How to teach the Logic of English to all learners

Spelling w/ movable alpha.

As a mom of three active boys I wanted to find a reading curriculum where they could use their bodies as they trained their minds. As a beginning homeschooler I wanted to find one that was comprehensive (taught reading, writing, spelling, and grammar together and completely), had laid out lesson plans for me to follow, was phonics intensive, and would allow me to see my preschooler try out different learning styles so I could see what types of curriculum would fit him best for other subjects going forward. I like to keep things simple, teaching only English and math through first grade, so it had to be pretty meaty in content but fun in application. If that isn't a tall order I don't know what is!

Logic of English Curriculum

At a home school chat night with my local home school mom group (Which you NEED to find one if you don't have a support group like this already!) The Logic of English swept in and took over all discussion for weeks! We were just thrilled to find such a professional, thoughtful, beautifully designed curriculum that not only taught the "what's" of our complicated language but the "why's" as well. There was just so much I learned from our discussion and introductory videos like this one (which is a little long but even just watching the first 10 minutes will blow you away) that my curiosity was peaked from the start!



One thing I love about this company is how there is a reason behind everything they do. Form teaching the kids how to make the letter sounds by watching your mouth form them to why they recommend cursive first (but have manuscript available too); they are happy to explain it to you through teacher training videos, the teachers manual, their website and they'll even respond to your questions directly on Facebook!

Our Experience

Last year I started Foundations A with my 3.5 year old because he was interested in "Learning his letters" and it starts as a first introduction to the alphabet about 5 lessons in. The first five lessons are teaching them how to make voiced and unvoiced sounds, what a baseline is for writing their letters, basic strokes they'll use and other concepts that will help them when they start to recognize that letters represent a sound. The concepts are so simple that my 3.5 year old felt success right out the gate and liked the games that each lesson suggested.

As we moved into the letters, they were presented in such a memorable way that he still sometimes will march around the house making all of the letter "I" sounds. At this age kids love repetition and reading the Doodling Dragons book has been wonderful for reinforcing the lessons, it's fun too when they want to read the sounds they've learned already to you! He struggled with the handwriting portion so we are going to review Foundations A before moving forward this year but they had adaptations for that too and I saw that when he could write them with chalk on the side walk or with his arm in the air he knew the letter shapes and it was just a matter of motor development before he could write them on paper. We also added Montessori movable alphabets (pictured at the beginning of the article) and tracing boards for spelling/ writing practice as he developed his motor skills for writing.

Long before we started reading small words we worked on blending and constructing/ deconstructing words so when we go to do it with the phonetic symbols (letters) they already understand the objective and have had practice doing it. When we reached lessons that he was getting stuck on (which wasn't until we were close to the end of the book) it was just a matter of slowing down and doing some more of the practice activities and games to reinforce the concept since each lesson is broken into parts we could easily separate them out based on attention span, time constraints, or comprehension.

Learning Styles

The best part of this curriculum though is the way it addresses different needs/ styles of learners. This is great if you know your child's learning style or as a way to see how they react to different types of learning activities and give you a better idea of what types of curriculum will work best in the future.

• You have a portion of the lesson that is taught by you directly for the auditory learners that need to be lectured/ have back and forth discussion. 
• There is always a through explanation of what you are doing next and why for those information hungry students who ask lots of questions, then once it's explained as you repeat different parts of the lesson in ongoing review, the introduction is skipped for the kids who like to get right to work. 
• You have them learn to write the letters as they learn the sounds for the visual/kinesthetic learners. What I love about this portion is how they get to pick the size of writing that is most comfortable to them because contrary to popular belief bigger isn't always better for students learning to write, some are simply more comfortable writing regular sized letters from the start. The lesson is also broken up into segments which allows the independent learner to have more choices in what you do first or how you practice different concepts.
• I thought it was cool that they had them look in a mirror or watch your mouth form the sounds for the visual learners and have them touch their throat or feel their breath as they learn to make the sounds correctly for the kinesthetic learners.
• Kinesthetic learners love that they use a lot of movement activities like bean bag toss games, having them make different movements as they audibly blend words like "spin" or "fall", marching to memorize the many sounds for the letter "I" or practice jumping from one letter to the next as they learn the sounds.
• Visual learners love that the writing portion is broken down by different strokes and that each phonogram is introduced with a tactile card, book, or flash card.
• Every kid LOVES learning through PLAY so each lesson has fun book suggestions, games, or extension activities with legos, chalk, Dr. Suess books, bingo boards, their card games, etc.

