My 8 year old ds will be starting 3rd grade soon. He is a horrible speller and hates writing. I am looking for something that goes along with CM’s teachings that I could use to work on spelling, grammar, and writing all at once so he doesn’t feel overwhelmed. Can anyone offer me suggestions? Also, I have seen a lot of abbreviations here like PLL and ILL that I have no idea what they mean. Is there a place to go to see what all the abbreviations mean here?
Thanks for the abbreviations link! Does anyone have any suggestions for me? I really want to make this year great and I want my kids to enjoy school. In my state I’m required to teach grammar and spelling so I was just hoping for a program to combine the three subjects in one so my son doesn’t get overwhelmed. Thanks.
http://www.primarylanguagelessons.com/ Check this out for some actual pages from PLL. After PLL, she has ILL ready. In this way, you would have a consistant grade 2-6 LA program with minimal work from you.
I found PLL by Sheldon as a free online download but not the one by Serl. However, I did find ILL as a free download. Would this be too much for a typical 3rd grader do you think? I am also wondering about the Pathway Readers. Christine, did you just use the readers or the complete readers/workbooks set or did you use the Climbing to Good English set or both? I also like the looks of the Queens one but I’m really trying to spend money wisely. Thanks again.
I have just been looking at samples of the ILL for my third grader. It fits her much better than PLL but she is also advanced in her reading and composition.
I need to look through the download some more. It seems like it would be an ok fit from what I’ve seen so far. My son is a very good reader but not so much with composition. I really like the looks of the Pathway readers too. I am terrible at making decisions and we are planning to start no later than the 20th!
Within PLL/ILL, there’s copywork and dictation for spelling; early composition exercises and gentle intro to grammar concepts. I don’t recall there being phonics instruction for spelling rules, so keep that in mind. If he needs that teaching to sound out words that he is misspelling, you’ll have to work that in. ABC’s and ALL Their Tricks is a resource book with all the spelling rules in it if you need a resource book without it being a whole new curriculum.
Mine read the Pathway’s without using the workbooks; they were just their early readers that they started oral narrations with. That’s another thing-make sure you continue, or begin, oral narrations.
I am buying CQLA for this year…I downloaded two weeks’ worth of samples, and used them with my reluctant writer son. He did very well. Here’s a good site for it, and you can see a lot of samples: