Help needed (bad mommy moment)

[mom2koh]

Ok. I have to admit I have let grammar, spelling and such slide. DD who's 6 is really into math and science (me being a science person ran with this :D).

We've incorporated phonics, daily reading (she's an avid reader), copywork (very little) and some spelling into our school work. So language arts are totally not in the dark. But, we've never covered grammar.

Today she was writing a little essay (3 sentences) about the Earth. Well she split a word correctly when it needed to be contiued onto the next line! I was floored. When I asked her how she knew about that she said she saw it in books.

My question is: I have purchasd FLL and WWE (level 1 for both) for next year. Is that a good place to start??? Or will she be bored with it?

Thanks so much you guys. I'm horrible with grammar and I truly want my children to have a better foundation.

[crazyforlatin]

I'm not the right person to give any advice because I'm kind of in the same situation as you. I focused on reading, math and Latin for my 5-year old daughter. I just bought Writing with Ease and we're on Week 1, Day 3 (we both love it, very short lessons, could even do 2 a day, great books). From all the research I did, I decided to go with Writing with Ease, rather than Sonlight's Language Arts, which is almost the same. It took me 2 weeks to decide this. I want to teach grammar now, but I haven't decided on which book, and I'm afraid it's going to take another 2 weeks. Your daughter is only 6, which according to WTM, is the age to start copywork, etc. Ms. Bauer does emphasize having the child read fluently and know basic math facts thoroughly, so your daughter seems to be on track. Could you let me know why you chose FLL and if you considered other programs?

Also, for spelling, I'm leaning heavily towards All About Spelling, but again, it could take me some time to decide.

[Bird Girl]

I let grammar slide completely until age 7.5, at which time we did MCT's Island level. We're still working on Sentence Island, and we have the poetics book still to go. It's working fine, as far as I can tell. (Ok, I didn't completely let grammar go--I bought the Schoolhouse Rock DVD and gave the kids a thorough and complete afternoon of watching TV.:D)

Six is very young for grammar--you can introduce parts of it early, but honestly, at 7.5 my daughter was able to learn the eight parts of speech in a week--although she's still not clear on the difference between a preposition and a conjunction--she has the rest of it down. So there's no particular rush. She won't be handicapped if you don't get to it for another year or even more.

[anabelneri]

I agree with the other posters, and I haven't let it slide (science, on the other hand :glare:). My 6yo has found WWE to be quite enjoyable. It actually does incorporate some of the things you'd want a 1st or 2nd grader to know, such as abbreviations and months of the year, along with some capitalization and punctuation.

FLL, on the other hand, was far to slow for us to use all year. We switched to MCT Island Level, but I'm stretching it out to last for a couple years. Even just reading the Grammar Island book seems like plenty at this point. Just keep it in mind, though, for later on... it seems like 3rd grade is when a bunch of programs really pick up the speed in that arena.

:)

[mom2koh]

Ms. Bauer does emphasize having the child read fluently and know basic math facts thoroughly, so your daughter seems to be on track. Could you let me know why you chose FLL and if you considered other programs?

I chose FLL after reading on the regular curriculum boards you could accelerate it. Also, cost was a huge factor and FLL not only got great reviews but was budget friendly. ;)

(Ok, I didn't completely let grammar go--I bought the Schoolhouse Rock DVD and gave the kids a thorough and complete afternoon of watching TV.:D)

:lol: I'll have to look into that one.


FLL, on the other hand, was far to slow for us to use all year. We switched to MCT Island Level, but I'm stretching it out to last for a couple years. Even just reading the Grammar Island book seems like plenty at this point. Just keep it in mind, though, for later on... it seems like 3rd grade is when a bunch of programs really pick up the speed in that arena.


Thanks! I was worried about FLL being slow or "boring" to her. I had looked at MCT and the cost was a big factor in deciding against it. But, if I could strech it out... Hmm... Just what dh would want, me looking at more curriculum. :lol: