Language Arts Spotlight - Schoolhouse Teachers

Language Arts Spotlight

Schoolhouse Teachers.com

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Do you ever have those moments as a homeschool mama that make your eye twitch and you realize that Language Arts just isn’t your favorite thing to teach? No? Well I'm here to share a spotlight on some great Language Arts classes!

Back in my teaching days, I was the Language Arts teacher, but to this day I still do not like teaching spelling. All. The. Rules....now that makes my eye twitch. This is just one of the reasons why I'm grateful that I have access to SchoolhouseTeachers.com. With so many classes to choose from, I know that I can provide the opportunities to help my children to be thoughtful spellers and master the English language.

I had already planned to read several different versions of well-known fairy tales to my children this year, but I had not create the lesson plans yet. (Yes, so much to do and not enough time.) The other day I was scrolling through the Language Art classes offered on Schoolhouse Teachers.com and found this gem: Fun with Fairy Tales. Happy dance!! Now all I have to do is download and print the lesson plans then grab our stack of fairy tale books. As a busy mama of five that is a win-win in my book. 

Each class offered at SchoolhouseTeachers.com provides a clear and straightforward approach to the subject of Language Arts. Visit now to see what classes are available for your child. There are over 350 courses to choose from at Schoolhouse Teachers.com

Here are just a sampling of the classes available:

We have pre-reading, reading, and literature covered with courses such as:

ABC: What Will I Be?

Adventures with Books

African American Literature

All About the Alphabet

American Folklore

American Literature

Christian Values in J.R.R. Tolkien

Daily Puzzlers

Everyday Games

Literature Kits

Monthly Book Lists for Families

Pre-K Activities: Read and Play

Reading Lessons for Young or Struggling Readers 

Teaching Reading through Play
Worldviews in Literature

We can help your kids brush up on grammar, spelling, memorization, and research skills with courses including:

Daily Grammar

Fun with Memorization

Little Language Arts

Research Skills 7th Grade

Schoolhouse Spelling

Ways to teach writing abound with courses such as:

Adventures in Writing

Beginning Handwriting

Benjamin Franklin Writing Method

Creative Storytelling

Creative Writing

Daily Writing

Essay Writing 101

Everyday Copywork

Lapbooking

Sparking the Noggin: Creative Writing with Pictures

Writing

Writing: Advertising Copy

Writing: Mechanics

Introducing This Grace Place Book Club

Announcing 

This Grace Place Book Club!!!

I had mentioned earlier this year about starting a book club, and now I would like to cordially invite you, my readers, to join my book club. I enjoy reading and having someone to chat with about the book. Really, there is only so much my dear husband wants to hear about my mom books. 😉


Here are my thoughts about how I will be preceding with this fun idea. I have a good selection of books that I would love to read with a group of like-minded moms. We will meet every other week in a private Facebook group to discuss each chapter until we finish the book.

Sometimes the book will be a Mom book, a book about the CM method, a devotional, a classic, or Christian fiction. This book club will be a place to share what we love about what we are reading, a place to talk about areas that maybe we are struggling in, and a place to enjoy a book with a cuppa of your favorite drink and a few friends.

I hope to see you there. We will be starting our first book, Monday, September 11th. We will be reading Sally and Sarah Clarkson's book,The Lifegiving Home. You can find the Facebook group here:This Grace Place Book Club

If you have any questions or comments, leave them below or send me a message. I hope you will join my book club!

The Lifegiving Home - Book Review

Building a Lifegiving Home

I am planning on making this into a series of posts about books that I have been reading, reviewing or just books that are in my "to-be-read" pile. I haven't decided if this will be weekly, bi-weekly or monthly yet. Sometimes I write about books in my homeschooling posts too.

Reading good books is like breathing air for me. There are very few times when I do not have a book with me. Since becoming a mommy to now five munchkins, I have to be intentional about making time to read books that I want to read. This can be hard sometimes when we are in the thick of our homeschool year. Does anyone else binge read over the holidays or is it just me?

