Catching Up in Language Arts, Part 1: FLL3 and WWE2

The goals:

1. Finish First Language Lessons level 3 and 4 in one year's time and be prepared to move on to 5th grade grammar at the beginning of the next school year. 
2. Finish Writing With Ease level 2 by the middle of the school year and move on to a new curriculum, probably Brave Writer. 

The students: Builder Boy (not quite 9 years old) and Early Bird (6 1/2)

The purpose of this post: to show you how we are doing it if you ever find you want to do something similar, and a reminder that curricula is not the boss of you.

Supplementing FLL2: Lessons 1-10

 
Once again I am supplementing First Language Lessons to make it more kinetic learner friendly. Not every child will need stuff added to this book; it is considered a complete program by itself. But to help things "click" my hands on learner needs things he can move or see, rather than just hearing what I say and talking to me about it. I know from reading on the Well Trained Mind Forum that I'm not the only one with a kid like that trying to use this curriculum, so instead of letting them give up or have to think up stuff themselves, I posted what we added every ten lessons for FLL1, and I'm doing it again for First Language Lessons Level 2.

Supplementing FLL1, Lessons 91-100

A continuation of how we're adding to First Language Lessons Level 1 to make it more kinetic learner friendly. (Click here for my posts on previous lessons.)

Right before we started this last section of FLL1 we happened to read the book Exclamation Mark by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. This is an excellent book. On the surface, it gives kids a better understanding of the expression behind various punctuation marks. On a deeper level it addresses trying to fit in when you're clearly different and embracing your inner awesome. Having read this book the boys had an easier time understanding and applying the four different types of sentences. I highly recommend it. We found it at our public library, but I intend to purchase it.

(Lesson 92) Definition of a sentence. Hand gestures are a mixture of actual signs and our own gestures.

A sentence is a group of words      (with "w" hands, tap together near your chest, then make a circle or group with them, tapping your "w" hands together in front of you.)

that expresses      (open hands palm up touching your torso, then pushed out away from yourself)

a complete thought.      (tap temple with one finger.)

Builder Boy and Early Bird loved practicing the different types of sentences and played the wonderful new game "Command" daily for over a week. I let them jump up and down or wiggle or dance when they were exclaiming (just like the exclamation mark in the book) and we tilted our heads when questioning. Even though it only took two weeks to get through the last part of the book, the four types of sentences, thanks to the book and the movements, are well cemented in their memory.


And.....we're finished! We started FLL1......wow, almost two years ago. If you don't have a horrible pregnancy, and aren't complete slackers, it should not take you this long. Unless you want it to, which is totally fine.  It goes by level, not grade. We enjoyed it, my kids learned a lot, and they don't hate grammar. That's a curricula win if ever there was one! I thought about starting FLL2 this summer, but since we're doing Architecture School, I've decided we'll wait until fall. I have an idea for when we reach adjectives and adverbs, so I will probably continue supplementing FLL2 with more kinetic activities.  I hope this has/will be a help to the parents out there who really like First Language Lessons but need a little extra for their kids who learn a little differently than just what the book has. ___________________________________________________________
The lessons and the definition we got from FLL1. The original link is an affiliate link for buying it straight from the author, the picture is a link to the Amazon listing. Thank you for supporting our homeschool and my curricula habit by clicking on affiliate links.

 

Writing With Ease 1

We are now over a third of the way through Writing With Ease 1 so I thought it was time to blog about it.

Writing With Ease is an elementary writing curriculum by one of my favorite curricula companies, Peace Hill Press (printing company of Susan Wise Bauer: co-author of The Well Trained Mind, and a leader in the homeschooling world.) I purchased both the 4 year guide and the Level 1 workbook, though most people can use just one without the other. The 4 year guide is better for if you want to use your own literary sources, the workbooks are if you want it all laid out for you; which I prefer.

I have noticed several of the same questions being asked  about this curriculum on the Well Trained Mind Forum, so I thought I would answer the ones I am able to. (Please note, my experience is only with the WWE1 and FLL1, and not with any of the higher level volumes.)

Do I have to start Writing With Ease: Workbook 1 in 1st grade?

My answer: no. The books are labeled by level, not grade, for this very reason. We actually did not begin WWE1 until halfway into our 2nd grade year (for Builder Boy.) Here is why:

Handwriting, despite progress, is still a weak area for Builder Boy, and I did not want to overwhelm him. If he's struggling to form the letters, he's going to miss the forest for the trees, know what I mean?

Also, I was uncomfortable having Builder Boy writing words that he could not yet read. I did not want him just memorizing words, and it did not make sense to me to have him writing something he could not read. We we started WWE1 his reading level was around 3rd-4th grade.

