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homeschoolanguagearts

Letting Go of the Homeschool Language Arts Stranglehold

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Covering homeschool language arts and no other subjects for the day is not just dull, boring and unbalanced but it can also suck the life out a child’s desire to read and write every day.

Letting go of the homeschool language arts stranglehold is not easy.  Wanting our children to succeed in life and not wanting them to miss something vital in the area of language arts, many parents, including myself, have unintentionally piled on double the subjects in language arts.

Letting Go of the Homeschool Language Arts Stranglehold

Instead of feeding a child’s natural eagerness to learn through language arts, we create resistant learners.

e;”>Understanding the elements of language arts keeps them from over taking hands-on science activities, history projects or art projects that our children can’t wait to do.

Key to covering language arts well, but keeping it balanced with the other activities is being sure we know what the subjects are.

It is hard to know if you are covering the essentials when you use such a broad general term like language arts.

Homeschool Language Arts – Think Communicate

Because I was not a public school teacher in my LBK (life before kids) and because I always need to compartmentalize before I can tackle a job, today, I want to help you clearly identify and categorize which subjects make up language arts at each level.

Language arts is a term used to cover how we communicate, whether it’s spoken communication or written communication.

In each grade level, language art subjects will vary but the subject will cover one of those two areas.  You don’t have to have a public school teacher background to figure it out.

For example, at the beginning level, teaching phonics is about teaching our elementary children how to read.  At the middle school level, teaching our children composition is about teaching them how to communicate their ideas efficiently. At the high school level, language arts can take a different turn and it’s about how to teach our high school students to orally communicate effectively.

As just a mom, I don’t like the term language arts because it is too broad and does not help you to grasp which subjects to teach at which grade levels.
Language arts can be a whole host of subjects but most of them fall into these 5 subcategories.

Reading

Writing

Spelling

Grammar

Oral

Identifying them each year and then filling the need, keeps language arts as a subject that is not only thoroughly enjoyable to learn about, but keeps it balanced.

Look at this list of a whole host of subjects and teaching techniques used interchangeably that make it seem almost impossible to organize.

Phonics, word study, narration, dictation, grammar, literature, English, speech, penmanship, drama, public speaking, poetry recitation, memory work, composition, spelling, reading comprehension, speaking and listening and outlining are just some of the subjects that I have seen through the years.

While some are subjects like composition, which have numerous ways to teach it and various genres and some are techniques like copywork, which teach a whole host of skills, they all generally fall into reading, writing, spelling, grammar or oral categories.

Too, one subject can teach multiple language arts skills.

Elementary Homeschool Language Arts

Look at these samples below of how I categorized subjects or teaching techniques.

This is not an exhaustive list by any means because there are an overwhelming amount of superior teaching techniques as well as excellent language art curriculum that we can seize for the year.

I just sorted through some of them to show you how I organize them both mentally and most of the time in my planner so that I keep a balanced plan.

Middle School and High School Homeschool Language Arts

Too, I haven’t even touched on how language arts skills can be honed by using novels, poetry, science and history topics.

The point of today’s blog post is for you to rein in the numerous techniques and subjects in language arts that constantly bombards us.

It helps to see that many years were are either meeting or exceeding standards for a grade level.

Some years, I have very slim language arts curriculum and more reference type books because language arts is taught through another meaningful subject like history.

For example, if you have a boy that does not like writing, he can see the value of learning it while he can write about ancient weapons. A reference book to guide him on his subject is of more value.  If you have a girl that would rather read about fashion or horses than write, then a reference book about creative writing will inspire her to write her own story.

How Do You Keep Homeschool Language Arts from Choking Out Your Other Subjects?

Did I mention that covering language arts while study science, history or the history of art is the simple trick to balancing language arts while still getting in your much loved subjects for the day?

Covering only language arts for the day and not finishing until 2:00 p.m is a recipe for disaster.

I hope that by simplifying some of the subjects and techniques for you that you will see that you are probably more than just meeting the basics each day.

