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English for the Thoughtful Child, Volumes 1 and 2

English for the Thoughtful Child

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See the complete review in 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum.

Cyndy Shearer's search for language arts materials reflecting Charlotte Mason's ideas led her to update and revise books originally written in 1903 by Mary Hyde. The first book is appropriate for children in first or second grade who already know how to write or print and who are ready to learn how to write complete sentences.

Teaching techniques used are a mixture of oral composition (or narration), memorization, recitation, written composition, and language exercises. Interesting old pictures are used as prompts for discussion, narration, and writing. Literary excerpts used throughout the books are from fables, mythology, and poetry.

You might want to select different poems than those used in the book unless you want to spend additional time discussing the meanings of many of the words. For example, the poem "Pirate Story" in lesson 16 used the words, "Providence, Babylon, Malabar, squadron," and "wicket," all of which are likely to require some map reference, definition, or explanation.

Each single volume has teaching instructions in small print and student material written in very large print. There are instructions as well as scripted comments and questions for the teacher. Each book includes space for written responses by students, but families are free to reproduce pages for their children rather than buying separate books for each child. The actual amount of work per lesson varies. Some will take little time, but others requiring dictation, memorization or written narrations are likely to take much longer.

The first volume teaches basic grammar skills along with beginning writing. By the end of the first book, children are writing short compositions. The second volume moves onto more advanced grammar and composition skills, but compositions are still relatively brief. While there are a few fill-in-the-blank type activities, there are no answer keys--answers should be obvious to the parent.

English for the Thoughtful Child is a low-pressure, yet effective introduction to language arts. A good follow-up to these books is Simply Grammar by Karen Andreola.