I am joining up with Susan from Homeschooling Hearts and Minds and about 30 of her friends for the 2012 Virtual Curriculum Fair. I loved this idea when I first read about it on Susan’s blog — an honest look at curriculum and what works and doesn’t in your homeschool. There will be a new topic each Monday in January. Today is Language Arts Day so be sure to click on over and fill your cup with some Language Arts inspiration on a cold winter’s day.

When you have a first grader, the main focus of the language arts program has to be reading instruction until that milestone is met. Our program is no exception.

In fact at the beginning of this school year I was pretty concerned about Olivia’s reading ability. While she seemed to be average for a student entering first grade, I was frustrated by the lack of progress — we just seemed stalled — and my own insecurities in teaching her to read. I was very excited when I heard that Bravewriter was coming out with a new reading program for this year and signed up for The Wand as soon as it was released. I love the Bravewriter philosophy of a relaxed approach to language arts focusing on kids writing about what they enjoy and delaying intensive grammar instruction until after third grade.

While there are many aspects of The Wand we like (and when I say we, I really mean me — my daughter is not keen on reading, writing, and spelling instruction at all), I have been a bit surprised at the nature of the curriculum. I was expecting something a bit more cuddle and inspiration from BW. That said, I am not unhappy with the program, but we have been modifying it a bit to meet our needs.

What we have liked:

  • The books. Olivia really loves the book choices and so do I. From Fox in Socksto Mr. Putter & Tabby Pour the Tea, so far there has not been a bad one in the bunch. She is eager to read them even though they have jumped quite steadily in difficulty throughout the program. We often begin a book doing shared reading, but by the end of each unit she is usually reading the entire book or the majority by herself.
  • The copywork discussion. Olivia has learned so much about usage just from our little conversations over the copywork. Why letters are capitalized, quotation punctuation, end punctuation. She has not done reams of worksheets, but is solidifying these rules just from our conversations and the copywork practice.
  • The rules. I have little experience with spelling or phonics rules. I am glad The Wand breaks them all down for me and gives a scripted method of teaching them.

What we have modified:

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  • The speed. This program is very meaty (in fact the website says it is advanced for 5-6yos) and has moved very quickly for my reader. We have slowed the pace to allow time for extra practice with the concepts to be sure she gets them and can retain them.
  • Variety of activities. There is a dearth of new and interesting ways to reinforce the material. I was hoping for some more kid-friendly approaches in this curriculum based on BW’s history of kid-friendly writing approaches. I would love more provided games and activities and ways to work with a student who is reluctant or bored with spelling rules.
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My semi-reluctant reader and very reluctant speller.

    Up until this point I have supplemented our language arts by adding in some games to reinforce the spelling rules. For example when we studied using C or K for the sound, I made a game using our Education Cubes. Each cube face had a word with the letter representing the sound omitted. She would roll the cube and then tell me if a C or K should be used based on the rule. I would write her answer on the small whiteboard and then she would read the answer. Another thing we have done is to use Read, Build and Write mats to allow the opportunity for Olivia to practice her weekly spelling words independently.

    This is one area I am excited for in the new year. Our Christmas present for our homeschool was a new iPad. As a result, I have lined up a number of apps that will aid us with our language arts program. We will be using Sound Literacyiconas a replacement for the sticky notes used in The Wand. Simplex Spelling Phonics 1iconand Phonics Geniusiconwill provide extra reinforcement of spelling and phonics rules and Word Wizardiconwill allow me to make practice spelling tests using our own words each week for extra independent practice. I can’t wait to try these out with my technology-loving girl and see if they breath a little life into her reading and spelling practice. I’ll keep you posted.

    Finally, I have a hunch that Olivia is a read-by-sight kind of girl. She does not like to sound out long words, but instead prefers I tell her what they are. After the first or second time, she has them. Unfortunately, like her mama, she does not seemed to be blessed as a natural speller. That is why I continue with the phonics instruction at this point. I can’t see beating a potentially dead horse forever, though. As her reading fluency increases I imagine we will employ a variety of non-phonics based methods to reinforce good spelling from proof reading exercises, spell-check practice, and keeping lists/memorizing commonly misspelled words in her writing.

    Check out what is happening with Language Arts for all the other participants:

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