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. 

To bake or not to bake...

...that is the question!

A year or two ago, I toyed with the idea of making and decorating cakes to sell. So I made up a business on a whim and baked & sold cakes for three or four occasions. It was definitely a learning experience. I don't think business decisions should be made on a whim ;)

 I learned that this is a time consuming process! I also learned that unless I wanted to work for pennies, I needed to consider the cost of supplies when setting prices. And my factor in my time, unless I want to make $3 per hour. Which might not make my cakes as affordable as I'd hoped. I learned that I liked having my weekends free more than I liked earning a few bucks completely trashing my kitchen. I found out that I needed to pay attention to licensing and copyright laws, which meant that I couldn't legally sell a cake based on an existing character.

It wasn't long before I stopped making cakes for money. Except for my kids, and for my friends' baby showers and a few birthday parties. I got burnt out. Actually, it felt more like sugared out. I can still taste the sickly-sweet coating on my teeth from testing icing.

This past weekend, I made a batch of birthday cupcakes for my friend's son's 1st birthday. And I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed researching and sketching out different ways to make lion cake, and I enjoyed decorating. I was pleased with the fact that the whole process (including baking time and clean up!) only took 2 hours and 30 minutes. I made about $10/hour if you factor in the cost of supplies. And perhaps most importantly, I had fun with it.

Little birthday lions

So, I've been toying with the idea of making cakes now and then. For money. I like the idea of making cupcakes as they are easy, quick and cute. Cupcakes don't require specialty pans. I like the idea of matching decorations or going off a simple plan rather than trying to create some sort of character themed dessert that might infringe on copyright law. I like the idea of spending a few hours here and there working, rather than an entire weekend.

I'm trying to decide what to do next. I would greatly appreciate some input in this process too.

Is my work worth paying for?

How much would you pay for two dozen individually decorated cupcakes?

Would you prefer cupcakes or layered cakes?

How would licensing/copyright laws affect your decision to buy cakes?

Feel free to visit my Facebook page to see more samples of my work or to offer your input there: Smiley Cakes by Melissa Franzen.

Thank you! Below are some samples of recent work I've done...

Cupcakes for a Frozen party

For a friend's baby shower. Wish I had a pic of the inside- it was striped :)

Kittens for my niece's birthday

A special little cake for my niece

Cupcakes

Oreo cupcake

Baby shower cake

Ironing out some Issues

I'm about to drop some truth and share some previous blog entries that have gone unpublished for a long while. I hope that by doing so, I will help someone else.

Here it is. 

The past four years have been somewhat of a roller coaster for me. I have struggled with mood and energy issues. I have had periods of just not feeling like myself. First, it looked like anger, which I wrote about here and here. Then, it looked like anxiety, which I talked about here. It started to look like depression, which I thought I wrote about at one point, but perhaps not. The word irritability started popping up. Exhaustion came into play. I saw several different doctors. My OB-GYN, a counselor, a psychiatrist. I tried anti-depressants, vitamin supplements and hormone replacement therapy. When issues with energy level started plaguing me this summer, I finally made an appointment with a general practitioner to have a physical. I wanted to get to the bottom of the struggle and see what the heck was going on inside my body.

I hadn't seen a primary care physician since I was a teen (hence going to specialists instead) because I'd had a bad experience with a doctor when I was young and never found another one. But this new doctor came highly recommended by my family, so I decided to give him a try. I was impressed. The doctor listened carefully to all of my issues and history and then took 6 vials of blood to see what it would reveal.

A week later, I got a call and was told my iron was low and I needed to start taking iron supplements. So I did. I still felt like crap a few weeks later, so I called for a follow up appointment, wondering if I could have a yeast overgrowth, something I'd been Googling for a friend that seemed like it could fit my symptoms.  I complained to my doctor about my irritability and exhaustion and he told me right away that he knew what my problem was. He turned his computer screen to face me and pointed to where it said my iron level was 4. It was supposed to be 100. Oh. He explained that my red blood cells were struggling to get the oxygen they needed and I felt tired because my body was literally exhausted. Even rest wouldn't help because my body wasn't actually able to rest when it was supposed to. He told me it would take about 3 months for my iron stores to be built back up. I scheduled a follow up appointment for November and went home to wait. 

It's late September now. I'm feeling good some days and not so good others. There are days when I can get up and go, be on my feet and busy with the kids all day. There are days when I sleep for 10 hours and still wake up feeling tired. There are days when I look forward to to spending time socializing with friends and family. There are days when I want to be completely left alone to read or watch TV. 

