Language Arts

I've placed an order for the Community and Culture concepts from the 6-8 level of Moving Beyond the Page (MBtP), and while we wait for it to arrive, we're going to get started on the other basics of our language arts curriculum. I've decided to push the entire 7-9 MBtP curriculum onto next year (third grade) and use the 6-8 concepts to concentrate on language arts for this year (second grade). This will give us one additional year to use the full MBtP curriculum - I noticed today that the 11-13 curriculum just came out on the website, so we're good until grade seven now!

When I was educated at public school in Ontario, high school included grades nine through thirteen and many of us were already eighteen years old before we left for university. Still, I remember several students, mostly boys, who left school that first year, primarily because they weren't mature enough to be on their own at that age. CKW is very able and responsible for his age, probably because of my chronic health issues, but I will encourage him to take a 'Victory Lap' (fifth year) in high school, whether he is at home or public school at the time. I'm in no hurry to have my son graduate from high school and leave home, nor do I want to pay tuition for a year of mispent youth - that's what high school is for!

Although CKW is a very good reader, I want to go over all the basics with him this year, as he is quite a reluctant writer. More scientific then fanciful, he writes much like I do - preferring lists, point form and 'get to the point' writing over paragraphs full of descriptive sentences. Hopefully Harry Potter and our other literature selections will help him to see the value in learning to write properly. With that in mind, spelling, phonics, grammar and the mechanics of writing are things we will be working on daily this year. I have purchased several workbook style programs for him to do, along with the two 6-8 concepts mentioned from MBtP. We'll get started tomorrow with: MCP Phonics Level C, Spelling Workout B, Easy Grammar Daily Guided Teaching & Review for Grade 2, and WriteShop Primary Book C.