily job that includes penmanship. Grammar is short but we pick one thing per week and just drill it home. Finally, reading is done everyday but its done constantly - reading directions, readings prices at mall, reading signs while driving, etc. We do a little vocab for more structured reading. Hope this helps.
Nichole, have you looked at Christian Light? It's actually my favorite, but right now R&S is fitting Ben better. We'll probably go back to CLE next year. I've looked closely at Landmark, and I've used Lifepac -- CLE is way better. It's in workbooks, like Lifepac, but it has daily lessons clearly marked out (usually the 5th and 10th days are quizzes, with the unit test a week later) like Landmark. www.clp.org
Ds is 9 & in 4th grade. I do 7-10 readalouds each week, covering history, biographies, science, geography, and literature. He gives me an out-loud narration for those. He'll soon do a written narration once a week. Narrating is the precursor to great writing. We also read poetry 3 days a week and from that he does copywork. Through copywork he learns spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, handwriting, and sentence structure. Once a week he'll do a dictation exercise based on one of the poems. He does a spelling activity 4 days a week from his workbook. This touches on grammar/vocabulary as well - the activities include synonyms, antonyms, proofreading, definitions, dictionary skills, analogies, homophones, & classifying. He also reads to me every day from a novel of his choice (usually 2 pages). Right now it's A Cricket in Times Square. We follow the CM method, using Ambleside Online.
We do a reading time every day, usually in the car going to our afternoon activities. We do Shurley Gramar every day, which takes care of Grammar 4X a week and writing paragraphs and essays 1X a week. This is all for my 4th grader. My 7th grader does Rod and Staff daily. It is heavy Grammar. I assign a 5 paragraph essay weekly.
We used Time4Learning's Language Arts for quite a while (until my youngest son aged out of it, sadly) and it always kind of integrated grammar in with reading, writing, and comprehension, which I thought was a wonderful way to do things. My younger son, who is a visual learner, always enjoyed the multimedia style of the lessons, too! This year, we are using a pretty fun book called "The Chortling Bard" which uses a comedic play of Shakespeare to teach grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension. Again, I like the way it integrates them together. I've never really understood how you could teach reading/writing/grammar as totally separate subjects...they are all so connected!!
Just my two cents... We do reading (aloud & silent) every day and practice writing 4 out of 5 days. Grammar is a funny one. Officially, we only started with my oldest (just started third grade). We do a chapter a week, usually spreading the reading and then assignment over two days. But I find grammar is one of those things we're constantly addressing, just not officially. Punctuation, capitalization, sentence structure, all those are things we run into constantly. So, even if I don't make a note of it as a lesson, I've come to realize we're always addressing practical applications of grammar.