I could go on and on but I won't. This seriously is an amazing program that took into consideration: how the English language actually works, what is developmentally appropriate for the age of students it is designed for, how children learn, and that parents need to be able to understand it to teach it (they have the lessons laid out so you can do this quickly and with confidence, and resources to help you if you get stuck) and best of all it's fun! My preschooler looks forward to his lesson everyday.

Simple Co-op Circle Time

I recently posted about how I set up and found members for our STEAM Play Preschool Co-op. Today I'm going to talk about our typical class schedule.


We meet Fridays at 10:00 am (since we are pretty casual it's usually more like 10:15 by the time most of the class shows up)

We always start class or any field trip we go on with the super cute attention getting rhyme "I like learning" pictured to the left. (Along with the hand motions implied) I first heard it at the public library story time in Bountiful,Utah where they said "I like reading" instead of "I like learning" and it was so stinking cute it just stuck with me. The kids learn it quickly and get excited about the "Lets go!" part at the end.

After our welcome rhyme we sing Happy Birthday to anyone who had their birthday that week.

Then we talk about the weather. I made this cute weather chart found over at First Grade FUNdamentals. It didn't take more than some thick poster board, a laminator, scissors and a hot glue gun. (The arrows didn't survive the school year getting transported in the back of my SUV every week so we just ended up pointing to the chart at the end.) Also instead of making it hang from a wall I put a kick stand on it so it could sit on a desk.

Every week we first ask them what season it is, which is fun when the seasons change, but also really brings to mind how LONG Alaskan winters are! For awhile we had a cute "Season Tree" (but it kicked the bucket in the harsh conditions of the back of my car as well.) I'm going to try to build something sturdier for the spring transition but if yours isn't being transported you can get the pattern here and either color it or print it on brown paper and laminate it. After that I just used velcroe to attach color leaves for fall (made with a punch), flowers for spring (from a template at the bottom of that same page) and green leaves for summer (also made with a punch). The kids loved putting the leaves on/taking them off and it adds to a fun atmosphere in the classroom.

Once we review the season I have them look out the window an tell me what the sky looks like and then ask them how cold they think it is.

After this we will usually do another song or two or maybe a rhyme that has to do with the theme of the day. I got most of my songs from The Children's Song Book from my church or from a song and finger play book like this one the kids this age LOVE singing so when I need to buy some time, this is my go to activity. They really like the color song,  "Rain is Falling" and lately "The Bear Went Over the Mountain". Now that we've started Right Start Math, "Yellow is the Sun" is the new song we are obsessed with at my house and I'll definitely be adding it to the mix for early number concepts (be forewarned: It will get stuck in your head.)

That about sums up circle time. I read that concepts of time are a little early for the 3-5 year old range and meeting only once a week wouldn't really give them a good over view of the days of the week anyway. We just wanted to have something to draw them in and give them a sense of routine since the topics/ teachers change weekly and this little schedule (after a few weeks of finding what fit and what didn't)  fit the bill perfectly.

After circle time we turn it over to whomever is teaching for the day to read one or two books and have a demonstration or hands on lesson.

Lessons are about a 20-40 minutes then we let the kids play in the gym. Sometimes directed with a ball, obstacle course, or parachute and sometimes we just let them run while we visit. When the weather is good we take them over to the park instead.

Exceptions are when we have a holiday party and I'll share some examples of classes, parties, and field trips in the next few post in this series.