I can not speak highly enough about the Language Lessons for a Living Education curriculum. We were looking for something that was all inclusive, open-and-go, and had short enough lessons that my son could stay focused. This curriculum manages to give us all of those and more. The way that the lessons are set up work really well for us. Each lesson spans a week long and is made up of five exercises. Each day of the week you learn a different part of language arts, for example, on day one you have a reading and reading comprehension exercise while on day five you learn new spelling words and practice them in activities. The mixture of different language lessons throughout the week makes for an all-inclusive curriculum without feeling bogged down.
PROS:
- Short lessons
- Parent/child shared reading
- All inclusive language lessons
- Colourful and childfriendly pages
- Five day lesson play
- Open and go, only one book needed
- Religious morals and values
CONS:
- Bound book makes it hard to write in
- Expensive shipping outside the USA
- Light on the reading lessons
THE STORIES & PICTURE STUDIES
The stories at the beginning of each lesson in Language Lessons for a Living education are written in a way they both the child and the parent read together. In each story, you are following along the book’s overall storyline. In book 2 you are following two children’s journey in Sunday school and how God can help them in their day to day life. Every few lessons the book also includes picture studies. This allows children can practice their observation skills.
THE LESSONS
Every lesson includes a week full of five exercises. The book takes a Charlotte Mason approach to teach the language arts, the lessons learned are related to real life circumstances. The lessons should only take approximately 20 to 30 minutes. Which is one of the main reasons this curriculum appealed to us. The lessons are presented in patterns, children learn to rely on the rhythm from week to week. The first day is for the special feature, the second and third days are for writing, the fourth day is for the student to create, and the fifth day is for spelling.
THE MONEY
When we are looking for curriculum most of us take into consideration not only the quality of what we are buying but also the cost of the curriculum. We personally use Language Lessons for a Living Education and All About Reading because I really value the extra help that All About Reading provides my son. If you didn’t have a struggling reader I feel that you could use only this curriculum for your well-rounded language arts. You can buy this curriculum from Master Books for $36.99USD or if you’re in Canada you can buy from Learning House for $49.99CAN.
