What we are using

10 December 2008

Thinking Language Arts

First that is a picture of ME working on the car - but its a metaphor, really.

I am trying to figure out what makes a great "Language Arts" program for a kid attending The Magic School House. Our first graduate, loves language - English, Japanese, Italian, German, Spanish, French, persuasive, poetic, fiction, fantasy, cartoon, comedic, written, spoken - it doesn't matter. It looks like the second student has a similar love of words. Her early fascination with Edward Eager has grown to a love of E. Nesbit and Shakespeare. She is currently enthralled with Lewis Carroll. She spent about two hours yesterday reading a book of Roman history outside of school time. She also kept herself up reading for over an hour in bed. She has started memorizing Jabberwocky and is struggling to understand the middle section so that she can remember it, and she loves every word of it.

So what should "Language Arts" look like for a child like this in a school like this? I want to follow Classical Writing. I was advised that most students hit a wall with grammar in the higher levels so I think that instead of changing what we are currently doing for writing, we will add Growing with Grammar to our current routine and continue with copywork, dictation and narration. I have decided to use our own models instead of following the WWE workbook so that I can choose the more challenging material for her.

I'm going to get the core book for the first level of CW so that I can start to learn it then we will see where we are in a month or so with grammar and more copywork and dictation. We are using the study guide from Veritas Press for Alice in Wonderland and we are enjoying it so far. In addition to comprehension questions for each chapter, there are recipes, crafts, and some interesting writing projects.

2 comments:

Appletini said...

We've really enjoyed Growing with Grammar. We used it last year for grade 3 (that was the only one available for a while). Now we're doing grade 4. Grammar is something T really "gets" and enjoys. GwG keeps it challenging enough to keep you on your toes, but varied enough to keep it fun.

Karen said...

That is what I am hoping for with CC. I hope this clicks with her.