Most homeschoolers I have helped have way too much curriculum in language arts and do not realize that language arts spans just about any other type of subjects.

Whether you are learning about art, history, science or the Bible, you have to read, decipher sounds, infer, follow directions and explain or tell back what you have learned and somewhere along the way write down instructions, follow directions, label and diagram.

Sorting through my language arts curriculum each year helps me to isolate curriculum to fit within the categories of the big 5 (reading, writing, spelling, grammar and oral).

Too, it helps me to not over plan but to realize that I will cover different parts of language arts through our love of other  subjects.

How do you keep language arts from choking out the other activities you have on tap for the day?

You’ll love these other tips:

Hugs and love ya,

 

Free Marco Polo Unit Study Notebooking Pages

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Today, I have the first set of free Marco Polo Notebooking Pages ready to go with my free Marco Polo lapbook and unit study.

The first notebooking page is a place to write about Marco Polo’s childhood as he grew up in Venice and contemplated visiting far off places that were not discovered.

Free Marco Polo Unit Study Notebooking Pages

The second notebooking page, your child can add a bit of geography about the Persian desert and there is space for your child to either describe the travels of Marco Polo across the Persian desert or to tell about animal or plant life on the desert.

And then lastly, I have a page that can be used to give an overview of the Mongol Empire.

The Mongolian Empire was such a huge empire at that time that it is taken us a while when reading to wrap our minds around the large amount of land that was conquered by Genghis Khan.

Also, look at these fun books about Marco Polo.

Books About Marco Polo For Kids

10 Marco Polo Books & Resources for Kids Who Love Reading and Being Read To

Add some of these fun books about Marco Polo to your home library or use them in your unit studies.

MARCO POLO NOTEBOOKING PAGES

Also you’ll love the hands-on ideas from Home School In the Woods.

Here are a few websites we have been reading that might help you too.

The printables on the Marco Polo Unit Study are special ones because I love to hold back printables to share only with my loyal email readers.

Go here to grab the free Marco Polo lapbook.

Marco Polo Unit Study Hands-on Activities

How to Get the Free Notebooking Pages

Free Marco Polo Unit Study Notebooking Pages

Now, how to grab the free notebooking pages. It’s a subscriber freebie.

When you sign up to follow me, you get access to this freebie AND you’re now a follower of me by getting emails in in your inbox.

1) Sign up on my email list.
2) Grab the printable.
3) Last, look for my emails in your inbox as a follower. Glad to have you.

Marco Polo Unit Study, Lapbook, and Hands-on Ideas

Check out these other activities on our Marco Polo Unit Study.

 Hugs and love ya,

Free Marco Polo Notebooking Pages for a homeschool unit study.

What You’ve Got To Know About Teaching Reading Comprehension

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Today, in what you’ve got to know about teaching reading comprehension, I will share surefire ways to rekindle the love of reading. More important these tips will help your child understand what he is reading.

When I took Mr. Senior 2013 out of public school for the short time he was in Kindergarten and started homeschooling him again, I realized that he had changed from adoring his reading time to abhorring it.

Reading Material Matters. 

I am always astounded at how children naturally figure things out and they know when something they are reading matters.  One book I had chosen to focus on my son’s reading comprehension was called Bags The Lamb.

Okay, not very inspiring title and so I soon learned that my first mistake in helping my son to care about what he was reading was to make it matter. 

One stepping stone to having your child lap up reading is to give him a meaningful purpose.

For Mr. Senior 2013 that meant reading a comic book or a non-fiction book about science or history. 

If you are using a reading program that has dry, boring books that do not matter to your child, then use a book they choose so it matters to them. 

What You’ve Got To Know About Teaching Reading Comprehension

This is the first step to encouraging them to make meaning of what they are reading.

A Skillful Teacher Models the Process. 

Then there is one pet peeve of mine that we unknowingly do in a lot of subjects that we teach and that is somehow by osmosis we expect our kids to know what we want.

I too made this mistake in thinking my son knew how to skim the material, ask questions silently and look for answers in reading material.

