Year Two of Logic of English

After completing Level C and D of Foundations from Logic of English, I have to say I am so totally in love with this program. The results from this curriculum are outstanding.

Level C is just a gradual increase in ability from Level B. The books are set up the same with the same type of activities. Level D is a bit of a jump in ability and required skills. If I had more then one that I was teaching, I would have split the lesson into two days. Even with the amount of work on each lesson I really loved Level D and so did my daughter for several reasons.

1. The readers are non-fiction. Most kids today have no idea how to read non-fiction. These readers are fabulous non-fiction books that my daughter absolutely loved.
2. The extra books are super fun and classic books that again my daughter absolutely loved and would read to her sisters over and over.
3. They begin teaching grammar. I think this is super important. I didn't understand grammar until high school and grammar education is really lacking in most curriculums today.
4. Handwriting in Level D consists of copy work and dictation. I love that both are included but not everyday. Copy work helps with spelling and sentence structure. Dictation helps with both but in a way that requires listening skills.
5. Review lessons are more of a testing day including testing their reading comprehension and speed. This is really important because it will help you see where you may need extra review.
6. My daughter would say one of her favorite things was the games. She loved playing games with me in her workbook. Tic Tac Toe and Bingo are often in her book and she loved playing them.

At the beginning of Level D, my daughter was a little nervous about picking up books and reading on her own. After she finally picked up her first beginning chapter book there was no stopping her.

Although she was reading some on her own, I was still a little frustrated that her testing had her around 40 words per minute. This is really low for her reading level. She was missing a lot of words and spending too much time trying to sound a word out. At the half way in D I instituted a mandatory 30 minute quite reading time every day. This made a HUGE difference in her WPM. She went from 40 WPM to 70 WPM in about 4 weeks. She also went from getting 15 or more words wrong to 2 words.

So looking back over the past year, I am so amazed at the skills this curriculum provides. Kids are provided skills to read and spell any word in the English language. There are rules for every word and every possible strange spelling is explained. The kids aren't just shown sight words to memorize but instead explained the reason behind the spelling.

The next step for us now is Essentials. We have the 2nd addition which will take awhile as it has 3 levels. My daughter is only a few weeks into the curriculum. I will review that later on.

My two kindergarteners are currently half way through Level A and so excited to get their first reader. They also love showing off their letters. I cannot recommend this curriculum enough.