Homeschool Language Arts Curriculum Sitemap
What makes a Language Arts Curriculum? What are the essential elements in designing our own language arts curriculum?
I am sure we would all agree that language arts is essential to all learning. In fact, it is basic to all education and indeed, to all of life. It is complex in its fullness, yet we learn it from our mother's breast, and amazingly, regurgitate complicated sentence structures and gain enormous vocabulary, within a short time and without pain.
A Homeschool Language Arts Curriculum includes Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing.
Read how to develop these language arts skills in your homeschool family.
How to Teach Reading
Teaching Children to read is a bit of a mysterious process, but on the Teaching Reading Sitemap, you will find all the tools you need to develop a well rounded reading education.
Pages on teaching phonics, reading games, literature lists and the importance of reading aloud.
On my latest page, I talk about teaching literature with the use of LitWits Kits - an awesome addition to any language arts curriculum.
Build life long readers by developing a culture of reading in your home. Keep Reading here.
Teaching Writing Sitemap
Wondering how to Teach Writing?
Visit the Writing Sitemap, written as a guide to help the homeschooling parent find ways to teach writing, practice writing, develop their own writing curriculum, check out writing forms, copywork, free printables, simple ways to teach grammar in context and through songs, graphic organizers as well as E-books written to be integrated language arts lesson plans. Keep reading here...
Listening - Audio
Listening - audio
- Kiddie Weekly Records Download the audio files for free or listen online.
- Audio books for free You can download for free at a lesser quality or pay a minimal fee. I don't recommend all the titles, but there is a terrific selection.
We would all recognize that being able to listen is crucial to meaningful conversation and necessary for genuine interaction to take place. But what are the skills which we should aim to develop in our children?
- Develop the habit of being good listeners. Insist on concentrated effort the first time. This can be tested and trained through the use of narrations.
- Listen to a broad selection of reading material- fiction, non-fiction, literature, poetry, plays, biographies, tapes, CDs, sermons, music.
- Narrate after one reading of the material.
- To follow directions.
- To visualize what is being read.
- To respond in a personal way to the reading.
- To listen across the subject areas and narrate in detail and also in summary.
Listening is an important language arts skill.
In order to listen well, we should teach our children to be active listeners:
- Look at the speaker
- React to the speaker by showing that you are listening - eye contact, nods, smiles
- Interact with the speaker by asking appropriate questions and giving opinions
- Change body position if you are drifting off
- Decide to take notes to help you listen better;
Speaking Skills in the Homeschool Context.
In speaking, we are engaging with others around us. It is a constant part of our day and in this way, we can enjoy each other's interests, learn more, share,and encourage eachother. It is an essential skill. If we want to develop this skill in our children, what do we really mean? (You can incorporate these reading skills into Individual Learning Programs. Find out more about IPL here. )
- To engage and interact in informal conversations.
- Use eye contact when conversing
- Shake hands firmly
- Repeat their name
- Listen carefully
- Answer the telephone and take a message
- Follow manners, etiquette, and protocol in social situations
- To ask questions.
Re-telling and Oral Training
- To orally narrate (re-tell) a story after a reading. Includes sequencing of events, recalling main characters, events and facts, expressing main ideas.
- To read aloud.
- To recite poetry and Bible passages.
- To memorize poetry and Bible passages.
- To memorize speeches and famous orations.
Speech and Performance
- To discuss what was read according to many of the points listed under Reading.
- To express ideas, stories, events, experiences, observations and be involved in group discussion.
- To give short reports and speeches
- To create a speech:
- To write the speech
- Use eye contact and correct body language
- Punctuate the points – be deliberate
- Gain experience with types of speeches
- Gain platform experience (expository, persuasive)
- Analyze famous historical speeches for form and style
- To take part in dramatic performance.