 

Do you really need to do both Writing With Ease and First Language Lessons?

My answer: yes. There is some overlap. If you are doing both, unless your child is a strong writer, the copywork in FLL1 can be skipped. WWE1 does cover the same grammar that is in FLL1, but at a more accelerated pace, and with less instruction, practice, and review. I actually think you should not begin WWE1 until your child is at least halfway though FLL1.

 

Do First Language Lessons and Writing With Ease lessons match up? Do they have to be taught at the same time?

My answer: no. I recommend beginning WWE1 after you have finished at least lesson 50 of FLL1. When you get to WWE1 there will be some minimal review, but it's good practice and application. 

 But if you don't start them at the same time, won't that mess up your schedule?

My answer: if you're flexible, no. One way to do this is to start with the first half or so of FLL1 only your first year. It is gentle enough that if you skip copywork and do it completely verbal, and with some extra kinetic activities added, that it can be done with kindergartener or 1st grader. Then the next year you can finish FLL1 and continue with FLL2, while beginning WWE1.

If you're the type that just HAS to finish a book a year, and doesn't want to finish one early in the year and continue on without finishing a second, then my advice would be to stretch FLL1 over the kindergarten and 1st grade years and then start FLL2 with WWE1 for 2nd grade.

 

Does it matter if I do the lessons within the week out of order?

My answer: not at first. WWE1 is broken up into 36 weeks, with 4 days of lessons for each week.

1. Day 1 is copy work
2. Day 2 is a narration exercise
3. Day 3 is another copywork
4. Day 4 (for the first three weeks) is another narration exercise. 

Day 1's copy work is connected to Day 2's narration story, and Day 3's copywork is connected to Day 4's narration, all coming from the same literary source.
It was weird to me that the kids do a copywork not knowing the context, so at first I flipped it and did

1. Day 2 Narration
2. Day 1 Copywork
3. Day 4 Narration
4. Day 3 Copywork

At week 4, Day 4's lesson is both narration and copy work. They same flipped schedule can still work. An alternate schedule that we have used successfully is:

1. Day 2 Narration + Day 1 Copywork
2. Day 3 Copywork
3. Day 4 Narration + first part of copywork (my boys tend to have longer narrations than they are comfortable writing in one sitting.)
4. Finish Day 4's copywork. OR nothing if it got finished in the first attempt.

Now that we've gotten comfortable with the program, I think I will try the original schedule and see how it goes.

What if you have an early learner who isn't up to a lot of writing, but loves making stories and would benefit from this curriculum?

My answer: the same way I include Early Bird in most of Builder Boy's subjects. I outlined my philosophy for adapting curriculum for young, early readers on Dusty's blog here. How I include 5 year old Early Bird with 7 year old Builder Boy is this: they both listen to the story and take turns answering questions. They both give a narration sentence.  All done orally, no problem.

For Day 1 & 3 copywork Early Bird chooses which ever word from the story he wants. I put it on K paper with crayon and allow him to write (or not) as he chooses. Sometimes he does, sometimes he asks me to write part of the word, sometimes he just doesn't. All of that is acceptable. For the Day 4, I have him draw a picture illustrating his narration sentence.



Here's a look at what we did for Week 12 (which actually covered two different poems/songs.)

Narrations dictated to me.

Builder Boy, "Day 1" Copywork

Builder Boy, "Day 3" Copywork

Builder Boy, Day 4 Copywork of his own narration sentence.

Early Bird's copywork, self chosen words

Early Bird's illustration of his narration sentence. (He requested that I label it.)

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The original link is to the author's business page where you can purchase Writing With Ease not only in workbook form, but also in PDF if you prefer to use their illustrated writing pages instead of writing paper, but don't want to scan and print that many pages. The picture is a link to the Amazon.com listing for the workbook, which is often (but not always) less money to purchase. Both are affiliate links.

Supplementing FLL1, Lessons 81-90

A continuation of how we're adding to First Language Lessons Level 1 to make it more kinetic learner friendly. (Click here for my posts on previous lessons.)

(Lesson 82) Mr. Nobody Poem

Thanks to the few hand signs we worked out for this poem, the boys memorized it in record time! They even performed it together as part of our local library homeschooler book club Poetry Month get together. I made a video of Builder Boy saying and signing it. (Only a few of the signs are official signs.)

