When you get a bunch of homeschool moms together, often times the topic of curricula comes up. Having friends that are just getting started with their homeschool journey, the curricula topic comes up, so I thought I'd share a what we have been using lately. In the past, for reading, we have used
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. While I still think this is a great book, it just doesn't seem to fit the program we are using now. I was trying to use the two programs together, but that doesn't really work either. I had heard many great things about The Writing Road to Reading. After looking into it, it looked really intense. Then I found
Spell to Write and Read. It is similar to The Writing Road to Reading, but written for homeschoolers.
The idea is that children learn phonograms in order to spell, therefore making them able to read. There are 70 phonograms in the English language. Just about every English word follows a spelling rule and uses the phonograms.
There are 26 single letter phonograms that the children learn first. In our home we just drill them over and over again. David even knows these. Then you begin learning and drilling the multi-letter phonograms. Here is the -ed phonogram.
On the back of each card it lists all the sounds that, that particular phonogram makes. In this case there are three sounds. The children memorize this. Once they've mastered all the phonograms they begin spelling words.
This book WISE Guide for Spelling, comes with the program and is meant to be used concurrently with Spell to Write and Read.
Inside is a spelling lesson on one side. The next side shows the spelling rules used to spell the words and markings for letters, so the children know which sounds to use. There are also little grammar lessons to go along with all of this. It's pretty handy, although not too comprehensive.
Thomas has finally begun his learning log. This is where he writes all of his spelling words along with spelling rules and how they are to be used.
On this page consonants are written out at the top and vowels, along with examples, are written a the bottom.
This was Thomas' first spelling lesson. Not too shabby, eh? Hopefully, that sheds some light on what we do around here. Stay tuned for more...
Some days juggling school for 4 children can get a little crazy. While my older girls are more independent they still need to be taught. 
We've slowly started adding more work for David, but since he isn't reading yet he requires more help. Then there are times that we're so engrossed in school work that I'll forget to feed my children. The whining begins and I realize that I haven't even made lunch and it's almost 1pm. Oops!
Having two little ones also adds to the craziness. Anna is a total Momma's girl demanding attention quite often. I can keep her occupied for awhile with her Little People. She loves to line them up like they're in a parade or stick them in time out somewhere in the barn.
Elizabeth loves puzzles. These pattern blocks are her favorite. This keeps her busy for a long time. She gets pretty excited when she gets one of these patterns finished. I actually highly recommend this activity for little ones. Most of my children have loved these blocks. I can get work done with older children while the little children are patterning their blocks!
