Review by Misty in AZ -- mom of 3 boys (June 2006; SL Preschool Moving On) Tuscan Sun Academy or Usborne Books

First off -- I love this program!!!! I am so happy with our LA, Kris is happy, and its working!!!! I am so happy that I went ahead with this program. It looks very overwhelming and appears that it would take a lot of time to figure out. Even after I purchased it and starting planning for the year I felt very overwhelmed. We are now on week 3 and I love it! This uses narration, dictation, and copy work at he child's level!!

 

For this program to be as little prep work as possible -- you need all 3 books for each level. The student workbook, the core book, and the IG. The Core book is the most confusing in my opinion. It is written so that you can make your own program off of their instructions. It gives details to the various components in the program. The IG schedules your week out for you, gives you information on teacher prep for the week (very simple, I do it prior to starting the lesson with Kris. It takes me all of 2 minutes or so) and gives you reference page numbers to the core manual. The schedule is written in checklist format per day. Each week is 5 days long.

 

I changed how I do things a little but I will go over how they schedule things first.

 

Day 1 -- Introduction to Model: Read the model aloud to student, go over unknown words or concepts, read the model aloud again to student, have the student read the model to you. Have the student orally narrate the model.

 

Day 2 --  Phonics & Spelling: Underline words for Analysis in model, write down spelling words on chart, analyze spelling words

 

Day 3 -- Grammar: Introduce grammar concept of the week, use the model with grammar work, use flash cards, complete workbook page

 

Day 4 -- Copy work & Dictation: Review Flashcards; Select Copy work or Dictation from the model for student writing today

 

Day 5 -- Rewriting a Narrative -- Analyze and Outline Model, Write First Draft, Edit First Draft, Write Final Draft.

 

How we do things:

 

Day 1 -- Introduce Model: I read to Kris, discuss unknown words/answer questions he has, He reads to me. Gives an oral narration. The writes down his narration (first draft). 20 minutes max.

 

Day 2 -- Phonics & spelling: I use the spelling words given in the TG for his words as well as any other words he was unfamiliar with. He underlines these in the model and looks up their meaning in his dictionary. Adds this information and the word to his chart. We use the words as dictation. Works on both spelling and vocabulary at the same time. We outline the model today (backwards I know but you will see why in a minute). -- 30 min. max -- depending on how long it takes Kris to look up the words in the dictionary.

 

Day 3: Grammar -- since we used FLL a lot of this is review but it is still great and helps reinforce what he knows plus some new things are added to this. He is learning things more in depth that with FLL. Flashcards. Edit First Draft. Uses outline to add things he might have left out the first time. (this is how I was taught to write. Go off of memory first, then outline with resources, then edit for content/mistakes then final draft -- I will teach him the other way later.) -- 30 min max -- depending on how much editing Kris does.

 

Day 4: Copy work/Dictation: I highlight the passage I want Kris to copy if I don't have time to do dictation. Here you control what your child needs. Have him write a few words, a sentence, or the whole thing. Do it as copy work or dictation depending upon your child's capabilities. -- 15 mins max.

 

Day 5: Final Draft -- 10 mins. Type it and then glue it into his workbook.

 

For us, I spread out the writing activity over the week. Kris likes to think on his writing when he corrects it and by giving him a day in between -- he is less likely to take offense to mistakes he made.

 

The narration is also geared toward your child's capabilities. So you can really use this program with multiple kids at multiple levels. The samples of the writing show a 6 yr old sister and her 9 year old brother both using this program. The 6 yr old does copy work -- 1 sentence. The 9 year old dictation - 1 paragraph. The 6 yr old's narration is 1-2 sentences long. The 9 year old is a paragraph plus the moral of the story (since we are talking about the Aesop Level here.) It is suggested that no matter the age of the student you start with the Aesop level first. From there you move up the levels -- which I have yet to see. They also have poetry as an elective.

 

Here are some examples of the writing expected for the Aesop Fable The Hare and The Tortoise:

 

The 6 yr old wrote: One day the Hare challenged a tortoise to a race. They started but then the hare went to sleep. The tortoise slow and steady won.

 

The 9 year old: The Hare was busy boasting to the other animals of his speed. Then he challenged anyone to a race. The Tortoise accepted. The Hare laughed. Then a date was decided and the Hare raced ahead. The Tortoise walked on and on. The Hare meanwhile took a nap. The Tortoise passed. When the Hare awoke he found the Tortoise past the finish line. Slow and Steady wins the race.

 

Kris (age 6.5): The hare was boasting about his speed. "I have never yet been beaten!" said the hare. The tortoise whispered "I'll except your challenge." Then the hare said "oh. That's just a joke." Then a course was fixed and the start was made. And then, the hare ran so fast he was almost out of sight. And then he went to sleep. While the tortoise kept plodding on and plodding on and plodding on. And when the hare woke up from his nap he saw the tortoise at the winning post. He couldn't run fast enough to win the race. And the tortoise said "plodding wins the race."

 

I couldn't resist -- had to add Kris' in there. He has some things to work on but I am still so proud of him! As the child works through the program, they learn to add quotes to their writing. This is something Kris does naturally so I left them in there. So as you can see -- there is a wide variety of what is acceptable for the writing portion of this program.

 

To use this program, your child must have a firm grasp on both reading and writing. Other than that -- you are set to go.

 

Things to add to it: We are doing handwriting and spelling separately from this program. Grammar is thoroughly covered at this level although if SLL was out I would use that too! In subsequent levels you will need to add grammar. They suggest Harvey's Grammar. You could also add in a vocab book in addition to this. I am big on vocab so I would probably add this eventually. But all in all -- its pretty complete. I would have to add spelling and handwriting to just about any other program I got as well. So that is not a big deal to me.

 

This book assumes that your child is intelligent and doesn't talk down to them at all like some of the other LA programs I have looked at. It expects master of grammar concepts but at the same time -- revisits and adds onto the concepts as the years go on. I also like the fact that it builds off of the Ruth Beechick ideas. To me this is what I thought SL would look like. Except I thought SL would correlate to the core whereas this obviously doesn't.

 

Okay --- I think that wraps it all up. Any questions? Oh ... the link. www.classicalwriting.com