The other day I was talking to a family member who was confused as to what we were doing with Max this upcoming school year. Honestly this has been on the back burner because of everything going on with Nathaniel, however it is on our radar and I am glad that I did the leg work for this before Nathaniel was born! Anyway, we will be ordering Max’s box soon so hopefully we can start in October.
We have decided to not go with Calvert again this year. Calvert is tied to the Common Core Standards that are controversial and in 45 states. A quick google search of news stories can show you that it is in the news right now. New Jersey doesn’t require that Max does standardized testing (till we need him to do it to get into college) so I don’t want to subject Max to something that may be irrelevant in a few years. I would rather my child not be used as a guinea pig unless he has to be. Ironically it was Calvert aligning more with Common Core that even brought this to my attention as they changed their math options and I was learning about their new math program.
So that brings me to what we are going to be doing. You can click on the names to learn more about them, but honestly I just pulled the information from their websites.
History Odyssey
- History is exciting when presented as a story.
- History is best studied through the reading of great books.
- History is best taught through a world view with an opportunity to learn about different cultures and how they interact, influence, and connect.
- 16 Ancient history blackline maps
- Hands-on activity instructions
- Extensive library lists for each lesson
- Suggested schedule for a 36 week school year
- 35 detailed lessons covering:
- Reading
- Writing
- Map work
- Activities
- Learning is experiential and deductive as pupils are encouraged to explore and discover scientific knowledge.
- Questions are purposefully posed to inculcate an inquisitive attitude towards the learning of Science.
- Fascinating photographs and colourful illustrations engage pupils’ minds and spark their curiosity about the world around them.
- Carefully selected visuals and minimal text allow all pupils regardless of language skills to understand scientific concepts, hence building learner confidence.
- Concrete examples from everyday life make Science relevant and accessible to the young learners.
- Mathematical concepts are introduced in the opening pages and taught to mastery through specific learning tasks that allow for immediate assessment and consolidation.
- The modeling method enables students to visualize and solve mathematical problems quickly and efficiently.
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The Concrete > Pictorial > Abstract approach enables students to encounter math in a meaningful way and translate mathematical skills from the concrete to the abstract.
- The pencil icon provides quick and easy reference from the Textbook to the relevant Workbook pages. The direct correlation of the Workbook to the Textbook facilitates focused review and evaluation.
- New mathematical concepts are introduced throughout a spiral progression that builds on concepts already taught and mastered.
- Metacognition is employed as a strategy for learners to monitor their thinking processes in problem solving. Speech and thought bubbles provide guidance through the thought processes, making even the most challenging problems accessible to students.
- Color patch
is used to invite active student participation and to facilitate lively discussion about the mathematical concepts taught. - Reviews in the Workbooks for 1A-1B and regular reviews in the Textbooks and Workbooks for 2A-5B provide consolidation of concepts learned.
- The glossary effectively combines pictorial representation with simple mathematical definitions to provide a comprehensive reference guide for students.
For example, a basal program may teach adjectives separately from other skills. The student may be asked to fill in blanks with adjectives and circle them in a paragraph. This may give your student a clue about adjectives, but does not translate into his practical use of adjectives in his writing.
In LLATL, your student may read literature passages that use adjectives. He may be asked to read the passage without the adjectives and decide how important they are to the understanding of a story. Another activity may include writing a descriptive sentence/paragraph about a picture using adjectives or rewriting the passage using different adjectives. These activities not only teach language arts skills in addition to adjectives, but your student will incorporate the skills into his everyday writing.
The goal of any language arts program should be to equip the student for a lifetime of communication through the written and spoken word. With LLATL, your student will acquire a deeper understanding and a greater interest in the language arts subjects.
Real books are used in the reading lessons, complete with vocabulary words, discussion questions and a variety of activities. Reading real books instead of basal stories makes reading a joy and the beginning of a lifelong adventure for your student.
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| Phonics / Spelling auditory discrimination – beginning sounds – blends – consonant sounds – decoding new words – ending sounds – long vowel sounds – short vowel sounds – sight words – silent e – vowel pairs – word families Reading character development – context clues – compound words – comprehension – describing characters – dialogue – drawing conclusions – following directions – inferences – left to right progression – maps – moral of a story – oral reading – plot – poetry – predicting outcome – reading aloud – recalling detail – retelling story – rhyme – setting – types of stories Grammar adjectives – alphabet – alphabetical order – antonyms – apostrophes – capitalization – exclamation marks – homonyms – nouns – periods – plurals – possessive nouns – proper nouns – punctuation – synonyms – verbs Composition composing sentences – composing paragraphs – composing stories – letter writing – narration – narration based on a picture – writing sentences Research and Study Skills dictionary – encyclopedia – library – map skills – parts of a book: title page, table of contents, author, illustrator, publisher – reference skills – research – thesaurus – verifying information Higher Order Thinking Skills alphabetical order – categorizing – compare and contrast – context clues – describing – details – drawing conclusions – evaluation of a story – fact and opinion – following directions – grouping – inferences – interpreting illustrations – making a list – matching – memorization – ordinal sequencing – patterns – personal application – predicting outcome – real and make-believe – story recall – sequencing Creative Expression charades – choral reading – coloring – drama – drawing – illustrating sentences – illustrating stories – making a book – memory game – narrating from a picture – puppets – telling a story Penmanship drawing shapes – lower case letters manuscript – upper case letters manuscript – punctuation – numbers – sentences |