Switching my approach, I focused on one paragraph in the book that he chose and talked out loud while he was sitting with me.

I would continue to talk out loud asking who is this character or I would say this reminds me of so and so whom we both know.

In talking out loud, I was helping my son to make a connection with what he knew right now and otherwise question what he was reading.

He soon learned that it was okay to have questions and that questions are the beginning to understanding what he was reading.  It is not necessary to

have all the questions answered, which is what Mr. Senior 2013 was doing.

Reading comprehension is about weighing and identifying facts though not always having the answers until the end of the story.

Slow Down Your Reading Pace Mama! 

Another mistake I was making was allowing my kindergartener to read the whole story in one gulp. 

What good did that do him if he didn’t understand the first paragraph?

He had me fooled because he was such a good reader, never mind the fact that he didn’t understand too much of what he read. 

I realized he was hyper focused on rapid reading and correct pronunciation instead of understanding what he was reading.

No wonder he didn’t like reading at the time because it became more about reciting meaningless chants instead of savoring the satisfaction that comes from filling his mind about the fascinating world around him.

From that time on, I assigned my 1:1 reading time with him for just one or two paragraphs each day. 

Implementing my tip on modeling the process, I read the paragraph or two aloud the first time. 

Pausing at commas, and emphasizing important words by the inflection in my voice helped him to see how he should be reading. 

This tip significantly improved his reading comprehension in the first few months.

Besides forming a close bond with him, to this day he has never forgotten the warm fuzzy feeling that comes from understanding what he is reading.

The rest of the day as a Kindergartener he spent with alone reading time, but I could hear him off in the room practicing some of what I had modeled.

By taking this 1:1 crucial time with him, my reader who once loved reading prior to sending him to public school returned to a love of reading.

Visualize and Imagine. 

Too, I had not tapped into my son’s love of visualization. 

Boys especially need to use this strategy. Again, he was a very visual person, but I had not helped him to see that he needed to use that strength to visualize the characters or place.

I had read somewhere that we should teach them like it’s a movie going on in their head. 

It’s true.  I helped him to see that if he could picture what a character wore, how he sounded when he talked and where he lived that those things would add to his understanding of what he was reading. 

It worked. Simply explaining that to my son and helping him to make that connection was all he needed to rapidly improve his reading comprehension.

I learned again that we need to tell and give our kids those strategies specifically instead of thinking or assuming they learn those things by absorbing them. 

Too, let them turn their imagination loose even if you don’t see a fact in the reading for their imagined thought. 

Just the fact they are imagining shows they are attempting to make connections with what they are reading. 

It adds to the intrinsic value too of making reading a lifelong habit.

Too, don’t break down every reading lesson into a chore, but choose carefully when you want to apply the strategies above. 

In the beginning, I did it every day, but after a few weeks, I applied these strategies about 3x a week so that it didn’t become boring. 

Remember, changing from repeating words or phrases over and over again because a child may be intensely focused on phonics or how-to ready instead of meaning takes time to slowly change.

Many children are afraid in the sense they think they are not pleasing you if they don’t read rapidly. 

Every bit of time I have put into helping Mr. Senior 2013 slow down and absorb what he was reading had paid off with tremendous benefits to him as a young adult now.

On many days, he reads more than I do and my heart leaps because of his fondness for reading knowing he has carried this into adulthood. 

There is nothing more satisfying to me as the teacher!!  Give one or two of these tips a try and you’ll see improvement.

What You’ve Got To Know About Teaching Reading Comprehension

Look at some of these other articles:

What You've Got to Know About Teaching Reading Comprehension

Free Copywork Cattle A Texas Poem For a Fun Unit Study

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Today, I want to share some free copywork Cattle a Texas poem about our home. And look at History of the Texas Cowboy, Cattle Drives, and Chisholm Trail for fun ideas.

Talking with Tiny about our pending move to South America, I decided to find a poem about Texas so he understands that we are not going to forget it. 

