I have been thinking about what we are doing. I am not 100% sure I'm happy with anything except math. Earlier I posted about content subjects (the Would You Ever thread). Now I'm thinking on our LA. By law we have to cover: English, to include spelling, reading and writing. Here is what we are doing: Both: Reading every day (Reagan is using HOP and Ry is onto "real books") Spelling Connections along with bigiqkids.com Total Reading (this covers reading comprehension stuff as well as grammar and some writing) Handwriting Rylee is also doing: Worldly Wise 3000 book 2 (just started this). How can I trim this all down? I really feel like we are LA heavy.
What about choosing 2 days/wk for each specific lesson? Like do spelling Monday and Wed do the total reading Tues and Thurs and then writing and "free read" everyday?
Well I can tell you what we do...because my kids are young and I believe in delayed academics and learning should be fun and all that jazz. By law I have to do 'reading' and 'LA' there is nothing in our law that says I have to do spelling or grammar or vocab, etc So we work most of our LA into our read alouds for all other subjects. For vocab, we just read real books that aren't watered down and my kids are 'trained' (for lack of a better word) to ask me what a word means if they don't know. So our vocabulary is just out of what we read and hear as we live life. I'm asked at least 10 times a day EVERY. DAY. 'What does xxxxx mean?' LOL I'm totally okay with this and it works well for us because everyone always comments on my boys' vocabularies being big for their age and 'how does he know that word?!?!' (to which I answer 'Because we homeschool!' LOL) For 'reading' we are working on phonics with both boys (different levels) and they narrate their read alouds in all subjects to cover reading comprehension. I also make them read a book alone in their room each day (for quite time for mama! LOL) then come out and tell me about the book. I am doing spelling list with my oldest because he's good at it, it builds his confidence and it helps him with his reading fluency. We use a list I make up based on words he is covering in his phonics lessons each week (McGuffey's reader and Phonics4Free/Step by Step) We don't have a 'handwriting curriculum' because I see it as a rather silly, useless thing. (not judging people who use them, it's just not for us) We work their handwriting in with other things, we work on letter formation along with phonics with the youngest and the oldest works on handwriting as he does spelling and other subjects, since he's already been taught proper formation I don't see a need for a separate curriculum at this age... So anyway...that's how we do it and combine and trim down because LA encorporates sooooooo much it's easy to overload on the LA stuff. Something we did in school was vocab/spelling was combined into one-2 birds with one stone. And we also rotated the LA stuff... 6 (or 12) weeks focusing on grammar, then 6 (or 12) weeks on spelling/vocab. This way it all gets covered but you're not doing each subject every day 180 days a year.
My ideas are in red. Here is what we are doing: Both: Reading every day (Reagan is using HOP and Ry is onto "real books") Continue Spelling Connections along with bigiqkids.com Continue Total Reading (this covers reading comprehension stuff as well as grammar and some writing) Drop - have them do some writing related to their interests or perhaps pass notes between yourself and your child Handwriting Continue Rylee is also doing: Worldly Wise 3000 book 2 (just started this). Drop
Ok new question... For grades 7-12, we are required: English, to include language, literature, speech and composition What is language? Is that when we need to do vocab and grammar to appease the powers that be? I worry about standardized testing... we have to do it for Rylee next year when she is in 3rd grade. We have to test on math and language arts (I used the CAT test with Garrett, but it's been so long I really don't remember what the LA portion covered). ETA: This is from the Seton site as to what is covered (I only copied the LA portion) I think I will stick with the total reading, we only have to do one page a day and they are generally painless to get through the stuff in the book (I'm skipping the first part of each book which is phonics type stuff... we did some of it up to this point but I decided to just skip ahead last week), I will dump the Wordly Wise (anyone want to buy it?? We only did a few parts of the first lesson and they could be erased..lol) : Test 1: Vocabulary. Test 1 contains 20 items measuring same-meaning words, opposite-meaning words, multi-meaning words, and words in context. Test 2: Comprehension. Test 2 contains 21 items that measure comprehension of reading passages. Items test the student’s ability to extract details, analyze character, identify main ideas, and interpret events described in passages. Items also test the student’s ability to differentiate between fantasy and reality. Test 3: Language Mechanics. Test 3 contains 20 items that measure skills in the mechanics of capitalization and punctuation. Test 4: Language Expression. Test 4 contains 20 items that measure skills in language usage and sentence structure. Items require identification of the correct noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, or adverb that completes a sentence. Other items require identification of the subject or predicate of the sentence and the correct sequence of sentences in a paragraph. All items in the test are based on rules of written Standard English.
We are extremely LA heavy in our house, too. But....I think LA is SOOOOO important. You could try to alternate so you're not doing everything every day.....but....I don't see anything wrong with what you have (although, we've been pm'ing about that anyway! ) Obviously, if it's not working for you.....and you know your kids best.
I'm not sure you are "LA heavy". Reading every day is a given. I'm that's either "free" reading, or reading a book that you've chosen. Similar to "Sustained Silent Reading" or some such in the classroom. That's the half-hour my kids read during "Mom Time". Your Total Reading INCLUDES grammar, comprehension, and some writing. So you can't really get rid of that. What exactly is your handwriting? Can that be incorporated into something else...for example, along with your spelling? Or copy work for history or science? And I understand doing Wordly wise. Is it possible to have her use that for her spelling words?
Personally, I think grammar and vocab are important in the higher grades. At the ages of your children (7 and 6, right?) they aren't so important. Vocabulary and grammar can be something you focus on later. So if you want to cut down I might cut down on those two.
:shock: What on earth does the study of bugs have to do with language???? lol I tell Rylee all the time she is going to be an entymologist, she is all about bugs. I have decided that we will continue with the Wordly Wise as well. Here is the schedule we have been doing and I think it's ok.... MWF~ Reading (aloud 10m, silent 30m), 1 page Total Reading on a reading topic (10-15m max), spelling write words, do 1 activity on bigiqkids (15-20m max), handwriting (10-15m max) a max total of 1.5h TTH~Reading (aloud 10m, silent30), 1 page of Total Reading on Grammar or Vocab (10-15m max), Rylee-Wordly Wise (10-15m) Reagan-bigiqkids (10-15m) a max of 1h25m We will also start watching some videos.. Wordgirl, The Electric Company, Martha Speeks, etc and the kids will continue with their Reading Eggs and Ooka Island (these two are what gives me quiet time alone with the other one..lol)
