4Real Forums: Language Arts help

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Topic: Language Arts help

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Lisa R
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Joined: May 29 2005
Location: Ohio
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Posts: 789

Posted: May 16 2006 at 4:05pm \| IP Logged

Looking for suggestions here please. My boys are 9 and 11 and have pretty much only done Daily Grams for grammar and no formal spelling program. I tried copywork/dictation before and they really don't like it much. Especially the younger one. I also didn't feel I was using it to it's full potential either.

I bought Language of God and My Catholic Speller from CHC for next year for both. I've also been looking at Intermediate Language Lessons followed by Lingua Mater. Can anyone comment on those programs? Pros and Cons.

I'm looking to simplify here as we're in the process of adopting and I know once our little one comes home we'll be pretty busy.

Thanks!

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God Bless!
Lisa, married to my best friend, Ray and loving my blessings Joshua (17)and Jacob(15), Hannah(7) and Rachel (5)!Holy Family Academy

TracyQ
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Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: New York
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Posted: May 17 2006 at 8:14am \| IP Logged

We've used and loved Language of God with our youngest, and I wish we'd used it with the older boys as well. I think it's thorough, and very well done. Sarah's learned a lot. I only wish it continued to a higher level.

I did buy Lingua Mater, and have Intermediate Language Lessons. I think we're going to use ILL next year for 6th, and then Lingua Mater for 7th and 8th for her, but I haven't used either of them to this point, it's just in the plan.

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Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),

homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY

Erin
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Joined: Feb 23 2005
Location: Australia
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Posted: May 17 2006 at 7:22pm \| IP Logged

Lisa,
If you're looking to simplify then Emma Serl's book is great. My children really like it however we pretty much just do it orally. I really like the lay out of it, one lesson could be a picture study then another will be grammar etc, it covers a broad range but is really gentle I use it for my 13, and 11 year old. I use the younger version with my 9 and 7 yr olds.

I bought Lingua Mater for my 13 year old and although I love it she didn't respond well to it, for her it was too emotive, ie. 'explain how you feel about it' type questions. Not her, anyhow I wouldn't recommend it for an 11 yr old.

We have tried the CHC spelling and Language for God but they didn't fit my children. In fact dictation here is the big focus at the moment and for the first time I am seeing wonderful results.

Different approaches work for different families/children.

Congratulations on your adoption, how much longer do you have to wait?

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Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians

ALmom
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Joined: May 18 2005
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Posted: May 17 2006 at 7:54pm \| IP Logged

Lisa,

We have use LOG and My Catholic Speller with boys ages 9 and 12. I really believe they benefitted. It is a workbook so it does have the advantage of being very self explanatory for dc to pick up and run when mom is distracted (ie they don't have to wait around for me - something my boys in particular needed). It has the disadvantage of being a string of things that they may or may not relate to the rest of what they are doing. I had to make sure that happened by having an idea of concepts covered (ie what work they'd done in the workbook) and if they had any trouble with it we'd talk and discuss it. I also looked for implementation in other work. For example, if ds had studied capitalization rules in CHC and had a paragraph turned in with no capitalization, we'd discuss it and he'd fix it - remembering the rules. We might orally discuss nouns and verbs in something he was reading or writing if I saw he was confusing the two. So the workbook was a tool to make sure we covered things, and gave ds some practice that was short and to the point (another important thing to my boys - they hate being bothered with emotional how does this make you feel stuff) and they generally liked the story line or learned something about their faith and/saint in the process which made it less like work to them.

The CHC speller didn't work for my 12 yo but has been fine for my 9 yo. I think the reason my 12 yo had trouble is simply that he struggles with visual memory and needed something more analytical and rule based. We used Writing Road to Reading for his spelling (but this is very mom intensive and I wouldn't recommend it for the year you adopt).

Oh, one other thing - I don't necessarily use CHC year after year. We started our youngest with level B and our oldest with Level D. They move through the levels at their own pace but we do easily finish at least one level in a year.

Congratulations!

Lisa R
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Joined: May 29 2005
Location: Ohio
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 789

Posted: May 22 2006 at 5:12pm \| IP Logged

Erin,

Thanks for asking about our adoption. We may have just found our daughter on a waiting child list from our agency. We'll know more in the next few weeks. Please pray for us.

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God Bless!
Lisa, married to my best friend, Ray and loving my blessings Joshua (17)and Jacob(15), Hannah(7) and Rachel (5)!Holy Family Academy

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