Curriculum

Logic of English: Foundations (Review Continued on Line Upon Line)

Logic of English: Foundations (Review Continued on Line Upon Line)

Published on February 27, 2013 | 3 Responses

A few weeks ago, I overheard my kindergartner talking to his baby sister.

“Are you an i, u, v, or j?” he was saying in his sweetest voice. “Because if you are, you cannot come at the end of an English word!”

This he repeated a few times over the next few minutes as he played with her toys, talked to her, and otherwise engaged in his own world of play with his sister, who was just delighted that he was nearby.

Apparently, my son internalized one of the most recent spelling rules we learned far more than I had realized. We had reviewed the rule a few mornings before this event. The manual had suggested repeating the rule in a “silly” voice and then again in another voice. I thought that was ridiculous, but I did that with my son anyway. And then, days later, he was repeating the rule to his sister without even realizing he was rehearsing his English lesson.

I will be posting more about my homeschooling curriculum on my new homeschooling blog, Line upon line.

See the rest of my review (to lesson 60) of Logic of English there.

Logic of English Foundations

Logic of English Foundations

Published on December 17, 2012 | 4 Responses

Raisin and I are only done with a little more than 40 of the lessons for the Kindergarten language arts program Logic of English Foundations. However, he enjoys it so much that I feel it is time I discussed it briefly on this blog.

LoE Foundations is an “all in one” language arts for 4-6 year old homeschool teachers or classroom teachers. Beginning with phonics, Foundations teaches children to read, to write (both a manuscript and a cursive instructional workbook are available for the handwriting instruction), and to grasp the basics of spelling. So far, I have not encountered any grammatical instruction or lessons on the mechanics of writing but neither of those are typically included in a kindergarten level program, I don’t believe. The program is to have about 180 lessons. After the first 40, students have learned how to write the 26 lowercase letters of the alphabet and can successfully read a large number of words by sounding out the phonograms. (more…)

Apps for Android: Mantano Reader

Apps for Android: Mantano Reader

Published on November 12, 2012 | 3 Responses

Yes, this is primarily a books blog, but I’m finding that I am using other media, be it ebooks, audio, video, or even digital and pocket-held games, more frequently. It may happen that I go a day without opening a physical book for myself, but I won’t pass a day without reading something, it just might be via my nook or an audiobook, etc.

As I begin my homeschool journey, I’ve been searching for apps to help me. But I am one of those people without Apple products, and many of the posts on apps for kids relate to iPad. Today I want to talk about the Reader app I’ve enjoyed the most. I use this for myself, not just for homeschooling! It’s my most essential app on my tablet! (more…)