Homeschool: Language Arts

If you did not see my previous post about our 2020-21 school plans, read that here! This week I will be sharing a separate blog post for each school subject, detailing my plans for which curriculum we will be using. For reference, I will have a 5th grader, a 3rd grader, a Kindergartener, and a 3-yr old preschooler this year. Honestly, I do not have any formal "school" plans for Andrew this year. He is an energetic 3-yr old boy and not yet ready to sit and follow directions. He even refuses to color with a crayon!  So any curriculum I list is for my 3 older kiddos.

Also, I feel like I should preface all of this by saying I reserve the right to change my mind about any of this! Haha. Seriously, I will not know if this is the right fit for my kids until we actually use it, so I'm giving myself full permission to switch curriculum if at any point I know it is not working.

LANGUAGE ARTS: I have probably given this subject the most thought and research. My older boys, and my oldest in particular, are not strong in their reading/writing/spelling skills. So when choosing an approach, I am trying to make sure it is both rigorous enough to "catch them up", while being gentle enough to not totally frustrate them on Day 1. I also decided early on that if I am teaching my kids at home, I want the Word of God to be forefront. Language Arts seems like such a great opportunity to have them memorize and write out scripture, so I have chosen a Christian Curriculum called "Language Lessons for a Living Education", by Masterbooks.

Things I love about this curriculum: The lessons are short (20-30 minutes daily), and they take a Charlotte Mason approach. That is, the focus is not on busywork, but rather a story-based approach with character-building themes built in. From the extensive research I have done, I truly think this curriculum will be a great middle-ground for my boys. We plan on using these workbooks every day.

Jenna will be using the "Foundations Phonics" book by Masterbooks. This phonics book is suggested by Masterbooks to be used before their Language Lessons for a Living Education.

If you plan on making a purchase through Masterbooks, I would love if you used my referral link: https://www.masterbooks.com/r/LMYYiAXX/

I will most likely supplement this program with some sort of additional spelling or writing. Ones I am considering include Writing Strands, Spelling You See, Brave Writer, etc.

Finally, I think it goes without saying that we will be doing a LOT of reading in our house! This will include books read aloud by me (which we always do), as well as some books I assign to my boys for fun quiet reading. Reading and writing may not ever be their strongest subjects. My goal is to help them discover the joy of reading, as well as make them competent writers! I mean, I do sell books through Usborne as a side job, so we have access to SO many amazing books in our home!