Anyone here design their own LA?

[MerryAtHope]

Do you have any reference materials you use that help you decide what to cover? (please explain how that resource helps you--ie, does it have grade-level suggestions or does it explain various terms, etc...). I'm wanting to use copywork and other natural methods but be more intentional in what I do with it, what I teach from it--and I'm looking for some resources that will help me design what I do. Tricky word forms is something I think I need to be more intentional with (ie verbs like gone vs. went etc...). It's such a broad subject, I'd love something that gave me incremental advice on things to work on, but I don't know if such a beast exists!
Merry :-)

[Donna T.]

No, not completely. But, I'd like to. I have grammar handbooks from Abeka and Rod & Staff. I use those a good bit. I also have a list of spelling rules - a thin paperback from EPS (the folks who publish Explode the Code) and a book called The ABCS and All Their Tricks that I use alot. And, I'm wading through and trying to implement The Writer's Jungle.

Bumping this up. Maybe we'll get some ideas.

[Alte Veste Academy]

:bigear:

[Kfamily]

but I'm trying to do something like that. Dd is K but there is nothing available for language/English that will be what she needs. I want to incorporate our literature planned for next year and use it as a starting point for language lessons.

I have collected a lot of resources that I like aspects of or will take ideas from such as Primary Language Lessons, First Language Lessons and many books from Google.

I know I want to include picture study, poetry, narration lessons, grammar lessons including usage, parts of speech, beginning capitalization and punctuation rules and copywork. I plan to use art cards I already owned but hadn't used mounted on cardstock and inserted in sheet protectors for picture study. I found some art books to include a simple analysis of the picture and a little background of the artist. I know we will be covering Aesop's Fables for literature and I have collected coloring pages and copywork pages for this. I will also use some Peter Rabbit notebooking and copywork pages.

We will also use the All the Year Round books from Google for science/nature study. There is a book for Spring, Autumn and Winter. I also found a collection of nature poems which are divided into the seasons. I plan to use selections from these for observation lessons, poetry, copywork, conversation and maybe even simple sketching lessons.

Mostly I want everything I can to be connected, relevant and ready-to-go for her. Really, I think it will just be a giant notebook for dd for 1st grade.

I have been taking notes as I look through the language books at what is covered and when such as, what is a sentence, kinds of sentences, capitalizing I and and proper nouns, etc. and will use this as a guide. I will not be writing everything from scratch. I will use a lot of what is already out there and then add in what is missing. I have Startwrite which is a program that will allow me to make pages, especially copywork pages, in Italics.

HTH

I'm really just starting :lol:

[mom2moon2]

I'm trying here. This is what we do for my first grader:

- Reading: lots of old readers from googlebooks. They're graded (or leveled), contain classic stories and poem. Sometimes I ask my son to read aloud, sometimes I ask him to read silently and narrate back to me.
- PHonics (advanced): Webster - my son really needs to read more multisyllable words.

- Spelling and composition: through narration, copywork, dictation, notebooking (across curricula).
--> Dictation: two times a week after our history lessons.
--> Narration: across curricula (7x narration/wk: 1x geography, 2x science, 2x history, 2x literature). I know that's a lot, but without narration, our lesson could be wasted.
-->Copywork: two times a week. My son writes AESOP morals and interesting passages from Just So Stories or Fairy Tales Book.
--> Notebooking: two times a week during science time.

I also intentionally train my son in the art of description.

I also own Writer's Jungle and this manual is gold. It gives me a lot of ideas on how to do LA naturally. I may use PLL for the second and third year but will incorporate writing ideas from Writer's Jungle.

[MerryAtHope]

I like Writer's Jungle too! I should have mentioned, my kids are 4th & 6th grades now.

Merry :-)