I’ve already written here about the reading and spelling programs I have used/am using. In this post I will address grammar and writing.
First Language Lessons
This is a 4-year grammar curriculum from Well-Trained Mind Press. I have used this for grades 1-4 for each of my kids three days a week. The first 2 levels only have an instructor’s book. Levels 3-4 have a student book to go along with the instructor’s book for each level. The press gives copyright permission for copies of student books (whether hard copies or pdf’s) to be made for siblings within the same family. This is a huge help and benefit that this company allows for most if not all of their consumable books.
The instructor’s manuals are all very simple to use and scripted, making them very easy to teach from. Teaching grammar is not necessarily exciting, so it may feel monotonous to repeat the same definitions, lists of prepositions and helping verbs over and over again. (Do you know how many times I’ve said “Aboard, about, above, across, after, against, along, among, around, at. . .??) However, I have seen my older kids do extremely well with a lot more complicated grammar and diagramming because of the solid (but boring) foundation offered in the first four years.
There are poems to memorize throughout the year, along with times of review. It teaches both oral and written grammar, how to write addresses and letters, diagramming, and lots of memorization. I always skip any dictation or narration exercises, as we cover that in our writing program.
Writing with Ease
This is a 4-year writing program, also from Well-Trained Mind Press, that I use for grades 1-4. Again, this program can feel a bit monotonous to get through, but it does prepare children very well to be good writers. Each level has an instructor’s book as well as a student book (that can be copied for siblings).
Each year is very similar, following mostly the same 4-day-a-week pattern. Level 1 does include some copywork, in which the child is imitating writing a good sentence. Eventually, one of those days of copywork is exchanged for dictation, in which the same sentence will be dictated to the student, the student will repeat the sentence, and then the student will write the sentence down (with all necessary spelling help given).
The other two days are narration exercises. When the children are in the first few years, I read the excerpt orally while the child listens. I then ask questions about the story (the questions are in the teacher’s manual). A few more questions are asked that guide the child towards giving a 1-3 (-6 as the child progresses to later levels) sentence summary (their “narration”) of the story.
The thing I really appreciate about the program is that for the first 4 years, the student is never required to write their narration. They simply speak their narration, and the parent/teacher writes it down and reads it back. The goal is to get them to be able to summarize and narrate well; the focus is not the actual handwriting process (which can really bog some kids down). I’ve found that with some of my kids it has also really forced them to be better listeners.
Sometimes the dictation exercises can be a bit long and frustrating—especially with some kids. One of my kids really struggled with remembering the sentences, whereas most of the others had no problem. While I think it is a good skill, I did drop all dictation exercises during level 4 for all my kids. Technically, the author said that level 4 is not strictly necessary if the kids are doing well at narrations. I found the narrations to be good practice, as the portions of what they read in level 4 are often more related to history and science, which is a good challenge to be able to read and summarize.
I also use the 2 narration days in level 4 to double for my child’s oral reading for that day. I’m all about killing 2 birds with one stone when it comes to doubling up subjects to work more efficiently.
Grammar for the Well-Trained Mind
This is a fabulous grammar program. This is the program that follows First Language Lessons by Well-Trained Mind Press. I start this in 5th grade with my kids, and it goes all the way through high school. It can feel a bit confusing at first to understand how it works, but I will do my best to summarize.
There is one instructor’s manual, and there are four different student workbooks—red, blue, yellow, and purple, each with its own answer key (if you buy them, you may copy the workbooks for siblings). The idea is that you pick any color workbook to start with. You teach with the scripted instructor’s manual, and the student follows along in his workbook (all of this section of the workbooks will look the same). Once the lesson is over, the student will have exercises to complete on his own. These exercises are different in each color of workbook.
The reason this works so well is that I can go as far as I want to through the lessons for the year with each student. Once I feel that the material is getting too challenging I stop and start over again with a different color workbook. That way the students can review the same material, but when they practice, they have new exercises and examples.
So say, for example, I have been doing school for 12 weeks, and I’ve gotten through lesson 36 in the red workbook, and I notice my kid is starting to struggle. I can go back to lesson 1 in the yellow book if it would be helpful. If my kid had been breezing through the first couple weeks, maybe instead I would choose to start the yellow book at lesson 9. Maybe this time we could continue a little farther than lesson 36 or maybe we just stop there again and start another color workbook.
Once you start, it all makes good sense. It also personalizes the grammar program for your student. You can focus on what the child is struggling through or you can move ahead if you want. You just have to keep track of what lessons in what books you are doing—especially if you have multiple children in different workbooks.
The author (Susan Wise Bauer) has a good sense of humor, and she tries to make grammar as enjoyable as possible. She also makes good use of literature in her examples. It is much more enjoyable to work on sentences that are related to each other instead of a bunch of boring, unrelated sentences.
Although the books are set up in 4-day weeks, I continue to do grammar just three days a week. There are regular reviews throughout the workbooks, which are helpful. I also use these reviews at the beginning of each school year to help my kids refresh what they’ve forgotten and to gauge where to start them for the new year.
Writing with Skill
This writing program from Well-Trained Mind Press follows Writing with Ease. However, the author actually recommends not starting this program until 6th grade (and maybe 7th if the child struggles). So, I’ve always taken a little bit of a break from writing in 5th grade. I have had my kids just write a narration about once a week from their history or science, which was still good practice. I may add something new next year for my 5th grader (but she doesn’t know that yet! 😉 ).
This program is three years, and I have really loved it too. Again, each level has an instructor and student book (free to copy for siblings too). But for this curriculum, there is a lot more independent work that the student engages in, although the instructor still checks much of the student’s work and sometimes engages with him. Right now, I have a child in the first level (in 6th grade) and in the last level (in 8th grade), and I can really see how the program does a great job in slowly building the student into a good writer.
The text models good writing from literature to scientific and historic papers. The student is taught how to look for information, research, and write interestingly. There are sections on analyzing literature and poetry. This is not so much a course on creative writing, but the publisher does offer a separate book on that if your child is interested.
The instructor’s manual will always give a rubric as to what to expect for your child’s work. It does require your reading their written work and helping them improve, but the student’s instructions actually do much of the teaching.
When your child has completed the third level he will have learned how research and write a 1500-word, interesting paper on a chosen topic.
Each week is a 4-day week. The time spent on this writing course is much more than Writing with Ease. It also requires a lot of independent work. This is a good thing developmentally for the kids, but some may need more supervision and reminders to be disciplined than others.
All in all, I have appreciated and heartily recommend all of the grammar and writing curricula I have chosen. Again, I hope this is helpful!
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Image by Dmitriy Gutarev from Pixabay