homeschool language arts curriculum

[momz]

I have a need for recommendations on a curriculum for language arts as a summer bridge plan for my kids.

DD is 12, just finished 6th grade. She is in the high ability program, BUT, she is getting a C for the final grading period. Some of the reason for this is her own lack of motivation. She has some missing assignments. I am considering pulling her out of the high ability program, but I am a little reluctant because once you leave, you can never go back. So, I would like to investigate a home curriculum to use during the summer. She needs to understand that the effort she puts in is important. Her performance (and cooperation) through the summer will help me decide on what to do next year, keep her in the program, or pull her out. She wants to stay, because she has friends there..but what's best for her friends is not necessarily what is best for her.

Also, my son is 9, just finished 3rd grade. School is easy for him, he gets 100% on most things without even trying. But, like his sister, his teachers tell me he is "not putting forth good effort". I tell his teachers that he's not going to put forth much effort if the work they give him doesn't challenge him. So, for him, I would like to give him something "hard" to challenge him, so I can see him grow.

Any suggestions on where to begin in choosing a curriculum?

 

[trinchick]

I think that looking to homeschoolers for advice is a good route to take. Last summer my DD (now in public school 2nd grade) was in a similar situation; at our April conference, her teacher said she was going to move her out of the top reading group. I knew that this would devastate DD's confidence, so I entreated the teacher to leave her in the group for the rest of the year, which she thankfully did.

Then over the summer, we went into reading overdrive. I stalked homeschool message boards for curricula and ideas (bought Mammoth Math but nothing for language arts). We joined the library's summer reading program and logged all of the books that she read. That was a real motivator for her. She loved seeing the count go up and up (she read more than 100 chapter books last summer). Finally I committed to reading aloud to her ALL THE TIME. Of course, I'd always read to her daily, but I made it a point to start looking for some great books that would really capture her interest, and we made reading aloud for an hour part of our daily life. She really took off and is excelling in all parts of school.

Even though it might seem like your DD is too old for reading aloud, she really isn't. Many homeschoolers read aloud to their children through high school. The Read Aloud Handbook has some great book suggestions, as does Honey for a Child's Heart, and Great Books for Girls. Read alouds should be rich texts with advanced vocabulary - harder than she would normally read on her own. This introduces kids to new words and themes that underlie all of literature. The Read Aloud Handbook has a really cool chart in it that compares the variety of words in typical conversation, a newspaper, a TV show, and a book. Simply, there is no better way to expose kids to language than through reading.

For your DS, are you looking for language arts or just something challenging in general? For math, there's a series called Beast Academy, which is a math text in graphic novel format. Many kids (esp. boys) seem to enjoy it, and there are math puzzles and challenges that your DS might like. I've also heard good things about the Life of Fred series for math. Of course, your DS is also at the perfect age to be read to, and there are lots of great classic books that he could probably enjoy with his sister.

Good luck this summer!

 

[momz]

thank you, trinchik. I will look into all of those resources. your post is very encouraging to me. Thank you.

 

[trinchick]

And definitely continue down the homeschool path for guidance. I lurked on their message boards (actually still do) and have learned so much. I think even when we send our kids to school out of the home, we're still ultimately responsible for their education.

 

[laurafergie]

Not a homeschooler but I do believe in supplementing education.

Does she need help across the board or just language arts? I have had good luck in the summer journal. Two paragraphs minimum about the day's happening or it could be different subjects per day. Punctuation and grammar correct.

Along with this is a minimum of 30 minutes of reading a day OR a set number of pages read a day in a book of their choosing. (The set number of pages is if you have a page "starer" for the 30 minutes) then when the book is finished, a written book report discussing characters, story theme..etc. Again, punctuation and grammar correct.

Both of these would be handwritten. Neatness counts.

This ends up being about an hourish a day amount of work. Not too much for the summer. I also have different rewards built into this.

 

[goodfood4ursoul]

I love to read, so the reading part of teaching my kids came very easy to me.
The grammar and writing is what worried me.
I mean, it's all a little overwhelming- teaching hard-core stuff.
There had to be a fun and yet methodical way to do this...
Turns out I didn't need to worry once I found my favorite curriculum for language arts- grammar and writing- Shurley English.

Created by an English teacher whose students struggled with remembering the parts of speech and using them correctly, she chose to use jingles and songs to help kids remember, as well as logic to help them diagram sentences.
More on her story here: https://www.shurley.com/?3f9b06c8f52a14bd1250a5df0767

UGH- diagramming sentences!?? I hated the little bit of that I had to do in school!
I never really understood it... and truthfully, I don't think my teachers really did either.

