Nuclear Meltdown and Change of Plans for English/Language Arts

Week One and I'm changing our English curriculum after The Meltdown Heard Around the World. 

I switched our line-up to Michael Clay Thompson's Language Arts along with Writing with Ease 3 and Spelling Workout F.  

Here's the link to Michael Clay Thompson's Language Arts at Royal Fireworks Press.

This is literally the world's most expensive language arts curriculum, but I already own several levels, so I was able to dig it out of the bookcase and show him the books.  He apparently liked the idea of fish and pelicans teaching him the parts of speech, because hey, filling out a grammar workbook page is too simple.  We tried the program out this week and he really likes it.  I had to shelf Daily Grams 6 and Wordly Wise 3000.  Apparently, traditional workbooks are not for him, so for everyone's safety and mental health, the workbooks have magically vanished.

 I also had to buy a higher level of Spelling Workout to match his spelling level.  So, we are going to start Spelling Workout F, which is 6th grade spelling.  

We have completed the first week of Writing with Ease 3 and he seems to tolerate it.  He is having a hard time summarizing and condensing his narrations into 2-3 sentences, so I'm glad WWE3 is covering that skill.  He basically retells the entire story when he does a narration.  I will probably continue with Writing with Skill 1 next year.

All of our other subjects are going well.  Saxon Math is shockingly going well (I never would've guessed that one).

Switching Our English/Language Arts

 I unfortunately have to redo our English/Language Arts plan.  

I gave the fifth grader a reading level test last week and he is testing at an early 7th grade level.  I have him in the 5th-6th grade McGuffey Reader.  I'm looking at the McGuffey Fourth Eclectic Reader (which is around a 6th-7th grade reading level) and the print is very small and light.  With his dyslexia, that print is going to be too difficult for him to read well.  

We are almost finished with Queen's Language Lessons for the Elementary Child.  That workbook was perfect for him a year ago as a struggling reader.  Now, I feel like he needs something more rigorous.  I bought a used copy of 6th Grade Voyages in English (a textbook used in Catholic private schools).

We are continuing with copywork and dictation for now.  I feel like there's something missing here, though.  He's not doing spelling, because we are learning spelling through copywork/dictation.  

I think my plan will be:

• Voyages in English 6
• Independent reading
• Copywork/dictation
• Finish Handwriting without Tears' Cursive Success  

I feel like that should be enough English/LA for an advanced fifth grader.  

Math is another issue I need to look at.  I realized after looking at math textbooks that he is on a 6th grade math level also.  I don't know if I need to beef up math.

Review of The Elements of Style Workbook (Strunk)

 Here it is: https://www.brookdalehouse.com/product/elements-style-workbook/

I don't think I've ever been happier with a writing workbook.  I wish I would've used this book with my older kids.  I didn't know it existed - no one seems to use this book.  I just happen to stumble across it on Amazon last year, so I bought it for the 16 year-old.

She scored at college level on the TSI English and Writing after using about half this workbook.  Granted, we did do other things to prepare her for the essay portion of the test, but I can tell that this workbook has really helped improve her writing.

This workbook is based on the original The Elements of Style book by Strunk & White.  The workbook includes the topics from the book followed by writing exercises that follow each topic.  

The workbook begins with exercises in punctuation, which are common writing errors.  It follows with sentence structure, paragraph structure, topic sentences...  Exercises continue with active voice/passive voice, positive/negative statements, trimming needless words, definite language and summaries.  The last section of the workbook has the student imitating the "Masters of Literature."  Appendix A contains a great writing checklist, so the student can use that as a checklist for revision or the teacher could even use it as a grading rubric.

This workbook is only about $15 on Amazon or Rainbow Resource and it's 200 pages of excellent writing exercises.

My high schooler did half the workbook this school year (for 11th grade) and she'll finish it for 12th grade.  And she likes the workbook.  So, it just doesn't get any better than that!

The Elements of Style Workbook = gigantic thumbs up

Homeschool Day 2/15

 1st Grader

• Explode the Code
• Miquon Math Orange
• Random House Book of Bible Stories
• Ancient Greeks and Romans Unit Study
• Usborne Book of Greek Myths
• You Wouldn't Want to Be a Roman Gladiator
• The Trojan horse
• Gymnastics (outsourced)
• He had a huge play date with a friend - they played for hours and hours

9th and 11th Graders

• Stewardship (11th grader)
• The 9th grader finished Mathusee Algebra 1
• SAT Prep (11th grader) and we registered for the TSI
• English
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Solzhenitsyn) - this is not a book for anyone younger than high school.  They started reading this today.
• The Outsiders (T.S. Hinton) - read-aloud - wow, this book is getting really good, but definitely for older teens only.  We're about a third of the way through it.
• Windows to the World - literary analysis
• Gymnastics (outsourced)

Google Books Ngram Viewer

 GOOGLE Books Ngram Viewer:

https://books.google.com/ngrams

This is fascinating.  Type in a word or name.  The graph shows the frequency that word is used in print from 1800-current year.  

Type in "war."  That is interesting...

Wordsmith Craftsman and Language Lessons for the High School Student

 15 year-old complained about Wordsmith Craftsman for the last time.  I pulled it from her curriculum and I just ordered Language Lessons for the High School Student, volume 2.

https://www.queenhomeschool.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=366

The 13 year-old is using the junior high series and she seems to like it a lot, so I'm going to have the 15 year-old try it, as well.  

From the samples on Queen's Homeschool website, it looks like volume 2 covers:

• Different forms of essay writing - persuasive essays, etc (which she could use more practice with)
• Editing
• Picture studies/narration
• Dictation and copywork
• Some creative writing

Here's a scope and sequence for their language workbooks, but it's not updated, because there is now a volume 3 for high school as well as a grammar workbook for high school:

https://www.queenhomeschool.com/samples/LLplacement.pdf

Here is their complete review of high school grammar book:

https://www.queenhomeschool.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=60_61&products_id=370

I've never used anything else from the Queen Homeschool website, so I don't really have an opinion of it.