Next to math, Language Arts is the next big struggle with my 6th grader, who is not only dyslexic, but also has attention issues. Everything is a struggle for him academically, but much of that stems from his poor reading skills. Now, thanks to many years of determined tutors, he is reading pretty well. Not totally smoothly and fluently, but well enough for now. So, when I decided to pull him out in October, I knew it was time to work on some of the other weak area: spelling, writing, grammar. This is what we're trying:
Spelling: All About Spelling. When I read about this program from a homeschool review site, the advice was to start at Level 1, no matter what age your child was. For a 6th grader, that was going back quite a bit, but I did, and I'm glad. We started at Level 1 at the first of November, and finished Level 4 by Christmas by doing 4-6 lessons per day. We weren't doing a whole lot of other subjects, because I wanted the spelling up to grade level before we moved into writing. Now I am confident that we have filled in all the gaps, and we will be up to grade level (grade 6) on Friday!! This system has really worked for him--I can see a definite improvement in his spelling. When he does misspell a word, I can ask him to think about certain rules, and he can see the problem. This program uses a kinetic approach combined with phonograms. Each phonogram, including the alphabet, is printed on 1 inch plastic tiles, which you use to spell words. The vowel and consonant combination tiles replace individual letters as you spell out the words, so the student comes to see those as a single piece of the word. The system also includes key cards, with spelling rules on them, which you review until memorized. The system teaches how to break a word into syllables, and how that can help you determine the correct spelling. We're excited to get to Level 7 next year, which focuses on Latin and Greek roots. My 4th grade daughter is just starting this spelling program with her reading tutor at Level 1, and I'm excited to see how it helps her spelling.
Grammar: We've just finished First Language Lessons Level 3. In the reviews I've read about this grammar program, it had a lot of good reviews, but there were also many people who felt it was too boring and repetitive. It is VERY repetitive, and that is what has made it perfect for my son who struggles to learn. There is a lot of memorization, of poems and of the definitions of parts of speech. These are repeated over and over again throughout the year. The lessons are fully scripted, with teacher instruction and student response. This has been great to help my son retain the information. Like with AAS, we went through the material extra fast (3 lessons per day), to try to get him to grade level. After finishing FLL 3, I wasn't sure what to go with for grammar. I've used Rod and Staff, and liked it, but there is no workbook; the student has to write everything out on a separate notebook. Which is fine, but in his case, I thought it would be too time consuming and overwhelming since we are trying to accelerate through to grade level. In the end, I purchased FLL 4 and Growing With Grammar 5, because I didn't want to skip straight to Level 5 and leave gaps (since filling gaps is our whole focus this year). When I compared the programs, I found that I was able to integrate the two together, teaching similar lessons in succession. I used the FLL 4 as the spine, and inserted the corresponding GWG 5 lessons where they best fit. We will finish both FLL 4 and GWG 5 by the end of the year, and then do GWG 6 and 7 next year to get to grade level.
Writing: My son is great at writing fiction--especially now that he can spell. However, at all other types of writing, he really struggles. So, again, I decided to go back to square one. We are starting with Writing With Ease Level 1, by Susan Wise Bauer. I've looked at this program before, and to be honest, it seems so boring and tedious. The program includes copywork, dictation, listening and narration. However, I feel this repetitiveness, very thorough program is what he needs to become a good writer. We aren't going to do the full program, though. His handwriting is fine, so we won't do the copywork, and for now we are doing dictation in the spelling lessons. So, for the first two levels, we are just going to do every other week of lessons, the narration portion only. Not real excited about it, but I looked at SWB's writing program for his age level, Writing With Skill, and I know he won't be able to do it without the background of this preparatory program. Better to lay the foundation and excel later, than try to push it on him too early.
Vocabulary: We do Wordly Wise, Level 6. We're on lesson 6. It's too early to tell if he will retain any of it, but I can tell you he didn't retain a thing from the vocabulary he was doing at school, and he really enjoys the lessons, so it is a thumbs up from me!
Spelling: All About Spelling. When I read about this program from a homeschool review site, the advice was to start at Level 1, no matter what age your child was. For a 6th grader, that was going back quite a bit, but I did, and I'm glad. We started at Level 1 at the first of November, and finished Level 4 by Christmas by doing 4-6 lessons per day. We weren't doing a whole lot of other subjects, because I wanted the spelling up to grade level before we moved into writing. Now I am confident that we have filled in all the gaps, and we will be up to grade level (grade 6) on Friday!! This system has really worked for him--I can see a definite improvement in his spelling. When he does misspell a word, I can ask him to think about certain rules, and he can see the problem. This program uses a kinetic approach combined with phonograms. Each phonogram, including the alphabet, is printed on 1 inch plastic tiles, which you use to spell words. The vowel and consonant combination tiles replace individual letters as you spell out the words, so the student comes to see those as a single piece of the word. The system also includes key cards, with spelling rules on them, which you review until memorized. The system teaches how to break a word into syllables, and how that can help you determine the correct spelling. We're excited to get to Level 7 next year, which focuses on Latin and Greek roots. My 4th grade daughter is just starting this spelling program with her reading tutor at Level 1, and I'm excited to see how it helps her spelling.
Grammar: We've just finished First Language Lessons Level 3. In the reviews I've read about this grammar program, it had a lot of good reviews, but there were also many people who felt it was too boring and repetitive. It is VERY repetitive, and that is what has made it perfect for my son who struggles to learn. There is a lot of memorization, of poems and of the definitions of parts of speech. These are repeated over and over again throughout the year. The lessons are fully scripted, with teacher instruction and student response. This has been great to help my son retain the information. Like with AAS, we went through the material extra fast (3 lessons per day), to try to get him to grade level. After finishing FLL 3, I wasn't sure what to go with for grammar. I've used Rod and Staff, and liked it, but there is no workbook; the student has to write everything out on a separate notebook. Which is fine, but in his case, I thought it would be too time consuming and overwhelming since we are trying to accelerate through to grade level. In the end, I purchased FLL 4 and Growing With Grammar 5, because I didn't want to skip straight to Level 5 and leave gaps (since filling gaps is our whole focus this year). When I compared the programs, I found that I was able to integrate the two together, teaching similar lessons in succession. I used the FLL 4 as the spine, and inserted the corresponding GWG 5 lessons where they best fit. We will finish both FLL 4 and GWG 5 by the end of the year, and then do GWG 6 and 7 next year to get to grade level.
Writing: My son is great at writing fiction--especially now that he can spell. However, at all other types of writing, he really struggles. So, again, I decided to go back to square one. We are starting with Writing With Ease Level 1, by Susan Wise Bauer. I've looked at this program before, and to be honest, it seems so boring and tedious. The program includes copywork, dictation, listening and narration. However, I feel this repetitiveness, very thorough program is what he needs to become a good writer. We aren't going to do the full program, though. His handwriting is fine, so we won't do the copywork, and for now we are doing dictation in the spelling lessons. So, for the first two levels, we are just going to do every other week of lessons, the narration portion only. Not real excited about it, but I looked at SWB's writing program for his age level, Writing With Skill, and I know he won't be able to do it without the background of this preparatory program. Better to lay the foundation and excel later, than try to push it on him too early.
Vocabulary: We do Wordly Wise, Level 6. We're on lesson 6. It's too early to tell if he will retain any of it, but I can tell you he didn't retain a thing from the vocabulary he was doing at school, and he really enjoys the lessons, so it is a thumbs up from me!
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