Today I am going to share with you about a book that I read awhile back but have picked back up to reread. It is Sally Clarkson's The Lifegiving Home book and study guide. I had the privilege of being apart of her launch team  before this book released back in 2016.  If you follow me on any of my other social medias then you know that I LOVE reading Sally's books. Her books are so inspiring to me on this journey of motherhood. I've even nicknamed her my "mentor mom". I love that she encourages her readers to turn to God and His Word for guidance because when the day is done ultimately God is the only One with the answers.

So let's get back to her book and the wonderful ideas that she shares with her readers. Sally actually co-authored this book with her oldest daughter, Sarah. I love Sarah's writings as well. I have some of her books too. The Lifegiving Home is a great book written to show you how you can bring back an element of beauty that seems to be lost in today's society.  So many times I have read where Sally encourages ladies to bring both beauty and truth into their lives, homes, and that of their families. Home should be the safe haven from this world that ridicules God and His Word. Our homes should be "Lifegiving" and a place of blessing for our families.

The book is broken down into two parts and includes a chapter for each month of the year. Each chapter has information about special times that can be celebrated during a specific month, stories about the Clarksons, questions to ponder, and fun ideas to incorporate or even spur you on to create your own. If you want to dig even deeper, then you will need to get the book, The Lifegiving Home Experience by Sally and Joel Clarkson. The study guide provides further study by showing you how to apply what you have read and planned in the main book. It is filled with even more ideas, questions to ponder, and book recommendations. I love books with lists of books!! If you are new to Sally Clarkson and her books, then I urge you to visit her website and to sign-up for her newsletter. She has some exciting news going on right now. You can find her at Sally Clarkson

Have you read any of Sally's books? If so, I would love to hear from you and how her books have encouraged you! 

Summer Fun 2017

Wow! Our summer has flown by this year! It is hard to imagine that it will be time to start a new school year soon. My children are actually asking to start school, which we will start (hopefully) in about three more weeks.  How has your summer been? Are you (or your children) ready for "Back-to-School"?


We have participated in summer reading programs, played card and board games as a family, the children loved making mud puddles with the water hose in the backyard, they spent time with the grandparents, and they played at a near-by creek. Summer memories have been made! 


If I were to ask my children to name their favorite thing we did this summer, it would probably be the Summer Reading Program for our local library with some homeschooling friends. A sweet homeschool mama headed up this great program. They had a goal of reading 400 minutes over a 5 week period and were able to collect pledge money for meeting this goal. Afterwards, they each got to pick out a book from Usborne as a reward. Usborne also let the children pick out a book valued at half of their pledge amount collected to be donated to our local library. I love having opportunities for my children to help their community as well as our local library. 

Summer is also my time to plan for our upcoming school year, review what did or did not work for us last school year, and to continue my teacher training. I read a lot of books and online articles concerning how to teach children, child development, and educational methods. Over the past year, we have been dipping our toes in the Charlotte Mason philosophy. A good many of my books in my reading pile reflect this as well. Here is a list of what I have been reading here and there over this summer:

1. Different by Sally and Nathan Clarkson (rereading)
2. A Different Kind of Hero by Sally and Joel Clarkson (rereading)
3. Buried Secrets by Irene Hannon
4. Charlotte Mason Education by Catherine Levison (rereading)
5. More Charlotte Mason Education by Catherine Levison (rereading)
6. Give Your Child the World by Jamie C. Martin
7. Beyond Survival by Diana Waring
8. Drawing with Children by Mona Brookes
9. Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola

My summer reading!

In other news, I wrote my first magazine article this summer for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine! I am still tickled pink that I had this opportunity. I've been reading the TOS magazine since we first decided that we were going to homeschool. You can read the current issue online at The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

My copy of the Summer 2017 issue.