But my kids had a completely different experience than I had, as it turns out...
Because everything in Shurley is done with jingles and a "question and answer flow" with patterns and rythyms kids can easily recognize and understand.

My kids had so much fun diagramming sentences I could not believe it!
In 3rd grade my son could diagram sentences like "The green frog sat on the hollow log in the water."

Honestly, for me as their mom and teacher, my own understanding of the English language was improved.

It was as if in school, we only got to see bits and pieces of a really big picture, and never really understood how all the pieces fit together to make a piece of artwork.


Then with Shurley English, we got to experience how all the pieces work together and see the whole work of art and really understand and appreciate its beauty.
Shurley works for different styles of learners, using see it, hear it, say it, do it activities to make learning fun and unforgettable.

And that is really the point: Shurley English is fun and memorable- as in your kids will not forget what they have learned, and their grades will reflect that.

My son is a college senior today and he still remembers the jingles he learned in Shurley English, and he never struggled in an English class.

Anyway, you can check out Shurley English here:
https://www.shurley.com/?3f9b06c8f52a14bd1250a5df0766
and look for the purple "Unique Features" tag on the upper left of the screen to check out all the neat stuff like the jingles, etc.

Good luck on your summer education journey- just make it fun and relaxed learning and you will have a great summer~

 

[belle22]

What are some good homeschool forum sites?

 

[ktmo]

The Well Trained Mind is a good homeschooling forum. It focuses on the "classical approach" to education (I don't really know the ins and outs of that, but it has a lot of great information).

I just got Wordly Wise, a vocabulary program, online for my rising 3rd grader. That will be one of the things that we work on this summer. I went through the homeschool buyers co op for a good price.

I also just got a catalog from Critical Thinking Co. It has a lot of great resources. I plan to pick up a few things to supplement over the summer.

 

[horseshowmom]

Very good suggestions thus far (by the way, I love diagramming and think it's very important ).

One inexpensive suggestion: I really liked A Beka (worked pretty well, DD had a 35 on the ACT on the English section), and you can get the books on ebay for very little. It doesn't matter that it's an older edition. Since it won't cost you much, you can just use what you want.

 

[chris31997]

I have a need for recommendations on a curriculum for language arts as a summer bridge plan for my kids.

DD is 12, just finished 6th grade. She is in the high ability program, BUT, she is getting a C for the final grading period. Some of the reason for this is her own lack of motivation. She has some missing assignments. I am considering pulling her out of the high ability program, but I am a little reluctant because once you leave, you can never go back. So, I would like to investigate a home curriculum to use during the summer. She needs to understand that the effort she puts in is important. Her performance (and cooperation) through the summer will help me decide on what to do next year, keep her in the program, or pull her out. She wants to stay, because she has friends there..but what's best for her friends is not necessarily what is best for her.

Also, my son is 9, just finished 3rd grade. School is easy for him, he gets 100% on most things without even trying. But, like his sister, his teachers tell me he is "not putting forth good effort". I tell his teachers that he's not going to put forth much effort if the work they give him doesn't challenge him. So, for him, I would like to give him something "hard" to challenge him, so I can see him grow.

Any suggestions on where to begin in choosing a curriculum?

Something you said sparked a memory for me. A friend of mine wanted to homeschool. Her hubby was deadset against it. But after talking with them for a year, he changed his mind. But the important part for you Their daughter was failing out of kindergarden. She never brought anything home from school and when she turned anything in it was all crumpled like it had been shooved waaaay back into her desk. Just before it was to be turned in, she would do the work.

My sister was in a gifted program. She never had homework either. I found out later that she would sit at the bus stop and do her homework.

I tell you this because it is possible that your kids are bored. If they are bored they don't have they motivation to do the work and they won't put in an effort. I commend you for looking into ways to help them and challange them over the summer

Abeka is a good curriculum. It is written for a school setting. It teaches you to think like an editor. I like it. We use it.

Alpha Omega has a computer based curriculum. If you have visual or techie learners, it would a be a good fit. The biggest con is that it can be difficult for a prefectionist. If you don't type it the "correct" way then it is marked wrong, even if there are other correct answers.

Kumon is good also.

I also suggest reading classics for kids. Stories like Moby Dick, Tom Sawyer, Wizard of Oz, Aseop Fables. You could even find classics and read the book together then watch the movie and compare the two.

I would suggest getting the material for the next grade to see if it is something they can handle. If they can do it without an issue, then have them work the next level up. I would keep the language work to about an hour. Keep all materials and show their teacher next year. That way the teacher knows that they can/can't do. I would also let the kids know what you are going to do. Talk with them.

