Curriculum Review: Learning Language Arts through Literature

We love reading!

Name: Learning Language Arts through Literature
Website: https://www.commonsensepress.com/covers.htm

Subject Area: Language Arts (Reading, spelling, grammar, writing)

Cost: About $50 per grade level, new. Blue & Red Books cost more because they include readers. (This curriculum is easy to find used. I bought the Yellow Book series for $18 total)

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Pros:

Strong phonics program

Fun readers

Varied activities

Concise lessons

Fun

Easy to teach

Uses children's books to teach
Inexpensive

Cons:

Spelling was not a good fit for us

Minimal writing practice

Additional independent reading is necessary for building strong readers

I started using Learning Language Arts through Literature (hereby referred to as LLATL) with my daughter Lexi at age 5 1/2. At this point in time, she knew her letters and letter sounds and had a basic grasp of how to sound out short words. We were looking for something fun and varied and when I stumbled upon LLATL, I decided to give her the online placement test. Prior to using this program, we'd dabbled in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, Explode the Code, and Bob Books, acquiring skills but growing bored with repetitive material.

She tested as ready to begin the Blue Book about 3/4 of the way through, so I bought the inexpensive program, figuring we'd use it with my younger daughter as well when the time came. 

Adding book covers to the chart is a fun and motivating way to keep track of progress.

Lexi is now nearly 7 and about 6-7 weeks away from completing the Red Book program. Overall, I've been very pleased with this program. I think the phonics instruction is fantastic. The Blue Book in particular came with a variety of phonics related games and booklets to keep the process interesting and fun.  Lexi is a strong reader and from the multiple informal tests I've given her, she's reading around a 2nd or 3rd grade level. She loves the readers that came with the Blue and Red books of the program. I felt that more reading practice was needed so we checked out lots of beginning reader books from the library to build fluency and reading confidence. The Blue Book has a variety of short story readers and the Red Book has awesome little "chapter" books that contain 5-6 different stories about a particular set of characters. When she successfully reads one of the stories, she gets to place a picture of the cover onto her reading chart. I think she feels really grown up being able to read a chapter book. Upon completion of each book, she gets to create a final project showcasing what she has learned. The book provides several ideas but she enjoys making things elaborate. So far we've had several lap books, dioramas and even characters from the stories recreated out of clay. Along with learning how to read, we've been discussing characters, plot, summaries and different aspects of grammar using these readers as well as popular children's books such as Harry The Dirty Dog and Little Bear. We love using these great books and I wish I had purchased them in advance because I have trouble getting them checked out from the library on time.

Lapbooks are fun and easy to make!

Lexi showing off her Up, Down and Around the Rain Tree project

While I love the reading aspect of this program, the spelling part leaves something to be desired at this point. I say this because the words seem to be chosen somewhat at random and there are few systematic rules for spelling that are introduced. Some of the words seemed to hard for her and sometimes the words for the week were not related in any way. We decided to stop using the spelling portion of this program and replace it with All About Spelling. She's now almost done with Level 1 and I like that program much better because it provides rules for spelling that allow a child to spell multiple words rather than just memorizing how to spell words in isolation. I felt okay substituting this in because LLATL is very inexpensive. 

I was a little concerned about the writing portion of LLATL at first. I felt that there was not nearly enough handwriting practice and very little writing done by the student. I began supplementing with Essentials in Writing and using different handwriting pages (as well as Draw Write Now books) to help my daughter practice letter formation. I am just now seeing some overlap between EIW and LLATL as we near the end of the Red Book. I have a feeling that more writing will be expected of her as the program progresses.The Blue and Red Books focus more on a student's ability to generate creative ideas and tell stories and less on their ability to physically write the words. Dictation is often encouraged to prevent the student from becoming frustrated. I get that, but I did feel that my kiddo needed practice forming letters. Again, it was easy to supplement. I find LLATL very flexible.

Passages from children's books are used for copy work late in the Red Book and in future books to support handwriting skills and the discussion grammar and other aspects of stories.

Bottom Line: Overall, I think Learning Language Arts Through Literature is a program worth looking into. The lessons are short, varied and fun which I think would be great for a reluctant reader. The program is inexpensive and the Teacher books are reusable, so it would be easy to use this program over and over for multiple children. This program is easy to supplement or make substitutions to if needed for your children. Check it out!

Using cut outs to show how pronouns replace nouns.

Good-bye, Sugar...ILYSM

I feel like I need to kick my sugar habit.  

I have a great big sweet tooth. All of them are sweet tooths...sweet teeth? Yeah, all of them. I love sweet stuff. I'm the person who doesn't understand when people say stuff like, "This cake is too sweet." or "This brownie is too rich." For real? What does that even mean? 

There was a time, earlier this year, when I decided to try a new fitness/wellness program. It was an eating plan and an exercise plan. I lost a total of 15lb on the plan, and felt great too, so I'd definitely say it works. The hard part, for me, was the eating. The idea was to fill up on lean proteins and veggies and a bit of starches here and there, while removing a lot of processed and sugary foods from your diet. 

On this plan, I'd have egg & veggie casserole for breakfast, a big salad with chicken for lunch, and something like tilapia with rice and green beans for dinner. Very basic stuff. I allowed myself two 8oz cups of coffee with creamer per day, because I can't stomach coffee without creamer and I can't stomach interacting with human beings without coffee. I'd do a couple of short but intense work outs per week and lots of walking. I let myself have a cheat meal now and then but for the most part I stopped eating desserts. I came to love Greek yogurt with strawberries or granola in it rather than ice cream or cookies. I felt great when I followed this plan. I had lots of energy and I could feel myself getting stronger and leaner. I got to purchase medium shirts instead of larges. It was great. 

The problem I encountered first was that I was getting bored with my dinner options. I ate the same things over and over until I burnt out on them. It was challenging to find new meals that fit the plan and were low cost, not too difficult to prepare, and kid friendly. That's a lot of variables. I'm no chef, and I'm kind of picky too. Weekly meal planning brought me to tears more than once because NOTHING sounded good and I dreaded going to the store. I started to lose momentum. 

The second problem started sometime late in the summer. It was my birthday! Hurray! I ate whatever I wanted because I'm old and that sucks! We had several family birthdays all in a row and I ate whatever I wanted, including and especially desserts, until I got to the point where started craving them again. That's the trouble with sugar. The more you eat, the more you crave it.

I am at a point now where I have gained back about 5lb and I'm tired all the time. I'm eating a bunch of sugar because I am craving a bunch of sugar and I'm not eating very nutritiously. I haven't been doing the work outs and I can feel my jeans getting tighter. I know I need to make a change instead of making more cake. 

I am going to start small by cutting out desserts. I think I'll allow one each week but leave it at that. I'm going to try to go back to eating salads for lunch, and try to find some healthier dinner options to rotate in. I tend to be picky so trying new things can be a challenge. 

I'll allow myself to have my coffee creamer so that I don't kill anyone. That seems like the best choice for now. I should probably start walking again, but that is hard now that it's getting darker earlier. I can try it, at least a few times per week. I guess a few steps at a time are plenty of changes at once anyhow.

To review, and to hold myself accountable, I present you with my goals:

• Walk three days per week
• One dessert per week
• More nutritious meals most days

Farewell, delicious treats and tooth-coating sugary goodness. I miss you already.