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Finding a Language Arts Curriculum that WORKS for your kid! {Episode 238}
369 Plays1 year ago
If your child is struggling with language arts, or even if some little thing is not working out, this episode is for you! Bonnie & Audrey cover the 7 different learning styles and how they are important when learning language arts. If you are building a homeschool language arts curriculum, listen to this first!
Grab our free episode guides here!
Mentioned in this episode:
1st Language Lessons Audio Companion
Cover story & 1 Year adventure novel
Vocabulary from Classical Roots
About Outnumbered the Podcast:
Two moms, parenting a combined total of 19 kids and finding joy in the chaos.
Join Audrey and Bonnie as they share real parenting tips for real people through humor, advice and compassion.
Whether it's tackling how to teach kids to work or discussing where to turn when you're all out of patience, these two experienced moms are here to offer authentic tips for raising children joyfully.
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Focus
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome back to episode 238. We are talking about language arts and how to help your kids best learn language arts. We know that with school coming up, you're probably thinking about this and maybe if your child's been struggling, we hope this episode will be super helpful for you. We talk about seven different learning styles and how to best help your kid learn language arts. So let's start talking about language arts.
00:00:32
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Outnumbered the Podcast. I'm Audrey. And I'm Bonnie. We are experienced moms to a combined total of 19 children. In our weekly episodes, we explore relatable topics using our perspectives of humor and chaos. Tune in for advice and encouragement to gain more joy in your parenting journey. Hey, everybody. We're glad to see you again.
00:01:00
Speaker
and talk to you again. And this week we are thinking that you are probably getting back into school or thinking about getting back into school. And so we wanna resume some of our school series. And the one subject we haven't talked about yet is language arts. And so we're gonna talk to you all about helping your kids with language arts today.
00:01:21
Speaker
Okay, and whenever we talk about homeschool, I just have to remind everyone that this isn't a humor segment so much as it is, a friendly reminder
Personal Homeschooling Insights
00:01:29
Speaker
that your kid's performance in their education means very little about you. Okay, so if we all just sat around and ate bonbons and watched TV, then yeah, your kid would probably not be very educated. But those of us who homeschool try so hard.
00:01:46
Speaker
98% of the time we are trying very hard to make sure that our kids get a great education. So this is just your friendly reminder before we do another awesome education episode to take the meaning, any negative meaning out of whatever your child ends up performing like. I just ended up graduating a kid and his
00:02:03
Speaker
performance in high school was not what I expected. And he chose to make some educational choices that I wouldn't have made. And it's all okay. And it's his life. And that's what he gets to do. So there's your friendly reminder that you are doing a fantastic job. Keep going. Absolutely.
Language Arts Teaching Methodologies
00:02:20
Speaker
And that is just perfect with what I was going to say next, because there are about a million different ways to study language arts, like seriously. And there really isn't any
00:02:32
Speaker
wrong way to study language arts. Like a lot of times there's kind of this, oh, this debate going on, like the best way to teach language, like whole language or phonics, right? Like there's this big, are you on team phonics or are you on team whole language? Well, both have great attributes to them. That's why they have such a great following, each of them. There's really not any wrong way. So as long as you're being intentional about teaching your kids language arts,
00:03:00
Speaker
You're doing great and keep it up. Yes, exactly. And in fact, I almost prefer to call it communication, like forms of communication, right? Because people get tangled up in the language aspect and just think, oh, well, I'm not a good speller. I'm not a good writer. It's so much more than that. When we talk about language arts, we're talking about, yes, spelling.
00:03:20
Speaker
Yes, grammar and writing. Vocabulary as well. Studying the roots of words, right? So I'm a linguist by trade, if we will. That was my education. And I love, love, love language. There are so many different aspects of it.
Understanding Learning Styles
00:03:34
Speaker
Creative writing. So journaling is language arts. Poetry. In fact, for our family, we also incorporate a lot of
00:03:41
Speaker
art inside our language arts because it is a form of communication. It's like we're going to learn about this thing and then we're going to study a painting about it and then we're going to write about it and just to kind of lump all these different forms of communicating an idea with someone together I think gives us lots of freedom to do whatever we want with it. Okay, so as in all of our other episodes on educating our kids and helping them in different subjects, we are going to share with you
00:04:08
Speaker
more about the seven different learning styles and how each of these learning styles best learns language arts. And this is because we have a whole episode on basically how to learn your kid's learning style.
