I am always seeking out ways to help my kids with reading and writing without boring them to pieces. If you’re searching for a Language Arts Curriculum for your homeschool or your classroom, I found a gem!
Recently we quite out of nowhere began to homeschool our 8 year old son. There are many reasons why this change happened in our family, which I will describe in a future blog post.
For now, I have to describe this amazing language arts program for homeschool but also for any parent wanting to supplement at home.
Language Arts Curriculum for Homeschoolers
Honestly, we’ve always wanted to homeschool and hope that our other two children will follow in his steps. In fact, I have done my research and vetted materials and curriculum.
Related Post: Montessori Homeschool Curriculum
In my scramble (yes, scramble) to get a homeschool plan together, I jotted down the topics we needed and wanted to cover and pulled resources from my back pocket to meet the requirements.
My Favorite Language Arts Curriculum
One particular Language Arts resource I am thrilled about is called Brave Writer.
Why I Love the Brave Writer Language Program
Here are a few reasons why I am so impressed by the material:
- Virtual book clubs covering a wide range of abilities and development stages where kids go online to interact with each other and a teacher
- Poetry Teatime is a weekly event – in our case on Tuesdays – where we drink tea, read poetry out loud, and discuss the poetry. The discussion part might seem daunting but the discussion happens quite naturally. You’ll see.
- On Wednesday afternoons we have a movie discussion club. Similar to poetry tea time, you watch a movie from a selected list of high-quality movies and discuss online with a teacher and other children. The teachers direct the conversations and respond to the kids’ answers.
- We also do a lot of free form writing based on an image we capture in nature, a poem, and so on.
Related Read: Montessori Homeschool Curriculum for Preschoolers
Partnership is a big theme with Brave Writer. As the adult in your child’s homeschool, modeling and partnering with your child and his learning is key to success.
The Partnership Writing Program guides you to make this happen in your homeschool. There are 4 separate guides beginning at 5-years-old and ending at 18. We purchased the Partnership Writing Bundle, which includes Writer’s Jungle, Partnership Writing, and The Arrow.
The Writer’s Jungle introduces and teaches a process of writing for both you and the child beginning with reading great books and poetry, developing acumen with spelling, grammar, and punctuation, observing detail, discovering and massaging writing voices, and learning how to revise writing.
The second piece of the Writer’s Jungle is my favorite because it is full of fun with word games, journaling, and reading lists. This part supplements the foundation introduced in the first section.
I can’t possibly say it better than the creator of the program. Here are her words:
The missing ingredient in writing curricula isn’t how to structure a paragraph (information that can be readily found on the Internet). You don’t need more facts about topic sentences or how to use libraries. Grammar and spelling are not the key components in writing, either, much to the chagrin of some English teachers.
Writing is first and foremost about writers—people with ideas, thoughts, and insights they want to share. Readers are cultivated by risky writing—writing that hooks, fascinates, speaks, surprises, enlivens, and tells the truth. How do you help your kids reach inside and find those kinds of words? That’s what Brave Writer is all about and that’s what The Writer’s Jungle is designed to help you do.
The Arrow is also part of the bundle. Think of the arrow as a monthly injection into your homeschooling and learning at home.
It is a virtual book club (we’re reading this book this month) and each guide includes the following:
- Four copy work/dictation passages
- Grammar, spelling, punctuation, and literary device notes
- A writing activity
- Nine discussion questions
Poetry Resources for Your Homeschool
- Poetry to Learn by Heart
- Favorite Poems New & Old
- The Random House Book of Poetry
- A Light in the Attic
- Where the Sidewalk Ends
Homeschool Resources
- Homeschool Planning
- Montessori Homeschool Planning
- How to Homeschool without Training
- 7 Questions to Ask Before Homeschooling
- Music Curriculum for Homeschoolers
You might be interested in A Few Thoughts on Language Development