Primary Language Lessons vs. English for the Thoughtful Child?

We also use EFTTC and my DD loves it because of the short lessons.  I love it for the same reason, but the short lessons are so full of just what they need to learn.  We also do lessons 2 x a week, do not double up on copywork (we use Queen’s Copywork for Animal Lovers–my DD has learned to love poems with this) and we also use Queens’ Pictures in Cursive.  It keeps us busy and I feel like she’s really learning alot–fyi this is the one subject I have had my concerns about teaching, and this is our first year using CM.  SCM’s recommendation couldn’t have worked any better for both of us, it’s a really perfect fit!  Thanks Sonya! 

We use PLL and love it (now using it on our 3rd child). It’s inexpensive, non-consumable, and perfectly CM.

We do almost every lesson orally, in just a few minutes. If the lesson needs going over again, we just review it the next day. We spend a day going over the poems when they come up…then just take a few weeks to memorize them, while still continuing through the book.

With my first child who used it, we did 2nd and 3rd grade. Then with my next we did most of it in 2nd. This time around, I’m using it with my 1st grader…with the  intentions of completing it by end of 2nd. It was just an easy resource to use for Copywork, and allowed a little more 1 on 1 time with him (he also just likes it).

I’m with everyone else on the doubling up…if the English lesson happens to cover copywork or narration  or whatever…we are sure not to ‘repeat’  those again that day in a separate lesson.

***after PLL we veer a little from CM style English/Grammar and switch to R&S (although it is narrative-style, and ‘somewhat’ recommended by AO)/ We start with book 2 in 3rd, doing them orally until book 5 in 6th. Then they start using paper and pencil, and doing the work mostly independently. We stop at book 7 in 8th grade, per Catherine Levinson’s suggestion that R&S book 7 is collegiate-level grammar. So far, PLL has them more than prepared to start a more rigorous English program.***