00:04:22
Speaker
And the more you learn about your kid, the better teacher you can be for to them, because the more effective the things and the methods that you're using to teach them. And this also, by the way, applies if you're just helping your kids with homework, like if they go to public school, it is also very helpful for you to learn and maybe even more important because you have less time with them to teach them to learn their learning style so that you the time that you spend with them can be the most effective.
00:04:50
Speaker
Yes, exactly. That's what I was going to say as well, especially considering if your kid is in a large classroom, the teacher is most definitely not specializing each child's educational experience to them, right? So if you could do this, do that for them during homework time or anytime that they're caught up on something, you know, stuck on something and you have to explain it further.
00:05:07
Speaker
how much further that's going to go for them because they don't have that experience during school. So, so beneficial. And I will say this, that sometimes, especially if you have a large family, it can seem really overwhelming to try to figure out each kid's learning style and cater their learning exactly to them. We're not saying you have to do that per se, unless it's really fun for you, you can. I just kind of have a general idea that, okay, if I sit this kid down with a math textbook and expect him to bang at a lesson, it's not going to happen.
00:05:33
Speaker
He needs to be standing. He needs to do something interactive. Just understanding your kid's personalities, which you probably already have a rough idea of how each kid learns. So again, you don't have to go through and just think, well, my kid's a visual learner. I have to do it this way. They said, we have to do it this way. No, this is just to give you so many different options and ideas to have something to fall back on if something all of a sudden starts not working for your child, especially if something has worked in the past. Oh, we always did kind of an auditory lesson and it worked, and now my child is
00:06:02
Speaker
not learning so much that way, you can shift into something else and try a new tactic. Yeah, that's absolutely right. Oftentimes, I don't start thinking about my kids' learning style until they're struggling with something, and then I start troubleshooting like, okay, maybe I'm not teaching this in the most effective manner that this child can learn. So this, by us categorizing it into these different
00:06:26
Speaker
groups, these different learning styles is just to help you if your kid is struggling. But any of these ways of teaching is great and fun too. Yes, exactly. Okay, so we're going to start with
Teaching Techniques for Visual and Auditory Learners
00:06:38
Speaker
visual. Now visual might seem, it usually seems like the simplest because we do lots of reading and writing on paper in front of our eyeballs, right?
00:06:45
Speaker
But there is an added step that you can use to help visual learners, and that is just getting a little bit more creative in how you explain things. So yes, they could write out their work. They can also represent it in other ways, other visual ways, right? But you just have to get a little bit creative. They're also known as spatial learners, right? So seeing things in space.
00:07:06
Speaker
If possible, try to replace words with symbols. This works really well, especially for younger learners who are trying to learn how to read. And sometimes I think, gosh, too bad we don't learn Chinese in our country. That's one that has, you know, the symbols and the symbols mean something instead of just representing a sound.
00:07:24
Speaker
This is a very, very simple trick, but it does help those visual spatial learners make the connection with the concept, right? The symbol equals something. So something as simple as instead of writing number, you write the little hashtag sign for number, right? Or something, you know, the equal sign, what's it called? The equal sign with the line through it doesn't equal something like that.
00:07:44
Speaker
That could mean different or opposed to or something, right? You could do a little piece symbol for the word piece. You could just get creative. In fact, I don't know if you guys have ever done those little games where you have to figure out what the symbol means and write the word for it. Something like that could be really an easy way for your child to practice spelling, for example. They have to go through and replace the symbols with words and then they're practicing out their letters. So again, creativity is key.
00:08:07
Speaker
But ask your child what could be helpful. If you're feeling kind of lost, like, oh gosh, I want to help my visual learner, but I don't know where else to go, ask them. They probably have lots of ideas because they know what they need to see to make it more understandable.
