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MarilynW
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I am trying to get a realistic plan for next year - math and writing are our daily basics. We will be spending a lot of time on our Round the World unit study - and I am just trying to figure out how to fit in things like grammar, spelling, vocab. I have dropped Latin and history next year because our unit study is very detailed and comprehensive and includes literature, geography, science, religion, music, art and also some foreign language.
We did grammar this year - but not spelling or vocab.
How do you organize your language arts?
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Erin
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It depends on need. My children need to do spelling daily, they just weren't getting it otherwise. Now Grammar I haven't felt a need for regularly. In fact dd15 only started formal grammar last year and this year I am doing Serendipity with my other dc. Their first formal grammar foray. Truly they know plenty just from our rich readings and modeling.
With the amount and richness of reading in your family, do your children really need to do vocab? I'd be confident not. If you want to extend a little you could play vocab games at the meal table occasionally. Set little challenges to introduce a new word etc.
I'd like you to organise me so I can work out how to fit both your World Tour and history into our week. 
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MarilynW
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Thanks Erin. Abby is a natural speller - so I don't feel I need to do anything with her. The twins would spell great when we did Spelling Power - but in everyday writing their spelling is not so great - so maybe I need to do this. What do you use for spelling? We did Easy Grammar this year which worked well - they were fairly independent. They also have grammar from Latin last year. You are probably right about the vocab. I don't want to create busy work.
Re World Tour and history - could you not just pick historical books for each country - and then do a timeline. History has always been huge for us - so I am not worried too much about having geography take precedence. But many of the readers we will be doing are on history reading lists. (BTW - I am almost done with my Australia weeks - I will send email it to you for approval once I am done! I have to be self-controlled and quit the planning until I have caught up on reconciling my checkbooks and family budget which I am way behind on  And then there are all the contractions scares....)
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teachingmyown
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I wonder about the grammar, too. When my dd13 is doing a high school grammar book and covering the same thing as my three that are all doing First Language Lessons, I have to wonder if it is worth my time to do every year! Obviously, I want them to get that basic foundation in the early years, but is it necessary to beat them over the head with it every year?
So what is a balanced course of study for grammar for the elementary years?
We have neglected spelling and will go back to it next year.
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Mimip
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This is a great thread. We have been doing just a daily grammar book with my 3rd grader and nothing with my 1st grader.
We actually just started spelling after not doing it for the past 2 years. (DD asked about learning spelling because she felt that she was the only one that could not spell )
BTW I plan on starting Simply Grammar with my 3rd grader next year for our grammar and nothing for our 1st grader (nothing seems to stick that early in my kids grammar wise anyways  )
Just my 2 cents
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Kristie 4
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We waited on grammar until this year (years 8 and 6 for my two oldest) although they are working in Latin as well. My son pretty much has self taught through EG Plus and the little I have done with my daughter has shown me that she is absorbing alot through Latin.
Personally (sorry, must be my opinionated day!) I can't understand why young ones need to be studying grammar- they are becoming fluent readers and writers (and with my kids that writing takes awhile) so I don't know why the grammar would be anything but facts at that point. Mind you, my kids love the Ruth Heller grammar books and the Schoolhouse Rock grammar videos on You Tube.
So basically, I don't see why we beat grammar to death! It seems that it could be learned so much more quickly at an older age.... Julie at Bravewriter reccommends hitting it once in elementary (like the videos), once in middle school, and then once in highschool (esp. through a foreign language at this point).
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guitarnan
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I think it depends on your children's retention of key concepts. My son really didn't retain much grammar (and his first SAT scores, while okay, reflect this). We have had to review vocab and grammar concepts as part of SAT prep. My daughter remembers grammar pretty well but spelling is not her favorite subject; she gets 100's on all spelling tests but then seems to erase the lists from her mind. We went back to daily spelling this year after her writing declined in quality due to misspellings.
I think children forget things over the summers, so a grammar review here and there, even if it doesn't last an entire school year, is a good thing.
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Carole N.
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We do spelling as well. I use the Spelling Wisdom found at Simply Charlotte Mason and I really like it a lot.
As for grammar, I have not emphasized this as much. They learned the nine parts of speech when they were younger. We used Easy Grammar and I liked that program as well. I focus more on their writing skills and teaching them how to write good sentences.
That being said, my dd learns and applies this in her writing. My ds, however, just does not seem to do this. His papers are, shall we say, a bit red after I have gone over them. I was told once by an educator that children may learn it in practice (grammar class) but they have a very hard time carrying it over into their own writing.
And that may depend on the particular child as well. My dd tends to be a perfectionist while my ds is much more easy going about his work. But I know that most children do not really care to study grammar. Personally, I love it, but then again, I never won any awards for being average!
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Natalia
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Marilyn,
I remember reading somewhere on the Bravewriter website that she suggested one year of more formal and intensive grammar, once in middle school and then again in high school. This will work provided that you do copywork and dictation on a regular basis. Copywork and dictation wouldn't be hard to incorporate into your World Tour.
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Bridget
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We have done workbook spelling and grammar for years. Maybe it's just my children, but when they begin more formal writing at middle school age, it's apparent that they do not believe in punctuation or spelling. Their grammar is usually fine, I think that is due to the volume of good literature they read.
