First Language Lessons for the Well–Trained Mind

I highly recommend any book by this author to be honest, but this one is very useful. It is a series of read aloud language lessons, actually teaching the English that children need to know. My son is five and, at school, he has not yet touched on what a noun or verb is. Within a week of this book he could tell me the difference between a proper and common noun and why they were called that. There is lots of memorising poetry and re-telling stories and I have noticed he is much better at explaining things since using the book. I would really suggest it for any parent home-schooling or who is not terribly impressed with how English is taught now.

I love this book. My daughter (just turned 6) loves this book. I love that the lessons are not long, although my daughter sometimes wishes they were. The use of repitition has helped her to remember a lot. She loves the memorization exercises also. I recommeded to all parents who are tired of the poor quality schooling they child is receiving.

Excellent, thank you

Designed for the home educating family, this book is similiar in approach to that of the book we used to teach our children to read (Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons). That is so for a few reasons.1. It uses very short, to the point lessons presented in an engaging manner. Each bite sized chunk is built upon day by day, making knowledge mastery almost effortless even for the child who hates to pay attention! I should know, my six years old is the one f the world's worst fidgeters! Having said that, he really enjoys these lessons, and looks forward to each day's small associated activity. For example, one of the first lessons involved a poem by Christina Rosetti (The Caterpillar). He was so excited to get to draw a picture to illustrate it, and looked up pictures with me of different caterpillars so that he could draw one.2. Like 100 Easy Lessons, there is no need for advance planning. Each lesson has clear instructions and is scripted. Simply read the script, do the activities, and answer any questions your child might have. This means even if your own grammar is a bit hazy, you won't have any problems. So if you can't recall precisely what an interjection is, don't worry. Your script will remind you as you read it out the lesson. I really like the scripted books for these early language arts lessons as it frees up my time for planning other parts of the week's lessons and activities, and I also know that there will not be any holes in what we have covered. The author is a former primary school teacher and school principal (head teacher), who home educated her own three children (one is a professor now at William and Mary), so the lessons are well thought out and thorough.3. It is self contained. The book not only contains the script for the grammar lessons that cover the parts of speech, but the pictures, stories, and poems used to round this out as a whole language program are included within each lesson. No need to go find clip art, locate poems, or find the stories that the lessons refer to. Again, this frees time, and it also lessens clutter about the place as there is no need for multiple resource books. The only extras needed for this are paper, crayons, pencils, and about 15-20 minutes of time each day.I don't mean the reading program sort of meaning of whole language, which relies on sight word learning and not phonics. Rather, having learned to read with phonics, this makes use of the whole language approach. Your child can now read the words upon the paper thanks to phonics (such as learned thanks to Jolly Phonics or 100 Easy Lessons), so this book takes these words and gives them their place and meaning. From learning the parts of speech by what they are, and learning to categorize words they know and use everyday within these classifications, children learn to structure speech. Child friendly poetry and classic short children's stories and fables are used to familiarise children with proper language usage, both by listening as well as learning to narrate. Basically, each way we normally make use of language in our daily lives is utilised to demonstrate and reinforce proper language use.There are just a few things to be aware of, so you don't hit the panic button. The author IS American. So references are made to a map of the US and to zip codes. Now, the map is merely to illustrate that place names are capitalised, so it is not a big deal, but you can if you wish, dig out a map of the UK or Europe instead, and substitute the word post code for zip code when reading the lesson out. This is not a spelling book, so no bother with spelling differences here either. That's the only two little niggles! The paperback version is sturdily bound, so I managed to acquire my copy second hand with only some cover creasing to contend with. It is a popular book, so resale value is excellent if you wish to do so.