00:08:22
Speaker
Those are such good ideas. Okay, so here's some more tips for those visual learners. Use copious amounts of visual aids in learning. Anything that you're teaching them by you speaking, any auditory instruction, it needs to be accompanied by something that they can see with their eyes. So if they can't see it, if they only hear it, us saying, but I told you doesn't mean anything because it's not working for them. Try color coding, assigning colors,
00:08:51
Speaker
Like, two common themes in textbooks, like using a yellow highlighter to highlight all vocabulary words. This helps your kid associate certain things with colors. Colors can help the brain remember complex and abstract concepts. It's just really a good way to work in a little bit of extra visual for these kids. Like, they're spelling words. If any spelling words in an ING, underline that in red, right? So then they're looking at all those. And that kind of thing is really helpful to them, color coding.
00:09:20
Speaker
Yeah, which reminds me, spelling is especially hard for visual learners because they have to see it. And very often they can't see it until it's actually written down. So for example, I've always been a great speller, but not so great in spelling bees because I cannot see it, right? And so having maybe a jumbled up word that I have to then put in the correct order is so much easier for me. I know I've shared this story before, but when I was learning Russian, which is not Latin alphabet, it drove me crazy. They just kept saying, repeat this word.
00:09:45
Speaker
I can't repeat it. I can't see it. You have to show it to me. Once we learned how to spell, I was like, thank you. I can learn this language now. I just could not get it through my ear. So, you know, listen to your kid if they're saying it doesn't make sense. If this makes sense, think of a better way to to show it to them. OK, let's move on to auditory again.
00:10:03
Speaker
These are the opposite of me. So you probably know when you have your auditory learners, repetition is so great. And again, spelling works great for that. You can just sound it out over, I mean, spell it out over and over and over. Q&A sessions, you're talking back and forth, getting some questions and answers out. Debates are so great for them and debates are so great for language because kids are learning really the same skills they need for writing. They're just doing them all verbally. Music, recording themselves, reading or spelling,
00:10:29
Speaker
group projects, podcasts, show and tell, verbal games, so many different ways. In fact, sometimes I just really wish I was an auditory learner. It seems a lot easier for me. I have a really great resource for all your auditory learners. And we're going to link a bunch of stuff in the show notes. So this is one to definitely go check out all our links. There's something called Schoolhouse Rock. It came out in the, I don't know, the Dark Ages.
00:10:57
Speaker
time ago, but it is still relevant today. And there's also grammar rock. So they have like the noun song. They have like, you know, the song about verbs and all of it. And they're just really fun and catchy. And if you have an auditory learner, this will be so helpful to them. Um, I have a little story about spelling and this is for my child that is an auditory learner. Um, so this child was a terrible, terrible speller, like the most hideous spelling
00:11:24
Speaker
on paper in her stories when she was writing them. And, um, she'd always like, she knew her spelling was terrible, but she didn't know how to do anything about it. So finally, one day she, so she would come to me and she would say, how do you spell? And I'd spell it for her verbally and she'd write it down. That should have been my clue. Right. But, um, so then one day she's asking me, how do you spell? And it was just like this stupidly simple word. And I said,
00:11:50
Speaker
Well, how do you think it's spelled? And she spelled it perfectly out loud, just immediately. And I was like, Oh, so then every time she came to me and said, how do you spell and say, how do you think it's spelled? And she could spell it out loud perfectly every single time. And we like did this, even like did this little test. It was, it's a shame that she was homeschooled because she would have won like every spelling bee ever.
00:12:11
Speaker
we just got out a dictionary and just started asking her to spell all these words aloud. And every single one of them, she got perfectly. But if you picked up a paper that she had written and read it, you would have been like, this child is borderline mentally retarded because of their spelling or something. It was so funny, the difference. And that was kind of, that was one of my oldest kids. And that was kind of like so eye-opening to me about learning a kid's learning style and helping them through using the right learning style for them.
