It Starts with the Alphabet

Welcome to the Virtual Curriculum Fair!

This week’s topic is Playing with Words.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I only link to products that I have tried and found to be of high quality. Every child is different, and some of the resources that I have loved using with one child have not worked well for others.

What a massive topic this is. As I have thought about it, words are probably the single-most important foundation of learning.

A preschool child first begins to recognize letters,

which they learn have associated sounds,

which are joined to make words.

AndrewLetter-2

Those words are joined together to make sentences. Sentences form paragraphs and so on to stories and books.

So we spend much time learning to decode with phonics. At the same time we learn to build words with our spelling lessons.

We practice reading aloud. We read silently. I read books out loud. We answer questions and draw pictures about what we read.

We add simple grammar early on.

And Latin.

I teach writing very gently at first using copywork and dictation with some narration thrown in.

We participate in a book club which gives the children a chance to write about what they read and present it to others.

As the children grow, we add in more formal grammar, formal writing, Latin, and more Latin.

They read more literature and think about (and sometimes talk and write about) the messages conveyed.

And when they graduate, hopefully our children can read, think about what they read, draw conclusions, make arguments, and present those arguments in a well-structured, grammatically correct, properly spelled and punctuated paper which can be presented in front of others confidently, with good eye contact and voice inflection.

I don’t expect much, do I?

Here is last year’s post on Loving Language Arts. It gives a more detailed history of what resources we have used and for which of our children.

Here are links to all the posts for this week’s session of the Virtual Curriculum Fair.

3 Reasons to Read to Your Teens by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds

Language Arts {Virtual Curriculum Fair} by Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses

A Classical Take on 6th Grade Language Arts by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool

The Power in a Word by Michele@ Family, Faith and Fridays

The Latin Road to English Grammar Volume 1 by Kristi K. @ The Potter’s Hand Academy

Starting a Foreign Language in Elementary School by Amy @ Eclectic Homeschooling

These are the words we say by Christa @ Fairfield Corner Academy

A Peek into our Homeschool: Language Arts by Brittney @ Mom’s Heart

Our Curriculum Choices 2014 ~ English by Renata~Sunnyside Farm Fun