 

[wendow]

I am a homeschooler and just finished my 8th year. The recommendations of Shurley and Abeka are good ones. Another recommendation would be Rod & Staff. Very basic and easy to teach. Also cheaper than many curriculas. Another popular one with homeschoolers is called Easy Grammar.

For a short daily review of grammar, I like Daily Grams.
For vocabulary, I like Wordly Wise.

Someone asked for homeschool sites to read. One of the biggest was recommended: welltrainedmind.com It is based on the book "The Well-Trained Mind". There is actually a sub-forum for "afterschooling" and that might be a great place to go search out some recommendations since many of those parents are in the same place in that they are supplementing their child's public school education.

Another site that is really just homeschoolers but people are very friendly and the board is active is homeschoolreviews.com

Good luck!!

 

[anabelle]

My daughter used Easy Grammar. It was great for figuring out parts of speech.

 

[bumbershoot]

DD is 12, just finished 6th grade. She is in the high ability program, BUT, she is getting a C for the final grading period. Some of the reason for this is her own lack of motivation. She has some missing assignments. I am considering pulling her out of the high ability program, but I am a little reluctant because once you leave, you can never go back.

I just wanted to talk about that.

I was in gifted sort of classes from 3rd grade, when I was sent to 4th grade for English period, then later sent to the Jr HS for some weird, scattered gifted class in later years.

For me, 6th grade was the end of elementary school, and I started Jr HS in 7th. (and then our school changed to a middle school over the summer before 8th, oh joy)

And by the end of 6th grade I became a *girl*. I HATED being pulled out of class and having everyone watch me. I hated being smarter than boys. I hated knowing the answer but not wanting to answer because it was so embarrassing (now I could have Hermione as a role-model, LOL) to have the answer EVERY time. I just wanted to go back and be dumb and have life be easy.

(forgive me, I was young, and that's how I thought)

By default I was still put in the higher level English (if you can believe it) and Social Studies classes, but the rest of it just fell behind. By the time I hit HS in 9th grade I put myself in the lowest everything classes (except for Spanish).

It took two MORE years for me to pull my head out and bump myself back up to Honors classes. Thankfully they allowed that. But we didn't have any sort of "gifted" program in HS; otherwise they might not have. It was just Honors and AP (and most of the AP classes were the same *class* as the Honors, but you had to do different projects at the end and take the test).


If I had it to do over again, I would wish for my mom to have seen what was happening in my head. Or rather in my endocrine system. I wish she would have forced me to stay in, and that she would have spent time with me lifting me up and helping me see that being smart was OK. I wasn't being lazy because I wanted to be lazy...I just wanted to be "normal". And I truly thought that no one else was working all that hard.

Turned out that most of my friends (NONE of whom were in the "gifted" program with me) were working for hours every night to do their work and to get the As they were getting. I was in those programs, worked almost none of that time, and got Bs and some As. I didn't see that harder work would put me in line with what my friends were doing, and would get me the same grades.


So I hope that a lot of your time with her this summer is figuring out why she's doing this and helping her work it out. I would bet quite a bit that she's doing something similar to what I was, because in talking to people over the years I've found that many MANY girls do the exact same thing, and it's all based on hormones and wrong ideas of what it's like to be female.

If only I could have taken Hermione as a role-model, but that character didn't exist back then.


Hope it all works!

 

[MSSANDRA]

It sounds like you have very bright children that might need more motivation than simply additional work-load. I agree with the PP that suggested reading out loud but take it a bit farther. Choose a family book. DS and I read every single Harry Potter Book together as they came out. He would read some and me, and we had all kinds of discussions about the plot and characters etc. You could have them to write character analysis or do something extra fun like act out and video them acting like a character. Choose a book everyone would love.

Another thing my mom did to motivate us to read MANY years ago was to take us to the store to choose a book to read first and give us a $ bill as a book mark. When the book was finished, we could use the $ bill to buy a new book. Might need to be a 5 now but same idea. Look for low cost plays to go see and have the kids write what they thought of them. Keep journals or do a sharing journal with them. You leave it somewhere you both can find it and write back and forth during the day. It can be silly or serious; your thoughts on a TV you both saw, review of dinner you had together, her complaining about having to write!! Whatever!!!

I would hesitate to pull her out of the program because of motivation if she can never re-enter. If it was her ability to achieve then yes, but with maturity comes more motivation and she does not have the judgment to see what her need will be in a year or two.