00:12:41
Speaker
Yes, again, as a reminder, if you're beating your head against the wall regularly with a child, it just is probably because they're not getting it the way they need to get it, right? And even with the kids, I would say especially with the kids who are delayed in some way or have some sort of, they're not neurotypical in some way, it's very, very important that they get it the right way because their why are different and their brain just is not going to be able to grasp it a different way. Many of us have learned to figure out, compensate, right? If the auditory part doesn't work, we figure it out another way, but then the non-neurotypical kids are going to struggle with that, right?
00:13:11
Speaker
Okay, so let's move on to kinesthetic.
Strategies for Kinesthetic and Logical Learners
00:13:13
Speaker
In my experience, this tends to be a lot of my boys. They need to touch things. They need to be active. They need to be moving in some way in order to learn things, right? So any sort of move. Standing on their head, bouncing as well, right? Kicking their sister, right? Something, something.
00:13:28
Speaker
So, incorporate movement in some way. I know that this is frustrating for the moms who just want to sit and play school with their kids and do it like the public school. But these kids need the movement. They need that kinesthetic stimulus going on for them to learn. Building things, especially like a reader or something, you can get those letter blocks and have them put them together. As soon as they start touching things, it starts to connect in their brain.
00:13:55
Speaker
doing stories or visuals, drawing diagrams, tracing letters, all of these things can help them with language arts. You can also just find other ways of making letters and spelling. Pipe cleaners or Play-Doh or anything where they're getting their hands dirty. You've probably seen those little sandpaper tracing things where their finger is connecting something to their brain, right? It's just flowing through that movement.
00:14:24
Speaker
Okay, yes, all those things are so helpful for kinesthetic learners, even like using flashcards because they're getting to shuffle those cards as they go. Multitasking is a kinesthetic learners can do that and it actually helps them to do more than one thing at a time. So like if they're literally squeezing one of those stress toys as they're trying to learn their spelling, it's going to help them.
00:14:48
Speaker
Um, if, if they like to go on walks or move, they can listen to like an educational podcast or an audio book. Um, they can do things that like, as they're moving their body.
00:15:01
Speaker
videos are helpful for these kids. They can play the part of the teacher so some kids and often kinesthetic kids learn by teaching because they're like actually doing the teaching. Educational trips are huge for these guys like you may not think of that many educational field trip opportunities that pop to mind when you think about language arts but what about like a newspaper office or you know something like that.
00:15:25
Speaker
Games are so fun and helpful for these kind of kids. There are so many games that use letters and words and reading, grammar, that kind of thing, writing. So, Rummy Cup, Scrabble, Monopoly. There are so many games we're actually going to talk about more and link more in the show notes, of course.
00:15:41
Speaker
Yeah, and you know, when you mentioned the field trip, what I think about with field trips is the talking about them afterwards, like you come home and you communicate about them and you write a paper about them or you pretend you were someone who lived
00:15:56
Speaker
in ancient Greece, which is what you just went and saw in the museum, right? So many different ways of getting what they've just experienced out of their brain and onto paper, that's all language arts, right? So language arts can be used in any aspect of life and should be because that's kind of the whole point of learning is so we can be communicated, right?
00:16:18
Speaker
This episode is brought to you by our free episode guides. We have done so many amazing episodes that you can use, but we were afraid they might be getting lost in our almost 250 episodes. Yes, so we created these free episode guides so you guys can find everything you're looking for in one spot. We have one for our series on babies and toddlers, teens, on marriage, and so on. But today, we want to make sure you know about the guide we made for you about schooling your children.
00:16:45
Speaker
We both homeschool our kids, and in our episodes, we share tons of information and resources about what has worked for us. In most of these episodes, we discuss the topic like history, math, or science in relation to the seven different learning styles so you can teach your child in the most effective manner possible.
00:17:03
Speaker
And even if you're not a homeschooler, we know these can help you with homework and other projects that your kids bring home. So be sure to click the link in the show notes so you can grab the free episode guide to all our episodes, including the one for homeschooling your kids or educating them in another way. When planning your school year, be sure to listen to the specific episodes pertaining to where you need extra help, depending on the topic. And we know that our amazing resources and tips will help you successfully educate your own kids.
