Language Arts.

Today I received Writing With Ease (WWE) by Susan Wise Bauer. I'm very excited about this writing program and I think it looks wonderful!!! Language arts has lately been the number one priority in our house. Between working on phonics and fluency, I have felt for the past few months that I need to concentrate on having fluent readers before moving on to grammar and such. Of course, deciding that the best course of action was for me to ignore most other subjects and just focus on reading was an extremely difficult decision. But I feel that we are definitely moving in the right direction!

With the arrival of WWE, I feel like we can start preparing to add more language art components to our routine. Besides phonics, we've been focusing on spelling. I haven't been using any additional material besides Sing Spell Read & Write, but although the program has spelling integrated into it... I feel like it isn't working for us.

So here is what is up for review in regards to components to add to our current language arts schedule:
Shurley Grammar
Seton English 1
CHC's Language of God Level A (a grammar program)
Spelling Workout
CHC's My Very First Catholic Speller or My Catholic Speller Level A

Although I know that some of these books are at the first grade level and we'll be entering into second grade soon, I don't feel like it really matters much. I have the freedom to move through them quickly if I have to. I would hate to start at a more advanced level and encounter problems. I also feel like it's really important to start with a good, solid foundation.

We'll see where my research on grammar takes me. I am giving myself plenty of time to look through materials before making a decision. I would hate to start something only to leave it half way because I didn't find it was working for us. Although I realize that sometimes you don't know what will work until you try it.