Thanks to Alice, I realised that I’d forgotten to include a few more English resources I use. :)
Grammarland – yet another piece of yesterday’s classics. We love things with a vintage flavour and we love them even more when they are free :P This is a fun and funny read… perfect for Charlotte Mason home-edders. There are exercises from the book that you can do and Jessica Cain of We Don’t Need No Education (oh that blog name brings back memories!) has made some very nice worksheets to save you the trouble. You can access her worksheets here. There are 17 in all.
Another resource I’ve used is First Language Lessons (Well Trained Mind). The lessons were short and easy to implement and even my younger one who wasn’t reading yet found the lessons fun. I have Writing With Ease also by the Well Trained Mind but I really did not like some of the content as it referred to magic, myths and other things that are unIslamic. So I made my own copywork book. (In shaa Allah, once I improve it, I’ll upload it.) We have also begun to do dictation more frequently and for this, I choose a short paragraphs from chapter books she likes. We read the paragraph together and analyze the punctuation and grammar. Then Mars is left to prepare on her own. She is dictated to the next day.
Mars has written a couple of short stories on her own and even one for Science where she imagines what life would be like as a creature living in the trees. She enjoys it but often worries that her works are not good enough. (*sigh*) I found The Creative Journal for Children by Lucia Capacchione at Borders when I was in Singapore and I think it will help her ease up a little and just enjoy the creative process. The activities are suitable for kids from preschool through junior high so in shaa Allah I will do them with her younger sister as well. What I like about the book is that it encourages kids not only to record their thoughts and dreams through writing but also through illustrations. No grading, no criticism… just self-exploration and expression.
I purchased English From The Roots Up by Joegil Lundquist a year ago! These are Latin and Greek root cards and I had big plans for the programme, but *ahem* have not started on it in earnest, I am ashamed to say. We have only been reading the cards for fun. Mars does enjoy learning languages and is keen to start on Roots, but I will have to wait till after the summer (her Math needs work!).
Like I mentioned earlier, we are also reading more poetry these days. I got Mars hooked when I read her Michael Rosen’s (don’t you love him?) Who’s Been At The Toothpaste?. We’ve got a few anthologies and have been working through them. Robert Frost and Robert Louis Stevenson are some of her favourites.
I think I’ve got enough to keep us busy for a while. I now need to curb my curriculum junkie impulses :P