I used A Reason for Writing during this past school year for my sons, ages 6 and 8. I loved the concept of the Bible verses. I loved that the lessons were brief. My boys have a short attention span. I was using book A for my 6yo and book B for my 8yo. I saw no difference in difficulty or verse length between the two books. In the end I think both of my boys have good handwriting and I won’t have either of them go through another printing workbook. They were helpful, but one was enough. My boys didn’t get the border sheets. I tried to inspire them, but they just wanted to do the writing and be done, not color the page and share it. This is a personality thing. My daughter, who is 4, will eat that concept up in a year or two. So keep your child’s personality in mind. Lastly, the pages are hard to tear out. When you tear our their special paper for them to do their Very Best Work on and it RIPS, it’s frustrating. Be very careful tearing out your border sheets.

Evan Moor Daily 6 Trait Writing- I just found this style of writing instruction to be all breadth and no depth. After 3 or 4 years with trait based writing, I suppose students can turn out simple compositions which would go over well on state writing tests, such as our own FCAT. The trait based writing system hits all of the main writing “traits” that someone grading a student’s paper would be marking for. However, in elementary school I would prefer for my students to copy excellent written passages (such as the Classical and Charlotte Mason model suggest) OR just write their little hearts out (with personal narratives, journaling, story telling, etc.) This seems like teach-to-the-test writing to me.

This is our first year using this writing program. We’ve homeschooled many, many years, something around 15 now! Anyway, a huge struggle has been finding a good writing curriculum. I’ve found some that are good in one way, but tedious in another, go too fast or too slow, seem to think that writing is first and foremost at all times (it’s not for us), etc., etc. So often it seems that actually breaking down the process to better, or truly, learn the skills is difficult. It is difficult in general, but also difficult to find one that is interesting in the process. I feel this conquers all fronts! It’s marvelously incremental and precise. I, as teacher, don’t have to guess or try to interpret what the writer’s point is; it’s clear! It’s also concise and last, but not least, it’s even interesting in the process. All of our kids have been reluctant writers, though we do have some that actually write for a living! We love this workbook that is small in time requirement, but develops writing skill so well!

Charlotte Mason Companion

An inspiring vision!

The Charlotte Mason Companion is my favorite homeschooling book ever, not just because it gave me a sense of direction, but because it inspired me with a vision of a happily humming homeschool in which parents and children can truly love learning and have a marvelously well-rounded education.  This book was a breath of fresh air to me in a year of extreme stress and depression.

This series (Daily 6-Trait Writing) has offered me a solution for boys that hate writing. It covers fundamental writing skills in a manner that has been manageable for my boys. Four days a week, there is a practice worksheet that requires relatively small amounts of writing. For the fifth day’s assignment, the child is asked to bring together the work done earlier in the week. Much of the writing will have already accomplished, and will simply need to be added to and polished a bit. This series is a good way to develop strong writing skills in the elementary/early middle school years. I expect to be able to smoothly transition into a more advanced writing program when the time comes.

My friend, BB, is probably going to show up on this blog at one time or another. She’s making the decision to homeschool (Luke, her oldest, is five) and is exploring this possible future for her and her family with a great deal of anticipation and trepidation. Sound familiar?

She is very curious about materials that I use, so I promised her a few reviews. Here’s the first one.

I love this product. I am not necessarily a Charlotte Mason home educator, but I have to say I am very impressed with this language arts book for numerous reasons.

1) The artwork. I know, I know, I am just one of the crowd. Most of the reviewers at Timberdoodle (where I purchased it) said the same thing because it is true! My children love looking at the pictures, talking about the pictures, creating their own narratives about the pictures. Even three year old Emeline participates in this part of our studies. I am exceedingly impressed that the author picked artwork by the masters. Thank you for not dumbing down our children.

2) I love the questions after the artwork and the poetry. Allow me to step onto my English teacher soapbox for a moment. Picture, if you will, a grade 11 classroom where all the students have been divided into very small groups (four max) to discuss the book their group has been reading. These books are not erudite, alienating, or over-their-heads. They were handpicked by me in a variety of genres to actually appeal to the high school crowd of non-readers (including things like Louis L’Amour and Orson Scott Card and Andromeda Strain). The students liked the books. The students also liked me–and this is important for this example. We’d been together through the evil research paper and perfect essays and Bohemian poetry. Trust me, we had a very tight bond and it was the end of the year and the students were more than willing to do what I asked.

So I asked these students, whom I loved and had worked with all year, to get into their book groups and discuss what they had read so far. After all the noise of moving around desks and shuffling papers, the room was silent. They had no idea how to discuss literature. They weren’t trying to be disrespectful, they just didn’t know what to do. After the first wasted fifteen minutes, I started producing helpful prompt questions. That would generate a sentence or two, and then, nada. Nothing. Zilch. They were quiet or off-topic within three minutes.

This might not seem like a huge problem to some people but think about this: most of the world’s most profound questions and ideas are found in literature. If you can’t discuss literature, how can you discuss ideas? If you can’t discuss ideas, how can you learn to think for yourself?

I propose that you cannot. And we all know that if you can’t think for yourself, other people will do your thinking for you.

The ability to discuss literature is critical in so many ways. Suffice it to say, I started having mini book discussions at the beginning of each class where I modeled what happened around my family’s dinner table all through my growing up years. I learned that knowing how to discuss what you read is a learned skill. Teach it to your children!

