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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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