It's hard. Some days I feel great and think that my iron must finally be where it needs to be. Other days, I lay in bed tired from doing nothing and wanting to be left alone. There are times when I am certain I must have some other underlying issue, and times when I think the iron is my only problem. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever consistently feel good again or if I am doomed to spend my life hunting down problems that no one can find answers to. 

It's a struggle. It's frustrating. But I've come to a new realization.

While I am waiting to find answers and to feel better, I need to keep living. And in order to do that happily, I need to give myself grace. I need to live in each day and accept that some days, I'm not going to feel well. Some days, I might sleep in. I might watch too much TV, or decide to stay home instead of going out with friends because that's what sounds and feels good to me. And that is okay. Exhaustion and irritability tend to come in waves, just as I suspect my iron levels go up and down since, y'know, I'm a woman, and our bodies do...y'know, womanly things every month. So if I need to take it easy, that is okay. Grace, grace, grace. I am only human.

It is hard to admit that.  I want to feel good all the time and have tons of energy and have the desire to get out and socialize and work out and stay active and take my kids to do awesome things. I wish I felt "on" all the time. But I simply don't, and perhaps I never will. That's something I'll have to learn to live with. I can start now by taking each day at a time and by allowing my activity level to reflect how I am feeling.

Some days the girls and I will go on big field trips, we'll go on hikes in the woods and we'll play outside. Other days, we'll stay in and paint at the kitchen table or read in the recliner. Maybe we'll all veg out and spend too much time in front of a screen. That's okay too. That's life. There will be ups and downs.

I'm doing the best job at living that I know how to do. And I'm not going to feel bad about it any more. 

If my life were a show, it would be cancelled

Fall is upon us and that comes my nearly debilitating ragweed allergy. It stinks. The weather is nice enough that I want to be outside in it, but unfortunately the air is filled with sneeze-inducing pollen that makes my eyes itch and my nose run. I spent a good portion of several days outside last week and was rewarded with gross cold symptoms that kept me (and Tim) up all night. I decided that my body needed a break, and I spent most of the weekend inside. Until I figure out a good way to treat my allergies, I am attempting to limit my time outside. Flonase, I'm counting on you!

I've been reading, ok? I've finished a book since my last blog post and have started another. There are many that I want to read but I am either waiting on them at the library or trying to decide how much of my birthday Amazon gift card I should put toward e-books. It's tricky. If I wait and get them from the library, they are free. But waiting sucks. So in the mean time...I've been watching lots of delicious TV.

What have I been watching, you ask? Apparently, the same show in different formats. As of right now, here are the shows I'm currently watching. I'm including links because you need to check them out.

1. Brooklyn Nine Nine
2. The Mindy Project
3. New Girl
4. The Big Bang Theory
5. Modern Family

Earlier, I asked my Facebook friends to share what shows they are looking forward to watching this fall, and I was shocked to find that everyone else is watching dramas while I am strictly watching comedies. I've been giving this a lot of thought while I wistfully stare outside and I discovered that I am watching different variations of the same premise.

All of the shows I like have a large cast of differing people working closely together. They're room mates, co-workers, friends or family members. All of these casts have at least one weirdo female that I find hilarious and/or relatable.  They all have a little romance thrown in there somewhere, which I like. But yeah, basically, it's the same show. Here's a bunch of wacky people living their lives with a side of hilarious antics.

I could totally have one of those shows. I'll be the hilarious lead female, and my friends and family can be part of the ensemble. Some of you are quirky enough to be on my show. Kayla, you're in for sure. We're kind of lacking in the romance department since most of my friends are married with kids. Maybe the show would be about my day to day life, dealings with the kids, homeschooling? I'm not sure how interesting that would be though. I think there'd have to be some kind of conflict to keep it interesting. I guess it could be a show about moms? And cats? Moms would watch that, but no one else would.  It could be funny...I think. Maybe I could throw in Matt and Cameron to add a different dynamic? I dunno.

I shared this idea with Tim and he told me that I could not portray myself because that would make it a reality show and reality shows suck. So which actress could be me? I've been watching a lot of SNL lately and I like Kate McKinnon. Maybe she'd be a good me.

As for the conflict...well, I guess I could see myself seeking out a purpose in life. (I blogged about that around this time last year! And it was even about TV!) I'm not sure what that would look like on TV. I kind of want to be a writer. But I'm 90% sure a show about a homeschooling mom aspiring to be a writer would be cancelled after one season.