Free Copywork Cattle A Texas Poem For a Fun Unit Study

Excited as we are about the move, you can imagine the whole host of emotions the kids go through. 

Excited one day and then a bit of trepidation the next.  So I turned that into a mini lesson and copywork about our home.

Next, look at these fun books to add to your unit study.

BOOKS FOR TEXAS ABOUT KIDS

10 Resources for Learning About the Lone Star State & Texas Cattle Drives

Add a few of these resources to learn about the great state of Texas.

Also, look at this poem about Texas.

Free Copywork Cattle A Texas Poem

The Texas poem was written in 1932 by Berta Hart Nance called “Cattle”.  Here is the whole thing that has such beautiful imagery and language.

CATTLE

By Berta Hart Nance

Other states were carved or born

Texas grew from hide and horn.

Other states are long and wide,

Texas is a shaggy hide.

Dripping blood and crumpled hair

Some fat giant flung it there,

Laid the head where valleys drain

Stretched its rump along the plain.

Other soil is full of stone

Texans plow up cattle bones.

Herds are buried on the trail

Underneath the powdered shale,

Herds that stiffened like the snow

Where the icy northers go.

Other states have built their halls

Humming tunes along the walls,

Texans watched the mortar stirred

While they kept the lowing herd.

Stamped on Texan wall and roof

Gleams the sharp and crescent hoof,

High above the hum and stir

Jingle bridle-rein and spur.

Other states were made or born

…Texas grew from hide and horn.

Free Copywork Cattle A Texas Poem For a Fun Unit Study

To go along with this poem, I thought I would teach Tiny how to make a simple Texas chili and you know spend a bit more time together.

Tx Unit 1Tx Unit 2

Too, we have had some cold weather that is almost unheard of in May so that called for home made Texas chili.  Well, I should say part home made. 

Any good Texan would make their beans from scratch, but canned beans are fine after we had a long day selling furniture in our house.

Easy Texas Homemade Chili

Here are some things we put in our chili:

  • 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of sirloin meat.  We are meat eaters.  Love the stuff.  This is a twist on our chili because we don’t use ground beef when we make it.
  • 1 onion, 1 jalapeno if I have it, some bacon for flavoring which makes any chili come alive.
  • About 1 tablespoon of cumino, 2 or 3 chopped garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon of chili powder, salt and pepper to taste.
  • 4 or 5 cans of pinto beans, though we use home made when we have them.
  • 1 can or 2 cans of Rotel Tomatoes, a bit of beef broth or beef bouillon.
Tx Unit 3Tx Unit 4

Tiny and I share a love of cheese and a multiple assortment of delicious toppings over our chili when its cooked.

I like to add sour cream, tortilla strips,  avocado and the best recipe for home made salsa by Pioneer Woman.  I make that stuff by the bucket loads around here.

Free Copywork Cattle A Texas Poem For a Fun Unit Study

Trying to keep our school work light, this mix of homeschool lessons has been something I have not done before. 

I am finding it very gratifying to plan so spur of the moment and school on the wild and free side.  Sometimes you just a need a break from all the well laid out plans and sharing a bowl of hot Texas chili helps things too.

Free Copywork Cattle A Texas Poem For a Fun Unit Study

HOW TO GET THE FREE POEM COPYWORK

Now, how to grab the freebie. It’s a subscriber freebie.

That means when you sign up to follow me, you get my emails in your inbox and you get this freebie.

1) CLICK HERE ON THIS LINK TO SIGN UP ON MY EMAIL LIST & TO GET THIS FREEBIE.

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You’ll love these other resources too:

Cattle by Berta Hart Nance Collage

Cursive Copywork Free Greece Poetry Printable

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I have a fun freebie today. It is cursive copywork free Greece poetry printable. Also, look at my page Practical Homeschool Writing Curriculum from Pre-K To High School for more tips.

I have done many things wrong when I first started homeschooling, but I have done a lot right too.

I tell my workshop new bees that writing or penmanship has always been the hallmark of a well educated man.

