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Your Opinion, Please?

7/9/2013

7 Comments

 
We thought it would be a good idea to put out a post describing what we had in mind for future levels and publications, and hopefully receive some input from you!


For Level C on up, Lighted Lanterns courses will take somewhat of a turn from what has been in Levels A and B. The following will relate what we have been thinking.


The student will have short stories as well as all lesson assignments in a non-consumable book. All L.A. lessons will be taken from a paragraph or so within the short story in the given lesson and will make up a week’s worth of work. We are also planning to have available some consumable workbooks to go along with the non-consumable text.


Because many of us have large families and plenty enough to do without separating each child’s L.A. lessons for an entire year, I prayed and thought about how we could make it large-family friendly. Just how can a large family work on their L.A. together?? And one morning, it hit me! We could have a book for each level (C, D, E, and so on) comprised of about 18 lessons each. (Each lesson would equal a week’s worth of work.) The family could either choose to have each child to work on their own book (once they are available) or, they
could work together from the same book, adding more for those who need more, and using less for those who need less. The non-consumable books would use up about half of a typical school year. 
Picture
I should interject here that we are going to publish a Writing Purpose book - an attractive book (we won’t settle for anything less!) - which will explain many different types of writing: poetry, letters, journal writing, outlines, reports, essays, and so on, and will be geared for up to Grade 8. 

Each Writing Purpose will have some models to help the student better understand what is expected and help get those creative juices flowing.


The thought behind this was that the family could either: 

  A) spend 18 successive weeks on the non-consumable books and workbooks and then work on Writing Purposes along with reading books and doing reports or narrations and various writing assignments for the remainder of the year.

Or

  B)  3 weeks could be spent with the non-consumable books, followed by another 3 weeks tailored to their liking: Focusing on a Writing Purpose and reading novels and doing written assignments.

So, for example:

Weeks 1, 2, and 3 – do Lessons 1, 2, and 3 in Level C.
Week 4 – Writing Purpose –-- Journal Writing
Weeks 5-6 – Read a historical novel, pretend to be newscasters, and as a family, prepare a newspaper based on events that occurred in the book.

Or, 4, 5, and 6 could all be together: Reading the novel while keeping in mind the Writing Purpose to help them with their written assignments.

As a further aid to the Natural Method and your child’s written assignments, we will be republishing a very nice little grammar resource called “Learning Grammar Through Writing”. We are so blessed and grateful to have been
given the permission to reprint it. The wonderful thing about this little resource, is that it teaches your child grammar through their own writing, all the while encouraging them to be independent learners.

Picture
For example:
Let’s say your child writes: “He is faster than me.” Your ‘grammar radar’ goes off and you look in the index under “I”. You find the subheading “
with others in comparison - 13h”. Turning to section 13 and locating h you will read:
“Use I when comparing someone to yourself.” Followed by the example: “She is taller than I.”
So, you as teacher will write 13h somewhere near the sentence. For a younger child, write directly above the word. For an older child, somewhere in the margin, so they have to do more searching in their own work. They will then find 13h in their resource book, discover what they did incorrectly and know exactly what they need to do in order to correct it!

So, in a nutshell, this is what we have in mind for Grades 4-8:

Levels C-G – will each equal 18 weeks/half a year of work (whether all at once or separated with a few weeks of the following book is up to you)

Writing Purposes – (and reading books of your choice) – will equal the other half a year of work

Learning Grammar Through Writing – a useful grammar resource to aid your child with grammar skills and independent learning

What are your thoughts? Do you like the ideas presented so far?
Do you have others?
Please do let us know! We look forward to hearing what you have to say!

God Bless!

7 Comments
Dessi
7/9/2013 08:33:02 am

O love it...love it!!!!!!

Reply
Lianne
7/9/2013 08:44:33 am

I've seen lots of good things here! I'm looking forward to adding some things to our curriculum. I must admit I missed out on the *Planner* deal, but I'm looking to buy it here in the future anyway. Also, I really like the appearance of all your materials.
God bless you!

Reply
Maria Evans
7/11/2013 09:14:47 am

We have really enjoy using Level A of Lighted Lanterns. One suggestion: cite page number or chapter and in which version of the book that was used, so the student can find sentence the in the story.

Reply
Cassie
7/12/2013 11:40:40 am

I'm planning on using your program for mostly spelling/dictation. As long as that is hit I'm happy. ; ) I like the set-up for A. I wouldn't think you would need to really hit narration in the upper levels because most would be narrating from their history or science or religion readings and may not need extra practice like the younger grades. I think what you describe sounds good. I just have two kiddos so the combining isn't an issue for me.

Reply
Patricia
7/21/2013 09:26:31 am

I like the ideas presented so far.
Thanks for all the hard work you do.

Reply
Barbie Nesbitt link
7/26/2013 11:04:36 am

I will definitely continue with you if you pursue later years provided you persist in the same foundational methods. You asked our opinions, so here is mine.

I REALLY like the one workbook, one level format. It makes it really easy for me to figure out who does what. What is important to me in a language arts program is dictation, & copywork (this is how we teach spelling), picture study, narration (this is how we teach composition), memorization. Anything else is fine, but those are my cornerstones and the foundation for us.
Also, like most people we do a 36 week year so having as much to work with in one level is very helpful... or at least having 26 or so weeks worth of stuff. Your scheme seems very doable provided we can select the books we use (because we already have such a heavy booklist).

Ultimately, I love your idea and think it sounds wonderful. Your products make me so happy, they are exactly what I have been looking for!! Blessings. :)

Reply
Annamaria
9/21/2013 06:01:36 pm

My children have loved using both the Lighted Lanterns Language books. I agree wholeheartedly with Barbie Nesbitt and also want to thank you for making them available as download as I live in Australia and shipping can be a real killer to our already exhausted finances..God Bless all your work, Can't wait for the next levels!!!

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"If we wish to see any improvement in the state community or the family, the family must, in common with the Church, educate the children in Christianity. It is true that the hope of a better future is founded on a good, obedient youth." ~ St. John Vianney