Well-Ordered Language

Originally posted on Creative Madness Mama. *After reading my review, you might want to check out the free homeschool guide for adapting the current version of WOL. You might recognize my words. ;)




Have you pondered over the Course Plan of Study in the front of the Classical Academic Press catalog and wondered what you should do for your grammar study? Sure, you could do that repetitive scripted wonderfully hand-holding one, or you could immerse yourself in the jingle heavy one that is confusing to get started. Why couldn't CAP just have their own program to fill the grammar gap? Oh, wait they will! WOL or rather the Well-Ordered Language is the Curious Child's Guide to Grammar and it will be available God-permitting in the mid-spring!

WOL is a set of two 8x11” books with each one covering one-semester. There is a Teacher's Edition and a Student Edition. The Teacher's Edition is a reprint of the Student Book with sidebar information and teaching suggestions, helps, and hints throughout. My understanding is that they plan to release two books per year in a similar fashion to their Writing & Rhetoric program.



 

My daughter with writing utensils on a table nearby sits with me on the couch. I hold the teacher book and she's snuggled up against me with her student book next to her. I read through the Introductory of our lesson as well as Review It, and Learn It with her spontaneous interaction (where she can see my teacher book). A little while later we do Analyze It. Sometimes on an easel whiteboard, sometimes on a hand-held whiteboard from Logic of English. Then she sits at her desk and goes back in her Student book to fill in the answers to Learn It.

We are not doing any of the chants yet, as I still haven't heard a reply about that. However, I have found a few things here and there on youtube that we have used, plus, of course, Schoolhouse Rock songs. (My own childhood peaked through here).

For us, we seem to go strong Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and the peter out Thursday and Friday. So I'd say we're making it an average of three days, but it is three in a row. This has not been an issue for us as the review is just enough and we continue on. Our Thursdays and Fridays seem to be Latin, Geography, History and Science filled. She also does IXL LA for review on the weekend days. This is review there and not lessons. Option B might be close to what we do, but it varies and I like that flexibility. I truly like not being labeled by day of the week. (Referencing chart on page xiii) We probably do Day 1-3 in one day. Then C and Review started and finished on the next two days we work. I have not timed us, but we pretty much work until she's requesting to move on to another subject.

We are doing A, B, C and not skipping much, even if she knows it. My daughter is young and I'm not concerned if it takes her a while to get through, but right now she enjoys it and breezes. If she wants to do school (and not play with her little siblings) she does well at it.

She really enjoys discussing the poems, and often will rewrite them as her own initiated copywork. I'm not going to interfere with that! Also, for instance in the first poem, Robin Redbreast, we went on to read some science resources about birds and pointed out birds in the yard for the afternoon.

As for From the Sidelines... if it is something she asks about I will go into detail. Otherwise, I know we will come around to it eventually and leave it be.

As to exclusion... we read through a lot, but when it is something that is like a game, we tend to skip that. I find those to be more classroom oriented and if I had two or three students on the same level I'd probably do it. But for us, we skip it. Such as playing the game of Flip and son on. We did like the inclusion of origami.

In the teacher's book, I would prefer that the Teacher's Pages actually be in the book before the input Student Pages rather than immediately following. I like the fonts, and boldness where appropriate. I also like the borders and headers and such. Of course, I wish for color (at least two-tone), but I know that can be cost prohibitive.



Hmm... Other thoughts... I love the to the source, bringing out the latin and/or greek roots of words and she is interested in hearing about that as well.

I apologize that my thoughts are all jumbled here and not organized in a glossy review. If I need to clarify anything, please just let me know.

We are coming into using WOL from a little dabbling in TWTM FLL, as well as Shurley, and LOE. I'm assuming you're familiar with those other programs at a glance. We really are enjoying WOL. My daughter is young for her grade level accomplishments, so I do hold off when she is just not into school but she does not bicker much at all when I pull out WOL. She actually will choose it over Shurley and FLL. She said one of the only reasons she prefers LOE Essentials sometimes more is because of the colorfulness. As to the lessons, she likes our snuggle school with WOL. I personally like doing Grammar first with WOL and in my opinion, I am using Essentials as a Spelling curriculum. To me, it is not a replacement for WOL, but often reviews things learned. Also, as to Shurley in comparison. I personally like WOL better in the manner that it introduces parts of speech and has much more review. That as you stated, we could use or skip if we do not need the redundancy. I like the redundancy for this child. If I had an older student, I might not do every exercise. I like the examples and usage of fables in WOL 1 and mentions of God. All things we cannot get in Shurley. We also love the Off the Shelf remarks and sparks that send us to our library or Kindle shelf for more reading that continues the lessons off workbook stage. Our grammar lessons don't just end during grammar time and I like that. I love the Curious Child Appendix and biographies section, we have referenced them quite a few times.

We are coming at WOL with SSL as our only other current CAP program, but interested in more. It definitely makes me want to take a look at the Writing and Rhetoric Curriculum for the upcoming year and I think with the continued fables theme from WOL 1 to WR 1 it would mesh extremely well.
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This review was originally posted on Creative Madness Mama.