Language Arts Lessons

Homeschooling takes a lot of planning, organization, and research to find great teaching products. Teaching four young children can have it's challenges, but being scheduled can really help.  I'd like to share how we organize our language arts day, and some of the great products we've found.   Here is our daily schedule:

Language Arts Daily Lessons Toddler-2nd Grade

Older kids

Journal writing/ Dictation 15 min.                    
Color a Letter Page 15 min.(younger kids)
Folder Work (workbook pages)  20 min.           
Looking at Books 20 min. (younger kids)
Language Arts Program (Phonics etc.) 20 min. 
Play blocks and puzzles 20 min. (younger kids)
Individual Reading Time 30 min.                      
Language Arts Program 20 min. (younger kids)
Practice writing 10  min. (younger kids)

http://www.lovetolearn.net/
We've been using this great website to get most of our Language Arts material. It's a business that is run by a woman who has been homeschooling her children for close to 25 years.  We also get a lot of things from amazon because they are usually less expensive than a lot of other sites out there.  Here are some of the great materials we are enjoying.

This is Happy Phonics, and it is a wonderful way to teach children how to read.  Games, little books, flash cards, and great ideas make up the program and it has helped both my girls with their phonics skills.  It's created by Diane Hopkins , the same homeschooling parent that runs the love to learn website.  She also sells a k-6 journal with paper for grade levels, a spelling program, and language arts helps in it.    We use it every day.

These are wonderful handwriting books.  I love seeing my children's handwriting skills rapidly grow with these books.  They are scripture based, so at the end of the week they trace a simple scripture.  They are really colorful and fun.  Kids love them.

 

Explode the code books are wonderful for teaching phonics.  They are workbooks that go through the different phonics rules and help teach spelling, and improve reading fluency.  Very helpful for solidifying phonics rules.

The spelling workout series is a great way for kids to get better at their spelling.  There is a spelling list for each week with different activities to solidify the spelling of the words.  Great resource for us.

Great for teaching all the grammar and punctuation a kid needs to learn according to grade level.

For Preschool we get a packet from Love to Learn.  It's exactly what we need.

I use some of the preschool curriculum for my toddler and a great book that has a lot of fun activities to help your child develop.  It starts from their first weeks of life and goes through 5 years old.  It gives age appropriate activities for every week.  It's a great book.  You can find it on amazon.