Cursive Copywork Free Greece Poetry Printable

One right thing was choosing the beautiful Calvert cursive to teach all of my sons. I know that a lot of public schools and homeschoolers are moving away from teaching cursive, but I am not one of them.

Maybe that is not so true today but if you want to peek into the past, you have to know at least how to read cursive to understand historical documents. I think reading cursive and writing cursive go hand in hand.

Too though I feel the time comes when you need to teach your kids typing skills.

Boys especially benefit from knowing how to type because they seem to struggle with learning how to write more so than girls. 

Penmanship is a time consuming skill to teach.

Between the struggles of a child and the time needed to teach, a lot of educators give up on it. However, I feel in homeschooling we do have the time to teach those skills.

Choosing Calvert script at a time when I had not a clue of what I was doing ended up being one thing that helped me not to struggle so much in this area.

After having taught Mr. Senior 2013 how to write in cursive, I just taught the other boys after that. I did venture out into other writing programs but came back to Calvert.

I came back to Calvert School cursive because it is a simplified cursive.

By the way, Calvert script is specific only to Calvert. They no longer sell it as a separate program and I believe the leader in cursive simplified cursive has gone all digital. (awful)

It is unique and I wished more people knew what a beautiful font and cursive it is. Too, it is neither D’Nealian or Getty Dubay but again a type of cursive used only by them.  However, I still base my teaching of cursive on the Calvert script as the gold standard.

Cursive Copywork Free Greece Poetry Printable

It is simplified because it teaches manuscript uppercase letters and cursive lowercase letters. I like the fact that it is free of the superfluous loops found on the traditional Palmer method.

Too, it is just plain pretty and simple as you can see from the chart above.

By the time Mr. Senior 2013 was in second grade, I knew how to teach cursive as you can see from his writing above.

My middle son struggled more because I ventured off into other writing programs. {Mea Culpa} That was the dumb thing I did but again he is fine. Kids are pretty hardy and let you know real quick what is not working for them.

Because I still feel like the same way as I did when I first started homeschooling about the importance of cursive, ALL of us will do copywork sometimes.  Me included. I keep a notebook beside my bed for me.  I never tell very many people that I pen a line or two also. 

Oh, I don’t write cursive as much as I use to. I use to write all their copywork out because the cursive font is not one you can find on computers or among fonts to purchase, but not so much anymore.

Copywork doesn’t take a long time and it’s a way of storing exquisite words in your mind and heart.

The benefits of copywork go beyond learning how to write. It gives you an overflowing amount of words and thoughts too. Especially when I do copywork from beautiful literature, I find it very satisfying and it leaves a lasting impression. Just a little each day is restoring.

MORE CURSIVE HANDWRITING TIPS

So when doing our unit study on Ancient Civilizations, I had prepare some copywork for Tiny.

I have hunted for a font that was similar to Calvert and came pretty close with the one I used in this copywork below. All of my sons know the Calvert cursive font but I still like to get pretty close.

The font is a little more slanted than I like but again close enough. The poem is Greece by Robert Frost. It is one of his more obscure and early poems. 

I like it because it’s by Robert Frost, one of my favorite poets. But also it gives a glimpse into his early writing and it shows his interest in history and idealization of heroic figures.

I thought this would go along with our Ancient Civilization unit so we are trying to commit this to our memory. Here are the beautiful words. Download your copy at the bottom.

ANCIENT GREECE POETRY FOR COPYWORK

They say, “Let there be no more way!”

And straightway, at the word,

Along the Mediterranean shore,

The call to arms is heard.

Greece could not let her glory fade!

Although the peace be in sight

The race the Persians was arrayed

Must fight one more good fight.

Greece! Rise triumphant.   Long ago

It was you proved to men

A few may countless hosts o’ver throw:

Now prove it once again!

Cursive, copywork, studying the classics and the co-op have all been on our mind lately.

What about you? Have you figured out the penmanship quandary yet?

HOW TO GRAB THE FREE GREECE POETRY COPYWORK PRINTABLE

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