This is SOOOOOO good!! Ive been looking to learning language arts through literature, but also not being settled or feeling content with it, I think ill piece together thanks to your video!!!! Thanks so much for putting this together!!
@@dreahart89 oh I’m so glad it was helpful! We used LLATL for a while. It really inspired me for this method. We have so much enjoyed the freedom of choosing the books and taking the lessons at our pace. I really hope it works out for you too!! ❤️
I feel like this is the direction we'll end up going in when I'm a little more experienced at homeschooling. If you could go back to your kids' pre-reading days, would you start out just making your own curriculum? Thanks for this video. Even if I'm not quite ready to do something like this myself yet, it's helpful to see a diy LA curriculum in action.
@@Mary.E.H hard to answer that question. I pretty much did a DIY reading with my first and it worked great but with one of my other kids we needed more support. And having a reading curriculum really helped us both. So it definitely depends on the kid. I will say that we have loved doing our own language arts once they are reading well and it’s allowed us so much freedom. I can even group kids together and make it a family subject and I love that! I’m glad the video was helpful. Thank you for the feedback!
@@simplylearningtogether651Thanks for your reply. That's really helpful! I think for now we'll loosely use a curriculum to support us, and otherwise focus on good literature
@@simplylearningtogether651 back again, now a little over a month into homeschool! We tried to stick with our LA and Reading curricula but both HATED it! (Despite the many many glowing reviews I've read for it.)😂 Back watching your video again for any tips I missed the first time. I like following a math curriculum, but for LA, I think I'm just a DIY-er at heart! 😂
@@Mary.E.H I’m the same! I recently started a DIY mix for my 5yo learning to read because she was eager to learn and moving so quickly. Crazy how each kid is different! I’m getting to know her learning style better now though and feel good about combining a few things together instead of using an all-in-one 😊 I do still have one kiddo though that I prefer all-in-one for! Lol thankful for the flexibility to choose.
I absolutely love the simplicity of your language arts curriculum. I REALLY need to simplify our homeschool and I've been watching a lot of videos on this. Tons of great ideas and inspiration. Sometimes I have to remind myself that less is more!! After watching this video and several others, I purchased the book Know and Tell. I'm anxiously awaiting its arrival. Thank you for sharing. Very helpful!
Oh I’m so glad you love the videos. Know and Tell has been one of my FAVORITE resources that I plan to refer to again and again. I hope you love it just as much!! ❤️
I absolutely love your videos!! They’re so helpful to me when creating my own diy language arts. I’ve mentioned this before in the comments on some of your videos, but I based it off what y’all are doing and my daughter and I absolutely love it. It’s changed things for us drastically. We’ve both learned and retained so much using this book study method. I only switched us to doing it this way two weeks ago, and I wish I would’ve done it sooner!! I just didn’t think I was capable until I saw all of your videos and realized I could do this. My daughter actually looks forward to copy work and dictation and without me ever saying anything she gives it her best effort all around. I’m talking the best handwriting and attention to detail with punctuation. It’s like she’s taken ownership of this and seriously loves it and says it’s fun doing it this way. Thank you so much for sharing all of the details!
This seriously makes my night! Thank you so much for sharing this with me. Your feedback is so appreciated. I am always hopeful that these videos may inspire other moms to do their own thing with great books because I know once we did in our own home it was so freeing and wonderful!! I’m just thrilled to hear it’s been a positive experience for you as well!! ❤️❤️❤️
I am so grateful for you sharing every week. It is keeping me encouraged and inspire. I have search for the right Language Arts curriculum for so long but nothing was a great fit. I love how your DIY plan allows me to have the almost perfect Language Arts curriculum. For 5th grade we used Sonlight LA which was okay until my daughter would read two books in a week. So the copywork and lessons would line up with what she was reading. But your way allows me to adjust to her reading speed. I am using Evan Moor Grammar workbook because Abeka’s grammar was a lot. I also added in Not Consumed’s reading journal as our written narration. Keep going you are helping this mama 😂❤
This is so wonderful to hear! Thank you for your encouraging feedback! I love hearing how you make your LA your own too! You have such great ideas! Isn’t it so freeing! It really makes the subject so fun to teach our kiddos. I’m so excited for you! I hope you’ll keep me posted! ❤️
Oh I’m so glad! Yes! I will do that. I am also currently testing out a template that helps me pull the week together and it’s been great! So I’ll put those up soon!
I have been looking into how to make my own language arts curriculum for my daughter. Yours have been so helpful and also give me the confidence that I can do it too. I have used LOE and Brave Writer in the past but did not like how BW has added stuff I don't agree with but I do like the concept of using the passage to teach from all week. Now I can do the books we enjoy and take the concepts that work. Thank you for showing how you do it.
I’m so glad to hear this! My method was definitely inspired from what I learned from Brave writer and also Learning Language Arts through Literature. We did one of the brave writer guides a couple years ago. I always just struggled with the planning part-what to do each day. Not a lot of guidance for that. That’s why I love setting up our patterns and routines. I know what to expect and so do the kids. Makes planning so much easier!! Thank you so much for your kind feedback. I hope you’ll come back and share how your LA is going soon! I’d love to hear from you again!
I'm so thankful for your DIY LA videos! Quick question, on narration day, your daughter read chapter 11, and you say you read aloud to them each night. At night, do you read the chapters prior to chapter 11 or the chapter they're supposed to read on narration day? Or do you just read past chapter 11 knowing that they have to read it again on narration day? Or are they two different books (the one that you read at night and the one they read for their LA)? I hope I'm making sense. 😅
Im so glad these videos are helpful! Thank you for your kind words. I read to the girls each night. So Monday night I read chapter 10 to them before bed. On Tuesday my oldest read chapter 11 on her own during our school day and I read it aloud to my younger daughter during our lesson time. On Tuesday night before bed I moved on to chapter 12. Did I answer your question? I think I understood correctly 😉 ask more if you have them! Happy to answer.
Can you share the second page where you list the spelling word your younger daughter needs to learn that week? Just saw you peeking through it and didn't get a good look. 🤪
Yes! I just created that template and tested it out for this novel. I loved it and am planning to share it here very soon (hopefully in the next week) We just finished our book tonight so I can officially say I tried it out for a novel! 😉❤️
@@pukbandicet Yes. I can share more about notebooks. Great idea for another video as well. Thank you! We have two for LA - one for all of our passage study components (copywork, dictation, and we may write spelling words). Sometimes I'll make up an interactive notebooking page related to grammar or our novel but it's as needed and not consistent. I have a separate notebook for narrations for my oldest daughter. I like this to be separate because it's easy to see how she's progressed over the year in her writing.
Yes. You could probably get away with not having it at the beginning, but as you get further through and there is more to label, I find the teacher guide extremely helpful (because I'm not always so sure of the answer!)
@@simplylearningtogether651 could you help me to understand what the labeling does/is for? I’m trying to wrap my head around how it’s useful. I’ve never done it before, so this is my biggest hang up with moving forward with Fix It! Grammar. I completely understand editing the sentences because that’s cut and dry for me lol. Just like with diagramming sentences I don’t see the reason for labeling them. I’m sure I’m missing something so I need someone who uses this curriculum to help me lol. Please.
@@brittany.powell sure! I’ll do my best to share our own experience. So the lessons build on each other. Starting with nouns and then verbs and so on…and you are labeling each sentence as you get to it. The repetition allows her to understand what the actual part of speech is. So for example, we were able to apply the same skills to her work this week and she knows all the parts of the sentence because she has been labeling it in her Fix it Grammar. It’s also one big story instead of random sentences which makes it meaningful in my opinion.
@@brittany.powell are you trying to decide between something else? If you don’t like Fix it Grammar is there another program that stands out to you? Definitely follow your style! If Fix it Grammar doesn’t feel right to you, I think you have every right to pick something different. ❤️
@@simplylearningtogether651 I need open and go. Trying to pull from several resources to build my own grammar “curriculum” is stressing me out. I can’t quite figure out how to work through it all in the best way, or how to create some sort of review to check retention. Also, my three-year-old son is starting to read (I wasn’t expecting this), so he’s wanting and needing more of my time. I need to streamline how we do grammar so there’s more time for me to work with both of my kids. I’m excited about it now lol. It seriously is a weight lifted to not have to overwork my brain trying to do it all myself. I’m going to get her level 2 for this next school year. Thanks for your help!!
This is so helpful! I'm curious, what do you do on Fridays? I'm weighing the pros and cons of a co-op or drop-off program, or just doing more of a "fun day" every week.
We are in a hiking/ nature group. We meet up at different trails in the area and spend half the day together hiking and exploring. It’s so much fun but we are exhausted when we get back so we take it easy for the rest of the afternoon ☺️
We used Logic of English Foundations A and B first. And yes, Phonics pathway does mention spelling rules. Just not explicitly. For example, it’s not labeled “spelling rule” but they are in there. We just covered /ch/ and /tch/ and the page explained when to use each sound in a word.
@@cassiepauley8973 I think this is meant more for someone who needs help learning to read, not spelling. Spelling kind of just tags along with the phonics lessons.