Mr. Nobody, by Anonymous
   

I know a funny little man,      ("y" hand tickling nose)

    As quiet as a mouse,      (pretend you're nibbling cheese and talk quieter)

Who does the mischief that is done

    In everybody’s house!      (use hands to show the slant of the roof, then the walls of a house)

There’s no one ever sees his face,      (shake head, stroke face)

    And yet we all agree      (nod head)

That every plate we break was cracked     (make a circle shape with your hands, break it apart)

    By Mr. Nobody.      (use thumb to point to someone behind you)

’Tis he who always tears out books,      (make a book with your hands, pull one hand away)

    Who leaves the door ajar,     (sign door as shown in video)

He pulls the buttons from our shirts,     (pretend to pull button off your shirt)

    And scatters pins afar;      (pretend to scatter)

That squeaking door will always squeak,     (sign door again)

    For prithee, don’t you see,

We leave the oiling to be done    (twisting motion with fist)

    By Mr. Nobody.      (use thumb to point to someone behind you)

The finger marks upon the door   (pretend to make finger marks)

    By none of us are made;     (shake head)

We never leave the blinds unclosed,

    To let the curtains fade.

The ink we never spill;   the boots   (make fist, turn to the side, sign shoes by knocking fists together)

    That lying round you see

Are not our boots,—they all belong

    To Mr. Nobody.      (use thumb to point to someone behind you)

That's pretty much all we added to this group of lessons. Coming up near the end of the book, and there is quite a bit of review. There is also some writing work that we've been skipping because that's still not a strong area for Builder Boy and we feel we are getting enough copywork with Writing With Ease. Once we start FLL2 we will start doing some of the extra copywork then. But for now, having a nice easy subject that doesn't take to long and can be done mostly verbally to start off our school day is a perfect fit for us.

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The lessons and the poem we got from FLL1. The original link is an affiliate link for buying it straight from the author, the picture is a link to the Amazon listing. I came up with the extra signs on my own. 

 

Supplementing FLL1, Lessons 71-80

A continuation of how we're adding to First Language Lessons Level 1 to make it more kinetic learner friendly. (Click here for my posts on previous lessons.)

I actually did not add anything to any of these lessons. There was nothing specifically new that needed it. We've been breezing along with this, avoiding the copy work optional activities because we are also doing Writing With Ease 1 now. Lately FLL1 seems to be going quite smoothly for both boys.

Nothing else to report for this block of 10 lessons!

Supplementing FLL1, Lessons 61-70

A continuation of how we're adding to First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind: Level 1 to make it more kinetic learner friendly. (Click here for my posts on previous lessons.)

(Lesson 61) Identifying pronouns in a story

This activity was more difficult and frustrating than I thought it would be. The idea was simple: go back to a previous lesson's story and identify the pronouns, one sentence at a time. The execution was much more difficult. They identified pronouns okay; just not the ones in the sentence we were on. They'd find the pronouns in the sentence or paragraph ahead or behind, but just could not focus on the one sentence we were supposed to be on.

My solution was to cover all the other words near that sentence with sticky notes. And if I could not miss any. This was only marginally successful. It took so much time to re-position the sticky notes that they would lose focus. And it took too long. We tried to get through the story through three days, after which I just gave up and moved on.








  










(Lesson 64, 67, 69-70) Seasons

Instead of doing a collage for the various seasons, I just let the kids color pictures for them.

(clockwise) snowmen drinking hot cocoa, flowers, happy sun, smiling leaves blowing in the wind

This group of lessons didn't actually require much of anything extra. The boys already know the months of the year and the seasons, and there was no new definition or poem to memorize.

Idea Noun Review

When reviewing idea nouns, Builder Boy starting trying to remember the Fruits of the Spirit. They've been teaching about them in Sunday school, and he suggested working on them at home as well. At first we just had them drawn on the white board. But eventually we made a paper version to keep on our refrigerator.

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The lessons and the poem we got from FLL1. The original link is to the author's printing press website, the picture is a link to the Amazon listing. I came up with the extra activities on my own.

Supplementing FLL1, Lessons 51-60

A continuation of how we're adding to First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind: Level 1 to make it more kinetic learner friendly. (Click here for my posts on previous lessons.)

(Lesson 51) Bundle of Sticks

Lesson 51 has students listening to a story that tries to encourage family unity using the analogy of breaking sticks. So after we read the story and did the narration we did the obvious thing, we went out side to test if a bundle of sticks really is harder to break than a single stick.

(Lesson 52) Verbs!

Now that we're working with verbs, there is a LOT of moving and kinetic things to do. We used signs to help us remember the long definition of a noun. Once we figured out what we wanted the signs to be, the boys memorized the definition long before the book expects it of them.

"A verb is a word that does an action (walk in place)
 
shows a state of being (bring your hand down your torso, showing your self)



 

















links two words together (link your index fingers together/sign for "friend")

or helps another verb." (make a fist with one hand and lift it up with the other/sign for "help")

(Lesson 54) In Case of Emergency....