Oh well, back to living vicariously through my shows.

A week in pictures

A trip to the zoo with friends

Teaching the cat something

Letter U and number 2

Lex made an abacus

Introducing the concept of multiplication

Demonstrating equal groups

In case you wanted to see EVERY piece in the box

Building at the library

A trip to the park with neighbor friends

Found a bee hive, yikes

Working hard or hardly working?

Lydia's favorite thing about gymnastics

Painting with berries

Taking a TV break

New baby cousins are the best!

It's her!

Can't you tell?

That time I accidentally read a Sci-Fi novel (a book review)

I like to read. I love to read. The struggle for me is finding the time/energy to do so as well as finding great books to read. My motto when it comes to reading is that if I can put a book down, I'm going to, and I'm probably not going to pick it back up again. The book has to suck me in or I'm not going to spend my time on it. I read both fiction and non-fiction. I read a lot of young adult dystopian novels, books about education and parenting, memoirs and stories about women living in ancient China or Japan. In recent years, I read a lot of just general fiction, I guess you would call it.  I also spend a ton of time reading books out loud to my kids.

The other day, my friend (thanks Rachel!) posted a link to a list of Kindle books that were on sale for $1.99 each. Lydia was sick and it was raining so I decided to splurge on a book. I had read and enjoyed many of the books on the list already so I was excited to find something good to read.

After reading reviews on Amazon, I settled on The Martian by Andy Weir, downloaded it, and began reading. I finished it in two days.

The book is about an astronaut named Mark Watney who accidentally gets stranded on Mars. He and his crew were supposed to be working there for about a month, but after a few days, something goes wrong and they have to abort the mission in a rush. Just as they are leaving, Watney is injured, and the crew, thinking he is dead, leave without him. The story is told primarily in log format as Watney tries to figure out how to stay alive and somehow, make it back to Earth.

So, I think I need to tell you at this point that this book is hard science fiction. Hard science fiction, I've learned, is science fiction that is logical and scientifically accurate. Humorously, I did not know this about the book until I was about 1/3 of the way through. How is that possible, you ask? Well, I am kind of slow, apparently. 

I was talking to Tim about it and commented that the book talked a lot about the mechanics of space travel and "a lot of other science and mathy stuff" and he replied that it sounded like science fiction. In case you haven't figured it out by now, that's a genre I don't typically read from. He quickly looked it up and told me that not only was the book science fiction, but it was categorized as hard science fiction, which I think should be called hard-core science fiction, because that sounds cool. 

Anyway, the point is that I'm kind of a dumb dumb. And I probably would not have bought this book if I had known what I was getting myself into, because I like to read as a relaxing experience and I don't always want my brain to be overly involved. I'm tired at the end of the day! I get into the habit of reading books that are similar to each other because if I liked one, I'll probably like the others, right?

I'm glad I read it though. It definitely required more brain power than watching Friends reruns (what doesn't?) but I feel good about it. The scientific details challenged me because I've forgotten/never properly learned or understood physics or chemistry very well, but the dictionary and Google helped me whenever I got stuck. The author did a nice job of explaining concepts and writing in a way that was clear and easy to follow. The book was a real page turner, and I found myself racing to the end to see what would happen to Watney. I was on the edge of my seat (more like, I sat up in bed instead of laying down) during the last 10% of the book and found the ending pretty satisfying. I love a book that I can't put down.

I'm glad I bought the book as a Kindle edition, because I found myself looking up scientific terms (and other words I should probably know by now) pretty often. Since my Kindle has a built in dictionary, that was as easy as pushing on a word until the definition popped up. It would've been annoying to have to look things up with a paperback. I feel like I actually learned a lot about space and science in general from this book. There were some parts that got a little slow, but Watney is a funny character and I appreciated the laughs. I found his will to live despite all odds beings against him inspiring, and he was a super smart and innovative character. Later in the book, there are some changes in perspective that I found to be refreshing.

They are making a movie out of this, starring Matt Damon. It comes out in October. I'm interested to see how they can translate it into an interesting movie since a lot of the book is detailed description of "sciencey stuff", and plan making. Might need to grab it at Redbox.

All in all, I give the book 4 out of 5 stars. I'd recommend it if you like sci-fi, or even if you don't. Now that I know I can read and enjoy sci-fi, I think I will do so more often. In fact, I just downloaded another sci-fi novel off the $1.99 list, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Look at me being all adventurous! So far, I like it, but I'll let you know how it goes.

Bottom line: don't judge a book by its genre. Read outside your comfort zone!