Do you mean the weekly checklist for each of my girls? I made a template a while back which is the one linked. I keep changing my own to flow with our days better as our rhythms change. It’s very much specific to our family, so I haven’t made it available. Something I can consider though - maybe some options for how it’s arranged.
I just found your channel and have been considering how to DIY language arts for my son going into third grade. Your method was beautifully simple and on-target compared to the redundant exhausting curriculum books I’ve been wrestling to get my 8yo through. Thank you for sharing and explaining what you do. It really is encouraging that more can be accomplished with less. I am really excited to look into your other videos. A question about the phonics and grammar books you use. Would these be textbooks that you can jump right in to for a new school year, or do they build on one another? Do you think I would be able to use the 3rd grade easy grammar or phonics book right off the bat, or would it be best to start with the 1st or 2nd grade book?
I’m so glad you found my channel!! Here’s my opinion on what you asked. (I’ll always start with I’m not an expert lol…but in my experience) If your child is reading fluently I don’t think the phonics is necessary. My oldest reads well and we do not use phonics at all. We may bring it up in conversation as we look at spelling words but no curriculum. If you need help with phonics, the Phonics Pathways is just one giant resource - no separate levels. I also prefer Fix it Grammar. I would start with level one for that. My oldest started it in third grade. We started with Level one and I’m glad we did. I chose Easy Grammar for my younger child because it is much more gentle and we hadn’t done any formal grammar yet. The layout changes in 2nd/3rd grade and I’m unfamiliar with it. The Easy Grammar website has sample pages if you want to see inside. Were you using an all-in-one before this? If that’s the case you should be able to start around the same level for Easy Grammar. Just double check the samples. I hope this helps some!! Let me know if you have more questions❤️
This is SOOOOOO good!! Ive been looking to learning language arts through literature, but also not being settled or feeling content with it, I think ill piece together thanks to your video!!!! Thanks so much for putting this together!!
@@dreahart89 oh I’m so glad it was helpful! We used LLATL for a while. It really inspired me for this method. We have so much enjoyed the freedom of choosing the books and taking the lessons at our pace. I really hope it works out for you too!! ❤️
I feel like this is the direction we'll end up going in when I'm a little more experienced at homeschooling. If you could go back to your kids' pre-reading days, would you start out just making your own curriculum?
Thanks for this video. Even if I'm not quite ready to do something like this myself yet, it's helpful to see a diy LA curriculum in action.
@@Mary.E.H hard to answer that question. I pretty much did a DIY reading with my first and it worked great but with one of my other kids we needed more support. And having a reading curriculum really helped us both. So it definitely depends on the kid. I will say that we have loved doing our own language arts once they are reading well and it’s allowed us so much freedom. I can even group kids together and make it a family subject and I love that! I’m glad the video was helpful. Thank you for the feedback!
@@simplylearningtogether651Thanks for your reply. That's really helpful! I think for now we'll loosely use a curriculum to support us, and otherwise focus on good literature
@@Mary.E.H love that idea! ❤️
@@simplylearningtogether651 back again, now a little over a month into homeschool! We tried to stick with our LA and Reading curricula but both HATED it! (Despite the many many glowing reviews I've read for it.)😂 Back watching your video again for any tips I missed the first time. I like following a math curriculum, but for LA, I think I'm just a DIY-er at heart! 😂
@@Mary.E.H I’m the same! I recently started a DIY mix for my 5yo learning to read because she was eager to learn and moving so quickly. Crazy how each kid is different! I’m getting to know her learning style better now though and feel good about combining a few things together instead of using an all-in-one 😊 I do still have one kiddo though that I prefer all-in-one for! Lol thankful for the flexibility to choose.
I absolutely love the simplicity of your language arts curriculum. I REALLY need to simplify our homeschool and I've been watching a lot of videos on this. Tons of great ideas and inspiration. Sometimes I have to remind myself that less is more!! After watching this video and several others, I purchased the book Know and Tell. I'm anxiously awaiting its arrival. Thank you for sharing. Very helpful!
Oh I’m so glad you love the videos. Know and Tell has been one of my FAVORITE resources that I plan to refer to again and again. I hope you love it just as much!! ❤️
I absolutely love your videos!! They’re so helpful to me when creating my own diy language arts. I’ve mentioned this before in the comments on some of your videos, but I based it off what y’all are doing and my daughter and I absolutely love it. It’s changed things for us drastically. We’ve both learned and retained so much using this book study method. I only switched us to doing it this way two weeks ago, and I wish I would’ve done it sooner!! I just didn’t think I was capable until I saw all of your videos and realized I could do this. My daughter actually looks forward to copy work and dictation and without me ever saying anything she gives it her best effort all around. I’m talking the best handwriting and attention to detail with punctuation. It’s like she’s taken ownership of this and seriously loves it and says it’s fun doing it this way. Thank you so much for sharing all of the details!
