I was not always the easy-going homeschool type (easy-going still might be a bit of a stretch!). We used to enjoy full curriculums. They are preplanned subject by subject and divided into grade level. I felt safe knowing my kids were learning everything they should for their age. I had trouble imagining school as being different than the public school 8-3 schedule. This resulted in quite a bit of book work.
We have successfully broken away from this in several subjects. Our latest triumph being an easy homeschool language arts curriculum.
Let me tell you why!
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Why I Was Looking for an Easy Homeschool Language Arts Curriculum
The market is flooded with homeschool curriculum! This is awesome because we can choose what works best for various learning styles and homelife routines. However, as a new homeschooler, I would be completely overwhelmed and intimidated.
Full curriculums are safe. They give a peace of mind that my child is learning everything they need and are organized and ready to go. I have found them to be too long for our schedule. Plus, they are not flexible enough for us to explore interests because we are then worried about finishing our work by the end of the year.
All in One Language Arts Curriculum
As I said above, all in one language arts curriculums are wonderful because they usually include grammar, writing, and spelling. They also require little prep for busy moms. We’ve been using Christian Light Education which is wonderful! They include everything from parts of speech to writing reports to spelling activities. If you are looking for an all in one language arts curriculum, I highly recommend Christian Light Education.
BUT it did not work for us!
My 11 year old and I had reached the point that we dreaded our Language Arts curriculum. It was time consuming, boring, and far too inclusive for our routine. I needed an easy homeschool language arts curriculum which focused on grammar.
First, I found spelling and writing curriculums on TPT which were simple and fun. Not only are they flexible and easy to incorporate into our school day, but they are also inexpensive. I love that they can be used repeatedly without additional cost.
It has been my experience that many curriculums are better for some subjects than others. It just appears to be this way. We use one curriculum for math, another for science, and a different one for History. How wonderful is it to have the ability to pick and choose?!
Enter Easy Grammar
We needed something that taught the mechanics of English, punctuation, parts of speech, and capitalization.
I chose Easy Grammar and it was a perfect fit for us! Easy Grammar breaks our language down into very simple steps beginning with prepositions. Once the prepositional phrases are out of the way, it is easier to identify the subject, verb, adjectives, and adverbs, etc.
Language Arts Curriculum for 6th Grade
We used Easy Grammar as our Language Arts curriculum for 6th grade and it was a great experience. I wish I had discovered it sooner. It has levels for first grade through high school.
Verb forms, with extra practice with irregular verbs, suddenly became understandable to my son. His struggle from the past 2 years was over! He told me twice that he “gets it!” now!
Easy Grammar takes us about 10 minutes a day. The steps are simple and understandable. They build on each other easily without being overwhelming. Easy Grammar introduces a new concept every few days which has been a good pace for my 11 year old.
Easy Grammar comes with a large book which includes both the answers and reproducible worksheets. You can also order just the workbook which makes a lot more sense to me. Copying pages every week, especially because it is a large book, would be inconvenient. Daily Grams is an additional workbook for extra review.
I will say, however, that it is BORING. Let’s face it, predicate nominatives are simply not as exciting as exploding Coke with mentos! It’s only a few minutes a day and those few minutes have been so effective that I am confident it is all we need.
Other Grammar Ideas to Explore
I searched for quite a while for an easy homeschool language arts curriculum that would meet our needs before deciding on Easy Grammar. I know that there are several other similar courses. Here are a few more ideas that might interest you.
Peanuntbutterfishlessons talks about grammar notebooking. What an awesome idea! http://www.inallyoudo.net/fall-back-into-homeschooling-with-grammar-notebooking/
Planning for Abundance writes about a grammar titled “Painless Grammar” https://www.planningforabundance.net/homeschooling/2019/2/3/grammar-without-band-aids-or-kleenex
Ta’Neisha Kemp writes a review on a free online grammar course here. https://taneishakemp.com/2018/09/05/review-gramnar-planet/?fbclid=IwAR0trOdbhOaqHyszq93TuQoBkseSYOlYMgmY89AJQNd6-uTzXUkUBCLDXQg
Lapbooks like this one from realworldlearners https://realworldlearners.com/parts-of-speech-for-kids/?fbclid=IwAR0GpRfK_sty1aWpbeHxy-oEMsqPN_GMugSQeqYVLffB6G7rzNmaSkQZXnI
I know this is an old post…What do you think about Christian Light Language arts for first grade? Then moving to Easy Grammar? Is Christian Light short or long lessons? My daughter has a short ADD attention span.
I have used the pick & choose method since about my 3rd year homeschooling when we just found Abeka, which we started with, just too repeative. Also, they begin history with the George Washington & the cherry tree story as though it is fact! ARG!!! I am a history buff so that is a major no no in my book. Lol
Haha! Yes, they do! It is wonderful we have so many quality curriculums to choose from 🙂