Brand New and Needing HELP!

I am restarting the homeschooling journey with my 6th grader who I’ve had to pull from public school due to falling thru the cracks. She has learning differences and emotional obstacles and is not up to grade level. I have found most of the curriculum that caters to her but struggling to find a good Language Arts curriculum. I was hoping to find something similar to Math U See. A curriculum that is will not overload her and allow her to master one concept at a time. Not sure if that even exists but hoping to find something that suits an older child that is fairly behind. Thank you for your thoughts!

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BJU English is great! It includes grammar and writing which is nice to not have 2 different programs for these subjects. The grammar chapters alternate with writing chapters focusing on a main topic in each chapter to master it. We enjoy this because it changes things up every couple weeks. Most lessons are only the front and back of a worksheet which was the selling point for me- I wanted it to be thorough without overkill. The format of their English changes in 7th grade, so I’m using English 5 with my 6th grader since it’s our first year with the program and to fill in any holes. It’s been a great fit and we’ll continue on with English 6 next year in 7th grade. Erica has some YouTube videos on BJU English that were really helpful for me to see inside the books. I was able to find the Teacher Editions used on Amazon and used homeschool curriculum Facebook sites for $20-25…they are really expensive brand new!

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We have really enjoyed easy grammar for grammar. You do one worksheet a day and takes about 10-15 minutes a day. Maybe look at my fathers world writing skills for today? Very gentle approach.

Language Arts is a fairly comprehensive term–do you know which aspects you want to cover? For example, you don’t have to cover both grammar and writing every year. Does she need help with spelling or is she doing well there? Do you have reading material–does she need any extra help there?

I like Essentials in Writing by Matthew Stephens for writing/grammar (in levels 1-6, you spend about half a year on each topic, and he describes the program as a “Math-U-See” approach to writing. I have also liked Easy Grammar but sometimes wished there were better instructions to teach from. I really like All About Spelling–that turned things around for my kids when they were struggling greatly with spelling. Reading materials, I usually pulled from high-interest lists. My kids liked a lot of Sonlight materials but those books can be more emotional so that might not be the best fit for your dd. Here’s a page from AALP that reviews chapter book series–maybe you can find some that would appeal to her from this and other lists. Honey for a Child’s Heart is a good resource, or the 1000 Good Books list. I also found that we enjoyed some of the suggestions from Bright Ideas Press and Winter Promise, and that they didn’t tend to be tear-jerkers as much. You may want to screen books for specific trigger issues if she has any though. For someone who is just coming home from school, I think I’d “de-school” for awhile and have her read enjoyable books–no need to try to do a literature study or anything like that yet. I hope your Spring goes well!

Hi! We used to use BJU Press English and it was good but very worksheet heavy. While I thought it was a good comprehensive program by kids didn’t enjoy it at all. We switched to IEW Fix It! Grammar and they all love it. It’s fairly easy and only takes about 10-15 minutes per day. They don’t complain about English anymore at all which is nice. I think it’s pretty straightforward into the point and we definitely love it! And they do great on annual standardized testing as well. Since Fix It! Is only grammar we also use IEW writing as well. If you’ve never used it I suggest starting with their student writing intensives, they come with video lessons and I just watch with my kids. It has really helped our writing, there are links on my website for both :blush:
Erica

Essentials in Writing is usually described as the MUS of grammar and writing. I would encourage you to take a look at it and maybe give it a whirl.