Lanuage Arts

[Mrs Darcy]

I'm fairly new to all of this and I would like some help with language arts.

My son is 8.5 and has a high reading level and is a natural speller. We have not done any formal grammar/spelling/writing curriculum.

We have covered what nouns and verbs are, and are starting to get into what adjectives and adverbs are in Latin.

Is Latin enough to cover English grammar or do I need to supplement it?

My son has been doing copywork for a while now and for the past month we have been working on dictation. What are the options for a writing curriculum? What do you think are the better ones and why?

[laughing lioness]

We have used FLL and really enjoyed it.
We have used IEW for years and years and LOVE IT. Worth every penny and more. Start with TWSS and go from there.
I really like Drew's Grammar Catechism, I am learning a lot still (I have grammar phobia) and I finally learned how to diagram using Our Mother Tongue.

[kellycbr]

What is Drew's Grammar Catechism. I googled it with no luck. Thanks.

[Lovedtodeath]

Writing Tales sounds perfect. Your son is right on level to learn grammar from the program without being bored, and he has done enough writing to be ready for it.

It covers quite a bit of grammar, and uses games for some of it. Some of the lesson samples have things in them that don't show up in the Scope & Sequence (http://www.olsenbooks.com/scope.html). It is a fun program perfect for hands on learners, which is one reason why I am choosing it. I have not seen another grammar program that has hands on active lessons. At the bottom of this blog (http://thereedfamily-blog.blogspot.com/search?q=writing+tales)you can see the first three days of WT 1 (you would want WT2) and towards the top there is a review.

[Mrs Darcy]

Writing Tales looks great, thank you.

[strider]

I'm fairly new to all of this and I would like some help with language arts.

My son is 8.5 and has a high reading level and is a natural speller. We have not done any formal grammar/spelling/writing curriculum.

We have covered what nouns and verbs are, and are starting to get into what adjectives and adverbs are in Latin.

Is Latin enough to cover English grammar or do I need to supplement it?

My son has been doing copywork for a while now and for the past month we have been working on dictation. What are the options for a writing curriculum? What do you think are the better ones and why?

I would throw him right into Rod and Staff Grammar 3, plus Spelling Work-Out. The grammar program is thorough, and a lesson a day really does not take that much time. The curriculum also offers writing instruction.

Latin does NOT cover English grammar, though it is true you pick up a lot of English grammar with any language study. Your ds will have a much easier time picking up Latin if he is ALSO studying English grammar.

[Mrs Darcy]

I would throw him right into Rod and Staff Grammar 3, plus Spelling Work-Out. The grammar program is thorough, and a lesson a day really does not take that much time. The curriculum also offers writing instruction.

Latin does NOT cover English grammar, though it is true you pick up a lot of English grammar with any language study. Your ds will have a much easier time picking up Latin if he is ALSO studying English grammar.


Is Rod and Staff OK to use if you are secular? I can handle a few Bible quotes here and there, but not if they are very prominent feature of the program.

[Mrs Darcy]

I would throw him right into Rod and Staff Grammar 3, plus Spelling Work-Out. The grammar program is thorough, and a lesson a day really does not take that much time. The curriculum also offers writing instruction.

Latin does NOT cover English grammar, though it is true you pick up a lot of English grammar with any language study. Your ds will have a much easier time picking up Latin if he is ALSO studying English grammar.


Which level of Spelling Workout should I start with? Is there a placement test anywhere?

[Kissy]

My son has a high reading level and is a natural speller too. He was also a natural at grammar. We have used Abeka and it was good but not challenging enough so we started using the latin road to english grammar and it has worked beautifully. My son enjoys it so much. They have one called bridge to the latin road that is all about grammar and you go through the whole year making a grammar book to reference for the other years. I would suggest looking into that. We did use spelling workout too for a while.

[strider]

Is Rod and Staff OK to use if you are secular? I can handle a few Bible quotes here and there, but not if they are very prominent feature of the program.

Hmmm . . . while I know that there are secular folks who use it successfully, I also know some have struggled. The program is Mennonite, so the exercises and examples tend to be heavily rural and also reference the Bible a lot. There are sentences like: "Hezekiah went down to the barn to help Father with the chickens." If there is an alphabetizing exercise, it might include books of the Bible or weird biblical names. Recently my dd had to do an outlining exercise--one of the examples was about nature, and the other was a Bible story. The grammar explanations themselves are very straightforward, but the exercises for practice reference Mennonite farm culture and Bible culture pretty heavily.

If you think that will be rough, you might consider A Beka for grammar, and supplement with another writing program. A Beka is also a religious publisher, but my understanding is that the grammar is straightforward. SWB has praised the A Beka program as being a solid alternative to R&S, and I also have a friend who likes it.

[strider]

Which level of Spelling Workout should I start with? Is there a placement test anywhere?

When I got started on SWO there was no placement test. There might be one now. The representative I spoke with on the phone was constrained--she was programmed to only say that the books are "grade-level" and really struggled with the concept that I do not work that way, that I figure out what my child's abilities are and choose a level based on that. I think I might have had a curriculum sample sent to me??? It's been a couple years, so I am not sure.

Having said that, given your child's age and abilities, I would guess you should start at C or D.

[Lovedtodeath]

The Well Trained Mind has a section on starting in the middle and it specifically helps you to decide what level to start in SWO as well. I found it here: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/starting.php

My son has a high reading level and is a natural speller too. He was also a natural at grammar. We have used Abeka and it was good but not challenging enough so we started using the latin road to english grammar and it has worked beautifully. My son enjoys it so much. They have one called bridge to the latin road that is all about grammar and you go through the whole year making a grammar book to reference for the other years. I would suggest looking into that. We did use spelling workout too for a while.

I actually thought of this one too.:iagree:

[Paula in PA]

Is Rod and Staff OK to use if you are secular? I can handle a few Bible quotes here and there, but not if they are very prominent feature of the program.

A secular alternative to R&S is Growing with Grammar (http://www.growingwithgrammar.com/). We're using level 3 this year and dd really likes it. If you do a search on the board, there are lots of posts about it. :001_smile:

[Lovedtodeath]

We did WTM exclusively for a year. It was a... (http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?p=754197#post754197) I am pretty sure she is talking about Rod & Staff in this post.