I will change how I teach these in the next school year, but I don't have a plan yet.
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Bookswithtea
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I didn't make spelling a priority with my oldest...and it shows. Everyone does spelling every year now. I don't want to invest a lot of time in spelling, though, so we do CHC's spelling (I don't start this until they are close to 3rd grade reading level). Just enough to keep them on their toes/not forgetting. This is what I've done with my second oldest, and her spelling is much better than my oldest's...I suppose some of that could be personality, too, though...
I don't do grammar every year, and I don't start it until the child is reading fluently and isn't studying phonics at all...either late 3rd or 4th grade, depending on the child. I do cover grammar from about 4th-8th grades, with varying intensities. Some years we may do a formal workbook and other years we might just do something short and sweet or the every third day lesson in ILL or something like that. Then we drop it for good, once they can complete Easy Grammar Plus (8th or 9th grade, in my house, as I use this as part of 9th grade language arts).
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Birdie
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I have done spelling every year but not grammar. Grammar is something I do in spurts. I think one idea would be to chose a passage from your readers or read aloud and do a studied dictation of it with the family pointing out some grammar and spelling concepts. Here is our dictation board and some ideas for family dictation.
http://birdiestweetlife.blogspot.com/2009/05/studied-dictati on-and-sprinkler-time.html
Here in our current owl study ( a simple two week study) I wrote up some family studied dictation you can see for an example.
http://birdiestweetlife.blogspot.com/2009/05/owl-study.html
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Erin
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Marilyn
I forgot to mention dictation (no idea why ) we do this everyday. This is why I feel confident my dc are picking up grammar 'on the run.' They are being exposed to good literature and having to think about it, where to punctuate etc.
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MarilynW
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Erin wrote:
Marilyn
I forgot to mention dictation (no idea why ) we do this everyday. This is why I feel confident my dc are picking up grammar 'on the run.' They are being exposed to good literature and having to think about it, where to punctuate etc. |
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I started off this school year with dictation and then it kind of fell by the wayside. Maybe this is the way to go - as I said my boys are on a very high Spelling Power level but it does not show in their writing I looked at Spelling Wisdom last year and then decided not to go with it. What is your view Erin? I feel if I do workbooks it will be the same - they will spell well in these but not necessarily in their own writing.
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Kristie 4
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It always takes kids a while for the spelling books spelling to catch up with the spelling in their own writing...
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Carole N.
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Marilyn, I think that Spelling Wisdom is an example of exposing your children to good writing. All of the lessons are great writers (Jane Austen, Dickens, Cooper to name a few) with examples of good word usage (spelling) and different forms of punctuation and grammar.
The student writes the passage to learn, then mom dictates the passage. The student is scored not only on spelling, but also on punctuation. I find this program refreshing in that it exposes the child to good writing learning the vocabulary and grammar of great authors. There is no better way to learn to write than to incorporate the style of great writers into your own writing (think artists inside the Louvre trying to imitate DaVinci).
Just my .02 pence!
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Bookswithtea
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Carole N. wrote:
Marilyn, I think that Spelling Wisdom is an example of exposing your children to good writing. All of the lessons are great writers (Jane Austen, Dickens, Cooper to name a few) with examples of good word usage (spelling) and different forms of punctuation and grammar.
The student writes the passage to learn, then mom dictates the passage. The student is scored not only on spelling, but also on punctuation. I find this program refreshing in that it exposes the child to good writing learning the vocabulary and grammar of great authors. There is no better way to learn to write than to incorporate the style of great writers into your own writing (think artists inside the Louvre trying to imitate DaVinci).
Just my .02 pence!
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Link, please? This sounds interesting...
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Natalia
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I think Carole is referring to this:
Spelling Wisdom
I have used the books for several years and really like it.
I copy and paste the passages to Startwrite and use them as handwriting practice also.
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Erin
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MarilynW wrote:
| I feel if I do workbooks it will be the same - they will spell well in these but not necessarily in their own writing. |
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The secret with dictation whether you use something like Spelling Wisdom or pick up the latest Redwall book is to make them re-correct their work. For along time we did dictation but I saw no improvement in their written work otherwise, now I immediately mark and make them rub out the misspelt word and re-write the correct one. With the younger writers (9yr down) I sometimes don't even let them write the incorrect word, as soon as I see them forming an incorrect letter we stop, discuss, sound and I may even tell them. For some of my children this is the most intense mum/student teaching part of the day. It is paying off dividends. But let me add different things work for different families.
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Bookswithtea
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Erin wrote:
The secret with dictation whether you use something like Spelling Wisdom or pick up the latest Redwall book is to make them re-correct their work. For along time we did dictation but I saw no improvement in their written work otherwise, now I immediately mark and make them rub out the misspelt word and re-write the correct one. With the younger writers (9yr down) I sometimes don't even let them write the incorrect word, as soon as I see them forming an incorrect letter we stop, discuss, sound and I may even tell them. For some of my children this is the most intense mum/student teaching part of the day. It is paying off dividends. But let me add different things work for different families. |
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I've been letting my 12 1/2 yr old correct her own dictation, figuring it would be good for her to find the mistakes and see it done right in the example. Is this counterproductive to the process?
Also, thanks Natalia for the Spelling Wisdom link. I'll check it out!
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: Do you do grammar and spelling every year