3) After each poem, there is an opportunity for the children to draw what they pictured. When I first introduced the book to my 1st grader and pre-k boy, I gave them new scribblers and pencils. (Then I had to run downstairs and find a scribbler for my three year old who felt left out.) They carefully and lovingly wrote their names on the inside cover and then waited anxiously for what came next. We looked at the first bit of artwork, talked about it, took turns telling our own version of the story of what happened leading up to the moment in the picture.

Then we moved on to the poem, “Stopping by the Woods” by Robert Frost. After I read the third line my children, quite of their own accord, started drawing what they were hearing. It was so natural for them. Creating a tangible reminder of what they pictured in their head was important to them and certainly cemented the ideas into their young brains. Creating art is naturally and gracefully included in this manual.

4) The grammar is basic, quick, and painless. I don’t believe in rushing young children into learning “concepts.” When a child turns eight, you can start to formalize your instruction a little bit. Before that, you are better off (IMHO) to keep their interest in learning high and keep close tabs on when they are ready for something new. Nothing turns brains off faster than grammar. Unless you’re like me–extremely sick. My children love everything about the poetry and artwork and they don’t hate the grammar. That’s awesome. Queen (the author) keeps things very simple and age appropriate. I think it is a practically perfect language arts primer.

In some reviews, people mentioned that they didn’t like the quantity of copywork. I also think the amount of copywork is overkill and I’ve already mentioned that my daughter hates writing. That is an easy problem to fix though–don’t make your child do all the copywork. Miriam writes two sentences a week. She acts like I’m killing her, but then she has fun reading through the poem to pick her favorite lines to copy.

Also, the book can be used as a workbook, but since I’m all about reduce, reuse, and save money, I just do all the assignments in a scribbler.

This line of language arts books are available for numerous age groups. It isn’t as easy as you’d expect to pick the right book for your child’s age. I purchased Language Lessons for the Very Young 1, recommended for ages 6-8. Miriam, my first grader, is doing all of it, including the grammar. My pre-K (5 yr) son is doing all the art/poetry narration stuff, but he loses interest in the grammar sections. That’s fine with me. I’m happy with that arrangement. However, for Luke, and other kindergarteners, there is Language Lessons for Little Ones 2 (for ages 4-6) and Language Lessons for Little Ones 3 (for ages 5-7). Based on my experience, I would get Cowen the Little Ones 2.

Here’s the link to Timberdoodle. All the Sandi Queen language arts materials can be found under the language arts link.

Hope this was helpful and not just long-winded!

A big thank you to the Frolic and Farce blog for allowing us repost her review.

A Reason for Writing - Kindergarten

My kindergartener, Daniel, and I really like this writing program. It breaks down each day into a very manageable amount of writing to practice. My favorite part is at the end of each week, the student writes the whole verse on a blank page of their choosing (included at the end of the book). They then color it too, and we get to display their work! I chose to get the 1st grade workbook for him, since he started kindergarten already knowing how to write all of his letters. This book is teaching him how to write them nicer, including things such as writing them the right size & using proper spacing between words. We’ve been using this book for 5 months now, and his writing looks so much nicer already. I plan to stick with this series!

We love this book (A Reason For Handwriting D – 4th)! There is just enough cursive practice for a day–a few letters and words–to not be frustrating, there are tips every week, and, best of all, once a week, there is a long (2- or 3- sentence) Bible passage to copy. My son wants to do his best when he writes the Scripture passage, and he no longer complains about doing ‘cursive.’ In the past, it was a chore, he was often frustrated, and he dreaded it; we used a variety of packages that had him scrutinize his letters against the books’ perfect machine writing, and of course he could never match up (who could?). In A Reason for Writing, the book has guide letters but never has him compare his to its perfection. And he really loves to write out a Bible passage on a special page which he then colors, to be hung on the wall. He isn’t one to love coloring, but for this, he does it with pride. We highly recommend it.

Karenlee

Boulder, CO

Mommy of 1; Homeschooling since preschool; Writer.

For the complete A Reason For series and other ways to improve your homeschool handwriting visit Timberdoodle.com.

I find it very frustrating that the Teacher’s Edition for Easy Grammar is listed as a required resource, and that this program is so highly regarded. There is very little student or teacher direction. Compare the sample pages here with the student book samples; they are exactly the same. How helpful is a teacher guide with NO answers?!

Sharon

MI

Read more about Easy Grammar at Timberdoodle.com

Language Lessons for the Very Young 1

We love the Language Lessons series.  They are easy to use, and have beautiful poetry, picture study, and a bit of grammar and copywork.

I personally think these will not work as your stand alone LA program.  Supplementing with a little modern writing, Spelling, and handwriting is a good idea, as Timberdoodle recommends.

Another caveat is that I personally would not use this Language Lessons for the Very Young 1 with a first grader.  My advanced 2nd grader is using it this year.  I cannot imagine my first grader writing small enough to fit the copywork on the lines, or being able to spell names of months, days of the week, etc….even copying them would be a stretch.  I will use Language Lessons for Little Ones 3 for first grade.

Look over the scope and sample lessons, and they will switch out the book if you feel your first grader needs to use the previous book in the series.

Sandra

FL