Here is a list of curriculums we have used and will be using. I will also add some choices that friends of ours have used.
Institute of Excellence in Writing (IEW) offers some of my very favorite things!
One of the reasons I like this company is their explanation of why they do what they do and the videos you can watch online to hear about them. They also have a helpful customer service line.
We have used their poetry and LOVE it! The method they use is that of hearing it over and over to memorize. We listen when we are in the car. We have done this for the past two years and our kids have memorized about 30 poems of different lengths. Some are a minute long and one is even 4 minutes long. We will continue to do this for the next two years as it is a 4 year program. (Pictured is the CD as well as the poems written out in the spiral bound book. They are sold separately but I recommend using both.) As small children memorization really helps them retain information and is a great life skill!
IEW offers many choices of writing...they are the Institute of Excellence in Writing after all :)
I look forward to having C-dub and Fashion Faith (FF) in the
Student Writing Intensive A (SWI) this coming school year as a paid class at the Liberty Co-op location. This course is a DVD course that can be done at home or with a group. One idea, because of cost, is to split the cost between a few families. We have friends who have used this and are quite happy. We will follow up the SWI Level A with the SWI Level A Continuation Course the following year if all goes as planned.
IEW also has theme based writing units for grades 3-12 that are fun!
For olde students IEW offers online courses as well. We have not tried them yet but have friends who have had a great experience.
My favorite thing offered on the IEW site is their
K-2 "Learn to Read".
I did this with Jumping Joy (JJ) as a Kinder and Fashion Faith as a 2nd grader. It was below the level of FF but I wanted to make sure she didn't miss anything. The LA I did with FF for 1st grade wasn't strong at all so I wasn't sure about what holes she was going to have.
It's call Primary Arts of Language (PAL). There are both reading & writing portions. It includes activities that are multi-sensory. I love this, especially for the K-2nd graders, because they are just getting started in structured learning. There are fill in sheets, folder games, active games, poems and a sticker book that all tie into each lesson.
All About Spelling (AAS). (You can locate it on the IEW site or the link in the sentence before this one.) I LOVE this for spelling. We have tried three other spelling programs but this is by far my favorite! It actually teaches kids how to decode words. I thought that it only had two levels, but to my surprise and excitement there are a total of seven levels. I have done Level 1 and half way through Level 2 with my youngest. My middle skated through Level 1, as I mentioned before it was probably below her level but I didn't want to have holes in her LA learning. Now that I figured out there are 7 levels my older two will finish Level 2 with my youngest this coming year in the first month of school. Then they will all progress to Level 3. My oldest will probably breeze through until I get him up to his actual level. Once again it is multi-sensory with hearing the word, moving letter tiles and writing involved. Love this!
I was surprised with my oldest two's spelling from last year. I was excited about what I chose at first. By the last part of the year I realized that they could pass the weekly spelling tests just fine but when it came to writing sentences or paragraphs their spelling was horrible. They did not have the fundamentals down as far as decoding to figure out how to spell words correctly. They had, instead, gotten good at memorizing a list of words for a test. I am not a fan of that AT ALL! We will no longer use that method for spelling and they will all do AAS.
One of the LA subjects that seems to get overlooked is handwriting. I still think that cursive is important to learn to write and read. All of my kids learn cursive and will practice it through 6th grade as a subject. There is just something about being able to write with fluidity, look at a printed word and turn it into cursive that is good for the brain. Usually I start this subject with my children as a 3rd grader. This coming year JJ begged me to start her a year early in 2nd. So I am letting her but warned her that if she complains then it's over until 3rd. She happens to be a highly motivated child that loves school and loves challenges. She always wants to keep up with her siblings so it can't hurt.
I was pleasantly surprised with the legibility of my son's cursive. His printing is small with not all of his letters formed correctly but his cursive is beautiful! I didn't start schooling him until half way through 2nd grade so it seems that some of his bad habits are stuck. Oh well, there are bigger hills to die on. ;)
We have used the following cursive curriculums.
Modern Style Cursive Connections
Abeka Penmanship
Even though this book says 2 and is intended for Abeka's 2nd grade curriculum I use it with each child that starts cursive now. (I usually have them take out the "excessive curly-cues"). It gives the child practice with letter formation and turns into sentences by the middle of the book and paragraphs by the end. I also like that Abeka emphasize cursive with all grades (again I start in 3rd usually) and have practice books for kids through 6th grade where they are producing written samples after they have "mastered" letter formation.
With grammar and phonics there are many choices. I have tried a few, especially this last year that were ok. I felt we were a bit disjoined because they were all from different companies. Last year we used:
Easy Grammar
Explode the Code
Beyond the Code
Wordly Wise
as well as some of the ones listed above.
My favorite from the list above is Wordly Wise. Children from Preschool-12th grade get rich vocabulary in the context of a story. They revisit the word list up to 7 times by the end of each unit.
As I mentioned above I felt disjointed from so many different company's books so this coming year we are going with Abeka LA for the most part (with the exceptions of the SWI from IEW for writing for my 4th and 6th graders, poetry from IEW for all and AAS for all). I am looking forward to their grammar, vocabulary, cursive and basic LA work to tie in with Abeka. I think it will feel like less work for all of us as well. With our upcoming year having some possibly "unexpected events" (adoption related) I'm looking forward to the LA being a bit tidier and more compact. We'll see how it goes ;)
Reading Comprehension is an area that I have yet to nail down. I am excited about what awaits us in the school closet for next year though! A friend shared with me the Comprehension Guides (CG) that Veritas Press puts out. (Look under the Literature tab on the left) I was excited to find some great choices and that led me to search CBD for even more.
I have settled on 6 novels with CG for my 6th grader as well as 2 books without CG and 4 books with CG for my 2nd and 4th graders as well as 2 without CG for each of them. Each CG has chapter by chapter questions and projects that tie in to the story. I like that they are thin, paperback and at first glance don't seem overwhelming, even for one of mine that can get easily overwhelmed with what work appears on a page.
Last year we used Five in a Row (FIAR) and Beyond Five in a Row for reading comprehension. I liked it but it was too much work on my end to make it happen. I do love the concept though! I love the kids literature to overlap and hit many subjects.
I might use this in the future, we'll see.
No comments:
Post a Comment