Language Lessons is finest implementation of the Charlotte Mason method of language arts I have ever seen. If you are new to homeschooling, the Charlotte Mason (1842-1923) name may not be familiar to you. Charlotte Mason was a British educator who devoted her life to improving the quality of children's education. To her, language arts skills consisted of narration, the child telling back a story; copywork, the transcribing of a well-written piece of literature as handwriting practice; and dictation, which is spelling and grammar taught within the context of rich language instead of static lists. Sandi Queen has done an excellent job of combining those lesson essentials and picture studies with full-color paintings, basic phonics instruction, poetry appreciation and writing, creative writing, and much more.
Character Quality Language Arts
Language Lessons (see above) sounds wonderful, and it is. But it may not be for every family. If God has blessed you with a quiverful of children, thank Him and then consider Character Quality Language Arts. Uniquely designed for the parent who is teaching a roomful of multi-grade levels, Character Quality Language Arts is suitable for second- through twelfthg rade students and teaches vocabulary, spelling, grammar, composition, creative writing, poetry, and dictation.
As you can imagine, multilevel, all-in-one programs are easier to implement and tend to be more cost-effective. Written by home educators for home educators, Character Quality Language Arts has teacher helps, lesson plans, and answer keys -- all the grunt work has been done for you.
Most children dread grammar study because it is too complex. But Easy Grammar is just that, easy. What sets Easy Grammar apart from other grammar programs is the key role prepositions play. Once your child can identify and eliminate the prepositional phrases in a sentence, determining the subject, verb and other parts of speech is much easier. If you lack an adequate grammar background and find even the preceding sentence to be intimidating, relax. The hardest part will be memorizing the prepositions. After that, everything falls into place.