Second Guessing spelling/phonics/grammar the CM way

I am not a purist.. I love something that is solid for each kid for spelling, grammar/writing, and phonics.  It’s just easier for me.. and it does “work”.

I just started Traditional Spelling from Memoria Press with my kids and like it so far. I just use the teacher’s guide and to reduce the time spent writing, do the word scrambles with Bananagrams tiles. But they still copy the words out in cursive because that is supposed to help with retention.

We’re not purists either….we also have dyslexia in at least 1 if not 2 kids and parents who are really poor spellers… maybe some form of dyslexia here too? I also like to use the same curriculum for each child so I get used to teaching it.

I use All About Spelling and All About Reading. 15 min lessons 3-5 times a week for each child. The short lessons make this doable. I am a firm believer in thorough phonics for each child ( there are many good programs) and all about spelling seems to help my dislexic so we’re going with it.

Analytical Grammar for the oldest 2. You could use anything here you like. We do delay grammar till 4th grade or later. I informally introduce parts of speech before this along with copywork.

I have used primarily Language lessons for 2-5 in the past. I like the lower levels fine but not the 5 and 6 as well. Also you can do the same thing without a curriculum. That’s what I’m doing with my current 2nd grader.

If you read Know and Tell by Karen Glass or other similar book(s) or Charlotte Mason’s writings, I am positive you can teach composition without a curriculum. I do oral narrations with all my kids. With the dyslexia, I am trying WriteShop Jr this year just to help get words onto paper. I will use it for the oldest 2 (12 and 10) along with a goal of 1 written narration each week.

Just my thoughts if anything helps you great, if not disregard it:) each mother and student are different.

Is his spelling good? How does he learn best? Do you have time to do it with him? Does he even need that?

For a more CM approach that is also somewhat systematic you could look at Dictation Day by Day. I haven’t used it, but it is in public domain so you can look at it and even try it for free. I have heard many people do like it.

My daughter is just going into 7th grade this year. We are not purist anything – we did a real mashup of CM, Montessori, and the dreaded worksheets (and very occasionally computer games). We used the phonics readers from themeasuredmom.com when she was little, and she loved the teach your monster to read computer game which is totally phonics based. She loved playing the games up until she was about 8 or 9 (she was way past them, but they were somehow a comforting reminder of her younger years). I’ve never used a complete curriculum for any subject except Latin. We made use of worksheets from k-5 learning and k-12 reader for grammar rules, but didn’t use them every day – only when I noticed in her writing that she wasn’t getting or applying a concept. I wouldn’t sweat it too much. Just if you notice a consistent mistake or struggle grab a worksheet to cement the skill.