Showing posts with label English. Show all posts
Showing posts with label English. Show all posts
11th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2025-2026
10th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2024-2025
7th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2024-2025
As the last born of the family, my youngest has the advantage of a relaxed homeschool mom. I've experienced more than my share of both hits and misses over the years and realize that a great education doesn't require me to find the "perfect" curriculum, the "perfect" schedule, or the "perfect" plan. (Spoiler alert: in the realm of homeschooling, "perfect" only exists on Instagram.)
Top Literature Guides for Homeschoolers
According to the Pew Research Center, the number of kids who are reading just for fun is at the lowest it's been since 1984. Kids aren't reading for the sheer enjoyment of reading anymore.
I would argue that it's because we've trained them to hate books. In our proclivity to drill and kill with worksheets in order that we might have concrete written proof that they've not only read the material but that they fully understand it, we've turned pleasure reading into an assignment. It's no longer fun anymore.
8th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2020-2021
Because he's only got one more year before high school, I'm slowly easing him into a more robust schedule. 8th grade will be a chance for him to dig deep without having the pressure of a grade point average or a transcript to maintain. It'll be like a trial run.
6th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2020-2021
Up until this point, his insatiable appetite for busy has kept his curiosities on nature, science, and mechanical design, but now, at ten, he's beginning to wonder about other things--less concrete things. He's asking hard questions about the world around him and wanting honest answers.
So this year, I've chosen a few weightier books for him; books that will hopefully steer him well into adolescence--books that will help him make sense of this crazy world in which we live.
3rd Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2020-2021
For the first time in over thirteen years, I will not be teaching anyone phonics. My youngest has officially moved from learning-to-read to reading-to-learn. And while I could not be happier for him, I'm secretly a bit sad to admit that I'll miss those early years of bright-eyed phonemic revelation.
Learning Language Arts Through Literature: An Open-n-Go Charlotte Mason Education
"Narrating is an art, like poetry-making or painting, because it is there in every child's mind, waiting to be discovered, and is not the result of any process of disciplinary education." ~Charlotte Mason
A few months into the year, when I watched my fifth grader floundering, going through the motions during language arts time with glossed-over eyes, I knew it was time for something else. I knew we needed a change. The program we were using was good. It just wasn't good for him. As a traditional textbook approach to grammar and writing, it was lacking both the spark to keep him interested and the gentle, immersion of language and language skills found only in real books.
Beginner's Guide to Copywork
You want your child to become a good writer? Then you have to start with good writing.
You have to start with copywork.
Up until the 20th century, copying the masters was the primary way all children learned to write. Students learned through imitation. They saw GOOD, copied GOOD daily, and eventually created their own versions of GOOD all by themselves.
Great men through the ages learned writing through copying...perhaps we'd call it hacking today. Literary greats such as Benjamin Franklin, Jack London, and Robert Lewis Stephenson were word hackers long before they were ever word writers.
Poetry & Pie Party {igniting a passion for verse}
The thought of poetry use to make my boys cringe. Verse seemed too fluffy...too girly...too fancy for their liking.
But besides being a wonderful way to improve verbal and cognitive skills, memorizing and reciting poetry is a natural way to learn proper syntax and grammar patterns. It expands vocabulary and improves writing skills. And, what's more, it is a central presence in every culture all over the world and throughout history.
All very good reasons why THIS momma was determined to steer the opinions of her boys and ignite a passion for poetry in each of her kids!
As it turns out, cultivating that love is as easy as pie!
Mind Mapping: Creative Writing HACK {every homeschooler should know}
She was stumped.
It was a writer's slump, ya' might say.While working on a creating writing project, my daughter's word-well had run dry. She needed some inspiration. Some direction. Some focus.
So, I sat her down (along with a few of her besties) and taught her how to make a mind map.
If you're not familiar with this simple writer's hack, a mind map is tool used for brainstorming and organizing your ideas about a particular topic or story line. It works great for both creative and expository writing styles.
Here's the quick version of how it works.
Ultimate Guide to Creative Writing for Elementary Kids
Although I recognize that perhaps none of my five children will grow up to be the next C.S. Lewis or Beatrix Potter, I know that they all have a story to tell. And if given the proper direction…if that story is cultivated and nurtured…each of them can develop a delight for words and learn to creativity piece them together with purpose.
Here are a few of my GO TO resources (and others that I'd highly recommend) for igniting a passion for creative writing.
The GREAT Vocabulary Challenge {Learning Vocabulary Authentically}
taciturn |ˈtasiˌtərn|
adjective
(of a person) reserved or uncommunicative in speech; saying little.
If you would've asked my children and me a few weeks ago what the word taciturn meant, we probably would've given you the "Can you please speak in English?!" look. We had no idea what it meant or how it was used in a sentence. But, thanks to our month-long GREAT VOCABULARY CHALLENGE, we can now use this and dozens and dozens of other new-to-us words in our written and oral expression.
ABeka vs. BJU Language: Why I Switch Mid-Stream
"Jamie, I'm wondering why you switch from ABeka Language to Bob Jones English in third grade?"
Great question!
I can see why my madness would raise questions about by method.
So, in an attempt to kill several dozen birds with one stone, I'm gonna do my best to satisfy the curious, today.*
Teaching Sentence Structure to Kinesthetic Learners {video}
Like most kinesthetic learners, my eldest sone struggles at times to retain some of the basic foundations of rules-based subjects like language and math. To help him remember the major fundamentals, I often have to use some actions...and a few sound effects!
Here's a look at one of the little memory tricks I've taught him this year to encourage proper sentence structure.
Here's a look at one of the little memory tricks I've taught him this year to encourage proper sentence structure.
Do you have a kinesthetic learner? What tips and tricks have you used to help he/she memorize the "rules".
Encouraging Creative Writing: Publishing a Book
As is mentioned on The Unlikely Homeschool Curriculum page, Sweetie Pea has been working her way through BJU Press English 3 for her grammar/writing. If you are not familiar with BJU English, it is set up so that one unit will focus on a particular grammar skill and the next unit will use that skill along with previously learned skills to focus on a particular kind of writing. A writing assignment is given and then broken up into smaller increments over the course of a week or so, making a larger writing project much more manageable.
English 3 is a fine example of how our "whys" of homeschooling spill out into our "hows". Over the last few years, Sweetie Pea has shown such a passion for writing. In an effort to cultivate that natural enthusiasm, I sought out a curriculum that would help develop her skills. Although we've only been using BJU's English program for less than a year, I have been greatly impressed with its format and technic for developing not only good grammar skills, but also a working use of those skills with numerous writing projects.
A few weeks ago, Sweetie Pea was introduced to the concept of quotation mark placement. The very next week, the writing unit focused on creating a fictional story using dialogue...using quotation marks, of course.
Each type of writing brings on a few different steps of implementation. For a fictional story, Sweetie Pea first read an example story that featured some dialogue. Then she brainstormed an idea, made a word web of her main character to help develop him/her, planned the main problem and resolution of the story, planned the setting, planned the plot using a plot pyramid, and then sat down to write a rough draft. She, obviously, did not do all of this in one day. Each one of these steps was done in a separate lesson.
As is our custom, after her rough draft was written, she called up an adult friend or relative to conduct a "writing conference." She read the story out loud to them and then asked the following questions...
- Did the story have a clear beginning, middle, and end?
- Did the beginning sentences make you want to hear more?
- Did the story have a satisfying ending?
- Did the story use colorful words?
- Do you have any additional thoughts about the story?
These simple "conferences" make for a great critique and evaluation from an outsider other than Mom.
Then came the revising/editing. Her English 3 includes a very handy grammar/proofreading checklist for every type of writing. She has to read through her rough draft and check off each element on the checklist or make edit marks on her draft (which she learned in one of the first writing units of the year).
Part of her revising process was to use a dictionary and a thesaurus to correct any spelling mistakes and add "color" words to replace commonly used words.
Although I certainly do not do this with every writing assignment...To encourage excellence in her writing, I told Sweetie Pea that once she was done with her final draft, I would type out her story and take it to Office Max to be bound into a book. This "professional" quality definitely inspired her "best." And as promised, her efforts were published.
At Office Max, a cover and back were printed on card stock, pages were made with plenty of space for pictures, and the entire thing was bound together with a strip of spiral rings. The whole project was relatively inexpensive to produce and came to just under $5.
She is currently working on the illustrations and eagerly awaits an opportunity to share her "book" with family and friends.
That was one small attempt to fortify a love of writing. Do you have any tricks up your sleeve to share?
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