My fifth grader is between language arts and grammar curriculum this year. I was searching for something to fill this year’s gap when I had the opportunity to review Evan-Moor’s Language Fundamentals grade five curriculum. I’m happy to report that it seems to be a solid homeschool grammar curriculum option for elementary kids.
Let me tell you why we like it.
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Language Fundamentals Features
The Language Fundamentals curriculum provides instruction and practice in grammar, mechanics, usage and vocabulary. I only have to add in spelling, reading, and writing across the curriculum to fill out our language arts studies in fifth grade homeschool.
This curriculum features an explanation of the skill to practice on the top of each page, making it easy for the student to do the next assignment with minimal help from mom each day. When you’re teaching multiple ages, having curriculum that is not mom-intensive is one way to keep your sanity.
The answer key in the back of the book is vital. This also enables my fifth grader to check his own work when he’s finished. When kids are able to verify the answers themselves, they are able to take more responsibility for their learning and this is always a good thing.
The pages are perforated, which could be helpful if your child is too distracted by a whole workbook, or if you need to take your work with you.
Common Core Language Standards are listed for each page if this is important to you.
Check out the made-for-you lesson plans from Homeschool Planet to use with Evan Moor Language Fundamentals curriculum by clicking the button below.
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How I Use Language Fundamentals in Our Homeschool
Our early elementary language arts curriculum takes us to fourth grade. Then we have a gap before I start our middle school language arts curriculum picks. I’ve always filled the year or two in between with oral review and hand-me-down curriculum. But we’ve never actually found something that really worked for us in this small gap between programs.
We’ve been using the Language Fundamentals workbook in our homeschool for about a week now, doing the next page each day, and it has worked well.
Here’s what we like:
- self-explanatory to my fifth grader
- instruction for each topic on each page
- minimal help needed from mom
- easy to grade with answer key in the back
- enough repetition to cement a skill
- comprehensive review of elementary language arts skills before moving on to middle school
Tips for Homeschool Language Arts
- Remember to make the curriculum work for you, not you for the curriculum
- If it’s not working, change it!
- Make sure the kids are working harder than mom
- Find curriculum that is written to the kids and doesn’t require and extensive teacher’s manual
- Find simple curriculum that is easy to pick up and do the next thing each day
- Realize that you can mix & match curriculum to cover all the aspects of language arts: spelling, vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing
- What works for one child may not work for another
Where to find Language Fundamentals
If you need a solid resource to fill a gap in your homeschool grammar curriculum for elementary kids, you can find Language Fundamentals books for grades 1-6.
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