English / Literature / Language Arts
Shakespeare
We watch Shakespeare plays on video (Richland Library has the unabridged BBC ones)--read along or afterwards. No one commands English like Shakespeare, and he was meant to be watched, not read. The language is more understandable when spoken by good actors. Much Ado about Nothing is good to start with.
We watch Shakespeare movies too. The newer movies are very well done, but watch out for offensive stuff added that's not in the play! I get mine edited or edit them myself. There are old movies to see, as well.
Poetry and Classic literature
Read other poetry and classic literature. Even if you don't make it as far as you'd like through a classical booklist, even if you just read fun stuff that is well written, like Narnia, Lord of the Rings and Tom Sawyer, you'll be ahead of the pack in English. We read Jane Austen and watched the BBC movies of her books too.
Winston Grammar has all the grammar you really need in an easy program that I use at around 6th grade.
I like the A Beka literature books to have around for a nice collection of poetry, art, and short literature selections to dip into.
Critical Thinking Vol. 1 for formal logic, and The Fallacy Detective (Christian) for really fun, practical logic. Learning to recognize propaganda and illogical reasoning is critical in our society.
Language Arts
My approach may not seem very orthodox to a new homeschooler or someone who likes traditional methods, but maybe these ideas will help. I do have 3 teens who have gotten 'A's in college English.
I love Learning Language Arts thru Literature (I prefer the old version, but new is ok too and might be more comfortable for you if you like more structure and workbooks.) Basically you dictate passages of great literature for your child and then learn some grammar and usage, spelling rules and writing skills based on that passage. Spelling can be done using the students' own misspelled words, or just rely on the dictation practice to improve spelling. LLAL has writing projects you could ignore if you love the writing book you have. You can also study 4 whole books in each level, but not all the dictation passages are from those books.
You might also be interested in Total Language Plus which is similar, but better in that you choose a classic book from their options, and read right thru the whole thing with workbook pages that go along with it. It's strong on vocabulary building and spelling, and has grammar review and dictation and writing ideas. You could do a book together with both kids, and you just adjust any assignments according to their abilities.
If you want to do-it - yourself, just buy or borrow a Ruth Beechick book or any level of LLAL to get the idea and then choose your own passages from the Bible or whatever classic book you are presently reading, and make up a lesson out of it, which could dovetail with the writing they are doing in the other book, if you want. (eg. if you are practicing writing dialogue, you could pick a passage like that for dictation and review the rules for quotation marks. If studying essays, copy a passage from one of C. S. Lewis' essays.) It's ok if you don't do this every single day.
Dictation (or simply copying, for younger people or those new to it) may seem overly simple but is very powerful. It turned my kids who couldn't spell anything around in less than a year, because it forces you to pay attention to how things are spelled and punctuated, which is the biggest hurdle. It also lays a great foundation for good writing to copy the greatest writers. Some kids might be very resistant to dictation or find following LLAL boring, but would still greatly benefit from doing it just occasionally and /or can do very short passages.
Personally, by age 14 I wouldn't usually be doing anything that could be called Language Arts unless there was a skill that was a problem with that child, or that we hadn't covered at all yet. I wouldn't do spelling, for example, if the child was a great speller already, and if they were terrible, I would mainly use dictation and the Apples workbook, which covers all basic rules for age 12 and up with puzzles. (I use it with one of my poorer spellers.) I wouldn't just ignore any problem areas, but if they have always done well with language, I would just focus on other high school subjects including logic and foreign language and great lit like Shakespeare, knowing that will strengthen their English as well. I might be running them through Winston Grammar if we hadn't already done so. I would probably just be having them read more classic lit (and reading it to them), discussing it casually, and reading lots of living books for science and history, and doing a little writing. (If you read well- written 'real books' for history you are helping English skills at the same time as keeping it interesting.) You could also practice writing by having them write 'narrations' of their history, science or lit occasionally, ala the Charlotte Mason method.
I recently discovered Queen Homeschooling's Language Arts for the Elementary/Secondary Child, which is very like LLAL but in a workbook format so it takes less parent time -- it would be more like a Lifepac. It has very short lessons. I have less time now so I am using these with my younger ones (including a 12 year old) instead of LLAL, which is easy to use but does require a little more teacher involvement. We often only did Language arts a couple of times a week and just did 2 days worth of lessons instead of one. On alternate days we were doing History or science or I did a different level with other children on alternate days. It was less burdensome than doing every subject every day. Most language arts programs teach the same stuff over and over, year after year, so 2 - 3 levels spread over age 8-12 is probably quite enough for most. When I would teach Winston Grammar at around age 11 - 12 ( usually to 2 kids at once), that would be my only English lessons for those kids until we finished it. Then we would go back to whatever program afterwards if we wanted to.
Kids need variety too. So you could just do your spelling and writing programs that you like now, and later lay them aside for a while to do a grammar program or a Total Language Plus book. The most important thing for English is to read, read, read good books. Make a list of books you think are fun or important and work through it. Read some aloud together. Listen to them on CD. Be free and have fun!
by Angela Conley
