Curriculum Recommendations _ Elementary Language Arts

I will admit that I have used, bought or seriously looked at almost every Language Arts curriculum.  MCT Language Arts, Shurley Grammar, Abeka, Well Trained Mind, Life of Fred, Rod and Staff, Primary Language Lessons, Critical Thinking Co.  etc.  There just seemed like there should be an easy fix to Language Arts, but I never found one.

In the end, though, here’s what I would recommend.

K and 1st

I think K and 1st should work on phonics and basic writing skills.  I, personally, don’t think it works well to add a grammar or writing program to K or 1st.  It just ends up to be busy work that you have to repeat in later years.  These littles need to learn to read, write their letters and words and very basic summaries.  Those skills along with  understanding numbers and addition and subtraction, should be the real focus of K and 1st.  Even with really advanced kids, like mine, this should be the focus.  Let them explore the world around them, let them follow their learning interests, teach them about God’s amazing creation and let them explore. Kids that aren’t allowed to do this, burn out and start to resent school.  I did this to my oldest and had to spend some serious time teaching him how to love to learn.  Let them be little.

2nd and 3rd

Spelling by Sound and Structure – I really like this spelling program.  It still teaches basic phonics and can be independently done, a bonus in my opinion.  I continued this program through 4th grade, despite other recommendations.  I found that it worked, allowed some independent work and was fairly inexpensive. Only the 2nd grade program can be bought through My Father’s World (link above) so I bought the rest either at Rod and Staff booths at convention or through Rainbow Resource.

Writing With Ease – I needed some help to teach my kids to learn how to write summaries.  I found WWE to be the perfect supplement.  I would start with book 2 depending on the child (get the teacher’s guide, too) and do a half a book a year.  Otherwise, it would be overkill.

Language Lessons for Today 2nd and 3rd – We used the book Primary Language Lessons for this stage before MFW had rewritten and repackaged the book.  I liked how gentle the grammar was and how it taught my kids to think about grammar and language.  I think it gave them a deeper understanding of using language, versus just being able to name the parts of speech.

4th and 5th

By 4th and 5th, the Classical Educator in me, came to the forefront.  I liked the gentler Charlotte Mason for the younger years but felt the need to start slowly amping up my kids education before middle school. Language Arts was one of the places I did that.

Spelling Power – By 4th and 5th, I just wanted to get spelling done as quickly as possible and move to Vocabulary.  Spelling Power helped me to do that.  Each year, I would test them in to the appropriate list.  Every Monday, I would pre-test them until they had a list of 15 – 20 misspelled words.  Sometimes, we went through 5 lists to find 20 words they didn’t know, sometimes, we went through 1. On Tuesday and Wednesday, they did (2) Activity Cards each day and wrote the entire list once. On Thursday, I tested them on their list.  Any word they still missed, they had to write 5x, add it to their personal Dictionary ( a notebook they each had with a letter on each page on which they recorded words they had a hard time remembering) and we added it to the next week’s spelling list.

First Language Lessons 3 and 4 – I love FLL for 4th and 5th graders.  It added more rigor to their schedule and gave them a really thorough grounding in grammar.  I would do a book a year starting with 3.

Now, for writing. I have two ways that I think could work depending on the student.

Writing With Skill 3 and 4 – If you have found that WWE works well for your child, then I would just continue with that.  It eases well into Writing With Skill ( which is my favorite upper level writing curriculum) and does a great job also teaching Reading Comprehension.

Writing Skills for Today – This is another product MFW has redone.  This is a revised version of Writing Strands.  Now, I have found that people either loved or hated Writing Strands.  There doesn’t seem to be any middle ground.  I liked Writing Strands.  My kids found it funny and I liked how it taught writing incrementally.  I think it taught them to think about writing in a less formulaic than many of the popular programs out there,  I wanted my kids to know how to write, to learn how to write with their own voice instead of just using a formula. Having seen the revised version, I am pleased to see how MFW made it more user friendly.  It is much easier to see the objectives of the writing assignment which makes it easier to grade and it is a lot more friendly to independent work.

Extras –

Apples and Pears – If your child struggles with spelling and phonics and/or struggles with dyslexia ( I am not an expert on dyslexia but have seen this program to work), then I would encourage you to look at this program.  This is a program from the UK and will have some British spelling but I have seen this program work for a child who had eye issues and struggled with phonics and spelling.  I wish I would have had this for Caileigh when she was young, it would have really helped her.