00:17:26
Speaker
Okay, so let's move on to logical. Logical is one that's a little bit less understood, I think because it's not one very specific sense, you know, like touch or sound or eyes. But it very often requires some visual material. Sometimes kids need to use a computer or something where they can very logically go through their work, a hands-on project. Very often they need goals and planners and to-do lists and calendars where they can check things off
00:17:56
Speaker
They can highlight things. There tend to be very good note takers, but they have to do things very step by step. Yeah. These are your math kids. These kids often actually struggle in language arts because they're so good at math. Like their brain is so logical and language arts isn't always categorized in a way that they understand. Like we keep using spelling as an example. Like English spelling? Yeah. Not logical in the least. Use categorization when you can, classifications.
00:18:25
Speaker
Students who are struggling to write like that whole blank piece of paper in front of them, have them create an outline first. That will really help them. So it'll help them pan out the small details into their, you know, and they can work and make a big picture from there. That is so helpful to them. And you're right that like the planners and the outlines and the goals, like those things really help them make more logical sense out of things that sometimes aren't very logical.
00:18:55
Speaker
English language and grammar rules and that kind of thing.
00:18:59
Speaker
Yes, I'm so glad that you added the outline part. I have a logical part of me too as well. And looking at a blank piece of paper, the free writing really stresses me out because it doesn't feel like it makes any sense, right? I don't want to just put garbage on a paper. I want to be able to, like I like to fill things out, right? So here's the intro. The intro has to include all these things. And so it just kind of compartmentalizes the paper into these little chunks. It's a lot easier to tackle instead of, yeah, like you said, looking at the blank paper of death.
00:19:26
Speaker
Yeah, but you know what? These are the kids that actually love to learn grammar rules and spelling rules because they're out there and they exist. And a lot of people like never have to learn them to be able to use grammar and spell correctly. But for these kids, it's super important to learn those rules like parsing and diagramming sentences. That's a very logical brain thing to do with a sentence. And they love it. I found that my kids that were really good at math
00:19:55
Speaker
just loved parsing sentences, diagramming sentences. And, um, parsing means, you know, separating them into the different parts of speech. This is a noun, this is a verb, this is a gi runt, this is a, you know, whatever. And then diagramming them. And like, it's very, very mathematical somehow to draw those little straight lines and put the words in the correct places. And that really helped them learn about language that wasn't very logical when they could do it in a logical way.
00:20:21
Speaker
Yeah, totally, totally. Okay, so let's move on to verbal.
Engaging Verbal and Social Learners
00:20:27
Speaker
This is one that works really well with language arts, right? Often goes hand in hand with auditory. So you can offer instruction in writing and verbally for kids, reading books out loud, having them read their books out loud, which sometimes gets tricky in a large family, but hopefully you have a little corner of the backyard or something, you can send them out there to read their books out loud.
00:20:47
Speaker
or have the child read it back to you, right? They create a paper and they have to read it out loud. Make sure that you make things interesting verbally, right? So these verbal kids, again, with the auditory ones as well, they don't want to hear a story read in a boring monotone voice. They want the characters and they want the personalities. They want everything. They want it to come to life for them verbally, right?
00:21:10
Speaker
Make sure that you are giving them lists of words that they are encountering every day so that they know what to expect. They know the sounds. They know the meanings. They're able to make the connection verbally with the things that they're seeing on paper.
00:21:39
Speaker
I'm about to use the word mnemonic and I want to give an example of that. And so I want to, it's like an acronym. Right. Hang on. You're on mute. Help me out. I think the actual definition is just a memory aiding device, something that helps them remember, even if it's just like connecting the word to something they already know, you know, right? Right, right, right, right. Okay. These guys, it is also helpful for them to do some verbal
00:22:09
Speaker
and little language tricks, like if you use mnemonics. So, you know, a mnemonic is like a device, like a pattern of letters, ideas, associations.
00:22:17
Speaker
I'm sure you memorize the rainbow as Roy G. Biff, right? To remember what order they went in, right? So that's like a mnemonic. Rhythms, poetry, written material for editing book reports, scripts to memorize and perform like plays, debates. These kids love to write their own stories and like read them aloud and like they even like to write plays like in different voices, that kind of thing.
