I've already discussed reading here so I won't re-cover that area.
I honestly don't recall what we did during the first few years in regards to language arts. It seems strange to have completely forgotten those first few years and any records I had were lost in a flood about 8 years ago. I don't recall studying grammar or spelling using any type of program. I know we read, used a handwriting program and narrated.
When the kids were about 8 or so we spent a few years using Learning Language Arts Through Literature. I actually liked these books and I can't say that I won't use them for a few years with the younger kids. We did not do everything in them because it would have become tedious. We used the examples as copywork and dictations and I used the exercises for ideas for teaching grammar....meaning we didn't do every exercise or fill in every blank. We continued to narrate and I encourage them to write their narrations during this time.
Around 11 or so I felt that I really needed to "buckle down" with the writing and we tried and discarded a plethora of writing programs. Out of desperation we enrolled in a creative writing class at a local homeschool store. This is the point that the kids decided they were bad writers. Although they made good grades their hearts were not in the process and they became increasingly discouraged.
The years that I encouraged and expected written narrations and used dictations from great works were the years they progressed the most as writers. Ironically the more that I focused on a CM styled writing program the more creative the kids were in their writing during their free time. When writing poems and stories became something to do for fun and not an assignment they felt free to explore and write. Writing has 2 components.....how to write and having something to write about. Written narration eliminates the need to be creative and think of something to write about and the kids could focus on the "how" to write it down. Then they could use their creative energy to write during their free time and not have to worry about it fitting a formula or meeting the objectives of an assignment.
At the highschool age we did follow my suggestions on my CM LA framework and they have also participated in some outside literature classes....primarily for the social aspect of the class.
I did not use a spelling program with either child .....except the spelling ideas from LLATL. My oldest child is very natural speller and required little to no spelling instruction. My oldest daughter is not a natural speller and we attempted several popular spelling programs without any noticeable improvement in her spelling. Sequential Spelling was the program that had the biggest impact in her spelling and will be my first choice if spelling help is needed with the younger kids.
Grammar- we used the ideas from LLATL when we used that resource. When we were trying and discarding writing programs we were also trying and discarding grammar resources. I have found that studying grammar in a low key way in the context of good examples that are being used for copywork and dictation is the absolute best way to study grammar. If I find I cannot do this effectively without direction I will use LLATL as a resource followed by Simply Grammar.
At the highschool level we did work through Jenson's Grammar. The oldest son finished JG in about a year and my oldest dd in about 2 years. I had planned to work through Jenson's Punctuation but it was clear that it was going to be busy work for my son so we skipped it. I will decide if my dd would benefit from this resource in the next few months.
I expect that I will be reviewing this post often as the younger kids get older to remind myself of why I created My CM Language Arts Framework.
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