Happy Friday, everyone! It's time to share what homeschool curriculum we are using for the 2019-2020 school year. So far, we have shared our choices for History/Geography/Social Studies and Math. Today, we will be sharing our curriculum choices for Language Arts!
I have the privilege of co-hosting this collaboration with 4 other wonderful ladies this week. They are YouTubers Ingrid at Mommy & Mia Homeschool Chronicles, Kim at The Homeschooling Grammy, and Corrine of Mama's Little Lambs; and fellow blogger, Stacy at DyerTyme. Please make sure and check out each of these ladies channels or blogs. They each have excellent content for those of us on this homeschooling journey!
Language Arts
Last month, I shared what we were using this past homeschool year in Language Arts. That is all changing. In fact, like Math, this is one subject I switched up before we finished this current school year. Spelling had been fine, but everything else was getting increasingly frustrating. Especially the writing portion. We've been using our new curriculum for a few weeks now in our homeschool, and it is going so well! I have been very pleased with the curriculum from Simply Charlotte Mason.
English and Spelling
With this curriculum, English, Spelling, and Writing are all done together using prepared dictation. One book will last for 2 school years. My 13-year-old technically should have done the last half of Spelling Wisdom Book 2 this past year, and then the first half of Spelling Wisdom Book 3 for the 2019-2020 year. When I got the book, however, and took a look through it, I knew he would be overwhelmed starting where he "should have." So, I started both him and the 10-year-old at the beginning of Book 2. Then, I just have my older son at double the pace of the younger.
Spelling Wisdom is meant to work together with Using Language Well. Each book contains 140 total exercises. Each Spelling Wisdom exercise contains a passage from a living literature source. The corresponding exercise in Using Language Well contains English questions pertaining to that passage, usually identifying parts of speech and the like. When that is finished, the student studies the passage for dictation. They are to observe format, punctuation, and any spelling words they may have trouble with. They are to study until they are confident they can write the passage from dictation without looking at it. Then, I will dictate the passage to them, standing by with my White-Out tape to immediately cover spelling mistakes so they don't have a picture of the error in their mind.
Built-In Writing
With the above method, writing is taught naturally. As they study and write from dictation, passages of good, living literature, they naturally learn writing and composition. They learn how it is formed, and they learn what good writing looks like. I absolutely love this, because I was desperately looking around for writing curriculum. What we were using was just not working. And it seemed like I was going to have to break the bank to find something that would. But this works for them! In just a few weeks, I have noticed that when they're writing on their own, it has very noticeably improved, along with their spelling. With no more tears!
Formal Grammar
Starting in 6th grade, Simply Charlotte Mason recommends an optional program in addition to the above, for those who want a more in-depth grammar study. And I do, as both of my students love to write their own stories and have both expressed interest in writing a book someday. This program is not offered by Simply Charlotte Mason, but recommended by them. It is called Analytical Grammar. I started my 13-year-old on it when we started the other new LA materials. My 10-year-old will start it his next school year. This book is used over the course of 3 years.
Analytical Grammar also uses passages of good, living literature to study and learn grammar. I love this! They start out very simply, learning one concept at a time. The student learns what the part of speech is. Then, they learn to take a section of literature and parse (label) it, with only the parts of speech they have learned so far. They also learn how to paraphrase a passage, and eventually sentence diagramming. I absolutely thought my son would balk at this, but he's been doing amazingly well! I was really surprised! With the gentle way this curriculum introduces diagramming, he's already surpassed me in his knowledge. He often has to explain to me why something goes somewhere. LOL!
How it's broken down
The first year in Analytical Grammar consists of 11 units, with 5 parts to each unit. Each unit can be done in 1 week. The first day, the student learns the concept and does the first exercise. Then, there are 2 more days of similar exercises relating to that concept. On day 4, is a page called "Skills Support." This is when they are given a passage to parse and diagram (when they get to that point). Then, the student is to paraphrase that passage. Finally, on day 5, they have their exam.
Once those units are done, there is a review book. With the review book, you only need to complete one exercise every week, or every other week, depending on how they're retaining what they've learned.
Each year of Analytical Grammar is broken down in the same way. So, the first part of the year is more intense. Then, it's just occasional review to make sure they stay sharp on what they've learned.
That's it!
Wow, writing it out, that seems like a lot! But really, once we got into a routine with this new curriculum, it doesn't take nearly as long as it seems at first glance. Without Analytical Grammar yet, my younger son spends maybe 20 minutes at the most on Language Arts. Since he is going at a faster pace with Spelling Wisdom and Using Language Well in addition to Analytical Grammar, my older son is spending 30-40 minutes per day on Language Arts. They may not always be super excited when it comes to doing this subject, but I have not heard any serious complaining since we switched over. And they are showing some serious improvement. And for me, both of those things are huge!
Thanks for reading, everyone! Don't forget to check out the playlist below to see what other mamas are choosing for next year's Language Arts curriculum in their homeschool, as well as blog post links below that. There are all different kinds of curriculum choices presented here. So, if you're new to homeschooling or just looking to make some changes, you will find some great ideas! Have a great weekend!
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