00:22:41
Speaker
And these guys also do very well with educational games, especially ones that have a verbal component to them. Surprise, surprise, right? So like Boggle, Scrabble, Crosswords, Word Searches. We have a game that we love. I can't believe I haven't mentioned it yet. It's called Quiddler, and it's a card game with letters on it, and we love Quiddler. And so anyway, games are super helpful for these guys too.
00:23:06
Speaker
Yes, and you know, it's making me realize that even though verbal and auditory seems similar, it's actually quite different because the way the brain works when it's bringing in stimulus is much different than when it's putting out these words. So remember that just because one kid learns by listening doesn't mean the other one will because he's verbal. He might actually just have to have it come out of his mouth. And like we've talked about before, right, Audrey? In order for me to understand, I have to use words. Yes, that's a good point.
00:23:35
Speaker
But I'm not an auditory learner at all. If it comes in, I'm just like, well, kind of lost. So it's very interesting how, yes, it is sound, but it's different the way your brain is either bringing it in or sending it out. So interesting. Okay. So let's talk for a minute about social and interpersonal. These are the kids that always just want to sit and gossip instead of doing their work. They always have something to say to their neighbor, their sister, and they want to make a phone call instead of doing their schoolwork. They love
00:24:03
Speaker
homeschool co-ops, support groups, friends, book clubs, some sort of online community or forum. They want to text a friend before they do anything. They have to be involved in social discussion. They love group projects. They want to be engaged with other people. Working alone is very, very hard for them. But again, if they are online, here's just your friendly reminder to make sure they're navigating it safely. They may have an educational opportunity to be on there and communicate with people.
00:24:29
Speaker
But we just know it's kind of a mess out there, so watch what your kid's doing, obviously. They love to role play, have panel discussions or debates. That's a really great way for them to discuss and learn from other people. They really do need that back and forth in order for things to get cemented in their brain. Okay, some more ideas for you. Have them review someone else's work. Sometimes they learn by reading how someone else is coming at it. Often they learn. And then they practice effective communication on
00:24:57
Speaker
how to relate to somebody else your thoughts about what they wrote or what other work. This would actually work excellently if your siblings are working on the same assignment. But also, you can find other things out there. Have them review the classics. Not just read it, but review it. Think about what would Thomas Jefferson's teacher have said about this thing that he wrote, that kind of thing.
00:25:25
Speaker
Field trips also work well for social learners. They get out, they get to interact with people, they can interview professionals, and they can learn about career opportunities. All things that have them interacting with other people helps these kids learn.
Supporting Solitary Learners
00:25:37
Speaker
Okay, finally, our last learning style is the solitary or intrapersonal one, the one that hates the group projects and just wants to work by themselves, right?
00:25:46
Speaker
They love to keep journals and diaries. This is so great for language arts, right? They want to just view the world and process it themselves and putting that down into words is a really, really useful way to do that. Make sure that they have their own personal interests and beliefs in mind when they're planning goals, right? So don't set arbitrary goals for them. Ask them what they're interested in and make sure that that is lined up so that they have that passion when they go into learning their language arts.
00:26:12
Speaker
It helps them, like I said, be more motivated, but also increases their confidence and helps them look forward to their own learning, their next phase of learning, right? So let's say they've decided they're going to learn. We'll just talk about...
00:26:26
Speaker
Ancient Egypt, that was something I was super passionate about in elementary school. Allow them to plan out those lessons in keeping with those amazing interests they have because they tend to be really passionate about them if they can dive in and focus on them by themselves. And then they are just that much more interested in their schoolwork, which we can always use kids that are more interested in what we're doing, right?
00:26:45
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. Field trips, like take that journal out in nature. Use a very wide assortment of books for these kids. Websites, videos, a wide resource. If they're learning by themselves, just give them a big variety of input. And make sure they have a quiet place to go to study. You can use lists and check items as they're completed. There is a way, they need to have a way that they can check in.
00:27:08
Speaker
Okay, so just to share a little bit about how our family does language arts.