Dollar Tree Educational Materials 2015-2016 Review

In today's post I will be talking about the different educational products from the Dollar Tree. Actually we have been using Dollar Tree workbooks since we started homeschooling back in 2011. The preschool and kindergarten level workbooks are a great and inexpensive way to introduce basic learning to your children.


The most recent books that we used were on a 1st and 2nd grade level to help supplement my daughter's spelling, phonics, and handwriting. The pages were colorful, and the activities didn't take her long to complete. Normally I would only assign about 1-2 pages per week from each book. If her other subjects had a lot of writing then we might skip a week here and there. These workbooks were easy to use, and once she learned what was expected from each type of exercise she was pretty independent in getting her work done. (which was a big win for me so that I could have more focused attention with my boys) My daughter and I both loved these types of workbooks, but I'm not sure if we will be able to find any for her level this fall.


Since 2011, we have used not only the workbooks but have also stocked up on items from the teacher section and school supplies. We have a blow-up globe that is wonderful to use when we want to look up a location from our studies. All of my kids love picking out pencils, stickers, and notebooks that they get to use during the year. Honestly, the Dollar Tree is one of our top spots to buy items we need to stock up for the school year.

Explode the Code 2015-2016 Review

Today I want to talk about the Explode the Code Book series by Nancy M. Hall. We have used at least one of the books in the series for the past two years. All together we have used Books A,B,C, 3 and 4 for two of my children. These were not the only books we used for our language arts, but they were definitely favorites for my children. I felt like the books were a great fit for us because each one was on target for the individual learner.


Let's start with the beginning books. I used these with my Kindergartner/1st grader. He completed all three books over the course of 1 1/2 school years. He loved these books which is a plus in my book! The book order is "Get Ready for the Code, Book A", "Get Set for the Code, Book B", and "Go for the Code, Book C". All three of the books cover the consonant letters and sounds, but there is a certain set of letters covered in each book. These were a great way to introduce my son to the consonant letters. The books could be used as a stand-alone program or in conjunction with another beginning reading program. There are letter and picture cards that can be purchased separately as well as a wall chart to display the cards, but we didn't use that part of the program. There are about 6-8 pages of activities for each letter. The pictures are simple black-line drawings that are appealing for young kids, and the activities are simple but engaging. I did purchase the Teacher's Guide to go-along with the Student Books. The Teacher's Guide is necessary for some of the activities because you will need to read a description of a picture for your child to identify. The Teacher's Guide also offers different teaching ideas, hints, literature links and introduces sight words. Once your child completes these books then it is on to "Explode the Code, Book 1". My son has requested to continue using this series, and I am happy to oblige.


The other books that we used were "Explode the Code, Books 3&4" with my 2nd grader. She completed these two books in about 2 school years. We slowed down when she needed extra practice which helped to stretch out the books as well. In Book 3 the focus is on long vowels. In Book 4 the focus is on compound words, common word endings (such as -ful, -ing, -est, -ed, -ness), and syllables (such as open, closed, silent -e and digraph). The pictures are still the same black-line drawings in the A,B, and C books. The activities are more advanced than the books that my son used, but I felt like the books were still a good fit for her level. There is a consist amount of writing with these books. According to the product description on Christian Book Distributor Books 3 &4 are geared for children in grades 1st-3rd. I also purchased the Teacher's Guide for these books. The guides are grouped for two books at a time. So the first Teacher's Guide is for Books 1&2, the second Teacher's Guide is for Books 3&4, and so on. There are also half step books between each level for extra practice. We haven't used any of these books yet. I normally google ideas or hit up Pinterest for activities to help if my children are struggling to understand a concept. My daughter enjoyed these books for the most part, but I am not sure if we will continue with this series for next year yet.



For the record all opinions are my own. I am not a paid representative for Explode the Code. I just love talking about homeschooling, curriculum, methods and styles. I would love to hear which language arts curriculum that you use and why. Also if you have used the "Learning Language Arts Through Literature" for the elementary grades I would love to hear about your experience. Thanks a bunch, and have a blessed week!