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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Changes for English

I found the First Language Lessons (FLL) by Jessie Wise a wee bit tiresome due to constant repetitions. And since I am already reading poems and requiring narrations, I found those lessons with these elements quite unnecessary. I have been wanting to discontinue FLL for some time.

So when a friend recommended Grammar Land by E. Nesbit, we immediately got hooked on it. This book is a very refreshing way to "study" grammar. It basically introduces the different parts of speech. It does so with a very engaging story. My boys will surely not forget rich Mr Noun and shy little Article, or how Adjective was tried for stealing from Mr. Noun.

I have just started out Rod and Staff English 3 (R&S), a book I was planning to use after FLL. Other aspects of Grammar (other than parts of speech) is covered here that I felt I still needed to address. I guess having come out from a system where grammar was "taught", I still cannot let go and trust that read aloud/copywork/dictation alone can do the trick.

Lessons in R&S English are short and manageable. I try to do most of the exercises that follow orally instead of assigning them as written work. That should help save some time.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Sarah
    I would like to know how you teach English besides read a loud, narration and dictation. You said in your education pages that you also use a spelling program. Can you elaborate on how you pull everything together including spelling and the grammar teaching? Thanks

    Alice

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  2. Hi Alice,
    Spelling Power was the program I started out with but have since stopped using as I felt that copywork and dictation was sufficient for "spelling". As for grammar, I am currently using the lessons in Rod and Staff English 3 as is.

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  3. Hi Sarah
    Thanks for the explanation. Do you do copywork for all lessons eg History, etc or only once a day and you select the para? How about dictation? what do you do with words that your kids are not able to spell at the moment?
    Would appreciate it if you can also enlighten on how you run your day.

    Thanks a zillion and you have been an inspiration
    Alice

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Alice,
    I do copywork once a day; selected from any of our read alouds. After 2 to 3 copyworks, I make boys study them together with words from vocab list (see my post on Vocabulary) where I will then select for dictation and spelling.
    This is how I do it NOW. I keep changing in the hope of finding something that works best ;-)

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