A Few Changes to Language Arts Curriculum for 10th grade and 6th Grade

While at a birthday party, for a homeschool friend, yesterday the mom and I got discussing homeschool curriculum, of course.  She buys from the Critical Thinking Company, for Language Arts, and has been very pleased with the results.  Since Language Arts is on of the more boring class to teach, I am always looking for something more interesting.  So, I went to their website last night, and decided to save a few of their products, to purchase when I am ready.  Oh, by the way, I am considering getting the Algebra 1 book from The Critical Thinking Co, as well.  I was checking it out, and it looks amazing, especially for the way they want the kids to learn the Math now.

http://www.criticalthinking.com/word-roots-level-1.html
http://www.criticalthinking.com/critical-thinking-book-one.html

For Writing, I have saved:
http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/sku/047638

Those are all for my High School child, though word roots I may use with my 6th grader as well.  The earlier I start, the better.

For my 6th grader, my friend is letting us try a curriculum her girls did not care for, but that I think mine will love.  It is from Micheal Clay Thompson, and we are starting right off with level one.  If she likes it, I most definitely use it again.  Language Arts is her biggest complaint, and hardest subject to teach her.  I am hoping this will be a good fit for her.

http://www.rfwp.com/pages/michael-clay-thompson/

Tomorrow we are off to a fun day at the water park.  I feel like we have not accomplished a ton the last week.  We were at the springs twice, and now the water park.  However, this time of year with lots of birthdays, and end of year fun stuff it is hard to say no.   We aren't behind, I just like to drive myself crazy, lol. 

Colonial Life, Christopher Columbus

Tomorrow is Social Studies, here at Melissas Homeschool, and because Monday is Columbus Day, we are including an extra worksheet for that. It is a short reading comprehension, with questions, and you can find it here. We are also starting a whole series on Pilgrims, and colonial life, and how it differed from today. Below is a short video from the Sandy Spring Museum, where kids can learn about colonial life. DJ will be doing a writing assignment soon, on the differences between then, and now. You could also have your kids do drawings comparing clothes, food, transportation, and housing.

Lesson Plans For 10/07/09:

Caitlin:
Math: Numbers
Matching: Worksheet
Alphabet Book: Letter Q
Reading: HOP Pig Wig Can Hit, Caitlin will be completing it this week, she was stuck on one word
Site Words
Printing Practice
Social Studies: Colonial life, New Years

DJ:
Handwriting Practice
Social Studies: Colonial life, New Years, Columbus
Spelling/Vocab: Use each word in a sentence
Math: Division, place value, rounding numbers, adding
Language Arts: Prefixes, homophones, commas
Reading Comprehension: Worksheet

Sylvan Workbooks And A Contest

I was recently asked to review the new line of Sylvan workbooks. This is a new line or workbooks, that you can purchase for at home education, or for extra work for public school children. Sylvan is well known for their tutoring, now you can get tutoring in a workbook.

I was supplied with 3 workbooks, all for the 4th Grade. These workbooks will be given as a contest prize, to start in teh middle of February. See the post at the top of this blog, for details.

The first book is Spelling Success. I really like this workbook, as it is complete with fun activities to help learn spelling. Each chapter has keywords, and then various activities to help learn those keywords. Each chapter focuses on a topic such as, prefixes, suffixes, root words, and homophones. There are also review chapters, for a total of 17 chapters, in the workbook.

The second book is Reading Comprehension. I love this book. Of the three books, this one is my favorite. It has all kinds of great ideas for learning, and evaluating your child's Reading Comprehension. The activities are thoughtful, and extensive. There are a total of 10 Chapters, with 4 to 5 activities per chapter.

The third book is Vocabulary. Like the spelling book it centers around keywords, with various activities to learn, and use the keywords. There are reviews, and 14 chapters. Each chapter has its own set of activities with topics like prefixes, suffixes, root words, and homophones. The only thing I did not care for with this book, were the chapters on foreign languages. There are two, and you have to find the meanings of the words, as I doubt most kids will know that many foreign language words. These two chapters, were the only two inconveniences I could find in any of the books. It is not like they are that big of a deal either. You could easily find them online, and incorporate them into the chapter.

While browsing at the Sylvan website I noticed that these great books start at 12.99, a great value, in my opinion. I also noticed that they have a 5th grade writing book, which I will definitely be in need of, in the very near future.

If you are starting to plan your curriculum for next school year, you might want to check out these great workbooks.