I really appreciate how you clearly and thoroughly you go over whatever it is you're discussing in your videos. When you mentioned you are/were a teacher, it made sense although not all teachers are like that. Your soothing voice makes your videos perfect for me to multitask with, so thank you! 😀
Great explanation of Sonlight LA! As we have used the LA in the middle school-high school levels, I really like that they tend to be similar on the mechanics practice/writing assignments between the different levels. We don't use every creative writing assignment, because it gets to become a lot in the upper levels, but we like the options! My oldest is using level J LA and my middle guy is using G this year, and I like that I don't have to explain the mechanics multiple times. It's my third time through level 1 with my youngest this year, and we are enjoying it just as much as I did the first two times although we don't use the creative writing for the lower levels, only the copywork. I like that everything is there so I am able to pick and choose what my family and my individual students need each year. It makes life easier to have it all in front of me and use what I need, rather than trying to piece things together.
Hi Angie! It's like you read my mind. I've had multiple people ask me to do a Sonlight Flip-through and have it on my list of videos to do! Great video! You are so easy to listen to and made Sonlight easy to understand! Blessings!
Glad to hear you are feeling like the language arts does come together into a cohesive whole. I've looked a lot at Sonlight/Bookshark, and I love the idea of it. Love the concept of tying grammar and writing instruction into content with the history, but every time I really drill down into it - it just seems so random. Like it might be good practice after my kid already knows what a noun and adjective, etc are, but as far as an actual curriculum and instruction I'm not sure it's really there. And the phonics too... seems to jump from a preschool level letters and letter sounds to here are whole books to read without much in between. That's the way it seems to me anyway without having actually used it. I never thought too much about the writing prompts, but they seem good, and it seems like that's primarily what you've found useful too. Interesting video!!
This was so helpful! Thank you so much for sharing this the way you did. It helps me to better decide whether to start with K or 1 for my eldest daughter next fall. She has learned quite a lot at my mom’s pre-school, so it’s been hard knowing where to start her. Also, I have twin girls. They are 2 years old. I love hearing you share about your experience with twin pregnancy and postpartum. I can so relate! Ive been watching for a while now. This mama is very helped by your content 🙋🏾♀️😃.
It’s deffo true that little kids can write a story b4 they can write. We use real books a lot but my kids are older struggling readers. We do copywork like that but it’s not in their language arts curriculum but in a unit study that as language arts included in the unit study. We do our own spelling instead of using a spelling curriculum, I thought how I was taught would help my kids learn as well so I tried the approach I was taught in college and it helped my kids.
I love your curriculum vids! ❤️ We are using Abeka along with all about reading level 1 for kinder this fall (to teach her to read). But I am LOVING sonlight’s HBL and now maybe LA too. I haven’t seen a kinder curriculum that had a creative writing element. We would use it like you did for just that part. This was so so helpful.
Do you feel like a separate writing program is necessary to use along with level 2? I know you also used EIW and are now moving on from that... was that in conjunction with Sonlight LA or was this one of the programs you switched from? I'm leaning towards giving EIW a try for my rising 2nd and 4th graders but having a hard time deciding what programs to piece along with it to fully encompass everything they need. Your videos are so helpful to me, as I feel like I'm often looking for the same criteria as you! Although, I've watched so many of yours and a few others in the past few days that my head is spinning, lol
Hi, no I don't think you need a separate writing program if you are fully using Sonlight LA ... that is actually what I am planning o doing this upcoming year!