One of the things I love about First Language Lessons is that the kids end up learning a lot more than what you would think of when you think of "grammar." One of the things FLL1 works on with young students is memorizing their address and phone number. During these lessons we had a carbon monoxide scare (post to come) and we needed to call 911. That day after it was over I talked to the boys about calling 911, under what conditions they would be the one who would need to call, and what questions they would need to answer. We practiced them calling and having to give their address and phone number. I also made a paper and put on the fridge with 911 at the top and our address and phone number on it. Because if they are actually having to call, I don't want them to be stressed about having to remember; they can just read it off the paper.

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The lessons and the poem we got from FLL1. The original link is to the author's printing press website, the picture is a link to the Amazon listing. I came up with the extra activities on my own.

Supplementing FLL1, Lessons 40-50

A continuation of what we're adding to lessons from First Language Lessons For the Well Trained Mind: Level 1 to make them more kinetic learner friendly. (Click here for my posts on previous lessons.)

(Lesson 40) Signing the Months of the Year

One of the ways I've been adding a kinetic learning approach to FLL is to use signs, especially with things Builder Boy is supposed to be memorizing. By the time we got to this lesson, Builder Boy already knew all the months of the year, so there was no issue here. But I wanted to link the signs for the months of the year here for kids who do not and would be helped by it. The links are from our favorite online signing dictionary, Signing Savvy.

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

(Lesson 43) "The Months" poem

I actually have no help for this one. For previous poems I had hand signs for words to help Builder Boy memorize, but we did not do that with this one. Because of what was going on at the time, I did not require memorization of this poem. But I do love the Knuckle Trick for remembering how many days a month has.

(Lesson 45) Noun Review

For review we used the index cards I made in the beginning lessons and I made a few more to mix it up.

(Lesson 46) Pronouns Hand Signs

I have no idea if my signs are the official ones or not; some are, some probably are not. Either way, they worked really well for us!

I, me, my, mine (point with one finger touching my chest, repeat, hand comes to my chest, repeat)

 








you, your, your (point at person speaking to, move palm facing hand toward person, repeat)

 








he, she, him, her, it, his, hers, its (pointing away towards an imaginary person for first five, "push" towards the imaginary person for last three)

 








we, us, our, ours (make a circle with one finger for first two, make a circle with open hand for last two)

 








they, them, their, theirs (make a circle indicating a group away from you with one finger for the first two, with your whole hand for the last two)



Pronoun Replacing Game

It's one thing to memorize "a pronoun is a word used in the place of a noun." It's another thing to physically replace the noun with a pronoun in a sentence! So that's what we did to help Builder Boy and Early Bird have a better understanding of what a pronoun is. I wrote out the sentences and used sticky note for the noun/pronoun swap.

Noun....

....Pronoun!

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The lessons and the poem we got from FLL1. The original link is to the author's printing press website, the picture is a link to the Amazon listing. I came up with the extra activities on my own.

Supplementing FLL1, Lessons 31-40

A continuation of what we're adding to lessons from First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind: Level 1. (Click here for my post about the previous ten lessons.)

Common noun or proper noun review
   Just like the cards I made for the first 10 lessons, I made more index cards with common nouns and proper nouns to sort. This time I used places, geographic features, animals and pets, and things.

Calendar Printables (Lesson 34)
   We use the printable calendars available at Education.com. The days are blank so you can use them for any year.

Days of the Week Poem (Lesson 35)
  To help Builder Boy remember the peoms we use signs along with saying them. This time we learned the official signs for the days of the week. Each day (except for Sunday) is the letter of the name of the day, waved in a circle. The blue-green links are to the video demonstrating them on the free site SigningSavvy.com. 

Days of the Week
Mother Goose rhyme, adapted by Sara Buffington

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace;

"M"

"T"

Wednesday's child is ever so sweet,

Thursday's child is tidy and neat;

"W"

"T-"

"-H"

Friday's child is prone to a giggle,
Saturday's child is easy to tickle;

"F"

"S"

But the child that is born on restful Sunday
Is happy and cheerful, and loves to play.

Sunday

The days of the week signs were easy to learn because we already knew the letter signs. We learned them from Signing Time's 5th dvd ABC Signs. (The link is to the company's website, the picture is a link to the Amazon.com listing.)

Days of the Week Cards (Lesson 38)
  I wrote the days of the week on index cards and Builder Boy puts them in order. The second part was his idea.
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The lessons and the poem we got from FLL1. The original link is to the author's printing press website, the picture is a link to the Amazon listing. I came up with the extra activities on my own. I don't get paid for my reviews.