This seriously makes my night! Thank you so much for sharing this with me. Your feedback is so appreciated. I am always hopeful that these videos may inspire other moms to do their own thing with great books because I know once we did in our own home it was so freeing and wonderful!! I’m just thrilled to hear it’s been a positive experience for you as well!! ❤️❤️❤️
I am so grateful for you sharing every week. It is keeping me encouraged and inspire. I have search for the right Language Arts curriculum for so long but nothing was a great fit. I love how your DIY plan allows me to have the almost perfect Language Arts curriculum. For 5th grade we used Sonlight LA which was okay until my daughter would read two books in a week. So the copywork and lessons would line up with what she was reading. But your way allows me to adjust to her reading speed. I am using Evan Moor Grammar workbook because Abeka’s grammar was a lot. I also added in Not Consumed’s reading journal as our written narration. Keep going you are helping this mama 😂❤
This is so wonderful to hear! Thank you for your encouraging feedback! I love hearing how you make your LA your own too! You have such great ideas! Isn’t it so freeing! It really makes the subject so fun to teach our kiddos. I’m so excited for you! I hope you’ll keep me posted! ❤️
This was so helpful! Would love to see more of these videos. Thank you!
I’m so glad to hear that. Thank you!! I will definitely plan to share more!
Absolutely LOVE THIS!!! Can you share the weekly schedule?
Oh I’m so glad! Yes! I will do that. I am also currently testing out a template that helps me pull the week together and it’s been great! So I’ll put those up soon!
I just added our schedule to the description. Is that what you meant or were you looking for the actual template?
Wonderful thank you so much!!!! This is so helpful!
@@rachaelpierson3470 oh good! I’m so glad ❤️❤️
I have been looking into how to make my own language arts curriculum for my daughter. Yours have been so helpful and also give me the confidence that I can do it too. I have used LOE and Brave Writer in the past but did not like how BW has added stuff I don't agree with but I do like the concept of using the passage to teach from all week. Now I can do the books we enjoy and take the concepts that work. Thank you for showing how you do it.
I’m so glad to hear this! My method was definitely inspired from what I learned from Brave writer and also Learning Language Arts through Literature. We did one of the brave writer guides a couple years ago. I always just struggled with the planning part-what to do each day. Not a lot of guidance for that. That’s why I love setting up our patterns and routines. I know what to expect and so do the kids. Makes planning so much easier!! Thank you so much for your kind feedback. I hope you’ll come back and share how your LA is going soon! I’d love to hear from you again!
I'm so thankful for your DIY LA videos! Quick question, on narration day, your daughter read chapter 11, and you say you read aloud to them each night. At night, do you read the chapters prior to chapter 11 or the chapter they're supposed to read on narration day? Or do you just read past chapter 11 knowing that they have to read it again on narration day? Or are they two different books (the one that you read at night and the one they read for their LA)? I hope I'm making sense. 😅
Im so glad these videos are helpful! Thank you for your kind words. I read to the girls each night. So Monday night I read chapter 10 to them before bed. On Tuesday my oldest read chapter 11 on her own during our school day and I read it aloud to my younger daughter during our lesson time. On Tuesday night before bed I moved on to chapter 12. Did I answer your question? I think I understood correctly 😉 ask more if you have them! Happy to answer.
@@simplylearningtogether651 Thank you so much!
@@pukbandicet you’re welcome! ❤️
Can you share the second page where you list the spelling word your younger daughter needs to learn that week? Just saw you peeking through it and didn't get a good look. 🤪
Yes! I just created that template and tested it out for this novel. I loved it and am planning to share it here very soon (hopefully in the next week) We just finished our book tonight so I can officially say I tried it out for a novel! 😉❤️
@@simplylearningtogether651 Looking forward to it!
Another thing, can you do another video on how you organize it in their notebook for LA? Do you use one notebook or more? Etc.
@@pukbandicet Yes. I can share more about notebooks. Great idea for another video as well. Thank you! We have two for LA - one for all of our passage study components (copywork, dictation, and we may write spelling words). Sometimes I'll make up an interactive notebooking page related to grammar or our novel but it's as needed and not consistent. I have a separate notebook for narrations for my oldest daughter. I like this to be separate because it's easy to see how she's progressed over the year in her writing.
Do you need the teacher guide for Fix It! Grammar?
Yes. You could probably get away with not having it at the beginning, but as you get further through and there is more to label, I find the teacher guide extremely helpful (because I'm not always so sure of the answer!)
@@simplylearningtogether651 could you help me to understand what the labeling does/is for? I’m trying to wrap my head around how it’s useful. I’ve never done it before, so this is my biggest hang up with moving forward with Fix It! Grammar. I completely understand editing the sentences because that’s cut and dry for me lol. Just like with diagramming sentences I don’t see the reason for labeling them. I’m sure I’m missing something so I need someone who uses this curriculum to help me lol. Please.
@@brittany.powell sure! I’ll do my best to share our own experience. So the lessons build on each other. Starting with nouns and then verbs and so on…and you are labeling each sentence as you get to it. The repetition allows her to understand what the actual part of speech is. So for example, we were able to apply the same skills to her work this week and she knows all the parts of the sentence because she has been labeling it in her Fix it Grammar.
It’s also one big story instead of random sentences which makes it meaningful in my opinion.
@@brittany.powell are you trying to decide between something else? If you don’t like Fix it Grammar is there another program that stands out to you? Definitely follow your style! If Fix it Grammar doesn’t feel right to you, I think you have every right to pick something different. ❤️
@@simplylearningtogether651 I need open and go. Trying to pull from several resources to build my own grammar “curriculum” is stressing me out. I can’t quite figure out how to work through it all in the best way, or how to create some sort of review to check retention. Also, my three-year-old son is starting to read (I wasn’t expecting this), so he’s wanting and needing more of my time. I need to streamline how we do grammar so there’s more time for me to work with both of my kids. I’m excited about it now lol. It seriously is a weight lifted to not have to overwork my brain trying to do it all myself. I’m going to get her level 2 for this next school year. Thanks for your help!!
This is so helpful! I'm curious, what do you do on Fridays? I'm weighing the pros and cons of a co-op or drop-off program, or just doing more of a "fun day" every week.
We are in a hiking/ nature group. We meet up at different trails in the area and spend half the day together hiking and exploring. It’s so much fun but we are exhausted when we get back so we take it easy for the rest of the afternoon ☺️
@simplylearningtogether651 that sounds wonderful!
Do the spelling/vocabulary words come from the one passage you choose for the week?
Yes they all come from the passage. Makes it easy to pick the words and I feel like it’s a lot more meaningful too!
Have you always used Phonics Pathway? Does it go through spelling rules?
We used Logic of English Foundations A and B first. And yes, Phonics pathway does mention spelling rules. Just not explicitly. For example, it’s not labeled “spelling rule” but they are in there. We just covered /ch/ and /tch/ and the page explained when to use each sound in a word.
@@simplylearningtogether651 So do you feel that a child that knows how to read, but needs spelling would still benefit from using it?
@@cassiepauley8973 I think this is meant more for someone who needs help learning to read, not spelling. Spelling kind of just tags along with the phonics lessons.
The sheet you use to schedule, the one you have linked is not the one in the video. Do you have that one available?
Do you mean the weekly checklist for each of my girls? I made a template a while back which is the one linked. I keep changing my own to flow with our days better as our rhythms change. It’s very much specific to our family, so I haven’t made it available. Something I can consider though - maybe some options for how it’s arranged.
I just found your channel and have been considering how to DIY language arts for my son going into third grade. Your method was beautifully simple and on-target compared to the redundant exhausting curriculum books I’ve been wrestling to get my 8yo through. Thank you for sharing and explaining what you do. It really is encouraging that more can be accomplished with less. I am really excited to look into your other videos.
A question about the phonics and grammar books you use. Would these be textbooks that you can jump right in to for a new school year, or do they build on one another? Do you think I would be able to use the 3rd grade easy grammar or phonics book right off the bat, or would it be best to start with the 1st or 2nd grade book?
I’m so glad you found my channel!! Here’s my opinion on what you asked. (I’ll always start with I’m not an expert lol…but in my experience)
If your child is reading fluently I don’t think the phonics is necessary. My oldest reads well and we do not use phonics at all. We may bring it up in conversation as we look at spelling words but no curriculum. If you need help with phonics, the Phonics Pathways is just one giant resource - no separate levels.
I also prefer Fix it Grammar. I would start with level one for that. My oldest started it in third grade. We started with Level one and I’m glad we did.
I chose Easy Grammar for my younger child because it is much more gentle and we hadn’t done any formal grammar yet. The layout changes in 2nd/3rd grade and I’m unfamiliar with it. The Easy Grammar website has sample pages if you want to see inside. Were you using an all-in-one before this? If that’s the case you should be able to start around the same level for Easy Grammar. Just double check the samples.
I hope this helps some!! Let me know if you have more questions❤️