Family Approaches and Curriculum Resources
00:27:12
Speaker
For many, many years, our primary focus was just on classic books because I had a lot of kids and I was a little bit overwhelmed at giving them all each their own individual language arts type of study. And it worked really, really well for us. Honestly, my kids would read and then we would talk back. We would do the, I forget the name of it, but basically where they would read and they would come back and summarize it to me, which was very helpful.
00:27:35
Speaker
Sometimes we had to do it written down because some kids just couldn't process it auditorily, right? They had to, or verbally rather, they had to read and they had to go write it down. But that I think really set them up for success in so many ways. And now we generally use, again, lots of really great books, but we really like The Good and The Beautiful. That's kind of our default in a lot of areas. And what I love about The Good and The Beautiful is that it does incorporate art and geography into their language arts. So it makes things a little bit easier on me.
00:28:00
Speaker
And then it also, I think, brings things full circle instead of, I think that's sometimes the big mistake we use, especially in institutions of learning, is separating all the subjects out. But I want my kids to be able to communicate about where they live and where they want to travel and what is beautiful in the world and read about how someone expressed their own interests in art and music and everything else, and then be able to communicate it themselves. So that's kind of how things work for us around here.
00:28:25
Speaker
Yes. That's exactly why we use tapestry of grace is because they have a writing. All the writing is incorporated in what you're learning in history and literature and all that. It's all connected. So we love that too. We also like to supplement and use all of the PCL press curriculum that they put out. So like first language lessons, writing with ease, grammar for the well-trained mind, writing with skill, analytical grammar. We use spelling workout workbooks for those kids that like to have a workbook.
00:28:54
Speaker
We use vocabulary from classical roots to learn for those logical learners, the why behind why words are put together the way they are. We also like to use some of Daniel Schwabar's products and they like to take a whole year and study. So for example, cover story. So in the process of a year, everything that they're doing is writing a newspaper and all the writing assignments are geared toward that. One year adventure novel is another one of his products and it's the same way.
00:29:22
Speaker
It's you take an entire year and write an adventure novel and you learn language arts as you're doing that. It's all great works. And we will link all these things in the show notes too. Lastly, I put together my own poetry curriculum for us. And just like any good language arts program, it's going to use a variety of these learning styles to teach your kids. So it uses auditory, it uses verbal, it uses logical, it uses
00:29:47
Speaker
social, interpersonal, you know, intra personal, all these different ways are kind of built in visual. So look for a good language arts program that kind of uses touches on a lot of these different learning styles also.
00:30:00
Speaker
Yes, I love all those resources.
Encouragement and Experimentation
00:30:02
Speaker
And as a final thought, I just want to say once again, I think we say this at the end of every one of our educational episodes, don't let these resources overwhelm you, especially all the different ways, all the different styles of learning. It seems so overwhelming sometimes to think about them all. But one easy way to see how your kid
00:30:20
Speaker
Um, performs best is to just try something new each week, right? This week we're going to only read aloud and see how that goes. And you might have a few kids that are like, Oh my gosh, I love this. Let's do this all the time. And a couple others that are like, I don't know what's going on. I can't, I can't follow the darn story. Right. And then, you know, and if you can add that into your, into your school notebook or wherever you keep notes is.
00:30:38
Speaker
Okay, you know what I noticed? Is Johnny really struggles with read alouds. He probably needs to follow along while we're reading, or maybe he needs to just read quietly on his own. So just, again, don't let yourself get overwhelmed. Just try one new thing, maybe even one new thing a month, and then take some notes of what works and what doesn't, and who needs what, and then very easily you can kind of create your own little system for each kid.
00:30:59
Speaker
That's such good. That's such a fun way to do it. And I have a final thought here that besides using a program that uses a variety of methods, maybe you've noticed like, if you think back on your own education, some of the language arts things are what you can still remember today. Some of the stories, some of the poems, some of the methods, you know, some of the little spelling tricks that you learned, like the little rules and things. So
00:31:24
Speaker
This can be a really fun part, and if you can especially dig a little bit into your kids' learning styles and help them, it can be a very memorable, fun thing for them to learn, too. That's it for this week's episode. I'm Audrey. I'm Bonnie, and we're outnumbered.
00:31:45
Speaker
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